Top Publicist Reveals SECRET to Scaling a PR Firm w/Valese Jones

Valese Jones: 00:00:00

I don't care about being rich as long as I'm comfortable. I can help people when they need help. I can do the things that I like to do. I'm cool with that. But God had other plans.

I used to, you know, be scared to raise my prices because, you know, you just hear like, oh, I'm gonna turn people off. But no, you need to turn people off, turn people out so you can find your people.

Because I think one of the things I learned in school, my professor, I know for him saying, is if you market to everyone, you marketing to no one in public relations, you have to know a little about a lot and be a. Literally be a jack of all trades, master of none, because it's truly better than the master of one. Welcome, welcome.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:00:40

And welcome to the Mindy, my creative business podcast. The number one podcast for creative entrepreneurs to learn strategy, structure and self development. I am one of your hosts, Ron.

Shy Speaks: 00:00:51

Ironically Jr. And I am your host, Shy Speaks. And today's episode is going to be Fire. Why?

Because I, you know, I always say it, but this is gonna be my favorite because I have a new creative medium that I get to introduce today.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:01:07

Yes.

Shy Speaks: 00:01:07

And it's not just a creative medium, it's a person that I get to call friend as well. Let me not make no further ado. Public relations is creative. Journalists are creative because they have to be writers.

Valese Jones: 00:01:23

Exactly right.

Shy Speaks: 00:01:23

Event curators are creatives. So when you get all of that in one, you get none other than. Sincerely, Nicole's own Ms. Valise Jones.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:01:32

Y' all, knock it out for Ms. Valise Jones.

Valese Jones: 00:01:35

Hi. Thank you guys for having me.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:01:37

Oh, thank you for being here. So that's how we would introduce you. Okay, so how would Valise introduce herself?

Valese Jones: 00:01:43

I used to say Valise J, AKA the neighborhood publicist, which is a medium that was built over social media, not a platform that I purposely tried to build. But clearly people are interested in learning about what I do. So that's pretty much how I built my platform.

Just talking about different public relations things and teaching people how to read through, you know, what they're actually looking at. So that's where that came from.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:02:10

Read through what they're looking at. What do you mean by that?

Valese Jones: 00:02:12

So to know when you're looking at a unbiased piece written by a journalist versus you are reading a piece that I pitched and said, hey, spin this story and put this in my client's favor, or I'm trying to get my client in front of your audience. So teaching people to see the difference between that so that they can kind of deduce what's.

I hate to use these terms, real and fake news because of the person that coined it, but, yeah, real and fake news.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:02:39

Okay.

Shy Speaks: 00:02:39

Yeah.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:02:39

And it's a. It's an art today, huh?

Valese Jones: 00:02:41

Yes, art. It's a science. It's. I would consider PR or anything in the media field.

Communication is really a creative science because we do have to learn a lot of psychology, sociology, and everything to. To reach an audience, basically.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:02:59

No, you. You talking my language there. We.

We had another guest that was on that wanted to go into psychology and ended up going into, you know, marketing and communications. And he. He learned that, you know, there's some overlap with some similarities there.

Valese Jones: 00:03:15

Yes, for sure.

Because you have to understand people at a very emotional and mental level to be able to sell to them, because you have to know what makes them tick to know what they're gonna like to make them like something, to make them believe something. Because that's why I always tell business owners where they mess up.

Are you trying to make them like your product when you really need to be trying to make them feel your product?

Shy Speaks: 00:03:38

So. And then another thing that she does, I so happen to know, because I know. I like that. Right? So let's. Let's. Let's be clear. Let's be clear.

Currently, at this particular point in time and for the. For the duration of. I don't know, like, for a while now, at least five, six years. Valise is my publicist as well. So we got. Let's be clear.

Let's just get that out the way. So. And if. If anybody ever ran across me in a certain way, they know if they. If it ain't right way. One of my cousins say, like, what mode is she in?

Is she like, in friendly PR mode or she in pit bull P mode? So we got two different times. So I also want to talk about the fact when you say read through what you reading, she talks about.

When he talks about media, she talks about being able to tell what's going on in. Is it organic? Like, did this really just happen or. Or did somebody make it seem like that happened?

So she can actually unpack events that happens in culture and she just helping people. When we say the neighborhood public is helping them be like, that story was filtered before it came out.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:04:48

Right.

Shy Speaks: 00:04:48

Or this. You know, so. So it's not as. It got a little GMO in it.

Valese Jones: 00:04:52

You know what I mean? So she.

Shy Speaks: 00:04:53

So she. She knows how to help us with that. So I love that about about you.

I think that the reason why I was excited about interviewing her and I've held off on doing this because I'm like, dang, it's gonna be my uncle. What am I gonna say? You know?

But ultimately, I think about the people who are gonna be listening to this, those who are writers, and they're trying to figure out what they can do with a career in writing. What does that look like? Is that they don't want to go the book route. And it's like, what?

You know, So I know she can speak to that piece, and then there are other people who are, like, intermediate in that way and want to be on the right side of it. And so I know she can speak.

Valese Jones: 00:05:33

To all of them.

Shy Speaks: 00:05:33

And then, of course, being a part of the team, eventually with me, I know even with things that she was working on herself, also working on events, like, I know that people are watching this and can think about, okay, how can I apply that same kind of mindset into event curation and event management? And so I think about you guys more than thinking about the fact that I'm actually, like, interviewing my own.

Valese Jones: 00:05:55

Interviewing your own publicist. Yes. But you did, right? You disclosed that we have a prior relationship. Because that's journalistic integrity. Yes.

Shy Speaks: 00:06:02

Yeah. So, absolutely.

Valese Jones: 00:06:04

Which we don't see a lot of nowadays, but, you know, we got it on this podcast.

Shy Speaks: 00:06:08

And then also, I. I feel the honor to do it because when I met her, she was freelance at the time, or, like, she was kind of just independent under her own. And she was like, okay, I think I'm gonna stay like this.

Valese Jones: 00:06:22

She bullied me into building the firm. That's. This is what I'm saying. She. Bully. She's the reason I have a PR firm. She.

She literally made me be like, you're too good at this to just be freelance. Like, build. Build a team, build a firm. She's. She's really encouraged me to grow, and so she's gotten to see me from where Shy's my OG client.

Like, she was my first client that I had on my own when I went and started my own company.

And I actually got forced into starting my own company earlier than I wanted to by Guy and my circumstance, because it was my dream to work in corporate America until I was about 32, 33. Then build the thing. And I'm 31 now, but I've been doing this now for six years.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:07:07

Wow.

Valese Jones: 00:07:07

Yeah.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:07:08

Wow.

Shy Speaks: 00:07:08

Yeah.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:07:09

So you out here. You out here bullying people, encouraging me.

Shy Speaks: 00:07:13

Listen.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:07:13

No, no, but Lee said bully.

Shy Speaks: 00:07:15

Well, you Know, because she kept saying, I don't want to, and I kept saying, well, this is what it's gonna be.

Valese Jones: 00:07:19

No, that's literally. She did not give me. She really didn't give me much of a choice.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:07:23

Right.

Valese Jones: 00:07:23

She gave me, you know, a very, like, it was encouraging. And I'm joking when I said, but no, she was really just like, no, that's what it's gonna be. You're gonna have a firm. Get it in your mind.

