Adding PR to Your Brand Strategy

Zahra  

Welcome to another episode of The Brand Collaborative today I am so excited to have a Aquila Mendez here with us. She is the founder and CEO of Haute in Texas an award winning PR and marketing agency. She's grown it from scratch into multiple six figures and now she's getting ready or she has been franchising the business, which is super cool to see that journey and I would love we're gonna dig into this in just a second here. But she's been asked to speak and present to audiences across the US, Europe and Asia has been featured in Forbes, Telegraph UK,  Digiday and PR on the go. In addition to numerous TV appearances, publications and podcasts, her blog collaborations and client roster features some of the world's biggest brands including Vogue, Prada, Lincoln, Neiman Marcus, Kendra Scott, Orangetheory and many many more. She graduated with honors playing Division One volleyball at Western Kentucky University and obtained her master's from Gonzaga University. She serves on various boards for a wide variety of nonprofits and in 2022 launched Haute in Network Agencies a franchise model to help other women own their own agencies. In 2023, she was named as San Antonio Business Journal 40 under 40 honoree and launched the agency's first satellite location within Austin. Aquila and her college sweetheart, Orlando have two girls and currently reside in San Antonio, Texas. So that doesn't even do you justice although that's incredibly impressive, I just have to say, welcome Aquila, thank you so much for being here. I just have to say that one of the big things that impresses me most about you is the way you approach everything I've ever seen you approach it, like it doesn't occur to you that it could be hard. It's just like, the next thing I'm doing is this. And, you know, we'll figure it out as we go and lo and behold, against that, and I think that's just like, I don't know, to me that is an incredible way to look at things. So I think sometimes as entrepreneurs, we get in our head, and we like worry about all the obstacles before we even know that they're truly going to be an obstacle. So I just am a huge, huge admirer of what you do. 

Aquila  

Well, that means I'm doing a great job of masking my anxiety, because I absolutely worry about all of it. Maybe by the time I'm like actually presenting it to the world, I'm like, Yes, let's go but I've definitely you know, had plenty of sleepless nights before then be rest assured, for sure.

Zahra  

Well, that's good to know that you're human like the rest of us, because you present as a superhuman, it just really does. I'm so excited for people to get to hear from you today because I think PR is one of those things. It's kind of like the effect that people have when they hear branding, like, you know, as soon as you tell an entrepreneur, like you need to work on your brand, and you be thinking about your brand, they have one or two reactions, either I already have a brand like people, like all 300 of my followers are like, you know, or it's this kind of thing where they're like, Oh, I'm not big enough to worry about a brand yet. When I get bigger, then I'll start thinking about my brand and then there'll be a thing, right? And I kind of feel like in PR there's kind of that similar vibe, where it's like, oh, no, people know me, or it's kind of like, Oh, I'm not big enough for PR yet. Nobody wants to hear about me and my little thing that I got going on. And so I think it's super cool for you to like lay some of that to rest. So what are your thoughts on that like what...

Aquila  

Yeah, yeah, I mean, I think PR had its start. I mean, some of the like founding fathers of PR, one of the very first things that they did was convince people that cigarettes are good, that they're good for you. Like we started off being horrible people and like spinning things, and convincing the public that something was, you know, worthwhile or a good product and then it turned out, you know, no, it was just all PR. So I think we definitely still have some like residual effects of that where people see PR as either smoke and mirrors who knows what they're actually doing. Or they see it as to your point, Oh, I'm not big enough for that. Oh, I don't want to be famous. Oh, I don't want to No, no, no, I don't don't put me in front of the camera and they don't realize how much else goes on. You know, behind the scenes when we say quote unquote, PR, because it really is truly interlaced with marketing these days. And it's very tricky to find a business that would only need one or the other, though. Yeah, I love being able to kind of dispel those myths and kind of shed some light on what we actually do. 

Zahra  

I want to just say, you know, I want to hear your thoughts about this. Like one of the things I love about what you do is that you are a PR specialist, your expertise is in PR and you leverage that specialty into different things. So like because your PR specialist it allows you to like you're not just a press release writer, right? Like you know how to infuse that into like social media or like advertising and identify and so but you always approach it from a PR specialists and I think one of the things that kind of happened in the area of marketing is we started to get these like gargantuan marketing agencies that were like working gonna do everything for you. But the reality is, I used to have this conversation with, you know, startups where they said, well, we only have $65,000 a year to spend on marketing. So we're just going to hire a CMO. And we're going to let them do all of it. And I'll say, whoa, but what are the odds that you're going to find a CMO who is a graphic designer, and an SEO specialist and an ADS expert and a copywriter, and, uh, you know, and has the 115 hours a week needed to produce like, all this and so but like, agency started doing that, where, you know, the agency couldn't really specialize in anything, but they wanted to touch everything. And so it became kind of this idea of an all in one. But we lost kind of the expertise, like I remember starting out when people wanted me to post on social media for them and I was like, I'm so sorry, I don't do. And it was kind of like, there was a bit of resistance, like, Oh, we're kind of looking for the all in one solution. But now going back to like, I guess, when all of that like, because there hasn't been a lot of success with that model. People are going back to like, Okay, I need a PR person, I need a brand specialist, I need a digital marketer, I need an SEO firm, like people who can work together and collaborate different people with different expertise to come together and execute campaigns and strategies, like, what do you think about that? The importance or the value of being this expert because I can spend 40 hours a week learning about branding and case studies there's no way I could also, you know, be learning other things.

