Meet Nicole Mahoney

CEO, Break the Ice Media
CEO, Travel Alliance Partners
Host, Destination on the Left podcast

The backstory

You might say being an entrepreneur is in Nicole's DNA. As a student, she worked for her dad at the family's audio and car stereo shop, eventually taking on their annual Sound Off event held in their store parking lot. The natural marketer in her took over, and the event grew to mini-festival size, attracting up to five thousand people on a Sunday. When her dad told her to "A to Z" a project, she learned to do every step of business development, marketing strategy, PR, and branding while working her way through college and her Masters.

Professional path

With a talent for creating special events, Nicole went on to work in sports marketing at Frontier Field in Rochester, and as the executive director of the internationally known Lilac Festival. Later on she headed the Canandaigua NY BID. There were projects for Visit Rochester as well.

In 2009, she founded Break the Ice Media, with more than 20 years experience in tourism marketing.

As a business owner, Nicole knows what it takes to be successful. She founded BTI to help businesses tell their brand story through public relations, digital and traditional channels. She has the ability to uncover unique marketing opportunities, and develop marketing and public relations initiatives that help clients build long-term success.

Inside the office she loves:

Working with clients to understand their marketing needs, developing plans and executing those plans. Leading and nurturing her team. (You might call her The Founding Mother.) Watching results happen for clients.

Outside the office she loves:

Her family (husband and four daughters). Traveling on family vacations. Maine. Playing euchre with her long-time girlfriends every month. Living in wine country (and drinking that wine!).

Nicole Mahoney

"We're about doing what's best for clients. We're not territorial - there are no 'egos' here."

Posts from Nicole

5 Key Ingredients for Marketing Campaign Success

5 Key Ingredients for Marketing Campaign Success

By Nicole | August 11, 2021

When I started Break The Ice Media in 2009, I saw how new digital tools were causing PR and marketing…

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The Keys to Successful Collaborations

The Keys to Successful Collaborations

By Nicole | June 23, 2021

In our 2021 Rising Tide study, we revealed three different attitudinal segments among travel, tourism and hospitality professionals. These three…

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Successful Collaborations start witSuccessful Collaborations start with Commonalityh Commonality

Successful Collaborations start with Commonality

By Nicole | June 2, 2021

Successful collaborations start with commonality. The most important commonality elements include establishing and agreeing on goals for the collaboration, having strong champions, and designing the collaboration to benefit all participants.

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How Your Competition Could Make You More Successful

How Your Competition Could Make You More Successful: 2021 Research Findings

By Nicole | May 4, 2021

While it might seem intuitive that collaborators are avoiding working with organizations who provide similar products and services to the same audience, we were surprised to see that the opposite is true.

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Collaboration research: What did 150+ travel, tourism, and hospitality professionals say?

Collaboration research: What did 150+ travel, tourism, and hospitality professionals say?

By Nicole | March 31, 2021

Backed by stats In December of 2020, we surveyed 161 travel, tourism, and hospitality professionals to learn more about their…

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5 Lessons Learned During the Travel Pause

5 Lessons Learned During the Travel Pause

By Nicole | March 17, 2021

As a business serving clients in the travel, tourism and hospitality industry exclusively, when the travel pause began in March…

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