Speaker 1 (00:02):
This podcast is for PR pros who are looking to discover the best strategies for landing their dream retainer clients and scoring them top tier media coverage. I'm your host, Jen Berson. And I want you to have a fulfilling career in PR that totally lights you up without sacrificing your personal or family time or your sanity. Welcome to the pitching powerhouse podcast. All right, guys, you are in for such a treat today because interviewing members of our community is my favorite part of this show. It's my absolute favorite thing that I've been able to do since we started the pitching powerhouse podcast. And I'm so excited for you to meet Annika Jackson. She's a mother, a community volunteer, a philanthropist, a brand strategist. She's the founder of Annika PR, which is a strategic communications firm based in LA, near me. And they're focused on cause driven businesses and entrepreneurs to empower, celebrate, and strategically amplify their impact in the world.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
And her agency has an emphasis on entertainment, minority entrepreneurs, non-profits and tech. And when I tell you, she has those niches dialed in, it is like so impressive to see because there's obvious crossover and she's able to leverage her expertise to support, uh, brands and entrepreneurs that she believes in, in each of those different niches and like me and a cousin, mom, and she resides in Redondo beach with her daughter and they have two golden retrievers, which, um, I think you guys may be know by now. I got a puppy, my little puppy, Lola. So now any little dog, a dog lovers are my, my people. Now I cannot believe how hard I've fallen for this puppy anyway, total sidebar. But, um, Anika has been such an amazing member of our community, just so helpful and collaborative. And she has come into our, um, pitch lab group and taught a master class about how to break through in entertainment PR and get your clients featured for, um, entertainment, media and our members have absolutely loved that training. So welcome Anika to the podcast and enjoy, let us know what you think of her interview. Reach out to her on social media. She would love to hear from you today. I'm joined by Annika Jackson of Aneka PR thank you so much for being here.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
It's my pleasure. I love that you're doing this podcast. I love it. When you do your lives, I, I couldn't make one of the ones earlier, but I said some team members into it.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Yeah. And you know what you do that is always, so you have your note taking app, and I know that you sent your note taking app on our calls and I can always see it. So it's awesome that you're transcribing and getting all of the content from our, you know, our calls that we're doing. And also just for anybody who is in any of our programs like Annika is we'd always have a replay. There's always audio and there's always, um, notes, but I feel like you just want to get it before we post them. And I always see, oh, her note taking app this year and you're the first person I'd ever seen do it. I'm like, that is so smart. Super smart. Well, thank you so much for being here today. Um, anyone who's listening, I'm just a little under the weather. My voice is a little scratchy, but I'm, I'm fine. Um, and I love chatting with Annika. She's been in our programs for quite a while and has come in and taught, um, a masterclass inside of our pitch lab, sharing how to break into media with clients in the entertainment space and the music industry. Um, but tell us a bit about yourself. Tell us about your PR business, what you specialize in.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Yeah, so it's, it's a crazy long story. So I will, I won't go into all of my background in marketing and PR. I started out in the marketing side of things almost three decades ago. And, um, then I really liked working with the publicists that we would hire to work with our teams for when I was working more corporate, you know, in publishing and stuff. Um, and so I left that world and started working in PR and marketing together. Then I took some turns in my life, like many of us do. And, uh, when I came back to LA in 2019, I realized that I really just wanted to focus on PR and marketing again. And so my agency has, I hired my first person actually in may of 2020. Um, I have a team of employees now, which is kind of crazy and we really specialize, you know, we did a lot of things.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
I think that's what you do when you first start an agency, or when you're getting back into PR you kind of like throw the spaghetti at the wall and see what's going to stick. And, um, w what ended up sticking is really what our values are. And so working with clients who are in the social justice and equity spaces, whether it's a tech product that is helping people in health care and mental health, um, or with financial equity, or, um, whether it's a nonprofit or an entertainment aspect that really is getting people to think about the different movements that are going on right now, and, you know, what needs to be done to change things. And so that's kind of how we've niched down is to, into like minority entrepreneurs, nonprofit tech, and, uh, entertainment, but all projects that have a social good slant.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
