[Top Agency Series] Building a PR Powerhouse With Carol Levine of energi PR

Carol Levine is the CEO and Co-founder of energi PR, a Canadian public relations and marketing communications company with a nearly 35-year history. An APR, Fellow of the Canadian Public Relations Society, and Past Chair of the Canadian Council of Public Relations Firms, Carol was the first PR professional inducted into the Canadian Healthcare Marketing Hall of Fame. Her extensive experience spans a range of consumer, wellness, and pharmaceutical clients and brands, including creating many award-winning public education, advocacy, and adherence programs.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• [03:32] Carol Levine discusses the origin and evolution of energi PR
• [10:35] The strategic approach to securing early clients like ADT and Burger King
• [20:37] How energi PR’s services landscape has evolved
• [23:44] Carol explores the benefits of social listening in understanding and engaging with stakeholders online
• [27:14] Critical elements of crisis communications and effective media training
• [32:13] energi PR’s customer success stories
• [40:44] Carol’s partnership with Esther Buchsbaum and the emotional legacy left behind

In this episode…

Building a successful public relations agency from the ground up in an industry dominated by multinational giants is both exhilarating and challenging. The key lies in the ability to forge and maintain meaningful relationships that sustain the business and propel it to collaborate with major global brands. But how can you do it effectively and efficiently?

Carol Levine, a strategic and seasoned PR professional, shares her journey of establishing a formidable presence in the Canadian PR industry. She began with an innovative vision alongside her partner Esther, proving that a national agency could operate effectively even without offices countrywide. Carol emphasizes the importance of cultivating relationships and committing to meaningful causes, which has helped energi PR carve a niche in the healthcare sector.

In this episode of Inspired Insider Podcast, Dr. Jeremy Weisz interviews Carol Levine, CEO and Co-founder of energi PR, about the evolution of PR strategies and their impact on health awareness. Carol discusses the origin and evolution of energi PR, its strategic approach to securing early clients, the benefits of social listening in understanding and engaging with stakeholders online, and critical elements of crisis communications and media training.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Carol Levine on LinkedIn
• energi PR

Special Mention(s):

• Second Bite Podcast
• Esther Buchsbaum on LinkedIn

Related episode(s):

• “[Top Agency Series] Navigating a Merger and Becoming an End-to-End Digital Partner With Kevin Hourigan of Spinutech” on the Inspired Insider Podcast
• “[Top Agency Series] Most Valuable Advice When Selling Your Agency With Todd Taskey of Potomac Business Capital” on the Inspired Insider Podcast

Quotable Moments:

• “We felt that there was no limit to what we could accomplish.”
• “Relationships in good times and bad are critical.”
• “You really need to speak to people — regular people with regular words.
• “I always encourage some of our staff, and others starting off in public relations, to specialize in an area that is so important to people.”
• “Never say ‘no comment’ — it shows a fear of transparency, which is never good in PR.”

Action Steps:

1. Foster strong relationships: Strong relationships are foundational for leadership, as they provide support and open doors to new opportunities.
2. Embrace specialization: Specialization enhances your value as a leader and also addresses the challenge of standing out in a crowded market.
3. Leverage technology: Use tools like social listening and data analytics to gather insights and drive informed decision-making.
4. Practice crisis management: Effective crisis management builds resilience and confidence in leaders.
5. Cultivate storytelling skills: Develop your ability to convey compelling and authentic stories to engage and inspire your audience.

Episode Transcript

Intro 0:15

You are listening to Inspired Insider with your host, Dr Jeremy Weisz.

Jeremy Weisz 0:22

Dr Jeremy Weisz here, founder of inspiredinsider com, where I talk with inspirational entrepreneurs and leaders today, is no different. I’ve Carol Levine of energi PR, it’s energipr.com, and Carol, before I formally introduce you, I always like to point out other episodes of the podcast people should check out. Since this is part of the top agency series. I had one on and Carol, I think you’ll appreciate this. Kevin Hourigan of Spinutech, and he’s had an agency since 1995 he doesn’t quite beat you, but he talks about the landscape of business, of the internet, of the agency world through those the ups and the downs. So it’s really interesting to hear kind of the evolution of his agency and just the business landscape in general. So check that one out with Kevin Hourigan.

