Speaker 1: We're not living in memory lane. We are going forward.
Speaker 1: It's all about the next. It is only getting started, Martha.
Speaker 1: Running a successful business takes a lot, lots of concentration,
Speaker 1: lots of hard work, lots of sleepless nights, and lots
Speaker 1: of friends. You need great ideas, you need dedication, you
Speaker 1: need enthusiasm and a team you really trust. One person
Speaker 1: who has been on my team from the early days
Speaker 1: is Susan mcgreno. Susan and I began working together in
Speaker 1: the early eighties to promote my books. Susan started her
Speaker 1: own public relations agency, which is now known as Magrino PR.
Speaker 1: Thirty years later, the agency is considered one of the
Speaker 1: top PR firms in the country. Susan is even and
Speaker 1: called the Queen of public relations. Susan is vibrant, she
Speaker 1: is organized, she is thorough, she's well informed, she's inquisitive,
Speaker 1: and on top of it all, she is lots of
Speaker 1: fun and a very good friend. It's a pleasure to
Speaker 1: welcome the woman I call my business partner, travel companion,
Speaker 1: and most importantly, my dear friend to my podcast. Welcome Susan,
Speaker 1: Thank you, Martha, and we rarely sit down in affordable
Speaker 1: attitude like this to to talk about you, because you
Speaker 1: are always representing me, and I'm always feeling, oh wow,
Speaker 1: Susan is always promoting me. She's doing this, she's doing that.
Speaker 1: And now I get a chance to turn the tables
Speaker 1: and promote you, who I admire greatly for your business acumen,
Speaker 1: for your professionalism, for your authenticity, and nobody can talk
Speaker 1: as fast and as well and has such a good
Speaker 1: memory as Susan mcgreen. Now, you were very young when
Speaker 1: you started your career. Susan, where do you think that
Speaker 1: drive to start your own business came at such an
Speaker 1: early age? Well, Uh, I think that I grew up
Speaker 1: always knowing that I wanted to work. I mean, there
Speaker 1: was just no question about it. And I think that's
Speaker 1: what's so that's what has driven me for my entire career.
Speaker 1: I was also very fortunate to start at a time
Speaker 1: in New York City where I mean it's cliche, but
Speaker 1: the world was truly your oyster. And I also think
Speaker 1: at that point in your life, I mean backing up
Speaker 1: a moment, when I arrived in New York in the
Speaker 1: nineteen eighties, it was a terrific time and you know,
Speaker 1: Wall Street was raging. Um, you know, formality was in
Speaker 1: people would wear you know, ball gowns to park, have
Speaker 1: a new dinner Parties. You're Entertaining book, which was published
Speaker 1: in two really defined a lot of that kind of entertaining.
Speaker 1: That along with Glorious Food, those were the two books
Speaker 1: that I think really defined what New York was about,
Speaker 1: certainly in food and entertaining at that time. And I
Speaker 1: also think that you know, when when you went to
Speaker 1: work then there was just no question about where you
Speaker 1: were going, I mean, and it was only going to
Speaker 1: be up. It was never well I'll do this for
Speaker 1: a little while and maybe I'll do that. I mean,
Speaker 1: that never crossed my mind. Well, you grew up in
Speaker 1: Orange West, Oversation, New Jersey. I grew up in Nutley,
Speaker 1: New Jersey. So we're sort of like religious that way.
Speaker 1: But then you went away to college. You went to
Speaker 1: Skidmore College up in Saratoga's Bring. So what was your
Speaker 1: first job right out of college? My first job right
Speaker 1: out of college was a Tiffany and Company. It was um.
Speaker 1: I was in this special projects department up on one
Speaker 1: of those top floors there, and I didn't have any
Speaker 1: sales experience. What I truly wanted to do was go
Speaker 1: and work for a magazine, and even though I was
Speaker 1: an English major at that moment, I just could not
Speaker 1: get a job in a magazine. So I read the
Speaker 1: New York Times Classifies, as we all did, and I
Speaker 1: saw an ad for Tiffany and Company. And I remember
Speaker 1: I said to my father, you know, what do you
Speaker 1: think of that? And he said, you can't go wrong
Speaker 1: at Tiffany. So off I went to Tiffany and Company.