Oh, God, I love that. That's so awesome. And I love that you said that your work now just really aligns with your values, and I know that when your personal values and your professional values can align so well, you just feel passionate and inspired by the work you're doing every day. And I see that in you so much, and it just makes so much sense to me that in your effort to niche down, you went in this direction that really matters to you personally. And yeah. And when you have a business like that, you're going to love what you're doing every day for as long as you're fortunate enough to have your business, you know, like you said, you've had your career 30 plus years, um, and you've grown this business now, especially in the pandemic, bringing on a team, you're really pivoting into a direction that I see you having so much longevity because you're intentionally building a business that you're so passionate about. And that obviously has an impact when you're, um, pitching for new business. Tell me kind of about that process for you. I know that you want to support businesses that really, um, amplify impact. How do you, um, you know, bring clients into the business and ensure that they align with your, your vision.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Yeah. And so this is something I think we all have to learn, right, as we're, whether we're a solo preneurs in PR or have teams of people is, um, when you find that thing that really sparks you and makes you want to do this every day, because you can love PR, but you have to love the PR and you have to love your clients. If you don't love the clients you're working with, then you can burn out really fast. So we used to take a lot of different types of clients, primarily in those spaces, but also some that were kind of outliers because they were friends and they were referrals. Um, and what I've really realized. And Jen, thank you. This is a large part due to your programs and the comradery, um, that we have in those programs and the helpfulness that PR pros are giving to each other, um, and collaborating on the fact that, you know, Y you don't have to take every client.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
You really do need to focus on clients that are intentional with who you are and what you're doing, but also can afford your services. Because quite frankly, I've recently been running the numbers because I'm like, well, I'm still in startup mode. I knew I needed to build this team to offer everything I want to offer, but now I need to take a step back and go, okay, but what's the ROI. Am I making any money? Am I just investing in the team, which I love doing, and I want to do, but I also need to invest in myself. And part of that is the clients that we're taking now. Right. Um, and so we do have a process. We have them fill out a form to see kind of who they are. We'll look and see. And, um, if it's not somebody that I think will work with us, then I want to be able to pass their name onto one of my PR pros that I know that might be a better fit for them. Um, and so, so that's been a little helpful and that's kind of a process I'm still going through.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
Yeah. Tell me a little more about this, um, kind of realization. This happens to so many amazing savvy PR professionals in our community. Um, you know, they really are growing fast and there's this incredible demand for their services when they kind of strike out on their own and say, here's who I am. Here's what I do. And there's this feeling of well, I'm in business and I offer a service. So anyone who's interested in our services, you know, step right up, and then you grow so quickly and you build out a team and then pause for a second and realize, wait a second, am I profitable here? Everybody's making money except me. Yeah. Yeah. It's a hard realization because you have to make some major decisions, some hard choices and cut some clients from your roster, at least phase them out and be very firm in your pricing note. So you're at that point now, can you tell us a little bit about, a little more about that?
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Yeah. Well, and I'm going to be super transparent here. Um, when I, I moved back to the LA area in 2019 and had to basically start over, I didn't have alimony, I didn't get child support. I had a place to live. I had a car to drive. Um, but I, and so I knew I wanted to stay in PR and marketing, but even finding a job, working for a company because I've had different life experience and I've had different jobs and worked for myself and had, you know, other businesses, um, a lot of companies really want somebody who is a specialist. They don't want a generalist. They don't want somebody who knows who has done a whole bunch of different things. So I kind of fell into, okay, I'm going to just going to be an independent agent, um, and then agency, uh, and, but to prove that model and to even just get some income going for me and for my daughter, I'm a single mom.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
I was taking clients to start. I did a friends and family, like $500 a month fire sale because I had money in the door. I, I was on food stamps at the time because I literally moved back from Houston, was nothing. I had a company out of business in Houston. I poured money into that poured money into my move and got here and circumstances were not what I thought they were going to be when I moved back. So I really had to start over. Um, and so that was good because it gave me those case studies and I'm still working with some of those clients. And they're obviously not paying me that much. They're paying me a lot more at this point, but I was able to show them my value and become really big parts of their team and their structures. And they were all startups too, but you know, it, it, it is a journey.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
And while that was right for me, I still struggle sometimes with, oh, they have 1500 or $2,500. I really want to work with their budget because they're in my wheelhouse. And so I do that. And whenever I do it, doesn't usually work out. Right. Um, because you're discounting yourself and I'm still trying to deliver the same level of value, but then it makes it can sometimes make me or my team resentful of the sheer amount of work we're doing. Um, sometimes, you know, it lessens our value to the clients. So they don't realize how much they're really getting and, and what the whole process really is because they will see a lot of the things out there nowadays. They just think PR is like something, you just get, you put one thing out and it just happens.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
