Heather Holmes is the Founder and CEO of Publicity for Good, a millennial-run communications firm that provides high-level disruptive publicity and social media services across industries. A seasoned professional in communication and marketing, Heather is dedicated to fostering community growth and brand development. With an inspiring journey guiding aspiring PR professionals and entrepreneurs, she champions ethical values, as demonstrated by her unique lifestyle of living off the land. Her dedication to sustainable living and self-sufficiency adds depth to her expertise, which extends to nationally recognized food brands and restaurants.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
- [2:09] Heather Holmes shares how she lives on a 22-acre homestead with chickens and a garden
- [4:30] How Heather became drawn to PR after securing over 35 media interviews per week at an ad agency
- [5:28] Why Heather founded Publicity For Good
- [10:40] Keys to gaining media attention
- [12:15] What are the critical elements of a successful PR campaign?
- [16:55] Heather lists some common PR misconceptions
In this episode…
The public relations industry can play a crucial role in amplifying brand stories and driving positive impact. What strategic approaches and mindsets are key to growing a purpose-driven business in this industry?
According to Heather Holmes, a public relations veteran, authentically connecting your brand’s story to meaningful causes and current trends is crucial. Inspired by PR’s power to reach new audiences and scale businesses, Heather started her own agency with the goal of amplifying brands that create positive change. Despite facing challenges like the pandemic, her consistency, entrepreneurial spirit, and focus on pitching relevant narratives enabled Publicity for Good to grow from a startup to a team of 30, generating millions of impressions. For long-term success, it’s important to integrate authentic storytelling, leverage connections, understand what the media wants, and align PR with the overall marketing strategy.
On this episode of the Top Business Leaders Show, Heather Holmes, the Founder and CEO of Publicity for Good, joins Rise25’s Chad Franzen. Heather discusses her journey to building Publicity for Good into a renowned, purpose-driven PR agency, and shares insights on the power of storytelling and media relationships to amplify brands and drive positive change. She also delves into balancing entrepreneurship and parenthood, her vision for her agency, and strategies for successful PR campaigns.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
- Chad Franzen on LinkedIn
- Rise25
- Email the team at Rise25: support@rise25.com
- Heather Holmes on LinkedIn
- Publicity for Good
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Episode Transcript
Intro 0:04
Welcome to the Top Business Leaders Show. Powered by Rise25 media, we featured top founders, executives and business leaders from all over the world.
Chad Franzen 0:20
Chad Franzen here, co host of the top business leaders show where we feature CEOs, entrepreneurs and top leaders in the business world. This episode is brought to you by Rise25. We help b2b businesses reach their dream relationships and connect with more clients referrals and strategic partnerships and get ROI through done for you podcasts. If you have a b2b business and want to build great relationships, there’s no better way to do it than to profile the people and companies you admire most on your podcast. To learn more, go to Rise25.com or email us at support@rise25.com Heather Holmes is the CEO and founder of Publicity For Good. She’s a renowned PR professional dedicated to making a positive impact on the world with a passion for helping individuals and brands amplify their stories. Heather has built publicity for good into a powerhouse agency known for its innovative approach to PR. Heather’s leadership and expertise have led to the agency generating millions of impressions for clients and various media outlets, including ABC, CBS News, and more. Beyond her professional accomplishments, she’s also a wife and mother and living off the land and embodying the values of sustainability and community that she promotes through her work. Heather, it’s great to have you today. How are you?
Heather Holmes 1:36
Yeah, I’m really excited to be here and really help people scale their business. And I’m a mom, I have 202. And one of the way and I don’t have a babysitter today. So this is the life we live working from home. But I love being here. I’m the founder of Publicity for Good. And we partner with purpose driven brands and people to grow their impact and community by really getting into media.
Chad Franzen 2:02
So I would love to hear all about that. But first, tell me about this living off the land. What does that mean?
Heather Holmes 2:10
Yeah, so we, we have 22 acres, and we’re slowly building a homestead. When we found out that we were pregnant, we were like it’s gonna, we need to build fast. So we ended up building a house that has two acres, and we have our own chickens. So we get eggs every morning. We have a garden, we’re not fully self sufficient. Yes, we still go to farmers markets and the grocery stores, but very intentional. We buy our groceries at bulk. And we’re just trying to eat you know, as local as possible.
Chad Franzen 2:42
Wow, that is awesome. How many different types of crops would you are you able to enjoy?
Heather Holmes 2:50
Oh, my gosh, I don’t even count. But I think it’s a good reminder. Because sometimes in business, it’s easy to lose faith or forget about doing the boring things every day. Right, like doing outreach, or just doing the things that keep the lights, you know, running. And I think growing crops or flowers is such an amazing reminder that you don’t water them every day, they’re going to die, right? So like, we have to do the boring things every day. And scaling isn’t sexy, it’s very boring. It’s showing the same thing every single day. And it’s such a good reminder.
