After a decade of being othered, here’s why this publicist started an agency for ‘misfits’

By Kimeko McCoy

Since this time last year, Portland and Los Angeles-based public relations agency Rebellious has managed to double its client list. The agency is queer, women-led with a diverse staff: Rebellious is small, but mighty and is made up of 10 LGBTQIA+-identifying staff members — five staffers who identify as Black, four who identify as Latinx and one who identifies as multiracial, according to an agency spokesperson.

After a year of protests pushed the marketing and advertising industry to commit to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, Rebellious PR founder and CEO Evie Smith Hatmaker suspects her company’s uptick in business could have stemmed from business owners looking to put their money where their mouth is and work with more diverse agencies. Clients include health and wellness fertility brand MyVitro, CBD brand Canapa, Partake Brewing and others, according to the agency’s website.

Smith Hatmaker founded the agency five years ago after feeling othered as a queer woman working in Silicon Valley. Since then, the agency has grown to include social media and influencer marketing services, as well a pro-bono program for Black and brown businesses. Digiday caught up with Smith Hatmaker to talk about intersectionality in DE&I, diversity (or the lack thereof) in public relations and how the industry should be thinking about change.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

You say Rebellious PR is the most diverse agency in Portland, Oregon. What does that mean? And what pushed you to found it?

I came out of Silicon Valley, where I had worked for about 10 years. I’m gay and I frequently felt really othered in most rooms that I was in. Not so much with clients, but definitely with the agencies I was at. I was the token gay person. I’d have really awkward conversations with co-workers, where they’d tell me about a second cousin removed who was gay and that was the only time they’d ever talk to me. It was really a big driver for me to initially want to leave PR altogether.

It sort of just turned into the opportunity to start [freelance] working for myself for the first time ever. Within the first year, [work] is booming. My little freelance projects, experiments before I get my next real job, is all of a sudden an agency. Five years later, we’re a million dollar business and have almost 20 full time employees.

It wasn’t like I want to work with a bunch of queer people because that’s my community. It was like I want to work with everybody who has ever felt othered at other PR agencies. We describe ourselves as a band of misfits. But we’re kind of the secret sauce for most of our clients. The reason they’re out there in the world is because they’ve got people from all different backgrounds and ages and geographies and races and sexual orientation, telling their stories in this way that is relatable to everybody.

We can make donations. We can make pledges. But really being able to offer an organization …read more

Source:: Digiday