Episode 302: Building a PR Agency with Intuition and Integrity | Priscila Martinez | Founder and CEO of The Brand Agency
Priscila Martinez is the award-winning CEO of The Brand Agency, a bicoastal PR and creative communications firm representing powerhouses like Hulu, Disney, and Gucci. In this episode, Kara and Priscila dig into the real story of building a values-driven agency from the ground up, navigating LA’s wildfire chaos while leading a team, and how resilience, hustle, and humor shape long-term success. They talk candidly about public relations, entrepreneurship, and why owning your story is a superpower. If you’re curious about career reinvention, leadership, or scaling a business with heart, this one’s for you.
“If you don’t know that a certain type of career is possible, or that a certain type of life is possible, you limit yourself to what you see.”
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Chapters:
00:00:01) - Adapting to Change in PR
(00:00:22) - Networking and Relationship Building
(00:03:01) - Crisis Management in PR
(00:06:06) - The Importance of Values in Business
(00:25:15) - The Evolving Landscape of PR
As a publicist, if you're not changing with the times, you won't have a business. You have to meet clients where they're at, and ultimately it's all about ROI, right? So if I would have stayed in, the olden days and been hesitant to change, I would still be focusing 100 percent of my time pitching my clients for print, providing ROI a long time ago.
That's Priscila Martinez on Kara Duffy. And this is the powerful ladies podcast. Thank you for being a yes to the powerful ladies podcast.
Absolutely. It's my pleasure.
I had the pleasure of meeting you at a really fun day retreat with Roanne Adams. Yes. How did you and Roanne meet?
You know what? Funny enough we are in a networking group together. It's called the WeSuite. I can't say enough. Good things about the women who are a part of it. And I feel at the beginning of my career, I always, you would look at networking groups and weren't so sure if that was your jam. But I have enjoyed it thoroughly and I have met some fantastic people that have now become friends. So that's how I met her, a good old networking group.
I brave so much to my clients about the power of networking, and there's so many opportunities to redefine what that looks like you were in the business of bragging about people and connecting them and creating new opportunities. How much of your time do you think you spend building and maintaining relationships?
Oh, my goodness. I want to say that it's more than 50 percent of my time. It is the craziest thing you have to think about. In our business, it's cyclical, right? So you'll find a client, maybe you do a project with them, or maybe you're on a monthly retainer for a year or two. Obviously you have your clients that you've been working with for eight or nine years in some cases, but a lot of it is cyclical.
And in order to continue fostering those relationships and to make sure that people know what you're up to. And so they know when to tap you truly, you have to be out there. You have to make sure that you're showing up wherever, a potential client might be making sure that you're keeping up with these relationships.
If I had to give it a number, I would say over 50 percent of my time is doing this. I'm always at a lunch at an event at a dinner. Think that's also what catches you in your twenties and it's very alluring to have a career like this because you like being out and it's fun.
You're meeting new friends every night and all of that good stuff. But I think as you get a little bit older, you're like, Oh, dinner, I just want to be a DJ. I always joke that Stockholm syndrome, I fell in love with my captor in my twenties and then.
For everyone who's listening, let's tell everyone your name, where you are in the world and this amazing company that you've built.
Absolutely. So my name is Priscila Martinez. I am CEO and founder of award winning public relations and creative communications firm. We're called the brand agency. We service clients out of our bi coastal offices in Los Angeles and in New York. People like Hulu, Disney, ESPN, Sephora is another client caring brands, which is Gucci, Balenciaga, Saint Laurent.
So we have a few lanes within the company, all very fun, keeping me on my toes and I am currently calling or, joining this video chat from Los Angeles precisely in Studio City, right off Laurel Canyon where these crazy wildfires are going on.
And before we hit, hit record on this episode, you and I were talking about how a lot of people have been going about business because this tragedy in L.
A. is, feels like COVID to those of us who are here, but it, of course, is not feeling that way in the rest of the world. So it's been this really interesting balancing act of being in the trauma of what's happening now, having so many people evacuated and under warnings and. Just stuck watching the news and doom scrolling, trying to figure out what's happened to your business, your home, your friends.
I've had multiple people at my house the past couple of days. How are you advising your clients to walk through this period where L. A. Is a completely different city than it was two days ago right now, but the rest of the world is full speed ahead on all things 2025?