Chad Franzen 3:29
How much work how much work does that take?
Heather Holmes 3:33
It should take more. And like I’m trying to save my plants right now because I forgot about them. But I tried to have it be a part of my morning routine go out, go barefoot during coffee and like water the garden. I am not a pro I am not 10 hours a week in the garden. Very minimal. Where we’re at right now is just full force building a business scaling and then being parents. So you know, gardening, you know, doesn’t necessarily get as much time as it should. But you know, you you’ve learned the basics, you figure it out. And we’ll have amazing, you know, food, grow our kale from last year. It’s still you know, here, so it’s fun.
Chad Franzen 4:18
So let’s get back to Publicity for Good. Take me through kind of your journey up till the point where you started. But what does your background kind of look like?
Heather Holmes 4:31
So I worked at an advertising agency of a publicist for three and a half years, I was a communication major. And it was the kind of environment where you had to secure media interviews every week for clients. You didn’t go home if you didn’t meet your goal, right. So I got really good at relationship building. And I remember I had my planner and I would take notes of how many people I called How many emailed how many interviews I booked, then, you know, I look and it’s been like two years and I’m booking 35 interviews a week and I fell in love with publicity. And the fact that you can reach new audiences and really tell your story and I’ve seen business owners scale, not even having a website. It’s just their story, your story, and that’s what’s really powerful is that PR allows you to grow your community, you build a network, you share your story, and you scale. So.
Chad Franzen 5:22
So you, you did that for three and a half years. And then what inspired you to start Publicity For Good?
Heather Holmes 5:28
Yeah, so my dad and uncle were really successful entrepreneurs in real estate, and they both passed away. So really leaving a legacy was the only thing that I thought I could do. But when you work at an ad agency, it’s very long hours, 15 hour days, but it’s not like you’re getting up at five, you’re getting your work done, you’re taking a little break, there’s no flow of wife and work, it’s just like, you’re there nonstop, right? And I dreamed of being able to build something that made a difference that made a difference for my family, for clients. But, you know, like, there would be a little bit more flexibility. You know, like, as long as I met my metrics, I could get up at five and work. And then if I had to do something midday for the kids, I could write, like, that’s really what drives me to start the company. We started the agency, eight years ago. But we’re now a full time team of 30, full time in the US, Brazil and Philippines. At first million dollar a year was the year of the pandemic. And literally for three and a half years, we live full time on our air strain, my husband and I. And when you don’t have a lot, and you’re in a very little space, you scale, but then also in a pandemic happened, our business literally like decreased by 50%. Right away, and it was scary. So we had to scale we had to hustle. And we were able to because everything was closed, there were no distractions, and we had to scale to survive and keep the team.
[continue to page 2]
Chad Franzen 7:02
So how has given some of the How long is how long is publicity for good been in operation, then, obviously, since
Heather Holmes 7:08
eight years?
Chad Franzen 7:11
How has your vision for publicity for good kind of evolved during that time?
Heather Holmes 7:17
Yeah. So my first goal was to be a million dollar company, by the time I was 30. And that happened. Now, it’s way bigger. And that I want a company that’s around for 50 plus years, right? Like, we’re now a team of 30. I’m excited about how we can pay a team. Like we think about now being a top agency buying other companies being $100 million company, are really having an impact in our community, being able to give more away financially, right. But then to big picture, like bring you on as CEO to run the company. So I can focus on what I love and everything as well. But I definitely couldn’t do what I do without like the infrastructure and a team for sure.
Chad Franzen 8:00
How do you balance kind of the desire to be, you know, $100 million company with positively impacting the community? And those two things go hand in hand?
Heather Holmes 8:11
Yeah, because, you know, I did an intensive at Georgetown, the Fund for American Studies. And it really focused on conscious capitalism and businesses that give back and how do you do that. And prior to that, I really wanted to go into like volunteerism, or like working for a nonprofit. I fell in love with PR and realize I can reach 10 Millions of people by one TV segment. And then I also realized, too, the more money you make, the bigger impact you can have, the more people you feed, or the more people you can hire. And the more you teach them the fish and they can feed their family. So you know, I think you can do both at the same time.
Chad Franzen 8:53
What are some notable successes that publicity for good has achieved? Would you say that you’re most proud of maybe during your time?
