Local women now run California PR firm
A trio from Ohio help companies go from surviving to thriving during pandemic.
How do three Ohio women, hailing from different towns and backgrounds, end up together in Los Angeles at the helm of a successful PR firm?
Sarah Parsons of Dayton met Jenny Beres, a Cleveland native, and the friends decided to move to L.A. together in 2013. Beres was interested in pursuing screenwriting and Parsons, having majored in theater performance in college, wanted to pursue acting. Beres' friend Alex Grizinski of Springboro also wanted to move to L.A. to pursue acting.
“I was doing influencer marketing and copywriting at first,” Beres said. “I had been dabbling as a playwriter before moving from Ohio and a few people I met in the industry thought I would do well in L.A.”
With her own business already established, Beres moved with hopes of building her writing career while Grizinski and Parsons knew they wanted to move after taking a vacation to California together. Grizinski has a college background in chemical engineering.
“I was the engineering student wearing cat ears to class,” Grizinski said. “I planned on starting a makeup company in Ohio, but my interest in acting and writing pushed me to L.A.”
In the end, the three friends decided to join together and create their own public relations agency — Pink Shark PR — with the idea that it would be unique and offer clients something different from other agencies out there.
“Jenny is one of those Mark Zuckerberg-type college dropouts,” jokes Grizinski, comparing her friend to the founder of the Facebook social media platform.
Beres, now president of Pink
Shark PR, had plans of building a social media company, but she found she enjoyed coaching and helping people. She mentioned her idea for the agency to her friends “on a whim.”
“I have no idea how we ended up here really,” Beres said. “It has all been such an evolution and sometimes we look at each other and realize we have clients that do such cool things, and we can't believe it!”
With a staff of 14, the Pink Shark founders have risen quickly, garnering placements for their clients in big-name media outlets like “PopSugar,” “Business Insider,” “The New York Times,” “CookingLight” and “Today.”
Grizinski, who serves as CEO of the company, said the Pink Shark name came to her when she spotted a man with a shirt that had a pink shark on it.
“The name fits us perfectly,” Beres said. “We are different and edgy.”
Though the business began in 2015, the trio didn't refer to their business as “Pink Shark PR” until 2019.
“We were getting referrals from the coaching business,” Parsons, who is COO of Pink Shark PR, said. “Then we got five clients out of the gate from those referrals and the PR work has replaced the coaching completely.”
The Pink Sharks are now working with Silicon Valley startup companies, new and established authors and many more companies, large and small.
“We have a diverse team working for us and we are proud to have kept them employed this year,” Beres said. “With our team all over the country, we became even more remote-friendly this year because of the pandemic.”
Beres, Parsons and Grizinski worked hard to keep their company growing in 2020 and they ended up hiring additional staff to help them keep up with the workload.
“People have been looking to us to navigate what has turned out to be a very difficult time for businesses,” Parsons said. “Companies need help discovering how the go from surviving to thriving.”
While many companies of all sizes continue to struggle, Grizinski said that the smaller startup companies are continuing to grow during this time.
“We are seeing the downfall of the big company and the rise of small businesses,” Grizinski said. “They are popping up everywhere and I think it's easier for them to be successful right now because everything, from finances to staff, is more manageable.”
“What we have found is that COVID opened up conversations and gave us all a platform,” Beres said. “People who are getting the most amazing press coverage are the ones who are addressing COVID and have wonderful things to say about what they are doing now.”
The trio agrees that overall, 2020 has been a year of resiliency and stories of positive change have inspired others to innovate and transform themselves.
“Boredom is sometimes a catalyst for change,” Grizinski said. “There will be all kinds of new ideas coming out of this time. The next few years for us will involve more creative work, helping authors launch their books, grow podcasts and to be more expansive and of course, grow.”
For more information, visit PinkSharkPR.com.