Like, get in your mind. That's what it's gonna be. That's what's. That's what's happening. I'm watching the way you're moving, the way you're doing things.

You're gonna have a firm.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:07:40

So what was the mindset that. That had you at? Well, no, I'm good right here. I don't. I don't want to do. I don't want to do anything bigger than what I'm doing now.

Valese Jones: 00:07:48

I'm gonna be honest. It's because I did not want to deal with having a team and having to try to replicate myself, because I know that the average person is not me.

And Shot says that all the time. Like, she was like, you. She was like, you, kind of like a genius in your field.

She was like, because the way you can see stuff, do stuff, the capacity of work that I can do, the average person can't do. And I'm not saying that, like being cocky. I just know that because I've worked with the average person, and they just truly cannot keep up.

So that's what I was like. I don't feel like having to sit up here and. And go behind you, fix some.

Make sure you doing what you supposed to be doing, because then now I got to go fix this with a client because you ain't did what you supposed to do. But I had to get over myself in that. And of course, it's trial and error finding the right team, finding the right people that work with you. But my.

Well, she's now my junior publicist, who started off as my assistant. She basically harassed me to be my assistant. She, like, followed me on every social media platform, kept DMing me. I was not answering.

And I finally answered, then forgot to get back to her. She found my email. She emailed me.

She went on my website, found my number, and text me like, hey, lady, you're gonna answer me, and I'm gonna work with you? And she's been with me ever since, which was about three years ago.

Shy Speaks: 00:09:03

As you can see, it kind of takes this extreme level to get into her, get through to her. So God sees the right people, you know, encourage, you know what I mean? But no, that, that, that's a very, that's a good question.

As far as like what would make you not want to expand? So it's because the truth of the matter is you can actually do well with the clientele that you can.

Valese Jones: 00:09:23

Yeah, I mean because I was freelancing out like freelancer, I was making about 135 a year and that was fine. Like I was cool with right there being right there making, you know, kind of that mid six figures. I'm cool.

Like, okay, I don't, because I'm not really. I don't care about being rich. As long as I'm comfortable. I can help people when they need help. I could do the things that I like to do.

I'm cool with that. But God had other plans clearly because stuff just started falling in my lap.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:09:50

Right.

Valese Jones: 00:09:51

I have not really solicited clients throughout this journey. Very rarely do I have to go out and get anybody.

It's usually people being referred to me or people be like, hey, I've seen your work via social media, I want to work with you. And so those people just kept coming and so then I'm like, oh well, I have to expand even further.

So now on top of Jamie, I have my two PR assistants as well that help with my other clients because now I'm at about 15 retainer clients and with all of them we could probably handle about 25 to 30 retainer clients. Plus we can do like you know, one off events and things like that throughout the year.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:10:30

Now what kind of impact are you able to make now with your team and compared to where you were when you were just solo doing freelance?

Valese Jones: 00:10:39

Well, when I was solo doing freelance, it's just me. So it's only, it's just naturally only so much that I can do as a person.

So I will say now I get to go bring in the bigger business while they focus on that day to day grunt work that I just really don't have time to do anymore. If I want my business to keep growing and I want to keep them employed so they send out more of like the media pitches all day.

They make more of like the press kits and update bios and do more of the writing than I do now. I do more of the high level stuff like I'm creating the decks to present to the corporate partners.

I'm going to the meetings with the corporate partners. Cuz what people don't realize is you have to get out and build all these, like, you have to get out and build these relationships.

Like as a publicist, I don't just come with them. Then you have to maintain them. You have to do stuff like show up at folks kids birthday parties, show up at people, they get promoted at work.

They want you to come to the luncheon during the middle of the day. You have to do all of that stuff.

So when I call and say, hey, we need $10,000 for Shy's event, they looking at me going, girl, I ain't heard from you in three years. You know, they're like, okay, girl, I got you. I'm gonna make sure you get your, your check that you need for your client's event.

So that's just what I do all day, pretty much building and maintaining my relationships within the community and elsewhere to just keep my business growing and going.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:12:01

Okay, okay.

Shy Speaks: 00:12:02

All right. So. So we talk about, obviously you can do more clients.

Valese Jones: 00:12:08

Right.

Shy Speaks: 00:12:08

Than you could by yourself. And then of course you can do more, even more events and even doing more one off campaign.

Somebody just wants to work on like a, a short event or a three to four month campaign. You can pick up more of those.

Valese Jones: 00:12:22

Yeah.

Shy Speaks: 00:12:23

Would you say because. Because you have this.

Valese Jones: 00:12:24

Yeah, for sure. A lot of times what. And I'm about to say, I'm about to tell a PR secret, open secret.

If you're in the industry, a lot of times with the bigger firms will do, especially when they say urban campaign, the white firms will get the big check, they'll get the fifty thousand dollar retainer, then they'll call release and say, hey, we need you to get this to black media for us. So we need you to get this in front of this audience.

And then they pay me, you know, five, $10,000 to do this for the next three months, which, you know, that's $30,000 for my firm. And, and then we work on that campaign for just 90 days, which not really hard for me because I'm already tapped in with all those markets.

So to get you in the essence or get you in the ebony, that that's not hard for my firm because that's the community that I choose to focus on. Whereas the bigger firms, they usually don't focus on those communities. So they don't have the relationships.

But with me being a black owned firm, I have to have a relationships with both. I have to be able to tap into both to show my value.

Shy Speaks: 00:13:22

We. You already kind of like already given the juice, right? You're already talking about how you're getting some other clients from bigger firms.

That's one stream of income for somebody who has a PR firm.

You also talking about your retainer clients, the clients that you're going to keep and that you're going to retain, the community you choose to work with and the types of businesses you choose to focus on. And then, of course, there is like the campaigns, the one off campaigns that you choose to do. There's another piece that I didn't mention earlier.

So not only are you a publicist for me, but your brand manager, because you wind up helping with some sponsorship things. And that's something that I've seen you roll into being. Having a PR firm.

Do you feel like that's something that if somebody has a PR firm and they are not yet doing brand sponsorships and all that, do you think that that's something they should go ahead and add to their portfolio? Is it a necessity at this point?

Valese Jones: 00:14:17

Or.

Shy Speaks: 00:14:18

Or not necessarily.

Valese Jones: 00:14:19

I wouldn't necessarily say it's a necessity. I will say if you have the relationships to do so, then you are missing out on a good stream of income.

But if you do not have the relationships, nor do you know how to quantify the data to do so, take some classes and learn how to do it properly first so you don't be messing your clients up. Like, it's okay if that's a skill set that you're not good at, because that's one of the things, too, you have to learn as a good leader. What.

What am I not good at? Like, I hate everything that has to do with the paperwork and organizing. I hate that.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:14:52

Yeah.

Valese Jones: 00:14:52

So that's what I got Jamie for. Because she's anal, she's spreadsheet queen. She gonna keep up with every. Every eye dot, like across every T. That's her. Me. I'm. I'm the visionary.

I'm like, okay, we gonna curate this event. This what this event is gonna look like. And she and my best friend and I bring in a lot of times to help me with events.

Bridget, they gonna break down every step, every time they gonna do that. Because I don't. Don't. Just tell me what time I need to be there.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:15:18

Okay?

