Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hello and welcome to Storyteller in Depth, a podcast where we go behind the scenes to learn more about the school of Communications Media Arts and designs people, places and things. In today's episode, we'll be speaking to Jackie Clark, a graduate of our public relations corporate communications program and the founder of the well Connected. After immersing herself in the fast paced world of event management and sponsorships after graduation, Jackie has successfully carved out a remarkable career in including founding her own agency, which won Public Relations firm of the Year Scarborough, presented by the Canadian Choice Award. Whether you're interested in starting your own agency like Jackie, or want to explore creative communications, this is the episode for you. So without further ado, let's get into it.
So thank you so much, Jackie, for joining the podcast today.
[00:01:03] Speaker B: Thank you so much for having me.
[00:01:04] Speaker A: Yeah. So before we dive into your journey of launching the well Connected, let's first go back a bit. So what first sparked your interest in communications? Eventually bringing you into the PR program at Centennial. And what kind of led you to become a publicist in the film and beauty industry?
[00:01:20] Speaker B: Yes, so I actually fell into this industry. So I initially wanted to be a bridal designer living my best Disney princess life. So I attended Seneca College where I studied fashion arts. But while I was there, I was on the Black History Month team and certain, certain things. And that led into the event space. So they kind of helped me get into events. And then as I left school at the time then I was just interning, volunteering, and I'm a very talkative, bubbly person. And I just started like, there's something here about this comms thing. And I never really knew what it was, but I read these books by this author. I can't remember her name, but it's called the Carly Phillips, that's her name. And it's like the Hot Zone series. And it's about these three sisters who go live with their bachelor uncle because their parents die in a plane crash. And they're all publicists. So I didn't know then I was kind of like envisioning a life. And I've read all the books, like 12, 13, 14 times. They're all tattered. The same original ones got them at Value Village in the early days. And so that kind of transpired. Inspired, sorry, the PR stuff. So I was interning, not really knowing what to do and finding myself. And then my. My sister had a conversation with my uncle about going back to school. So my sister decided to go back to school for business. And, you know, there was this Conversation that, you know what, maybe we should try going back to school. And my father actually teaches at Centennial College, so he actually teaches at the Story Arts center in art, so life drawing and stuff. So his name is Neville Clark. So. And I was like, you know what, why not there? They have a great program. My dad has always talked about highly of Centennial. So I applied and got in and I decided to take CCPR in 2015 or 16. One of those, one of those years. And it was a very great program, but that kind of completed it for me. Seneca in the books inspired me and I was kind of doing it, but. And then internships followed and then Centennial helped me really get grounded in there. And then Donna, I believe her name was, she was the dean of that program or coordinator of the program. She put me into film. I was like, I want to go into fashion. I was thinking of like fashion. And she's just like, I think he would do well here. So I ended up at a tarot PR for my internship that landed into a job that landed into a contract we still maintain to this day. So that's how. That's my story that's so interesting.
[00:04:00] Speaker A: Okay, so you spent over 15 years as a publicist. So what was that turning point that kind of made you take the leap and start your own agency? And how did that experience shape the way you approach your work now?
[00:04:12] Speaker B: Well, yeah, like I said, I've been freelancing in it for years, not really understanding it, not really knowing what to do. And so I've been doing it without really at the time then knowing what it was. But if we think about it now, 2016 was almost 10 years ago. So it's been a. It's been a long time. But what's prompted me to create my own agency was I never had a desire to work for people. And I get that from my dad. But my dad growing up was a stay at home dad. He had his own business, did his own thing, and I always admired that. And I find I get bored working with people so long. I just, I'm a very creative and free spirit. I need consistent change. And I love the idea of my dad being able to come to my sister's soccer games or basketball games. I love that, you know, he could be flexible in what he's doing and not tied to a can't make it, I'm working kind of lifestyle.
