Company: Cascade Communications
Owners: Jennifer Fortney
Year Started: 2001
Employees: 1 – 10
Welcome to “An Agency Story,” the podcast series that delves into the inspiring and dynamic journeys of agency leaders. In this episode, we sit down with Jennifer Fortney, the innovative founder of Cascade Communications. Jennifer’s story is a testament to the evolution of PR in the digital age and the power of entrepreneurial spirit.
Jennifer takes us through her multifaceted journey from a music major at the University of Kansas to becoming a leader in the PR industry. She shares the evolution of her company from its beginnings in traditional PR to becoming an integrated digital PR agency that emphasizes storytelling. Jennifer’s insights into how she navigated the changing landscapes of PR, marketing, and digital media are particularly compelling.
Jennifer explains how her agency grew from a traditional PR firm to an integrated digital PR agency, focusing on the importance of storytelling in PR and the necessity of adapting to industry changes. From her early days in music and broadcast journalism to landing a significant role at a boutique agency in Chicago, Jennifer’s career path is filled with pivotal moments that shaped her expertise and vision. Jennifer candidly discusses the challenges she faced, including layoffs and the decision to start her own business, and how these experiences fueled her determination and success. Highlighting her work on major campaigns like the “Got Milk?” campaign and the introduction of the Appletini, Jennifer shares behind-the-scenes stories of creativity and innovation.
She emphasizes the advantages of working with a boutique agency, such as personalized attention and flexible, creative solutions that large firms might not offer. Jennifer’s role in launching the Appletini and running the “Longest Kiss Challenge” for Jim Beam provides entertaining anecdotes and illustrates her ability to create impactful and memorable marketing strategies. Jennifer discusses her book, born from her extensive experience teaching PR, which offers practical advice for small businesses and startups looking to understand and implement PR strategies.
One particularly humorous moment is Jennifer’s recounting of drinking Appletinis for work, eventually distancing herself from the drink. Another highlight is when two members of James Blunt’s band spontaneously performed during a PR event, salvaging a potentially disastrous situation and providing valuable B-roll for the media.
Jennifer Fortney’s episode is a treasure trove of insights, from the nitty-gritty of running a PR agency to the broader strokes of navigating an evolving industry. Her story leaves listeners contemplating the importance of adaptability, creativity, and the entrepreneurial spirit in achieving success. Tune in to hear more about Jennifer’s journey and the innovative world of Cascade Communications.
Don’t miss out on this engaging episode that not only highlights Jennifer’s professional journey but also offers valuable lessons for anyone in the PR and marketing industry. Listen now and be inspired to take your own story to new heights!
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Show Transcript
Welcome to An Agency Story podcast where we share real stories of marketing agency owners from around the world. From the excitement of starting up the first big sale, passion, doubt, fear, freedom, and the emotional rollercoaster of growth, hear it all on An Agency Story podcast. An Agency Story podcast is hosted by Russel Dubree, successful agency owner with an eight figure exit turned business coach. Enjoy the next agency story.
Russel:
Welcome to An Agency Story podcast, I’m your host Russel. In this episode, we’re joined by Jennifer Fortney, the founder of Cascade Communications based in Chicago, Illinois. Jennifer shares her captivating journey from her early days in music and broadcast journalism to establishing an integrated PR agency that emphasizes storytelling. Learn about the significant turning points in her career, including her role in launching the appletini and the spontaneous performance by James Blunt’s band that saved the day. Tune in discover how Jennifer’s adaptability and creativity have shaped Cascade Communications and get inspired by her entrepreneurial spirit and the humorous, unexpected moments that have defined her career. Enjoy the story. Welcome to the show, I have Jennifer Fortney with Cascade Communications here with us today. Thank you so much for being on the show today, Jennifer.
Jennifer:
You’re welcome. Thanks so much for having me.
Russel:
You are most welcome, excited to have you, if you don’t mind start us off, what does Cascade Communications do and who do you do it for?
Jennifer:
Cascade Communications is an integrated digital PR agency. I believe we started off doing PR, but it has evolved quite a bit. I feel Cascade Communications as an integrated, digital PR agency is very, is much more relevant now than it was when I started the business in 2001. We really focus on story first, that, that journalistic PR story, and then how do we tell that, through a number of different channels.
