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As a part of the Morning Lazziness sequence about empowering girls who encourage and do unbelievable issues with their concepts in society, I had the pleasure of interviewing Taryn Scher.
Taryn Scher, “The Sparkle Boss”, began TK PR in 2008, and has spent the previous 17 years constructing the award-winning public relations agency specializing within the journey & hospitality industries.
Taryn’s shoppers have been seen on CBS This Morning, The As we speak Present, and Good Morning America, in addition to options in Journey + Leisure, O the Oprah Journal, Higher Properties & Gardens, Meals & Wine, The Wall Avenue Journal, The New York Instances and hundreds extra.
Below her management, TK PR has acquired 9 Adrian Awards from HSMAI – the biggest and most prestigious international journey advertising competitors which honors excellence in hospitality, journey, tourism and media.
What impressed you to start out your individual PR company, and the way did you get your first shopper?
In 2007, I relocated with my now husband to Greenville, South Carolina from New York Metropolis. The corporate I used to be working for in New York stated I may preserve my job as PR Director however not as an worker, so in a single day I arrange an LLC. In actuality, TK PR began as a means for me to maintain my job in vogue PR. I by no means imagined 17 years later I’d be operating a Nationally acknowledged award-winning boutique PR agency. However I’ve discovered the very best issues at all times occur while you don’t plan on them.
What distinctive challenges have you ever confronted as a lady entrepreneur within the PR world, and the way did you overcome them?
I’ve by no means let myself consider that as a result of I’m feminine I’ve a glass ceiling above my head. By no means as soon as have I blamed shedding a chunk of enterprise or a lesser retainer price on the truth that I’m feminine.
I firmly consider you don’t get what you don’t ask for- male or feminine. I’ve sat in loads of board rooms as the one girl within the room. After which I turned Chairman of these boards.
On that very same word, I’ve by no means allowed my age to dictate my alternatives both. I began this very young- I used to be usually not solely the one feminine within the board room, however the youngest particular person within the room by 20 years. However I proved each time that I belonged in that room as a lot as anybody else.
PR is a grueling job. The hours are long- and weekends aren’t assured. You’re principally at all times on call- even if you end up on trip. It’s simple to go all in while you’re in your twenties and constructing your profession. It’s rather a lot more durable when you will have a household that desires you current with them as nicely.
Studying to stability being a mother and a enterprise proprietor – in PR in particular- is by far the toughest factor I’ve needed to do. It doesn’t essentially get simpler as the youngsters become older as one may count on. Being a mother in 2025 is with out query the toughest job on the earth.
There are good workdays, there are unhealthy workdays. There are good life days and unhealthy life days. It’s virtually not possible to have a great workday and good life day. If I’m being a terrific mother, chances are high I’m not all in at work. However every so often, there are good work life days. And people are the very best days.
As soon as I noticed that “girls can have all of it” is mostly a fable, I gave myself permission to fail- or a minimum of not be the very best at all the things on a regular basis.
How do you keep forward of tendencies in an trade that’s continuously evolving with media and expertise?
For this primary time in 20 years, I’m discovering myself at a significant crossroads with regards to the providers we offer our shoppers and actually evaluating what we provide and what we have to change in an effort to keep related within the media panorama.
At our core, we search conventional “Earned Media.” We do that via outreach to journalists in tv, newspaper, journal, and on-line mediums. However the way in which folks eat media is altering quickly, and there are extra media platforms and shops than ever earlier than. Whereas content material creators aren’t precisely new- they’re increasingly being thought-about a part of the PR initiatives for a company and we’re being tasked with partaking with them whereas concurrently working with conventional journalist- and the 2 don’t usually combine nicely collectively.
As an organization who has at all times labored with smaller hidden gem locations, we’re seeing an enormous uptick in acceptance and curiosity. These locations was snubbed by main media however now they’re thought-about worthy of a re-evaluation. I feel these smaller locations are solely starting to understand the large alternatives they’ve within the tourism trade and can start to essentially put money into their PR applications and take a extra proactive strategy to media relations. No matter whether or not you’re a well-known main metropolis or a smaller vacation spot, creating distinctive experiences is essential to PR. The larger, crazier, weirder, extra unique the higher.
We work to develop story concepts which can be contemporary, well timed and related, that honor the present information cycle and storylines. We’re continuously ideating to give you these huge, loopy concepts that can in the end generate buzz for our shoppers.
