We recently connected with Dawn Jones and have shared our conversation below.

Dawn, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What sort of legacy are you hoping to build. What do you think people will say about you after you are gone, what do you hope to be remembered for?

I hope to be someone who made an impact on the independent artist community. Building this business as a musician myself, it was extremely important to me to empower the underserved indie artists in an effective way. Not only effective, but with honesty and integrity. Those are qualities that are hard to come by in the music industry.

I also want to be known for not only helping artists promotionally, but also helping them to grow and develop into the type of artists they want to become. Helping create a sustainable career model for artists who are also moms, dads, 9-5ers, or have other things going on in life besides music. You can have sustainability without the “rat race” that everybody tells you that you have to be part of to succeed.

I hope my legacy is that we did these things – and paved the way for others to do it too.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Deeply rooted in the music industry, Pressed Fresh Collective was originally founded as Pressed PR. Founded as a passion project that would empower other independent artists to succeed (as our founder, Dawn Jones, is an independent musician herself), Dawn wanted to develop a modern company that embodied the essence of intentional, personal, and innovative marketing with a team that displayed the strongest work ethic for their artists.

Over the course of its first decade, Pressed PR quickly evolved and expanded into additional promotional and brand-building services to empower artists with strategies for comprehensive artist development. This expansion led to renaming the company Pressed Fresh Collective, in an effort to represent the multitude of resources our team could provide clients with, outside of the scope of traditional PR.

Throughout the span of the Collective’s existence, our clientele has ranged from independent artists just starting out to celebrity artists with millions of fans, and included leading companies in the music-tech space, venues, and emerging record labels, among others. Our clientele has landed on Spotify algorithmic playlists and been featured in the pages of Billboard, Forbes, Huffington Post, Esquire, American Songwriter, No Depression, Parade, Atwood Magazine, EARMILK, Ones To Watch, The Bluegrass Situation, HYPE Magazine, and many more. This success led to Pressed being named one of “The 10 Best Indie Music Promotion Services That Are Worth It” by Two Story Melody.

As a musician myself, I see the struggles many creatives face trying to build a career independently and I’m on a mission to help artists make and distribute music on their own terms.

Artists need a seamless way to build their brands sustainably so that they can make music for the long-haul. It’s tough to do it by yourself…. so much to juggle between managing distribution, booking, promo, and social media. When are you supposed to find time to actually make music??

After years of working alongside exceptional creatives in the music industry, I decided to create a community that brings intentionality and innovation to every project with the best-of-the-best industry professionals that are ready to tap in and support artists at any moment in their career. We’re stepping in to allow artists to get back to doing what they love most (creating) while we handle the logistics of a growing music career.

Have you ever had to pivot?

When I had my firstborn (two years ago) it was the catalyst for a major change in how I treated my business. I had to make some massive adjustments to my work-life balance to ensure that my family was coming first, and business second. This shift took a year a half to really make because I quickly realized I needed some things in place: systems, team members, automations, and pretty much anything that would allow me and my team to work more efficiently, but also maintain the quality of work we are known for.

This was NOT an easy shift… it was a lot of trial and error. But as of today, I really feel like this shift transformed my business in a way that set us up for future growth that is SUSTAINABLE and not unreasonable. It was definitely needed, just not something I realized we needed until I was thrown into a situation that required it.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

Our most effective strategy for growing clientele has been word of mouth referrals. Fun fact – we’ve never done any paid advertising for the business. ALL of our growth has been from past client referrals and new clients finding us in the media (podcasts, articles, interviews, etc).

I think this has been possible because of the reputation we’ve built. We really value transparency and honesty, which is rare in the music industry. Most people who find us love the way we work as a team with our clients and how we are an “open book”…. and this leads them to naturally want to share it, which we are so grateful for.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.pressedfreshcollective.com/
• Instagram: @pressedfreshcollective
• Facebook: @pressedfreshcollective