Valese Jones: 00:15:18

Just tell me where my press need to be. Tell me. Okay, I'm. I'mma put this in the places where I know the people gonna see. That's what I do. I'm gonna come up with that strategy.

Y' all tell me about all that other, other stuff later. I know that's not my strength. So I don't try to pretend it is. I do the things that I'm great at and pay other people to do the things they.

Shy Speaks: 00:15:35

Great.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:15:36

I love it. Now, with that strategy, with the sponsorship piece, is that something that you're doing based off of the retainer that they have with you already?

Or you do that kind of like a commission base where it's like, okay, if I'm going out and I'm getting you this sponsorship and they, you know, whatever, get you additional 10,000, you're taking a percentage of that or how does that work?

Valese Jones: 00:16:01

So you pay me an upfront flat fee because you gonna pay me for my time, right. And pay me for the fact that I have to get a designer who's probably gonna make a deck, read through all your data, and have to write about.

And I'm going to have to write about what your event is to give to him to put in there and, you know, make it look appealing. And we also have to research these different brands that. To pitch you to.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:16:22

Right.

Valese Jones: 00:16:22

So that takes time. So you do have to pay a flat fee. And then we. The percentage goes anywhere from 10 to 25. It just depends on what your flat fee is.

And I do have different levels based on the level that your business is at.

So, of course, I'm not going to charge somebody whose business is only making $50,000 a year the same thing that I would charge somebody whose business is making $250,000 a year or an established event per se. Like, I have people that come to me that have established events.

Maybe they've kind of tapped out in a market of sponsors that they've been working in, but they. They need a few extra dollars. So they'll come to me and be like, hey, we need an extra 35, 40K. Do you know where I could go get this from?

Can you help me with that?

And like, with people like that, usually I just, like, give me a percentage off the commission and so many ticket, like, so many tickets so that I could bring somebody, you know, to the event and court people in that way, or I can give my clients and they can go. So it just depends on people's business. I'm very fair and how I do business. So I'm. I still believe in bartering.

So if you got a product that I need, like, for example, my nail tech doesn't charge me what she charged everybody else because I promote her business.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:17:32

Okay?

Valese Jones: 00:17:33

Same thing with my hairdresser. I promote her business and bring her clients so she doesn't charge me what she charges everybody else.

So don't ask me what my prices are because that's not gonna be your price.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:17:42

So. And I love that barter piece. Right. I mean that's kind of. I came up with that, right?

Me being a music producer, I have musician friends, I have graphic designer friends, photography friends. Right. We grew up in that barter system. But as everybody gets older, they like nah time off of bartering. I need that bread, you know what I'm saying?

So what makes you still choose to use that bartering system? And I'm sure it's selective in that, but still, what makes you choose?

Valese Jones: 00:18:06

Yeah, I do it with people that I know I can trust to uphold their end of the deal. I'm not going to barter with somebody who I can't trust that you're going to come through with your service.

Now I knew we need money, like bills got to get paid out here. So I make sure my bills get paid and I do.

So every year I take on two projects that I will do for free for people who can't necessarily afford my services. So that's one way how I keep that going.

But also in order for me to barter with you, we already have to have an established relationship at this point. I'm not, I'm not saying no new friends. I'm just, I'm all out of favorites. The free. It's a no for most people.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:18:45

Right, right.

Shy Speaks: 00:18:45

And it sounds like when you were talking about the barter, it's the bar, like you're not charging me as much, but I'm still paying you.

Valese Jones: 00:18:52

Yeah, right.

Shy Speaks: 00:18:52

And so then whenever I get ready to do something, I'm not charging you.

Valese Jones: 00:18:55

As much, but I'm still paying. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. It's a, it's a, it's a fair situation. Like for example, if I ask Shot to perform, I'm not going to ask Shot to perform for free.

I know she has, especially if I'm asking her to bring her band and do a full out show. But she might not charge me what she charges a regular client to go do a show. But I'm going to pay her something.

Like even sometimes when she needs me to do something extra, like, hey, I need you to kind of add this on. I'm not going to charge her what I would charge somebody new for trying to add on the service. It's going to be smaller.

And that's because we have built that type of relationship over the years. But of course, when I don't know you don't come to me asking me for no favors. I don't know you like that.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:19:32

Y' all hear that? Do not go asking for no favors because she don't know you like that. But.

But that's real, though, because that speaks to the importance and the value of relationships.

Valese Jones: 00:19:41

Yeah.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:19:41

Right? I mean, when you. We hear the term public relations. Right, but it's really public relationships.

Valese Jones: 00:19:47

Yes.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:19:48

At the end of the day, it's all about the relationships that you've established, Right. That you. You just talked about maintaining them. Right?

So it's like, I gotta do stuff that I probably don't necessarily don't want to do, but I'm doing it to maintain the relationship so that when I call and it's not like, oh, I heard from you, it's like, no, I'm willing to do that for you because of the relationship. So that's very viable in business.

And I think a lot of times, especially creatives, can miss out on that, because a lot of times those creators can be introverted.

Valese Jones: 00:20:16

A lot of creatives are very introverted. And a lot of creatives. The funny part is creatives are creative in their medium, but they forget to apply that to relationships.

So I. I'm like, use your gift to keep their. To maintain their relationship.

Whether if you're like, okay, you're a producer, maybe if you send over a beat or something, be like, hey, this beat made me think of this song. Made me think of. It doesn't have to be something big. People always think maintaining relationships means you gotta, like, go out the way.

Oh, you gotta go to this event. You gotta buy something. You gotta do this. It could be something that's simple.

There are people that I know, we had conversations, and I see a TikTok video, and I'll sit on the TikTok and be like, girl, I remember last time we was together, we were talking about this, you know, and that's a way to keep the connection and maintain the relationship and stay at the top of people's minds. So just be creative with the way you can, you know, in the way you can communicate with people.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:21:05

I love that. That's. That's. I think that's the first time I heard that one.

Shy Speaks: 00:21:08

Yeah, that is. That's the first time I've heard that. Being creative with how you create relationship. Nobody ever says, hey, here's this beat.

Like, that's a pretty cool idea. Shout out. You see what I'm saying? Y' all see what I'm saying?

I told y', all, you know, now, okay, so you were talking a bit about the relationship piece. And because there's relationships, there's room for a barter and all that.

But you know, when it comes to strip, because I don't want someone listening to this who's already maybe a freelancer or maybe they are a PR person and they, they have a firm.

But they were thinking, well, we're about to add on that brand partnership piece and they're not having any structure with their pricing and, and packages because they're like trying to customize and free for all and barter everything. So just for clarity, you do you have like set packages as well?

Valese Jones: 00:21:55

And then my prices are built off my life and what I need to survive. So I don't make my prices according to what she will afford. I make my prices according to the life that police like to live.

So at least like to keep her hair done, at least like to keep her nails done. But he's like to live in a certain neighborhood, I like to go eat at certain restaurants. So guess what? My prices are going to reflect that.

But also the work you're going to get is going to reflect that as well. But yeah, that's how I make my prices now.

I used to, you know, be scared to raise my prices because, you know, you just hear like, oh, I'm gonna turn people off. But no, you need to turn people off, turn people out so you can find your people.

Because I think one of the things I learned in school, my professor, I know for him saying, is if you market to everyone, you marketing, no one. And so my business is not for everybody. I'm not the publicist for everybody.