It's the craziest, most eerie feeling. I have, and I've had this conversation with a few friends who are in Los Angeles, you have every single feeling that you had in COVID where you're worried for your health, worried for your loved ones, you're worried for safety. It's just, there's so many things going on, but In COVID, there was a certain level of comfort because the whole world paused.
And whoever it is that you were talking to on the other side of the phone or email or, Zoom, they understood what you were going through and we were all in it together. And here it's so localized. It's the impact is just as big, but it's just happening to this small pocket of people in the world.
The world goes on. I'm jumping on calls with clients in Italy, in the UK New York based clients. And of course, everyone has been incredibly polite and ask how we're doing. And you give them a little bit of an update, but it's not the same. You're still keeping your life at 100%.
You're running at that 100 miles per hour to get things done, to meet deadlines, to make sure that you're doing good work for clients yet. Yeah. You step away from your computer or from a call and you heard that a friend lost their house or you're seeing, news clips of people sobbing and you're solving with them and you're feeling so awful and it's just been the cognitive dissonance there I think is crazy and I have not experienced anything like that.
I wasn't here for the earthquakes, First big wildfire in Los Angeles. So it has been a bit of an adjustment just realizing, hey, you have to mourn and respect everything that's going on. And you also have to keep your head in the game at a certain level because there's people depending on you.
It's been very weird. And I can feel my mental health today getting into the final bits of strength that it has. Just by being overwhelmed. Like I, I woke up today and I felt so exhausted and I was like, why am I so tired? Like I actually slept well last night for the first time in a couple of days.
And it's just all the things that we haven't been able to fully process and deal with. And the fact that. People like you and I and many other people in the city haven't been able to pause all of these other things. It's Oh, hold on. I'm packing up my house in between taking calls. I'll call you when I get to my friend's house and I'm back on wifi.
You're like, what's like, why are we doing?
Literally. My husband and I were running around and you also go crazy. We were packing. We didn't even know what we were packing. Cases. And then a few hours later I was like, okay, where's my laptop? Cause I need to jump on a call. It's just, it's.
It's insanity. It's I don't know. I don't wish it upon anyone. We've gotten so, so lucky. And I remind myself of that every day. But also I feel when you're a high performer, when you're used to running, at that speed, all of your life, it gets very easy to ignore your emotions and you suppress.
Press and you are like, just let me get, it's that marathon marker and you're like, let me just get to that mile and then I can handle it. And then I can pay attention to it. And you were saying, I woke up and I wasn't feeling well, I had the same experience. I feel that we get very good at suppressing everything because, how to be performing at this level.
And then your body starts talking to you like the night that yeah. I had to leave my house and didn't sleep here for one night. We were in between two big fires and my sciatica like was, from the top of my leg to my toe, I could not even go to bed. It was just pulsing and moment that I realized that was when I was in bed, but it had been like in the back of my mind okay, this is going on.
This is going on. And I acknowledged it, when my body hit the bed. Yeah, we, I think, abuse our bodies sometimes for the sake of just continuing to perform, and it's very apparent in situations like this.
Absolutely. I started going to a therapist for the first time in since August. Yeah.
And when I had Roanne on the podcast and she was talking about our workshop, my therapist thinks it's crazy how much somatic work we've had to do. I'm like, I don't need talk therapy. That's fine. I have coaches. I have I have, the talking part's fine. My brain, the logical side is working.
Yeah. You have to release all of the stuff that I have put in different pockets in my body, because it's just there. And I know that as If I do have an overwhelming day and or I'll find myself just crying for no reason. I'm like, it might not even be about today. This is something that's been in my hip for who knows how long.
So much of the, I've just been committed since, September ish to who else do I need to come into my life? But it was the Kundalini, the breath work. Like we I have to do the body work because as that high performer, I have been trained and as an I was a college athlete. Like you start to separate your mind and your body what it's telling you because you're like, it's cool.
We can keep going. We can do another mile and you're like, Now we have to put that back together because that's not healthy.
Have you read The Body Keeps the Score? Yeah. That's such a fantastic book. But yeah, it explores that whole topic about we might try to, as humans, put it aside, lock it up in a closet, and our body is.
Oh no, ma'am. It's right here. Let me show you. Yeah. Oh, you're having your most important week ever? Let's talk about it now.
How did it come out?
