Episode 306: Running a Purpose-Driven Branding Agency without Selling Out | Erik Perez & Marisa Issa | The Dynamic Duo Behind Hello PR Group
What happens when two creatives walk away from burnout careers to build something values-aligned? In this episode, Kara talks with Erik Perez & Marisa Issa, co-founders of Hello PR Group, a purpose-led PR and branding agency amplifying voices in arts, culture, and social impact. They share what it really takes to grow a business in your integrity, why community is their compass, and how they’ve navigated the creative industry without losing themselves. This episode explores purpose-driven agency leadership and values-based brand storytelling.
“We’re not afraid to walk away from new business because we have to believe in the client and what they’re doing in order to truly excel at promoting it. If we don’t, I can’t fake it—we’re too honest.”
“If you’re saying something about your brand, that’s PR—no matter the medium. It’s just a matter of having all your ducks in a row.”
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Follow along using the Transcript
Chapters:
(00:00:00) - Introduction to the Powerful Ladies Podcast
(00:00:38) - Meet Marisa and Erik from Hello PR Group
(00:02:26) - How Marisa and Erik Met and Started Their Journey
(00:04:27) - Celebrating 10 Years of Hello PR Group
(00:07:50) - Passion for Home Design and Authentic Stories
(00:13:15) - Navigating Challenges in Business
(00:20:26) - Impact of the LA Fires on Their Work
(00:32:38) - The Future of PR in 2025
(00:38:00) - Defining Power and Its Meaning
(00:47:42) - Rapid Fire Questions and Conclusion
But then I had this brilliant idea let's just move to New York City and make it, a little small town girl from Florida, I can do it. And I did, I moved to New York, I got my first job was at the Museum of Modern Art, and through that, and I fell in love with home design. So for better or for worse, we will not take a client that does not have an authentic design story.
That's Marisa Jones Issa. And Erik Perez of Hello PR Group. I'm Kara Duffy, and this is the Powerful Ladies Podcast. Welcome to the Powerful Ladies Podcast.
Thank you. Thank you. I'm excited to be an honorary Powerful Lady.
Yes, one of our powerful gentlemen, it's very important role. I would love to just start by you guys telling everyone your name, where you are in the world and what you're up to. And maybe Marisa, you want to go first?
Sure. Hi, everyone. I'm Marisa Issa. I'm a partner at Hello PR Group. We are based in Los Angeles with a small office in New York City. And we're really excited to be here today to talk with you, Kara. And
I'm Erik Perez. I am the man behind the powerful lady. I started hello 10 years ago and then Marisa joined me two years before. So I'm, and we've been working with you, Karen, for the last year. So we're just excited to, to talk about all the great things that we've done in the last year.
For me, it's always so fun to have a power couple on because it is such a different dynamic than an individual running a business, an individual writing a book. It just brings a different flavor to the things that we have to consider, but also I think it adds to the bravery. And today is no exception because one of you was excited to be here. The other was not. And so this is the example when you're a power couple, what happens of you're like, okay. we're doing it anyway and we'll figure it out.
Think in our case it works that we just force ourselves or we push each other to do things that we don't, that the other one doesn't want to do. So usually yeah, usually Marisa's the one who's oh yeah, you should do this. And I'm like, why? So this is the one instance when it was the opposite.
Would love to start with how did you guys meet?
I can say, I can start, Erik and I both worked in New York city, giant public relation firms, and I was actually working in house at the time. And he had an event in my showroom where I was at the Conrad shop, the in house publicist. And we just met cordially, just one of those, peer to peer type, hello, how are you?
very much. Let's talk about this, funny client or terrible time we had with the journalist and then a few years later, I moved to Los Angeles and a girlfriend of ours, or a current director actually at our agency had said to me, hey, you should meet Erik Perez. I think you guys would get along really well.
And I sat down to have breakfast with him and I was like, Oh, I know you. We went to an event together. We worked together on an event many years ago. It started off as becoming very good colleagues at different agencies for the first year that I lived in Los Angeles to the point where I would call him all the time and say, Hey, who's your caterer?
Who's your florist? Or how do you get a messenger service in Los Angeles when everyone? No one's on a bike here. What do I do? And then it turned into him saying hey, why don't you come just join me at some point and leave all the frazzle workspace in which you were currently
No, little did she know that she went from a frazzled environment to on an unorganized little office of just me and one other colleague with me having just she's like Where is do you have notes on this? I'm like, oh, yeah, like I What do you need to know? I just had everything in my head, and it was, I have no idea how it worked. But it worked. So little does she know.
I loved when I was working with you guys that there was a celebration of 10 years and 10 employees. And it doesn't always work out that neatly for all companies. But what has it been like to take this idea you had and the leap to go out on your own and then together and to be here 10 years later as an award winning PR firm with 10 employees?