Aquila  

The other things, yeah, yeah. I mean, I think it's important when you are a small agency to have an attitude of being very collaborative and understanding that you may not be the agency that does everything. But sometimes we act as almost like a general contractor where the client trusts us as this type of outsourced marketing department to say, Okay, well, now I need somebody to do my website, now I need somebody to do my branding. Now I need somebody to come in and help with all these other facets, and we see it as an opportunity to say, Great, we'll help, you know, manage this integrated marketing approach, but we're not the ones that are going to be executing all these other pieces. So I totally agree with you that, you know, spreading yourself too thin is a recipe to have people be disappointed in the long run. So for us, you know, we see it as almost like a fiduciary responsibility, where if we wouldn't recommend those services, you know, if it was our own business, we're not going to sit there and tell you like, yeah, we can do that. Yeah, we can do that. Yeah, sure. Sure. Sure. Sure. We're gonna sit and think about it for a minute and say, Okay, do we actually feel like this is worthwhile? Do we have somebody on the team? Or can we get you right plugged In immediately with somebody who we trust to handle it instead? 

Zahra  

Yeah. And I really love that, I think that's one of the reasons that, you know, we send business, you know, back and forth is that when I know when I send somebody to your PR firm, you are going to look at it, every piece that goes through with that PR lens, and you have that expertise, and I feel super confident. So when we have our clients and we're dealing with their brand strategy overall, I can't I can't do the commercial, but I have a great relationship with a media company that can do the commercials that we've storyboarded several times different clients who've got that shorthand, and that's what they do, and they can do it like no other. I could never do that the way they do that. You know, PR like it's great to be able to have conversations but and know that like, I don't have to know what a good press release looks like exactly. I don't have to know and so it's I think it's amazing you know, like when you're looking for agencies to find people who have really good healthy relationships and networks because you can't you know, at least boutique firms and smaller firms they can't do it on I think that's really really cool. And I love what an expert you are like there is not a question in PR that I could ask you that you don't have your finger on the pulse of and I just am we're gonna I'm gonna prove it right now. But I do you always have such an amazing insight and understanding because you know, you can tell that that really is your your home.

Aquila  

I appreciate that, it's definitely a passion for sure.

Zahra  

Yeah, I am with you. My first question that I want to ask is really around your franchise so how has having that clear brand how has it helped you scale your business into that franchise model and what has that experience been like for you? What are some of the things that most surprised you about the process things you were maybe you were ready for that you didn't realize you were ready for or maybe some gaps that you saw when you were going into franchise model that you're like, Whoa, we got to kind of clean this up if it's going to be replicable? 

Aquila  

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's definitely put us through the ringer of having to take a really good hard look at that because I think so many business owners think like oh, yeah, we've got our processes down. Oh, yeah, we have it we have it but it's not until you're trying to actually replicate it or you're trying to actually train somebody when you're in the thick of it that you realize like okay, we got to update this we got to rework this, you know, it has to be actually functional. So we were really lucky when we were running the idea kind of through the you know, the process of deciding whether or not to franchise we worked with a franchise development company and they were able to work with us really in in all the legalities, the paperwork, everything that you have to go through. But they also really honed in with us on our handbook processes, you know, trainings, all of those things they helped us make sure Okay, from an outsider's perspective, does this make sense to me. So that was really, really helpful and, and pushed us for our own, you know, our corporate, you know, original location in San Antonio, I think it made us better in that regard as well. So really enjoyed that process. And then, in terms of things that I, you know, felt like I, you know, had turned out differently than what I expected, I think, you know, we spent about the first year of our franchise concept, advertising on all the normal kind of franchise routes. And what we were finding was that the candidates that were coming out of it were not necessarily who we were looking for. So we actually went out and hired a headhunter and said, this is the market we want first, which was Austin. So this is the persona, the profile of the type of candidate we think would be best for this role. And they went out and actually recruited women who were interested, who were going to be a good fit, and we were able to then kind of hone in and look at our candidates from there. So that was something that we had to kind of pivot and you know, the original sort of old school, look, a way to look at franchises was not going to work for us and had to figure out a different route. But in terms of our brand, too, I think it's been interesting. How many people have reached out to us even actually, on the client side to we have so many people reach out to us and say, Well, you guys just have a cool brand, like you you guys just look cool. You look like you're like on the cutting edge, you look like you know what you're doing, like just our brand of our website, our logo, the you know, materials that they saw first, something about, you know, our brand gives off this energy that they pick up on before they've even had a conversation with me. So I think that's so interesting that our brand has that much power to to convey that. I don't know that we're really that cool. I feel like we're actually really big dorks and just, you know, people behind a computer all day, every day, but I'll take it, you know, if that's what they get. 

