Ep. 77 - Ken Amorosano and the COWGIRL Magazine Collaboration with That Western Life
Today’s guest is someone that we have been eagerly awaiting the opportunity to introduce to our listeners and that is someone who is making one of the biggest differences for women in the western industries. If you have listened to any of our episodes or read our blogs, you have heard us talk about the COWGIRL Magazine 30 Under 30 program and today the CEO and Editor of COWGIRL Magazine’s Ken Amorosano is on the show today.
The Under-told Story of Ken’s Backstory
Born and raised in New York City, Ken sheepishly admits that he was a city boy with a passion and interest in the west. Struck by the story his father gave him about a bar in Jackson, Wyoming, and gave him a cowboy hat and that was the inspiration that led Ken to follow his passion of horses, two-stepping, honky-tonks all over California and Texas, and more.
From there, it just continued to blossom, and he took his entrance into the western industry via the communications and public relations world.
“I think that being born and raised in New York, I just had this passion of wanting to go out to the beach and to California… so a buddy and I did that and drove out,” says Ken. While in California, Ken found an opportunity to work for a small public relations firm that represented books and, at the time, were the most prominent book publicist on the west coast. The day that Ken was set to start, his new boss got burned in a scary accident and was put into the hospital. Not only was Ken was tasked to jump full board into running the business, but he also had to help her overcome her industries.
His job consisted of booking interviews in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Diego markets for these authors. Spending lots of time with the authors, Ken drove them to their interviews and talk shows, and for many years Ken pursued the publicity route until a public relations firm in town offered him a new job that he couldn’t refuse.
Their Ken worked with Dick Clark Productions for the Country Music Awards, Academy of Country Music Awards and got to work with artists like Garth Brooks or Reba McEntire. Introducing and handling these big name country music stars led him to open up his own public relations firm where they represented actors and actresses from different tv shows and movies. Ken continued on that path for years until he found a different avenue for representing the western industry world.
Working in the Music Industry
“By the late 80’s, it was pretty wild and crazy…” says Ken, “I will never forget about Garth Brooks just exploding … it was really exciting and fast paced and a very small community. When you are involved in the industry, you get to know everybody.”
From agents, managers, artists, media outlets and more, you got to know everybody and only the competitive and the aggressive would make it. Waking up every morning running, there was always someone on your tail wanting to take your client or your event. This competitiveness was what Ken thrived on but, eventually, at a certain point, you burn out.
“I remember telling a friend that I wanted to wake up in the morning and worry about me and not worry about a client,” says Ken. “It was on and on and on and these people live a life that is very demanding on their representatives. You care for those people and I just decided one day that I wanted to worry about me.”
Known for being in the country and western area after working with Dick Clark for all of those years, the Single Action Shooting Society reached out to Ken to represent them for their major event called End of the Trail that would draw tens of thousands of people to California. Ken really got into this task and ended up raising the attendance to hundreds of thousands and, in return, they offered him a part ownership.
Creating a membership that grew from several hundred to several thousand was very exciting for Ken who was becoming more and more immersed in the life of rodeo. Traveling around the country extensively from Nashville with music, the National Finals Rodeo, and also in his own interests in two-stepping dancing. It seemed only a matter of time that Ken would own horses and get into mounted shooting. Taking that passion further, he started the Western Shooting Horse Magazine that he then sold and eventually got involved with COWGIRL Magazine and bought out the original creator.
COWGIRL Magazine
The purpose of COWGIRL Magazine is a high end western magazine that wasn’t just for the women who lived the western lifestyle, but who dreamed of living the western lifestyle. Ken’s wife also does videography and photography, and over the course of the past ten years has grown extensively.
“We like to do a lot of partnerships and collaborations,” says Ken about content shoots and more.
His work on COWGIRL Magazine as the owner and publisher led to his role as the publisher, CEO and 50% owner of TRUE WEST Magazine that has been around since 1953. Both of these magazines are close to Ken’s heart who knows that he isn’t just a publishing fool, he’s also great at managing the business aspect of the magazine.