It honestly feels really nice. It feels really good and it's all from a just a random like what's the worst that can happen? Like I go back and beg for my job back. And it, it really was, I'm honestly very surprised by the success and not surprised and I, I didn't think I could do it just by how organic it all came about, just from me sending a few emails to the people that I knew and a few editors that I knew that, Hey I'm doing this and a couple of people that I knew that needed help, but no money.
I was, I just, Again, I faked it till I make it. I was like, yeah, I'll do your press release. I'll send it out. Don't worry. Yeah, I'll do this pro bono. And it just snowballed like little by little. Just people were like, Oh so suggest that I reach out to you. And I was telling Marisa the other day that I think I had one day off in between my old job and starting below that I was, it was around the holidays.
I like, Oh, it's great. I'll have a couple of weeks to just do nothing. One day so it was crazy. And again, it just started with one colleague who was Helping me and then we had somehow we had 14 clients between the two of us Marisa was just dressed out because she did she was Doing a lot for the effort for old agency and I was like I have more clients that I know what to do with just come work with me and at the same time we were talking with our colleague Catherine who was working at my old agency and that left and when went to work with Marisa and she was also commuting her commuting was impossible.
I was also talking to her at the same time. It just worked, and for a while it was three of us, four of us, five of us, then we moved to an office because this, where I am right now, this used to be our first office for the first six years of Holo. And they got to the point where there's only so many desks that you can fit in a tiny little guest room.
Yeah. And dogs.
So many dogs. And so many dogs. So yeah, so we just moved to an office and as clients kept on, on, on coming, thankfully we just decided like you, we need to have a more formal structure in terms of teams. Like we can't be seven people, everyone working on everything. So that's what we worked with you Carol last year and that really forced us to really look into what our needs were in terms of the business and also for us, the whole idea is that we want, we wanted to make the most out of the time that we have and right now we're at this place where we really were very comfortable with.
With the clients that we have, with the team that we have, we're in a, in this, we're in a really good place and I think that we're just like very happy to be celebrating, to be in this position 10 years later.
Yeah, and you guys have a really unique niche as well because there's so many different types of PR and PR firms, and you've been focused on interior design, architects all things related to home. Is that something that you always loved before? Were you consuming all the magazines and watching all the things? Or did you fall into this space based on where your career brought you?
Yeah. I can take that one first because I have the, very normal trajectory where I went to college, got a degree in public relations, had a million internships.
But then I had this brilliant idea, let's just move to New York city and make it, a little small town girl from Florida. I can do it. And I did. I moved to New York. I got my first job was at the Museum of Modern Art, and I was the in house publicist for the MoMA Design Store. And through that wonderful education of working for the best museum in the world for five years, I learned all about authentic home design.
And what it takes to promote an entire collection of products versus different brands, working with the curatorial team, and I fell in love with home design. For better or for worse Erik and Kerry, you know this, we will not take a client that does not have an authentic design story. And so ever since then, I love home design.
My house is very modern. Everything that we achieve for our clients has to be done in a really wonderful way, and always needs to tell a story. Did take off like a year and a half and work in a nonprofit and realized I just need to go back to promoting shiny, pretty things. I did try it, but I am where I need to be.
And I really love what I do.
My path is not as straightforward. I graduated from international business in the University of Mexico. And so I went to work for a custom broker for a year, which I hated. I absolutely detested it. Then I went back home. I was working at a radio station doing promotions and that I loved, but it was a temp job.
Somehow this company in long beach got my resume to do export of Mexican beef to Japan. Super. Yeah. So I did that for three years, totally normal. Who hasn't done that? So I was there for three years and then it got to a point. I was one of the few people who actually spoke decent English. So I was writing, little did I know what I was doing, but I was writing press releases and editing articles.
Just, I was, it got to a point where I can't do this anymore, I want to move far away. Like, where can I go? I started looking into schools to get to do my a master's program. And I thought I wanted to go into advertising. I started looking at programs and Boston university, the communication school had advertising and PR. And I was like, Oh, what is this PR thing? What's new? And when I was reading that, I was like, Oh, this is what I'm doing. So I did that. I went to Boston, got my master's moved to London to finish my masters. And there my internship was with. Miss 60, which I don't think that brands exist anymore for all of the elder millennials out there. And I loved it at my boss there. He's, he asked me if I had any plans after he connected me with a, with an agency in New York that was looking for freelancers and my cousin lived in New York at the time. So it was like, Oh yeah, let's live in together. Perfect. I did that. I, after fashion week when they didn't need it, I just kept showing up because I had nowhere else to be.
