Episode 211: Media Buzz Without the BS | Sydney Schiff | Founder of Sydney on the Scene
What does it really take to get featured in Vogue or Forbes? Publicist Sydney Schiff is the founder of Sydney on the Scene, a boutique PR agency that supports small brands doing big things. From fashion to food to wellness, her agency works with female founders and LGBTQIA+ entrepreneurs to tell their stories through earned media, events, and creative strategy. In this episode, Sydney shares how she built her PR business from scratch after getting laid off, what it means to actually be ready for press, and how to find clients (and collaborators) you truly believe in. If you’ve been burned by PR before, this conversation might change your mind.
We talk about brand storytelling, realistic goal setting, influencer trends, creative entrepreneurship, and what it means to build your own version of success-without burning out.
“I only represent people I believe in and want to brag about and want to make magic happen for. I also only represent people I can tell the truth to. It’s how we’re able to produce the results we do.”
-
-
Follow along using the Transcript
Chapters:
00:00 Saying yes to the Verizon commercial
01:30 Why she always wanted to be a stunt driver
03:30 Leaving tech and starting over
06:00 The power of imagination and writing it down
09:30 Manifesting both a commercial and a music video
11:00 Building confidence through discomfort
15:00 Reconnecting with your eight-year-old self
18:30 From practice car to Hot Shift series
22:00 Teaching queer and non-male drivers how to drive stick
28:00 Being on set with a Russian Arm camera car
34:00 Finding belonging in male-dominated spaces
39:30 Building community through saying your dream out loud
I think a lot of my way I approach business comes from like summer camp, being a camp counselor and being like a tutor and explaining why we're, why do we have to go to this place? Why are we doing this? And the why is so important because that's how humans think. And if you approach everything with explaining the why, you take so much of that questioning out of it.
That's Sydney. I'm the scene CEO and founder Sydney Schiff. I'm Kara Duffy and this. Is the Powerful Ladies podcast.
I'm here. Hello.
Hi. So excited. How are you? I'm really good. How are you? Good. My hair's gotten crazy. I dunno what's going on. I. I in between podcast recordings, I had to jam in a product review call and I was like, guys, this is so unreasonable. No. Oh my God. It's so funny thinking about how when I first started recording the podcast that like podcast recording day was like sacred.
I would show up an hour early, I would prep, I'd have all this stuff, and now I'm like. 15 minutes before. I'm like, hair, makeup, Mike said, okay, ready? Good, good. I saw you on my calendar today and I was so excited that we got to have a conversation because until a month ago, like I knew you through email and like this amazing person who's making magic happen for my clients, and I'm like, I want to be friends with this person.
How can we make this happen? And so we got to hang out in New York. You were part of. The panel I hosted at soho works in Brooklyn, and you were just so amazing and everything I hoped you would be as a human and with Sage advice that I was like, we need you on the podcast, ASAP because not only do my clients need to know that you exist and what PR can do for people, but a whole lot of other people do too.
I am so grateful for you. I am so happy to finally be in your circle, even more so than I was before, because it's such a special place to be. And thank you for such kind words. I'm so excited to chat with you today.
Let's tell everybody before I get carried away, your name, where you are in the world, and what you're up to.
My name is Sydney Schiff. I am
currently in New York City. But I travel quite often for my job. And I'm the CEO and founder of Sydney. On the scene, which is my boutique PR firm, we represent small brands who have perfected their craft. Define craft, you really can't. Really working with female founders, L-G-B-T-Q and Bipoc, folks who are doing something special and unique that we can work with them to take their story and bring it into the world.
Whether that's through events, through experiences, through media, through social media. All of the different kind of ways that people consume things
and I'm so glad that you said telling the stories. I was talking to, I have a client who runs a PR agency and we were talking about how much PR has changed and how.
Marketing has gotten very gray in the sense of we need to be storytellers and content creators to this point. It's not oh, I only do media. I only do Instagram. I only, help you with events. It's such a waste of not telling the story out of 360 level. So I'm so glad you said that and I'm glad you listed a variety of the things that you do, because.
Often people think of pr. They think oh, you're gonna get me in Forbes. Oh, you're gonna get me in Vogue. And you're like, that is like level one stuff. That is by no means the cool shit that we can make happen under the PR umbrella.
That's right. And how many people do you see in Forbes and in Vogue and you say, okay, moving on, but when are you interacting?
And what's special is what I love to bring out and work with my clients on. It's so true. Everything has become such a saturated space. And when you're consuming things as a, everyone's a consumer, right? So you can put your head in that mindset and understand. What are my patterns? How do I function?