Speaker 1: And those were in the days when I was still
Speaker 1: owned by Walter hoving Um and run by him. And
Speaker 1: I was in this department that made the Super Bowl
Speaker 1: and corporate gifts, and it was very interesting to see silver,
Speaker 1: which I had always loved, and how those types of
Speaker 1: things were made. I worked there probably for about I
Speaker 1: don't know, maybe a year, maybe under a year. They
Speaker 1: used to have these great sample sales. I remember I
Speaker 1: still have an obelisk and some wonderful elsa pretty yellow
Speaker 1: ceramic bowls, which I treasured to this day. And I
Speaker 1: met someone who knew someone in book publishing. And that's
Speaker 1: really when my career truly began. Because in college you
Speaker 1: studied history and uh and you'd like to read, Yes,
Speaker 1: it's it's been obvious throughout your career and your work
Speaker 1: with me that reading is very, very important. Which I
Speaker 1: think was was engendered, was that in your family were
Speaker 1: you all readers? I think my parents absolutely, they were intellectuals.
Speaker 1: They met at Oxford in a summer program. My mother
Speaker 1: has a PhD um Henry James, He's Henry James scholar.
Speaker 1: My father was an attorney. So I think that the
Speaker 1: written word. We always had a summer reading list, We
Speaker 1: always had a job chart. You know that everybody you
Speaker 1: know again, Martha, I think we share that commonality in
Speaker 1: um the way we were raised, and I don't think
Speaker 1: people remember everybody was raised in a very very similar
Speaker 1: fashion for a very long time and raised to realize
Speaker 1: the value of good work and of success and uh
Speaker 1: of monetary success. Also we worked, We worked for for money,
Speaker 1: and we worked for a career. And nowadays it's just
Speaker 1: like a little more haphazard than that. I think you
Speaker 1: were in publishing, So what did you do which company?
Speaker 1: So I began at Crown Publishing and my boss was
Speaker 1: Nancy Kahan, and at that time Crown had the best
Speaker 1: publicity department in book publishing. UM. We published coffee table books,
Speaker 1: lifestyle books, Judas Krantz's books, Gene Owl's books, and then
Speaker 1: there was our wonderful imprint Clarkson Potter, where your books
Speaker 1: were published. That's a very very famous at correct and
Speaker 1: are still published. Um that is forty years later, Yes,
Speaker 1: that they're still being published by Clarkson Potter, which is
Speaker 1: quite extraordinary. How would you describe the business environment at
Speaker 1: that time in terms of publishing. Oh, it was lively,
Speaker 1: it was exciting. It was the making of best sellers.
Speaker 1: It was the making of uh, you know John Grisham
Speaker 1: and Deepak Chopra and you know the Silver Palette, Martha Stewart,
Speaker 1: Lee Balley, Dominic Dunne. It was just wonderful. And I
Speaker 1: think what was so terrific for me in the environment
Speaker 1: at Crown was, um, they believed in publicity and we
Speaker 1: believed in book tours. I mean, we've had so many
Speaker 1: wonderful trips Martha and and I did with others where
Speaker 1: you know, you you'd go out for two weeks. Um.
Speaker 1: I I think the only people that do that now
Speaker 1: are probably you know, rock and roll bands. But in
Speaker 1: those days, we went into every city, we had a
Speaker 1: book signing, we did all of the media, we had
Speaker 1: amazing food, and there were people in each city that
Speaker 1: dealt with the visiting authors and their publicists, and they
Speaker 1: took such good care of us. I mean it was
Speaker 1: really a real fantastic time. And every store wanted you.
Speaker 1: And so if I wrote a book about entertaining, they
Speaker 1: would want me at Bloomingdale's, they'd want me at Sacks,
Speaker 1: they'd want me at Bergdorf Goodman, they'd want me everywhere. Well,
Speaker 1: I think what you just said is the definition of
Speaker 1: why you really began in lifestyle, because before that people
Speaker 1: were really just going to bookstores, which was fine. But
Speaker 1: then I remember b Altman, you know, I remember Bloomingdale's.