Zahra  

Yeah, I'd love that and I think what's super interesting about that is your ability to pivot. So when did you realize was it just like you were setting up the booths, and you were, like, not hitting the right people or people weren't willing? Like, because I think especially in service based franchising, the interesting thing is finding someone with the skill set to do it, as well, as you know, it's different than, than like, opening up a Chick Fil A where it's like, just, yeah, here you go through corporate training and you're fine, right?

Aquila  

 Yeah, no, it definitely was. And it's funny, because that's the same thing that we tell our clients is, you got to give it some time, you got to really try it, you got to be willing to give it a solid go. And then you can say whether or not it's working. And I feel like we did I mean, we gave it a solid year and just weren't seeing the results that we wanted. But I think it was, you know, a moment where we could have decided, like, this whole thing is just a failure, like, forget it, or we could have decided, now we're gonna try something else. You know, it was it was definitely a moment where we kind of had to decide that fork in the road for sure.

Zahra  

This is like totally off script but I, as you're saying this, like, it's what I love talking to you is to like, we go through this process with our clients all the time, where, you know, you run a campaign and either made you the sales you wanted or didn't. And so if you don't have any micro conversions to track, then you don't know whether or not it was like a terrible idea, like nobody wants to offer, you know, like, nobody likes your lipstick, or is it the you know, it's a great product, but something about a landing page, or an offer or the copy or the photography or the item description, or you know, any one of those little micro conversions that needs to be optimized to get the result that you want it. So sometimes we throw the baby out with the bathwater, because we just don't have the data. It was like, Well, nobody's buying my product or nobody's, you know, doing this thing. And so you just toss all of your labor out and so for you, what was that process like, how did you know, the idea of the franchise was still a solid? Like, that's the baby the avenue was the bathwater, right?

Aquila  

Right, I think the main thing for me was what that year did give us was the gift of having so many conversations with people. And every time I would explain it to somebody, everybody would say, oh my gosh, like everybody got it. Everybody understood what we were trying to accomplish. Love that. So cool. Even the, you know, potential candidates, we were talking to all all felt like it was a good opportunity. They just weren't the right fit. So I think the fact that we did go through that process and have so many conversations, not all positive. I mean, there were definitely some people that you know, we met at expos and stuff that were like, well, good luck with that, you know, okay, yeah, cool idea. And kind of were a little snarky, but all of that feedback. We just kept keeping tabs on and thinking about what we could learn from those experiences. And the fact that I kept getting people saying, Oh, that's amazing. Wow, I love that like we kept getting that part. If feedback so it gave me the encouragement that I gotta believe we're onto something here, but you'll never know for sure. I mean, I wish I could have, you know, first foretold the future, but it was at least enough of a gut instinct to feel like it's worth it to keep going.  That's really awesome. So getting back to the whole area, PR, because I know people want to hear all of the expertise that you have in, in, in PR, although I love I love talking about franchising, because that's, that's what we love to do is we help build those brands ready for franchising. So like, what assets need to be in place, what guidelines what onboarding process, what internal culture statements, what brand standards need to be identified and replicated. You know, like all those things, and building out those experiences is really a lot of fun for us. So I love talking about that. But I know that what people really want to hear is about the PR, and I want to go high level, just kind of take a step back. So first of all, let's just start with what are some good goals, and even expectations to have to PR because I've heard you say this 1000 times like PR is not going to save your dying business. Explain that, like what are some good goals and expectations. Well, I think it's a lot different if you are doing PR from like a, you know, touch point moment, like you are opening a business, you're launching a new if you are wanting, you know PR to be on a project basis, I think your goals are different than if you're wanting ongoing PR. So a lot of our clients are experts in their field. And the ebb and flow of PR opportunities that come their way is something that we have to sometimes coach them on a little bit that it's not fair to expect that you're going to be on the cover of Forbes every single month, you know, nonstop you have to have that understanding of this is going to be a little bit of an ebb and flow. And you know, we always want to be able to deliver, you know, at a minimum some type of coverage every single month, we want to have some traction no matter what. But there's months where we have dozens of coverage pieces, there's months where we have a handful and it just kind of has to be that patience of understanding that a we can't control journalists, we can't force them to cover something. And I probably wouldn't want to even if I could I mean it's part of the beauty of PR is when you truly earn that coverage, and you get a reporter's honest opinion or honest take on your business versus just regurgitating you know, a press release on the wire or something like that. I think that's the beauty of it. So if you are insistent upon guaranteed coverage, or, well, I want to make sure we absolutely have coverage in this particular publication. There's advertising routes that you can go to ensure that you will be on a full page cover in Entrepreneur Magazine, or whatever it is, but that's just not what we do. That's not our, you know, bread and butter. So yeah, I think just having realistic expectations is important. But for sure, if you have a PR agency that is, you know, promising you guaranteed coverage, I would dig in a little bit and make sure what exactly that means. Does it mean that they're buying that ad space in that magazine? And then they're just putting you in there? Or does it mean something else, I don't know what it would be but dig into that a little bit and find out exactly what you're getting for your investment.