Russel:
It’s almost like you grew into your name. It sounds like.
Jennifer:
Actually, I think I did. It’s funny because I was thinking about a rebrand for when I, I hit the 20 year mark in business. It became so established in the market, the name, I just can’t pull the trigger.
Russel:
It’s always funny, just how hard that naming component can be in the business. And I don’t know if it’s a good thing or a bad thing, but I totally get it. It’s what defines us. I certainly want to talk more about what you’re doing in all things, marketing and PR, and I’m sure there is a lot more to tell, but before we get to that, I’m very curious. Did you start out in the world in the same vein that you are today? Where was young Jennifer headed with her life?
Jennifer:
I actually started as a music major at the University of Kansas and then switched my, degree to journalism.
Russel:
I had completely forgotten. You’d. Went to the university of Kansas. I’s don’t know if we should end the episode right now being a University of Missouri grad myself.
Jennifer:
Don’t hold it against me. A lot of rivalry on the, what was it? The i70 rivalry. Good times. Sorry to see you all go from the big 12. I switched from news into business communications, which is essentially public relations with a focus of external and internal. I knew my career path, like what do I need to fill out? I was a poor writer. I didn’t do as well in print as I did in broadcast and producing videos and writing treatments. I had a gift for that. I, took an internship writing news for, a news talk radio station, and also local TV station. That really helped me. Plus I ended up on the sports show, the, after I would do the news. I was writing and delivering it on air. It was quite a good experience. The next step for me was really to get into a PR agency. In the meantime, I took a job at a radio station as Director of Promotions and marketing, which I had done at the University of Kansas. I was familiar, with how that would work. I loved it because it was truly integrated. You’re marketing the station, the on air talent, your events, your concerts. All of it together. That was a lot of fun. I finally, landed an interview with a PR agency in Chicago Absolutely got the job, very respectfully gave my three weeks, and then moved to Chicago. I worked at a very large firm, for a short time, we’re doing to Kraft and Got Milk campaigns. That was just super eyeopening, working on these major mega million dollar campaigns and seeing all of the logistics that go into this and the coming up with themes and just knowing that you had budget to play with to be creative and to do some fun things, and it would really enhance the PR efforts. I ended up leaving there for a boutique agency that was a little bit more my style. Took on a leadership role quite quickly and, worked on a number of accounts like Hamaker Schlemmer. I ended up running, Jim Beam, DeKuyper Pucker Schnapps longest kiss challenge, campaign that was 24, 25 markets. At the same time, I introduced the world to the Appletini and I always say, if you like the Appletini, you’re welcome. Unfortunately, small agency, big client cuts their budget. That was a pink slip for me. And it happens in marketing. This is pretty common. But I interviewed at some other agencies. Jim Beam wanted me to come in house. I wasn’t too excited about that, so I decided to just go out on my own for a little while, see how it was. Jim Beam ultimately came with me and they were my client for about three years.
Russel:
I’ll pause there because I think that’s a good stopping point. Right? You have this idea of, I got laid off now what? But also going back to, I don’t know if I’ve ever had an appletini is it good? Where do you stand on the appletini?
Jennifer:
There was a period of time where I was drinking Appletinis quite a bit for work, so I distanced myself from them. It’s a refreshing drink and it was on the heels of the Sex and the City cosmo and people were in flavortown, and so something new and fresh that comes out like that was, was very exciting. And it tasted different. There’s so many variety of recipes of that, for them now. I can’t even keep track, but, I had one that was a little bit lighter. I liked that one as well.
Russel:
Next time I’m out and about. I’m going to try one and I will most certainly think of this conversation.
Jennifer:
You should.
Russel:
All right. So you’ve done a lot of great work in your career and worked on some very exciting accounts. You got laid off. What were you thinking? I’ve got to get a job as soon as possible or screw the corporate world. I’m going out on my own. Tell us how you eventually started the business.