And that's not realistic. You have to have a solid foundation, solid messaging, know how to pivot their message, make sure that there is a message. Um, and if there isn't have real conversations around, well, you know what, we need to take a break, or maybe you're not ready. You have too many messages, you have too many businesses going on and you can't focus. So there's, you know, a lot of things that we have to think through as we're niching down and as we're really honing into our ideal clients, um, and number one, just making sure we're taking care of ourselves as business owners. Yeah. And your team, you hinted at that too. Sometimes it kinda breeds some resentment. Um, you know, when you're working at like a very fast pace and everybody is working, you know, firing on all cylinders and not every client is paying the same rate to really justify that.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
And it sounds like you're a lot like me in the sense that if you're on our roster, we're not going to give you a discount experience. Even if we discount the service. Right. There's no right. And, you know, so you end up kind of burning out because you have to work that much more to bring in enough revenue when you discount services, it's like you need two, three clients to equal the value of one client. That's paying the true rate based on the value you're providing to them. Um, so it's hard. And it's interesting because every single person I talked to, whether I'm on a live or interviewing here, or just having a conversation with our community, it's 100% of the time when we discount, we always live to regret it, or you make an exception and you live to regret it. And it's just crazy that that's the case. Um, and so now you've seen that in practice. So moving forward, you have a different approach, you know, tell us a bit more about that. Or, and also you've, you've mentioned, you know, the agency accelerator, um, and you know, you're in the pitch lab where, how have these resources helped you navigate back into PR after taking a break and coming back and starting your own thing?
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Yeah, well, so PR was, I remember the days when we would write a press release and we'd have to print it out and fax it and then call to make sure that the person received it, did they have any questions? We didn't have all of the resources there. There was not, I mean, the internet was in its infancy at that time. So I know I'm totally aging myself, but so things have changed. And that was, I was in a different program that was not a PR specific program. And that is where I met, um, Tanya and Natasha. And I think Natasha was the one who was like, Hey, you need to learn about generation PR and her program and Jen's programs. And that's how I found you. And I was like, oh my gosh, this is the missing component because this is going to help teach me, you know, what is happening in today's world of PR how I need to structure things, to make sure that I am a viable business, how I need to think through things for clients, but for myself, you know, everything from pitching to reporting, all of that has been immensely useful tools.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
Um, and I can't remember what your other question,
Speaker 1 (15:55):
No, it's just kind of overcoming that feeling of having to take on every client that comes your way and paying that rate in this sort of realization of, you know, you, you hinted at it when we first jumped on before we actually started recording, but realizing your value and how valuable your time is and that when you discount, it's actually, you who's taking the biggest hit on that and you can't continue to run your business that way.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
Yeah. And one of the other pivots we've made to that point is, um, I had team members who I hired to do PR cause that we were just PR who actually were better at graphics. And I was like, okay, we do need some of that. And so I pivoted to have a couple of team members really focused on helping with social media or helping create graphics that map back to the press hits we were getting. Um, and so we developed this other side of our business and that's where we've been able to keep adding incremental revenue for our clients, um, to get to the point where we're like, okay, we can breathe. These are, you know, the clients that we have know our value. Number one, PR is what they really want. They want media coverage, but number two, we can also help them understand what they need to do better on their own for their social media.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Or we can help create posts for them, help create content, calendar, and all of that. If we need to do some other graphic work, we can. So I built out kind of more intentional team that is very holistic and we can do a lot of different things for our clients. Um, and then we can also, you know, if it's something we don't do, we're very transparent about that and we'll pass them to a partner that we, you know, cause there are a lot of agencies that do specialize in SEO or digital advertising or, um, I have podcasts, but I don't want to edit other people's podcasts. Right. Necessarily. So, you know, our podcasting or whatever that other thing is that they want to add into their marketing, um, business.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
Yeah. You made two points here that are really helpful. The first one is, um, this amplifying impact piece. I mean, that's where you almost, um, lucked into it, I guess, with realizing the talents of the members of your team were amplifying the results you were getting for clients and using it to grow your own presence, which is part of the pillars and agency accelerator about strategy, sales, service, and scale. The scale piece is about amplifying the results you get for the kinds of clients you want to continue working with and using those to attract more tracking, bigger clients, but also then realizing that those efforts that you're making help clients when they're doing it too. So it's not just that you're landing the press, but then you're giving them additional strategies and graphics so that they can amplify their wins and their message and reach more people with it. Um, so, and then that ended up being a service that you veered into, which to me just highlights this concept of understanding the talent of your team members, because you may hire somebody fantastic, but maybe they're in the wrong seat.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