Zahra  

That's a really important thing to touch on and I think also like, I want to ask you, I don't know if this is true, this happens for you. But in branding, sometimes, you know, people are making, they're using their marketing budget for this, right. And so people's expectation is if I spend $1 on brand services, or you know, PR services, I expect to make $3 $5, whatever, right, like I've got to see, so when you're doing marketing campaign, or you're running PPC or ads, there's a direct and exact way to track the revenue from that. But just like in branding, sometimes it it builds awareness, sometimes it adds value so that you can increase your margin and your price point sometimes, you know, so like, there's not always, you know, an exact like, hey, you've been working with me for six months, and I can prove to you that it was my work that led to this specifically does that ever come up for you? And how do you address that as far as like goals like and expectations as far as like, what what is the definition of PR working?

Aquila  

Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, kind of going back to our original, you know, talking point I think when you're looking at things holistically as can you leverage the PR coverage to be a tool to now use on your website as an ad. As you know, across the banner here's where we've been featured all these you know, great news, you know, names and logos displayed. And then are you tracking on your end, you know, all of your incoming leads, how did you hear about us? How did you hear about us? That's probably one of the most potent ways to be able to say, okay, great. I know PR is working but PR should not be so closely tied to sales because it is more of that top of the funnel type tactic. It's not necessarily going to be I saw the art recall, and then I gave you a call and I purchased, it's going to be, I saw the article. Now you're in consideration because I know I'm going to need somebody who does what you do at some point. But they wouldn't have even known to think about you until they saw that article. So that's maybe more so where we can show value and impact, of course, we can show you like, here's the traffic, we drove to your website, here's the traffic that that site receives, and your name was on there, and we had a backlink to your site from that one, you know, we can kind of walk through all of those data points. But I think the most most important thing to remember is that your PR efforts should be supplementing all your other marketing efforts, it shouldn't be the one and only thing you're banking on.

Zahra  

100% and I love that that explanation because really, it's a working system, you know, and and there's multiple facets to it. And just kind of like it could be like you said, somebody read the article in Forbes and then went to your website, or it could be somebody who navigated through a PPC that's done separately to the website. And they were like, I don't know about them. But then they saw featured in Forbes, and they were like, that's the authority. That's the confirmation, I needed to feel like they know what the heck they're talking about. So I'm gonna go ahead and book that appointment, that discovery call. And so you know, there's ways to track that sometimes, but not always, you know, what, you know, you can track where it came from, but you can't necessarily say, well, because that was there the person you can you can ask questions and do surveys and things. But sometimes there's not always like a direct way to like, definitively prove. And so when you're looking at like determining whether or not PR is being successful for you or not, it's not the same way that you would evaluate whether or not Facebook ads are working for you. It's not a straight up ad split test that you're like, alright, this is my click through rate that's working.

Aquila  

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. No, you're 100% right.

Zahra  

So moving on to the next question. I want to know, when a company is first launching, what should they be focusing on? Like, what's the gold standard? What can you do, because it's a critical moment, where you have zero customers and zero overhead to like, zero cuz you open your doors, and it's like, you don't want to have zero customers and all the overhead, like, you want to make sure you've got something out the door and to kind of get that rolling, and it's a really crucial part so what can they do from a PR standpoint, right?

Aquila  

I mean, I think the most important thing is to start getting your marketing people in place way, like whatever timeframe, you think you should be getting them in place, like double that, and call the agency at that point, because I would much rather know way ahead of when you're actually ready to, to call us when you feel like you're ready is probably too late. So if I know, hey, I'm planning on opening this business within a year, and we can stay in touch and I can consult with you and let you know, like, well, your website's not ready. Do you have this? Do you have that? Do you have that? Like, can we start having those conversations with you beforehand? Because the most frustrating thing to me is when we get a call, you know, a month before your grand opening, and you're like, can you help me, and I'm like, well, there's 18 Other things that I see right away, that should have already been done. And now you're putting the pressure on me to drive the results without these other pieces in place. So that's super, super, you know, important, I think to build your marketing plan into I mean, I totally understand when you're opening a business, you've got a million other things you're thinking about. But that's where that like person who's going to be almost a consultant or you know, fractional CMO, whatever you want to call it is so critical, because they will point out all those things to you that you should be working on a year out six months out, you know, way ahead of time, so that that grand opening or what have you is so much smoother, but yeah, as far as low hanging fruit, I mean, I always think your website and your branding are number one, having at least something on your organic social so that you look legitimate, you don't have to be posting 18 times a day, you know, right away. But do you have something on your organic social so that if I go to check you out, you look credible, and then PR I think for a brand launch is always really fun. I just would be always cautious that something like just a ribbon cutting is not going to grab necessarily a journalist attention. So what can we talk about and we talked about this at Startup Week, you know, if you're launching something I need to know if you're the best at something the first you know, the biggest, what can we pitch to a journalist where you're actually a differentiator, and then we've got a story. It's not necessarily just my doors are open, hurray, I need to dig a little bit deeper than that. 