COWGIRL has three young women that work for the Magazine behind the scenes in both the printed and the digital side of the magazine as well. A large digital footprint in the social media world, they have half a million Facebook followers and a quarter of a million followers on Instagram with millions of views to their website and pinterest sites monthly. If you have a careful eye and look at something for Wrangler or Corral, you’ll see a pattern with their partnership and how it works.
Creating Community
What do you look for the most to create community in a group?
“To be honest, one of the reasons that I find I have been successful with the western publishing world was my commitment to excellence that we had to do in Hollywood working with … entertainers,” says Ken who explains that Dick Clark was a perfectionist (albeit the nicest person) and had a level of excellence that you have to maintain. One of the sayings that “you never have a second chance to make a first impression.”
Before Ken puts anything out, he wants it to be impressive right from the beginning. “When you look at what we do with COWGIRL Magazine I like to believe that everything we do is first-class.” While this can be tough to hit all deadlines in order to be distributed all over the country, airports, WalMarts, major supermarkets and more. COWGIRL Magazine has great pride in a great product that is in high in value with balance.
“A first class operation, it’s fair, it’s honest and it’s giving,” says Ken about the COWGIRL Magazine 30 Under 30 Program and how it follows the COWGIRL mission to improve women in the western industry. “I’ll put my magazine up against anybody’s magazine as far as the quality is concerned and the quality of writing is concerned.”
COWGIRL Magazine is empowering women and the result means that the magazine feeds itself in selling advertisements and that there are a lot more famous women and known famous women in the industry that are now known because of the work of the magazine. No one was writing about these top industry women and COWGIRL Magazine is writing about them.
“As a result, we have done a lot to empower women in this industry and I feel like what we do helps them,” says Ken. “There is nothing I like better than introducing…” these women to each other.
“We are not a men’s magazine. Our cover isn’t going to look like Western Horsemen, I have a mission to empower women by utilizing my skills and experience from working with people in the entertainment industry,” says Kens.
COWGIRL Magazine’s 30 Under 30
Founded after the “Cowgirl Empowered” series within the magazine, the people that they talked to were thankful for what they were doing. By featuring these women, it helped them achieve things in their business that they had never been able to do before. That had the team step back and recognize that rodeo is a man’s sports for the most part and a good old boys club so Ken decided to change that.
The 30 Under 30 idea isn’t a new thought, but to Ken it served as the perfect vehicle to find these amazing young women and introduce them to the Judy Wagner’s of Montana Silversmiths, Raquel with the Cowboy Channel, and more. The top class wasn’t just the best cowgirls in professional rodeo like Emily Beisel or Hailey Kinsel, they are also women with their own companies, who are changing fashion trends, and also those that are creating.
“There was passion, loyalty and legitimacy,” says Ken about when they gathered the 2021 class. “It is the power of these women that we are exposing.”
In 2021, they received 115 applications which made it difficult to make the choices. Each application is run through a process of numbers and no one is selected based off of followers or who they know. From the categories to essays to their belief of women in the industry to what they do and to the letters of reference nominating them, are all ranked. Ultimately, powerful women in the industry are going through the final list to make the final grade of the top 30 women.
“Now that we have 60 gals in the 30 Under 30 program, it has expanded,” says Ken, specifically looking at the partnerships that are coming forth, such as the new one with That Western Life. “We have just lit the fuse of these powerful group of women that are behind the scenes, that are now in the front of the scenes making it happen.”
The Man Behind COWGIRL
Ken gets the occasional question about why there is a man behind COWGIRL Magazine. First and foremost, Ken is the owner of COWGIRL Magazine and he wants it to be the best it can be and has surrounded himself with the best photography, videography, and writers. The entire staff is women and you can count on Ken to steer the ship and that the magazine is published, successful and doesn’t go out of business. The other part, just like Ken saw with the Single Action Shooting Society, is that there is a hole in the industry that needs to be filled and that is to empower women in the industry.
Using his skills from the early career to compete against the business guns in the business. Ken is putting something out there that anyone can be proud of to continue to promote women in the western industry through the COWGIRL Magazine, COWGIRL 30 Under and the COWGIRL Sponsorships.
Supporting Other Women Groups
Sponsoring the Art of the Cowgirl and the Cowgirl Cadillacs horse sale are some of just the few places that they sponsor women. Continuously looking for more ways to do that is where the future of where they are going as a magazine lays.