I hated my little apartment in New York. And then eventually they gave me a they had a job offer, but where the design team, not the fashion team, which is what I wanted to do. But I didn't look back after that. That was 20 plus years ago. And I haven't looked back. I'm so happy that I started doing design and started working with like amazing architect and amazing material designers.
And really just learned by, by doing that and by reading magazines and doing doing what we were supposed to be doing.
Yeah. You've lived in so many places. How did you end up landing in LA?
My family, my husband and I, we were talking about moving back to the West Coast. My family is still in Mexico, three hours from LA.
His family is in Ventura, it's one hour from LA. So it was New York was always like a one year plan for me. I ended up staying a little bit longer and my old agency they just an opportunity just Came that they needed two of the senior people and that worked on the design team were leaving. So they needed someone and asked me if I could move in a month. So I jumped on it.
I'm really proud of you guys and how you took on being so committed to making your team in the right layout with the right people and the right systems. So many small businesses never take those things on. What spurred you into saying okay, no, we need to do this the right way.
And now is the time, like, how did you know that had to be the next thing that you tackled? And I'm asking this also because I think a lot of listeners are feeling some team stress and most people aren't good at delegating and they don't have an HR background. And there gets to be a point where. It feel, you can feel it's off, but people don't always know what to do about it.
So how did you guys decide we needed to fix this? We should call you type of a thing.
I'll go Kara. I basically called you because you were a referral from a dear friend, another publicist in LA, and I was ready to quit. I was like, I can't do this anymore. Like somebody has to give either. We need a better team rather than you need less clients, or I just, I'm done. I can't do this every day. And it had nothing to do with the actual work itself. It was definitely, our team was not working the way that it needed to be. And it's not a fault of anyone else's. It's just Erik and I realized like we were just stretched too thin. We were both doing way too much for everyone from terms of training people to making sure they were doing the work that they needed to get done to make sure the clients were feeling.
Taking care of and, what happened after the first six months of working together with you care was that we realized that Erik and I needed to buy the accounts in half as well as our team and it didn't make sense to have one, junior person supporting three senior people. So it sounds, it seems so obvious now, but at the time we were just, constantly getting clients, making sure we could do the best possible work for them.
And that meant that we were just. All, all involved with everything and that does not very time it was all very time consuming, but it wasn't really smart.
Yeah.
And I think we're at a place right now where we, both of us, we learned how to delegate and let go. Of things which it's like the result, it's resulted in two things. One of it, like I think that we have more time and really more brain space to really focus on the business. And I think the other hand, it's also empowered some of our team members to really take those responsibilities and don't just either wait for us to say, yes, go ahead. But just do it. I keep joking with Marisa right now that lately my job is basically just to give a thumbs up on things, which I mean, I love it but I don't know if the rest of my team would agree that's the best use of time.
That's why you put them on the podcast, Kara. And that's why we have them do all these interviews right now, because he. Yeah.
And I think, being your own PR agents for yourselves is really important. And You talk about finding the designers and the architects who are these hidden gems that you're like, Oh, I can't wait to talk about you guys, but that's who you guys are in the PR world, like for the how accomplished for the quality of work you provide for how happy your clients are and the things that you've made possible for them.
We forget as business owners that as the leadership of the company, like we also have to be the face talking about what's happening and for people like yourselves who are just so committed to doing a great job for your clients, you forget that. You also need to go out and brag about that so that you can have not only them be really proud of who you guys are, but also be attracting more of the clients that you want to have.
Like it's, you've been really lucky that you haven't had to do a lot of the cold selling that other people do. And you guys have a great story. So yes, please be on every podcast, get all the features that you guys can get. You could easily have your own TV show.
I think that, that's a stretch of the TV show, but no, I think that just like working with you just like really made us realize that, that how important this is and like neither Marisa or I are like, like to talk about us or shine a light on us and we're just like, no, it's not about us.
It's about our clients. But yeah, like I think that right now it's just like treating the firm as a client really. It like forces us to do other things. And we've, we've realized like every time like we get like a story or something like that, like we've noticed actually that we get more inquiries for work. So we're like fine.
We used to just think it was our amazing Instagram that our social media team. does for us. But now I guess it's these types of opportunities. I really,
it's everything. It's a combination of everything.
Yeah. And like you guys are PR masters, so of course your incredible work should work for your own company too, right?
Like you're just taking a proven concept and putting yourself through it, which can feel so. So weird. Sometimes we found a new app that we're using to basically create reels from all prerecorded content that we have, which is every one of these podcasts, it's workshops, it's group calls. And because we're looking for content of me talking.
And guys, it is disgusting how much footage we have of me talking I was making a joke. I'm like, they could 1000 percent create an AI version of myself and Tom Cruise. No problem. Like we have enough content that's out there. And but it's even now, knowing and telling my team we have to do this and here's why I'm coaching my team about my own business.
