We recently connected with Diana Bianchini and have shared our conversation below.

Diana, appreciate you joining us 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?

This year in May, my agency, Di Moda Public Relations celebrated 20 years in business. I have spent a lot of time recently thinking about how I got here and what defines success for me now. When starting a business, you naturally want to “scale up” and be able to grow. Good work in my industry helps companies and individuals scale up because it gets noticed. Happy clients bring in new clients. Meaningful relationships deliver referrals.

Scaling up at the right speed is important because biting off more than you can chew and not being able to deliver high quality will backfire. The PR industry is reputation based. One bad client experience can hurt business. Scaling up for me also meant hiring the right people and firing the people that were not a fit. I really did not think about the idea that I would have to fire someone when I started my company but there’s always a first time for everything. It never gets easier (hiring or firing) but it’s essential to company success.

For the last 20 years, I also understood to ask for help, help from experts. I know what I am good at and also am clear about what I don’t know. Even when I could not afford it, I looked for ways to find help with accounting, attorney consult, and so much more.

One main thing I did to scale up was WORK many many hours. Running a company is hard work and sometimes can be lonely but I believe that self discipline is the key to success including business success.

Diana, 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?

Like most people, I got a 4-year degree in something that has nothing to do with what I do today. I am a graduate of UCLA and my major was Italian. I focused on literature and had dreams then of being a professor. I thought I was going to be married with 4 children and that this career path would provide me with summers off and winter breaks to be with my kids. None of this ever happened,

Like most people experience, life did not go the way I thought it would. I worked full time while going to school full time because I was paying for everything by myself. I fell into a Fashion PR job during my last year at UCLA and instantly loved it. I was in the midst of a failing love relationship and also had a toddler. With no stable income, a small child and big student loans to pay off, the idea of entering grad school to run up more student loans was delusional. Instead, I took a full time fashion PR job right after graduation. I continued to work hard and garnered much success. Even so, along with many people in the industry, I got laid off in 2002. I worked side jobs here and there. I interviewed for a few PR jobs but nothing I loved. I decided one day that things could NOT get any worse so I started researching how to start my own company, how to file paperwork, create a name, and more. Then, I just did it. I started Di Moda Public Relations in my one bedroom apartment in Larchmont Village in LA. I had one client, a small handbag brand. The money I made was not even enough to pay my rent but I worked hard to sign as second client. The success I delivered the handbag line go noticed and I soon had more clients and an office at Crossroads of the World in Hollywood.

Fast forward to today, Di Moda PR has lifestyle clients all over the world and is made up of a strong team of women. I continue to stay humble, proud and hard working. My son is now in college and he will never have to take a student loan.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

In 2020 due to the pandemic, my agency lost 50% of its business. Our remaining clients asked me how we would be able to provide PR support and real boots on the ground in states where they were still executing events. We were in CA only at the time. I decided to hire other agencies in the specific states needed to work directly for Di Moda. I presented the business model to the clients as our sister agency program. The ability to pivot and work with other agencies to support our clients not only delivered money to other agencies during this time period but delivered huge wins to my clients. Our business doubled in 2021 and is growing even more in 2022. We have also strengthened our network of great agencies across the country in the hopes of working with them again.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

Managing a team right now is not easy. There are so many changes happening in the world and in people’s lives. There are also so many emotions swirling including the ever present grief that we all seem to be holding because of these last three years, however the experience was. It’s important to recognize that and talk about this with the team. It’s not business as usual right now. Take time to share how you’re feeling and be a good listener. Even just a weekly quick check in for each team member to share a win and a fail they’ve experienced that week can help so much. And you should go first with sharing your win and fail.

Also, I recommend creating space for your team to have fun together.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.dimodapr.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dianambianchini
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/diana.bianchini
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dianabianchini/
• Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/dianambianchini

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