– Why the need to magazine it?

By Akola Thompson
For many, when they choose an area of study, they tend to focus on that for the remainder of their life. However, ever so often passion leads people down new paths they would never have seen in the beginning. Such was the case of Stacy Dos Santos- Rahaman who is now the Co-owner of Christa Marketing Solutions along with her husband of eight years, Chris Rahaman.Their business is responsible for all the various aspects of marketing such as social media marketing, publications, marketing strategy, design development and its execution. She said that while t

heir initial company was Social Media Guyana, as her main job was as a social media manager, many prospective clients were looking for larger solutions than just one and wanted to stick with one company for everything. So, in an effort to satisfy that need, the business Christa Marketing was created.

Asked how her love for marketing came about, Stacy recounted that in earlier years, she read for a degree in Computer Science at the University of Guyana and gained her first job as a technician at a company called Solutions 2000. While there however, she was tasked with helping to sell the solutions, which they would have come up with.

Shortly after, she gained a job at the Guyana Tourism Authority and again, aside from her duties as a technician, she crossed over from Information Technology to marketing.

Realizing that she had a love for marketing, particularly in the area of tourism, Stacy decided to complete a diploma in it, successfully marrying I.T and marketing.

Stacy and Chris are also the faces behind the popular four-year-old Guyanese page, ‘Visit Guyana’ which celebrates and promotes various aspects of the country.

Initially, she said, the page was dormant and it was only at her husband’s prompting that she began updating it and “it grew overnight.” What we wanted to do, she said, “was give a positive side to Guyana online because when you Google Guyana there is so much negativity and we were trying to change this. It was just done out of love for our country “cause there was a need for a positive Guyanese space. It is sort of like a true reflection of what Guyana would be if you take away all the politics and negativity.”

Through the page, said Stacy, they have encouraged a wave of people who have also created pages similar to their own and it has made other organizations pay attention to the power of the Internet. “Many were forced to improve their websites as they realized the large role the Internet had to play in branding and marketing,” she said.

With a growing need to promote their country, the duo decided to publish a tourism magazine. Initially, they had planned to make it a digital magazine as their business is e-marketing.

However, they soon realized people still want a publication and realizing that there are not many publications in the country, they decided to do that instead. “We wanted to do something different that would speak to a need in Guyana, that’s how we came up with the name ‘Lime, Dine and Unwind’ which basically is a guide on where to go, eat, or relax.”

It was only two months ago that the pair decided on the Lime, Dine and Unwind Magazine and as such, they were strapped for time as they wanted to be published in time for the 50th Independence celebrations.

While Stacy described the experience as being a “baptism by fire” as there were many challenges with information gathering due to their time constraints, she is proud of all they have been able to accomplish in the short space of time. “It showed us that two people can have a dream and make something out of it with absolutely nothing, including money,” she said.

The magazine is now available at various hotels, restaurants and liming spots. With the support of the Ministry of Tourism and the Tourism Hospitality Association, the magazine will also be distributed overseas to various embassies.

The publication, which will be an annual one, said Stacy, is by no means the only publication they are working on. Work has already began on another magazine as they hope to make several publications which will all be tourism based as they want other countries to know that “Guyana is not just cook-up and curry – we have so much more to offer.”