There's still that cringe moment where I'm like, is that really the picture we're going to use? Is that really really? We have to who cares about this question about what I did in Germany? Does anyone care? And it's interesting to have your team be like, yes, you have to do it too.
When we went through this exercise two days ago, we're updating our capabilities deck right now, and we're looking for photos of us through the years, and it's hilarious. We're like, oh my gosh, remember that event we did? Oh yeah, we're never going to wear that shirt again, or oh, we didn't even remember to take take away the cocktails and we're taking these big photos and, it was just great then.
I was like, gosh, Erik is really a distinguished gentleman right now, and I am really looking my age.
For me, it was more like, oh, I remember those pants, they don't fit me anymore. It was a lot, I got a lot of that. It was really sad.
There's a lot of grace. A lot of being like, Oh, maybe we need a new wardrobe. Maybe we should be, always. Marisa, you're very good at doing your walks in the morning. So
I did. I did one today because I was so nervous about today.
How'd I get it out? You guys are working in a space that is really interesting, I think, after what's happened with the L. A. fires. You have, all of your clients are going to be in the most demand they've ever been if they are working in the L. A. area. Because there is an absurd amount of rebuilding that needs to happen. How were you guys personally affected by the fires? And how have you been managing your business through this traumatic time in L. A.?
It's, it was really hard. Only because we, Erik and I are both, we both live on the east side. So the Eaton fire really affected us and our team because our office is in Hot Water Village. And I could see the Eaton fire from my house. I watched the two balls of orange go up. I took videos. Really nervous.
We had to pack a go bag. We had to download the watch duty app. We were very concerned that at any moment we're going to have to leave and like, where do you go? So that was like the immediate first night. Then the next day, the smoke in the ash came and Erik lost electricity for a few days while our team members evacuated.
And it was for three days. We just, it felt like the pandemic all over again, in the sense that. We didn't know what was up, what was down, we canceled client calls. We said, let's focus on our team. Again, my concern is always the wellbeing of ourselves, our partners, our families, and our staff. And I, of course, didn't sleep at all.
Cause I also have a young child and at 5am I texted the team like, no one drive to work today. Please let me know you're all right. And, we'll take it one step at a time, but in terms of our clients, and we do work with some of the best architects in here, designers in Southern California, and several of them lost their clients, lost their homes, projects they were working on have fallen through because the property is no longer there. The community has come together to really unite, which is very inspiring. And, we've collected donations and donated. And because we are fortunately unfortunately in the luxury high end space You know some of these organizations that are collecting donations are for very high end brands and the rebuilding will take place That's not going to take place for two or three more years there's so much work that has to be done in the communities and I think eventually yes, it'll be a great time for The rebuild but we're not there yet.
And I do feel In my heart of hearts at the first few days was like, we don't know what's happening. We don't know what's going to, what's going to go on again. And the thought of even rebuilding was just not even a conversation. It was more like, are you okay? Do you have a group here? Is your dog taken care of?
Like, how can we make a meal for this group of people who we know? So I've never seen that type of community outreach. And I know a few people who, signed up to be volunteers to Red Cross. They have 10, 000 volunteers. 10, 000 people sign up. That's unheard of in any sort of tragedy. I think that we will be stronger.
I still think the first two or three weeks were, and continue to be like let's, We don't know, we don't know enough yet.
Also, and then Erik went to Paris for a week for work. I was stuck running the office.
I will say that it was very nerve wracking and we were better or worse. I think that at least I tried to just keep. Sense of normality and keep calls and work just because otherwise I was going to go crazy with just think about it.
So I think like one of the mistakes that we did is that, and we had a new business call that week that we should have canceled and of course we didn't get the job because. Their feedback to us was like, Oh yeah, you seem distracted. I'm like, you think we were distracted?
There's a fire outside the window that we're also watching while we're on this call.
Hot spot. I was like making it work. It's all great. Yeah.
Yeah. It was wild. We had go bags packed in our hallway. My daughter didn't have school for three days. My husband was on an international flight coming back. It was like, I, you're right. I this pitch meeting didn't go well, but let me just tell you why. And Hey, Kara, you know what we did? We asked for feedback on a client that we did not get.
I'm so proud.
Now we know next time LA decides to burn down, we should cancel all our new business calls.
We can still talk to our clients but we're not talking to potential new clients.
