We recently connected with Shaina Pherigo and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Shaina thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

Stories connect humanity. A good story can have a hold on people, connect people from across the world and it has potential to have everlasting change on communities.

Architecture itself is a story: with a cast of characters, project challenges to overcome – and after much toil, deliberation and problem solving, you’re left with something new and beautiful in the world: a brand new building or project that can serve as a place for others to make new memories.

I enjoy watching architects and designers light up when they talk about projects that excite them – for most of these professionals, they spend decades learning their own craft in their industry (example: building k-12 schools or hotels). They understand the nitty-gritty aspects of these projects and can tell you the newest and exciting design elements.

For me, I use my background as a commercial real estate reporter and my lens as a PR professional for the largest architecture firm in the world to ask the right questions and translate their “archi-speak” into narratives or words that the general public can understand and appreciate.

Another aspect of my job which I absolutely love is getting to work with reporters and helping them to come up with story ideas for their readers. As a former reporter, I’ve been in their shoes and understand the pressures and deadlines they face. I respect their time tremendously and will come to reporters with my prepared bank of ideas to see if any of them might be of interest. There is an art to this because a good PR person must understand the publication, its audience, readership and understand fully what is considered newsworthy.

The best thing that a PR person can do to become better in our craft is to consume news: every day. from everywhere. In any given day, I am reading magazines, online articles, listening to podcasts and have the TV news going in the background. If you can constantly be consuming news, you can understand it intimately and elevate yourself quickly in the profession.

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.

Bramble Creative is a fully integrated public relations firm that is focused on promoting brands in the architecture and design space through earned and owned media. We have over a decade of experience with promoting architecture, interiors projects, products and other elements of the built environment – promoting such notable projects as The Pitch, in Austin, Texas; The Waterline Tower in Austin, Texas; Columbia County Multipurpose Facility, in Lake Nona, Fla.; The Star, the Dallas Cowboys World Headquarters – Frisco, Texas; The PAE Living Building in Portland, Or.; to name a few.
For our clients, we are the translator for architects to the public. Many times, the designers have beautiful and unique ideas that are trapped inside their head or hidden behind “archi-speak.” We know the right questions to ask to pull the ideas and story nuggets out and then work to take that knowledge and transform it into narratives and media pitches that audiences can connect with.

For marketers at architecture firms, many times PR elements such as media relations, thought leadership, social media, blogs and awards fall to the backburner of priorities. We offer assistance to those marketing teams, adopt the culture and become one of the team to assist at a very tailormade level that works for the firm.
When it comes to media clips, many PR firms seek quantity over quality. While our goal is to always try to get a mention of the architecture firm with articles written about their projects, we are always seeking higher-level media opportunities for our clients that are going to give the most value and have the most impact among their stakeholders, clients and potential clients.

Bramble Creative is a different kind of PR firm because of our People-Focused Approach. We are very hands on and treat each of our clients with care and develop tailormade strategies for each firm. We bring our knowledge of in-house PR tactics that seamlessly integrate well with an architecture firm’s existing marketing team.

Our process includes: learning the ins and outs of the firm, the culture and projects that are big and upcoming. We then learn each client’s key spokespeople and understand where each person may bring value to different topics and conversations. We lastly layer in our expertise and strategy through matching the firm’s people, projects and process to what the media is looking for. This is how we create buzz for our clients – through a 360-degree approach that is hyper-custom and thoughtful.

Our offerings include: PR Strategy, Media Relations, Media Training, Content Writing, Thought Leadership Generation, Blogs, Social Media, Awards. We also collaborate with great partners who can assist any client with additional marketing needs, from video, to branding to photography and website.

If you have multiple revenue streams in your business, would you mind opening up about what those streams are and how they fit together?

While Bramble Creative’s main revenue stream and focus is public relations, a big part of our business is still copywriting and content writing. We offer writing of all kinds to clients with big and small purposes. Some big writing projects might include: award submissions for people or projects, website content, write papers and editing of long-form articles. Our short-form writing offerings include items such as: helping clients write bios for LinkedIn or websites, copy for ads or promotional materials, design statements for projects and editing work.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

As founder and CEO, I began building the idea for Bramble in the midst of COVID while working at my full-time PR job at Gensler, the largest architecture firm in the world. Inspired by Art Gensler and his road to growing a top-rate professional services firm, I wanted to also make my dream of becoming an agency owner a reality. However, at the time, I had no means or knowledge of how to make it my full-time career.

In 2022, I decided to that even small moves toward my dream were valuable and would take me in the right direction – so in the middle of the night, I started writing freelance articles about business owners and entrepreneurs for a local publication. For each article that I wrote, I would get $75. After a summer of writing articles, I had saved up enough to buy some early start up costs of the agency like our website and incorporate officially through the state of Texas.

Since then, I took many risks, launched within a week to accommodate my first two clients and the agency grew from there. So far in 2023, we have hired our first employees, represented 950+ projects, supported over 400 architects and designers and reached more than 55 million unique monthly visitors with our media relations efforts. In addition, Bramble Creative was nominated for New PR Firm of the Year for 2023 by PRSA Houston. I continue to take risks and push myself out of my comfort zone to leap from stone to stone in this business, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.bramblecreative.com
• Instagram: @bramble_creative
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bramble-creative

Image Credits
Bramble Creative