Zahra  

And I love that because it's such a crucial part which is to your point like front loading some of the things like when like maybe you're not like if you're a startup, you're not going to start off spending like the 60 grand on a brand you know, but there are elements of the brand that you need to have established beforehand. You don't have to have all your like custom illustrations and iconography like you can you can get there eventually. The things that you want to have really is like having your identity down having your brand story down having like a professional looking for would mark like, so those are some of the things that like starting off, you know, you need, it's like, you open a restaurant, like tables and chairs, then you decorate the walls, if you got the lunch, like, you gotta have to, you gotta have a place. And I think that's super important because without that brand story, it makes it difficult for you. So it's like, so we're here in San Antonio. So it's not just like, hey, so such and such restaurant is having a ribbon company, it's, Hey, such and such restaurant is bringing healthy food to maybe a certain part of town that doesn't have access to it, or, you know, like, there's a story there that makes it relevant makes it you know, engaging. And I think that that's super important, but it's hard for you to like, pull out of thin air, if there's not any, like, front loaded, you know, branding work. Yeah, I think that's, that's a really good point. Now, when do you think is the best time for? Because there's, there's always, you know, when you're looking at the first couple of years in business, it's like the number one question, right, like, and there's a case and an argument for both, you know, the DIY, the Bootstrap, the scrappy, you know, and then there's the, you're being cheap, you're wasting valuable time, time is money, you're gonna burn through the cash flow that you have, because everything's bottlenecked with you, because you don't know enough in enough departments, right to get it all done. And so it's kind of this tightrope that we walk as entrepreneurs in the first couple of years of managing and spending the money that you do have, well, you know, but then also knowing when you just got to figure it out and DIY a little bit until you can get to where you can get help. So what do you think, as far as PR goes, like, when is it time for you to stop trying to like, go solo? Should you start strong and hire PR to get you your first like, great, you know, solid customer base or should you DIY it? And then once you have a solid customer base, bringing the big guns to scale that like, what are your thoughts on that or does it depend?

Aquila  

Yeah, I mean, I think it all kind of comes down to like your trajectory for your business. If you are telling me the pain point is I just need more people to know about what we do. And it's a high level, like consumer level brand awareness, or I know the target market I'm trying to reach, I know there's industry publications, if I can just get coverage in those, I have a really good feeling we can get, you know, the traction that we're looking for, if that's where you're kind of at in those beginning phases, then maybe PR is something that would have a great impact for your business. Other than that, I think it's totally okay to, you know, say, Okay, this is something we're going to do in the very beginning, let's hold off until we get to that level where we're ready for kind of a scaling moment. But the other thing I think, I would say is there's so many, you know, consultants now or people that you can pay them for an hour of their time and get some, you know, hourly expertise to feel like you're in the right direction. And then when you're ready to have an agency on board, you know, you can you can get to that point. But yeah, I would say if you're, if you're, you know, in that, you know, very few first years, and you're looking at, okay, everybody's telling me 10% of my you know, annual revenue is my marketing budget, if that number like terrifies you to invest that much in marketing, you're probably not ready yet. Because we don't want to just burn that you know, cash and then you feel like you didn't get anything for it, you weren't happy with the results, you were stressing over that retainer number, that's not a fun relationship for anybody to be engaged in. So when you get to that point where you're like, 10% got it? Yeah, let's invest that, absolutely. That's our marketing budget, then I think, okay, we're at a good place where we know you're going to be patient, you're going to be open to us, you know, throwing new ideas at you expanding, deciding, we want to add something else into the scope of work, and not be constantly, you know, clutching your checkbook as you're like handing over each month, you know.

Zahra  

Yeah, I think that's cool. And it kind of ties back to something that you said a little earlier is like, having that fractional CMO or having that, you know, agencies going to somebody who can help you see big picture, because if your marketing budget is, you know, somewhere in the neck of 10 to 15% of your of your revenue, it's not all gonna go to brand, it's not all gonna go to PPC, it's all gonna go to SEO and blogs and content writing, not all gonna go to the software and the email systems and the, you know, Instant Pages, and you know, it's all gonna go to PR, it's all gonna go to coupons, and print products and conventions, and expos and speaking engagements and travel and, you know, like, it's not all gonna go to one place. And this, and it's so important to like, have somebody that can big picture and say, okay, of this entire dollar amount that we have for the year. This is how we're going to spend it by quarter and this is how we're going to spend it by department or by area, so that you can do what you said, it's like, try it and give it time. Because if I only have enough money to make, like the first 30 days of your retainer or anybody's retainer, then it's not going to get them anywhere. And I think that's such a critical point that you made is that spending your money wisely like if you go to somebody in any marketing department and any agency and you say, you know, here's my money. If you don't make this produced for me, within 30 days, I'm out of business or out of money, or I can't, then you probably shouldn't be spending that because there's not enough data to collect and optimize and relaunch to get to that return that you need in the 30 days. And so just kind of like, that's how, you know, if you're ready, like, can I do it for the long haul like, can I give it some time right?