But while I was in agency life, I started seeing things with partnerships because what I do as a sponsorship relations agency, there's still a lot of communications that's involved. It's still very rooted in comms. I just have a different niche of it and partnerships and sponsorships. A lot of PR agencies take that on. And as I was interning, I was like, okay, this is a really high level need. It's a full time position. But between being a publicist, pitching press, doing all that stuff, and trying to manage the partnerships, things were falling through the cracks because we're doing way too many things. And when I decided to launch my agency, it did start off as a PR agency because that's what I knew. And as I was like maneuvering, I was like, I really like partnerships, I like events, and I love gifting. And I love that element of surprise because I would always see, like gifting suites for the Grammys and I would google them over the years. I'm like, how do I do this? And I kind of just started weeding out. I realized I didn't like publicity as much as I used to. I still, I didn't, I liked it. I didn't love it in the beginning. I loved it. And I find if I don't love it, I don't do it as much as I used to. And so I was just like, I like partnerships. And so I weeded out PR and started focusing on just sponsorship strategy. And it's now become a thing. Like, people are like, oh, we know you as a sponsorship girl, because this, that, and the third. And I'm kind of. I don't want to say I'm the only agency in the world. I'm sure there's somebody else, but there's not. I know I've coined the term sponsorship relations agency because I've googled it and there's not one. And so, yeah, I kind of moved into that space. And I love it. I love that I can talk to a brand and be like, I want this and this is what we're going to do and, and build up these activations and look at it from a comms perspective, but then from an activation perspective and then just like completely kill two birds, respectfully, with one stone. And so that's how I kind of moved into that. And I love that I could still do pitch decks. I'm still pitching clients, I'm still writing, you know, pitches and asking people to sponsor me. And then I'm, I'm dealing with logistics. I used to work in a warehouse for years as well. So it's like, okay, these products got to go to this person's office and then building these things out and Then giving people gift bags or having a brand set up a really cool activation and being like, I created that and it's here in real life, it gives me my fashion design background. So when I used to design clothes and I would sketch it out and then make it and then see a model wearing it, it's like I conceptualize this and it's now happening. So yeah, that's where I'm at.
[00:07:55] Speaker A: I love that, I love that you were able to even just take your interest from the past and make it into what you're doing today. That's really, that's all you really want, right? You want to love what you're doing. And I love that you were able to kind of combine those interests. So as the creative director of virtual events, sponsorships and brand activations and the founder of the well connected, you help entrepreneurs, startups and small businesses create communication strategies and materials. And like you just said, gifting, can you take us through what that work typically entails? Like, what's a day for you?
[00:08:27] Speaker B: Like, every day is different depending on what I'm doing. There's days that are blocked off for just sending emails and going through because there's a lot of brands that I do know and I'm very big on brands that I don't know. So a lot of it, I call them connection calls. There's no sales involved. I just want to know more about you, your brand, what's happening in, in your marketing this year? How are you working with influencers, influencers of color? And then how are we working with women and men and bipoc and lgbtq? So I, there's a lot of connection calls that the agency does on a typical day. It starts with me waking up, having a quick team, touch base, as I call them. We talk in. I have a very small but powerful, mighty remote team. All contractors that are their own event planners, photographers. We, we work in tandem a lot together.
So we discuss the, we just talk about what's happening, what new projects are going on, who's on vacation, next, whatever, and then the day goes into, okay, what deadlines do I have, what decks are due, who's working on those sponsorship decks, what strategy calls I have. So at least twice a week I do two minimum, maximum four, two, two, two hour strategy calls where I work with a client that's like, I want to produce an event and I want to get sponsorship. I don't just take your deck and be like, great, we're going to start sending it out.
90% of the time people are Missing a lot of things within their deck. So we do this strategy call to really outline the experience. What are you doing here? Because sponsorship is property. You're selling different facets of this event to make it whole. So the stage is one thing, cocktail hour is another, VIP rooms another. All these things. But I need you to tell me what that looks like. So I have those calls with those clients and then we transcribe the calls. The team and I sit back and be like, okay, this is what they're doing. What are the aligned partners? So it's not just we're going to go to our whole Rolodex and email everybody. It's like, okay, they want, they don't want alcohol at this event because there's going to be kids. So we need to find this or their indigenous focus. So we want to focus on more indigenous brands to bring to the light. So there's a lot of nuances that we literally sit and strategize. We like have a wall and it's all these sticky notes and there's a glass in front of my office door and my office is in my house, thank God. But I like map out, okay, this and this and that. And then again, it's the research. Do we have this contact already? Do we not have this contact? Who can we get it from? How do we make connection with them? And then it's events. Last week alone I had six or seven events. I had a virtual conference yesterday that I produced for Seneca George Brown Centennial. Like it was a virtual for the black coalition, so it was cool. And then today I have another one. After this call, I'm gonna head downtown to get ready for. And then there's that we have the events that we're on site for to support. Sometimes from gifting, sometimes from management, sometimes from reporting. So sometimes I go to this event to capture content that we put in a post event report. So it's or I'm like, somebody else is here, someone's setting up gift bags somewhere else. So it's a very diff. Every day is different. Every day leads to something to support someone's end goal.
