Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Heather Falconer-Serhan. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Heather thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard.

At Falconer Agency, what truly sets us apart from other PR businesses is our emphasis on cultivating meaningful relationships. We’ve heard countless horror stories from clients who have worked with previous agencies, only to find their accounts passed down to junior account managers or interns. That’s why we prioritize spending time with our clients, ensuring regular calls and direct involvement in every aspect of their projects. We firmly believe in working in partnership with our clients and media contacts, uniting as a cohesive team.

I personally embody this commitment to personal connection with hands-on approach and dedication to client satisfaction, ensuring that every client receives the attention and expertise they deserve. Drawing from my extensive experience and network, I foster genuine partnerships that drive success for both parties.

We work with a select number of clients at any one time, ensuring that we can fully focus on delivering quality outcomes.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I started out my career in the UK studying Fashion, Media and Promotion at the University of Brighton. As part of my final year project I created a magazine called ‘Spindle’, and one year after graduating, in May 2010, Spindle Magazine launched for real, 10,000 copies were distributed across the UK and parts of Europe. The ethos of Spindle Magazine was to promote emerging creative talent across the fields of fashion, music and art. The print magazine was quarterly, and for every new issue we hosted an issue launch party in Brighton and London, the events were always a way of getting everyone together, it was a fusion of fashion designers, artists, musicians, writers, so much fun!

In 2012 we decided to focus more on the website, as media was transitioning towards digital first way of thinking, and we eventually stopped the print publication in 2016. There was also interest from brands to create content for them (brand campaigns), as they liked the work which was being produced for the magazine, and so “Spindle Agency” started. We worked with mostly youth culture type brands, one project we were at the forefront of was Kangol clothing’s first ever clothing collaboration. We also started traveling more overseas for music festivals and fashion shows, I was regularly at NYFW and SXSW covering happenings for the magazine, and hosting events.

The website and social media platforms enabled us to reach audiences around the globe, and we started doing events in New York, which is where I built up my network! Then in early 2016, the UK GOV were working on a mission supporting eight menswear brands who were showing at Liberty Mens Tradeshow in New York, they hired me as PR to support, we hosted an event at the Soho House Meatpacking for retail buyers and fashion press, it was fabulous!

I’d decided that I really wanted to be living in New York, I was back and forth between New York and London every couple of months, and decided I really wanted to make a go of it. I saw so many opportunities in the US. What we could say serendipitously, a good friend introduced me to his boss, a head of an agency who wanted to open up an office in New York, and wanted their own magazine. I ended up selling the publication to them, and in the following months I moved to New York!

I stayed with Spindle Magazine under its new ownership for about 8 months, and then exited completely, which was hard, but it was time, it was under new management and visions.

In 2017, I spent time enjoying living in New York, whilst I came up with ideas for what I wanted to do next. Even though my time with Spindle was over, I felt like there was still so much to do. That’s where Hatcher’s came from. Hatcher’s – a think tank which focuses on the individual person, asking them life questions about their daily routine, through to life lessons and failures and learnings. I wrote a proposal and was awarded a grant from Brooklyn Arts Council and accepted by New York Foundation for the Arts, which was a huge milestone at the time. I worked with my good friend Maria Kozak who designed all of the website and the branding for Hatchers, and over the next few years, anyone who I thought was interesting, I reached out to see if I could interview them for the website. Hatchers has mostly been a side project, over the pandemic I was fortunate to have time to spend more time working on it, and then collaborate with Microsoft (we created a virtual reality art gallery for them!) and also hyundai and bloomberg – we acted as curators for their art project.

In 2019 I officially launched my PR business “Falconer Agency”, the ethos of the agency is to support British brands in the US market. From the work I did with the UK Government in 2016 I have a strong relationship there and was being introduced to brands who were opening up in the US, or wanted to meet for advice. The company was created organically through what I found was needed. I love the clients I work with, we work across PR, partnerships, events and sales consultancy. I only take on a certain number of clients each year in order to ensure each client is getting the best service. We’re remote and host pop up showrooms twice a year in New York City. We also host a lot of dinners and cocktail parties. I love bringing people together! This year marks 5 years of the company, and we’re looking to do a party towards the end of year to celebrate!

Can you talk to us about your experience with selling businesses?

I sold my first business in 2016, before I turned 30. I have to add that I started that business when I was 22, and at that age, I had no intention of running a business, let alone selling one. And because I had no intention of selling, I wasn’t actively looking, it happened serendipitously.

Knowing what I know now, if you know you want to sell your business, get your accounts in order, “know your numbers” as my accountant would say. Really make sure you know your business and what’s happening in the market. Who would your potential buyers be, and why would they want (or need) to buy your business?

Also consider the emotional aspects of selling a business, I was my business, so when I parted ways with it, despite the milestone it was, it was also something I’d been working on for almost ten years, and had poured everything into. Create a plan for your business and yourself so you know what you want, and the direction you’d like to see the business go in.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

It has been relationships that I have nurtured over the years. From the event we hosted for the UK Gov in 2016, that showed my ethos in supporting British brands in the US, and also from that we had great results, so that opened doors for conversations. My existing clients, some whom I’ve been working with since the company officially formed, have all been from word of mouth introductions, my business is a 100% referral business. I also think for my business, there’s a level of trust because I understand both the UK and the US markets, whereas if my clients were working with an agency who’d never visited the UK, there would be a language barrier, I’ve often heard from clients that they’ve never had to explain, or “translate”!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://falconeragency.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/falconeragency
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heatherfalconer/
• Other: https://hatchers.tv https://www.instagram.com/hatchers.tv/

Image Credits
Rose Callahan (image of heather in the white suit)