Speaker 1: I remember all of these wonderful stores. And then it
Speaker 1: became Sir La Talba, and you know, it was cooking stores,
Speaker 1: it was gardening stores, it was fashion. Um when I
Speaker 1: think of all the book signings that you've done, and
Speaker 1: then you know, home Depot and very very interesting to
Speaker 1: look back and think about that. Now, Well, we just
Speaker 1: began working in three so that is almost forty years ago,
Speaker 1: even though we did meet, I think a little bit
Speaker 1: before that, because did you come to the first entertaining party.
Speaker 1: I did not. I started on Quick cook menus, and
Speaker 1: I gave you a very famous photo album which we
Speaker 1: have here, where I recounted the history and meeting you
Speaker 1: and all of the wonderful UM early parts of the
Speaker 1: relationship in terms of press, Cliff, but you really got
Speaker 1: to know your clients. You really, you really paid attention
Speaker 1: to what we were doing on these trips. We we
Speaker 1: every meal together. We uh, we drove in the same
Speaker 1: card together. We talked about what we were going to
Speaker 1: wear together, and it was really kind of fun and
Speaker 1: we it was like traveling with the UM I was
Speaker 1: traveling with you was like traveling with my little sister
Speaker 1: and uh. And yet we got a lot done. And
Speaker 1: you were so organized from day one. You had your
Speaker 1: list of what had to be accomplished and you made
Speaker 1: sure you accomplish it. And that work ethic still exists.
Speaker 1: I mean, you are incredibly organized. And I think your staff,
Speaker 1: how big is your staff? Now? You started she started,
Speaker 1: Susan started her own business in which year with how
Speaker 1: many people? It really was me in the beginning, and
Speaker 1: then Alan, my sister, who was the president of the agency,
Speaker 1: was still working at her other job, but you know,
Speaker 1: starting to help a bit, and then obviously became full time.
Speaker 1: But I remember those early days. Martha. You named the agency.
Speaker 1: I said what should I call it? You said, use
Speaker 1: your name. You took me to meet with investors. We
Speaker 1: sat in mort Zuckerman's office. The best thing that you
Speaker 1: have done for me and for everybody around you was encouragement.
Speaker 1: You came and you started here, and you went up
Speaker 1: there if you were talented and if you showed real interests,
Speaker 1: and so many young people showed real interests. And I
Speaker 1: and I like the like mindedness of of a group
Speaker 1: of people working together that that really care about promotion,
Speaker 1: they care about real product, they care about all of that.
Speaker 1: And you saw that right away, you really did, and
Speaker 1: not just in books, but you started to started to
Speaker 1: represent me as soon as you started your own company. Yes,
Speaker 1: you started to represent every everything I did, which I
Speaker 1: thought was I was like, was I one of your
Speaker 1: very first Yes? You are client one A to this day,
Speaker 1: our longest client. And who else? Who else have you
Speaker 1: represented over the years? Well, um, the first clients of
Speaker 1: the Susan mcreno Agency, Martha Stewart, Crown Publishing, and I
Speaker 1: always maintained a very very good relationship with them, and
Speaker 1: not to continue working with writers such as Dominic Dunn,
Speaker 1: Lee Bailey, Mark Laner, tama Janoits for many many years.
Speaker 1: Frederick Phakai who you introduced me to when he was
Speaker 1: at Yes, and you did so much good work with him,
Speaker 1: wonderful good work. And we're still all friends, yes. Um.
Speaker 1: And what about Chris Blackwell. Chris blackwelland Island Records where
Speaker 1: he was beginning to get into the hotel business in
Speaker 1: Miami Beach as well as in Jamaica, his home country.
Speaker 1: And I learned so much about hospitality is our largest
Speaker 1: division today And to think back that it only began
Speaker 1: on Island Outpost and UH a hotel in Miami Beach,
Speaker 1: the Marlin, which we quickly got on the cover of
Speaker 1: UH condeas Traveler. So that was remember we used to
Speaker 1: stay there at that hotel. We stayed there, love that
Speaker 1: hotel that was South Beach right in the beginning, which
Speaker 1: was great to be part of that Harper's bizarre What
Speaker 1: you did early on was you realized that, UM, your
Speaker 1: friends could be your clients. Your clients could also introduce
Speaker 1: you to other clients really rapidly. Uh. Those other clients
Speaker 1: UH embraced the work you did and introduced you to
Speaker 1: other aspects of their companies. Even I mean, you grew
Speaker 1: your business really rapidly. I think, is it people that
Speaker 1: attract you or is it the product? Is it the
Speaker 1: the you do beverages, now, you do travel, you do publishing,
Speaker 1: you do fashion, You've done an awful lot of different categories.