Oh, a hundred percent. Right. And
Speaker 1 (19:14):
You have to just like assess their overall, like you said, the holistic approach, these people had so much more to offer and you're like, they may be in the wrong seat on this bus here. Like they're awesome, talented people, but maybe not in that role, how can we leverage what they have to offer and put them in the right seat? So that's extremely important when you go to scale your agency, that you have the right people, not just on the bus, but in the right seats. And then the other piece that you said was we don't do everything. And that's so important. You guys may get a client that comes and says, well, I want PR and social media marketing and also influencer marketing. But in order to do that, we're also going to need paid social and SEO and email marketing. And some copywriting, you don't have to do all of those things. If you're still going to win that client, you can do the things you do exceptionally well and then bring in other people, not even necessarily under you, but have a great referral source. And I love that you said that because people need to remember that you're not going to build a business that you love or one that even makes you feel good. I mean, if you are running around like your hair's on fire, doing 10 services for 10 clients, you're going to feel crazy.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
Yeah. And that's, you know, I think, and that's another thing that I'm learning just through practice. But also I know that you've preached this often as well, is that we need to be able to stand up for ourselves and, and not say we do all things for all people, um, to enter the point of, I do have a client who's one of my biggest clients who wanted us to do focus groups, um, and some research stuff. And they're a big research organization. And I knew that we're a pretty good part of their budget. So we did do hell. We did help with some of that work. But when it came time to writing a community survey, I don't have experience doing that. My team doesn't have experience doing that. We're not researchers, I love data, but we're not researchers. And so they were able to pivot back, have their team who is made up of researchers, redo the survey, put it out, and they're going to help.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
They're going to analyze it for us to put into a final report as part of our, so that we can see what they learned, um, as part of our, you know, communication recommendations for their upcoming anniversary year. And that might include a lot of pivots and messaging that we're going to have to help them create around a potential name, change a logo change, you know, being in the community for 30 years, but what are they going to do for the next 30 years? So we're getting into like other areas of work that some, some of it my team can do and I can do, and we like to do. And some of it, we really can't. So it's been a really being a younger agency. It's been a really interesting learning process to go through this and to realize, you know, what, I do need to stand up for myself and my team.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
Um, when it is something that's not in our wheelhouse or it's something that I know, gosh, if they were, if they really wanted this done, they would hire, you know, somebody at 20 or 30 or $50,000 a month to do this part of the work. And here are, they're trying to maybe offload it on my team because maybe that's not in their budgets, but you know, just being, being realistic. Um, and then the other thing was that in storytelling today, consumers of your client's products, you know, our services are going to be on various platforms. And so weaving in that narrative of, they got a great press hit, how can you amplify it across their different social channels, maybe even in different ways. So you share the full article on LinkedIn, you do a little, um, teaser on Twitter and then you have a graphic or an audio gram on Instagram. So knowing how to use those and leverage that for your clients, not that you have to do it all, but just understanding that they are looking at to you as, um, not just your, their publicist, but also somebody who's going to help them with their overall storytelling arc. Okay.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
Yeah. That's that leveraging piece that's so important and just what value you provide to be able to optimize the channels that you're sharing that. So you get the win and then you amplify it appropriately and get more leverage out of it. And I mean, that's so smart. It's such a natural, it's not like pure social media. It's not community building per se. It's different, but it really is a natural extension of the efforts you're making on the PR side to amplify those wins on social and leverage the talents of those graphic designers that you like surprise they're on your team. You don't even know it. I love that so much. Um, and I just love hearing, you know, as a new business, you don't have this new business mentality of well, I'm new and I have to prove myself. You really are coming in and bringing 30 years of experience into your business.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