How do I make choices? And whatever leads to those choices is how I run my company. All my clients are things that I personally consume, and I find that to be of the utmost importance when running a PR firm as well. I represent people who I believe in and who I like chatting with, and talking to, and sharing.
That's how I run my business as well. And I forget. People haven't made that choice yet for their own businesses.
It's part of the reason why I chose to start a business to begin with. I worked in big agency for years. I worked in-house and fashion houses for years. And it's like at some point you wanna be able to make that decision and understand that's, your life.
You spend how many hours a week working? Technically 40. That's all a joke if you own your own business. If I'm spending so much time doing it, I want to believe in it wholeheartedly. You don't always love it. I love what I do. I love what I do, but sometimes it's a pain in the ass and that's fine, but I still believe in it and that's what matters.
Yeah, we can love our businesses but hate some of the tasks that show up. Like I don't know any business owner that's yay, taxes. Like no one. No one. Unless you own an accounting firm. No one is excited about that. I don't even think then they're probably like, Jesus Christ, taxis it again.
Oh yeah. Like most accountants I know, like from November 1st until May 1st, they don't exist. They're doing a hundred hour weeks and hoping that they remember to pee and eat breakfast. Drink water. It's always important. You know when you made the radical decision to go out on your own and then the even more radical decision.
Probably not for you or I, but for the rest of the world to only work with people you believe in and to say yes or to say no based on do I believe this person has a story worth telling? Was that just an automatic boundary for you, or did you have to really sit there and be like, okay, how am I gonna launch this business?
I at first
was horrified, so I lost my job. I'm not embarrassed to say so. Everyone loses a job in their times and I lost my job amicably, I found out that I was no longer employed. And it's okay. Am I going back to LinkedIn and am I applying to jobs or I have this one freelance client that I really love and was secretly doing, and how can I capitalize on that and grow that?
And I was already com overcommitting my time because I was working a full-time agency job and freelancing. And so you know what, I'm already doing crazy hours, so why don't I do it? But when it comes to who I work with it was a learning curve. At first I was really scared. It's scary starting your own business.
And I was like, okay, what if I don't get my retainers and I need to pay my rent? Which obviously I'm like, I'm gonna be fine, but I. Took on business that I didn't necessarily believe in at first because I needed money. And when I felt secure, then I started to say no to people and to exclusively go after people that I really believed in.
And I was cold pitching to begin with. Now there's a lot more word of mouth that comes my way, but when you're cold pitching someone and you don't believe in them. That's so visible through the email. It's so visible through the dm and I think finding people and saying, wow, I'm obsessed with this product, or
I interacted with your social media and I love what you're doing here.
Here's how I can amplify that. It takes the bullshit out of all of it, and you can really understand. Your ideas kind of shine through in those moments and that's I think when my clients and when founders I meet with who maybe don't necessarily have the budget for PR at the time, but still wanna chat when they say, this is what really stood out to me on what you're saying and.
What would stand out to me? I really try to be empathetic in a way and put myself in someone else's shoes and say okay, what is this gonna stand out? How am I going to separate myself from every other person that's trying to get this business? And that's how I roll.
And you brought up a great point on the panel about how everybody wants to be in Forbes.
Everybody wants to be in vogue, and you have to tell people sometimes this might not be your time yet, but here's 80 other cool things you can do. How are you brave enough to tell clients the truth? Because so many people are not.
I spent so many years not being allowed to tell clients the truth. I know that's a horrible thing to say, but that's what happens when you work at an agency and you have a team of 10 people doing a job for you, right?
The idea is to like the idea of a publicist. If you. Ask a person on the street is this fluffy person who's going to Yes man you and is always on their phone, which I am always on my phone, but like always on their phone in a way that like, even if they're at a dinner, they can't have an intimate moment with someone.
And they are this person who just like. Doesn't take no for an answer.
But to an unrealistic point, I believe, and I'm a publicist, but I don't believe to myself to be a traditional publicist in that way because I'm someone who's so opinionated and my friends know, if you come to me, like you're going to be told whether or not the outfit works, but that's why you come to me and that's why we're friends because I'm best.
And that's how you make people successful. And that's how you Exactly. I would never wanna be told, yes, you're gonna get that. And then the letdown of feeling it, rather than saying, here's the foundation we're going to build. Because this is your goal. That's a great goal to have. But that's a goal a lot of people have, right?