[00:11:55] Speaker A: Yeah, for sure. And I love how personalized it is too because then you can really enhance like a brand's storytelling and vision. You can really make it personalized. It's not a cookie cutter kind of here. This is how your event's going to be. It's really personalized. I love that. And speaking of events, event activation is also a big part of what you do. Like you just said, what Would you say is one critical element that you kind of typically communicate to your clients that can either make an in person or virtual event truly stand out.
[00:12:24] Speaker B: I call it the red carpet effect. So really what that looks like is what is this customer experience? Doing this event for yourself, for your customer or audience in particular, what does that experience look like? A lot of the times we're just, oh, I want to do all these things. But is the flow of chaos easy? And so I asked all my in person and virtual clients, what does the customer experience look like? How are they onboarding them? How are they getting into this? What, what stop is there? What are their next stop stops for the full circle. So that is one of the biggest things I ask all my clients because you really need to understand the customer flow. It's for them. If you're miss, if you're not thinking of those things, you're missing out. And then that's when you get customers that goes, it wasn't really that great of an event. I would have preferred this or that or they were missing this. That or you're doing too much. I have a lot of clients that do too much.
Somebody emailed me the other day and they're like, they, they want to do a 10 day conference. And I'm like.
And I said 10 days? I said okay, why? And a lot of times people just think these things sound cool and it's no shade to who they are. But it's like, why? Because you now have to justify this to a brand if you're looking for partnership. Right? And the other caveat to that is, or an organization organizational goals are different from an event goal. And an event in my opinion is a tactic of an organization. It is something that we do to bring in some type of KPI call to action ROI roe. But a lot of the times the event goals don't support the organization. So a lot of the times when I get with clients, that's where we start on our call. Tell me about your business and tell me about your goals for this year. Okay, tell me about this event and the goals for that event. I, I within you telling me that I can quickly pick out the alignments or misalignments. And I'm like, hey, hey, hey, this is not the sense is not sensing here. There, there's missing. And then we start going through the event. Why are we having 12 panels and eight people on a panel? That's too redundant, you know? And then a lot of my clients after these calls are like, I have a lot of work to do. I'm like, yes. And they're very intense calls and it's not anything I'm trying to dissuade a client for. But I've said this in the past, you can't be talking nonsense for $50,000.
[00:14:49] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, for sure. And I think just. Yeah. Asking why, I think can really help bring up other questions as well. So it kind of leads you, like you said, to what are your goals for this? Why are you doing this? Having a purpose behind any event is always a great thing, a hundred percent. And I'd love to get your opinion on kind of just the broad communications and media landscape because it is constantly evolving how we intake media, new trends are reshaping, how brands connect with audiences. So in your opinion, why is it so important for those with a brand, especially entrepreneurs, stand up or startups, small businesses who may be looking at ways to stand out in a potentially crowded or competitive market. How do you help them, like develop a strategy such as enhancing their branding, looking at sponsorship opportunities and more? Why is that so important for brands?
