Taylor parlays $25 to success in wide world of advertising

 By ELIZABETH BAUGH
Advertiser News Staff Writer, Hattiesburg, MS

THE FOLLOWING STORY IS BROUGHT to you by the Letter B. Not the Letter B in Beth Taylor’s name, but from “Sesame Street.” Taylor’s Letter B Productions is in its 11th year got its name while Taylor was watching “Sesame Street” with her niece Alexandra. The name, however, was the easiest part to come up with for the video productions, public relations, advertising firm.

“WHEN I STARTED the business I didn’t have a roof over my head,” Taylor said. “This company literally started with $25 and I had to borrow that.” Taylor’s mom loaned her the money, and that was all she wrote. In July Taylor, 46, was named one of Mississippi’s Top 50 Leading Businesswomen by the Mississippi Business Journal. But this is just the latest in a long line of awards and distinctions Taylor and Letter B have won. “It is a testament to the clients and the community for the support they’ve given me since the day I moved to this state,” she said. Taylor, a New Orleans native, got her start in the news business while still at Louisiana State University working on her journalism degree.

“I GOT GASSED AT the Republican National Convention in 1972.” she said. Taylor was at the convention in Miami when police were trying to calm protesters. “They were shooting them (tear-gas grenades) from the helicopter and everywhere. One went right over our heads.” After the election Taylor went to Washington, D.C. and served on Vice President Spiro Agnew’s staff then on both Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford’s staffs in 1974 before returning to LSU to finish her degree. “All this is why it took me 5 1/2 years to get out of college,” Taylor said. After graduating in 1977 she took a job with WDAM-TV as the first woman sportscaster in Mississippi. Regiel Napier, then sports director for WDAM, interviewed her for the position and asked her if she had any experience doing sports. “I told him I dated a sports writer for a year and have three brothers,” and added, “If you take a chance on me, I’ll take a chance on you.” Taylor did sports for WDAM until November 1984. Taylor said being a journalist is a privilege but is also an awesome responsibility and people working in news need to view it as such. “There’s nothing more pure than news,” she said.

REPORTERS ARE THE eyes and ears of their readers, viewers or listeners, she said. “My family always said I got into the news business because I’m nosy and had a big mouth,” she said, neither of which she disputes. Taylor went from sports to general assignment reporter, to assignments and special projects editor, finally leaving the station in January 1989. She wanted to be out of the spotlight for a while and took a job with Forrest General marketing, a job which was later abolished. “I took three months off to take care of people. It was nice,” she said. Taylor moved to New Orleans to care for her mother with pneumonia and her sister-in-law who had a newborn and an 18-month-old. Her brother was in Texas and could not be there to help. While there, she and her 18-month-old niece, Alexandra, named Letter B, which was in its inception stage. “I wasn’t smart enough to be nervous,” she said.

SHE HAD MANY FRIENDS who put a roof over her head, fed her and let her use their computer while she was getting on her feet. “Without my friends this business would never have happen,” said Taylor. “When I got down they would build me back up.” “There’s no way I can ever repay them for what they gave me. I don’t have the words to tell them how great they were and how much it meant to me.” Taylor said the numerous awards she has received are reminders of how wonderful her friends, her loyal clients and the community have been to her, including the Area Development Partnership. The ADP is so important to businesses in this community, particularly the small businesses, she said. Taylor counts her blessings every day and one of them she said is DeLois Smith, her first client who is still her client today. “I couldn’t have gotten any luckier. She is the number one residential Realtor in town and someone who’s heart is as big as this city and a perfect role model of success.” Many of her clients are also her friends and vice versa.

BEST FRIEND DR. Beverly Smallwood actually saved her life in 1984, Taylor said. Taylor was in a skiing accident and became addicted to prescription pain medication she was taking for her injuries. Smallwood had Taylor admitted to rehabilitation.“She locked me up at Pine Grove,” she said. “How do you say thank you to that? She cared more about me at that time than I cared about me.” Taylor realizes many look to her accomplishments and see her as a role model, a title she is a little frightened of. “ I don’t set myself up as a role model and I have people tell me I am. It’s humbling and troubling at the same time that I could be a role model for anybody.” But she admits she is proud of what she does and her accomplishments and in that she can see why some may perceive her as a role model. However, Taylor said that success in life has a lot more to do with the people in your life than your business. The two things she is most proud of are that she and her mother are the best of friends and being the best aunt she can be to her numerous nieces and nephews and great nieces and nephews. “Having lost friends has made me more keenly aware of the value of life, Taylor said, Taylor said she has been richly blessed both personally and professionally and intends to give back as much as she can. It is a philosophy that was recognized when she was awarded the distinction as a Leader for a New Century in 1999 by the ADP. “My feelings are if you are going to take from a community, you ought to give back.”