So how do we get there? Let's look at the people who are in vogue and featured in the New York Times and featured in the Wall Street Journal and say. What story is there? Does our story sit to par with that? And then how did they get there? Because they didn't just jump in head first and say, I'm gonna get in the New York Times, yeah. And in these larger publications where there's a lot more editorial discretion than a fluffy piece in a fashion
Story like there has to be a news tie in, there has to be a hook of something. There has to be some sort of weight behind what you're doing.
And so I take it and I flip it on its head and I say, okay, that's the goal. Let's start with the foundation. You're not building a roof first. It makes a lot of sense in that way the logic.
I think that's what I like. I see a lot of my own approach to business and how you approach the clients where, I'll have someone come to me and be like, I need a Twitter strategy.
I'm like, you don't have a product yet. Like, why? It's amazing to me how, because of all the things we see in the world. We think we need all this stuff to start, and I'm like, you haven't sold anything yet. Like why would you ever invest 2050, whatever, thousands of dollars of stuff you're asking for right now when you don't, you haven't even tested this.
Do people want it? Yeah. Can you sell this to one person? How about 10? Can you, if you've made, have you made a thousand dollars, $5,000? And I have people come to me all the time who have not made $5,000 a month yet. But we're like, okay, like my goal is like, we gotta get to 10, then we gotta get to 20, then we gotta get to 40.
Because these numbers sound insane to people when they start, but they're totally achievable, normal monthly revenues. But there's a reason why we have to get there. There's a reason why those become median markers, because if we can't generate $5,000 a month with your business, one, you can't eat.
And then you can't afford anything else. And $5,000, I don't know what your price point is, divide it by that. How many things are you actually selling, right? If you're a PR firm, it could be one client, two clients, half a client, depending on what you charge and if it's a product, okay, maybe it's 50 pieces that went out the door.
That's it, right? Like I can fit 50 pieces of most things in my trunk. We gotta at least be able to sell a trunk's worth for us to get things moving. Yeah. So I like that you're so realistic and you have that kind of break it down approach. And I think it's just so practical. Like I tell people all the time, it's not magic, it's math.
And I think that you think about things in that logical step by step way. And when you do that, you get to create magic. Like Exactly.
It's like I think a lot of my. My way I approach business comes from this is so funny about summer camp and being a camp counselor and being like a tutor and explaining why we're, why do we have to go to this place?
Why are we doing this? And the why is so important because yes. How humans think. And if you approach everything with explaining the why, then like you take so much of that questioning out of it and I implement understanding and it really just makes things simple for human beings. Like
to me it's straightforward.
And I wanna pause on that 'cause that is a huge mic drop for people who just didn't listen just now. And I want them to come back to this because what you said was you tell your clients the why.
Yeah.
So many people are not taking the step to coach or educate their clients on, I want you to know why I'm making these choices.
And then they come to me and they're like, why does my client bother me all the time? Why do they keep sending edits and things back? Why do they call every five minutes? I'm like 'cause they don't trust you 'cause they don't know what the hell you're doing. You're not including them like it's normal for them to run a business and be like, I dunno what the hell's going on.
Exactly. It's like you are spending money, your clients are spending money on you and on your services, so they need to understand what your thought process is behind it. Ultimately, they trusted you because they hired you to begin with. So make sure that trust continues and we kind of function. It's me and then a very small team with me, alongside me.
And they, we all function as an extension, I think that's the most important thing about being a small business owner is understanding that everyone around you is also a small business owner. So they just wanna understand and that's it. It's really simple.
And I think the other part of yes, we wanna be able to telling our clients why we're doing something gives us space to, to just do it and not have to like.
Talk about every individual step thereafter. Sometimes, right? But telling a client the big picture also allows them to start thinking at the speed We're thinking sometimes, and if you don't educate the client, they're stuck at this level, and then you're trying to sell them on then next big thing. And they're like, but I don't even understand step one yet.
And so there's this power of let me bring you along because the more I bring you along, the more fun we actually get to have together. Because now both of us are thinking like, Ooh ooh. And then it takes, it just takes, we're not optimizing each other's brain power when I think we don't do that.
It's so
true. And part of my process is I have a lot of people that come to me and say, okay, I want pr. It's if you're, if you understand PR in the slightest, that's like not a sentence. You don't, everyone wants pr, but it, that doesn't exist. So oftentimes people are like what are your rates?
I want pr. And it's okay, what are your goals? What are you looking to achieve? Are you looking for that Vogue article? Are you looking for influencer viral moments? What are your goals? And I always start with that before I go into anything. And then I build out a scope and then I figure out what happens because.
Then I say, okay, this was your goal. This is how, and it's, and we're doing this. Why? Because you set this goal and this is how we're doing it. So it links back to all of that together and really makes people understand that we're on a path working to what they believe in. And those goals go in our strategies at the very top of them.
