We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Risa Hoag a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Risa, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you tell us a bit about who your hero is and the influence they’ve had on you?

My father was most certainly my hero, not just personally but professionally as well. He ran his own retail store in the Bronx for over 40 years. He graduated from high school in 1948 and then attended a trade school to learn how to repair televisions. He drove a taxi at night to pay for the trade school tuition. He grew his business to over $1,000,000 a year by 1993 and made it look easy, although I know it wasn’t. But he did everything with a smile and tremendous patience and treated his employees and his customers with respect and dignity. He went out of his way to “do the right thing” and taught me to do the same. I was lucky enough to occasionally go to work with him on Saturdays and watch how he treated his staff and customers, how he problem-solved, took great care of the smallest details, and kept everything running so smoothly. He taught me to be frugal but that spending on marketing would pay great dividends. He was also very creative with his marketing efforts, and that was back in the day when “cut and paste” actually meant cutting up pieces of paper and pasting them down to create your ad or your flyer. Perhaps most of all, I learned the value of hard work and how taking care of the smallest things with patience was important. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t do something during my day that is a result of my dad teaching me creativity, hard work, attention to detail, or doing the right thing. He was a tremendous role model.

Risa, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I worked for IBM when I was still in College. This was a great learning experience and complemented the training I received from my Dad. I went on to work for Ernst & Young and eventually started GMG Public Relations in 1991. However, before joining Ernst & Young, I had another business helping new companies get started and find their office equipment, furniture, etc.. Unfortunately, that venture was not successful because new businesses often lack sufficient funding. Nevertheless, I learned about public relations, including pitching my own story to the media. I was able to secure articles in the Westchester Business Journal and The New York Times, and I learned that pitching a story requires research, an understanding of the outlet and the reporter, and having a ‘way with words’ to get attention. I enjoyed the challenge of trying to get a story placed and ultimately founded GMG Public Relations with the goal of getting great publicity for other businesses. At GMG we provide traditional PR support, advertising services, and general marketing support. Very often our clients have been managing their own marketing and are looking for someone to take over and do a better job, using their money more efficiently to reach their target audiences. We also love developing creative campaigns for our clients and that’s where our ad campaign services come into play. We have developed many moving and impactful campaigns for our clients which have been overwhelmingly successful in accomplishing the client’s goals. We have also had several PR campaigns go viral with billions of views thanks to careful research and creative pitching. What sets us apart is the extreme hands-on support we provide and our commitment to making sure we meet the objectives set by our clients. We are proud to say that many of our clients have been with us for decades!

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

I have spent more than 30 years carefully cultivating my company’s reputation. I believe integrity is probably the most important asset that any company has. The number one most important source of business for any company is word-of-mouth referrals and those valuable referrals are supported by the reputation of the company and the person at the helm. I have always committed to do the right thing, to be transparent about what we can and cannot accomplish, and how we will go about it. If a client is unhappy (which is rare!) we go out of our way to make it right and go above and beyond their expectations.

We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.

I have worked hard to build a contact list, but I have also worked hard not to abuse it, so I am not one of those people who sends emails every week. In fact, this year, we only sent out one! But each time we do, we have an open rate of over 75% and get a call or two for new business! I believe one of the reasons is that I go out of my way to provide educational insights when I craft an email of any kind. I want to help people find resources or gain knowledge and I think it is greatly appreciated. Most emails are trying to sell you something, but people really don’t care what you are selling, they want to know how you are going to help them and when you provide information rather than a sales pitches, it goes a long way and is remembered long after the email is read. Your clients and contacts are valuable assets for your business – care for them properly and you’ll always remain top of mind!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.gmgpr.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/gmgpr
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/risahoag/