And that's what clients are getting. So you trust that about yourself, where when you get on the phone and you're speaking to prospective clients, you have a clear sense of what they need and what you can provide to them based on your expertise and your skillset. And you have the confidence to say, you know, that's just not what we do. Now. We can take the results you get from that market research. And we can create an experience that will like, you know, help you rebrand, help you pivot into the next 30 years of your business. But the actual writing of the questions, that's a real researcher. I mean, there, you got to write them in a certain way. That gets information out of people, the way that you need it. That's a very specific skillset. And I feel like more junior agency owners or some who come in and don't really have that, um, awareness that that years and years of experience gives them credibility.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
They think, well, I'm new and the client wants this. So I have to figure out how to do it. They say yes. And then they bury themselves in a hole and they regret it. So I love that you're coming in and saying, you know what I'm saying? I'm going to advocate for myself and for my team and realize that we can say no to this type of work. I can tell the clients trying to just kind of offloaded onto us, but we're not the right fit. And this actually is not a little add on service to what we're doing. This is a whole other major service that a true expert needs to take, needs to tackle for them. And that takes, that takes guts. It's hard to say no to a client. It's still
Speaker 2 (26:01):
Hard for me, honestly. It's not all I love what you're saying, but it's not always easy sometimes, you know, I will say, well, that's not our capabilities, but we can try something. And again, going back to when you discount or you do the one-off, it doesn't work. It never works out. You just, we have to really, it's part of this. We always tell our clients, right. Be authentic. We need to share your authentic story. We have to do the same thing. Um, and yeah,
Speaker 1 (26:30):
Yeah, that's, that's a great lesson to remember, and I'm not saying it's easy, but I'm commending you that you're doing it. You're doing it. It's hard for sure. And sometimes, you know what? You may, it, it happens. You may lose the client. It just means not your client. Like the client doesn't have realistic expectations of what it is you're actually doing for them. And then they're always going to be dissatisfied no matter what. So I'd rather avoid that. Then, you know, take the client, win the business and then just be stressed out every day because we're never going to meet their expectations because they're asking for things that we don't actually do. So I think it's a really good reminder for all of us at any stage of business, you know, stay in her lane. And if there's a natural extension, like Annika said with her team, being able to provide this leveraging strategy, that's an amplification approach and taking the results they're getting and making sure more people see them.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
And that the consumer is reading this information at every possible touchpoint. And it's not the exact same, but it's similar. And it just amplifies what they're trying to do. That's a really powerful, additional service. That's not like a whole other, like you're still in your lane. You're just kind of growing the width of the lane. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Um, well tell us, um, maybe what advice for other aspiring PR pros you might give. I mean, you've been doing this a long time. You came in at a different, it was a different era and it evolves all the time and it's kind of like a game and we have to learn the rules in order to play the game. And so the rules are changing and you're investing in yourself and your ongoing education to ensure you're on top of your game. Um, but what advice would you give to maybe, you know, kind of your younger self coming back into this or any other aspiring PR pro?
Speaker 2 (28:22):
Oh yeah. So the first thing would be, find a community like profitably PR pros, pitch lab, you know, agency accelerator find a community of PR pros who are welcoming and willing to share advice and share best practices with you. And won't, um, you know, won't just dismiss everything you say, because even as a new professional, you have a different outlook and a different take, um, than some of us would have. So that's number one. Number two is if you're interning or working for another agency to get some additional knowledge and practice, just be a person of your word show up. When you say you're going to show up. Um, it's been really eye-opening, uh, lately I've been trying to onboard, you know, some new interns and some new people. And, um, I'm a little shocked sometimes when people don't show up for a meeting that we have on the schedule every week for the whole team to have a powwow and their excuses, they overslept, or no.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
Yeah. Or, you know, they're doing work, that's not assigned to them because that's what they're interested in doing. Instead of doing the work that's assigned to them, like, just be humble and cut your teeth and learn and ask questions, but don't feel like you, I think sometimes people feel like they know the answer already, or they want to interject. Um, I've had interns on client calls because I wanted them to get that experience, but talk over team members and try to interpret what the client was wanting or trying to say when I'm like, I worked for that client for over a year, that was completely inappropriate. You don't talk to a team. You know, it was, luckily it was somebody I worked like the client is somebody I worked with on several projects and I've worked with forever for a long, like since I started this agency. But, um, I was just kinda, I was like really taken aback because I'm like, you, you want to be in this world, but you're not listening and you're not learning. And I still have a lot to learn, listen, and learn. And that's why I participate in trainings and, you know, go into groups and see what other people are saying and listen to their advice. Um, we're always evolving. We're always growing and learning. And if you, if you can't do that, then this isn't the right place for you.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