What’s your go-to technique for constructing sturdy, lasting relationships with shoppers and the press?
Because the media panorama continuously adjustments, we proceed to search for ways in which we could be a companion to our shoppers and add worth to their organizations past the earned media protection we’re employed to do. We continuously search for new methods to measure our outcomes and present the impacts earned media protection has on visitation.
We work with our shoppers to maximise each media second and make sure that these huge press wins and accolades aren’t fleeting. We work with our shoppers to amplify each story that we land- whether or not it’s repurposing an accolade or energy quote for promoting or advertising supplies, or erecting a mural in its honor.
With a view to land tales and obtain outcomes that matter, we now have prioritized technique– creating a complete plan for every shopper that targets their main objectives and PR initiatives for the yr. We reevaluate mid-way via the yr to see how we’re monitoring and if there’s something we have to reassess.
We work with our shoppers to establish their high competitors- who they’re actually competing with (not these they need or suppose they’re competing with) in order that we are able to actually slender down our media targets for them and set objectives accordingly. We analyze every shopper’s knowledge and demographics of tourists in order that we are able to goal essentially the most acceptable media shops for them.
We usually develop 3-4 main initiatives every year for every shopper that dictate the narratives and media objectives for the upcoming yr. With every of those initiatives we work with advertising, social and internet groups to develop complete campaigns that can first appeal to media consideration however then cross over into different alternatives for the model as a complete.
We work with the shopper to develop KPIs & perceive their priorities and what issues most to them. We analyze the message pull-throughs with every story and analyze every shopper’s “share of voice” amongst their high opponents within the trade. We use this device to trace our progress and ahead motion, at all times making an attempt to take extra of the dialog away from their recognized opponents.
Now we have turn out to be greater than only a PR agency to our shoppers. We’re invited into a few of the most high secret, inside circle conversations with them to be strategic about not solely our position throughout the group however providing insights to most of the different components of the enterprise as nicely. They view PR as a vital element to their advertising mix- usually our initiatives are what drive the remainder of their advertising plans for the yr.
Our technique is to proceed to lift the bar on ourselves. Now we have long run multi-year relationships with most of our shoppers. We wish to proceed to exceed expectations and be a significant a part of their workforce.
As for relationships with the press, they’ve at all times been our #1 precedence. We work with journalists that I’ve identified for nearly 20 years now- they won’t be on the media shops the place I first met them at, however we’ve stored in contact and solely attain out when we now have one thing actually related.
We perceive their deadlines and do all the things we are able to to make their lives simpler.
I’m pleased with the truth that we’re the go to for thus many journalists- which means we’re those they name in a pinch, once they’re on deadline and must fill a spot in a narrative. They know we’ll come via and get them precisely what they want earlier than they must submit.
Each pitch we ship is intentional. If we contact a journalist we’ve by no means labored with it’s as a result of we learn a narrative they wrote and consider we now have one thing they’d be enthusiastic about.
And we’ve at all times identified we now have to “earn” each story we land. We by no means count on anything- we don’t make calls for on the media both. It’s our job to knock their socks off and make them wish to inform our stories- whether or not it’s an distinctive eating expertise at one in every of our eating places or a press journey that they received’t quickly neglect.
And we always remember to say thanks. It’s superb how few folks do one thing so easy in right this moment’s world.
Are you able to share a marketing campaign or media second you’re particularly pleased with—and why it stands out?
Every year VisitGreenvilleSC goals to earn as many high quality, feature-oriented tales and media mentions about Greenville, South Carolina as attainable, via a number of pillars of focus —one being Greenville’s spectacular meals scene.
TK PR has been the official PR agency for the vacation spot since 2010- the one one within the group’s history- and through the years we’ve run many campaigns which have highlighted Greenville as an new up-and-coming foodie vacation spot; at all times striving to at some point get Meals Community star, James Beard nominated Chef AND Greenville native — Chef Tyler Florence — to come back again residence and inform the culinary story of Greenville via his lens.
In 2014 we first reached out to Tyler’s workforce, after having this concept of partaking him for some type of occasion in his hometown; however we weren’t fairly prepared for the chance financially, or as a spot we knew Tyler could be proud to name residence.