Yeah, even we had this podcast originally scheduled to record that Friday. Yeah, and then Amanda's should we cancel? I'm like if the people recording wouldn't do it, I can do it now granted I had eight humans three dogs and a cat in my two bedroom apartment So I was like, there's no place to sit like I'll maybe record this in the shower at this point but we'll figure it out, but everyone ended up canceling because they are smarter than I am in being like no, this is probably not a good time to be providing ourselves. But it was, it's been really bizarre and things you don't think about happening. Like my, the reason we had so many people at my house was because my brother's friends had to evacuate with their dog and they kept stopping at hotels. It was like the nativity story. Every hotel they stopped at was full or said no dogs.
And finally they're like, can you fit us? And I was like, I think we can fit a second air mattress in the living room. So who wants to camp out? Yeah. Yeah. I've been on Instagram.
I have two guest beds and water and electricity because a lot of people didn't have power for many days.
Yeah, I w I was glamping for three days and then going to Marisa's house for dinner and to recharge everything. Yeah, I was like, here are all my 58 power packs let me charge the dogs.
It was wild, again we just kept saying we're healthy, we're safe. This is what's important. And there, there is a movement here in LA for the interior designer community to come together. There are a couple of big organizations that we're working with, but.
Again, I think it's just like too soon, but we're all doing what we can.
It's been really interesting because you guys participate in a lot of events, your clients go to a lot of events. And that's been the biggest thing that my other LA based clients and I have been talking about is how do we pivot events in the LA area.
I was on a call with another client the other day, who's a producer. And she's please put the word out. We need productions in L. A. If you want to help L. A., bring your work here. Because there are all these people whose jobs are being canceled and stopped and pulled and sent to New York instead. And the, like, all these people need work more than they ever have before because many of them are rebuilding from scratch.
They're like, just please hire us. I don't, we don't need any more clothes. We just need jobs. Great.
That's the same with The Freeze Art Fairs happening in a few weeks. Yep. And there was a big question can this still go on? How does it make sense to give hotel rooms to people coming in?
But the fairs were like, look, the gallery's in L. A. We need this one artist in L. A. Working in our late. A lot of them live in Altadena and lost their homes and in their studios. Like they need these galleries to sell their work during this day. So it's going on. And that is the message that we're hearing.
At first it's Oh, my God, I can't believe they're going to do this. I was like, Oh, wait, no, we need to do this. We need to do this. We need to come together and support everyone.
And I think there's also something about. Those of us who can proceed as much as normal as possible need to give the balance back to everyone else who really can't.
Because if all of us are running around with our heads cut off, like it adds to the level of panic and despair feeling. But if more of us can settle back into whatever grooves we can go back to. It's just, I think it's giving some balance and hope and reminder that things will go back to how as best they can were like, it'll never be the exact same, but having that normalcy and being an example of it, I think helps to It was very cool in New York to see how many organizations the weekend I was there were having LA fundraisers and like different groups, like the, film and TV group was doing one fashion was doing a different one.
It was nice to see that Even it felt like COVID, but we were by ourselves. And it's nice to see that other people were feeling it too.
Erik was in Paris the week after for a work event and they kept asking him, what can we do?
Every time someone like either remembered that I was in LA or heard that I was in LA, like immediately it was like, how are you doing? I'm like, I'm fine. Yeah, thank you for asking. But no again, like it's really all our clients also reached out to us They were texting. I was like just checking in so it felt it honestly felt very It's not the right word, but it's all really nice. Just get to see that people were actually worried like it's this is ridiculous, but even what My sales associate at Alexander McQueen in Rome was like texting me like, are you okay? Yeah, we're fine. Thank you.
We are fine. And we would love you to send a few things.
I need a new wardrobe.
Yeah. But it was like that human factor, I think is what you're trying to say. It's people were checking on us and not like the work. We did have one client who off the rails a bit.
And Erik was like, Then send an email to all of our clients, just so you know, we are safe in LA. However, some of the stories might be pivoting the next few months as we deal with the aftermath and the ash that's coming down guy right now. And they'd shut everybody up because everybody has one or two clients who just don't get it.
Or maybe they didn't turn the news on for four days, unclear, but we definitely had to like, we also had to push back a little and say like this beautiful story that we're going to have featured of your home is not going to run. And. They understood, obviously, but you just, you get in your groove or you're not here dealing with the friends of friends who've lost everything or the next door neighbor who's healthy and family like it's so much in our face and if you're not here, you realize how it affects every single person who we know in this community.
And one of my clients their home was saved and they can't go back to it yet. Because of all the smoke damage and the ash, and they have to have their entire AC cleaned out, plus probably their wall they have to do full abatement on their house. And that's, I think, also an awkward position to be in, where no, I didn't lose my home, and I don't have a place to live.
Because there's this middle zone, and, I think people are feeling guilty that, oh I didn't lose everything, and Yeah, but any other tragedy, you would be at the top of the list of what like you're having to deal with. And I think, we're now have trauma from the watch duty alert.