Oh my God. I'm like anyone watching the listening to the podcast, can't see. I'm like frantically nodding my head. And oh my God, first of all, same with me. I'm learning all the time. I say it all the time when we're sharing our resources or I jump on a live training. There are other people contributing to the content that we share. Um, every single month in the pitch lab, when we release those execution plans, we have a team of people assembling them and they all have been working in PR at this point 12, 15 or more years. And I learned something every single month. I mean, I love them. They're so thorough. And I read them and I'm like, this is really good. Like, I just feel like there's so much good stuff here. So it's like always be learning, always realizing that there is so much to know out there and just having a natural curiosity to continue, um, improving your skills and, um, learning best practices.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
I can't even imagine as an intern getting on a call with a client and talking over the team and trying to interpret what the client is asking for. That is shocking to me. Um, we haven't taken interns in a really long time and I just got a request from a high school at actually my, one of my dearest childhood friends is the principal of this really, you know, nice private high school here in LA. And I've gone to their career day and sat on panels and gave the keynote. And I've had interns from their school for years, but I haven't since COVID and they came back around and I kind of said to them, I can't offer a traditional internship because of the way that we work. And my team is remote and I'm working from home, but here's what I can offer. And I talked about my training programs and giving them the opportunity to research and whatnot.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
But yeah, but like typically interns, honestly, if you take an intern into your company and they come for a certain period of time, you're spending the whole time training them. And by the time they really kind of have a sense of what's going on, they leave. And so it's hard for me because my time is so limited, but I still have that desire to give back and get younger people interested in what it is we do. So I feel like I've found a way to help them. Um, but that's shocking to me. I just can't. I mean, that's so disrespectful that you would have to say to a young person who you're giving an amazing opportunity to like, you know, be humble and open your ears and be responsible. This is the other thing it's like anyone listening to this, it is shocking how many people can't even just keep their word, they set a meeting, they don't show up.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
They don't respect your time. Um, you know, and to hear somebody on your team is like, oh my gosh, I overslept. That's your chance? And you're done. I mean, this is a small industry, especially our community. Um, our community is extremely positive and that's also a direction I wanted to go into is just, you know, people don't come into our community and talk trash. There's no negative like down talking of anybody. It's just not that vibe at all. But I do know that the people in our community are so open and helpful. And, um, we take our businesses very seriously. We take our roles very seriously. And if there's somebody that comes along who has deemed themselves, um, irresponsible or not trustworthy, the community is going to find out and, you know, it's like really shocking to me, how people can kind of overlook the impact of a good referral.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
Like your reputation is everything. It honestly is everything. And you can do great work for somebody and that will follow you the rest of your career. That is how I've gotten my biggest clients, my billion dollar clients. And I'm sure you would agree. It's good, um, experience working with you and those people leave and they go to other companies and they say, I know somebody I'm new at this company. And I want to bring in my trusted team because they'll make me look good. That's how we got our three different billion dollar clients in each of our niches was positive experience and a great referral.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
Yeah, that's amazing. And, and I, and I will say, I do have younger people. I have a couple of college students. Who've been with me since pretty much the beginning of my agency and who are amazing. And they'll be with me when they graduate, because they have that. They have the attitude of, you know, if they don't know how to do something, they're not going to ask me, oh, how, how do I find out about that? They're going to Google it first and they're going to, they're going to go through all of our resources. They're going to figure it out. And then they'll come to me if they want to make sure that what they're doing is, is okay. Right. Or if they can't find the answer. Um, and, and they are very intentional about the way they work. And they're just fantastic. And so they're, you know, there's both sides, but, um, but those are the people that I remember. And even if they decided not to stay with my agency, I'll give them any referral. They want to anyone, because
Speaker 1 (35:54):
Totally that's exactly right. Just keep that in mind, you have a reputation it's so easy to do something and, and damage it. Um, it's just as easy to do great work and have that follow you around. And honestly, we've had stuff come up that could have been reputation damaging, and we own it. And we just say, you know what, here's what happened. It's not an excuse. I take full responsibility as the owner of your business too. You're responsible for your team. If something happens with a team member, you know, we never throw anyone under the bus, we stand by them and we take full responsibility for whatever may have happened. I have one instance in particular, I'm thinking of, uh, of an incredible member of my team who accidentally sent out a pitch that had track changes on it from the client. Yeah. And it was kind of the client's fault.