In 2022, with the finances intact, and a number of Nationwide accolades for each our culinary scene and particular person eating places, we got the inexperienced gentle to convey Tyler Florence residence for his first official main culinary occasion since he turned a James Beard award-winning chef, Meals Community star and family title. Greenville, as a metropolis, was lastly able as a culinary vacation spot that we knew Tyler could be proud to name residence. In September 2022, in partnership with VisitGreenvilleSC, Tyler hosted “A Tyler Florence Homecoming,” a multi-course dinner at Soby’s New South Delicacies, a beloved Greenville eating establishment. Florence additionally had a private connection to Soby’s, as he wrote the foreword of their cookbook. The dinner was held throughout Euphoria, an annual meals, wine & music competition that highlights the very best of Greenville’s culinary scene together with a few of the most celebrated visitor cooks in america.
Previous to the occasion, TK PR reached out to top-tier nationwide meals & wine journalists and invited them to Greenville for a firsthand expertise and to attend Tyler’s dinner within the hopes of incomes nationwide media protection. VisitGreenvilleSC hosted 9 journalists for the occasion who contributed to high publications together with Journey + Leisure, Southern Dwelling, Meals & Wine, New York Instances, Robb Report & extra.
VisitGreenvilleSC additionally hosted a personal Lunch & Be taught for native media with Tyler which resulted in 88 social media posts and tales with a possible viewers of 686,000.
As a direct results of this occasion, TK PR earned 16 print and digital tales in shops together with AFAR, Backyard & Gun, Journey + Leisure and Yahoo Life. The protection had a complete on-line readership of 603M, 1.8M print circulation and $5,578,994 AVE. In January 2023, Greenville was named one of many 52 Locations to Go in 2023 by The New York Instances from a journalist that attended this occasion.
The marketing campaign additionally received us a gold Adrian Award- that are principally the Emmy’s of journey advertising.
Which platforms or ways have been handiest for rising your individual model visibility?
All of our shoppers have come to us- solely via phrase of mouth or having seen what we’ve achieved for an additional resort or vacation spot. We’re very fortunate to have a status that precedes us particularly within the journey and tourism trade.
Now we have invested closely within the branding of our company although – ensuring that should you see one thing pink and sparkly you consider us. And that’s undoubtedly labored! We’ve gifted all the things from sparkly Rubix cubes and glitter coated wine bottles to sparkle crammed snow globes and candles through the years. And you’ll wager something if I’m talking at a convention one thing I’m carrying is glowing.
that saying she leaves a little bit sparkle wherever she goes- that’s our aim…. Go away a path so that you stay at the back of their minds….
In 2024 we had the dignity of internet hosting the PRSA Journey + Tourism Convention alongside our longest operating shopper, VisitGreenvilleSC, and had the chance to share some details about our agency in entrance of 300 different PR professionals from DMOs throughout the nation. The excitement across the room after we aired a spotlight video was like nothing I’ve ever skilled. I heard from a number of attendees that everybody at their tables had been questioning how many individuals we had working for us primarily based on the work we do. There are such a lot of enormous PR corporations on the market that dominate the trade that rating all the massive shoppers and don’t actually ship the standard work. This second was such a win for the little guys out there- and TK PR particularly –and was by far my proudest second up to now. And sure, I used to be carrying sequins.
What position has mentorship performed in your journey, and the way do you pay it ahead to others within the trade?
So I discussed TK PR began in a single day essentially- which additionally meant I had no concept what I used to be doing when it comes to operating a enterprise. However I additionally am self-taught in PR. I’ve by no means taken a enterprise class or a PR class. However I had an unbelievable mentor in New York after I first began out- she was tough- however she taught me a lot in regards to the trade and operating a PR agency.
Due to her, right this moment each time anybody asks me to satisfy for espresso/ chat with them, I say sure. Nowadays, its principally digital espresso, however I’m at all times prepared to share recommendation or spitball concepts.
One of many issues I’m most pleased with is my work with the Minority Enterprise Accelerator program in Greenville, South Carolina. This system provides entrepreneurs the instruments and assets to advance their companies in methods most can solely dream of. I’ve volunteered as a coach for that program for years- and I feel I get simply as a lot out of it because the contributors do.
How do you deal with high-pressure conditions or crises, whether or not for a shopper or your individual enterprise?
A part of what makes a terrific PR particular person is the power to resolve any downside.
I at all times inform our clients- say sure immediately- after which we’ll determine it out.