Like you hear that and you go, and I'm like, stop telling me we can go back home. Give it a different sound.
Oh I, Joe was not disabled. Yeah, I disabled it. I was like, I do not need this kind of stress in my life.
He's got me to remind him. It's fine. We're close enough. You're just sending him the text.
You are the watch duty. Yeah, basically. It was like, Erik, do you know that there's a fire right where you put your parents hometown? He's is there?
Oh, I had no idea. They're fine. Yeah, it was at San Diego. My sister was she had like her grab bag ready to go, but then it rained. Great.
The border fire?
That one? Now that you have the app, you see how many fires are happening all the time?
Yeah, I don't need to know.
Yeah.
Blissful ignorance. That's my motto for 2025.
We've had a lot of conversations as well about how PR is changing. It's being redefined. It's expanding. It's going deeper with clients.
For people who, when they think of PR, they think of getting placed in print media. What is PR in 2025 and how integral is it to for a brand to have a PR strategy?
I'm gonna let you take this, Erik, because you really just answered this question an hour ago.
It's very, I think it's very important, like even if a brand or a firm isn't really working with a publicist, I think that just, Making sure that the PR component is part of the overall marketing conversation is key because otherwise, if you don't plan it, if you're not really strategic about what your marketing plan is and to communicate it at the end of the day, then you can have the greatest marketing plan, but if nobody hears about it, what good is it?
I think PR in 2025 is again, Marisa and I have been doing this for longer than we want to acknowledge. So we've seen it everything, like from the boom and when there were 58, 000 magazines, there was a magazine for everything, and they had budgets to shoot projects, and then, and All that to the recession where no one was spending anything, any money on home to the pandemic and the post boom pandemic for the home industry to now in this like limbo where there's.
Sex magazines left in our industry. So I think that PR now is more of a, it's a combination. It's definitely much more integrated with marketing. Like we find ourselves doing more marketing initiatives so that we were five years ago. Just because the conversation, the PR conversation has migrated to that element.
So it's not just the print media, but it is a lot of what we do is developing the relationships for our clients with friends, with designers with other architects, with other, like with influencers, like a lot of social media. So it really is I like to say like anything that has to do with any sort of communication.
If you're saying something about your brand. That's PR. It doesn't matter what the medium is. I think it's just like a matter of having all your ducks in a row.
I've been having a battle with some clients lately who are very visually driven. And I'm like, everything looks real pretty, but I think we're forgetting the messaging part.
This is just another pretty thing that I'm not attached to. I don't know why. I don't know who you are. You also work in a very visual industry. How are you getting your clients to understand that the words and the messaging. Matter as much or sometimes more than the pretty picture.
I'm like,
I'm just like letting you take this one.
I think it depends on the brand though. I think, like I said before, we're not going to work with those. Instagram brands as wonderful as they are to certain people. I think that you can't really tell your story or it might disappear in two years.
If you don't have everything else that goes on with it, you need a physical presence. You need to be showing your product in person somewhere, either if it's partnering with another showroom or going to a trade show or working with an interior designer to check out a house. There has to be a physical presence as well as a virtual presence.
So I think that the messaging has to align the same as it would in person as it does visually on your phone or on your computer. Because again, we work with fine and luxury brands that we're marketing to interior designers and architects who are such visual people. And they may not be able to get out of the office and touch and feel everything, even though they're encouraged to, everything is behind a desk.
So they need to see all the information at their fingertips regardless of what it is.
And I think if anything, it's words are just as important as the visual, because again, like you could have the most beautiful written story, but if your photos are crap, then nobody's going to be interested in it. It was like, why would I. Yeah, this sounds great, but I look at it and I make, it's making me cringe. So I think it is like one of the advices that we always give our clients is like one, you need beautiful photos of your project that are print ready or editorial ready. But then we also need to know the story.
Like we need to know why you decided to do this thing in your house, in the house the why is just as important as us looking at it.
I'm going to pivot topics a little bit. So you're of course on the Powerful Ladies podcast. What does power mean to you guys,
Erik? I will take that. I think that it's, I think that it's my idea of power has really changed throughout my long existence.
I think that right now for me, power is like respect, Just like being respected. For not, respected in the, in the sense that I'm an authority. Like I know what I'm talking about. And I think that it's after all these years, it's finally clicking like the imposter syndrome is like finally leaving. Did I, I'm really trying to leave it behind. So for me it's that it's just I know that my clients really respect my opinion and they respect what we, our advice to them. So to me, that, that is empowering.
Honestly, knowing what the media landscape looks like right now, knowing what's going on with our clients on a professional level, but sometimes also on a personal level, everyone gets frustrated.
