Latina entrepreneur Dee Rivera is taking a formidable step into the publishing arena and launching LATINISTA, an online magazine dedicated to Hispanic women. At a moment when other publications are taking a step back or folding altogether, Rivera is bringing her idea to concretion.
With fifteen years of experience in public relations working with notable brands in fashion, beauty, luxury, and lifestyle industries, she is now the CEO and founder of DCG Public Relations and DCG Group Media, and creator of Latinista Magazine.
She is a native New Yorker and Puerto Rican who began her career working in publishing for magazines such as Modern Bride and Essence Communication. She then spent three years as director of fashion and home decor for Latina Magazine where she created spreads for celebrities such as Jennifer Lopez, Eva La Rue, Jon Secada, Rosie Perez and countless others.
After this, she decided to explore the world of public relations where she began working for Blye Media Relations. There, she helped produce New York Fashion Week at Bryant Park and her experiences working with celebrity designers and clients led her to entrepreneurial pursuits.
Wanting to explore new ways of producing events, Dee began to host pop up events—way before pop up events were a “thing.” Brands began taking notice of her pop ups and wanted in. Dee then began using her PR skills to market and promote these events for the brands, expanding their brand exposure and securing press for them. Now she runs her own PR company, DCG Public Relations, specializing in digital marketing and advertising.
Some notable clients include: Bloomingdales, IMAN Cosmetics, Celebrity Designer Cesar Galindo, SONY, WH Design, Vera Moore Cosmetics, Sirius XM, Helen Yarmak, Plush Vodka , AsSeenOnTv, PretAFleur, and more.
Through her connections and clients, Dee has made some strong friendships that have helped her along her journey. She shares one story of her friendship with celebrity designer Cesar Galindo. She had worked with him early in her career when she was the fashion editor for Latina Magazine. At the time he was just starting out too. Then, twenty years later she bumped into him again as she was starting her new venture, Latinista. They reconnected and have been friends ever since.
“He has truly been a mentor and a supporter along the way. #Familia.”
Sharing important lessons as a creator
Throughout her career, Dee shares that one of her biggest lessons and obstacles has always been copycats. She says that there are many people out there that will copy you and try to imitate your success. This can be a frustrating experience for any creator.
“However,” Dee says, “one powerful ‘aha moment’ is realizing they can never be you. And second, they can never have your creativity and can’t have the freedom to truly be proud of something they actually created from scratch.”
She also advises all creators to keep a paper trail of everything they make, just in case they need it at a later time.
Success comes from hard work, not from cheap imitations. She says, “There are no elevators to success, just many, many stairs. Don’t take shortcuts. Do the work. Work hard.”
She believes that putting in the work is what makes one resilient. “If you don’t do the hard work you will create a sense of entitlement,” she says, “and eventually you won’t be able to be resilient. In business you have to be resilient of you won’t survive.”
In addition to resilience, she is also incredibly driven and goal oriented.
“I am what you call a pit bull,” she says. “I never give up.”
Working on Latinista, the new platform for Latinx and GenXLatina
Dee keeps a vision board that she works on daily, always aiming for her goals. She works tirelessly for her clients, securing top print outlets and high profile digital publications. Additionally she is a writer and forthcoming author of Today’s Inspired Latina Volume IV (2018) and Chick Flick Love (Second Edition 2019).
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Currently she is working on her new online platform, Latinista, which uses her creativity and skills in past industries such as fashion and beauty. The lifestyle magazine aims to bridge the gap between the LatinX and GENX Latina, offering content in fashion, beauty, cooking, and home decor.