And now I'm at the point where my lowest retainer is fifteen hundred dollars a month for small businesses. That's for, for small businesses. But for corporations, I don't do anything for less than $10,000 a month. I. It's no, if you start lowering it, we.

I'm not question for you, I'm gonna send you some, some recommendations.

We're not even gonna have a conversation about it because I'm not gonna think give you any room to believe you can haggle my price because it's not any room there. So that's kind of how I do it. I feel. I tell people reverse engineer.

So if you know you need $140,000 to comfortably live your life for the year, set your prices to where you're going to gross 250,000. So if you do fall a little bit under your 250, you still are Able to maintain your life in your company.

So that's kind of how I just do is setting my prices. And I tell all, you know, publicists that come to me. Young publicist, yes.

Set your prices according, but you also got to do the quality of work that makes people feel comfortable paying those prices.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:23:44

Definitely.

Shy Speaks: 00:23:46

All right, so, okay, when it comes to. We got these prices set and everything, but how do I make sure my back end is set up? Because I remember talking to you. You say you.

You want to manage the team, but it's also the. The. There needs to be contracts involved. And you was like, see, I'm gonna have to do this. I'm gonna have to make sure these contracts is in place.

And I'm at the hold people to this and so forth and so on. So how does that work when you, like, okay, when I sign on with you, we go through an agreement. Do we.

Do we need to make sure that there is some kind of contract right off the top? Or is it like, you know, there has to be something?

Valese Jones: 00:24:28

Especially now. I have learned. I have absolutely learned my lesson about, you know, you can't shake hands with people no more. Unfortunately. People don't.

People don't do right by that, I mean, I grew up, you know, I'm from Birmingham, Alabama. I shake a man hand, and he gonna show up to come cut my GR. Press. Right. Like he said he was gonna do. But people don't operate like that anymore.

So you do have to have your contracts ironclad. And I had a lawyer make all my contracts for my employees. The one that I sent to all my clients, I had lawyers make that. And I.

Now at the point, I am in my business, I actually have a business attorney that I keep on retainer that I pay an amount every month. So anytime if something comes up, boom, I just a. Yeah, send it right to it. Send it right to her. You. You deal with that.

Because I'm not arguing with you about no contract. I'm not arguing with you about no payment. And if you don't want to pay, guess we're gonna put it on your credit. So.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:25:19

Man, listen. And. And. But that's. That's good business, right? It's like, it ain't personal. It's business.

But the fact that you didn't take care of your business, now.

Valese Jones: 00:25:29

And I. And I do try to talk to you first. I do try. You know, I leave with, you know, Grace because stuff happens.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:25:35

Yeah.

Valese Jones: 00:25:35

But also, if you communicate with me up front and you give me an opportunity to prepare, because And I think, I think some of you, I don't think people do it maliciously all the time.

There are some people who definitely are malicious and doing it, but I think people be embarrassed to tell you, like, hey, I'm not making the money I once was. I'm having a slow season in business.

I need to, you know, can, if you talk to me, we can work something out where it's like, okay, let's lower your amount. Or I might even say, hey, you don't have to pay me for the next couple of months, you know, till you get yourself back in order.

But talk to me and give me the opportunity to do that versus you just not paying your retainer or you paying it three weeks late. And then you now mad cause you got a late fee. But you, you didn't care that I got a late fee on my bill because you didn't pay yours.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:26:17

Right.

Valese Jones: 00:26:18

So we got to make up for that late fee I gotta pay. So that's now on you.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:26:22

Yeah.

Valese Jones: 00:26:22

To make up. But it's just more about communication.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:26:25

Yeah, no, I just did a training about that whole concept of communicating. Right. It's like life happens. We understand that. But I rather you talk to me opposed to me finding out.

Because if I find out, then that's, that's, that's something totally different.

Valese Jones: 00:26:38

Yeah. It makes you feel a certain type of way. It's like was you trying to hide. Now I'm thinking you was lying.

Now, now I'm thinking all these negative things when it's just really, you know, you, you could, you just embarrassed. You embarrassed to tell me when it's, that's really all it is. Because when you get down to it, most people is shame. They're.

They're trapped in a prison of shame. And so they're afraid to ask for help. They're afraid to tell you what they really need.

Shy Speaks: 00:26:59

Yeah, yeah. And the, the crazy part about all this is this, this doesn't just stop with the employee and then the client. Right.

I'm sorry, like as far as like legal stuff, it's like I now have to. Even if you're not a client and I'm just going to work with you on a one off situation, you're like kind of like a customer at this point.

If you're not like, we haven't made you a client yet, you're just a customer. I still have to do that. And I have to do that like this education piece too.

So that was another thing that I saw that you were learning on your journey Is that something that you would recommend as well to, to people who want to have a PR firm? Not say that? Because we just went straight into this episode. I said public relations, journalists, writing and event curation.

And we assume that you know what all those are. And people say they know what PR.

Valese Jones: 00:27:51

Is, but child, they don't. And then they think you're, you're their assistant, they think you're their employee, they think you're responsible for running their business.

And I had to tell them no. You, you, you told me to put you in front of the audience that you want to get in front of.

That's what you paid me for, to put you in front of the audience you want to get in front of. I'm not here to run your business. I'm not here to be your personal assistant. Answer no emails for your schedule, no meetings. I schedule interviews.

And if I'm scheduling to meet this with a brand that's going to put you in front of the audience you want to be in front of. That's what I'm here to do. In layman's terms, I like to say you want to be seen by them over there.

I put you over there a whole lot easier than you could get over there.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:28:37

Okay. No, no, that's good. I mean, because you said it's like a lot of people don't really know what, what PR is. Right.

And I haven't had a PR person directly that I work with, but I've just heard stories and like you said, they thinking that you, the assistant and all these other things that it's like, no, that's not what I'm.

Valese Jones: 00:28:57

But also, I will say it's a lot of people who are saying they're publicist that are not. You are a social media manager, you are not a publicist. That's not, that is not the same thing. And I'm not downing social media managers.

I absolutely love social media managers.

I got, I'm bartering right now with a client for her to run my social media stuff and I do her PR stuff because I don't want to do social media management because I know I've done it, so I know what goes into it. That's a whole different style of writing, a whole different style of creative thinking.

You got to keep up with social media all day, every day so you can stay on top of the trends and all of it. I don't do any. So I, I got somebody who can do it. But a lot of people are not publicists because you know how I know you can't write.

That's, that's the first thing. In order to be a publicist, you cannot write. You, you cannot be a publicist.

I've had people who cannot even write a simple press release or write a media pitch. You don't have no media context. You're not a publicist. You can't, you can't call a contact at a brand.

You can't even get your client on the local news. You're not a publicist. So I think that's one of the biggest problems is people calling themselves things that they are not.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:30:05

Right.

Shy Speaks: 00:30:06

Wow. So they messing up the definition of what it is.

He was working with this person but there was really like a marketer maybe or administrative assistant.

Valese Jones: 00:30:17

And some of y' all are just socialites. They just happen to know a lot of people. That does not make you a publicist.

Like you just so happen to know a lot of people and you can introduce a person to somebody but can you convert that into a relationship that is now beneficial to them business wise? And if you cannot do that, you're not a publicist.

