Demo Diva Simone Bruni’s quest for global media domination continues with appearance in Forbes.
She has never claimed to be the best demolition contractor in the world. Nor has she ever said that she’s the biggest, most-experienced or the most skillful.
But what Simone Bruni lacks in experience and company stature she more than makes up in media smarts, branding savvy and a generous dose of chutzpah. Which is why it comes as little surprise to find her gracing the pages of Forbes magazine.
Forbes magazine usually confines itself to covering the super-rich – IT moguls such as Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Microsoft’s Bill Gates and the late Apple CEO Steve Jobs have all appeared on the cover.
But in a recent focus upon New Orleans’ recovery from the Hurricane Katrina, Bruni joins the ranks of the globally famous with a telling interview that charts her struggle for acceptance in demolition circles.
“Whenever I made public bids, my contracts were thrown out. It’s an entrenched business and industry people saw me as a joke.” But, on the other hand, Simone realised the “seasoned guys who dominated the business could also help me” because they usually left sites without notice. She then asked the owners of the demolished plots if she could plant her signs on their lawns, and “they always said yes.” Simone also bought 25 dumpsters which she painted hot pink to become “mobile billboards for me as we moved them around the city.” Within five years, Demo Diva has tripled its revenues; to date she has demolished some 2000 homes, and along the way learned “the art of flood work insurance navigation,” which she sees as a foot in the door to build a disaster discovery business, beyond New Orleans.
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