Jennifer:
When you’re in a boutique agency and you take on a leadership role, it can be difficult for other agencies to qualify you at that level. At the time, agency world was very centered on years of service. If I was in a role where traditionally I would have five to seven years, but I only had three, they’re not even going to look at me, even though I have that title right now. That became very frustrating for me. I think that things have changed quite a bit since then. It’s been a long time. I was always a self starter. The director of promotions marketing job I took at the radio station, they’d never had one before I created that department. I always say I was young enough to be dumb enough to not know any better but I certainly didn’t lack the experience of self starting something.
Russel:
Sounds like almost a frustration in the marketplace that got you to say, I’m going to go do this on my own. Was that invigorating experience? Was it anxious? How do you look back on that? And if nothing else, just the emotion of it all.
Jennifer:
It was easy because I already had a client, right? My parents were not happy. Even through the years, they’d say, are you still happy doing-? Yes. I’m very happy doing this, yes. Things are going very well. If there was any trepidation, it was really, out over 23 some years, how many storms I rode through. The great recession. COVID exploded, so we didn’t slow down at all. We got busier, the great recession, that one was really tough. When you’re chasing clients for just a little bit of money, that, that can really, start to mess with your head a little bit. But I was doing so much better than my friends who’d all been laid off. They’d all lost their jobs. Now they’re losing their houses. I was still better off.
Russel:
A lot of times that folks start out with this big or larger anchor account that you have in the case of Jim Beam. Was that all you were really focused on or were you saying like, Hey, I’ve got this really large client that my entire livelihood is dependent upon this. I’ve got to go find some diversification because this client might not always be there. How were you looking at that at that time?
Jennifer:
I’m one of these people that if something happens, I just go with it. At the time, the sales rep, the local sales rep for Jim Beam and I became had become very good friends, and the city of Chicago was gentrifying neighborhoods, were gentrifying restaurants. Excellent chefs were coming in and starting restaurants. She would introduce me to them. I’d introduce them to her. It was we had a really nice system going. I was able to not solely rely on them. Because I was smaller, they, they did feel like they could have more flexibility with a smaller budget and they were right. But I also wanted to go ahead and see if I could grow. I took on the restaurants and the nightlife and again, I was at a great age to do that. It was really super fun. Being in the food and beverage world at that time was so exciting. I never put the pieces together until later than a friend of mine had said something. She said mixology really started to kick off after the Appletini launch. And that’s exactly what I was seeing. Even in these restaurants and nightclubs, it was all about this concept of mixology. It was new drinks, it was new flavors, it was mixing drinks with appetizers and it was just something that we hadn’t necessarily seen before. For me to see the industry go through that and for me to actually experience it, that was really, really exciting.
Russel:
Sounds like a great time to be in that industry and take that marketing position. And not only are you the Hair Club president, if you will, but you’re also the client. You get to be the connoisseur and the expert within it. I imagine that gave you a lot of interesting perspective for sure. One of the things that I’m curious about is you did have a lot of agency experience, both big and small. When you were starting your business. What do you think you were trying to model yourself after when starting your own? Was it your experiences and takeaways from the big side, or Was it the smaller side, or a mix? How were you looking at that?
Jennifer:
It really was a little bit of both. As a boutique agency, we had a luxury, or the luxury of working with pretty decent sized clients. Clients that wanted to work with a boutique firm because they would get more. Even though the longest kiss challenge was a million dollar campaign for Jim Beam, they got a lot more out of it with just me running it. That was all I did. I had no assistant, nothing. I ran the whole thing by myself, and managed the budget. I think that sometimes in the bigger agencies, you get bogged down by, the layers. And if you have the right people who can take the initiative, then, that million dollar campaign is still going to be as good or better than if, you’ve had 10 people trying to run it. I like the flexibility of the smaller agency. I’ve always wanted to keep that sort of entrepreneurial feel, which made sense because I’m working with chefs who are entrepreneurs or nightclub owners. Then I started moving into startups and small businesses and really connecting with entrepreneurs and that feeling was better. I really want to keep that sort of entrepreneurial spirit within the team and for our clients.
Russel:
I hear that a lot in terms of, you know, why folks like working with smaller clients or just that boutique notion and all the same reasons that you shared, but. Really, I think that’s, what’s one of the greatest things about this work we do within agencies and as agency owners is it’s, we get to match the lifestyle and the type of work we want to do. We get to choose. We’re not married to any notion other than on occasion, we might have to put food on the table, but. other than that, it’s really about matching our ideals.