Were you always a high performer, even as a child?
You know what? It's so funny. I wouldn't categorize myself as a high performer when I was a child. I remember high school, it was, this is gonna sound awful, but I remember I didn't have to try.
I would, I loved making my classmates laugh, so I was, a little bit mischievous. I was always incredibly social but I remember teachers, as much as they tried getting upset at me, they couldn't because my grades were always keeping up. I always had fantastic grades. So I didn't grow up in a household that I mean, I come from, first generation Mexican parents and we didn't grow up with that.
Corporate American hustle mindset. It was very different. So I wouldn't categorize myself as a high performer. I think I retained information very easily. And even if I was making someone laugh in the classroom, by the time the test came, I was like, I do remember the teacher said that, and I was able to, Pull that from somewhere.
But I think and also in my twenties when I started in PR, I was not a high, I wouldn't say a high performer. I loved my career. I would stay in the office late. I would come on the weekend. I remember Sundays being in the office alone. I did those things, but I wasn't very a type. I was more social and extroverted than a but when I started my own business, it's going to be years ago, this March, that's when, all of the aid type that I had been not paying attention to, or, putting On the side just came out and you just have to otherwise it's hard to survive, I think being a business owner, you're getting hit from multiple sides every single day.
And the type of business that I run, it's not just, if you're, producing a widget and you have to make sure that the widget is correct. I'm answering to 20 some clients at any given time, right? I'm all of the operations and I might not be day to day with the accounts, but. If shit hits the fan, you better believe that I'm there.
So you switch gears constantly and you're, playing defense. Is it an HR issue today? Is it the building that we're operating out of the, the toilet breaks? It's my fault. If a client is upset, it's my fault. So you're just you have to develop that skill to keep really organized, to be a high performer.
And unfortunately to sometimes put the business needs. What it is that you should be doing for yourself.
I was reading one of your business profiles in Vogue and you were talking about, or sorry, in Forbes, that's where I was reading it. And you were talking about how important your values were and.
Building your business from a values based perspective, and that landed so deeply with me because when people ask, Oh, what type of business coach are you? Who do you work with? I'm like I work across so many industries, but it really is value niching. It's not what you're selling or making. It's so important to, for me to be working with people I respect and admire that I know are heart led that Want to do things the right way that are there for more than just the money.
I think everyone that was in Roanne's house that day is on that same page, but why were values so important in building your own business? And what are some of those that are critical to you?
Yeah, I think, in terms of values, when I started in PR, it was a different era. Like your boss, if you did something wrong, would, poke their head out of their office and throw a highlighter your way.
It was just, it's not as PC as it is here. We're getting yelled at. There were girls crying in the bathroom all the time and you get callous. Like I remember at the beginning you would find someone crying in the bathroom and you're like, Oh sweetie, what can I do? And at the end you're like, excuse me, I just need to get through and pee.
And then, I'll be out of, it's just, and that created an impression for me with. The way PR was run and I say this constantly to, all of my employees. I say this constantly to people, outside of the office, it's called a job for a reason. We all have to do a job.
We all have to pay rent. We all have to, whatever it is, it's called a job for a reason. It's not going to be fun. A hundred percent of the time. If it was, it would be all vacation, right? But either you can have fun and create great relationships. And, do it in a way that makes you feel whole and you can put your head down at night feeling like I changed a little bit in the world or you can be an asshole, right?
And you can friction all over and you can have a mood about things and make everybody else sour. Again, it's called a job for a reason. There's days that are going to suck, but you choose. You can make it, a really great experience or you can make it a very bitter experience. And I think, those formative years.
In my career, taught me that the way to make it a good experience is to do it, leading with values to do it, leading with culture, right? Making sure that the culture within the organization supports those values, making sure that the culture within the organization is supporting the people that make up the organization.
Again, where do I get this drive in this, how does it stay top of mind to lead with these values? It's, I think those very early experiences I had as a publicist.
When you were going off on your own, did you, like, how is that vision different than your reality today? Who did you think you work with versus who you do?
Did you think you'd say solo versus team?
Yeah, I think if I would have known how. Difficult. It was to actually do it. I probably would have had a little bit more hesitation. I was so naive. I was 29 when, I decided to make the leap and I just didn't know what was in store. And I think that was a blessing in a way, because if I would have known what was coming down the pike, I probably would have stayed under the, safety of a larger company and under the safety of a boss that feeds you clients.