It's here's what you wanna achieve and here's the plan to get there. Yeah. And that's why we're doing what we're doing.
It makes sense to you and me and I'm glad that it makes sense to you and I and when everyone makes me feel like I'm crazy, I'll just call you all me. I'll call you too. If we go back to 8-year-old, you would she have been like, this is exactly what my life was supposed to be?
Yeah, I think so. It's funny because. When I started my own company, I posted about it on my Instagram and I had friends from like kindergarten commenting. They're like, yeah, I could have put money on this. Oh, we talked about this and it's so funny 'cause I don't remember those things. Like I know I've always been who I am, but I don't remember those specific conversations and it's so special to have those people that like aren't necessarily in your life anymore.
That see you realizing your potential and achieving it, and it's really cool. Absolutely. She definitely wanted to be in New York. Little girl from Tampa, Florida was ready to run away very quickly from there. And maybe she had a house in Paris too by now, we'll get there eventually.
Isn't that so funny how you're like, oh, like whatever. Fill in the age 20, 25, 30, 35. You're like, that's so old. So by then I'm gonna have all these things checked off and you're like. What planet was the 8-year-old on? I like the big thinking and we gotta eat along the way. Dream big girlfriend.
Keep dreaming, but we'll get there. When you were growing up in Tampa, what were your influences like? Who were you? Holy shit, they have an amazing life. I want some of that.
My number one was Grace Coddington. I wanted to be a fashion editor, so I moved to New York. I loved her. I read Vogue and ripped out the pages and pasted them on my wall, like many other girls.
It's funny, I go home now and my parents have since moved, but the bedroom that is, my bedroom has framed Vogues from probably 2004, 2005. So cute. My mom got rid of my magazine collection just a few years ago. I had to go through and pull out special ones that I loved. But I have a stack sitting in here in my apartment as well.
So that one's gone, but this one still exists. I loved Grace Coddington. I loved, had a nanny growing up. She just was, my mom's like right hand and what a lucky person I am to have had that in my family. To have had that. She was a nine. She was like a 98-year-old woman from the Bronx. Amazing and always talked about her life and lived her life like a 17-year-old the whole time, and always experienced joy and brought joy into our lives and like in the way of dancing on tables and always finding laughter and enjoying really delicious foods and that.
Ava was her name, and Ava's like my biggest inspiration still to this day. I think it's not all necessarily about work, right? Like my mother's incredible entrepreneur. My grandfather was an entrepreneur. I looked up to them immensely, but to me it's about work and joy and balancing the two and finding joy in little moments and, dancing on the table when you can. And for me it's dancing in my studio apartment a little, but. Just, finding happiness in light is so important. And so definitely her Grace Coddington, of course, my grandfather, like I mentioned my grandmother as well.
She is incredible and a wonderful woman that's gonna listen to this and be so mad that I'm talking about her. But she, or maybe happy, but she's an inspiration to this day. We talk quite often and we're very close. And she, family's the most important thing to me in my life. I love my work, but like my number one thing is my family.
I have 10 cousins who I'm extremely close with, and we all are close friends, and that's because of my grandma and my grandfather. So those people, I'd say in fashion, the Olson twins, all la the Row, but even before that, were always my fashion people. I'm a fashion girl at heart, even though I don't explicitly work in the fashion industry.
I've always loved sex in the city, so Sarah Jessica Parker was big to me. I'm Jewish, so seeing someone with big curly hair, which isn't me, but seeing that in, in the big world is really special. Those are definitely, and Andre Leon Talley was great and always fabulous, and I saw him speak once or twice in New York since living here before he passed away.
And. He was a really special person,
and I was thinking about a post you did recently wearing this amazing, like sparkly top. You're like, the top made me do it. I was like, yes. That's such a great caption.
It did, it brought out a lot of energy in me and was one of my, actually my very good friends' little sister starting this brand, and so I'm helping her out with it and she's you have to wear this and put it on me.
And oh, it made me feel like Jonah Park or something. I don't know. I loved it.
It is. I have, I've done a post before where I asked everyone, I'm like, is it just me or do you guys also. Have to get dressed for something and you're like I can't work out today. I have to take this outfit out.
Yeah. I'm wearing makeup, I have to go outside. This never happens.
Scheduling your schedule around your hair, your workouts, what drinks you have to have. If I have a blowout right now, I'm probably not gonna go. I did wash my hair yesterday, so I have to wait at least two days before I go to my Rumble class.