While you’re working with a actuality television present, which we frequently do, the week of filming at all times comes with its share of pivots and last-minute adjustments. The final time we labored on a significant female-driven actuality present, crew nights had been shifted on the resort a minimum of 8 instances, when the producers wished extra vibrant visuals for digital camera — we had dozens of contemporary floral preparations delivered to brighten the halls and adorn the espresso tables. When the schedule shifted by two hours each days of filming — we made telephone calls, despatched emails and recreated the manufacturing calendar a minimum of 10 instances so everybody concerned could be in the proper place on the proper time. When the crew wanted van seats taken out of the shuttle to make room for his or her cameras — we had workers pulling aside the vans to accommodate. It’s important to downside solve- and do it so quick.
Fortunately, most of our “disaster” conditions aren’t as unhealthy as most individuals’s. I wish to say my worst day at work is lots of people’s greatest day. However once they do occur, we take a second to resolve how rapidly this can blow over, if it should go away on it’s personal, or if it’s one thing we have to sort out head on. Usually times- particularly within the present information cycle- clickbait headlines or tales will disappear quick and would most likely get extra consideration if we determined to do something about it slightly than simply letting it quietly go away by itself.
What’s one piece of recommendation you’d give to girls coming into the PR or communications trade right this moment?
Ask questions. Don’t fake to know all of the solutions and don’t assume you perceive the duty. Nobody can probably know all the things about everything- particularly if you end up beginning out. There aren’t any “guidelines” with regards to PR; no playbook on assured success. However ask questions and LISTEN to the people who find themselves prepared to offer you solutions.
One of the best leaders ask for assist. This takes braveness. Most professionals are much more more likely to faux the reply or cowl it up and in the end create main issues down the road. I didn’t know easy methods to learn a P&L till I took over as Chairman of a Board of a non-profit- however I requested for assist as a result of I knew I couldn’t sit on the entrance of the board room and fake to know what I used to be approving every month.
Is there a quote, mantra, or philosophy that guides your decision-making and management as an entrepreneur?
Does this (concept) (quote) (pitch) (picture) (proposal) sparkle?
If it doesn’t have the wow issue — the flicker — why are you sending it?
Right here is our signature query: “What Are The 5 Issues You Want To Overcome Self-Doubt and Construct Confidence?” (If attainable, please share a narrative or instance for every one.)
Understand everybody offers with imposture syndrome from time to time- even the CEO. There are days that I query all the things I do know and suppose I’m doing all of it improper. Understand these are good days to get away out of your desk, take a stroll, go get a manicure and are available again once more tomorrow.
Perceive that silence will not be no. Journalists are getting a whole bunch of emails day by day. They don’t reply to 90% of them and chances are high fairly good they didn’t even learn your pitch. Don’t assume since you don’t hear again it’s a no. We land the vast majority of our media protection as a result of we comply with up again and again again- it’s not a no till it’s a no.
Simply because it’s the way in which it was at all times achieved doesn’t make it proper. Converse up and alter it. The world is altering. And you’ve got the possibility to make change. You may want to talk up greater than as soon as.
Don’t attempt to be all the things to everyone. I see this all of the time- folks making an attempt to do the job of 8 completely different folks and simply being mediocre in any respect of it. Be the BEST at simply 1 factor. That’s why TK PR has been profitable. We will’t model you. We will’t create your logos. However we are able to get you Nationwide media protection.
Know what you might be value. Chanel by no means goes on sale. When you give it away it’s a lot more durable to get folks to pay you for it. You’d fall out of your chair should you knew what my earliest retainer charges had been. I couldn’t even pay my cellphone invoice with them this month. However I didn’t consider I used to be value it.
Persistence is necessary. See above.
Okay, we’re practically achieved. You’re a particular person of nice affect. If you happen to may encourage a motion that will convey essentially the most quantity of fine for the best variety of folks, what would that be? You by no means know what your concept can set off.
Save the world one PR particular person at a time.
PR execs get a foul rap. Journalists like to complain about PR people- however we’re a few of the hardest working folks on the market. There are undoubtedly some “greatest practices” I want extra PR folks would adhere to- it might be good to have the general respect of journalists- particularly when the truth is that they depend on us to get them what they want and sometimes below a loopy deadline. That’s truly why I printed “Sparkle Faculty” on YouTube just a few years in the past. They’re principally free DIY PR ideas and greatest practices that anybody can watch; principally actually sturdy foundational instruments for anybody trying to get into PR.
How can our readers additional comply with your work on-line?
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