Heather Holmes 9:01
Yeah. So we’ve partnered with over 300 amazing brands. All of our brands are purpose driven. So purpose driven entrepreneurs, nonprofits, businesses, and then brands like consumers brands, food and beverage, but there was a popcorn brand, that hired people, the majority of their employees had a disability. And it was this amazing gourmet popcorn brand. And they brought us on January 1, and we have this big awareness day, January 19, was national popcorn day, new client, you’re figuring things out, we had 90 days to execute. That day, we had like four TV segments, we had like 50 live links. They ranked on Google, they had the highest amount of sales ever. And it was really exciting because it was such a monumental experience for them from a sales and impact perspective. But it was so fun to be a part of it. And for us, like every one we get, we want to do more or you know, we just get a live link. We send it to a producer to follow up so we keep the momentum going and it was so cool. To be Bart be a part of the campaign that had impact from ranking on Google perspective, a sales perspective? It was fun.
Chad Franzen 10:21
So how do you I mean, without giving away your secrets, people, obviously you want people to come to you because you can do it. How do you kind of? Are you leveraging relationships when you are able to get this, you know, national attention for for a brand that maybe not many people have ever heard of? What’s the key to like getting that attention?
Heather Holmes 10:41
Absolutely. Relationships. I mean, there’s some people we’ve worked with for years. So it’s a lot of it, looking at our media Rolodex, but a lot of it too, is relevancy. A lot of times I see people pitch the media and I write for a bunch of publications, and I get a pitch, and there’s no relevancy. So you have to bridge the gap between your story. Why does it matter? What’s the solution? What’s happening in the news right now that makes your story relevant? Okay, well, Mother’s Day is coming up. It’s small business week right now holidays, and or what’s trending in the news? People forget about that in the eyes of the media, they care about how does this fit into their story. They care about impressions. So you have to be strategic with your pitch and not be salesy and ensure that it inspires, educates, or you know, is relevant to what’s going on in the news, like in this moment,
Chad Franzen 11:35
would you say the reporters or producers or whoever you’re pitching your story to are usually open to story ideas, it’s just a matter of you making sure, making sure that they that you keep their interest.
Heather Holmes 11:46
They are, but they also get like 400 emails a day. So they’re very overwhelmed. So you definitely have to be relevant, and you have to keep a relationship with them. And again, it’s a lot of times based on relevancy. it piqued their interest, it’s a cause or something that they’re interested in. Or it could be like a last minute segment, and need a guest.
Chad Franzen 12:09
So what do you think of the most critical elements of a successful PR campaign?
Heather Holmes 12:14
I think knowing where you want to go, number one, knowing how your integrated going to integrate it into your marketing campaign, having a clear call to action. And really understanding why your story matters and know like, have clarity, like, what do you where do you want to go? Do you want to go local, right? Do you want to go national? Do you want to go regional? Do you want to go to podcasts. And before you even get to the Today Show or Good Morning America, you need local media, they’re gonna ask you for a clip of where you’ve been. So it’s a building process. It’s a snowball effect, national media, if the story is right, could take six months. So you got to start somewhere. And if you have a launch, you really probably need to start nine days prior to the media or messaging, you need your assets, you need everything in place to ensure that you have what you need for the media. Because when they say yes, or say let’s go, you need to have the resources in place, and you have to be responsive.
Chad Franzen 13:14
Do you have clients where you where you can clearly see why their story matters, but they don’t grasp it yet?
Heather Holmes 13:23
Yes, and no, we do a lot of the building out the story or building the heart of the brand or the purpose driven component. So I’d say that’s really where we shine. But when a client or a brand is not involved in a process, or they’re not willing to do the work, meaning that they get booked on this podcast, or they get booked on a local radio show. And they overlook it because it’s not big enough, or it’s not national media. That’s, you know, the worst thing that can be done because one, when you’re a national media, you don’t want to be a one hit wonder. And you absolutely have to practice. So people who show up to the most amount of interviews are open minded. Know that a miracle can happen from every interview, like I’ve heard people that have been on small podcasts, and they brought in $50,000, like in a contract. You know, or someone’s got a radio show. It’s in a small town, but their wife is an investor, like you can’t take everything for face value. And from a marketing perspective, your community doesn’t know how big a show is. They don’t care, right. But it’s like omnipresence, like why you’re on this podcast, while you’re on this article, where I see brands really successful and entrepreneurs is that they get the press, they keep doing it monthly, and they integrate it into their marketing, right? They send the article to their potential clients, they use it to position you as a thought leader. That’s really where I see brands and people scale from PR.
Chad Franzen 14:59
Can PR play a role in driving social change?
