We recently connected with Edna Sims and have shared our conversation below.

Edna, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Being a business owner can be really hard sometimes. It’s rewarding, but most business owners we’ve spoken sometimes think about what it would have been like to have had a regular job instead. Have you ever wondered that yourself? Maybe you can talk to us about a time when you felt this way?

I am glad I am a business owner; there are no other options for me. Every morning that I wake up, I thank God for what I do. I have worked a nine-to-five job, and I was unhappy. Never do I wonder what it would be like to have a regular job.

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

I own ESP Public Relations, a public relations and marketing firm based in Los Angeles. We have clients worldwide.

ESP Public Relations is a full-service public relations firm that provides story placement with worldwide media outlets, including mainstream and urban publications, crisis management, marketing, strategic communications, and more. For more than 30 years, ESP has specialized in mainstream, multicultural markets, urban, faith-based, entertainment (TV, films, and music), authors, corporate, and non-profit organizations in every category.

ESP has developed a reputation for high-level red carpet coverage, media, social media, celebrity contacts, and forging alliances between clients and other entities to achieve greater synergy of the target goals, as with the collaboration between the Ford Motor Company Fund and the GRAMMY Foundation. I am proud to be the first African-American publicist for The Caucus for Producers, Writers, and Directors. This non-profit has a rich history and an esteemed membership of television innovators. For over 40 years, The Caucus has provided an opportunity for the best and the brightest talent to network and voice the ‘creative conscience’ of the Television Industry.

One of our assets is our creativity and problem-solving. Most PR firms do one thing well, such as getting their clients to red-carpet events, editorial placements, event planning, coordination, and implementation of red-carpet, or crisis public relations, but we do all things fabulously.

Performing crisis public relations is exciting, as when strategies are planned and executed to make your client look favorable. An example of a challenging case was a prominent client’s daughter who was murdered in NYC during her birthday party. She was found dead on a freeway over-passed, with drugs in her purse, and she was pregnant. Our job was to clean up her image and make her look like an innocent victim. As a result, we did that exceptionally well, and she is now honored with a non-profit organization in her name that helps other victims.

My company is proud that we obtain large-name individuals and corporations. We are known to receive the same results or better because we underpromise and overdeliver.

Do you have any stories of times when you almost missed payroll or any other near death experiences for your business?

When the pandemic occurred in 2020, we were booked with clients, and all of them, except for one, canceled our contracts. I didn’t know what to do, so I prayed to God to show me the way. He instructed me to trust in Him, and I did. Suddenly, I was getting clients doing PR work I had never done before, such as a renowned chef in Harlem catering meals to the hospital staff because the hospital had to use the cafeteria for additional bed space. The client wanted to get the word out about celebrities paying for the meals. Then there was a client, who were native Indian who needed awareness about Indians on the reservations in the U.S. that were dying of Covid due to lack of health care. The Indians who lived on the reservations would go to work in the city and bring back COVID to the tribe, where there was no electricity or running water; as a result, big headline stories were published, and the Indians received treatment, testing, government checks, and the vaccine. I was incredibly proud of these campaigns. As the clients came rolling in, so did the income to keep my business afloat.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

Word of mouth is the most effective strategy for growing clientele. I don’t advertise, and clients come to me. I can pick and choose the clients that I want to take on. Doing exceptional work is critical. I have had some of my clients for years, and I only take on the number of clients that I can handle. I love happy clients, and happy clients always return when they have another project.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.esppr.net
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ednasimsesppr
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ednasims.esppr
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edna-sims-bruce-280aa5a

Image Credits

Photos courtesy of ESP Public Relations