As the founder of 319 Public Relations, God-is Rivera provides event production, brand and image development and design, event planning and strategic marketing plans. 319 PR often selects cause-based projects, such as the 2011 Riverside Theater’s Legacy to Promise Gala and the Great Women in Music Festival. As a journalist, Rivera is a contibutor to outlets such as Don Diva magazine and the Atlanta Post. Rivera spoke with rolling out about overcoming business obstacles and how she maintains integrity as both a publicist and journalist. –souleo
What advice would you give to an entrepreneur who is just getting started?
You cannot be deterred by setbacks. When I first started my PR company, I had everything all set up and then had to change the name of my company due to a conflict with an existing similar business. It was a tough blow and I had to go through setting up everything all over again with a new company name; business cards, website, everything. It was hard, but I didn’t give up and went on to build the company I always knew I would own.
What tools or resources do you rely on for making major publicity and marketing campaign decisions?
I rely mostly on my instincts and intuition to make decisions regarding client campaigns. PR is very much about building relationships and knowing which relationships will mesh well with others. When working on a PR campaign, it’s important to be clear about what the exact goals are of the client, so that you can make the best decision for the overall goal of the campaign.
How do you balance the potential conflict of interest that can arise from being a publicist and a journalist?
As a journalist I get an insight as to what types of articles and press releases different publications may be interested in. It is also another way to build relationships with editors and other writers and reporters; all of which is helpful when I have my PR hat on and I am pitching clients. The best way to not cause a conflict of interest is to just be honest with editors and also be clear about tasks at hand when I am a journalist or a PR practitioner.