Aquila  

Yeah, and at least, you know, here in San Antonio, I know, we have like the UTSA Small Business Development Center, we have so many chambers of commerce, I feel like every Chamber of Commerce always has at least like four social media, people who are willing to do trainings and you know, members that are constantly doing free workshops and stuff like that. So take advantage of that stuff because I think it gives you an opportunity to get to know them and their, you know, personalities. And then you've got that connection of, you know, Hey, would you mind if I bought you coffee or bought you lunch and, you know, had a conversation about where I'm at. And if I'm ready, it's such a good amount of resources out there, if you just take advantage of it.

Zahra  

100% so one question that I have on that is like, there's a lot like, you can go anywhere on Instagram, on social pages on LinkedIn, I find a lot of PR consultants, experts, how do you know, you can, like legit has experienced it can get you great advice? And like, is there a vetting process or a red flag, or, Hey, this is probably good, like any kind of shot can help you?

Aquila  

For sure. I mean, I think if you if you have people that are we kind of talked about this earlier, but if you run across a PR agency guaranteeing coverage, to me, that's a red flag, if you run across agencies that they're talking about just putting you on the wire, and that's all they're going to do, I would be, you know, asking a couple extra questions, the issue with the wire is that's basically just syndicating your content that journalists or that, you know, publication is not actually, you know, looking at your options, looking at your press release, they're just publishing it, they're just regurgitating it. So while you know, sometimes the wire is strategically an option to kind of consider, if that's all an agency is doing, then you want to kind of ask and dig a little deeper, because you could also go put something on the wire yourself, if they're just marketing up, marking it up, and then sending you an invoice. You know, there's a problem there. But it's really like hiring a lot of service providers, if your gut instinct is kind of telling you this is a little too good to be true, this doesn't feel right. You know, you don't have a good vibe or connection with the person that you're having a call with, you know, by far, you should listen to that, because there's certainly a lot of PR agencies out there that are kind of putting up that, you know, facade of knowing what they're doing but they don't actually, you know, ended up delivering.

Zahra  

So we talked a little bit about like when a brand gets started, kind of where they should be focusing on but now that they've been in business for a couple years, like when you're first starting out this new launch, it's a story. It's kind of like what these people vision is, how do you keep that alive? It's like been two years later, how do you stop? How do you not run out of things to talk about cool things to find? What is what are some tips you can give us to stay relevant? 

Aquila  

Yeah, yeah, it's, I mean, one thing that is nice, like we've worked with some startup publications, and things like that, where they still consider your business to be a startup within seven years of starting. So even if you feel like, Oh, we've already been around for a few years, we've already done this, like, you still are a very new business in the eyes of a lot of journalists. And so they almost see it as Okay, you've got your feet under you a little bit. Now we're willing to cover you because you've actually, you know, hung in there and shown that you can survive at least the first few years. So I definitely don't think you should be discouraged in that regard. The toughest thing to me is when you're planning, like an annual event, or you know, something that you're asking press to cover on an annual basis. And in that regard, like we have plenty of clients that do like fundraisers, or galas, or things like that, and we're always asking them to try to innovate or add something every single year that still piques the interest unless you're like Fiesta, here in San Antonio, and, you know, you're always gonna get coverage and get, you know, media out there, you have to be doing something different every year, it can't just be the exact same copy, paste, you know, press coverage materials that are going out there. So yeah, just making sure that we, you know, think through that and have some type of innovation every year. And then you get to the point, you know, 2030 years down the road, where you're a legacy company, and you can talk about this is how far we've come. And this is the lessons we've learned and all of that, but it can be a little bit of a slog to get through all of it.

Zahra  

That's really good advice. I like how you kind of break that up into phases. So you can identify like, Okay, I'm in this phase so these are some ideas, that's really cool. How do you identify some of the best outlets for your brain because there's so many options. There's like, do I want to be on TV? Do I want to be in a magazine? Am I trying to get you know, a contributing article? Am I trending, get direct coverage, you know, how do I know what's right for my brand? What are some questions to ask?

Aquila  

Yeah, well, TV for sure is a really easy one. If you don't necessarily have a great visual, you know aid for your story, it's gonna be really tough. Like for example, we just pitched a story for a client the other day that was all about like Halloween. The dangers of using the like Halloween hair colors that people spray in their hair, their natural haircare salon, so we pitched journalist, okay, can we talk about these dangers? And on the face, it was like, well, this is a very, like, you know, nebulous kind of topic to talk about how dangerous these ingredients are, how do you show that but what we did was we had the client actually come in and film the salon actually doing a safe hair color on a client and showing the results of that. And look, it's still super bright, and oh, my gosh, this looks great and it's safe for you, you know, kind of giving them that visual look to it. But if you don't have that, or you can't spin it and have some type of you know, visual aid, then maybe you know, print or digital radio could be a good option for you. And then I think again, like if you are going to have video content, do you have the means to then repurpose that and use it elsewhere? Or is it like we just want the backlink on our site, a print, you know, question and answer article is totally fine. So it just kind of depends on your goals. And then I would say in terms of how to find those publications, that's really where you either need a ton of time to Google, or you need to hire an agency because they pay for all of those databases, they pay for all of those media lists where they can access every reporter who works for every magazine, you know, pretty much anywhere. So that's where you know, PR, you know, pros still have kind of their their thumb on things because we can access that stuff and it's really time intensive to do it yourself. 

