In launching my newly designed website, it occurred to me that many of you who know me or who know my DIY PR books, Recipe for Press don’t know how I came to being an author or communications partner to brands in the interiors community.
I love sharing stories!
For the first twenty years of my professional career, I was a freelance writer and editor to national shelter and fashion publications, including Country Living, Conde Nast Traveler, House Beautiful, Better Homes & Gardens and InStyle. I primarily covered the Southeast and for five years I served as a regional editor for Lucky magazine. Inspired by this career in publishing and sensing the need for information on how to pitch from an editor’s point of view, I wrote Recipe for Press (Pitch Your Story & Create a Buzz) and took to the road, sharing my editorial insights with other creative entrepreneurs. Last year I issued a second book, Recipe for Press: Designer Edition, a book with the tools interior designers, product designers, architects and those in the interiors industry need to take advantage of the many media opportunities available to the creative professional.
Now I serve as a communications parter to a few amazing brands!
These days, in addition to speaking on the subject of DIY PR, I operate an independent communications studio that assists companies in developing and implementing focused communication strategies to position them for the next stage of growth. These are a few of my clients. I also enjoy nurturing along a new generation of entrepreneurs, especially those who share the same conviction that commerce and communications are integrally intertwined.
Life in Athens, Georgia is sweet!
I live in the sweet community of Athens, Georgia (home to REM and the B52s), am married to a musician and writer, Alan Flurry, and have two awesome children, Ellis and Camille, and two furry family members that we also share a 100-year-old Craftsman bungalow. In addition, I co-founded Paper Cut Project with Nikki Nye, the best partner a girl could hope for, and we make paper wigs and masks for luxury fashion houses around the world. Some of our work has been featured in the Victoria & Albert Museum and in the windows of Hermes, Christie’s Auction, Red Valentino and Kate Spade.
So that’s my story, or at least how I came to authoring books on the subject of DIY PR and hauling them around the country to speak to curious designers. I like collaborating with like-minded entrepreneurs. One of these days I’ll dig up my top five articles I produced and wrote from past publications. I’m pretty sure there is a common thread to my work and approach that runs throughout!