You are now listening to Leverage for Growth. Hey, everybody, this is Jesse Gilmore, founder of Niching Control and the creator of Leverage for Growth. Welcome to the Agency Leverage edition. Today I am here with Ali Karsh, the co-founder of Little Voice Public Relations and the little who brings nearly two decades of experience in public relations, specializing in the growth of direct to consumer startups.
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Thanks for coming to our show today and for having me. Absolutely. Can you tell us a little bit about the history and background of your agency? Sure. So I started LG PR in . We’ve been around for almost eight years. So initially I started just going off on my own freelance doing PR and we were really fortunate to have just through the years, grown through referrals and now are an agency of ten people and we do public relations, social media.
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We also do affiliate marketing creative, and we’ve focused mostly on DTC brands and startups and have really kind of fallen into this niche. And, you know, through referrals, a lot of like startup founders, founders will ask their friends, who do you work with? We also inherited a lot of brands that have had bad experience with PR. And so I think that one of our sweet spot is really just being super transparent with brands when they come to us, being, you know, very relatable.
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We work almost as we’re like an in-house partner. So a lot of our brands don’t have the teams and they need more support than what they can get. So that’s a little bit about us. Awesome. So you went from kind of doing freelancing all the way up to a team of ten, and I’m sure that’s quite a journey.
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But it definitely is really journey. And I you know, we went through obviously COVID and there’s there’s been ups and downs for sure. A lot of learnings along the way. I first, we never set out to be a founder of an agency. I always kind of just thought I would do just just do it myself and still growing.
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The business has been something I’ve had to learn and I’ve made a lot of really awesome connections and peers in the industry too, that have been super helpful about, you know, introducing vendors or just giving me feedback on situations I’ve never been in. So it’s been a journey for sure. Can you walk us through just a little bit about maybe if you can bring yourself back to your past version of yourself and going from that kind of freelancing to maybe even like the first hire?
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Or can you talk a little bit about some of those milestones that you had along the way to get you to where you are? Yes. Yeah, there was definitely there was a lot. So my first hire was really scary. I honestly think it’s one of the scariest parts of being a business owner because it’s like you’re finally you’re taking you’re taking on somebody else’s livelihood.
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So you’re responsible now, not just for your paycheck, but for somebody else’s. And I think that’s a really big moment. At least it was for me. So my first hire was a girl, right out of college, and we worked together, just the two of us, for probably two years. And we hustled and we we got a lot done.
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But yeah, that was a big, big jump for me, I think, after the jump to bring on benefits. So when I had to start, you know, doing health care and we did, we offer for our one K and like bringing on these different benefits to staff was also a challenge and a learning like I didn’t know what I was looking for.
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I had to really kind of figure it all out. And then obviously, you know, cash flow, making sure everything works and everything’s paid on time. Those are big ones. I think another big one for me too, was a boundaries learning boundaries with staff. I had to kind of learn that the hard way. I’m typically a pretty friendly, open person and you know, you’re in a manager role now.
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You’re not you can’t be everyone’s best friend in that. That’s a different place for me than when I had previously been at other agencies. So there’s definitely been a lot of learnings. A lot of those components hiring, managing, maybe even firing people, you know, based on that %. I mean, I the first time I had to let somebody go, you know, that’s a whole nother to do everything.
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By certain protocol, you need to have the right documents in place. You know, then potentially there’s going to be tax things that you have to be responsible for. So I think that was a big learning. I brought on a great assistant this year, and I think that was one of the positive learnings I’ve had, just having somebody with a lot of experience in things that I don’t have.
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So she has a lot more experience on that side and on some of the finance sides and things that I didn’t. So that was really helpful to have a partner like that. Awesome. And so there is a h.r. Components. And you had even said just going back a little bit and you had said that you didn’t really even have the intention of growing an agency.
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Can you talk a little bit about what made it to where you kind of made that that leap that I’m going to grow this, this business beyond me? Can you talk a little bit about that? Yes, it was it was definitely a hard one. I think what gave me the confidence was I was able to hire a really good like junior team to start and I managed everyone.
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So I kind of groomed these girls in a work style and a workflow that worked for us. And we were able to bring on more clients that obviously funded the growth of that agency. But training the right people was really how it all started. And then I was really fortunate to course one of my best friends to come work with me and that’s Nicole Flores.