Zahra  

Like the travel agent, I always say that, like I hear like, I'm old school, I'd rather use a travel agent because they're gonna find the deals anyways. But you don't have to be on every website ever imagined to like put it all together yourself like you're paying the same way.

Aquila  

Absolutely, do you value your time more than you value, absolutely. 

Zahra  

And they know what's sketchy and what's not. I don't know what to look for and I don't it's best practice. So then that kind of leads me to my last question is what are some of the best practices for getting picked up? Like, if I'm DIY, and I thought this cool thing? Or, you know, what are some practices to get, like noticed or to get in like, say I wanted to do great DSA like, how do I even get in that? Like, am I sending gift baskets? And like, what am I doing? How am I getting in front of those people? And how do I know where to find them? You were talking about how to find them, is your database, is that how do I how do I make that connection? 

Aquila  

Yeah, if you are outreaching to them, what do you do, how do you do it? Well, I mean, it's very similar to a lot of industries where relationships are key. So if you're trying to do it yourself, I think one of the biggest things you can do is really focus on interacting with those reporters outside of when you have an angle, like if you aren't necessarily pitching them something, but you're following them on Instagram, you're following them on Twitter, you're finding them on LinkedIn, you're interacting with them with their posts, and you know, making comments here and there so that they, you know, know who you are before, you're actually saying like, by the way, will you come cover this? Or will you talk about this? Or can we come on the show? So I think that would definitely be step one, if you're doing it yourself. The biggest thing too, I think people make the mistake sometimes is when they're reaching out to reporters, they give them pages and pages and pages of background. And this is where I went to school and this is where I was born. And this and the reporter needs like three sentences. And you've got those three sentences to tell them, this is why you should care. So if you don't have that hook, if you haven't really identified like, what is that sizzle that we talked about in PR, then you need to kind of refine that a little bit. Because again, you're not going to get them to read all of this information until they've been hooked in and now you can explain to them further. But if that first opening paragraph is not super, super tight, you've lost them. And yeah, I think it's less intimidating than what people think. But I can understand sending that first email is like, oh my gosh, you know. 

Zahra  

Yeah, and it's interesting that you say that so like, years ago, and in our mid 20s, my husband and I had a restaurant and we didn't know I you know, I'd never done I had some marketing for years, but that did not include PR it was just I worked for a corporation. So like we it was pretty, pretty standard and I remember we were trying to get on great depth they were trying to get and so we had no idea how to do it. So like we randomly we would send them lunches like once a month or once every couple of weeks or something like just a little these little box lunches that we had and it was just like no ass just kind of like with a little card in there that said like trying to bring healthy food to San Antonio and this that and the other and then and we did follow them on on social media and then we invited them to come to one of his cooking classes. And then randomly somebody showed up from you know, one of the producers showed up you know, somebody with a guest and that was like our in and so then it ended up becoming a regular spot every week we would do like this healthy corner cooking demo thing. And yeah, it was a quote, but it was like we had no, but it was like there was no right way or like sometimes it's just you know, there's best practice and etiquette like you're talking about like give give give you know before you you come in for the ask is like a super good and that's it anything any marketing any emails, you know, formula you want to give give good value before you start asking for stuff. But sometimes even if it's not pretty, or you've never done it before, or you've never tried it, or it's taken like more than one attempt doesn't mean it can't turn into something like super valuable down the line. It doesn't mean that like, it's not gonna work. Sometimes you just gotta like, I have no idea how to get in front of these people. I know no one, I have no connections. I don't even know how to find this guy's email. So like, this is what we're gonna do like, I got sandwiches, and it's like, we're gonna, we're gonna leverage our sandwiches to try and get it. That's like, kind of a fun thing about PR that I've experienced is like, sometimes you just work with what you got to do something.

Aquila  

Yep. Yep, absolutely. Sometimes you definitely got to do that and sometimes that's where reporters respect you the most because you're just hustling and you're, you know, making a push and doing things in a creative way. And that's, you know, way more impactful than just a standard black and white, here's your press release kind of thing.

Zahra  

Okay, so we always do this thing at the end of our episodes, just so that our listeners can get to know you a little bit better. It's just some rapid fire fun questions, are you down, can we do this? Okay favorite vacation.

Aquila  

I would say Greece.

Zahra  

Favorite San Antonio spot right now. That's tough, don't make your clients mad.

Aquila  

That is very tough. Okay, I have to give a plug for Honey Mercantile. They're getting ready to open on TPC Parkway and it's a very unique blend of like vintage finds on top of home goods decor, like I don't know that there's another shop in San Antonio that does exactly what they do. And Allison, the owner is just like, literally the sweetest person ao I'm very excited about San Antonio, getting to experience honey mercantile, very soon. 