And, you're not Eating what you're catching. It's, it's a very different environment. In terms of what my vision was. I did not know what I was doing. If I'm being honest, I was just putting one foot in front of the other. I was just trying my best to replicate whatever I saw or perceived to be successful in my other experiences.
And that was that. I remember so many days where I would wake up and it was this huge awful feeling of am I going to survive today? And I remember my little motto that I had and that I would, tell myself was one foot in front of the other do not worry about seven steps down, just do one little foot in front of the other and you will get there.
When I think someone looking from the outside at the work that you have done, the brands and the celebrities that you've worked with.
It looks so glamorous. And I think a lot of people get intimidated and think, Oh, I would love to be. Working with Gucci. I'd love to be work connecting Beyonce with the brands I work with and it seems like such a big leap. They're like, Oh, like I can do PR for these small things for these people.
I know, but I really want to go up here. Did you always know that you're like, no, we're going for the top of the game or we're not playing at all. Like how did you strategically choose that was going to be the tier that you were participating in?
I, you're giving me a lot of credit assuming that it was a strategic.
There were so many crappy jobs that I took at the beginning just to survive, to be honest. And I think any entrepreneur that says that they didn't sign a client that they were in love with at the beginning of their, they're lying to you, we to do what we have to do to grow, to survive. And I think our Biggest, you know, you can sometimes see leaps in what you're doing.
And I think our biggest leap was because you were not afraid to roll up your sleeves and be nimble. I just remember, I was so hungry to make it that I would. Make sure that whatever came my way, I would create something beautiful out of it. And our biggest client that we landed was because we got a call and someone said, no other PR agencies taking this.
They don't have a solution for getting us headlines with this, and this that we're doing. Do you think you can do something? And there was no hesitation in. My response. I was like to work with this client. Absolutely. Send them my way. Done. And they have been a client for nine years, right?
I'm amazing. In March. There was a big hunger to grow. And then once you start growing, You get put on this little golden hamster wheel where you're like I now have a payroll that is this much and I have two offices and I have, so you just, again, one foot in front of the other running running and next thing you know, you look down and you're like, Oh wait, I did, work on that campaign and we got an award or we were named, best in business for public relations or, and you're looking at these things or, the Beyonce Type work that you're like, Oh, it is cool what we're doing.
But when you're in the moment you're so caught up and you're in such, hustle survival mode that you're not even realizing that is happening. And I don't think I set out, intentionally, obviously, if you would have asked me when I started, what type of client do you want to work with?
Those were always my dream clients, the clients I'm working now, the Disney's of the world, the Hulu's, the. ESPNs, the carers of the world. I don't think I was that intentional. I think I was very hungry and then that's how those things came about.
Are you the type of entrepreneur that you look at a brand or an event and you look at it and go, We definitely could have done that better, or they're missing.
This isn't this. It's a curse. And it's not great. And my husband, we don't work in related fields at all. But sometimes, he'll talk to me about something. I'm like, why are you not doing XYZ? And then, amplify in this way and then hire this to do that. And he's I'm not asking for advice.
So yes, it's a curse. You see everything through different eyes. We do so many events. I joke around when I got married, I was the worst nightmare for any wedding planner. Like my wedding planner would send me a spreadsheet and I would send it bleeding back with the comments, it was just not good.
So I think you do let what you do, as your day job, just infiltrate the way you think and the way you move. It's crazy. It's nutty. Yeah.
Have you ever? Reach out to a soon to be client and said something like, okay, I can't sleep at night. I see what you're doing. Please stop and let me help you.
Have you ever sent an SOS type of outreach to someone?
Don't do it. You know what? Never. In that way. I think if someone asks for my advice, I'm always very candid. And I find that sometimes You know, potential clients or clients even like it because they're so used to hearing yes. Or no you're killing it.
You're doing well that when they hear something different, it's like a little bit of a record scratch. Okay, wait, I need attention to this person. Cause no one else has said this. So if I get asked, I certainly do it. I haven't volunteered the information, a few reasons for that. And it's not because I'm a great person, but a few reasons.
One, our industry is really small and sometimes it could be one of your friends that's across the aisle. And if I were to open my mouth and say, Oh, that was awful. And then I find out it's one of my colleagues that I've been friendly with for 15 years, Oh, you would feel awful about it. And two, I feel that sometimes if someone isn't ready to hear advice, not gonna hear it.