Speaker 1: I think those are my interests. And I think really
Speaker 1: our client roster grew out of you know, much of
Speaker 1: it had to do I had a liberal arts education
Speaker 1: and then getting into book publishing where we published things,
Speaker 1: you know, from cooking to novels, two books on everything,
Speaker 1: and I think that developed an expertise. Um. But I
Speaker 1: love the people. Um, I'm interested in everything. You know,
Speaker 1: if I go to the supermarket, it's interesting to go
Speaker 1: in and get things that you might not have come
Speaker 1: in for, or or a department store or whatever it is,
Speaker 1: and to think about that. So I think that that
Speaker 1: curiosity is what has really really shaped it. I've been
Speaker 1: very fortunate to have wonderful clients and friends and people
Speaker 1: who have introduced me, and people who have trusted us
Speaker 1: and allowed us to go into different aspects of their business.
Speaker 1: And and you know, I might add it, you don't
Speaker 1: do it alone. Uh, you know, as the business grew
Speaker 1: over the years, I've had amazing people that we have
Speaker 1: worked with, and certainly my sister Alan mcgreeno UM and
Speaker 1: others that I remained friendly with until this day. And
Speaker 1: we've also spawned other agencies, people who have gone out
Speaker 1: and started um their own practices. So I'm very proud
Speaker 1: of that. I think I remember a couple of years ago, um,
Speaker 1: you know, when when Google hired somebody away from us,
Speaker 1: I took that as a great compliment, and I feel
Speaker 1: that that's even more gratifying to me now to watch
Speaker 1: people go off and do things, um, as gratifying as
Speaker 1: it is to watch what our clients can do. Susan,
Speaker 1: let's get inter some of your very fabulous hobbies. Because Susan,
Speaker 1: did you start collecting stuff or fashion first? Which was
Speaker 1: your first? I think that, you know, all of the
Speaker 1: tag sailing and things like that really did start with you. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, the fire King and and things like that. UM.
Speaker 1: I've always loved clothing. My mother was always dressed, is
Speaker 1: always dressed, UM. And I remember having her original Calvin
Speaker 1: kleines and you know I would dress up in high school,
Speaker 1: not not you know too much, but then when I
Speaker 1: came to New York. Remember it was the nineteen eighties.
Speaker 1: I remember being on a book tour with you with
Speaker 1: a red suit with shoulder pads and gold buttons and
Speaker 1: a belt and a skirt. So I always really really
Speaker 1: enjoyed clothing. And I think because I was single for
Speaker 1: a long time and I was always working and dressed up,
Speaker 1: I really developed an interest and had the time to
Speaker 1: go shopping. So I think, I mean, I was looking
Speaker 1: at my closet the other day, you know, I'm I've
Speaker 1: been fortunate because I really I bought at a very
Speaker 1: good time. I've kept everything. I really enjoy it. I
Speaker 1: really believe in being dressed up. I know things have
Speaker 1: become much more casual, but I I have fun with it.
Speaker 1: And um and you can watch and you can walk
Speaker 1: Susan on a regular basis on her Instagram emerging from
Speaker 1: the door, beautiful photographs of Susan with identifiable clothing, everything
Speaker 1: from the shoes to the bags, to the jewelry to
Speaker 1: the dress to the pants, everything identified on the Instagram picture.
Speaker 1: And you you've sort of built a really interesting following
Speaker 1: on that because people don't do that normally, and it's
Speaker 1: really very, very interesting so and that you remember everything
Speaker 1: to do you have everything cataloged. I try to have
Speaker 1: clothing in the sections of designer. I really do think
Speaker 1: by designer, the jewelry, I'll have a dower of, you know,
Speaker 1: the gold costume necklaces, UM, I have rings, you know,
Speaker 1: I mean, but it's catalog for me in my mind.
Speaker 1: I think the hard thing is when you move around
Speaker 1: and you really you really have to keep track of things.
