Publicist… How would you describe what you do?
As a Publicist I offer people and brands/businesses publicity services such as raising their public profile, protecting their image and/or getting them exposure and awareness through various media initiatives. In addition, as a Publicist I stay busy managing the public image of my clients and setting up publicity events, generating strategic marketing plans, press conferences and endorsements.
As a Publicist I offer people and brands/businesses publicity services such as raising their public profile, protecting their image and/or getting them exposure and awareness through various media initiatives. In addition, as a Publicist I stay busy managing the public image of my clients and setting up publicity events, generating strategic marketing plans, press conferences and endorsements.
To sum up what I, as a Publicist, do briefly, is pretty much look at a person or company’s goals and help them get there by organizing and planning ways to help shift the narrative and shape the public perception about whatever it is we are pushing out there.
How did you get your start working in publicity and how was ZTPR born? Before I got into public relations, I was working as a radio host across Canada (where I’m from originally) on various stations. As a radio host I had always been in touch with celebrities who would come on our shows, and whenever the celebs were in town, I would help them get other interviews, take them out and/or get them endorsement deals with various brands in my city. That was my first real taste of personal public relations. After helping different companies and celebs grow their brands through my connections in the broadcasting world, I realized my true passion wasn’t entertaining and being on-air anymore in radio, but the public relations side of things and helping to build and shape careers – both in the celebrity and corporate world.
With this new passion in mind, the opportunity came to change careers and move to California. After being a Management Consultant, Operations Manager and Senior Account Executive at a large public relations firm in Hollywood, I took a risk and branched out on my own to start my own agency and that is how ZTPR was born!
Is your job as a Publicist a 9-5 one?
I always say that public relations is a 28-hour, 8 days a week job. There is no sleeping in the PR world, as we always have to be on-call for our clients in case something happens in their lives that needs our attention or advice with. Plus, there is always breaking news somewhere, and it’s my job as the publicist to help monitor the news and at times see if we can fit our clients into a headline making news cycle for exposure. People think publicists just walk their clients on red carpets and that’s it, but the truth is, there is A LOT more that goes on behind the scenes with media pitching, branding, strategic planning, etc. that is involved with each and every client. I speak to every one of my clients almost every single day. They are like a second family, so I always have to know everyone’s schedule, figure out who is in what time zone, and be alert and ready at all times.
What do you love about the work you do on the PR front?
I love watching an individual or a business grow and achieve way more than their original goals they put in place. Nothing is more fulfilling than seeing a client who started with myself as pretty much a “no-namer”, who the media didn’t really care to chat about, and seeing them with my help and guidance grow over the months/years into an “in-demand” name… It’s such a rewarding process to watch and experience first-hand.
You’ve developed your agency a lot since branching out on your own in 2014. What were the keys to growing?
I think the key to ZTPR’s development is that our clients get the results they seek and my staff and I treat every client like family. We are very personal at ZTPR and believe that when a client puts their trust in you, you better not f**k it up! I also believe in branching out to new markets, taking on new types of clients and keeping stuff fresh and fun!
Public relations is a 28-hour, 8 days a week job. There is no sleeping in the PR world…
More than a publicist, you are a real serial entrepreneur! We found out you are also involved in several startups!
I love start-ups and unique products. But as any start-up or inventor will tell you, money can be tight at the beginning stages and not everyone can afford a publicist or marketing team. So, at times, if the situation is right, I’ve invested my own time, resources and/or money into various companies in order to help them along and into the successes some of them are today. In terms of criteria, it just has to make sense and is more of a “gut feeling” on my end if it would be a good investment or not. Of course, having a solid business plan and strategy is key, but at the end of the day, if the start-up or product is something I could see myself personally using and is unique enough, then I’m usually open-minded to finding a way to make it work for all parties
You are also creating. What is the concept behind the platform “MEDYA”?
MEDYA is something I am really excited about, and has been an idea of mine for a few years now. After keeping it secretive for a while, we finally got the platform developed last year and just soft-launched it recently via www.getmedya.com. The concept is simple: The MEDYA platform allows individuals in all industries to seek out and hire publicists and/or journalists on a one-off basis to get them the media exposure they want, in the type of media (magazine, online, TV, radio, newspapers, etc.) they want, at whatever budget they can afford. There is no platform out there today where individuals, whether it being business owners, actors, doctors, lawyers, musicians, entrepreneurs, real estate agents, etc. can go to get quick exposure through one-off media placements at whatever budget they want. Not everyone can afford the high costs associated with traditional press campaigns or hiring a full-time publicist, so this is an alternative. In addition, the MEDYA platform helps connect Journalists with potential story leads they may not be getting through their own editors/outlet, and Publicists with new business, so that each can earn more revenue through their own expertise and connections. 2019 is going to be an exciting year for MEDYA – it’s something I truly feel everyone, at some point, will want to use!
Flipping pages here, somehow in your busy schedule you wrote a book too. Tell us about “Cut The Bull$hit” and how it came to be.
Ever since I got into PR and Marketing, people would always randomly ask me for tips or advice on how to get their product out there, or how to “become famous”, or how to use social media properly, or how to do other things related to my line of work/industry… and I figured I should just write a fun book that they can read and get answers from instead of bugging me daily. Plus, over the last few years I’ve seen other “how-to” books come out on bookshelves, and have seen other marketing people either do public speaking engagements or social media videos teaching people how to market themselves or products, and quite frankly I have always found all of those things to be pretty boring and overly stretched out that you forget a lot of the important facts. Honestly, who has hours and hours to sit through a video/speaker series?! Who has time to flip through hundreds and hundreds of pages of a marketing book?! So, I wanted to come up with a book that is short, sweet and gets right to the point. In marketing, a lot of the things you need to know are pretty simple and basic, yet other “marketing gurus” will tell you a bunch of BS or try and elaborate their thinking points just so you maybe believe them more or something. But when it comes down to it, after you know the basic things, you can be pretty successful. My book does that. It cuts the BS and tells you how it really is in the real world, no sugar coating. I wanted to write a book that I would read myself and could actually learn a few things from and not get bored.
Follow Zack on Instagram @zackteperman
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