Zahra  

I have to check that out, that's my neck of the woods.

Aquila  

Yeah.

Zahra  

So what entrepreneur is your inspiration cuz I know tons of people are being inspired by so who inspires you?

Aquila  

Boy, I feel like I read so many books and go through and hear so many different stories. But I heard Martha Beck speak at the Nalco WBC conference, and really loved her energy and then I'm now listening to her audiobook. I'm sure it's a regular book as well, too but it's called The Way of Integrity. So I just really loved like her demeanor and philosophy and the fact that she has been able to craft this career that is inspiring and uplifting for her, but it's also really successful. You know, she hasn't gotten to the point of being, you know, miserable or jaded. She's been able to maintain this really beautiful, you know, spirit throughout her career.

Zahra  

Yeah, I listened to that book as well and it was really, I loved how how intentional she was, you know about the whole process like I thought that was really cool. Sorry, rapid fire, I got sidetracked. What book are you reading right now? 

Aquila  

Okay, so we'll skip The Way of Integrity because that's audio, but reading I just finished Lessons in Chemistry. Now I'm reading The Nightingale, but if you have not read The House in the Cerulean Sea so good, so so it's fantasy. It's got like some kind of, you know, I guess, almost kind of Harry Potter vibes a little bit but I that's the first book in a very long time where I was like, actively sobbing at the end just it was so so good so highly recommend that one.

Zahra  

Obviously, check that one out. Yeah. So for our last question, what one single piece of advice, and we didn't really touch on this too much. But you're a mom of two and I think that sometimes we feel like there's a lot more between us and success, because there are certain things that we're just not willing to compromise on. Like so many of us moms were just not willing to put in the 100 hour work weeks and miss the recitals and the soccer games. And so like, it kind of almost feels like this choice that you have to make. What piece of advice would you give to a mom who doubts whether she can be a great mom and a great CEO?

Aquila  

Well, I mean, I think, first of all, you're not alone to be struggling with that, that tribulation is going to be something that will just be part of you forever. I don't know any mom that works that is not constantly kind of going back and forth between feeling guilty about not being the best mom or guilty about not being the best CEO or employee or whatever your role is. But I think for me, the biggest thing that I always go back to is the quote I'm from Nora Ephron, I think where she talks about, everybody's juggling a lot of balls. But you have to get to the point where you understand which balls are rubber and which ones are glass. And that was a big moment for me when I realized, it's not the end of the world to say, I'm shutting my computer off. At this time, I'm going to go walk away, I'm going to let that sit until Monday, or, you know, the next time that I'm going to be, you know, getting back into work. And I think the fact that women uniquely struggle with that is indicative of why we get crap done but it's also a good recipe for burning yourself out. So we are all juggling that you are not alone to be struggling in that realm, but you can do it, you will absolutely thrive. And it is not something to feel guilty about to fulfill both your professional self and your parents self.

Zahra  

I love that's beautifully said like, there's an image that comes with what you just shared about the glass like, that's gonna stick with me. So thank you for sharing that. Yeah, absolutely. Aquila thank you so much for joining me today, there's so much value. And I knew I went on 1000 tangents with you and I didn't stick to the script at all. So thanks for everybody for coming along with the ride. There's just so much wisdom and so much expertise with Aquila that I never know when to stop, we'll just keep going all day. So thanks for hanging in there with me. Honestly, truly a pleasure. I learned a lot just, you know, hearing what you have to say I learned something new every time I talk to you and so I've really enjoyed that.

Aquila  

Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me, I really, really have so much admiration for what you do. And it's an honor to be on the podcast, but more so to know you as a friend and a colleague, I definitely definitely have so much respect for the work that you do but more so how you run your business is very impressive. 

Zahra  

Thank you very much, the feeling is definitely mutual. So how can we get in touch with you if our listeners who need to get in touch with you to you know, start a project or doing a launch, how do we find you?

Aquila  

Yeah, absolutely. So our website is hitpr.com. You can find me on all socials at Haute in Texas. It's spelled like haute couture. So H A U T E in Texas, spelled all the way out. I'm pretty much on every social media channel so that's probably the best way to follow or get in touch. But then our website is also a great way but we'd love to chat and I'm always happy to you know, do coffee or lunch or what have you, for anybody that I'm able to help ask them.

Zahra  

Now, if you've just inspired someone to take that leap into entrepreneurship, and they are interested in talking to you about a franchise would we go to the same website or is there a different way you'd like us to reach out? 

Aquila  

Yeah there is a button on the website if you go all the way down. But if you want to go direct the website for the franchise concept is haute. So again, spelled hauteinfranchising.com. 

Zahra  

Awesome. So for those of you guys who are driving, do not worry, it will all be linked up in the show notes. You can click away. Be safe and wait for us to give you the link. 

Aquila  

Absolutely. 

Zahra  

Well, thanks again Aquila, I can't wait to have you back. I'm already planning questions for the next time so hopefully you'll come back and talk to us again. 

Aquila  

I would love that, thank you so much. 

Zahra  

And we will see everyone next