Jennifer:
I will add that I think one of the attractions for a lot of these corporations to come to boutique agencies was really the affordability. They knew that they could still get really high caliber work, but maybe they didn’t have as much budget as they might’ve had for a bigger brand, broader, campaign. It made us very attractive, from a price point, but also knowledge and experience. I think that if you can offer that, that kind of value to clients, whether they’re small to mid market. The expertise and the experience that you can create a really great program that they might get for a big agency, but you can also do it for a little less. That becomes very, more accessible.
Russel:
A lot of folks really talk about this idea of having an impact, working with smaller clients, but there’s a lot of glamour. If you will, behind some bigger clients as well, the name recognition, the budgets that might be at play and just the, some of the times the creative flexibility that might exist as well with a bigger brand. Curious question I imagine a lot of folks are thinking about their as a smaller agency. What have you created those connections to land some of those larger accounts? What’s your secret sauce?
Jennifer:
I’ve always been interested in learning, so I tend to already be not an expert, but pretty darn close by the time I get in that room or on that call. I do that homework, so that we don’t have to rehash it. We’re making more of our time together, really working through what are objectives and what are challenges versus, tell me about yourself. We as agencies are told we have to understand the agency or the audience, sorry, for the brand. We need to know our audience as an agency and that is the client. I would say most of the time when I walk in the room, I have already some tips that they could take away that day and go do. I do believe in giving away some information, especially if it’s just easy for them to take care of themselves. That could be very hard cause I’m an idea person. My brain runs very quickly. Those objectives that they give, really listening to them is so important. Sometimes agencies go into meetings with clients with sort of their own preconceived notions of what they can do for you and what a campaign, they’re already starting to think. That’s great. I do the same thing. That moment of just truly listening and asking the right questions to get the details out of them that are going to help you create something. That’s so much more effective for them and really hits those objectives and solves those challenges that they have. That’s really what we’re here to do as marketers is, generate awareness, what are those challenges to break through in building community and connecting and engaging with customers?
Russel:
And that’s wonderful. And while I know there’s a lot of hard work, it seems like the answers just always come back to the fundamentals. Do your homework, prepare, listen really, really well. And remember that this is about them, not you. And by the way, nobody wants to tell the mundane details about themselves. They want to tell the unique and interesting things. If you’ve done your homework, you can skip some of those mundane aspects and get to the really meaty stuff. If you will. Another subtle point. I feel like there is, we’re starting to move. Away from this in the agency world. But I know we went through this time period of giving nothing away for free, right. It seemed like we were, that, that would be the worst thing we could possibly do. All we have is our thoughts and our ideas and our execution. And so don’t give that away for free, but I think there’s this twist that I’ve noticed being a lot more successful is how much you’re in control of that giving away that value and not just saying yes, when it’s asked for free, but that’s essentially when you’re giving the control away. But when we’re giving this as part of the process and engaging in the relationship, that’s when you’re in the actual driver’s seat, that’s when they almost become putty in your hands, if you will. And that really being a key difference in this whole notion to give something free or to not give something free in the agency space. I don’t know if that’s been your conscious thoughts as you’ve gone about this or did that just come naturally?
Jennifer:
I tend to probably think a little bit more generally an overview and then really say, look, we’ve got some great ideas, but they’ll flush out during onboard and discovery. We can certainly brainstorm a little bit more there, but as far as my upfront advice to them, these are the little things, but I think it also shows I’m ready to invest. I already see them as a team. A team I want to be on and I can be a team player. You’re hiring an agency to not just do the work, but also help you understand what you can do better. What is that missing piece that you’re just not seeing? It’s like that your own Kool Aid all day thing. When you have somebody who’s not drinking strawberry, but drinking grape, they’re going to come in with a bit of a different perspective on things. I also, the size of companies that we work with, people are very busy. They don’t have time to stay up on the latest and the greatest that is happening in the industry or in PR or in content search and all of these things that are just exploding right now in particular. We need to come in as the educated expert who can then guide them. That value, I think is very unique. Especially, at least for us that I’ve seen among PR agencies that are still quite, invested in this concept of sort of traditional PR.
