We recently connected with Hope Katz Gibbs and have shared our conversation below.

Hope Katz, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Folks often look at a successful business and imagine it was an overnight success, but from what we’ve seen this is often far from the truth. We’d love to hear your scaling up story – walk us through how you grew over time – what were some of the big things you had to do to grow and what was that scaling up journey like?

Before I founded InkandescentPR.com in 2008, I had been helping large and small organizations increase their visibility — including a decade spent at the City of Fairfax Schools in Northern VA and Social)Techonologies, a futurist think tank that tracked international consumer and business trends.

After helping the City Schools win a bunch of awards for the newsletter and website we built, and being the liason that helped the futurists get quoted in dozens of publications and building a newsletter for them before landing them a 5-minute spot on the CBS Early Show — I knew I could use a similar starategy for lots of companies.

So I launched Inkandescent as a full-service firm using what became our 8 Steps to PR Success:

1. Create a stunning website
2. Develop an explosive PR and marketing campaign
3. Write a column in a magazine and host a radio/video show
4. Make a splash in the news
5. Network wisely
6. Join a speakers bureau
7. Write a book
8. Pay it forward

Those services grew bigger and got deeper over the years. Today, we have two online magazines, www.InkandescentWomen.com and our health & wellness magazine, www.BeInkandescent.com. Our podcast network currently produces more than two dozen shows, www.InkandescentRadio.com hosted by our clients who also have a playlist on our YouTube channel, www.Inkandescent.tv.

Our services for authors has expanded to where we now promote dozens of books a year on www.Inkandescent.us and publish about half a dozen/year.

Our clients find us through word of mouth, and trust us when they see what we’ve done for others. Our annual contracts, on average, run 3 years but we’ve been with some clients for more than a decade, including award-winning financial planner MargueritaCheng.com.

We scaled up organically. I listened to what the clients wanted and responded. When they wanted to be in the news, I built a magazine where they could have a column. When they told me they wanted to be quoted in more publications and broadcast channels I bought them ads at a local TV station where they got a monthly interview that we posted on their website and our channels to increase their visibility. And so on.

And, when they didn’t see clearly what we were doing to assist, I wrote a book about how PR, marketing, advertising, social media, and sales are intertwined, “PR Rules: The Playbook.” It has been selling for more than a decade, www.PRRulesPlaybook.com.

One of the hardest aspects of the company’s growth has been building a team that is talented, loyal, and works well together. That took me about 5 years — and today our team of 7 is strong and powerful. They are the biggest gift.

Hope Katz, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania in 1986, I started my career as a reporter at the Dominion Post in Morgantown, WV. I then worked at the Miami Herald and New Miami magazine, where I won several awards for feature writing.

Graduate school beckoned, and after studying educational leadership, I began freelancing for numerous publications including the Washington Post, USAToday, Costco’s magazine The Connection, alumni magazines and more. Find my clips here: www.HopeGibbs.com.

When the economy took a dip in 2001, I decided to use my journalism skills as a publicist and become the Director of Communication for several organizations (details are in my last response). By 2008, it was a natural progression to start my own PR firm.

Throughout my journey, I’m most proud of is my ability to go with the flow and respond to opportunities with entrepreneurial finesse. I am honored to have the opportunity to work with so many incredible people — to help them tell their stories and grow their organizations. The juice of life is finding the heart in every situation. That’s our mission at Inkandescent.us.

How did you build your audience on social media?

We have 30,000 connections on LinkedIn and 5000 on Facebook. Each one was built organically, and we continue to grow our social media network with authenticity and good storytelling. Mostly, I post stories from articles that I want to remember and hope others will learn from. This is such a time of upheaval. I am using my pages as a history book so I can look back and see the path and pattern of life in 2025.

Of course, there’s always more to learn, and I’m currently working with my intern and a coach to create new pages that will build revenue for our new international women’s networking group, Empowered Together, on www.InkandescentWomen.com.

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

Find people are who are great at what they do, are flexible, and loyal. Then let them do what they are best at without micromanaging them.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.Inkandescent.us
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hopekatzgibbs
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hopekatzgibbs/
• Youtube: http://www.inkandescent.tv
• Other: http://www.InkandescentRadio.com
  http://www.InkandescentWomen.com
  http://www.BeInkandescent.com

Image Credits

Illustrations by Michael Glenwood Gibbs, https://www.michaelglenwood.com

Photo of Hope by John Coppola, https://www.johndcphotography.com/headshots