Speaker 1: But I I you know, what I'm noticing is people
Speaker 1: love going out. Oh boy, do they love those pictures.
Speaker 1: They love black tie. UM, one of my favorite occasions
Speaker 1: as well. And I do have a lot of that,
Speaker 1: the going to work outfits. As long as they're colorful.
Speaker 1: They really like them, the more muted tones, unless it's
Speaker 1: lighter colors. But it's so interesting to see what people
Speaker 1: gravitate towards and they really like the pictures even more
Speaker 1: than the text. And I do remember where everything came from.
Speaker 1: Every now that I find something and I'm like, where
Speaker 1: did I get that? That's unusual for me because I
Speaker 1: really do know it, and you know, it has haunts
Speaker 1: here and there and every yes, and she sometimes shares
Speaker 1: them and not Oh, I will tell you. I'm hoping
Speaker 1: there are some estates sales when I leave here that
Speaker 1: I can find. So fashion is one thing, and handbags
Speaker 1: is another thing. You have wonderful, wonderful pocket books, Yes,
Speaker 1: pocket books. You also what impresses me too is your office.
Speaker 1: I I haven't really mentioned that to you very much,
Speaker 1: but the last time I was at your office, it
Speaker 1: was really a pleas and experience because you have consistently
Speaker 1: upgraded and upgraded your office to make it a more
Speaker 1: pleasant workplace for for your employees. And you have long
Speaker 1: banquhetts in the long hallway where people sit uh with
Speaker 1: a table in front of them, or they can just
Speaker 1: sit there and be casual, not at a desk. You
Speaker 1: have lots of artwork everywhere, and Susan has collected vintage photographs,
Speaker 1: beautiful little vintage paintings. Um, it's not, it's not you're
Speaker 1: not collecting rothcoes, but you're collecting period art. That's so
Speaker 1: interesting that really, um shows your collecting ability. Thank you.
Speaker 1: I I really enjoy that, and I it's very nice
Speaker 1: to have a place to put all of these things.
Speaker 1: The kitchen has some wonderful large, large floral, colorful portraits
Speaker 1: cent are all out of Fairfield County in the seventies
Speaker 1: where somebody was probably picking up a paintbrush for the
Speaker 1: first time that I got at our St. Mark's Church
Speaker 1: in New Canaan at their fab list Mayfair. I have
Speaker 1: lots and lots of Rodman Pell, who is a painter.
Speaker 1: Was he was part of the Pell family from Rhode
Speaker 1: Island and Pell's Fish Market in Greenport, and he does
Speaker 1: lots and lots of sort of primitive kind of Grandma
Speaker 1: moses like landscapes. UM. Some of them were in the snow.
Speaker 1: Some of them remind me of Philip Gustin as well.
Speaker 1: I have UM lots of photographs of the Bert Stern
Speaker 1: of um you know, Brigitte Bardot and um, Katherine Deneuve
Speaker 1: And did you buy those at auction or do you
Speaker 1: buy those online? Now? I most of my purchases are
Speaker 1: really I I've seen them myself or I met someone.
Speaker 1: I met somebody that had worked with Bert Stern, so
Speaker 1: I bought it quite a few pieces from her. But
Speaker 1: the other pieces I just found two fabulous Vasarelli's um
Speaker 1: at an estate sale in Long Island last summer. UM,
Speaker 1: I've found the original paintings the Vasarelli prints, so they're
Speaker 1: they're part of a series, and then um, you know,
Speaker 1: I have to like it and connect with it. You've
Speaker 1: been to my home in Long Island, which is entirely
Speaker 1: um paintings from that the Peconic Bay painters, and then
Speaker 1: I found a whole lot of paintings that my mother
Speaker 1: had done when my parents bought our house an orient
Speaker 1: the sixties. So I saw those when you visited us
Speaker 1: this summer. And what makes me really happy about Susan
Speaker 1: is that she's also not only collecting fashion and art
Speaker 1: and vintage, but she's also becoming a gardener. And I
Speaker 1: really I get I get very excited when you called
Speaker 1: me up to ask me about a specific kind of
Speaker 1: lily that you should plant, or a hydrangea, and uh
Speaker 1: and so um. So you have you haven't stopped really
Speaker 1: growing your your interests at all. And that's a very
Speaker 1: admirable trait too, especially during COVID, when when so many
Speaker 1: people sort of just sat back and didn't do too much.