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Shy Speaks: 00:31:37

So we, you talked about another, that's another stream of income or a service that can be added under a PR firm nowadays that wasn't probably maybe 50 years ago. So you have getting them in front of the, getting them in front of the people over there because that's who they want to being be in front of.

You talked about, we talked about the brand management and brand sponsorship side of things. And then you can add social social media management. Should that be something that's under a PR firm or should that, I say.

Valese Jones: 00:32:07

That only be under a PR firm if you have somebody that's dedicated to do it.

Shy Speaks: 00:32:13

So you have to you have to.

Valese Jones: 00:32:14

Have somebody that's dedicated to do it because it's a whole nother job.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:32:18

Yeah.

Valese Jones: 00:32:19

And I think of course with this economy and everything, people roll pr, marketing, advertising all into one role when they do all work together. And I like to explain it, it's a car.

Shy Speaks: 00:32:29

Okay.

Valese Jones: 00:32:30

I would say that marketing is the car. Like overall the car advertising would be the wheels you put on the car. PR would be the gas. So all that goes.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:32:41

Okay.

Valese Jones: 00:32:42

That's how I explain it. Because they all work together, but they are not all the same thing. And that's.

And now because we just live in this world of hybrid, hybrid, hybrid and people do overwork. Corporate employees, the. Where they're doing all the things. That's really not how it's supposed to be. Because even on a.

Just for a good PR team to run efficiently, like for example, like I said, I have I think 15 retainer clients or 20 somewhere around there might be a little bit more because I think we just signed a couple this week. You. I have to have four people. I have to. We could not do that without four people doing that because then me, myself trying to have 20 clients.

I'm not saying I couldn't do it because I've done it. I've worked at a firm where I've had 35, 40 clients. I had no choice but to, you know, manage all those clients well.

But they're not all getting the best of me.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:33:32

Right.

Valese Jones: 00:33:33

If I got 40, 45 people to be. You're not all gonna get the best of me. But If I got 25 clients and we're all. I have five that I'm strictly focused on. Like they're my main focus.

And then my, my, my junior publicist has five that she's working on every single day. That's her main focus. In my PR assistants have some that they, you know, they're focused on and they're pitching for.

That's, that's a whole lot better and a better result, you're going to feel like you're getting more probably more than you actually are in a way. Like. But that's how you have to do that if you want to do your work in a spirit of excellence.

You don't want to have do people stuff and, and I've done that taking on too much where people. Cuz like I said, people refer me to people and I don't want to let down the person they refer said person.

I take on a person and then I'm like, I really don't have time to do this and then now I'm like about to make you mad. But I do, I operate with integrity.

So I'll tell you straight up, like, hey, I really don't have time to do this, so let me go ahead and cancel your contract and I'm like, here, your money back. Let me send you to somebody else because it's not working.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:34:33

Yeah.

Shy Speaks: 00:34:33

All right, so you go ahead.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:34:35

Yeah. So like on a day to day, right, we talk about publicists and you just narrowed it down, Right.

We said, okay, you know, marketing is this big thing, but publicists are doing. PR is a little bit more narrow, focused. Right. But on a day to day, what does that look like for you as a publicist?

So if I have you on retainer, right, I've met with you, you know who I want to get in front of. Yeah. What does that, they look like when working for a client to get them in front of. I would assume it's multiple audiences. I mean. Yeah.

How does it, how does that work?

Valese Jones: 00:35:07

A lot of research.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:35:08

Okay.

Valese Jones: 00:35:09

Like a lot of reading. It is a lot of reading and a lot of writing. Which is why I said, if you cannot write, you are not a publicist.

Because that is the first step to all of it being able to research and write properly.

So I'm constantly reading, whether that be the news, whether that be a book, constantly reading, you know, stuff up about my clients, about their industries and all these different things.

You have to know a little about a lot and be a, literally be a jack of all trades, master of none, because it's truly better than the master of one in, in public relations. So it's constant reading, constant research on the phone a lot. It's a lot of meetings, a lot of emails.

Now I have set a goal for my team to do 100 pitches per client a month. So they at least have to send out 25 to 30 pictures a week. So that can be media, that can be brands, that can be events.

Because we do have clients that do speaking and in that realm. And of course, like Shy is an artist.

So if we see festivals or something that makes sense, we'll pitch her to those festivals and all those different things as well. So they just have to do 100 pitches for each client a month, no matter what that is. So day to day, that's what's going on. We're probably pitching.

If I'm not outside at an event doing something, I'm probably at home on my computer pitching.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:36:31

So when we talk about, you know, pitching. Right. Hundred pictures a Month. Like, who are you pitching to? And then what exactly are you pitching? Like, what? Yeah, what does that look like?

Valese Jones: 00:36:39

So we're pitching to different journalists, different brands, different events. And the thing people don't understand is you cannot send a generic pitch.

Those pictures have to be tailored to whatever medium, to whatever journalist you're doing. Because journalists, for they hate generic pictures.

Do not send a journalist a pitch like they're on some email list that you just picked up and put, hey, everybody, this is shot speaks and she do civilized face cover this. Like they're going to ignore you. And a lot of them will put you on a block list. Yes, journalists will block you from emailing them.

It has happened early in my career. Thank God. Don't happen as much more. But when I was a baby publicist and made mistakes like sending out, you know, just a gen. No generic pitch. But.

So that takes time. You have enough because like I said, research. I have to go research a journalist.

I have to go read their pieces so I can reference, like, hey, I saw you wrote about this. I have this client that does this and I think that would be of interest to you. The only way I can know that is if I've read that journalist work.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:37:41

Right.

Valese Jones: 00:37:42

So when you think about your publicist pitching, that's what's going into it. So it's not just a like, oh, I'm gonna send an email in five minutes. No, I had to go read some articles by them and see how they write.

See if that's a good fit for what you're trying to do. Then now write a pitch to them.

And a lot of times it takes two to three follow ups to get an answer from people until you build a, you know, established relationship with them. Because I'm also. Although I have journalists that I can count on and networks that I could, you know, easily get to, there's some that I don't.

And I have to build new relationships with new journalists every single day. And that takes time. So you're constantly emailing them, DMing them on different platforms. I love LinkedIn now.

I think because of the pandemic and how stuff shifted, it's a lot more cool to hit them up on Instagram and hit more on Twitter. Like, they used to be like a cardinal, like, no, do not bother people on those mediums. But now I feel like it's gotten a little bit more relaxed.

And even in pr, I laugh because my first PR job, they still weren't big on email. Even though you had to fax over your Your pitch.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:38:47

Oh wow.

Valese Jones: 00:38:48

Like you had to fax over your pitch. And then my first assignment was to find a journalist at a New York Times and get a story retracted about a client.

Now imagine being fresh out of college working at your fire meeting. Yo. And yo. Your boss say you need to use retracted out of New York terms. How do that?

And then you got to go find a journalist, find the right department call over there, get their fax number send like that you want them to retract it? Why you want them to retract it, what you want them to say instead and then hope they fact you backing into you.

Shy Speaks: 00:39:20

Yeah. So.

So you're bringing up another piece of this and I, I feel like we've leaned so far onto the PR side that we haven't I mentioned a couple other titles from the get go which is like kind of event curation and also like writing because there's some, there's a way to monetize that as well and, and tie that into your business. But we lean in so far into the PR side and now I want to move on. But it's like when you say redacted.