Another interesting one was with Todd Taskey. And Todd Taskey runs a Second Bite Podcast, and he helps match private equity in agencies. He actually helps sell agencies, and he calls the second bite, because some of the agencies that sell the private equity, when private equity sells again, they make more on the second bite than they do on the first so it’s interesting again, from the agency space evaluation, what he’s been seeing throughout the past decade or so in the agency space and valuations as well. So check out many more on inspiredinsider.com and this episode is brought to you by Rise25.

At Rise25 we help businesses give to and connect to their dream relationships and partnerships. And how do we do that? We do that by helping you run your podcast. We’re an easy button for a company to launch and run a podcast. We do the strategy, the accountability and the full execution. So Carol, we kind of call ourselves the magic elves that run in the background and make it look easy for the host and the company so they can create amazing content and amazing relationships. For me, the number one thing in my life is relationships. I’m always looking at ways to give to my best relationships, and I’ve found no better way, over the past decade, to profile the people and companies I most admire and share with the world what they’re working on. So if you’ve thought about podcasting, you should, if you have questions, go to rise25.com or email us at [email protected].

And I’m excited to introduce Carol Levine. She’s CEO and co-founder of energi PR, they’re Canadian public relations and marketing communications company. Carol was also the former chair of the Canadian Council of PR firms. She started the company nearly 35 years ago with her late partner Esther. They’ve worked with some amazing companies, such as Canadian Cancer Society, Bosch Health Canada, hotels.com, Palm and many, many more. And Carol, thanks for joining me.

Carol Levine 3:07

It’s a pleasure, and I thought I was a little elf running around. It’s pretty much the same description.

Jeremy Weisz 3:13

100% just in a different arena. But why don’t you start us off and tell us a little bit more about energi PR and what you do. And as you’re doing that, for people listening to the audio, there is a video version, and I’m going to pull up their website, so just tell us more about energi PR and what you do.

Carol Levine 3:32

Thank you, Jeremy, so it’s a story that dates back, as you mentioned, almost 35 years, which is hard to believe, because I think in my brain, and probably 20, but I started the company. I actually started my own company before Esther and I connected in 1990 and we had a belief at the time that you could be a national agency, despite the fact that you might be based in one of the provinces in Canada and didn’t have an office, you didn’t have offices all across the country. And at the time, I think our biggest competitors were the multinationals. I mean, that was a huge advantage to be everywhere. We thought it would be a huge advantage to be based in a French-speaking province, but speaking English and being able to navigate the geography between two major Canadian cities or languages, Toronto and Montreal.

And so we probably had more guts than brains, but we started off, the two of us in a small office in Old Montreal, which, for any of your listeners who have been to Montreal, it’s a beautiful part of the city, very quaint. And we started very, very slowly. I remember one funny story was a client called up Esther. I think it was ADT Security Systems. And they wanted to come and visit us and meet us, but they wanted to come into our office. Well, little did they know that we were sort of in this basement office at two desks, and that was the extent of it. So the two of us rushed out. We went and we took furniture from my house, paintings, all kinds of accessories, etc. And I recall my husband walking into the office and said, this is really familiar, so yeah, because half of it is coming out of your house. So I would say that, what is unique about energi, it was like we were very resourceful.

We felt that there was no limit to what we could accomplish. And we built on working with ADT and working with companies like Avon, national or multinational brands Berks, which is a jeweler in Canada, very well known at the time, and started to leverage all of those accounts to get bigger accounts. So, that was sort of the rags to, I wouldn’t say riches, but that was sort of the dues that we paid along the way. And there were challenges. And I’m sure you would appreciate that, as we today, still, all these years later, talk about male allies, but at the time, it was not easy, being a woman in business, being able to go to a bank, being able to get a bank loan or any kind of support we really had to prove our metal. And we succeeded at doing it. And 34 years later, energi is still alive and well, albeit a little bit in a different configuration or construct from the time, from pre-COVID time. But we continue to challenge ourselves, and I think some of the growth along the way brought us into a more specialized sector of our business. We started off as generalists.