It doesn't matter. So you need them in the correct headspace in order to absorb the information and typically that's when they're giving you signals that they're open. So I would, I do offer my candid thoughts, but it's typically in a moment where I'm like, okay, I'm perceiving that they're looking for this and they're flat out asking me, what would you have done in this situation?
And then I can volunteer, what I thought was great or not so great.
I feel lucky in the sense that. In the coaching consulting space. Like I, I can pop in and give things. There's been a few times that I call someone up and I'm like, usually I know them. It's not usually a stranger. And I'm like, Hey, can I just give you five minutes of unsolicited advice? Cause I have not slept for two nights. Cause I saw this happen and I was like, how much money are you wasting?
Yeah. Yeah, totally. It's nutty to, and the worst part is sometimes. I've seen it happen, and this happens a lot in our industry, where someone will go out and hire a PR firm, and the PR firm promises the world, and it's just something that, might not be possible for that type of client, or might not be the correct strategy for that type of client, and then we all get a bad rep.
You'll jump on calls with potential clients and they're like I hired this PR firm and they made me do this. And all I did was waste money and we didn't see any ROI. And you're like, Oh no, I'm inheriting all of this. So no, I get it. Some of those things you're like, can I just. Please let me help.
In PR in particular has changed so much in the past 10 years. So from when you've started to now, it means so many different things. Like social media was never on a PR agencies to do list. There's so many more events and brand development and brand deals happening. How have you been? What parts are you being excited to add into your agency, and are there other changes that you see happening?
Yeah, there is so much change going on, and now with AI, I know everyone talks about AI, but our industry is about to change completely. And number one maybe three or four years ago, I wasn't talking to my clients to my consumer product, my fashion, my beauty clients. I wasn't talking to them about affiliate PR sub performance type of PR.
And now that's in every single conversation and every single one of our strategies a few years ago, no one cared about, tick tock. It was this silly dance app. And now a lot of our strategy hinges, on tick tock or clients will hire us to. Focus solely on bringing tick tockers into a certain event or campaign or whatever it may be.
So those things change. And you are correct. When I started my career well over two decades ago, our job was purely as a middle person in between the client and press, and you exchanged information and you did it in a way that made the client look fantastic. And that got you the headlines. And now we're doing so much.
It's experiential, it's events, it's influencer, it's, making, now you're even pitching sub stacks. It's nuts. It's it's a lot. But as a publicist, if you're not changing with the times, you won't have a business you have to meet clients where they're at and ultimately it's all about ROI, right?
So if I would have stayed in, the olden days and been hesitant to change, I would still be focusing a hundred percent of my time. Pitching my clients for print, right? And that stopped providing ROI a long time ago. Now that's just a vanity metric. Some clients like, holding a physical magazine and saying we were in it, but it's not doing anything for sales.
It's not doing any unless it has a digital component. So again, figuring out those types of new strategies that you have to become an expert in on behalf of your clients and then making sure that you're constantly iterating and recalibrating and making sure that your clients are seeing ROI.
I say this quite often at the end of the month, every single PR person is on the chopping block. A client is going to say. This was a retainer. I paid. And then what did I get? What's the ROI? So you have to make sure that both numbers make sense every single month, every single 30 days.
I remember when I finished business school, PR was one of pillars like PR was separate from events.
It was separate from, and now it feels like PR is becoming 75 to 85 percent of the marketing strategy. It's a go. Yeah, here's our top line story. Here's our product marketing and everything else will fall into the PR teams wheelhouse because so much of it is crossing over. And I think my thought process for why this is happening is that people who have been trained in PR and communications know how important the story is and that red line is going everywhere.
And I see so many agencies that I see not scaling in the marketing spaces are because they're not getting the storytelling component. They're almost acting as marketing operators instead of storytellers.
Yeah.
How much time are you and your team talking about new stories, maintaining stories? Do you have to do a lot of pushback to your clients because they're not giving you the depth of story that you need?
Yeah, you get you, develop these tricks to extract information. One of the things that we do is we have weekly calls with every single client and that helps, because sometimes.