Russel:
That’s a great thought there. And it sounds like you’ve had some very natural positioning to start. Maybe you’re not living the nightclub life like you once were, it sounds like you once were. Do you still have a food and beverage restaurant type clientele, or have you moved beyond that?
Jennifer:
I, really started meeting some great small businesses, which we would call startups now. Everything’s a startup, right? In fashion and food and pet. I got away from the restaurants a little bit because also at the time, the media in Chicago, where it was changing. It was changing everywhere. It felt like where we once had, 100 opportunities for our clients, we now had 15. It was very dramatic. I still just really focused on PR. I would give them advice on what they should be doing on their own, to really, amplify and support and bring people in. I got away from the restaurants, but on occasion I have a referral to a restaurateur who, and I will say, I don’t know, and they’ll bake me and it’s always a great experience. I do enjoy that world. I have to say that world paid, for my last two years of college. I know it intimately. I love the industry, from the hospitality standpoint. We have clients that come in waves. It’s one day you wake up and you’ll have a client in an industry and by the end of month, you have three more in that exact industry. While there’s networking and building that networking and working with those people and certainly helping out some much smaller brands, that we’re launching in the food, space and beverage as well. That’s the thing I love about small business. Entrepreneurship is people creating new things. I feel like as a journalist, I get to be the first to tell that story.
Russel:
Which seems like from my perspective, the number one rule in journalism, you want to be first to the story. That’s how you get paid the big bucks. One of the other things I understand is that you’ve ended up writing a book, which again, I always have my highest kudos and accolades for someone that takes the time and energy to do what I understand to be an extremely hard process, not having done myself. Just a quick glimpse of what that process is like, but maybe more importantly, did that help your business in the way you might intend or ways you wouldn’t have intended even. And what did that look like?
Jennifer:
Going back to the giving things away for free. I’m a big believer in the saying you get what you give. I really enjoyed educating people about PR. It seemed anytime you talked about public relations and the process, people found it so confusing because in the marketing mix, it’s, it acts more like sales than other elements of the marketing mix, where you act, you have these actual regular deliverables. We really don’t have that deliverable until the story comes out. I decided that I would donate my time. I would volunteer my time and help people, especially small businesses and people starting out to understand what this thing called PR really is. I went down to the SCORE Chicago office and started talking to them. Probably within three months, I was teaching a three hour course for free. It also reminded me that I know what I’m doing and it also got me thinking about new things because people would start asking you questions and this class would be packed. People found it very helpful. My goal was, I want you to understand and be successful I taught that class, for six years and I did it probably three or four times a year. I had a deck and I thought, why am I not taking this deck and writing a book? The book is right here. I used the deck as the foundation and, I just began to write around it, all my thoughts or anything I would naturally say in that class.
Russel:
It sounds like you could apply that back to this class and the concepts and the questions you were getting is what they always say. You really don’t know something or how much, you know, about a subject. Until you have to articulate your thoughts when you’re actually teaching it. That sounds like that worked well and led to a good idea. So you got the book out just for people that are, Hey, would this be worth it? I’ve got ideas. I want to write. Do I want to go through the hurdles of writing it? What sort of benefit once you had the book. Did it end up having for your business or, and maybe different ways than you expected?
Jennifer:
It is a grueling task to do a book. I literally took a month and that’s what I dedicated myself to. I would manage my team, but I was really focused on getting that book done and self publishing it on Amazon. Learning that whole system, it’s a lot of work, but it was really rewarding when it’s done. It makes it a lot easier for me now that I’m thinking about a revision to that book to update it. So much has changed in five, six years. I can’t believe it’s been six years since I put it out. But the book for, was just more, giving out more knowledge and information in a simple way. You should be able to pick up this book on Friday and have your messaging and story and a direction for how you’re going to go with your PR by Monday. Keep it simple. Don’t talk over people. For my next book, I am, in an author’s club. I joined and every two weeks I know I’m going to write for two hours. We were talking about how people got started in their books because some people were having a hard time getting started. It really came down to me sharing how I wrote my book was basically off of a PowerPoint deck. They began starting to think this might be a really great way to put together a book outline. I think a couple of people have started that, as just a, an easy way to put your thinking together, like you’re presenting it, right? When you put it all in the book, it makes it a little bit easier. I really am glad that I’ve joined this Authors Club because it’s making me make the time and that’s really helpful.
