Imelda Ortega Suzara always had an artistic spirit and a passion for creativity. From a young age, growing up in Vancouver, Canada, she was drawn to the arts, especially music, poetry and visual arts. After high school, she studied Fine Arts for a year at Langara College in Vancouver, getting a taste of the creative life. But she soon realized that the path of a starving artist was not for her. She wanted more control and empowerment over her creative expression. This led her down the road of entrepreneurship.
After completing a program in Computer Graphics, Imelda made the big move to Toronto in 2003 to immerse herself in the thriving arts scene there. She attended local arts events, making connections and learning about the world of creative businesses. Inspired, she decided to take a bold risk; she moved into a garage space and transformed it into a live/work art studio and gallery called “ inoutside studio ” in Toronto’s Queen Street East back alley neighborhood.
From 2007-2014, inoutside studio gave Imelda the perfect platform to fuse her artistic talents with entrepreneurial ambition. She displayed visual arts, hosted events showcasing local artists and poets, and started experimenting with producing her own music and poetry videos.
“I realized that in order to have full creative control, one has to be an entrepreneur,” Imelda explains. “That means you would be the final decision maker on the direction of a project or business.”
Imelda also ventured into creating and producing two significant live performances, “Heat Wave Rave 2007” and “Homeless Halloween Minorities 2008,” which were not only artistic expressions but also powerful platforms for advocating environmentalism, global warming, and issues of homelessness and affordable housing. “These projects were a way to merge my creative passion with the drive to make a difference in societal issues,” she reflects.
In inoutside studio, Imelda found she loved being in both the creative role of producer as well as the business role of manager. She also joined the Centre for Social Innovation (CSI) in Toronto, where she met and mingled with other startup founders. This community energized and motivated her with new ideas and vision.
In 2007, Imelda founded io media as a brand in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, originally named inoutside studio. The name io media, with ‘I’ representing ‘inside’ and ‘O’ for ‘outside,’ reflected her focus on a wide range of videos. She utilized platforms like YouTube, Vimeo, Veoh, Video.ca, and Facebook to share her productions, blending her passions for arts, events, culture, and social advocacy into engaging video content.
Over the next decade, from 2007-2019, Imelda organically grew io media into a collection of over 300 videos shot around Toronto. She captured local events, especially those put on by nonprofit organizations for causes like the environment, affordable housing and reducing homelessness.
“I gave a lot of free videos to nonprofit organizations who had events,” Imelda explains. “I realized maybe it’s time to charge and become a business.”
In 2014, after an ice storm damaged the garage, Imelda moved io media into her high-rise apartment and continued producing videos. All the while nurturing her vision to one day monetize her passion. An opportunity arose in 2019 when family needs led Imelda to relocate to the San Francisco Bay Area to become a caregiver for her mother.
Bringing io media brand with her to California, Imelda found herself in the global epicenter of media and technology companies. She drew inspiration from the entrepreneurial spirit of Silicon Valley. After settling into life in the Bay Area suburb of Newark in 2023, Imelda decided to take io media to the next level as a formal business.
She drew on all her experience from decades of video production to create a business plan leveraging io media’s existing video assets and skills. The vision was to provide affordable video and advertisement production services to small businesses and nonprofits in the local East Bay area. Then she could feature them on an io media internet TV channel as a win-win promotion opportunity.
“I realized there is more money probably in commercial art,” Imelda says. “As an entrepreneur, you have to meet customers where they are.”
As luck would have it, Imelda came across TVStartup, an online platform that offered to host an internet TV channel on the popular RokuTV streaming platform. In March 2023, io media revived as a monetizable TV brand, with Imelda as Founder Member and head of production.
She has spent the past year getting the business off the ground, developing the website, creating marketing materials, and making connections with potential clients and collaborators. The io media channel not only showcases her existing video collection but also features new content focused on local businesses, events, and organizations in the Bay Area. Revenue is expected to come from production fees and shared advertising revenue.
True to her vision of embracing a female perspective, Imelda aims to set io media apart from male-centric corporate media brands by focusing on more personal and social life videos—such as pets, weddings, family activities, and recipes—topics she believes resonate deeply with women. She commits 5% of profits to charities and endeavors to ensure her diverse team and content reflect the inclusion of minority groups often underrepresented in mass media.
Imelda’s advice for aspiring female video entrepreneurs is to first develop a diverse skillset that encompasses all aspects of video production. She urges women to practice camerawork, editing, and production to gain hands-on experience with all aspects of video creation.
“If you wanna be the CEO, you gotta have all the skills,” she explains. She says the key is being able to fully develop an idea from concept to final product independently. Don’t be afraid to practice on your own video projects until you feel confident in the quality.
Imelda also emphasizes the importance of having the courage and ambition to eventually start charging for services. She says her biggest ongoing challenge is putting a fair price on her video work and moving beyond doing free passion projects.
“Businesses should pay because they make money from the promotion,” she states. Imelda argues women often underestimate the value of their creative work or feel hesitant asking for adequate compensation.
But she encourages female entrepreneurs to find their confidence and boldly assert their worth. Do the legwork on the business end to pitch clients and start earning. Don’t undersell yourself or let production skills go unpaid.
Imelda acknowledges that success as a video entrepreneur requires effort across multiple fronts—creative, technical, and financial. However, by leveraging female strengths in connection and storytelling, she believes women can significantly thrive in the media industry.
With the io media TV channel launched and a wealth of experience under her belt, Imelda feels excited and optimistic about the brand’s future. She aims to continue building up subscribers and viewership with hyper-local content that hits home for East Bay residents. Scaling up, she even envisions producing original scripted shows on io media one day, should funding allow for it.
Imelda Ortega Suzara has come a long way from that art student just finding her creative voice. Through the evolution of io media, she forged her path as a female entrepreneur. Channeling artistic passion into media with vision, her story is an inspiration. Io media stands poised to make an impactful connection through authentic videos produced by and for the local community. Capturing life outside the corporate box, Imelda invites viewers into a more inclusive and personal, plus social experience of media.
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