Member Spotlight - Kelly Kirkendoll, Founder & CEO, Thrive PR
Posted by admin on May. 4, 2023 / Subscribe 0
By Chantal Boeckman, VP, Marketing, Membership & Sponsorship, PRSA Dallas
After attending last year’s Pegasus Awards, what I remembered most was the team of women dressed to the nines who won multiple awards and looked both stunned and grateful each time they accepted one. Thrive PR went home with two armfuls of awards, and I said to my friend who was looking for a new agency, “You should check them out!”
Fast forward a few months, as I’ve been learning the ropes of being on the PRSA Dallas Board of Directors, I was thrilled when Thrive PR Founder & CEO Kelly Kirkendoll wanted to join the marketing committee, and with members of her team, help breathe new life into the chapter’s social channels. And boy, have they!
Kelly is a member of both PRSA Dallas and the Greater Fort Worth Chapter of PRSA. She started her career at Ohio University as an advertising major in the Communications School, but once she started taking required business and marketing classes, she found that she liked her business classes more and switched majors, graduating with a marketing degree from the business school.
While she’s always loved communications and writing, she believes her business degree gave her the foundation she needed to one day start her own business. Her first job out of college was at a Fortune 500 in pricing, “one of the Ps in marketing,” she points out. Her favorite part of her role was analyzing data and writing competitive analysis and pricing alerts to advise upper management, only to be told that writing was not a typical pricing person’s favorite part of the job. But Kelly was not your typical pricing person!
She went on to work in product marketing at another large corporation and then as a marketing director for a mid-sized tech consulting firm, where she saw a need for public relations and kicked off her career in PR, leading marketing, PR and investor relations through the company’s IPO (initial public offering) and subsequent acquisitions.
When times get tough, opportunity can be created from within
“Necessity was the mother of Thrive’s invention,” says Kelly, who was laid off during a recession and had to evaluate what her next career move would be. She had young children at the time, had been working remotely for six years (back when remote work was incredibly rare) and wanted to continue working from home. She named her company Thrive PR because she loves the word thrive. She explains, “Back then, I worked with a lot of non-profits and small businesses, and I wanted to help them flourish and thrive.”
“I needed to work right away, and I saw two immediate areas where my skills intersected with what companies needed and what they would pay for on a contract basis,” shares Kelly. “And that was public relations and writing for marketing communications.”
Her favorite part of her job has evolved over time. Today, she says, “It’s helping clients solve problems in unique and creative ways” which is core to how she approaches working with them. She digs in to really understand the problems and opportunities they are facing, enabling Kelly and her team to determine how they can best help. She also enjoys mentoring, watching her team members grow and learning from them in return.
“I love not being alone anymore,” Kelly laughs. “Those early solo days were hard.”
Advice to fellow PR pros who want to start a business
Kelly’s advice for those interested in launching their own business and who may be experiencing a situation similar to hers where there’s an immediate need to find a new opportunity quickly: “Jump in and start doing it. Get some contract work. Don’t overthink it.”
Her advice to those who have a little more time and have been dreaming about starting their own business: “Plan, but also jump in and start doing something. Do some work on the side, and make sure you are truly cut out for doing your own thing. Really do some self-assessment. It’s a totally different world than working for somebody else. There are pros to being a business owner, but there are cons to it as well. Understand both edges of the sword.”
And then, she says, look at where your unique talents are, because at first it will most likely be just you, or maybe you and a small team. Look at where your unique talents and skillsets intersect with what the market needs at that time.
For those who take the leap into their own business, Kelly’s guidance is to save three months of income as soon as possible, and then save six. “It can be a feast and famine world when you’re on your own, and you don’t want to give up because you lost a client or there was a pandemic or a recession. What goes up must come down, but what goes down comes up again with time, patience and continued tenacity.”
Why PRSA?
When Kelly re-joined PRSA in 2020 she was practicing what she preaches to her clients and seeking award opportunities. It was by working on award submissions that Kelly and her team honed and formally adopted the RPIE (research, planning, implementation and evaluation) process, which also led her to the path she’s on now – working to earn her Accreditation in Public Relations (APR). It also led to her company being a 2023 PRSA Silver Anvil Strategic Award Finalist and her upcoming trip to the awards celebration in New York City this June.
But what keeps her renewing her membership each year?
“It’s the learning and connecting with other people in my field, personal development, being around people who get it, learning from people who get it and staying ahead of the curve in a world full of constant change,” she says. “Everyone at PRSA Dallas is just so nice. It’s a great group of people.”
“Being a PRSA member also lets clients or employers know that you’re serious about your profession and that you’re dedicated to being an ethical PR pro who is committed to ongoing learning.”
The value of getting involved in PRSA Dallas
Several of Thrive’s clients over the years have been trade associations, so Kelly has worked with people who are active members of their respective organizations and witnessed how much they get out of it. She’s also encountered inactive association members who question the value of their membership.
Her response to that is, “Well, you get out of it what you put into it.”
She’s also encountered reluctance in various industries to joining a trade association because people, especially business owners, see other members as competition. “I’ve watched these same folks get pleasantly surprised. They learn, grow, develop relationships, get referrals, mentor, get mentored and generally get a lot out of their membership experience.”
“That’s part of why we got involved (in PRSA Dallas), because I think we’re only going to get out of it what we put into it. Our role on the marketing committee has given me a front row seat to witness and appreciate just how hard the chapter’s board and committees work. Everyone is a volunteer. It’s amazing how much happens from people who are not paid for this work.”
Now that Kelly is at a point in her career where she has capacity to give back, that’s exactly what she wants to do, and she’s doing it beautifully.
http://www.thrivepublicrelations.com/
0 Comments