You're going on your everyday life as a client and you don't realize that what you're doing or working on is PR worthy, right? So then have your weekly call with your PR team and you sit down and you're like, Oh I'm just rushing over to a photo shoot with so and and you're like, wait, pause what?
Okay, why didn't you tell us? Because we can embed a reporter, we can send a photographer for behind the scenes, I can get you a videographer there, and then we can farm out the footage. There's so much that you can do with this one opportunity that you didn't tell us about. Those weeklies are really important because it's a lot of information sharing and it's water cooler, right?
Yes. Not that they wouldn't have written an email about, but then you learn and you're like, okay, let's maximize this. So that's one way of doing things. And secondly, there's some client, if it's a fashion client or a beauty client, there's a lot of cyclical pitching that goes on. So you get really great at figuring out, what client matches with what type of pitch, if it's a woman owned business versus, An international client, if it's whatever it is, so you're tapping into this calendar of this editorial calendar on behalf of your client and you're asking them for information that will help you fill in that pitch.
There are some clients that just, at the beginning of the year, share their marketing calendar. And, even though the marketing calendar is a tool for them to be a little bit more focused on what sales are going on online or what they're going to be talking about and other channels.
We use it to develop pitching. There's a few things, here and there are a few tricks that we've developed to make sure that we're extracting that information that we're using it to send out timely pitches and as a publicist, you have to make sure that you're constantly pitching. If you have a dark period where you won't pitch, you're going to see that reflected in the period with no coverage down the line.
So you constantly have to pitch.
And that brings up another thing. I'm often working with clients on, which is how can you turn off the business for you so you can take a vacation knowing that in the PR space, it's a 24 7 business. Like what? How do you put in boundaries? How do you take time off?
That's a great question. And I don't have a good answer. I I literally there was this, I had been dying to go to this retreat for years. And finally I booked myself. I went alone and I emailed all my clients and I said, I don't have, I literally they, it's intentional. There is no cell reception, no wifi at this place.
They have one pay phone that's operated with coins. Okay. This is the level that we're talking about. And I told my clients I'm off the grid, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Of course, a huge crisis PR, thing happens. I'm squeezing myself into the booth, going around asking people at the retreat for coins collect calling so that my husband could connect me to the client.
It was just not okay. So I'm not great, at, keeping those boundaries. And I also think it's the price of admission for an entrepreneur. I think if I didn't want. If I wanted a life where this wasn't a factor, I wouldn't choose to be doing what I'm doing. Because the plain old truth is when you own your own company, when you own your own shop, you're on.
There's so many, but not so many vacations, every single vacation I carry my laptop and I work, if it's a time difference, I figure out how early I have to wake up so that I can clear my inbox before I go on with my day. And it's frustrating sometimes for family members, but it's just the life I chose.
And if I didn't want this life, then I should go in and be in house somewhere. And not be doing this, but it's the price of admission, and it's something that as much as I want to shut off. I know that there's a responsibility there and the caliber of clients that we're working with. It just won't gel for me to say, Oh, I'm sorry, I'm at a retreat and I know there's a fire and I'm the only one that can help you with this, but I'm choosing to go Zen and not talk to you.
That's just, it's not a possibility. So I chose this life. So I have to, live with the consequences.
And I think so many things that. Women are carrying the weight of right now. I like, I hate the phrase work life balance, and that's one that's been pushed on us. And I think for female entrepreneurs in particular, we're looking at how we can have it all and make it all work.
And there are no black and white lines between things. Often. I know some clients have a hard stop at five. They have a hard stop Friday afternoon, evening, and like they are dark and they can be dark for their businesses and industries. I'm the type of person that I'm thinking like, Oh, it'd be great to go to Australia, New Zealand for a month.
And I'm already building in, okay, what, how can I work when I'm there? Like for me, it's not about not working. I like the work I do. It's about how can my work not be limiting the other experiences that I want to have. I also. the type of work I do. And I think just who I am. If I'm with you now, that's what I'm doing.
I'm not someone who is, can be, I'm not responding to Texas and texts and things like that because I'm focused on the conversation. My whole business is conversation based, whether it's powerful ladies or the coaching side. And I want to be present. So I'm like, how can I be present in all the things that my day is made up of?
family dinner, the client calls, the in person event, like whatever the thing is, I just want to be able to be present. And the idea that it's bad to work on weekends or bad to work at night, I think it is if that is not working for you. But there are some periods where you're like, no, I'm so excited about this project.
