Of Paramount success: This former Galesburg resident shines in 'eye opening' industry

Editors note: This is the last of a two-part Q&A with former Galesburg resident and Ukraine native Anya Pshenychny. Part 1 looked back on Pshenychny's time in Ukraine. Part 2 will focus on her current role as a successful account executive in Chicago.

GALESBURG — MTV, Nickelodeon, Paramount, CMT, Comedy Central, VH1, Paramount+, Pluto, CBS. If you consume programming on any of the above platforms, there's a chance former Galesburg resident has had their hands on the advertising or promotions.

A 2007 Galesburg High School graduate, Anya Pshenychny is an account executive at Paramount Co (formerly ViacomCBS), based out of Chicago.

Pshenychny, 32, recently was recognized as a Chicago Advertising Federation 2022 Rising Star. Born and raised in Kyiv, Ukraine, Anya, and her family immigrated to the United States in 1994, eventually landing in Galesburg. While much of her childhood was spent as an undocumented immigrant, Anya and her family proudly obtained their green cards in 2005 and their citizenship in 2012.

Pshenychny shares her career journey in this Q&A with The Register-Mail.

Recognition as a Chicago Advertising Federation 2022 Rising Star 'very meaningful'

Q: You were recently honored as a recipient of a Chicago Advertising Federation 2022 Rising Star. Congratulations! Tell us about the honor.

Pshenychny: The recognition of CAF Rising Star is very meaningful to me because my involvement in the CAF has been instrumental in my personal and professional development. Overall, 4 women were selected based on their contributions to the Chicago advertising industry in the first 5-15 years of their careers. I am honored to be celebrated with three other phenomenal women who have greatly impacted our industry with their work experience and through contributions of mental health programs, education, and mentorship.

Through the organization, I have built my leadership & public speaking skills along with meeting amazing people in my industry who I consider friends and mentors.

When I joined the CAF as Young Professionals Event Co-Chair in 2017, I programmed large scale thought leadership events that brought young professionals together to learn more about topics related to our industry. After I was elected as the second president of the CAF YPs in 2018, I led the YPs to their first year of profitability, administered more collaboration opportunities with the Board of Directors and developed a larger schedule of programming & networking opportunities. I held the role until 2021 and still a member of the organization.

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She works with 'cool brands' to optimize media across Paramount's iconic portfolio

Q: Please tell us about your current job. What is your title, who do you work for and what are your duties/responsibilities?

Pshenychny: Current Title: Account Executive @ Paramount Co (formerly ViacomCBS). Located in Chicago.

Description: I sell our advertising capabilities across Paramount's iconic portfolio of brands (MTV, Nickelodeon, Paramount, CMT, Comedy Central, VH1, Paramount+, Pluto, CBS, Sports ... the list goes on — we have cool brands!). I consult with Midwest clients, and agencies to plan, execute, and optimize media across our digital footprint.

Started: In 2019 as an AE at PlutoTV, which was integrated into ViacomCBS post merger (now known as Paramount)

Q: Before landing at your current job, can you highlight some of your previous career stops?

Pshenychny: I've been lucky to call Paramount my home for the last 10 years. It was originally Viacom, then ViacomCBS and now we are known as Paramount. While I have been at the same company for some time, because of the constant change in the media landscape and through M&A, I had the opportunity to learn a lot and expand my responsibilities. I’ve always pushed myself outside of my comfort zone, so I have thrived with the rapid changes of the industry and continue to educate myself on emerging trends to stay ahead.

• 2012: My career started with an internship at mtvU when I was a senior in college. An internship was required in order for me to graduate and while Chicago was full of them, the only one I wanted was at mtvU. Luckily it was the internship I landed - mtvU was a network programmed specifically for college students and our goal was to get mtvU on every campus. I supported the managers who were tasked to talk to schools and also some behind the scenes work in programming. For example, there was a show called Stand In, where a celebrity would pop into a class and teach for the day. I would research which classes would make the most sense for them to pop into before it went into production. It was cool because In exchange for running mtvU 24/7, the colleges would receive a free TV to run the programming on.