It's oh my god, my, my calendar's insane. But that's what it looks like.
I'd love to get into that a little bit more too. Like you, you mentioned how entrepreneurs were always working and I, I am big on finding what that balance looks like for everyone. But I also know if somebody asks me if I'm working all the time, I would probably say yes, but that doesn't mean I'm in front of my computer.
It's I'm going to a museum. I'm thinking about a client while I'm working out. I'm doing this like the brain's never stopping to like percolate and process and be inspired by what options are. But how are you balancing the fact that like PR is intense? Every time I tell people like, you don't need to be available 24 7.
Every PR person in the group is that's not true for me. And I'm like, you're not a brain surgeon, so how are you putting boundaries up and how are you balancing everything versus the job in the company?
I. It's so funny because I will say I started my own business to do less working 24 7. But I think when I say that, I mean I'm able to set my own boundaries.
And I, my number one thing is I have to get some sort of workout in once a week. Ideally I'm doing it four times a week. It's not happening. I do rumble, which is really cathartic for me because it gets out a lot of energy. I'm boxing. And I became a morning workout person as my number one thing.
So I'm not athletic at all, but with the amount of entertaining I do, which ends up being drinks, I need my evenings free.
I have one night off a week where I'm not doing anything and I'm sitting in my apartment, I'm cooking, I. I'm eating, I'm watching Real Housewives like it's my me time and I need that.
But other than that, I'm mostly working and I think the most important thing is understanding when to say no. If my, like for example, this week is insane. I had a fashion show last night. It's New York Fashion Week. We had the Grammys on Sunday, and I'm flying to Scottsdale tomorrow to be there for the Super Bowl this weekend before I come back to New York next week.
So I'm so impressed you fit us in. Thank you. Oh, this was my good. Of course. I'm excited. But with that being said, it's okay, when is my time off? And this week I didn't work out let's be real. I had a martini and a chicken sandwich yesterday because I needed that in that moment. And I think understanding in those moments okay, I'm too busy.
What is, what do I need? Versus. What is expected of me is really important because you'll get sick, like physically you will get sick. You need to fuel yourself. But that also means that I'm not always able to squeeze in clients and being kind to myself and honest with them, and they're understanding.
It's if you need me for 15 minutes, I'll find 15 minutes for you anywhere, anytime you have my cell phone number. But like that also means that. If you need me for an hour, we may not be able to do that. So we're texting, we're finding other ways to communicate. We're making sure that we're giving people email updates because sometimes I might not be reachable on my phone.
But again, I'm really good at saying no, but not saying no. I've worked really hard to be able to set those boundaries. I was someone who. Again, I was raised to work in big agency in New York like this life doesn't exist. You are on your phone twenty four seven and even when you have an out of office on you're expecting not to miss an email. And I find that to be really toxic. Yeah. And something that I don't agree with, and I'm really big on finding more people like delegate. If you need another intern, hire another intern. Yeah, you. Need help on something, flag it. My team is incredible, but that doesn't mean I want them working until 9:00 PM every night.
That's unrealistic. Yeah. And again, it will make you sick. I love my work, but. Sometimes it's saying, okay, what's the max capacity of clients we can take on? Does this event really seem fruitful enough for us? Is it gonna make us so much money or be such a good opportunity? It's not always money.
Sometimes it's networking, right? What's the benefit? It does it outweigh what we're doing? And then take it on And, I have a really good network of friends who have supported me, and when I vent to them, they're like, don't girl boss too close to the sun this week. Syd I love you.
We'll check in. And everyone's in fashion, so it's are we drinking water this week? It's fashion week. Is everyone eating? Whatever. It's taking care of people like that. It's really a collaborative community and I think the, class of PR people that I have come up with. We were an agency together, we all work together still.
We're really supportive of one another and it's something that we all wanted to change, I think from growing up in Yeah, toxic environments. We, it's like we all say it's pr, not er. Exactly. It's not, you're not a surgeon, so like it can wait if something's not gonna change from tonight until tomorrow morning.
And this is what I've always told my assistants, if you are gonna wait and spend an hour sending that email tonight, and nothing's gonna change if you hit send tonight versus 10:00 AM tomorrow. Give yourself the hour tonight. It'll be okay in the morning if it affects a post-event release, if it affects your client getting something done.
If it affects a client's relationship with the agency, that's different. But weighing out those things and setting those boundaries, I've found to be so important.
I think this also goes back to what you've already established with like really being selective about who you work with. Because if you love your clients, chances are they're gonna love you back.
