Sakita Holley, Founder-House of Success PR

Twitter   @MissSuccess

Web   House of Success

Blog   SakitaHolley.Com 

LinkedIn  @SakitaHolley

Mopwater: Describe your path to PR: How did you wind up in this field? SH: In retrospect, I would describe my path to PR as a natural progression, because growing up I always participated in activities and displayed certain characteristics that are usually attributed to PR people. But, I didn’t know how to articulate PR as an actual career path until I started seeing the field depicted in movies and on TV shows. Once I knew what PR was, I made the library my second home. I read every book I could get my hands on about PR, media relations, PR writing, etc. I wanted to know what I was getting into.

When I got to Howard University in Washington, DC, I was originally a pre-med major and a PR minor (my goal was to be an ob-gyn that gets quoted in all of the major magazines). But that was a short-lived notion because by my second semester I completely gave in to PR, which I think is my true calling. By that time I had already secured a summer PR internship at Jade Dressler Communications in NYC and switched my major to PR with a minor in entrepreneurship because I knew I wanted to own my own firm.

From Jade Dressler Communications, I would go on to work various roles at celebrity PR firms, a global PR powerhouse, a national non-profit organization, eventually landing in the corporate communications world at Prudential Financial. From there I would leave to launch my lifestyle brand relations firm House of Success.

Mopwater: Describe a pivotal moment in your career. Did you have a mentor or internship that really solidified your interest or helped you hone in on a specific focus area? SH: The two most pivotal moments of my career so far was when I earned my first two media hits during my first PR internship in the NY Daily News and Black Enterprise magazine and the other pivotal moment was when I won my first client account after launching House of Success. That moment was confirmation that I’m on the right track.

I have several mentors, but they’ve only enhanced my love of the PR industry. I was lucky to know exactly what I wanted to do early. Read the full story

Sometimes when launching a consultancy you’re forced to adopt the strategy of “taking what you can get” in order to make ends meet. Whether you love the project or client, you learn to love it whether you’re passionate about the topic or not. But after a few years of consulting one must ask themselves a critical question:

Does the Work I’m Doing Reflect My  Brand?

I personally asked myself this question, and my own answers required some changes be made. So I recently made the decision to retire a longtime client because the bulk of the work I am paid to do for this client doesn’t match what I want to be known in the industry for. I’d been with this client for over two years and the scope of my services had evolved over that time but due to the nature of the organization, we weren’t able to always tweak the contract to reflect how my suite of services had changed.

As other clients came on board and I launched the Twitch! series, and began doing more speaking engagements, social media trainings, etc. through Mopwater, I began to realize how much of a time drain this client was becoming on my business and creative energy. What if I could focus those hours each month on developing my social media trainings, or planning for events in other cities, or finding other clients who need and want what I offer?

I bounced the idea around to a number of people. Some said don’t throw away a guaranteed retainer that doesn’t require a ton of mental energy or work for the unknown. Others said simply “go for it”.

Free from the obligation of this great relationship that was amazingly nurturing and wonderful, but ultimately inconsistent with my brand, I have been able to focus on what I want the rest of this year to look like for me in terms of my business and clients. I already knew that I would be focusing on expanding my event series, making more time for speaking and writing opportunities and doing social media trainings. However I discovered that I want to spend more time pubbing what I love, so I’ve decided  to focus more on the systematic pursuit of clients in the arts and cultural sectors as well as creative women business owners. This strategy has already yielded two new projects that are absolutely in line with my brand. I am more focused, and excited than ever before.

From What I Can Get to What I Want. Here are the steps:

DEFINE YOUR BRAND. Decide what you want to be known for. Fashion PR, Beauty PR, Small Education, Non-Profit, Business Marketing, etc.

Conduct a BRAND ALIGNMENT AUDIT. What services are you currently offering and to what organizations? Are you doing what you want to be known for or not? How can you get closer to doing more of what you love?

CREATE A TIMELINE to phase out the projects that aren’t in line with your brand and bring on projects that are. This may take one month, three months, six months or even a year.

IMPLEMENT. Just do it.

At the end of the day, in life and in business, there is a finite amount of time. Do you really want to spend your day working on projects that you don’t particularly love? If you are a public relations professional it may be time to make the transition from projects you can get, to projects you want. You totally deserve to love what you do.

For more public relations career advice, order your copy of the Mopwater Manual. And to figure out your PR specialty so you can get more clients, download the digital Discover and Win workbook-it’s packed with worksheets and exercises to help you get your ideal clients.

I am of the mindset that subcontracting is not just an economic means to an end, but more of an opportunity to learn on the job, and contribute to a worthwhile project that you wouldn’t have otherwise gotten the opportunity to work on. So my philosophy is not subcontracting=side hustle/extra money. To me, subcontracting is more akin to a paid apprenticeship that you should use to bolster your career profile. The experience you gain from subcontracting should be leveraged to get the next job or project.

But sadly, I know many wildly capable public relations professionals who ride the subcontracting train for far too long. As I mentioned in How to Subcontract Your Way to Success, subcontracting is a great way to get your feet wet and gain experience in a new industry. But there is a time to do it. And there is also a time to quit.

Just like those unfortunate “consultants” who go out on their own way too early, there are also those who linger on the train way past their stop. Instead of jumping off, they hide behind the larger, more confident personalities of those who aren’t afraid to be number one. And these talented but fearful professionals seldom if ever get paid what they are worth. Read the full story

Name: Lizzie Landon- Cole Sorensen
Age: 30
Current City: Saratoga Springs, NY
Job Title: CEO and Founder
Company Name: 32Flavors Public Relations
Length of Time in this Role: 6 years before that consulted for 2 under another company name
Blog
Twitter

Mopwater: Describe your path to PR. How did you wind up in this field?
LS:I grew up around a lot of creative people, between a mix of artists and innovators who made a good living, and then starving artists. I could always see both sides to the story but couldn’t deny my genetic ability to create, have ideas, and follow through with them. My grandfather replaced Kurt Vonnegut when he left GE, and he (R. Ned Landon) was the chief speech writer for the CEO of GE, as well as the PR liaison between GE and Disney. It always seemed like a shirt and tie job to all of us 10 grandchildren growing up, but little did we know that we would all inherit a bit of his creativity. On my father’s side, my grandmother is an incredible painter, sculptor and photographer, and that didn’t start to hit me in my own creativity until just recently.

I couldn’t wait to get out of high school where I was president of my business club (nerdy yes, but hey, those soccer jocks aren’t being interviewed right now are they?). I found a college that had a PR/Ad department and would take me as a senior in high school and let me do both senior and freshman year simultaneously. I loved to write, and was always coming up with ads and commercials in my head so I thought it would be interesting. My father, who has had his share of starving artist and layoff moments in the field of advertising, photography, and graphic design wrote me a 17 page letter about how I shouldn’t move from upstate NY to Providence, R.I., 1. Because I was 16, and 2. Because the marketing industry can be tough. Along side the artists in our family we have our share of lawyers, and professors, and as much as I tried for a more stable profession, it just wasn’t in me. Read the full story