Speaker 1: You kept going, going, going, and building the brands that
Speaker 1: you represent. I wanted to talk a little bit about
Speaker 1: the brands that you have really had a huge impact on.
Speaker 1: Other than Martha Stewart. You've also developed and helped build
Speaker 1: the Chateau on de Clan and Whispering Angel Rose. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's so fantastic. Whispering Angel was a little known brand.
Speaker 1: It is now the mega brand and Rose absolutely and
Speaker 1: I think that that has so much to do again
Speaker 1: with the founder, Sasha La Sheen, And I was introduced
Speaker 1: to him. I had met Paul Chevalier at a James
Speaker 1: Beard event, which was also a client of ours, and
Speaker 1: you know, then I met Sasha and he was so
Speaker 1: much fun and so interested, and I think what was
Speaker 1: wonderful about him. He's uh French, but he was raised
Speaker 1: in New York in the nineteen eighties, so he understood
Speaker 1: the American market, which is really really where the growth
Speaker 1: was for that brand and continues to be, but but
Speaker 1: also globally, and I think that makes a big, big difference.
Speaker 1: What I love about my business with people that are
Speaker 1: a lot of fun, and I think that's what people
Speaker 1: need to remember. I mean, you can run a business,
Speaker 1: you can also have fun. When we launched the Michelin Guide,
Speaker 1: I mean that was an amazing experience. It was remember
Speaker 1: remember that in New York. I mean it was just
Speaker 1: huge and and the the the expert of it, in
Speaker 1: the secrecy of it, in the announcement. Um, you know
Speaker 1: alone ducass and Gordon Ramsey and working with Liz Tilbaris
Speaker 1: back when Harper's Bazaar was relaunched was just so much
Speaker 1: fun and so interesting about fashion and meeting so many
Speaker 1: interesting people and Frederick through Beauty and Laura Mercy a
Speaker 1: and um, you know hotels and uh you represent the
Speaker 1: function in Miami Beach, a huge hotel. You have really
Speaker 1: really helped that brand grow and grow over the years,
Speaker 1: and you're so diligent at it. Susan does not go
Speaker 1: to Miami unless she stays at the phone, right. Absolutely.
Speaker 1: We're working now with Omni, the brand of Omni and
Speaker 1: many many of their other locations as well as restaurants.
Speaker 1: We've also got a brand called main Street Hospitality, which
Speaker 1: includes the Red Lion in in Massachusetts, and then they
Speaker 1: have one of my old hangouts. So it's great and
Speaker 1: I think that's also what's interesting about our agency is
Speaker 1: that we have the ability to do large scale brands
Speaker 1: and projects as well and clients as well as some
Speaker 1: of the smaller ones. And I think that's you know,
Speaker 1: we love Scout Bags a brand that was based in Washington,
Speaker 1: d C. That UM we're having lots of fun with
Speaker 1: and starting to get into some more customization there. UM
Speaker 1: the Kip Space show houses, which were in New York
Speaker 1: for many years and have expanded to Palm Beach as
Speaker 1: well as Dallas. And also some very very well known
Speaker 1: and very important charities that you work on. What are
Speaker 1: the New York Public Library which has the Library Alliance
Speaker 1: Alzheimer's Literacy Partners, and you've been such a good advocate
Speaker 1: for Literacy Partners. I've going to lots of the readings
Speaker 1: where they bring in students, uh in their teens, who
Speaker 1: learned how to read as a result of the good
Speaker 1: work that Literacy Partners does. But all that work is
Speaker 1: really great, Susan, and I'm very proud that you do
Speaker 1: that work. And I'm also on the advisory board of
Speaker 1: Philip Johnson's Glass House in New Canaan, which I really
Speaker 1: enjoy ie. One of the real treats and pleasures, as
Speaker 1: you know, with your board work and support UM, is
Speaker 1: being able to go over there on a Sunday in
Speaker 1: the height of our beautiful foliage and walk through the
Speaker 1: house and all of the buildings and the property and
Speaker 1: it was really really special and that those are the
Speaker 1: you know, pinch yourself moments of how great it is.