Speaker 1 (36:44):
They've sent it not fault, but like they sent back the document and they said it's approved and it's final. Um, and for some reason she couldn't see the track changes. I don't know why, but it went out, it was a very targeted business pitch. The editor reached out to the client directly and said, look, what your PR firm sent me. It was mortifying. And I stood up for the team member and I just said, it's our, it's our fault. You know, it happened. And I take full responsibility and I would rather, um, judge somebody on their character about how they, you know, during a time when they were facing conflict or adversity and how they handled it versus like the one moment they made a mistake and judge them on that, you know, to me, it's about the character of the person and what they did to remedy or how they took responsibility for it.
Speaker 1 (37:32):
So, oh my God. I'm glad to hear you have some young there's talent out there. There's hardworking. Yeah. That's good. The future is bright. I love it. Absolutely. Um, well, I'm so grateful for your time here and also to have you as a member of our community, you just embody what our community is all about, just open and helpful and giving and driven and willing to learn and grow. And I think we all make each other better and I've learned so much from you, um, and coming in and sharing with our community. And I just am so grateful. And thank you again for coming on our show and sharing your journey with us.
Speaker 2 (38:14):
I appreciate being invited. It's, you know, if this is a big deal to be on Jen's past. So, um, you built an amazing, you know, you've built an amazing platform to share your knowledge with people so freely and Phil you've really set the tone for the community being so welcoming and engaging. Oh,
Speaker 1 (38:35):
Appreciate that. It's everything I dreamed in so much more. I mean, I feel so lucky that we've attracted such a high caliber of member and tar into our community and it's just awesome. It's like, it just gets better all the time. And now that I have this podcast, I get to bring on people like you and share your story. Is there anything else today that you would want to share that I didn't touch on? Um, I want to like give you your spotlight and be able to amplify great win and a huge kind of win that you've had that you're super proud of or anything else you want to share with our community. Got it.
Speaker 2 (39:10):
Um, no, I have a lot of, I have a lot of really cool wins that are coming up. Um, I have a lot of clients who are in heavy launch mode and finishing their next fundraise right now. So there'll be a lot of announcements coming up. Um, I I'll save those. Um, but I'll definitely send in the, um, information in the groups once I can officially talk about them in a bigger platform, but yeah, I'm really excited. I'm really all. Well, thanks. Yeah. I'm really excited about, um, the kind of work because I'm being intentional. Um, even though it's still been word of mouth, I am getting those clients, right. The right clients that really inspire me to want to do this job and work with them. And so I only see that continuing to progress. And so it's still early days in the journey in some ways like a long road and history, but this particular iteration is, is, you know, only a little bit over a year old, and I'm just excited to continue the journey and, um, continue seeing what you are providing to our community and being part of that.
Speaker 1 (40:20):
I love it. Thank you so much. And where can everybody find you? What's the best way if they want to connect and tell you what they learned with your interview or stay connected with your wins and your business?
Speaker 2 (40:30):
Absolutely. So on social media, it's Annika PR agency and that's a N I K a P R agency. Um, and then the website is Annika pr.com. Super simple.
Speaker 1 (40:44):
Yeah. Thank you so much for being here. I really appreciate it. And I just feel like you're going to inspire so many people to see what's possible with their businesses too. So thank you. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (40:58):
Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the pitching powerhouse podcast. If you're ready to start, grow and scale a profitable agency, all on your own terms, you should consider joining the agency accelerator, check out the link in the episode description to learn more, to achieve your big, scary goals and truly live the type of lifestyle you've always wanted. It's time to join the agency accelerator inside this incredible program. You'll learn exactly how to structure your PR agency to fill your pipeline with high paying clients and establish a consistent revenue stream. So you can run a business that lights you up and that doesn't run you. This program is built around the exact steps that I took to grow a seven figure PR agency, generation PR, and now hundreds of other PR professionals around the world have implemented these techniques and strategies to scale their own agencies too. So this stuff works. You guys check out the link in this episodes description to learn more and as always be sure to tune in next week for another incredible episode, packed with the insights you need to become a pitching powerhouse.