Publisher's Note | April 2021

What’s My Story? Publisher Robert Orso reflects on one year of Mobile Bay Real Producers

By Publisher Robert Orso

This month marks my one year anniversary of being in print! I must say that the past 12 months have been fun and challenging. The fun part has been meeting many of you and hearing your stories. The challenging aspect has been launching a new business amid a pandemic! So many of the potential advertising partners I have met with have been skeptical about making any commitments until they saw what was going to happen with COVID. Others were so busy, due to the real estate boom, they did not think they needed any advertising. I am grateful for those who did join Mobile Bay Real Producers. I am immensely proud of this publication and the wonderful stories and content we have been able to print.

As I meet with top agents and potential clients, I often get questions like, “How did you get into this business?” and “What is your background?” Since Real Producers Magazine is in the business of telling stories, I wanted to share a snapshot of my own. We all have a story, right?

Just in case you may be wondering, “Who is this guy and where does he come from?” I am a native of the Mobile area. Soon after graduating

college, I began working in the educational fundraising industry and stayed in that business for sixteen years. In 1998, I transitioned into wireless telephones and was the Director of Marketing for a wireless start-up that you may remember – Digiph PCS. After less than four years on the air, Digiph was acquired by T-Mobile.

My next position was Director of Marketing for another Mobile-based company, Global Tel Link (GTL). GTL sells communications and investigative software to the corrections and law enforcement sectors and has grown to be the largest provider in the U.S. In 2004, I moved out of marketing and into sales for GTL and spent seventeen years traveling extensively throughout the U.S.

April 2019 was the beginning of drastic change for my family and me. My wife, Teresa, who had been in poor health for several years, needed a liver transplant. I knew my traveling days needed to end, so I left the traveling life and began looking for a business that would allow me to work in my local community and spend as much time as possible with Teresa. After doing my due diligence and research, I acquired the franchise for Real Producers Magazine for the Mobile and Baldwin County market.

From April to June of 2019, Teresa’s health declined so rapidly that she was too weak for the liver transplant and much to the dismay of my family and me, she passed away on July 4th. We were married for 40 years. I was devastated for a while, but I kept remembering what she told me a few weeks before she died, “I want you to move on with your life and I want you to love again.” So, I have done my best to do just that. Around mid-September 2019, I finally got my legs under me and began meeting with top real estate agents as the first steps to launching this publication. Sure, I grieved and sometimes still do, but I am a firm believer that no matter what or who we lose, our life must go on for the good of those who depend on us. Being alive just means God is not finished with us and we need to keep our anticipation of the good things ahead of us.

Real Producers will probably be my last gig and I am enjoying this business! After so many years of travel, I am reconnecting with my local community and making a lot of new friends. I appreciate all the REALTORS® and advertising partners whom I have met, have yet to meet and who read this magazine.

Today is a good day, yesterday ended last night, and tomorrow is full of promise.