• 2012-2015: While I was in my internship, I started interviewing for a full time role on the Viacom Cable team, which handled networks like CMT, TVLand, MTV, VH1 and more. I was offered the role a month after graduation and started as a Client Service Representative. As a CSR, I supported salespeople and booked the commercial units to run in our programming. That eventually included digital as well, which worked completely differently from Cable, so it was a learning curve - I was one of the first to raise my hand to take on digital and it paid off. My whole job was to make sure that I delivered the eyeballs that we promised to advertisers, which was not always an easy feat depending on the TV viewership and the advertiser goals. I was promoted to an account coordinator the following year, where I maintained the responsibilities and took on training new hires.

• 2015-2019: After I was ready for a junior sales role, I interviewed for the Sales Service Executive role within Viacom, which was a jr. salesperson/media planner. In this role, I worked mostly with brands to pitch and execute large scale partnerships across all of our footprint in social, digital, influencer, experiential, cable. Some of my favorite executions were ones we did with MolsonCoors (ClusterFest comedy festival), Dave & Buster's (an MTV Teen Wolf Wrap party with Talent) and Visionworks (Paw Patrol custom program). I also had an opportunity to take on a smaller list of clients and I'll never forget when I landed my first big advertiser deal - my whole team cheered when we closed it!

• 2019: I was ready for more responsibilities, specifically, I wanted to grow more in digital because traditional tv was on the decline. I interviewed internally and externally and landed a role at Meredith Digital, who owns brands like People Magazine, Parents, All Recipes, Food&Wine etc. I liked the role and the brands but my tenure there didn't last long (6 months) as I was recruited to work for PlutoTV, which was recently acquired by Viacom. Though Viacom was the parent company, it still operated as a start-up, which I found really interesting because I had only worked at big companies with endless resources. Selling PlutoTV made me the salesperson I am today, we had to be strategic while casting a wide net because not everyone knew what PlutoTV was, you have to be scrappy and diligent. I was really interested in streaming and the AVOD/FAST industry was rapidly growing - it was new to advertisers and required a lot of education about how it worked. Though it was hard to leave a job after 6 months, I am glad I made the move to PlutoTV. I was really passionate about streaming and was exposed to so many new things like programmatic (auction based bidding/buying), so it was a fast track to learn about emerging media.

• 2020-22: After the ViacomCBS merger in 2019/20 - PlutoTV was then integrated into the larger company and no longer a startup. My responsibilities changed to focus on everything from CBS, Paramount+, Pluto and Viacom, where I currently remain (though how and what I am selling has changed - change is always constant in media!)

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From nursing or dental hygiene to the business world

Q: Where did you attend college? What was your intended or initial focus, and what did you end up pursuing, along with what degrees did you receive?

Pshenychny: Regarding my initial focus - that's an interesting question! When I graduated from GHS in 2007, I was unsure of my career path like many recent grads. I held off starting at Carl Sandburg College until Spring 2008, spending the fall working at Perkin's as a server where I held a job since I was 16. When I started at CSC, I chose the broadest route since I was undecided between nursing or dental hygiene. Ultimately, I found myself more interested in business which came more naturally to me. I graduated with an A.A.S. in Business/Mid-Management in 2010 before I transferred to Columbia College Chicago in the fall off 2010, graduating from there with a B.A. in Marketing Communication in 2012.

She had dreams of being a pop star

Q: Did you ever imagine yourself doing what you are doing now? If not, what did you think you would be doing for a career?

Pshenychny: I didn't imagine I would be in media sales for many reasons. I think sales inherently gets a bad rep because people think of old school sales. I really like the consultative nature and relationship building aspect of my job, you have to know your information and come with value to brands. I always had an innate interest in entertainment and found myself fascinated with advertising. At Columbia, I learned about media buying and planning through a Media 101 course, however, college students aren't really educated on the publisher/sales side of media & many of them graduate wanting to work at agencies (like Mad Men!) - so to me it was an eye opening industry. It's really fun to talk to college students to teach them about what they do because of that.

I had dreams of being a pop star, vet or dentist/dental hygienist when I was little but never thought about marketing until I had to pick a concentration at Columbia College Chicago.

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My family grew up calling me their "business woman" so it was innately there since I was young

We work hard but we play hard, too! The media industry is really fun because of the relationship building and entertaining your clients. Between traveling to fun places, great parties, trying new restaurants, and opportunities to meet cool talent, there are many perks that make all of our jobs fun, whether you’re in sales, the agency or a brand! That has stalled a bit with pandemic for obvious reasons, but I am excited to get back to it.

This article originally appeared on Galesburg Register-Mail: Anya Pshenychny honored as Chicago Advertising Federation Rising Star