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She’s our head of PR and we’ve worked together for now for almost years at different agencies. So I brought her in and she is know super senior. So she was then able to kind of hire the right team under her and that’s how we grew. So then I was able to focus more on like social media and influencer marketing, like some of the stuff that I was more passionate about and she took over all of the PR side.
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So I think the right team is everything. And once you have those people that are are genuinely in it for the right reasons and want to watch that the growth of the company, then it’s easier to feel confident in growing and taking on more. That’s that’s awesome. Finding either the right partner or the right mix of the team and everybody kind of specializing in their specialties.
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They can really push a business to the next level. Yes, for sure. And we also one thing I also mention, we also work with a business coach. And so she’s been super helpful. I mean, I had never worked with a business coach before and I didn’t really know how therapeutic it could be. Like there’s obviously a lot of tactics and things that you learn from them, but at the same time, that’s a lot about relationship and we did a lot of work on different personality styles and like our staff all has access to her and can go to her whenever they want.
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And a lot of times they’re going for personal reasons, like I’m having a challenge with this manager and their style. And I thought that was really interesting because they’d never done that at any of my other jobs and had that experience. And it really it’s helped myself along with a lot of the girls on my team. I’m a big proponent of coaching, as you probably know.
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I’m like, Excellent, Yeah, awesome. Yeah. So if you were to go back, so we’ll do a kind of a reflection and then talk a little bit about the Littles, which is part of the reason why we set up this interview. But if you were to go back to maybe a previous version of yourself or somebody that might be one or two steps on the same path as you, but a little bit before and you were to give advice that would save them time, energy or money, what advice would you give them?
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That’s a good question. You know, I think one of the areas I know I’ve grown since starting over PR is in my confidence. Obviously, like, you know, you’re starting and you’re doing something. You have no clue what you’re doing, really. And I, I there was a point in my career at PR that I didn’t give myself enough credit.
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So I think that sometimes I would want to charge a certain amount because I know that that would, you know, somebody should pay for our services. But I would back down in order to get the client. And I wish I wouldn’t have because it really sets you up, like your pricing structure is super important and you can climb out of it year over year, but it’s not like you can’t jump $ , in a month to the same work level.
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So I think I would want somebody to just tell me, stick to your guns and you’re you’re worth what you’re worth, you know, So don’t don’t let somebody like, make you feel like you need to go down in price because another agency is charging something. There’s a reason people come to you. And that was that was a huge learning for me.
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Huge, huge. That’s not like I remember I used to charge clients at the end of the month and they would have all months to pay me. Now I charge and now people pay upfront and it’s like these little things that you learn. But my cash flow was suffering because I was taking the hit for them. And I just, you know, you have to like, learn these things the hard way sometimes, but it’s like you got it.
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Finances are super important and if you don’t set yourself up for success and you know you’re not going to make it. Yeah. That is speaking with agency owners daily. I think I’ve through the interviews and discovery calls and so forth, I probably talked to about agency owners, and one of the main pieces is based around pricing and packaging and value and, and not doing the discounts, you know?
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Yeah, that is a reoccurring thing for sure. Yes. So aside from the value piece, is there anything from the piece because I know we talked about that quite a few times to is there anything that you would maybe give as advice when it comes to the hiring and the managing piece for maybe somebody that is taking that leap, going from, you know, solo to growing a team?
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Yes, I have a couple for this one, but one that I one that we recently instilled is an agency handbook. So we did not have that in place. But like the past six years, and when my new assistant joined in, she helped spearhead that. And that was really big because I’m sure many agency owners will say this too, but you kind of learned the hard way with staff of, you know, situations you didn’t know you needed to be prepared for.
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And then it’s like you’re Yeah, but it’s longer because you’re like, and you can’t do this. And, and there’s there’s boundaries. And so I think that that was that was a big one for me is, you know, starting when you hire somebody, there needs to be a handbook. You need to read through. They need to sign it. Confidentiality agreements, non-compete agreements, which are really big and PR having all those documents in place and into them is really important.
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I think, you know, we haven’t had too many situations where, like, you don’t really write people up often. That’s not really what happens at our agency. But we’ve had to put people on performance reviews and, you know, there’s there’s like very specific ways you have to do that and hold them. So my recommendation, honestly, we learned a lot through our payroll service.
