One of my biggest frustrations with my education at FIT - and I say this with genuine love for my professors - is that by the time I got to the real world, a lot of what they taught me felt outdated.
When you’ve been out of the industry long enough, it shows.
So as an educator who works with brands every single day, I make it my personal mission to stay current - not just on manufacturing, but on everything it takes to build a brand: advertising, marketing, branding, all of it.
And, the best way I’ve found to do that is having my own brand.
I’ve launched two. Terracotta City, which used deadstock fabric, and ended up becoming a case study for my clients on meta ads and wholesale strategy.
And then, two years ago, I launched nu:titty - a line of mastectomy bras for breast cancer patients - which became a case study in PR and influencer marketing.
Today we’re going to focus on the PR, and just how easy it is for you to personally outperform top agencies. Yes, even with zero skills or experience.
Full disclosure, I’m not interested in running a fashion brand long-term. But I do believe in testing things at my own expense before asking my clients to do the same.
I’m a firm believer that brand founders can outperform agencies because you know your product better than anyone and you actually care about the results, not just collecting a pay check.
But my clients kept telling me they felt unsure of themselves and wanted to hire “a professional” for their brands anyway.
So I decided to test it, and hired a swanky NYC publicist. Spending $3,000 a month for three months.
Month one: nothing. They called it an “onboarding phase” - which apparently meant three weeks to write a 1-page AI-generated press release about the launch of my brand.
Month two: they were supposed to start getting me featured. Big promises - morning news, Vogue, the works. What I actually got was two placements. One was a blog from a founder I already personally knew (which is probably why they got it). The other was a podcast they gave me the wrong time for, then told me I had five minutes to show up for, so I logged on while I was mid-IV vitamin infusion. Oh, and it was video so obviously, I looked like a hot mess.
$6,000 in, I asked for a record of all their outreach. Turns out they had mass-blasted their editor list about me once every two weeks. Four emails total for $6,000.
When I told them I didn’t feel like they were taking my account seriously, their response was: “Press isn’t guaranteed. You’re lucky you got anything.”
Quite the shift from “we’ll get you in Vogue.”
And that’s the reality with agencies - publicists, social media managers, ads managers (all of them) - results are never guaranteed.
Which blows my mind. I can’t imagine taking a client’s money to produce their order and then saying, “Nothing’s shipping. Thank you for your money, I tried. Results aren’t guaranteed.”
So I took matters into my own hands. I wrote my own pitch, sent it out, and within 48 hours had multiple celebrities interested in trying and promoting my bras.
All these celebs to be exact…
Christina Applegate - Married with Children, Anchorman, Dead to Me
Jane Fonda - the absolute legend, Klute, 9 to 5, Grace and Frankie
Mel Robbins - “let them”
Kathy Bates - Misery, Fried Green Tomatoes, American Horror Story
Cynthia Nixon - Sex and the City, A Quiet Passion, Killing Eve
Samantha Womack - EastEnders, Game On, Emmerdale
Jacqueline Smith - Charlie's Angels, Rage of Angels, The Bourne Identity
Jessica St. Clair - Broad City, Playing House, The Heat
And, Sandra Lee - cooking tv personality
I want to be really clear here. I had zero connections to these celebrities, their managers, their agents. I was 100% cold pitching.
I went back to the agency with those results. They refunded my money - but only after I signed a gag order, so I can’t name them. What I can do is tell you this story, because the point is simple: you can do anything a professional can do with a little help.
BTW - “PS- In case you are curious…” and “Lastly, before I go, a few cool things…” will always be FREE. But the guides, how-tos, and true industry knowledge (like this weeks step-by-step DIY PR guide) will now be $5 a month (worth it if you ask me).
Yesterday was my birthday! I know what you’re thinking, so I’ll tell you, I am now 39! Full disclosure when I typed that I wrote 29 - and that’s not the first time I made that mistake 😜
We went to dinner with my parents and that was it.
I have never been a big birthday person, but I think next year I am going to do something big for 40 - not sure what this is though.
Mexican back strap looms.
Labels no one is using… yet…
Why your clothes are (scientifically) dirtier when you wash them.
3 of the craziest things that happened to me working in fast fashion.
Deconstructing an Alice + Olivia dress - is it worth it?
How luxury rugs are made.
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