If you don't hear back from someone right away, it's Oh wait, maybe there's going on with them. Let's like take a beat and understand what, where this is all coming from. And I think. Having that empathy is another quality that we really think is powerful, and something that we could be used more in our day to day news intake, if only other people had empathy, but I do think that respect, empathy, kindness I think those are all really powerful.
Things that we all need and exhibit ourselves.
And the hot topic, especially this week, has been about DEI, and your entire team is DEI approved. Yeah. How, it's just bananas to me that the people who are talking about DEI technically fall into DEI qualifications. They've forgotten that ageism is also part of DEI.
But like when you see those shifts happening culturally or from the government perspective and You know how important the diversity and inclusion and equity in your own team is Like what's going through your mind? Are you just so proud that you were already there and you're going to stay there Are you losing your mind?
Are you nervous?
I think everything that you just said I think we're nervous for our country and you know The younger generations who are coming up and kids in schools. Like what is what are they learning right now? Are they learning the real thing? Yes, our team is very diverse. I joke that i'm The least diverse, but I am a powerful woman, but I am white as can be.
Everyone else is in general on our team are very diverse and we value their opinions and we'd like to hear their stories. And it's interesting because when we tell a new brand, for example, that we're going to work with them, we say three things that the media are looking for.
If you say you have a new product collaboration with someone or a new collection, they're looking to see if it's sustainable, typically, is it made in AmErika or where is it made and why? And number three is diversity. So we need to be spotlighting more diverse people in our industry. And that's a no brainer.
We have this conversation every single time we talk to a current client or a past client or a new client. Okay what are the, what are these three pillars that we need to talk about? Where are you on this? And sometimes, Kara, we like to walk away from new business and we're not afraid of it because we, I speak for Erik and I both passionately, like we have to believe in the client and what they're doing in order to really excel at promoting it and if we don't, then I can't fake it, if we're too honest.
Yes, you are. For those who might be feeling all the things right now, whether they and especially those who have a business that are like, What is going on? How do I keep going? You know where I thought I would be going? How do I stay true to what I know I'm supposed to be doing? And all this turmoil?
What advice would you give those new business owners?
What Erik said when our current president got reelected, we've been here before. And we know it can be bad, but we will sustain our business and we will be okay. So just hang tight. Of course the last 10 days have been real shocking and I'm not going to discount that at all for many different organizations and reasons, but I feel like some of it is just, it's just so chaotic right now because we're trying to pass other things that maybe we won't see and just hang on and do your homework and call your senators.
And even like from a business perspective, there's a lot of things that we can't control. Like the reality that I had back when I was selling Mexican meat to Japanese clients, like one of my very wise Japanese clients we were having an issue and I called him like in panic because like I couldn't fix it.
And again, like very sensei Ken san said Erik I know that you're doing everything that you can. So if there's some, if there were something else that you can do, you would be doing it. So I trust that. So that always stuck with me. I was like there's things that I can't control.
So I'm not why am I going to stress about those things? Like I, I did my part. I voted, I got involved. Not the result that I wanted, but like at the end of the day. We will get past this. We always do.
We always do. And I was talking to somebody, they were like asking oh this powerful lady is becoming political.
I'm like like the words you were listing before, like empathy and compassion and, taking care of each other. I'm like, we haven't changed where we were going. And like the world around us has moved the goalposts. That's all. It's we've been pretty consistent. And we're not being, there's nothing radical about what we're talking about.
If you think it is, maybe that needs to be the conversation. Yeah.
If you think that being nice and being empathetic is wrong.
And respected. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. But I think what I'm, as we're balancing, highlighting some of the things that are happening, cause we we have to as a powerful ladies brand, I'm also like, guys, like we really got to figure out this balance because.
The whole purpose of this company and the podcast is to keep showing people who are doing the work. And that's also part of why I was excited to have you guys on, because you're showing what collaboration looks like just the two of you together. You're showing what it looks like to lead a team that is, you know, getting 10 gold stars for DEI representation.
And it's you're doing the work. You're being nice. You're helping people out. You're walking the walk, and I think the more we highlight people who are walking the walk and realize that's what most of us are doing. Most of us are walking the walk. I'm like, I'm not participating in that reality over there.
I'm just, I'm like, that's not the world I live in. I live in a world where people most of the time are taking care of each other. If you actually look and ask. And so it's been really interesting to see like what we're being asked and questioned and challenged. And of course, there's a, you can never be doing the right thing sometimes for someone who feels unseen and unheard.
And it's okay, like we're creating space for it and then redirecting over here. I'm like, okay, if that's what you care about, here's three episodes that talk about that thing. Thank you. But I think I just want everyone listening and our community here, I just take a deep breath to your point.