So we're pitching you positively to people to it pretty much sounds like matchmaking. So PR is matchmaking. I'm making a match between you and the media company.

I'm making a match between you and this brand partner that I feel like would be a good fit for you. I'm pitching them. I'm making a match between you and this event that you should be a part of. So forth and so on.

But then okay, there's a negative side of PR where it, well there's. It's still positive for the PR but it's negative side of what happens to public figures.

Sometimes somebody says something negative about you and now I have to move from pitching you to trying to help get something redacted.

Valese Jones: 00:40:22

Yeah. Which is crisis management. And cuz sometimes information can be false.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:40:28

Right.

Valese Jones: 00:40:28

And I, because I do have a right. Especially if you are a journalistic entity that's covered under, you know, the rules that the moral code of ethics that we have to follow.

Cuz that's what people try to realize.

A, a actual media outlet like the New York Times, they have a code of ethics that they have to, that they have to follow a blog does not necessarily have date but they do. So I can say hey, what you reported is false. Here's the proof that it's false. They have to now retract that statement.

Or I can sue them like we can sue Them because that's liable. And so people, a lot of people don't know that.

But even like she said this, when you have done something or said something or somebody says something about you that finds you in hot water, I have to create a plan to get you out of that hot water.

Whether that be getting people to retract statements or finding people to write stuff in your favor or finding you a platform to address whatever it was that is said by you. So that's another piece that goes into pr. I personally, like, I keep certain type of plans together for certain crisis for each of my clients.

Like, I think of things that they could get in trouble for. Like, and I, because I don't make my clients be who they aren't.

So if you are the type of person that I know will cut somebody out if they come at you crazy on media, I have, I have a crisis plan for if they backfire on you. You know, like, if you do it to the wrong person and it just end up backfiring, you have a crisis plan for that.

Yeah, Like I, I represent influencers. A lot of times it just depend on which way the wind blows. Somebody get mad at the influencer for what they. This opinion pissed them out today.

So now it's your, it's your turn in the, in the Internet cycle to be, you know, on the summer Gene Summer jam screen. I'm very good at taking those moments and flipping them into something that make. Did not make people laugh. Like, I'll use my.

Because it's actually going on now. My clients, Jamila Bell and Machiavelli, people call them yappers. Like, and it's a, it's a negative thing.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:42:30

Right.

Valese Jones: 00:42:31

But we have taken that and turned that into a positive, which is now one of the reasons brands like to work with them because they like to talk. They talk about a bevy of different things. They don't have a niche, so they talk about a bunch of different things. And we now have this joke.

Oh, I just be yapping. Like that's the thing. It's a part of their brand.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:42:49

Okay.

Valese Jones: 00:42:50

And so I turned that into a positive, which started off as a negative thing. And people coming at them negatively on the Internet about y' all just be yapping and talking.

Well, okay, y' all forgot we grew up watching Ricky Lake. We grew up watching people just Yelp. So that's what we're gonna turn them into.

Shy Speaks: 00:43:03

Yeah. So. So you have it. So you the kind of answers your question about the day to day.

So we know what Goes into the work of a PR firm, which is good for our viewers who are listening. It's like this is. This is what you up against. You pitching all day.

You may have to redact certain things only if it's not true or maybe get them to edit and you can provide more context to certain things. You are following up on email. Following up, following up, following up. You're meeting, meeting me.

Because after you follow up and somebody says yes, now we got to hop on call, have the meeting.

Valese Jones: 00:43:36

After we're meeting, another three moment. It's about the meetings. The meetings, the meetings before. I tell people all the time. It's like seven. Seven meetings before you get a yes for most.

For most brands, like seven.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:43:50

Right.

Valese Jones: 00:43:50

It's every blue moon. I will get one that give me a yes just off an email. And I'm always super appreciative when that happens.

But I spend the time proving that you're, you know, I don't like to use the word worthy, but proving that you are capable of doing what they. What they need to reach their objectives so you don't have to.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:44:11

Yeah.

Valese Jones: 00:44:11

So I take that work off your hands so you can focus on whatever your job is and whatever your, your work is that you're doing is.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:44:17

Yeah. And it's the same concept as far as when we talk about marketing, where there's seven points of contact before somebody buys from you.

Valese Jones: 00:44:24

Yeah.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:44:24

So it's the same.

Valese Jones: 00:44:25

It's the same. It's the psychology of people.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:44:27

Okay.

Valese Jones: 00:44:27

Like that's that you can apply that to anything you want people to do. You want people to change a behavior. Usually going to take you seven to 10 months to get them to change their behavior.

Like, so if you put that in your mind, you apply that to everything. And also think about, think about yourself how long it take you to commit to something. So think about.

It's going to take them just as long, if not longer, to commit to what you got going on and to buy into it. And sometimes they might buy into it at a lower level at first, but then once you execute it, then it's like, okay, I saw you execute that with five.

Okay, we're gonna come back this year and give you 10.

Shy Speaks: 00:45:01

Right ascension.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:45:03

Yeah.

Shy Speaks: 00:45:04

Okay. So we.

Listen, I want to put you in the hot seat at this point because we're running out of time and I want you to just begin to drop the juice in the gems on those who care for the writing side of things. Like, they want to write and maybe they're not a PR person. And they don't want to write for a PO for them or. But they can just write.

And I know that there are times where you be like, I like what you're doing. You're like, oh, I just finished writing this, whatever. I just submitted this.

So there is a way to make money as a writer and you incorporate that into your business. Tell me a few ways that you can make money.

Valese Jones: 00:45:36

Well, so I, I was a journalist first. I'm a journalist by trade. First became a publicist after the fact. So writing, first love.

But you can do copywriting and that's for websites, that's for social media, that's for dicks. Because what a lot of people don't like to do and a lot of people are not good in America's writing. And so people will pay you top dollars who write.

Big companies, small companies, people. It is a good way to make money off writing. Publications now do a lot of freelance pieces.

So even now I still write for different mediums as a journalist. I'll cover stuff for them and they know I'm going to be there.

Like for instance, when I go every year I have different outlets that'll pay me to write a piece recapping what happened to ESSENCE Fest of the day. Because they don't want to, they don't want to pay to send a whole journalist down there. They know you already there.

only got to pay you whatever,: 1500

a stipend. I'm going give you: 1500

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:46:37

But how do they know that? How do they know that, that I can write?

Valese Jones: 00:46:40

Yeah, well one, you know, in your pictures, your pictures show that you can write. But also I am, I, I literally went to school for journalism.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:46:47

Right.

Shy Speaks: 00:46:48

But it's like for somebody else.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:46:50

Yeah.

Shy Speaks: 00:46:50

You're trying to say, yeah, put yourself. How do you get that business?

Valese Jones: 00:46:53

Create you. It doesn't have to be an extensive website, but create your website to showcase that you are able to write and put yourself out there. Use fiverr.

Use upwork, reach out. I had, I've had copywriters reach out to me. Just email cold pitches like, hey, do you need something written? Do you need a blog? Do you need this?

Then the third, just reach out to people. You had to put yourself out there and show people that you can do that.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:47:14

Okay, okay, okay.

Shy Speaks: 00:47:16

And then. Okay. So now in the spirit of hot seat. Let's go ahead and talk about event creation because that's something. Let's talk about that.

