We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Meredith Corning. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Meredith below.
Meredith, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.
The biggest risk I took was a couple of years ago when I decided to completely stop accepting new wedding clients for my successful wedding planning business and switch course to start my own PR firm. It was 2020 and the event industry was facing many new challenges. I felt it was time for me to step back as a planner and utilize my public relations skills to help wedding industry businesses bounce back from the chaos of the moment. Indeed my first clients were fellow wedding vendors I had previously worked with as a planner and it all couldn’t have worked out better. Since I know the wedding industry so intimately due to being a planner for over ten years, my PR clients receive the benefit of that knowledge. Public relations was my first love and I actually freelanced for years on the side, so it was time to get back to the root of who I am. The transition time between tampering down the wedding planning business to becoming a full-time publicist was scary. It was planned out methodically and I feel very grateful the risk paid off.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your background and context?
I began freelancing as a PR agent for the fashion industry in 2011 and was previously in marketing, sales and PR roles at companies I had worked for as an employee. Public relations led me into event planning for fashion shows, bridal shows and other PR event schemes. This eventually led into wedding planning, which took over my business for many years. I have basically combined all these skills I have learned in these industries to create Meredith Corning PR. Meredith Corning PR specializes in wedding and fashion PR with a focus on digital media placement. My previous event planning background comes into play often, but now exclusively for my PR clients’ PR campaigns, photo shoots, fashion shows and other press-generating events.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
One lesson I had to unlearn was that in-person networking is not a necessity. I am so glad that public relations has changed over the years and a large focus has been placed on digital media. I never really liked going to networking events, coffee dates, business lunches…etc., but it was part of the job for a long time in the early days. Now people can connect online and distribute information digitally, which has become my modus operandi. It is more efficient and the results speak for themselves.
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
There is no doubt that staying the course and putting myself out there has helped build my reputation. I always try to outdo my last project often placing a vulnerability on the work I create for public scrutiny. Inevitably, I believe this is what has kept my work, team and collaborations cutting-edge and top of mind. Every project should have an element of controversy if you want people to notice what you do. Take risks and take them often. See my latest risk and vote for me in the Fab Over 40 contest here https://votefab40.com/2022/
Contact Info:
- Website: https://meredithcorningpr.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/meredithcorningpr/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/meredithcorningpr/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/meredith-corning-pr
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/meredithcorning
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCY5SVcOrDpcVnc5oxAkmmaw
Image Credits
@itsdaniellegreen with @layersphoto