Happy Anniversary TrizCom PR!
Opening the doors of TrizCom Public Relations 12 years ago looked a lot different from what they do today. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, but if anyone would have told me that I would resign from the Dallas Regional Chamber—a job that I absolutely loved—in the morning and find myself sitting around a board room table at Texans Credit Union as a consultant that same afternoon, I would have laughed.
Doing something like that seems outlandish. Walking away from a job takes a lot of courage, and every obstacle you could think of stood in my way to prevent my success: I had never worked in an agency, had never worked for a for-profit company, had no idea how to read a balance sheet, had only two months’ worth of savings and more.
Looking back, I might’ve been crazy for my decision, but when you have drive and you have passion, anything is possible. I never thought about what I didn’t have or what I couldn’t do. It was more important to focus my energy on moving forward and how I was going to succeed.
I had a computer, an email address (does anyone remember AOL?), a landline telephone, and as old as this might sound, a BlackBerry (don’t you miss them?).
The starting of TrizCom PR is proof that constraints actually make you more creative.
For example—and there are a lot of them—I literally took the door off my spare bedroom and placed it across two end tables for a desk, changed my landline answering machine message to my company voicemail, learned what a 1099 was, powered up my then 5-year-old laptop computer and turned it into a copy machine, and used my AOL address as my professional email.
A few other things: there was no business plan; we were in the heart of a recession, and I didn’t have a name for my company. There wasn’t a domain or a website yet, and heck, I wasn’t sure what the going rate for consultants was, but the rate I quoted seemed fair.
For many, this might not seem like much. For other entrepreneurs, I’m sure they can relate to that startup struggle. I had nothing but at the same time, I had everything, and that’s all you need to spread your wings and fly. Having one business who needed PR meant I was in business, and it was enough to kick-start me on a long, continuous journey.
Fast forward 12 years, and TrizCom Public Relations is still going strong.
Personally, during this time I became a mom to my daughter Kate 10 years ago, moved to the suburbs, transitioned from sporty coupe to a soccer mom SUV. There’ve been marriages, births of babies, grieved losses—TrizCom PR has collectively experienced these together. We’ve had three different office addresses, two websites, opened Pitch PR for press release distribution packages, experienced every type of media monitoring software imaginable, solidified our procedures and processes, changed our focus from being very media relations-focused to now using data and analytics to drive our decisions with paid, earned, shared and owned media.
We have worked with some amazing journalists on stories for Good Morning America, The Today Show, BBC One, Reader’s Digest, CNN, The Wall Street Journal, Reuters, The Washington Post, The Dallas Morning News, People magazine, the AP, and on and on.
Over 150 companies have put their trust in TrizCom PR to represent their brands ranging from B2B to B2C, for-profit and not-for-profit, legacy brands to startups both large and small. We’ve represented everything from well-known brands—Cadillac, General Motors, Taco Bueno, The Spaghetti Warehouse, Chevrolet, Heelys, NextEra Energy Services, Domino’s Pizza, Cooper Aerobics, Solis Mammography and Massage Envy—to middle market and niche companies—Dillon Gage, ActivePure Technology, True REST Float Spa, Grenadier Homes, Alliance Family of Companies, European Wax, The Goodway Group, Modern Acupuncture, Legacy ER & Urgent Care, KLV Capital, Billingsley Company, Banner Oak Capital Partners, Aidan Gray, Ancor Private Equity, Red Mountain Weight Loss, Little Greek Fresh Grill and Dallas Fan Expo.
There’ve been startups—SocialCentiv, NTEC, ezLocator, Accel Spine, Healthy Steps, billy GO, Sports Video Innovations (SVI) and Night Media.
And nonprofits—Operation Kindness, SCORE, Community Council, Heroes for Children, Taylor’s Gift, The Taste of Dallas, Workforce Solutions Greater Dallas and Artists for Animals.
We can’t forget municipalities like The City of Richardson, The City of Irving and The City of Forney.
Then there are all of our crisis communications partners. The issues we’ve worked on, well, you name it, we’ve probably handled it before. I used to say we are unflappable and that nothing surprises us anymore with the range of crisis cases we’ve worked on, but that was also before COVID-19. The pandemic has been eye-opening, to say the least.
And while this list is long, it certainly isn’t all-encompassing. It continues, but if anything, I hope it’s easy to recognize that 12 years has been exceptional, learning curves and all.
The average tenure of a PR partner is said to be between two to three years, and yet we have a group of partners who have far surpassed that average. It always leads me to ask myself why, but this kind of tenure isn’t all based on ROI and analytics.
I think it comes down to simple principle—we treat our partners like family. We have chosen our partners very carefully, making sure that we are a good fit and that it’s a relationship that works on both sides of the table. When we sign a new partner, we celebrate a birth. When we lose a partner, we grieve. We do good work: we’re strategic, we take data and blend it with media relations, and use that to shift our strategies and tactics to better benefit our partners; we’re listeners, advice givers, and experts who are still learning as we continue working. We strive to go above and beyond and always do the right thing. It may not always make the best business sense, but we all sleep well at night.
In the past 12 years we have won awards, donated agency hours for nonprofits, created some killer promotions and landed some awesome placements. But, as proud as I am of the work we have done for every single one of our partners, what makes me the proudest is the people that call, and those who have called, TrizCom PR home—it’s the culture we have created.
It would be easy to say that there was a magic formula or some type of magic pill that’s made all of this happen, but somehow, someway, we have collectively created an agency that is collaborative, innovative and proactive; an agency that is fun, cheerful and dedicated. Just look at a few of our agency’s values, carefully considered and built based on the understanding and belief that we should always do our best:
We are Steadfastly Committed :: We don’t have clients we have partners
We are Persistently Fearless :: We have the freedom to fail, pivot and try something else
We are Passionately Driven :: We are an extension of our partner’s brands
We have Disciplined Integrity :: Every single team member has permission to always do the right thing
We are Boldly Motivated :: We stay hungry for more and always show initiative
We are Deliberately Collaborative :: We know we are better when we leverage collective intellect
We are Creative Trailblazers :: We challenge the status quo and dream big
We are Trusted Counsel :: We communicate early, often and well
We are Change Makers :: We strive to make a difference every day
We are authentically Joyful :: We have fun while achieving results
The last one is one of my favorites.
At TrizCom PR, we’ve identified that we don’t want to be a cookie cutter, box-checking PR agency—we want to develop groundbreaking PR, and everything we do revolves around that. Together, we combine best practices and best thinking; we empower communications with bigger, bolder ideas to break through clutter, allowing us to achieve results for our partners.
And, more importantly, every single TrizCom PR team member loves what they do and, frankly, they are damn good at it. Line up our agency with any of the top 50 PR agencies in the nation, and we will give them a good run for their money.
After a lot of blood, sweat and tears, I really only have one thing I would do differently in these past 12 years: If I had to do it all again, I would not have included my name in the name of our company because it isn’t just me. It’s a combination of Ann, Karen, Tammy, Sue, Allison, Margot, Noel and Madison. It’s a combination of our former teammates who have left their marks as well—Stefanie, Jo, Jeff, Katie, Krista, Martin, Jennifer, Nicole, Jackie, Stephen, Susan, Kim, Amanda and oh so many more.
Simply put, we have made it 12 years because of the awesome team that we have. The admiration I have for every single TrizCom PR team member can’t be expressed with words.
So, with that, I say thank you from the very core of my being. Here’s to another 12 years!
Jo Trizila
President & CEO
972-247-1369
jo@trizcom.com
www.TrizCom.com
www.PitchPR.co