Suddenly it's a partnership, not a slave indentured servant relationship. Which I think so happens in that agency side where there isn't that personal level because you're just spending gobs of money and you never know what's happening or who's gonna show up. And instead you're like, no like people know you, they know your team.
And being able to have that relationship where they would never expect you. To be available on a Saturday night and handle something unless it was pre-scheduled like that. That makes a difference too.
Exactly. And look, I'll do anything for my clients. Like I can become a calligrapher. I make floral arrangements, like I will jump through any hoop I can to make them happy.
But I will never compromise my health and I would hope that they would do the same. And. Your weekends are really important. I don't ask my team to work on weekends. If I do, then, it's a very specific conversation and making sure that people know they're supported is, I think, the most important thing, clients.
Just because I'm not available doesn't mean I'm not supporting you. I say, yeah, I'm not available to speak for this, but if you need me for 15, hit me on my cell. I'll find it for you. Yeah. It's people are understanding, and again, it does go back to that personal thing. It's working with me, is not working with a 15 person team.
It's myself and my two team members and perhaps a fourth, a third. If that's what your scope entails. And that's it. You're getting what you're getting and you know everyone and you know where to find us. And that's how we've built this business.
It's, it really comes back to knowing like exactly what you want.
And I'm so glad that you've been selfish about, I know I can do this. I know I make a good impact and I know I can do it my way. And if more people were asking themselves or those things, I think it would change how they create their entire business. It. We often build businesses because that's what everyone else is doing or that's how they're doing that thing and it never, it's not sustainable short term or long term that way.
We talked a little bit earlier about how PR and marketing is like expanding and shifting all the time. What are some things that you see are changing that people who are doing maybe PR on their own right now or doing their own events or doing their own. Press level things like what are some tips you would give them to either look for or stop doing, or what should they know about how it's changing even so if they talk and talk to whoever their team is in that space.
It's ever evolving. It's funny, I started PR and we worked with two influencers and that was it. There wasn't a social media team on our agency team. Like we absolutely over our dead bodies would not pay a fucking influencer to attend anything. Please. I think one thing to remember is if you are a client or you're a brand and you're handling these things on your own, be humble.
There are six brands to every Publicis or to every editor. So editors are overwhelmed and it shows. And if you are not humble and gracious, I think, and this is something in everything anyone does, I think be humble and be gracious and be kind like that's all you can do. Talk to people like they're humans and it's.
It will get you further than anyone else. If you expect people to know you or expect people to remember you it's not going to benefit you. So always explaining who you are, how you know someone and what you admire about what they're doing. And again, a why I think a y is really powerful here.
I saw you wrote X, Y, Z, or I saw you posted X, Y, Z, or you need X, Y, Z, and I can provide that for you. Let me, here's a solution. Here's a product. Here is an interview. Here is, you know what I'm doing differently. And again, it's that storytelling for everyone. Influencers are also overwhelmed. And I don't, I also don't think it moves the needle like you used to do. Unboxing was the big thing. So it was like you would send something to someone, they would unbox everything, and that's really lovely. And it moved the needle on a consumer basis and it moved the needle for the influencer. And that impact is not there anymore.
You need someone to see something three times on social media before they decide to make a purchase. And that's just like a number that we've used for the past five years. So I'm sure that has changed and evolved. Yeah. So I think understanding that and understanding that I used to say to my clients like, these jeans don't pay the rent.
An influencer is their job and they have to receive money for what they do. Giving them jeans and expecting so much back from it is not how the world works anymore. You need to pay people. Micro or macro, it doesn't matter. And the micros move the needle more. I think believing in small people and investing in small people as they grow is the most important thing you can do.
If you're a small brand, you want people to invest back in you. Find those influencers that are trying to grow their audience. How can you cross promote each other? How can it be mutually beneficial? Those are the ways to tackle that and make a fake insta. Make a fake email.
Make it press at whatever. If you're a founder, you should not be emailing on your own behalf and. You can it, it depends, right? If you're saying, I am the founder of this, I want this to come from you, whatever. That's one thing, and that might do better for influencers than press. But if it were, I'd say put a press email on your Instagram.
Make sure that you can get inbound that way. Respond to your dms, interact with people on social media. Be authentic.
Yeah, I just rambled a ton. But
no, that was very valuable. So anyone who's listening, go back a few a minute and listen to it again. 'cause there were 10 things and I'm like, do that.
Check my team with that. Yeah, it's a lot. I think it's really hard. People have all heard the idea if you build it, they will come and it is a complete lie. That's perfect. And having an Instagram does not mean you'll sell anything. There's people avoid direct selling like the plague, and I don't want people to have to go door to door, but we have to do everything else in our power to avoid selling door to door.
