We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Amanda Cagan a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Amanda, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s start with something countless entrepreneurs have had to figure out on the fly – how have you dealt with the rise of remote work?
I’ve been working remotely from the third bedroom of my condo for the past 22 years. I was doing it “before it was cool during Covid,” I always say. It’s got a great big monster of an L-shaped desk with big piles of CDs and magazine clippings sitting on it, and it’s covered with photos that I love looking at every day. There are Post-It reminder notes and bits of paperwork everywhere, and the walls are filled with my Gold and Platinum plaques and autographed posters. It’s actually inspiring for me to walk in there every morning and be in that space during my work hours. After working in offices for 11 years, I was looking forward to working by and for myself, with my own rules. Right away I knew how I was going to do it and I’ve done it the same way ever since. When I sit down in my office at my computer, I’m laser-focused and get the work done as I would if I were working from an office outside of my house. Most importantly for me, I don’t work in pajamas (although I did resort to “soft pants” during the pandemic), because I didn’t want to always feel like I just rolled out of bed.
There was a time in the beginning when I would feel weird telling people I worked from home. That changed after I was talking to a former colleague who had also ventured out to do her own thing. She told me that she was recently in Hawaii and had just brought her laptop with her, so her clients didn’t know the difference since she was still getting the work done. That was a game-changer for me. She was exactly right. It doesn’t matter where you are, as long as the work gets done!
I’d have to be offered a very, very large salary to venture out of my home office again!
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I grew up in a music business family. My late father, Steven Cagan, was a composer/conductor/arranger who worked with Diahann Carroll, Bette Midler, and many others. He was also the conductor for the first national tour of “Dreamgirls” (with Jennifer Holliday), and he wrote the score for the 1978 movie, “The Cat and the Canary.” He also wrote a beautiful show destined to be on the on or off-Broadway stage one day (paging show producers out there!), “Love Songs – A Musical.” My six-time Emmy-winning Mom, Claudia Cagan, sang backup for her sister/my Aunt Melissa Manchester (Grammy-winning singer/songwriter and who’s currently in the national tour of “Funny Girl”), and my their Father/my Grandfather, David Manchester, played the bassoon at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. Not to be outdone, but my Grandmother is the legendary clothing designer Ruth Manchester, who was a pioneer with her designs in the ’60s. As we always say, “If we grew up in a family of doctors, we would be doctors., but we grew up in the music business so that’s our family business.”
I started in PR by working for Aunt Melissa’s publicist, who I’d known since I was 10. When I started to look for any sort of work in the biz after high school and some college, I sent him my resume and got the job. After working my way up the ranks and becoming a full-fledged publicist after five years, then staying on for another five years, I left to work at another PR entertainment firm to start their “music division.” After only 1-1/2 years though I knew it was time for me to do it on my own and I opened ABC Public Relations. That was 22 years ago and yes, those are my real initials. The rest is history!
In 1995 when the world of the internet first exploded, and I fully began to understand what it was all about, I was one of the first people at my company to fully embrace music news and interview websites. I secured coverage on those outlets above and beyond the usual magazine and newspaper outlets that I had been accustomed to for so many years. It was such an exciting time.
I’m most proud of the fact that I’ve never lost the excitement about discovering new outlets, in print or online. If there’s a new place for my clients to be, I’m ready for it. Now websites have morphed into podcasts and those pitches alone take up most of my day!
As it says on my website, “With ABC PR, no publicity stone is left unturned.” And my motto has never changed even after over 30 years: “If an artist wants to work, I’ll put them to work!”
What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?
In the music business, most if not all of it is word of mouth. If you’ve done a good job with a client, they’ll tell two friends, and so on.
When I started ABC PR, I was lucky enough to be working with some great clients, including Maroon 5 whose ‘Songs About Jane’ album was just coming out (I’m even thanked in the credits). I had also just finished working with Nickelback on their ‘Silver Side Up’ album. So between those two press campaigns, and other clients I was working with at the time, I made sure that managers, agents and record labels knew that I had started my company with a big bang and they should be keeping me in mind for future work.
One thing always leads to another and still does. Many times I’ll work with a client and impress someone on their team so much that they will recommend me to another artist/band they’re working with who needs a new publicist. This happens with managers, agents, tour managers, and people at record labels alike. That’s how I’ve met clients who have since stayed with me for over 5-10 years! If it doesn’t happen via word of mouth like that, I take it upon myself to reach out to people in the biz and tell them I want to work with them and their artists/bands, showing examples of recent work and letting them know they need me to be part of their team.
This is another reason why I make sure my social media pages are always up to date with press releases I send out and clips I secure for current clients. I never know if a prospective client is paying attention to what I’m doing!
How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?
I’m in constant contact with my clients, mostly via email (but always available for a phone or Zoom call), which I feel lets them know that the client is always at the top of my mind. This includes offers I’ve secured, interview schedules, clips that appear, ideas about press opportunities, and of course all sorts of questions and inquiries in-between. I want them to know that I’m always thinking of new ways to promote an album, EP, tour, etc. Even if we don’t actually talk every single day, which happens with some clients, They see I’m doing the work.
My clients see that I work a particular way, which 99.9% of the time meshes well with what they need from me. So it’s OK if days or even weeks/months go by that we don’t have voice-to-voice communication.
I truly feel this is why I’ve had the great fortune of working for clients years and even decades at a time. Right now, my roster has five clients that I’ve worked with for over 10 years and two clients I’ve worked with for over 5 years. That kind of loyalty means everything to me and I’m always grateful for them. It’s rare in the music biz!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.abc-pr.com
- Instagram: @abcpublicrelations
- Facebook: @abcpublicrelations
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amandacagan/
- Twitter: @AmandaABCPR
- Other: Threads: @abcpublicrelations
Image Credits
All courtesy of Amanda Cagan
“AmaPromo” photo credit: Jay Gilbert