Speaker 1: So this year two is sort of a wordershed year
Speaker 1: for lot of businesses. Your business is going to be
Speaker 1: It is three years one. My magazine celebrated its thirtieth birthday.
Speaker 1: It's a funny year and and yet we are We're
Speaker 1: getting more excited about the future, which is so nice
Speaker 1: to feel. What are the three biggest things that you've
Speaker 1: learned in thirty years in public relations? And how has
Speaker 1: PR changed? I like to say how it hasn't changed.
Speaker 1: It's interesting. I'm in the process of writing an essay
Speaker 1: for one of our industry magazines about this um. It
Speaker 1: has certainly changed an enormous amount. And if you have
Speaker 1: an embraced digital work and all of the things that
Speaker 1: you can do to reach people now, you won't be
Speaker 1: a business. You just can't. I remember a few years
Speaker 1: ago when people will say, well, I didn't know I
Speaker 1: don't do email, or I I don't have a phone.
Speaker 1: I mean, can you imagine? Well, I mean that's just
Speaker 1: silly to say something like that. I mean, you better
Speaker 1: be a master of TikTok and reels and and then
Speaker 1: all of the other um, you know, new newer forms
Speaker 1: of communication. So I think that's that's part of every
Speaker 1: single plan that we do, and in some cases it's
Speaker 1: all that we do UM because so much has changed
Speaker 1: in print and the traditional ways of communicating. We do
Speaker 1: have some clients and plans that are you know, three
Speaker 1: quarters or you know a hundred percent about entirely digital. UM.
Speaker 1: There are clients that absolutely need the bespoke hand touch
Speaker 1: that we've always done, and I personally believe that part
Speaker 1: of it will never go away. I think how people
Speaker 1: behave is hugely important. UM. I think nuance in the
Speaker 1: way you can read people can really tell you a
Speaker 1: lot about how people can connect to something, to a brand,
Speaker 1: and I think that piece is something that we're very
Speaker 1: good at and that nobody could ever discount. You have
Speaker 1: to still be even in these times where I think
Speaker 1: people may have become more cautious, you must still be
Speaker 1: willing to take a risk, but you also have to know.
Speaker 1: I think that is what affords all of us who
Speaker 1: have been uh perfecting their crafts for many many years.
Speaker 1: There are certain things that you just know what the
Speaker 1: outcome will be and you're smiling Martha and I'm smiling,
Speaker 1: and we know we're right about that, and you have to,
Speaker 1: you know, make those the right decisions on that. And
Speaker 1: they're they're about business, they're about people. They're not always
Speaker 1: about news, but they're often about news. I think one
Speaker 1: thing I'm I'm pretty good at is understanding a news
Speaker 1: cycle and knowing when something is absolutely going to blow up.
Speaker 1: I'm still amazed at how I guess I have a
Speaker 1: very good antenna for that. Where some people I'm like,
Speaker 1: are you kidding me? You have got to shut that
Speaker 1: down over there in order to do this over here
Speaker 1: or um. You know, And I think there are times
Speaker 1: where you you have to sit back and wait and
Speaker 1: be patient. So how would you describe the team that
Speaker 1: you have working with you now at the company with
Speaker 1: the team that you had when, let's say, in the
Speaker 1: first five years. And I think it's drastically different. Yes,
Speaker 1: I think a lot of that has to do with
Speaker 1: the business, the industry changing. I think that the commonality
Speaker 1: is the commitment. One of my favorite things is to
Speaker 1: go back and look at UM. You remember Michael Donough
Speaker 1: and Alan and um in the early days, everybody had
Speaker 1: to do a memo for me of what they did
Speaker 1: that day. And these are delicious to read and amazing
Speaker 1: to keep them. Oh you bat, I'm the daughter of
Speaker 1: an attorney. I don't get rid of anything. And every
Speaker 1: now and then I'll pull them out and I'll write
Speaker 1: to Michael, I'll call Alan into my office. We're all
Speaker 1: go into her office and we just look at each
Speaker 1: other and say, can you believe this? Can you believe
Speaker 1: how deeply indebted we were? And and we actually had
Speaker 1: the time to write everything down. But we weren't dealing
Speaker 1: with computers all day. We were talking to each other
Speaker 1: and the phone shet, You weren't doing social media and
Speaker 1: looking at reels and looking at TikTok. But you're on
Speaker 1: the phone. And I look at my phone sheet often
Speaker 1: five six pages long calls a sheet. Can you imagine that?