Russel:
It sounds like the process unto itself was just a huge benefit in terms of exploration in your own thought leadership, and maybe even a key concepts that you said applied to how important it is to invest in yourself as an owner, invest in and work on the business, not in the business. And I know we hear that. It’s almost a cliche to this point, but it’s a cliche because it’s probably not happening as much as it needs to for a lot of folks that being a really key aspect to growth.
Jennifer:
Let me add, the personal branding. The shoemaker’s daughter never has shoes. I think sometimes as agency owners and it’s really so much more important than it has been before, is this idea of having a personal brand, being a thought leader, and then also taking that strategy that I can use, I used for myself. Did bunches of podcasts and TV, radio interviews and wrote articles. Now I know that model, that process works so I could successfully use that for my clients as well.
Russel:
You just touched on what I think is one of the greatest points within the agency space and this whole notion that the cobbler’s kid has no shoes. I’ve talked about this on occasion is, not only do you get the benefit of what you do as a service and your primary skill, but that you’re going to get a slightly better pair of shoes for yourself because you might just care just a little bit more since it’s your own terms of how that comes out. And by the way, all those insights from that work you can do, you can bring right back to your client. So it’s almost like by giving yourself your shoes, you’d be doing better for them. I think a lot of folks die on this hill. Well, it’s more selfless or more important to serve the client than ourselves, but I tend to make the argument that it’s the other way around.
Jennifer:
You could argue if I can’t do PR for myself in my own book, maybe I shouldn’t be doing it.
Russel:
Exactly spot on. If you thought it was so valuable, why are you not doing it for yourself? I think this is a question a potential client could always ask back to you. Speaking of investing yourself and focusing on growth, you have a pretty big vision for you and your business. I know it’s probably a work in progress to the extent that you want to share. I would love to just hear what does the future look like for Cascade?
Jennifer:
It is a little ambitious, but I think it’s more innovative than ambitious. I think that anybody who is in the industry and not seeing what’s been happening for the last 10 or 12 years. Hasn’t been following and, hasn’t really been understanding or getting an idea of the vision of where we as PR professionals are going or where we need to go. It’s going to be a shift in the industry for sure. There are digital peer agencies out there. There are, integrated marketing communications types of, agencies out there. But for us to, and for me, really, to take that experience from big corporation where you’re doing big events and you’re doing media relations and you might be doing, something experiential. That is in itself a form of integrated PR. It’s not just straight public relations. There are things that you will do with that. Then comes along social media, Google, and now that is playing a role. So when I think of being an integrated PR agency, it’s the experiential events, but it’s that story that we can tell and how do we tell that story through an experiential event, through social media, through video, through graphics. Understanding that PR, at least since the internet really came along, our job is to drive traffic to a website. I had so many frustrations because clients would come to me and say, hey, great job. Thanks so much. We really appreciate it, but we didn’t make sales on our website, so we can’t afford to pay you. Well, I’ve done my job, right? It made me really become very curious about how PR can ethically operate as part of an understanding of the entire success journey for a client. It’s not that we just do the PR and get paid. I believe that,, unfortunately, with so many media outlets going away, and things changing, not everybody’s going to get a copy of Oprah magazine and open it up because it doesn’t publish anymore. There’s no guarantee that everybody’s going to see that news story. It builds the credibility and it gives you content that you can then amplify. But, you have to make sure that you are also positioning the client for healthy search visibility. We really tackle all of that too. It’s been interesting to watch us deploy some of that on some of our clients that really need that oomph in search and to improve that visibility and then just watch it all come together..
Russel:
I think that just pretty much sums up marketing in 2024, that at this point we don’t just get to do a part of marketing and wash our hands and walk away. If we want results and we want. To be successful for our clients ultimately the value we want to capture for ourselves in the end is relative the value that we want to claim responsibility for on the client side. Are we achieving results? It sounds like you’ve got a really good, innovative approach towards that end, but as we start to wrap things up, final question, big, final, big question for you. Are entrepreneurs born or are they made?