Like I want to do this. I'm choosing not to go out because this is more fun.
Yeah. Yeah. And again, I think it's, you have to it's tough. And when I say that loud, it's how it sounds a little harsh, too. But you have to figure out what type of life you're choosing. And if you want something a little bit easier, then yeah, go in house somewhere and, clock out at five and shut off your laptop on Friday afternoon and don't look at it until Monday.
But if that's, not necessarily something that you want day in and day out, then there are some trade offs. And I think it's very deceiving. Yeah. To talk about this work life balance. It's not a balance. Jeff Bezos had an interview and he said that it was more of a harmony. And I think that sat well with me and yes, there are more often than not on a Saturday morning.
I'm working, I'll make my coffee. I sit down in front of my laptop, I'm shooting emails, but then also if my son is sick, I have the freedom to get out of work and, pick them up and spend the afternoon cuddling him because he's not feeling great. So yeah, These trade offs that happen I think you mentioned something important.
You personally have to be happy with the trade offs. Yes. We're going to feel like your boundaries are completely respected, but the moment that you're not happy with the way those, boundaries are going, then you have to revisit what it is that you want and what type of job you want for yourself.
So it's more of a harmony and this balance thing is a lie. There is no balance. You're just trading off one thing for another.
If you go back to eight year old you, what type of life did she imagine? And what is she proud of you for today?
Jeez, A is a funny age. I wanted to be a fashion designer.
When I was that age, I remember little sketches that I would make. And, I guess I loved fashion when I was a little girl. And then as I got, I, it's funny enough, I found my high school yearbook the other day and it said something like, I want to come back home and, have a family and have children.
I'm like, Oh, no, like me is that was what and now I have a beautiful family and, I'm happily married and I did all the things, but I did them at a different pace. Yeah. So I do think my eight year old self would be incredibly proud of everything that I would have done. I don't think eight year old self would be in agreement with the timeline that I did things in.
It probably was a little too slow for eight year old me. But also, I, if I think about it, that's what I was seeing at that age. That's why it's so important for people to have exposure. And this is something that I advocate for constantly. If you don't know that a certain type of career is possible, if you don't know a certain type of life is possible, you limit yourself to what you're seeing, right?
And this is why it's so important for us to, figure out how to work with youth, figure out how to work with, people in their formative years that don't have the exposure that we now do. Like I was at eight years old. I didn't have that exposure. So I thought happiness was, getting married young and popping out kids.
And now I'm like, no, I've had such a full life. I've traveled. I, married my husband when I was 30. I, have, I opened up my own company. There's so much that I have done. But I would have, if I would have stayed back home, I probably wouldn't have done any of this.
Yeah. You have the opportunity, especially living in L. A., but with the work you're doing as well, to have moments that many would call ridiculous. Yeah. But what is one that stands out for you that you went, holy cow I cannot believe this is my life right now?
Yeah, there's so many of them. I have one funny anecdote or one award season. I was I worked on the Tiffany and Company Jewelry account for many years and I was delivering jewelry to Maggie Gyllenhaal and it was like her birthday or Jake Gyllenhaal's birthday or something. And I was delivering The jewelry and as I was arriving, there was like a gorilla and a tutu, and I can't make this up. a gorilla and a tutu with balloons. And someone thought it would be funny, I think it was Jake's birthday to send him a, like singing gram of a gorilla and a tutu, but the way the hotel was, it was like a, maybe like a four foot by four foot square that it was like one door and then the actual door to the room.
So the gorilla me, Jay got stuck in this thing and it was just like, one of those moments that I'm like, what the fuck am I doing with a gorilla and Jake Gyllenhaal and this like four by four square, like what's going on? So that's a funny one. There's sometimes you meet people that you grew up watching and you geek out over.
And, we just did a red carpet with Disney and, we all watch Disney as little kids. And it was a very nostalgic carpet and there were so many Disney stars that I was like, Oh my God, I would like my, 10 year old self would have been sobbing over just. Knowing that you're in front of me. So those things are pretty cool too.
I had the pleasure of working doing collabs with Disney for a long time in footwear. And every time I went, it was still so cool to go onto the campus and to get your little Disney pass and see all the things. And it, yeah it's feels. I really appreciate that no matter how many ridiculous experiences I've been a part of, things still feel special in that way.
