WOMEN IN LEADERSHIP
MARKETING
Tina Reynolds
Founder and President / Uptown Studios
Tina Reynolds has a mantra for life and work: “How can I help
you?” Reynolds owns Uptown Studios, a multimedia design firm
that does website design; graphic design; video production; and
social media and marketing campaigns for nonprofits, gov-
ernment entities and other organizations dedicated to social
change. She lives by that mantra to keep her own and her 19
employees’ work-life dynamics as balanced as possible.
“When I opened Uptown in 1992, I realized that I was
responsible for my own work as well as the health and wellness
of my whole team,” Reynolds says, which led to her current
business model of open space and open work ethic. “Everyone
is self-managed. We have no titles, and we work on teams — the
web team, design team, video team, marketing team or focus
group team. Each team has a project leader, but they aren’t a
boss; they’re in service to the team.”
If this method sounds utopian, that’s intentional. Uptown
is Reynolds’ second business venture; she founded a graphic
design firm in Sacramento in 1976 that worked mainly on cor-
porate accounts. As a single mom with three children at home,
Reynolds realized the long hours and high pressure weren’t
working for her, so she shut the business in 1992 and opened
Uptown as its antithesis. With no time clock to punch, em-
ployees pick up kids for soccer games when they need to, bring
babies or dogs into the office, and enjoy a work environment
where they’re treated like responsible adults.
When she opened Uptown, Reynolds decided to focus on
working with organizations working to make Sacramento bet-
ter. “I was born with a core that needs to do good,” she says. “I
want to be involved and create change.”
Reynolds says she’s especially proud of the work her team
did for Life Looks Good on You, a campaign for Sacramento
County Parks and Recreation that raises awareness about the
importance of wearing a life jacket. “We were brought on in
2015 because there were 16 drowning deaths in our rivers that
summer, so we dug in and created a fun campaign that was
also working to save lives,” she says. “In 2016, there were zero
drowning deaths, and we have done the campaign each year
since, and the average drowning deaths over the life of the
campaign is only two per year. Our team feels like we are actu-
ally saving lives with this campaign. It is wonderful to feel like
we are doing so much good.”
Reynolds also donates her time for speaking engagements
to share her hard-won wisdom in the hopes it will help others
achieve their goals. “I like to say, ‘Here’s what I did. It took me
28 years to get here, but maybe you can do it in eight,’” she
says. “You can rise up, build your business, do what brings you
passion if you always move forward with intention.”
by Jessica Laskey
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comstocksmag.com | March 2020