Currently, Spring has transformed into the much more humid season of Summer and I'm starting to prepare for my upcoming move to New York, New York at the beginning of September. My most recent Manhattan visit, which consisted of only 6 days, was quite eventful and made me much more enthusiastic about leaving Richmond. Most of my time there I spent wandering past unfamiliar tall buildings alongside crowds of people speed-walking in every which direction. The other half of that time was spent becoming more comfortable with traveling on the subway by myself and trying new restaurants and juice bars, but somewhere in-between I also managed to shadow two outstanding PR companies thanks to a little help from Amanda. (one of my future roommates and creator of Broke and Chic) The first of these companies that I had the pleasure of hanging out with was Small Girls PR, a business representing both tech and fashion clients and started by two incredibly driven young women, Bianca and Mallory. I was a little overwhelmed when I first walked into their Williamsburg office, but the welcoming faces of the four girls I happened to have a chance to meet and the warm, surprisingly pink and girly environment surrounding me made me a little less tense and really excited about the day/evening we had planned ahead of us.
This had been my first time doing any sort of shadowing, so all of the information I acquired was new and and fresh and fascinating and struck in me a new found interest in working in the PR world. Kara, one of the lovely ladies who I primarily worked with, guided me through the inner workings of the business, taught me several tricks on how to work with clients and pitch to bloggers, and allowed me to sit in on a meeting with one of their clients, Meetup.com, and an editor and also one of my future roommates, Harrison, from The Next Web. That night, I attended a rooftop event celebrating the hundredth thousandth meet-up on MeetUp.com with the four girls from Small Girls PR and the three people who I was staying with in New York, and managed to mingle with a few interesting individuals thrown in the large tech crowd. Overall, my chance to work with Small Girls PR, although the time was a bit limited, was a rewarding learning experience that helped prepare me for my next day, which involved me gaining even more knowledge from a slightly different and completely fashion-based PR company located in Soho, Red Light PR.
As I entered their showroom, I almost immediately knew that I was going to love this place. The brick interior was lined with assorted clothing brands from classy vintage-wear like Darling, to bright, studded pairs of shoes, heels, and party-wear such as AMI. Big, bold jewelry pieces were laid out in glass stands throughout and in the intern area, I spotted a corner set-up with Paul Frank clothing and accessories adorned with that recognizable monkey graphic. I had an opportunity to spend time with a couple of the interns, one of which who conveniently knew my cousin (small world), and had a chance to briefly see how the showroom and the clients interact. I was given a tour of all of the lines and experienced pulling certain items from them with one of the interns for an editorial which was ideal and a lot of fun. Later in the day, I was able to see the pitching to bloggers and keeping up with social media aspect of the business as well, which is one of the things Kayci (one of the ladies primarily guiding me through this side of things) handles daily. By the end of the day, I thanked all of them for the opportunity, grabbed a card from the intern director Gina, and made my way back to the lower east side on the subway.
These two days allowed me to get a feel for what my future career could end up being and that, alone, was one of the most valuable things I was able to take away from them. When I finally do move to New York, I now know that I'll be looking into interning full time with a PR company, if possible, so that I can get an even bigger view of the full picture. However, for now, I'll continue working my retail job at Anthropologie and make it my goal to put together a stunning resume and develop some self-branding with my graphic designer sister. New York City, get ready for me, because I'm most certainly getting ready for you.