Heather Holmes 15:04
It absolutely can. And also to be you know, there’s a lot of people who have not heard about your message or your mission. So it’s a really great way to build your community. And I think now More than ever. It’s okay. I think we need to be honest, I think we just need to step into who we are. But if there’s a mission or something that’s important to you, you know, I think you should talk about it right? Like, now if it’s not authentic, and it’s not in alignment, and you’re kind of talking about it, because everyone else is that’s not authentic. But if there’s a cause or a mission, that means something to you, you should talk about it. We’ve gotten so many interviews before, or a founder who, you know, was raising awareness about epilepsy for her daughter, or celiac disease. And that wasn’t her business. But that’s her heart story. And it still grew her business. Because it’s thought leadership, it’s the CEO, it doesn’t need to be very transactional, where, you know, you are a company that helps people, podcasting, you’re just talking about podcasting, because local media wants to hear your story. So that’s really where pulling back the onion and looking about who you are as a person, and why you’re an entrepreneur and tips for entrepreneurship really help.
Chad Franzen 16:20
Are there any common misconceptions maybe that people have about PR?
Heather Holmes 16:26
Yes, um, let’s see that their story isn’t good enough, that they have to have all these assets in place, that it’s not trackable. You can’t make money from PR. What else? That they have to have a beginning page like I’ve seen people get national maybe with just an Instagram account. So really, how you get more media is your story and the relationships.
Chad Franzen 16:54
What are what have been, we talked about if you’ve talked about a few during the pandemic, I was gonna ask you what, what are some of the biggest challenges that you faced while building Publicity for Good?
Heather Holmes 17:06
Yeah, I mean, it could be right now trying to figure out running a business and being a mom, right? But like, kind of step into it. And it’s just you and it’s your part of your story. And it’s a connection point to others. What else? Managing expectations. Right, like, this is a PR is this is how it’s going to help your business. People who have been the most successful have done this. And sometimes people can view it as transactional, but it’s really not right. What are other challenges? I mean, those would, I would say, would be the biggest I mean, I run my company with my husband. And we’ve learned through that as well. And that’s fun. It’s not easy. But you think about it, you have, you know, two people working towards the same goal to better our clients to better our team. And it’s like, we’re working towards the same mission. Uh, you know, like, day in and day out, he’s working on the business, I’m working on the business for taking care of the kid, right? Like, that’s exciting.
Chad Franzen 18:12
So upon starting Publicity for Good ,maybe in your first year or two, or whatever, even now, you obviously were very confident, and were very good at PR. But what did you learn kind of like, taking on the like a whole business rather than just doing PR, like maybe you were doing in your job?
Heather Holmes 18:34
So I did sales outreach when I was at the agency, so I was already doing that, um, I would say probably contract negotiation, or like, in the past, if someone be like, if someone was wouldn’t negotiate services, I would do it. Or if someone was like, You know what, Chad, like, I’m gonna work with you, but I can’t pay you for 60 days. Right? I would do it. And then it would be stressful because I have a whole team to pay and everything too. So learning to say no, when you need to say no, and not feeling guilty about that.
Chad Franzen 19:08
Are industry trends and best practices, constantly changing in public relations?
Heather Holmes 19:16
They’re all they’re always changing. When the pandemic happened, definitely like all the media companies consolidated. So media outlets aren’t really in New York City as much they just work from home. And there’s a lot of digital companies and independent companies too. And there’s rumble and all those entities as well.
Chad Franzen 19:38
What, what advice would you give to business owners who are concerned about social responsibility and looking to incorporate that into their brands?
Heather Holmes 19:50
Yeah. I would say you really have to dig deep on what causes mean the most to you. And then look for local partnerships around that, again, that alignment piece is key. So like, what causes do you care about and then from there, look for partners, or nonprofits to partner with you can give a percentage of your money to a nonprofit really, any of those things?
Chad Franzen 20:12
I have one more. I have one more question for you. But first, tell me how people can find out more about Publicity for Good.
Heather Holmes 20:18
Yeah. So you can find me on Instagram at Heather DeSantis or anything like that soliciting for good.com as well. We write for a public a bunch of publications, we’re always happy to feature you. And then also to like, if anyone has questions, we always do trade discovery politics to start with you.
Chad Franzen 20:38
If you if you’ve had a friend or a friend’s kid or somebody who was just graduating from college with a PR degree, and they had this great idea for an agency, what advice would you give them that they wouldn’t have learned in school and could only have learned from the experience that you’ve had?
Heather Holmes 20:55
Yeah, you have to work in an agency. First, I think like an agency provides you really great experience with multiple clients and personalities and expectations. So I think it’s great to start at an agency.
Chad Franzen 21:10
Okay, awesome. Hey, Heather, it’s been great to talk to you today. Thanks so much for your time and for all of your insights. Really appreciate it. So long, everybody.
Outro 21:15
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