Because you just said like writing, you can kind of get a thousand dollars, fifteen hundred dollars, two thousand dollars. So is there, is there more money that you can make in writing before I move on to even.

Valese Jones: 00:47:39

Oh yeah, if you can get clients that will like retainer clients. I have friends that are copywriters. Is making 20,000, $30,000 a month.

Yeah, because they write for big, like corporate, corporate companies, tech companies, all these different things they do out, like for websites, newsletters for their employees. They do all that different copywriting for them, social media copywriting.

So it's just really got to your research and decide what type of writing you like to do. So don't pick a medium that you're not gonna have. I have people that make, I have bloggers that make 15,000, $20,000 a month.

Just write blogs for different companies about different things. So you can do a lot with it. So.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:48:16

And I know what you want to, but I'm just saying as far as, like with the introduction of AI, I mean, even though AI has been around forever, but people now utilizing that to write, has that been an issue or does that take away from the bottom line for people that write?

Valese Jones: 00:48:32

I'm gonna be honest, it's only an issue for people that aren't smart. Because anybody who truly cares about their business, they still don't want somebody to check behind AI, Right.

To make sure that the AI has the facts correct. Because if it does not, now that's opening your company up to a world of trouble.

Like you, you print something or post them on your website, it's completely false. Now you, you finna be in the meeting.

Whether that's a PR problem or, or you could be getting sued, you put some wrong information out about something or somebody, now you got a whole legal problem on your hand. So there's always going to be a need for humans when it comes to writing, because I just simply cannot recreate the humanity of us, Right?

No, it can write, but it cannot, it cannot recreate your creativity. It's never going to be more creative than we are because we programmed it right.

Shy Speaks: 00:49:21

And then also I was thinking about the friend of mine who has the multimedia company and he's moved from print to online and now he has to keep up with like he's trying to put out online.

Valese Jones: 00:49:31

You have to put out a whole, a whole whole lot of content, which AI can be helpful in that way. But you still need somebody to fact check because AI is wrong a lot. It pulls facts, cuz you got to think.

It searches the Internet real quick and pulls stuff and puts information together and it splices it together. It's so many times that I have seen people send me some AI, I'm like, that's, that's not true.

Like I've had to tell them, like, that's, that's not true. You need to take that out of there. And they're like, oh, I said you need a person to check behind the AI, right?

Like, so I would say if you're going to utilize AI, you still need a person who checks behind it to make sure it's correct. Which is why I feel like writers will never be obsolete.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:50:08

Okay.

Shy Speaks: 00:50:08

And then also like, if you're so going back to this multimedia person, this multimedia company, and they're trying to produce three to five pieces of content every day for their website just to stay relevant. And as a writer, you can reach out to them and say, hey, I'll be a part of the team. I'll come on as a writer.

Because even if I'm using AI, somebody still got to publish it. You got to publish, you got to hit go on the thing, push upload, put the picture with the, with the write up and post it.

And also you may be writing on some current events that are happening. You may be writing on the event that just happened last night. AI wasn't there.

Valese Jones: 00:50:43

Right.

Shy Speaks: 00:50:43

So you, so you're going to help them keep. So I think that's an outlet.

So if you're a writer, I'd say reach out to my friend who is a multimedia company and say, hey, can I be one of the writers on your team? And then try to get on retainer with him because he needs a lot.

Valese Jones: 00:50:56

Yeah, he need a lot of content.

Shy Speaks: 00:50:59

So. All right, so that's, that's one piece I want to move real quickly to event curation and management. Okay, so let's talk about that. Financially.

If somebody could successfully do four events a year, and these four events have like a couple hundred, three to five hundred people right at it, like financially, can you build a business off just being an event curator?

Valese Jones: 00:51:32

Yes.

Shy Speaks: 00:51:35

Would that be enough? You know, can you, can you put together a price point to say, hey.

Valese Jones: 00:51:41

Yeah, it's the audience for you. I tell people, do not be scared to price yourself as long as your quality. I'm gonna say it again, the quality of your work match the price.

Because a lot of y' all be liking to be ten Thousand dollar packages and you do a thousand dollar work but people don't mind paying you if they see the work is worth it. I know I have friends who all they do is events. That's what they do all day every day. Don't do nothing else.

They making half a million dollars to, to a million dollars a year. Right. So there's an audience for everything. You just have to pick what kind of events you do.

Me, my business is built out doing stuff in the community, community engagement and touching the people. So did I make a good chunk of my money does come from events? I would say now my business at minimum I make 100k a year off just events alone.

And that's not events that I produce.

That's me doing it for my clients and being paid off that and then now that I, I have my non profit and we're doing our own events, I don't make that money.

Of course a non profit does, but we probably 40 of what we gonna make on the non profit probably is gonna come from the events that we're curating throughout the year. So definitely event creation is lucrative if you have the patience and you are graced by God to do that full time.

I could not, I could not do that and that'd be the bulk of my business every day but. Because I'd probably flip a few tables over. But yes, if you, you grace to do that, you love that.

You love all the hustle, the bustle, the changes, the rigor. Morrow, I definitely say it's worth doing full time if that's something you love to do.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:53:13

Okay. Okay. No, listen, I, you got the. I've answered all, I mean I've asked all my questions.

Shy Speaks: 00:53:18

I'm good. Like see so. All right. So okay. If somebody did.

We know what writing is kind of you and, and the AI and the person you're writing for and trying to be as true as possible and real and creative as possible with the event curation. Is there some kind of structure that they need to add behind that? Like some kind of administrative something that they need in the back end?

Some kind of.

Valese Jones: 00:53:40

I definitely don't need a person that understands operations. Definitely think you need a project manager volunteer. You need a volunteer database. You need to build that up. You need to have reliable volunteers.

ake sure you have a budget of: 2500

Usually if your budget for your event, let's just say your budget is 250,000, you need to have at least 15% of that, allowed it to go to marketing already off the top.

Because you know for you to make, even make that back, you're gonna have to spend 15% of that on trying to make that money back and make, or make a profit. So I would say you need an operations manager, a project manager, and you need at least five to seven volunteers, solid volunteers that you can have.

And of course, if you can hire a day of, and a week of team, if that doesn't come with, if you don't have that already on your staff, then I would say hire those people to work with you the week in the day of. Because so many little nuanced things go wrong with events. Like you might get to the venue, realize they don't got no ice.

You as the van man, you don't got time to go get no ice, so you gotta send somebody else to go get that.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:55:01

Yeah.

Valese Jones: 00:55:01

Because you got to deal with the bigger things. So.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:55:04

Yeah, no, that's, that's good, that's good.

Shy Speaks: 00:55:07

Yeah. So what, basically what it sounds like, Ron, is we need the event manager because they are making half a million.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:55:16

We only need to do that if we enjoy doing that.

Valese Jones: 00:55:18

Listen, if you don't enjoy doing it, I do not recommend it. I do not. It is very, it's very stressful. But I said I do, I.

The ones that I do, I do love doing, it's very rewarding to see the community engage and interact with, like, with the events and stuff that I curate, because all of my stuff is literally community engagement and bringing joy to underserved communities. And so I, I really enjoy seeing the end result, but I'm not gonna sit up here and act like I like the whole process.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:55:46

Yeah, yeah. And now that you mentioned it, I ain't gonna lie, I, I like it a little bit. Right.