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ADP like adp has a whole h.r. Documents center and that they were super helpful. They also have advisors if you need support there too. But they were super helpful in helping us get set up for success. I would recommend that to anyone any i’m sure every payroll provider offers that, but that was something that we needed in the news now.
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Awesome. So many lessons. And now what I heard recently is that you started up either a second company or kind of a branch called the Littles, and can you talk a little bit about, you know, maybe the the formation, the idea behind it and kind of what you’re hoping with that over the next couple of years?
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Sure. Yeah. So my partner, Nicole Flores, the head of PR for L.V., PR and I started the Littles in September. So the concept of it is we’re an advisory. So we were finding a lot of brands were coming to us that we were so excited about, like startups that just didn’t have the funding for our retainer levels and we would, you know, not be able to work with them, but we would see them grow and we’re like, my gosh, they’re doing so that’s cool stuff, you know?
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And so what we proposed is offering the littles as an advisory just to the two of us, like you have access to just Nicole and I. And it’s a mixed offering. So it’s some cash and then some equity. And so this allows us to work and counsel and like really dig in with a lot of these brands that can’t afford the bigger retainers but really need the support.
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And it’s they get these moments where it’s imperative to get your marketing in place and to get you to that next level. So it’s been really fun. We are we are hosting a cohort and different brands can apply to it and be a part of growing with us and just meeting. It’s it’s like I get the passion back inside when I, when I speak with these founders that are just starting and they’re all so excited about their businesses and whatever they’re doing.
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And, you know, it’s really it’s, it’s been fun. I’ve really enjoyed it. It’s awesome. It seems like it’s a natural evolution going from the PR and then going into the health. Yeah, and it definitely feeds into like it like you said, it is like a branch. So if brands, if they grow to where they can afford PR, then we move them over.
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So that part’s been really cool. And we’ve also been able to bring on different advisors, like different peers in the industry that, you know, like a we have somebody that’s a copywriter that gives a lot of advice. We have somebody that’s a fractional CMO, somebody that’s a fractional CFO. So we’re able to make these introductions and give them access to other people that might be helpful for them as well.
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Could you describe so anybody that’s watching this and maybe they know somebody that would be either a good fit for the Littles or PR, Can you talk a little bit about who who is that right fit for you maybe in the two or. Yeah, Yeah. So we it’s kind of it kind of blends because both agencies are both companies.
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Alvey PR works with startup brands and we have five pillars that we kind of check for every client that works for us, and that’s a strong founder story. The brand has to have a strong founder, a quality product that we would genuinely use, and a path to sustainability, a path to a charitable give back. And then most of our brands have like a cult like following where they their audience or their customer base is just like, so excited for the next product that’s coming.
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They’re very engaged emotionally with the brand and, you know, they’re they’re just presence like they’re, they’re reoccurring customers. So when brands check all those boxes, we do really well with them. We’re really good at storytelling. So we try to work with our brands to figure out what’s their narrative, what do they want to talk about? Are they fundraising?
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Are they, you know, are they being acquired? Is there a business story? Are they going into retail? So we we really try to like narrate those moments in their journey and then help them along the way. We also do social media so we manage a lot of our brands, social channels, and for that what we found is that is sometimes an afterthought for a lot of brands.
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You know, they’re like, I know I have to do it, but I just don’t have the time. And they were not utilizing their channels well, you know, they weren’t activating or optimizing the social commerce options or engaging, engaging with their audience. And so didn’t therefore, like they were just kind of falling flat. So we jumped in there and have really help our brands strategize how to use their channels.
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That’s more top level. But we also do creative and content creation and stuff like that. But it’s really more like understanding the best way to use Instagram to talk and LinkedIn. So that’s the majority of of what of the type of brands that we work with. We also do affiliate marketing, which means we help our brands get set up on like an affiliate platform and optimized that channel for them.
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So it’s most of the brands that come to us are small and scrappy and they don’t have the bandwidth. You know, for a lot of these marketing needs. And so we can just fill in and be that that partner for them in all the different areas that they want help with. That’s helpful. Yeah, totally. So anybody that kind of either fits that bill or wants to connect with you, what’s the best way for people to get in touch with you?
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Yeah, I mean, you can go to our website, The Littles advisory dot com. and then also just email our social our social channels are up and running and you can contact us all three ways. Awesome. Well thank you so much for telling your story and being on the show.
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Alli Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. Absolutely.