I also think, again, the mutually beneficial thing, I wanna harp on this for a minute because people expect that if I reach out to you and I give you something that like, I'm gonna get something back in return, and I approach PR like I approached life. You don't give someone a gift because you want a gift back.
That's a, that's rude. That is fucked up. So it's like. Send the flowers on the birthday when you don't want anything back. If friends with people, my editor friends are my friends. I saw this thing the other day on Instagram. I don't remember what meme it was, but I was cracking up 'cause it was like, oh, it was Samantha Jones talking about sex with her friends.
And I was like, me at dinner with my editor friends because they don't wanna talk about work just as much as you don't wanna talk about work. Let's talk about who we're dating. Let's talk about what we're drinking, let's talk about who we don't like. Maybe not so much that, it's okay, I am a human and you're a human.
If everything's transactional, then you're an asshole. Like I think that's it. Build your community and it will come. Yeah. And maybe that's what it should be, because my friends are we all, like I was an assistant emailing the fashion closet, people who are now the fashion editors and again, be kind to be humble, but mutually beneficial. Everyone understands a networking relationship, but at the end of the day, like transactional things are such bullshit and no one wants to deal with someone who's exclusively transactional ever
knowing why and why. It's out of integrity and you're missing all the good stuff that comes out of having to do that task in the first place.
Exactly. I'll often correlate selling to dating. And I'm like, you have to build the relationship. If you walk up to somebody at a bar and say, let's get married, you're a psychopath. So when you send an email that says, hi, buy from me, you're also a psychopath.
Ugh, it's actually dating. It all is.
I have, everything I put on my calendar, I'm like, date dates. My friend's who are you
dating? I'm like, I'm my friends like myself. My client, my friend, myself, the dog. Yeah. Yep. We ask everyone on the podcast where they put themselves in the Powerful Lady scale. If zero is average everyday human, and 10 is the most powerful lady you can imagine, where would you put yourself on that scale today and on an average day?
Okay.
Today, I feel very powerful today, so I'm probably like a six or a seven on an average day. Five, four. Maybe this week again, I said my travel schedule feels crazy. I'm like, CEO and girl bossing to the, too close to the sun, whatever you wanna say. So yeah, I
think
that.
We've also been asking everyone, what do you need?
How can we help? What are you looking for? What do you want? It can be business, it can be fun, but like powerful ladies, community, like we've got a lot of connects, we've got an amazing network. Who knows how to make shit happen. Has connections, might have the solution for you. So what's on that wishlist Manifest list.
Ooh, I want some fashion clients more. I have one. And I love them, but I love fashion and I want clothing. I also like, oh my God, there's so many things on my manifestation list. Go for it. Smart interns. I'm always looking for smart interns. I always need freelancers. So it's if we take on an event, I need extra people at the door.
I need people that are smart and capable of stalking social media to see our event coverage, things like that. And I'm, I am happy to have people in la I am happy to have people in New York. It's not, everything's digital these days. And I have clients in both places, so I'm in both places a lot.
What else do I need? I always need event things. So if anyone has brands that are related to events, liquor, candles. Hardwood, whatever. I'm throwing events all the time, especially in the summer or growing up for an incredible summer this year. So send them my way. People, you admire people that you'd feel like whatever would benefit from being a part of. Getting influencers to take a picture of their stuff.
My way. Yeah. Amazing. When you look at what you have coming up, you mentioned some fun parties in the summer plus this whole trip you're doing this week, like what are you proud of yourself for and what are you excited about that's coming up?
I'm proud of myself for. I actually did some retrospective journaling last week thinking about it because it's hard. You don't really take a moment as a founder to say, wait, am I accomplishing my goals? What even are my goals and my dreams? I'm just proud of myself for building this roster of clients and believing in them and just doing it, like I feel like I jumped off.
Cliff with a cannon ball and like I just combined three different, all allegories, but I'm really doing it and it's something I said I would do and I'm doing it mentally strong, which I'm really big on mental health. I've been in therapy for many years. You're a founder. You have anxieties all the time.
I'm not saying that doesn't exist. Feeling mentally strong and stable where I am is something I'm really proud of. And being able to set these boundaries that I've talked about, I've worked really hard on. What am I looking forward to? The Super Bowl's gonna be crazy. I'm like gonna be on the lookout for Rihanna the whole time.
I'll pass out. And I'm looking forward to, we have some new clients coming on that are gonna be really great and I have a lot of conversations happening and this year feels like a year of growth. I have so many friends starting so many incredible businesses, and I feel like a lot of them are on the precipice of greatness.