Over the years, you know, me and Mahogany used to do some events and I, I enjoyed it. Right. But like you said, I can't do a lot of them, like every day.

Valese Jones: 00:55:59

Nah, maybe one a quarter, if that.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:56:01

Or maybe one, one or two a year.

Shy Speaks: 00:56:04

You know, that's why I was like, maybe about four, five, how many they need to do to do this?

Valese Jones: 00:56:07

But I would say with the, now with my, with my for profit business in a non profit, probably about 8% of this a year. Okay. That we have. Yeah. That we have to do. So about eight to ten events A year.

Shy Speaks: 00:56:18

You can get a good, good sustainable.

Valese Jones: 00:56:20

Yeah.

Shy Speaks: 00:56:21

Business flow out of that. Okay, so you have it, you know, right here from someone who knows it all too well. So we. We just. We didn't even mention the non profit piece.

So we'll have to bring her back on to talk about.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:56:33

Oh, no.

Valese Jones: 00:56:33

Yeah, That's a whole another beast.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:56:34

Right?

Shy Speaks: 00:56:35

Bring her on and talk about that. Because that the nonprofit is at the intersection of creativity as well.

So it's Millennial Maven Creative foundation, and Millennial Maven Creative foundation is all about creating opportunities for women and youth really, to have access to creative industries, careers in the creative industries. All these different creative fields out here. A lot of times people don't know what they are or how they will fare well than them.

But if you have a nonprofit organization that allows you to try it pretty early or get involved with it, you'll know if you could.

If you could do it sustainably, and you'll start having some experience that you can put down on the resume and say, hey, I did it with this particular organization. So it's really cool. It's right here at the intersection of creative entrepreneurship. So we'll have. We'll have to. We'll bring her back.

The non profit is a relatively new endeavor, and so we'll wait a little bit.

Valese Jones: 00:57:26

Yeah, we'll wait, wait, wait. After our country music concert that we had to reschedule that event curation part you talked about. Yeah, she shy. Got to witness it.

We had to pivot literally in less than 24 hours.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:57:37

Wow.

Valese Jones: 00:57:38

Decide to postpone our big event because of the weather. And then we did a smaller concert literally in 24 hours, where we had to bring in everybody and get everything.

And we had a little bit over 100 people there, which I don't know if y' all understand how big of a feat that is to pull off in like 15 hours, especially when you in a city with a whole bunch of competing events going on.

Shy Speaks: 00:57:56

Exactly.

Valese Jones: 00:57:57

So, yeah, that's why I'm like, I could not do a Venturation every single day. I feel my blood pressure ain't been high in years, but my blood pressure was high the whole first quarter this year with that event.

Shy Speaks: 00:58:07

Wow, man. Well, listen, thank you so much for coming on to talk to us about the world of pr, from the freelancer side to moving into the. A small team.

And then, of course, like a PR firm, a growing PR firm where you get your clients, how do you make money? How do you structure that, what you need on your team?

Junior publicist public, you know, assistance, operations, persons, all the things that you just told us about. So I just want to thank you so much for, you know, coming on. This is our first publicist that we've had on the podcast. And who is also a really.

A true journalist. Okay. And who is also an event curator. Because some people who run events, big events, know that they need a PR person.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:58:50

Right.

Shy Speaks: 00:58:50

That's why I want to bring this person in. And then, of course, just, like, the writing piece, just giving us all the little snippets on how to write, because some people really love writing.

They just don't know how to make money from it. And so I think they gained something here. While I'm thanking you, I want to also take time to thank.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 00:59:07

Wait a minute. Before. Before we thank the audience. Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute.

We normally close out and we ask you, like, if there's one thing you want this audience to walk away with from this interview, what would be that one thing?

Valese Jones: 00:59:22

If it's one thing, let me. If I was saying do it. Like, whatever the thing is, do it. Because the worst. The worst thing that can happen is you become a successful failure.

That's what me and my best friend Bridget, we always just say we're successful failures.

I've tried a lot of things that I haven't been good at, but that's the only way I found out what I am good at and what I'm capable of making an income off of and building my business off of. I've trimmed my services all the way down just from trying things. Like Shy said, social media management.

All of that has been a part of my business at one point. I don't do that anymore. Right now. I'm a publicist, event curator, and I do brand management. That's what I do. Those three things.

Those are the three things I'm good at. And so just try the thing. Do it. The worst thing that could happen is you become a successful failure.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 01:00:08

Love it. All right, all right.

Shy Speaks: 01:00:12

So. So am I free to go in? Yeah, I'm just saying that was. That was good. That was. That was a necessary nugget for people to have that one.

I wanted to thank you guys for, like, tuning in and staying. Staying locked in this entire episode. If you are here, you are a real one, kind of, because you haven't hit the like button.

So after you hit the like button, and I'll say that you're officially a real. No, seriously, do us a favor. Hit, like, hit. Subscribe.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 01:00:41

Subscribe. Share like, like subscribe, share with somebody that you know that's going to benefit from this podcast. Right.

Because there's not a lot of podcasts that are dedicated to creatives like yourself. Right. You know, they focus on the entrepreneur, but not the creative entrepreneur. So share this with a creative entrepreneur.

Shy Speaks: 01:01:01

Yeah.

And then also get locked in with us, not necessarily just by watching the episodes, but join the creatives corner community and you can do so@mmcbpodcast.com now what is the creative scorner community? It is a place for you to connect with other creative entrepreneurs just like yourself.

You can hop in one of those other entrepreneur groups and you're going to be in there with somebody who's selling like something on Etsy maybe and they like that's kind of creative. But they may just be like.

Or selling something on Ease Bay or maybe they sell cars or maybe they said that's all of those are very different from creative based businesses. And so maybe the Etsy ones, probably, that may be. Probably actually, yeah. Depending on what they sell on there.

But the point of the matter is you want to be locked in with people who are also creative entrepreneurs. And the creatives corner community gives you the ability to do that in a community.

And when you join the community, you'll also get access to a motivational newsletter that shares tips with you on how to have strategy and how to have structure and that self development piece that's very necessary along your creative journey. So again, do that@mmcbpodcast.com all right, so.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 01:02:09

On that note, we got this mantra that you normally do too.

Shy Speaks: 01:02:13

Dang, not the mantra. This is the end of the episode. It's so hard to say goodbye. No, seriously. So we end every episode the same way. Of course you've been listening to us.

But we want to end it with you having the opportunity to speak. I think it's very important for you to speak over yourself, especially as a creative entrepreneur.

So what we want you to do, I want you to repeat after me, we're gonna all say it. Yeah, you and I mean you gonna say it too. There go that bullying. That's what she's talking about right there. There it is.

This is strong encouragement. That's all I'm saying. Strong encouragement. So here's the mantra I want you to repeat after me. Say all it takes. All it takes is intention.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 01:02:51

Is intention. Consistency, consistency.

Shy Speaks: 01:02:54

And laser focus.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 01:02:55

And laser focus.

Shy Speaks: 01:02:56

To mind my creative business subm.

Valese Jones: 01:02:58

My creative business.

Shy Speaks: 01:03:00

Peace.

Ron "iRonic" Lee Jr.: 01:03:01

Peace.