We've been here before. We are so resilient. Every group that every person who is nervous right now, we have gotten here from generations of people who are also nervous before us.
And that's the thing. Like one of my favorite shows is CBS Sunday morning and they frequently. I love that one. Yeah. Then they frequently do these it's not a comparison, but.
But it's oh you think it's bad right now? In 1768 this was happening and it was much worse and look where we are now. So I think that just, yeah, that is going to help put things into perspective. It's it may seem crazy, but But it's not the first time that something like this has happened.
So that kind of gets okay, we're fine, we'll be fine.
And unfortunately I had this whole great tactic to bury my head in the sand for the first week, and then I started getting text messages from, people who are on Medicaid and my family who need these services, like many people, like millions of people.
Was like, all right, let me just take a pause by tomorrow to be up and running. But I hear you loud and clear and I'm going to validate this crazy, this time in your life right now. And you're going to be okay. Yeah. And we will figure it out if it actually goes off rails because that's what we do, we do, we figure it out.
So it's, but it is a scary time, but I do think, again, we've been here before. We'll get through it as long as we show compassion.
A few rapid fire questions to wrap up for today. The first is where do you put you yourselves on the powerful lady scale? If zero is average everyday human and 10 is the most powerful person you can imagine, where would you score yourself today or on an average day?
Would say that the last few weeks have been exceptionally challenging, but I've still managed to lead with grace, I think, Erik. I might have had a real bad day one day last week, but like in general. So maybe a five? Is that okay?
You are allowed to rate yourself for everyone. Whatever you say is the truth.
I would say a seven, I think that we're doing, I think we're doing better than a five Marisa.
I think that's why we balance each other because I think too highly of ourselves. No I think that, we have a team that really respects us that, that likes to be working with us.
I think that we have clients that, same thing, that they really trust us, that some of our clients have been with us for years, almost since the beginning of Flow. I think that, to me, it's just And again, it just goes to that respect into that, that, that power that we've been able to have.
What is something that you wish people knew?
Wish people understood that we are bi coastal like Erik and I are in Los Angeles, but we have two very capable directors living and working in New York and they're, hungry to go out and network and be with. Colleagues and press and clients. And I think that, because there's just a digital world, some people don't even realize that we're in LA, but I do think it's good to just highlight the fact that we are, and we love to travel. Erik and I love to get on an airplane and go abroad.
No, I think I'm going to go a little bit more broader. And I think that I wish that people knew that we're not that different. That's the reality that we all have the same problems, we all have the same enjoyments. So I think if once everyone realizes that, then things hopefully would be a lot better in general for everyone.
Agree. What is something that we can help you with? This is a big, powerful, connected community. So what is on your to do list to manifest? It could be ridiculous or absurd or really simple. What would you like to ask for?
Can we get more time in the day?
We, you know what, we were joking yesterday because we were practicing some of the questions. We were hoping for you to just move into the office and just be there all day and tell us what to do.
Wow, this sounds exciting.
Does no, don't do that. Or you guys should be like, that's, that will be very helpful.
I love this. I have a client who we've moved them into the embedded tier where I now I meet with them and their COO, basically, we have individual one on one calls once a month, but then I go into the office for two hours once a month, and it just becomes like full team training, working on stuff, and it's really fun.
It's also really inspiring to see the new managers and like their brain popping and sizzling and be like, Oh my gosh, now I can do this. And, there's a lot of spreadsheets we've been doing recently and looking at numbers and projections. And. It's so cute to see them come back and be like, do you want to see my spreadsheet?
I'm like yes.
I definitely want to see your spreadsheet. My spreadsheet, I think that I got 75 percent done. But it's still a work in progress whenever I can escape like half an hour of go in and plug in some numbers.
I still don't understand it, but that's okay.
You to, as long as you can read it, you don't need to be able to know how to do it, right? Exactly. Yeah it has been such a pleasure to get to hang out with you guys and for you to be guests and do be a Yes to me and the powerful ladies podcast for everybody who wants to work with you support you Connect with you how and where can they do that?
Yeah, I sent us an email. Hello at hello PR group calm the easiest way And it's been our pleasure really to like to hang out for the last hour. And Marisa seems less nervous now that it's over.
Yeah. All of a sudden I was like, oh wait, I love talking to Karen. This is the highlight of my Friday for a year.
I love it. Thank you guys so much and yeah, keep doing amazing work that's inspiring us.
Thank you so much.
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 Marisa, Erik, and Hello PR Group, as well as learn more about Powerful Ladies. Come hang out with us on Instagram at PowerfulLadies. 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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Instagram: @helloprgroup @marisaissa
Website: helloprgroup.com
LinkedIn: marisa-jones-issa
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
