Q&A with Assistant Account Executive Adam Castella

As our hor­ti­cul­ture and agri­cul­ture work con­tin­ues to grow, so does our team. Our newest team mem­ber hails from New York, bring­ing a pas­sion for writ­ing, strate­gic com­mu­ni­ca­tions and pub­lic rela­tions. With his expe­ri­ence and enthu­si­asm for agri­cul­tur­al sto­ry­telling, Adam Castel­la is a nat­ur­al fit for Bell­mont Partners—and we’re thrilled to wel­come him to the team.

Tell us what brought you to Min­neso­ta. 

I was born in New York, where I devel­oped a pas­sion for writ­ing from an ear­ly age. This pas­sion sent me to the Uni­ver­si­ty of Min­neso­ta, where I majored in strate­gic com­mu­ni­ca­tions and earned my Bach­e­lor of Arts. After­ward, I want­ed to con­tin­ue build­ing my the­o­ret­i­cal knowl­edge of the field, so I decid­ed to get my Master’s Degree in mass com­mu­ni­ca­tion. My past expe­ri­ences showed me that an agency offers a lot of oppor­tu­ni­ties to work on fun and unique projects, as well as ful­fill my need to be busy.  

What drew you to pub­lic rela­tions as a career choice?  

Pub­lic rela­tions first inter­est­ed me dur­ing my under­grad­u­ate degree, when I took my first course in the field. I was drawn to the oppor­tu­ni­ty to com­bine my pas­sion for writ­ing with work that ben­e­fits both clients and their audi­ences. Pub­lic rela­tions relies on sto­ry­telling, and I enjoy help­ing clients share impact­ful sto­ries.  

What are you most excit­ed about in this new role?  

I am most excit­ed to have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to con­tin­ue grow­ing in the field of agri­cul­ture. Pre­vi­ous­ly, I worked with agri­cul­tur­al com­pa­nies, so being able to con­tin­ue expand­ing my knowl­edge, learn about new busi­ness­es, and con­tribute to mean­ing­ful projects is an oppor­tu­ni­ty I am grate­ful to have. I am also excit­ed by the oppor­tu­ni­ty to work on social media chan­nels, as that was a large part of my master’s the­sis.    

You did your the­sis on “Part­ner­ships and Con­tent: Explor­ing How Gen­er­a­tion Z Social Media Influ­encers Com­mu­ni­cate Envi­ron­men­tal Cor­po­rate Social Respon­si­bil­i­ty on Insta­gram.” Tell us why this top­ic appealed to you.  

This top­ic was appeal­ing to me for mul­ti­ple rea­sons. First, the envi­ron­ment is some­thing I care deeply about. I am an Eagle Scout and have spent a large amount of my time out­doors. I think it is incred­i­bly impor­tant that we main­tain our envi­ron­ment but also take part of mak­ing it bet­ter for the future. Sec­ond, as Gen­er­a­tion Z becomes old­er and plays a larg­er role in mar­kets and social media, it is essen­tial that we learn about them. See­ing the work Gen­er­a­tion Z influ­encers do in this realm is an impor­tant step to bet­ter under­stand the grow­ing influ­encer land­scape. By div­ing into this project, I was able to bet­ter edu­cate myself on influ­encers, social media, and envi­ron­men­tal cor­po­rate social respon­si­bil­i­ty. Last­ly, this project allowed me to learn the spe­cif­ic fram­ing strate­gies Gen­er­a­tion Z social media influ­encers use to com­mu­ni­cate envi­ron­men­tal cor­po­rate social respon­si­bil­i­ty. Under­stand­ing the prac­ti­cal impli­ca­tions allows me to bring every­thing I learned from my the­sis into the work­force, and it active­ly plays a part in how I think about social media influ­encers and their work with agri­cul­tur­al com­pa­nies.   

How do you hope to bring the insights you learned to Bell­mont Part­ners’ clients?  

 I want to apply what I have learned to help clients solve their com­mu­ni­ca­tions chal­lenges and achieve their goals. In this role, I will be able to lis­ten to the clients’ needs, under­stand their goals, and turn insights into prac­ti­cal rec­om­men­da­tions. My aca­d­e­m­ic back­ground has giv­en me a strong the­o­ret­i­cal foun­da­tion in pub­lic rela­tions. My past work and intern­ships have giv­en me the prac­ti­cal foun­da­tion of pub­lic rela­tions. By com­bin­ing the­o­ry with prac­tice, I have learned not just how com­mu­ni­ca­tion works but also why.  

I know you’re a big out­doors per­son. Tell us about some of your hob­bies.  

I con­sid­er myself an adven­tur­er and love try­ing new things. I love spend­ing time out­side, and I espe­cial­ly enjoy fish­ing, hik­ing, and spend­ing time on the water. Grow­ing up on the coast the beach was some­where I trea­sured as a child and still care deeply for as an adult. Besides being out­side, I would say my oth­er hob­bies are board games — whether it is a game of chess online or Catan with friends, I am always excit­ed for some­thing com­pet­i­tive. I also enjoy spend­ing time with my girl­friend Vic­to­ria, and our pets Har­vey and Binx.   

–

Wel­come, Adam!