Speaker 1: And cell phones were just getting started. But so I
Speaker 1: think that it really is about UM. You know, we
Speaker 1: have a larger senior team now obviously the agency is
Speaker 1: bigger UM, and I think we have more of a
Speaker 1: variety of expertise where you've got people, you know, you know,
Speaker 1: we have people that are expert in food expert and
Speaker 1: wine expert and travel expert in digital but everybody's got
Speaker 1: to be expert and digital. UM that that's not an
Speaker 1: option anymore. You don't separate that, so it's integrated. What
Speaker 1: top piece of advice would you give to an aspiring
Speaker 1: entrepreneurial person today, because those are the kinds of peop
Speaker 1: I think gravitate towards your kind of company. What's the advice?
Speaker 1: I think you have to always be willing to work hard.
Speaker 1: I mean I think back of probably the first year
Speaker 1: or so, really three hours a night of sleep, you know,
Speaker 1: going through every single media list myself and really knowing
Speaker 1: everything I was doing. That's hard to do and it's
Speaker 1: impossible to scale and you will burn out if you
Speaker 1: do that because there's too much to be on top
Speaker 1: of now. I think that the hard work piece is
Speaker 1: what remains. UM. You have to have trust in other people. UM.
Speaker 1: You have to be able to rely on other people
Speaker 1: to help you. So I think you have to find
Speaker 1: people to work with it, have that you share the
Speaker 1: common vision UM and the work ethic. I think, UM,
Speaker 1: you know, you have to be willing to to be patient.
Speaker 1: I know I'm going back to some of the same things,
Speaker 1: but I meet people and sometimes we'll have people call
Speaker 1: us and I think you don't need PR. You know,
Speaker 1: you need a CFO, you need some product, or you
Speaker 1: need a better idea. I'm always amazed, and maybe it's
Speaker 1: great for my industry for everybody to think, oh yeah,
Speaker 1: now we need good PR. But in fact you need
Speaker 1: to take a step back and realize, well, you know, what,
Speaker 1: what are you doing? Why should I care? And where
Speaker 1: are you going to go with it? And I think
Speaker 1: also when you have a great idea, and you know
Speaker 1: this because you've worked a lot of entrepreneurs, they have
Speaker 1: to know when they have to bring the right people in.
Speaker 1: And we've certainly seen that with a lot of these
Speaker 1: tech founders and and I p o s and specks
Speaker 1: that were just incredible that you know, they imploded because
Speaker 1: they just there was no management team. There was nobody
Speaker 1: to do what they didn't know how to do. Yes,
Speaker 1: those CEOs and those CFOs a few of them, and
Speaker 1: you and I are still here, Martha indeed. Well to
Speaker 1: learn more about Susan mcgreeno Magreno PR agency, visit the
Speaker 1: website for her agency Mcgreno pr dot com and to
Speaker 1: see the wonderful clothing and to keep up with all
Speaker 1: that she does. Follow her on Instagram at Susan mcgreno seven. Susan,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for coming by and wearing the
Speaker 1: shirt that I gave to you because we went shopping
Speaker 1: one day and we all fell in love with this
Speaker 1: same shirt. And Terry Blair also um when she comes
Speaker 1: on the podcast, I'm going to ask her to wear
Speaker 1: hers too, and Alex, we're gonna have to take a
Speaker 1: photograph of our of us with this beautiful denim with
Speaker 1: the big boat and shoulder paties. I love. It's a
Speaker 1: lot of fun to talk to you, a lot of
Speaker 1: fun to go down memory lane. But what's really great
Speaker 1: about Susan mcgreeno and I think about Martha Stewart, is
Speaker 1: that we're not living in memory lane. We are going forward.
Speaker 1: It's all about the next We're only getting started, Martha,
Speaker 1: only getting started. Thank you and thank you for everything
Speaker 1: that you have done for me. And have a very
Speaker 1: nice Thanksgiving. Thank you, Happy Thanksgiving.