[00:15:34] Speaker B: It's so important because you have to have a different valuation. A lot of people are doing things with no value. They're just doing it because they want to do it. And, and that's okay. But again, what serves you doesn't necessarily serve your audience, doesn't necessarily serve the partners that you're looking for. So really understanding your unique value proposition and going back to the why did you start this business? What problem did you see that you thought you were gonna solve? And it always has to go back to that. So even with my business, we didn't start here, but I've reval re evaluated my whys. And sometimes when I, even when I take on certain clients, I'm like, do this. Does this client or this project serve the well connected. Does it help support what we're doing here? If it does not, I will not take you on because it's a reflection of myself. But everything's changing. Instagram changes every couple of months. A new platform pops up every couple of months. It's an over consumption of content and that means there's over. That means you have to change the way you appear and show up and communicate. Not every platform is the right platform for you, but you have to start evaluating what platform is my, my community on. It's not even your audience. What platform is my community on and how do I talk to them. Because every industry has their own language, every business has their own ethos. And you have to make sure that your community is in alignment with the language that speaks the language in alignment with your, with the ethos of your business because that's who you're serving. And the brands and partners you're bringing on need to fit within your ecosystem. If you look at the ecosystem of the sea, there's layers to it that, you know, hierarchy, but it keeps the eco, it keeps the balance of the, the, the water similar to your business. And so it's so important to be on the precipice of understanding these things, knowing what platforms are coming out, knowing which ones you should get on, which ones you shouldn't really get on. Being adaptable to changing how you show up. Not everybody wants to read, you know, a 50 page document anymore. You have to be able to splice that information. So from the branding perspective, I work with clients on just being more concise with their, with their messaging but um, really seeking out the value and then helping them split their content that serves a bunch of different platforms and needs. And so it's a lot of, okay, this is what happens on LinkedIn. This is what we're going to do in our newsletters, here's what we're going to do online and then when it comes to outreach for partnerships, here's how we're going to get these partners to be involved with the business year after year. Here's what we're going to do to keep them in alignment. And it's a lot of, it's a lot of work, it's a lot of things.
[00:18:20] Speaker A: And that's why it's so great to have someone like you in the well connected, who's so aware of all these platforms because it is hard to keep up. Someone who is a small business owner starting a startup, you know, they have lots of hats, they're wearing lots of hats and having someone to kind of go to and it's like, okay, what's going on in this platform? What do I need to know? It's nice having that resource. And speaking of the well connected, some very exciting news. It recently was named Public Relations Firm of the Year Scarborough by the Canadian Choice Award. So congratulations on that. That's very exciting.
[00:18:51] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:18:52] Speaker A: Take us back to that moment you found out. What was your reaction and what does this recognition mean to you?
[00:18:58] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm so grateful. I mean, I don't typically apply for awards. I just, I, it wasn't something on my radar. I'm kind of like, I just do. But there's, you know, people in the industry that have seen me or you know, really great. I call them agency sister agencies that are like they, they support and they nominate. And so when I got that, I mean, I was really excited. But I guess there's no category for sponsorships, right? So they put it under pr. And we do PR for certain clients. So we have some like athletes and stuff that we will do PR for. And it's something that I am looking at bringing back as a full service. But I want to have somebody else oversee that side of the business because it is very taxing and time consuming as sponsorship.
But I was excited. I was what, I was home and I opened up my email and it was like the first thing I think I saw on a Monday morning. And I was like, oh, this is exciting. And so I was just really grateful and it goes to the efforts of my team, of myself. It again just reinforces the dream that I had and that like other people are seeing the results of my work and they, they are so they appreciate what I'm doing and I'm grateful for the recognition because they don't have to recognize me, you know, they don't have to. So I was excited. And then I think I, I think I took myself out to eat that night. I just think I was like, okay, I didn't make a big deal over it, but this year makes 10 years that I've really been in the industry. Like I've been doing it for 15, but, but 10 years wholeheartedly. I was just like labeling as the well connected, really just like outlining that this is the name I wanna go by. So this year I will be celebrating at the end of November, I think, or October, I haven't decided when. And just doing like a recap. So then I'll celebrate big with everybody and stuff.
[00:20:53] Speaker A: That's so wonderful and yeah, definitely. Great to hear it on a Monday.
[00:20:56] Speaker B: Great way to start the week.
[00:20:57] Speaker A: You're right. And so before we wrap up, I'd love to get your advice. For someone looking to break into either PR communications or even start their own agency like you, what's the first step you'd recommend? And is there a piece of advice you wish you had when you were starting out?
