We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Debbie Fitzgerald & Regan Petersen a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Debbie Fitzgerald & Regan Petersen, thanks for joining us today. Parents play a huge role in our development as youngsters and sometimes that impact follows us into adulthood and into our lives and careers. Looking back, what’s something you think you parents did right?
We were lucky enough to have parents that had similar work ethics and values, which contributed to our success in a huge way! Our fathers were both leaders in their industry and we are their only daughters. Our personalities mirrored both of our dads in many ways, so in the early days of starting our business we bounced ideas off them regularly.
Growing up, we were expected to work hard and show initiative in everything we did! The second we could get a job, we both went out and started working, gaining an understanding at an early age what it was like to earn our own paycheck, work hard to get ahead and treat our bosses and co-workers with respect. We both worked very long hours before we had families and it paid off later when we had our own children and wanted the flexibility to take time away from work to attend one of their athletic games or performances.
Our mothers are also very strong, hardworking women and when both had daughters who had more opportunity in the work force, they were very supportive! They’ve been amazing every step of the way, helping with childcare for our families so we could realize our dreams of owning our own PR agency.
Our parents did A LOT right, and we are proud to say we are passing down those values to our own children.
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.
Fitzgerald Petersen (FPC) has been in business for almost 18 years and when we started our agency, after rising to Vice Presidents at Ogilvy PR Worldwide, one of the largest PR firms in the world, as partners we made the commitment that our clients would never feel like they were ‘bait and switched’ after the initial kick-off.
Both of us started in actual newsrooms with real media experience, but decided separately that we wanted to pursue a career in Public Relations. We met at a small local PR agency in Denver before we were hired by Ogilvy PR Worldwide. That’s where we forged our work relationship and continued a personal friendship. We worked hard at Ogilvy PR and continued to have amazing female mentors who encouraged us every step of the way. After years of leading exciting client campaigns and many work trips, we eventually knew that we could join forces to start one of the best PR agencies in Denver!
We both loved our time working in various newsrooms early in our careers, and our whole team maintains excellent media, entertainment, business and government media contacts through our PR work with our current clients. The FPC team has ample big-brand consumer and events-based marketing and public relations experience. From managing Fortune 500 companies during our time as Vice Presidents at Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide to managing events and media relations through FPC’s local, regional, and national clients. FPC also has deep crisis communications experience and currently leads crisis plans/projects for several clients.
We pride ourselves on media coverage we secure and crisis situations we’ve averted for our clients due to our deep connections with regional and national media.
Where do you think you get most of your clients from?
The best source of new clients for us has always been ‘word of mouth’ and through working with some of the most respected brands and organizations in our industry. For example, Fitzgerald Petersen was tapped to work with the Clyfford Still Museum in Denver. From groundbreaking 5 years prior through completion, FPC ensured the museum received remarkable media attention from the state’s most prominent entertainment and culture reporters. The FPC team worked closely with Clyfford Still’s daughters throughout the process to ensure messaging was used that depicted exactly the artist’s wishes, as his masterpieces found a new, unique home. As a matter of fact, one of the FPC partners traveled to see Clyfford Still’s never before seen masterpieces unrolled after being taken down from the rafters of a barn, where he stored some of his most famous paintings. As they unrolled these priceless pieces, we knew that this project was going to be one of the most important in Denver and for Fitzgerald Petersen Communications!
A close project to Mayor Hickenlooper, our communications efforts secured feature coverage in almost every media outlet in the state, as well as national media coverage in publications like New York Times, Vanity Fair, Sunset Magazine, Wall Street Journal, and countless other prominent national media outlets. This work put us in front of the most prominent Board of Directors in Denver, which then led to additional client opportunities in the future. It goes to show, if you do your best work ALWAYS, it leads to ‘word of mouth’ opportunities that traditional new business outreach can’t match!
Any advice for managing a team?
Simply put – treat your employees like you would want to be treated. We remember what it was like starting out in our career, the people who mentored us, the agencies that hired us, the industry leaders who – to this day – still support our endeavors. We have a saying with the other PR agency owners in Denver we know well, ‘there’s enough business to go around’ so it’s important to support each other and that is what we do with our own employees.
Everyone has personal lives that are very important to each of us individually, kids we are raising, weddings to be planned, experiences to be had, etc. As a women-owned business, that is something we know is important to support. People are happier when they have flexibility. We put a lot of trust in our employees to represent Fitzgerald Petersen well and they do that every single day because they know that we have their backs through the ups and downs of life!
We all work from our home offices so it’s very important to design a workplace that is intentional. We don’t plan outings or gatherings just to tick it off the list, there is thought behind it and planning, without expecting our employees to be at things that just ‘spin their wheels.’ If there is a workshop they’d like to attend, or a fun night we can all go to great, but it’s done with real thought about what our team needs and wants.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.fitzgeraldpetersen.com
- Instagram: @fitzgeraldpetersencomm
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fitzgeraldpetersencomm
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fitzgerald-petersen-communications/?viewAsMember=true
Image Credits
Fitzgerald Petersen Comm., Inc.