And there are some places where they become less exciting and glamorous. You're like, Oh, it's no big deal. But it is nice when some are able to retain that magic that you had when there was no way you thought it would be possible to ever be in that sphere before. Mhm.
No. And I think it's important. It's part of a gratitude practice. I want to say I have an automated email that pops up in my inbox every single friday and it has a list of questions and one of them is what cool things happened this week. And every time I get the email, I'm like, oh, I don't want to do it. But I'll like hop over to my notes app and I just write something and then it's really cool to read back and you're like, oh, that was actually really cool. And oh, that is something that I did that I'm very proud of. So I think it's important to keep up that awe and it is a gratitude practice in some sort of way where you're saying, gosh, I'm so thankful to be in this place doing this thing that eight year old me would have never thought possible.
How do you define powerful and ladies and do their definitions change when those words are put next to each other?
Yeah, absolutely. I find powerful anyone that can take their life into their own hands, whatever that means, right? It can mean I want to sit at home and watch Real Housewives all day. Great. More power to you. Or I want to get up at, five in the morning and kill the day and work for 16 hours straight.
Great. I think you feel most powerful when you are Really being true to yourself and owning your life and your day and taking responsibility for it. And then ladies, that's a funny word and a funny relationship. I used to call everybody in my office, ladies, and then as of a few years, it's just not correct.
And it's gendered language. And so ladies always to me has that. feeling where I'm like highlight, I don't know, delete high team. So ladies to me, it has so many meanings. Someone that is, classy and at the top of their game and is respectful. It, it, it's great.
And when you put both together, I think it's just even better. It's, someone that is taking responsibility for their life, but is doing it in a way that is. Respectful and respecting of everyone. And they become, a model person, a model woman to look up to.
We ask everyone on the podcast where you put yourself on the powerful lady scale is zero is average everyday human and 10 is most powerful lady you can imagine.
Yeah.
Where do you rank yourself today? And on an average day,
I think it varies. I think, there's days that you wake up and you're like, I don't want to do this zero zero. And then there's days that you wake up and you have this thirst for life and you're very jazzed up about everything that you're doing.
So really, it varies widely. I think today as we are talking, I'm very cognizant of everything going on in L. A. And I think that has people mentally. So I would Probably put myself very low on the scale today if I'm being completely honest. But on most days, I want to say I'm above that five. I'm like an eight.
Yeah. No, I love it. We're also asking everyone, what do you need? How can we help you? Yeah. What's on your either wishlist, manifest list, or just a really practical need that you would love solved?
An apartment in Paris, if anyone has the next please my way.
I'm Half joking, but you know what I need. If anyone knows any clients looking or, a creative nimble team, send them my way. I'm, very passionate about what I do and meeting new clients and new people is always great. Top of the list. And secondly, if anybody knows any publicists that are passionate and, love what they're doing, and they're incredibly creative, send them my way.
Our team is always growing. We have offices in L. A. And in New York. And we, I'm very happy and confident in saying that we have the best team. So just looking to grow that group of fantastic people that I get to interact with every single day.
Having a great team changes everything. Absolutely.
Absolutely. Again, it goes back to, you can go in and have a very great time at work, or it can be awful. I think a team makes all the difference.
For people who want to work with you, send you clients just meet up for a coffee. How can they find, follow and support you?
Absolutely. So shoot me an email. I am always on email. One L, my parents should have given me the second L, but they stopped at one. So P R I S C I L A at the brand agency. com. Or LinkedIn. I'm not as great on LinkedIn. Email, I think, is the best way to find me. Yeah.
Thank you so much for being a yes to this conversation.
It was such a treat to meet you at Roanne's. And even in that day, we're really in our thoughts. Thinking about change and what we want to do. I'm like, there is something special over there. I want to talk to her.
Oh my goodness. I'm so glad I got to meet you. And this was so fantastic. And I appreciate the space to be candid and talk about things that, matter and not just stay to the glossy, topics.
So thank you for that.
Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and share with a friend. Head to thepowerfulladies. com where you can find all the links to connect with Priscila Martinez and the brand agency, as well as learn more about Powerful Ladies. Come hang out with us on Instagram at Powerful Ladies, and you can find me and all my socials at KaraDuffy. com. 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.
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Website: www.thebrand-agency.com
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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