[00:21:13] Speaker B: Piece of advice I would give anybody, and I was asked this earlier today on another podcast interview, is trust yourself.
It's easier said than done, but it would be trust yourself and give yourself grace. You don't know what you don't know and whoever you believe in. I'm a believer in God, but whoever you believe in has given you this passion and this dream. So there's a reason that you have it and there's a reason that it will come to fruition. But you really just have to trust yourself and give yourself grace. It's not easy and allow yourself to fail. I think failure is very underrated. A lot of us are like, you have to be a winner all the time. And I, I don't want to be a winner all the time because you don't really know where you stand until you've fallen. To be like, I have to pick myself up from this and do I want to pick myself up from this? And then other things I would say is interning was probably the best thing I did for myself. I love being an intern. I still volunteer to a lot of stuff to this day. People are like, you run your own agency. Like, I've had people like, oh, we realize that you own this agency. I'm like, yeah. They're like, well, we want, we could pay you. I said, I didn't. If you want to pay me, sure. But I'm willing to do the work. And I've had a lot of companies be like, no, we, we see the value in you. We'll pay you. And some just don't know who I am. And that's obviously great for me and I volunteer. But being an insider in certain things and being able to watch without having to lead is so important. Volunteering is the best thing you can do because you get to try all these things with little expectation. There is an expectation to do great, but it's not as much as you were hired for this job. You get to try and see where your strengths really lie. You get to test your best self. And then for those who want to start an agency, I would say really mind the business of your business. And what I mean by that is do the work of registering the business, doing a business plan. A lot of us want to run to the creative. We want to just get the product out there, we want to get the agency out there. We want to, oh, look at me and all my services.
But when it comes time to scale, you can't do that. And that's where I was at. I started and then I had to take step back in the business to reformat and rescale and do all the things, mind the business of your business first and give yourself groom to grow without having to stop in the middle of that. But I would say continue working your full time until this takes off up enough where it's overpowering in terms of money.
It's Doubling what you're making at your regular job. It's not for the week. It is not your typical oh, I'm gonna set my hours to only work 10 to 4 and I'm not and I'm gonna be off. It doesn't work like that. You are from open your eyes to when you close your eyes, it's no 9 to 5, 10 to 4, 8 to 6, it's 12 hour days. Sometimes it's all day sometimes. And then set boundaries. Be very clear. Like when things happen that you don't like, set those boundaries immediately. Because the sooner you start setting boundaries within your business and your clients and yourself, the more tighter your business becomes and the more easier it is to scale and grow because you take time, you take your time back. It's so easy to get wrapped up in. I gotta be all the things at once. And then you start losing yourself. And always remember your why Every month I have a sit down with myself and be like why am I doing this?
What is the purpose here is my and I reflect on my business. What worked this year, what didn't work? Where can I improve? Where can I be better?
You know, where can I tighten up? Because every day you have to choose this. Every day I wake up and choose to be here. Not every day I want to be here, but every day I choose to be here. And if I'm going to actively choose to be here, I need to actively show up. So you have to evaluate that all the time.
[00:25:02] Speaker A: That is so true. Jackie, thank you so much for coming on the podcast and sharing that advice and that deep dive into what you do. It's very interesting and I'm sure a lot of listeners right now are going to gain a lot of insight and hopefully they can reach out to you. Do you have any website or LinkedIn you want to?
[00:25:17] Speaker B: Yeah, I could be reached at is well connected on Instagram or Jacqueline Clark or if you Google the well connected it will pop up. DMS are fine, but I'm very accessible on email so info at the wellconnected CA and just shoot me an email. Happy to hop on a call and just, you know, talk and see how I can support and encourage somebody in this field. It's fun. It's fun. Being your own boss is surely fun and you know, taking an idea and making it a reality is something I wish for everybody.
[00:25:47] Speaker A: Thank you so much, Jackie.
[00:25:49] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:25:58] Speaker A: It was so great speaking with Jackie and hearing about the well connected and the great work that's being done. If you liked this episode, be sure to check out the others we've done. We have episodes ranging from gaming to comedy, movie set decorating, children's media, a whole AI Series, and so much more. Thank you for tuning in. And thank you again to Jackie for joining us.