Jennifer:
That is a really great question. Because I work with entrepreneurs a lot, and I network with them, it’s not for everyone. I really feel like if you don’t have some grit, there’s, you gotta work through the no’s. You’re going to get a lot of no’s before you get yeses. Some people need an office to go to. They’re not self driven. And that is a really big, important part. A characteristic of being an entrepreneur is that drive, and there’s so many more opportunities out there now for entrepreneurs. But you’re still not going to go very far if you don’t have that drive. If you’re not comfortable working at home, or, if you can’t find a place like a Starbucks or something that will help you get away from distractions. It’s not for everyone. I think they’re born. There are personal or personality traits that I think that certain entrepreneurs have, it’s pretty consistent. If you’ve ever read the book, Think and Grow Rich. I think that is a great read when it comes to understanding the minds of successful entrepreneurs and how to be one. But again, not, I don’t think everybody has it. Somebody said to me once, there’s, you have an idea and a million people around the world had that idea, but 10 percent of those people are going to look it up online and 10 percent of those people are going to do something and take it a step further. Then you’ve got 1 percent less than 1 percent of people who are actually going to take some sort of action on that. It’s the fear factor. That’s what might challenge most people to not be an entrepreneur and some of us may be just crazy enough to let the fear slide,
Russel:
I’ll never cry about a solid born answer. If we were to take a statistical poll that ends up being the least pick. So absolutely love it. If people want to know more about Cascade Communications, where can they go?
Jennifer:
CascadeComms.com. You can search Cascade Communications PR as well easily. You can also search me. You’ll find Jennifer Fortney at Cascade Communications. There’s also a link for the book on the website as well. If anybody is listening and thinking about starting an agency or wants to better, has an agency but doesn’t understand PR, it’s a great book for you. It’s very simple to understand.
Russel:
The book that was born out of a PowerPoint. Well, thank you so much, Jennifer. We hit on so many foundational nuggets that I think are important in this agency world today. It was an absolute pleasure to hear and be relevant in your story, really appreciate you taking the time to share that with us.
Jennifer:
Thanks so much. Especially listening to some of your other, guests on the show. This has been very, wonderful. I appreciate it.
We hope you’ve enjoyed this episode of An Agency Story podcast where we share real stories of marketing agency owners from around the world. Are you interested in being a guest on the show? Send an email to podcast@performancefaction.com. An Agency Story is brought to you by Performance Faction. Performance Faction offers services to help agency owners grow their business to 5 million dollars and more in revenue. To learn more, visit performancefaction.com.
Jennifer:
I was working with a music organization and they had a major artist, in town and the organization would bring in kids from a local high school who were interested in, careers in music. They’d get a tour and they’d get to, to see how the lights and all of this work. This particular band was James Blunt, and his band. I had set everything up for an exclusive story with the NBC, in Chicago. I got there and the reporter is on the phone with his boss and there, something’s happened, right? I take the phone and she’s yelling at me and I’m like, I just walked in. Give me a minute. Let me figure it out. I’m walking around trying to figure out where the change of plans happened because now the crew, the TV crew is not going to be able to do what they wanted to do. I was talking to my client backstage. We were in front of one of the green rooms and I said, I’m really concerned because this could really, mess up a really, a strong story for your organization. We go back out and we’re trying to debate how we’re going to work this situation. All of a sudden, two of James Blunt’s band members come out and they just start, they just come out on stage and they just start playing. They’re playing for the camera and the reporter’s like, Jennifer, this is awesome. Completely unplanned. The guys were in the green room and heard us and they came out and they just played for 30 minutes and gave them all of this really valuable B roll that they could use. That’s one of those praise. Thank you, Lord. Thank you God. Because otherwise it would have been a train wreck. That’s also a reminder that you have to think on your feet. But in that case, man, we got so lucky. I can’t even believe it.
Russel:
Sometimes it just pays to not be so quiet in your conversations. A little overhearing can go a long way. Although I guess it could go both ways.