We did almost everything we said we would do almost anything except a garage opening. And I’m not sure if we did any of those. Maybe we came close. But over the years, we had an opportunity to really hone our skills in healthcare, and I have to say that it’s probably one of the most rewarding practice areas that one could find. And I always encourage some of our staff, and others starting off in public relations, on like if you really want to create value for yourself, specialize in an area that is so important to people, everything from health policy to a legislation and without getting political, I think the Supreme Court and The States just made a ruling yesterday or today with respect to reproductive rights, there are so many different issues that are out there that communicators and professional communicators can wrap their heads around and really test their strategic thinking and guide various stakeholders. So healthcare is something that we love.

And a few years ago, just again, talking about our trajectory in that area, we were invited in 2015 by Global Health Marketing and Communications to be their Canadian affiliate. And what was so interesting about that, besides being very, very proud of the fact that we were approached, because it’s a by-invitation-only organization, was that we would have an opportunity as a small, independent agency to have access to this global network of independently owned healthcare agencies. So competing against some of the bigger players like Hill and Knowlton and Edelman and GCI and so on, and in the holding companies and worldwide organizations, we were able to now as, again, as a boutique size agency, have the bench strength to put us in contention, of course, some really major product of projects over the years. So over the — I would say the last 10 years, the depth and scope of what we offer has really grown.

Jeremy Weisz 10:02

Carol, I want to talk about the evolution of services. But first, you mentioned ADT and some I’m curious on maybe one of the first clients that you got that you were especially proud of, because right now you can, if we’re looking at the website, you can see these amazing logos that you worked with, but in the beginning, it’s not like that. So what was the first breakthrough? And how did you get some of the first maybe the first major client when no one’s worked with you before, maybe no one knew you.

Carol Levine 10:35

Well, you said it right at the beginning, Jeremy in your introduction, when you talked about relationships. So I’ve always been a firm believer that relationships in good times and bad are critical. I make it a point, if I hear that someone has lost their job, or they’re falling on hard times, or it’s a client that moved from one place to another, or whatever, I’m picking up the phone, I’m sending them a note, I’m going out for coffee, whatever, and it’s not a quid pro quo, and it’s not immediate gratification. So I think we were really lucky, because the first clients were not small clients, and I recall the first client, and you tried to spark my memory before in terms of some of the case studies, but so one that comes to mind is Burger King. And when Esther was working at another agency, before we formed energi or our predecessor, Mecca, Communications, both of us had been working at another place on Burger King, and it was a fascinating program.

We developed a child abuse prevention program for Burger King, and it was an in-school program that was designed to help children identify what potential abuse was, and training them, or counseling them to know what feels good and what feels bad and so on, and be able to report. And so when Esther left that agency, one of the first calls that she got was from Burger King. And why? Because of relationship. So she had been the person on the account day to day, and the client wanted to work with her. We won’t get into the fact that her previous employer was not very happy about it. But we pitched Burger King, and they jumped, and we worked on Burger King. And then, of course, when you have Burger King, you can get ADT. And ADT was another fascinating program. We did a lot of education.

Jeremy Weisz 12:50

How did ADT find you?

Carol Levine 12:52

You know what, I’m not sure I remember exactly. I don’t know if it was because we tried to pitch them. I don’t think it was that at all. It might have been that there were reports of domestic violence or something that was going on. And we approached ADT with the idea of a program, and it was called the Domestic Violence Emergency Response Program, called DVERP of all things. And the strategy behind that was, who makes the buying decision for an alarm system? Generally, it’s a female from the point of view of protection. And where do law enforcement and alarm systems and, where do they gravitate to? Well they gravitate to men. And law enforcement is tough and rough, and you know, women need help, and so on and so forth. And we came up with this program where we would partner with law enforcement across the country, in different centers, and ADT provided them with a hands-free alarm.

I mean, it was technology that existed, but any woman that was deemed in a situation of immediate danger was given this alarm through a women’s shelter, and it was all coordinated with the police, and if she pressed the alarm, the police would not be calling the house or calling or whatever. They would treat it as an emergency, and they would show up. And we launched that program in 25 Canadian cities, often with the provincial ministers or premiers and with law enforcement, RCMP, our Royal Canadian Mounted Police and so that was just another fascinating program that went on for quite a while, and I think it may have made its way into the US as well at one point. But you know, as with all these things, they have their life span and the amount of time that a client will invest in them. So, it’s not indefinite.

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