And being able to uplift each other and work with each other is something that's really incredible. So there's some projects on our table that I'm bringing in, my event production friends for, and collaborating with my other prs that I don't get to see that often because we're all as manic as I am yeah. It's really something special to be able to collaborate with people that you admire and enjoy.
When you hear the words powerful and ladies separately, what do they mean to you and then when they're combined, did, does that definition change for you at all?
Yeah, I think they are different separate than combined to begin with. Ladies, when I think, ladies, I think of I always say Hey ladies, me too. Yeah. That's like how I roll. I, and I'm trying not to use gendered language anymore. So it's difficult because I'll be like, Hey y'all. And then my friends are like.
Your Southern is coming out. Please stop. I'm from Florida. I'm not that southern, but like I am. But I'm always saying, Hey ladies, it's like your community. It's this empowering way to address your girls. And by the way, you're ladies, you're not girls. You are ladies. So it's also a little proper, but like a little sleigh, which I kind of love.
Powerful. When I think powerful, I think of my grandfather I don't know that word. It really, he comes to mind. He was a global CEO of a company. He was an incredibly powerful, like he worked until literally the day he died. And he's someone I admired and he was powerful in our family. He was a philanthropist.
He in fact, his community and there were so many things that he had the ability to do, but he stayed so humble. And I think that. That's power. Like having the ability to do things and staying humble is power to me.
And powerful ladies together, I guess combined, they do mean that, but I think, I just think of the badass women I'm surrounded with who are really working hard.
And it doesn't mean you're CEO. It means that you're a powerful lady, it means you're a mom. My mom friends are, oh my God, I like, could cry thinking about them. They work and they raise children or they don't work and they raise children. That's a powerful lady. But yeah, I think I'm surrounded by a lot of them, including you.
I'm so grateful to have this chat
with you. No, likewise. It's, I was talking to someone recently about how when you step into the brave space to, to carve your path and. To ignore all the outside people, inside voices that are telling you like, don't do it. It's scary. Watch out for this. There's so many reasons not to live the life that you're supposed to.
And so when you decide I'm doing it. You feel like you're out on the skinny branches. Yeah. And then the more that you get to meet other people who are like, wait, we're all in the skinny branches together. Wait, this isn't a skinny branch at all. We're actually on solid ground together who told us this lie.
So it's so empowering to just talk to people who are like your, who get it and who are your speed. I think it's really easy to be in groups of people that. You don't get to be fully self-expressed. Like they either understand the fashion side but don't understand the business side or they understand you having a business but they don't understand the fashion or having a team or they don't care about any of that stuff.
And so for me, it's so precious to have relationships with people who like get all of the 10 million things and I don't have to be catering towards are they gonna get this or do I care? So I relate to that
wholeheartedly.
It changes all the things. For people who want to work with you, hire you, collaborate, or just follow you and what you're up to, where can they find you and support you?
My Instagram's the best place to find me. My email is there, so it's Sydney, spelled like Australia on the scene, S-C-E-N-E. A little play on SOS because that's the PR lifestyle. And you can find me there. I'm in the dms, my team is as well, and it links to my personal too, so if you'd prefer that route, it's there as well.
Amazing. Thank you so much for taking the time today, especially in your busy week. And I cannot wait for what we're gonna get up to together as this year goes on as well. Thank you so much for having me. I can't
wait.
All the links to connect with Sydney and Sydney on the scene are in our show notes@thepowerfulladies.com. Please subscribe to this podcast wherever you're listening, and leave us a rating and review. Come join us on Instagram at Powerful Ladies, and if you're looking to connect directly with me, visit kara duffy.com or Kara Duffy on Instagram.
I'll be back next week with a brand new episode. Until then, I hope you're taking on being powerful in your life. Go be awesome and up to something you love.
Related Episodes
Episode 168: The Power & Perks of Telling the Stories of Your City with Lindsay DeLong
Episode 302: Building a PR Agency with Intuition and Integrity | Priscila Martinez | Founder and CEO of The Brand Agency
Episode 234: You’re Not Stuck, You’re Just Overwhelmed | Alexandra Generales | Founder, Little Social Co.
Instagram: @sydneyonthescene @sydneyschiff
LinkedIn: sydney-schiff
TikTok: @sydneyonthescene
Email: sydney@sydneyschiff.com
Created and hosted by Kara Duffy
Audio Engineering & Editing by Jordan Duffy
Production by Amanda Kass
Graphic design by Anna Olinova
Music by Joakim Karud
