Pretti Thought: Welcome to the Sequel

One day I'm going to write a book about the millions of ways I screwed up in business before I started getting it right. When I do I'm sure I will dedicate more than a few paragraphs to the mistakes of 2017 and the false starts of 2018, but until then: this is a story all about how my brand got flipped turned upside down (and right side up again).

Any publicist will tell you: the best thing you can build your brand to be is authentic. It was an easy lesson to teach my clients but a struggle for me within my own brand. There was always that voice saying “what if they don't accept the real me.” Well, when that voice got so loud and Pretti Pri started to morph into Pretti Petty the adoration seemingly started to pour in and things took a really ugly turn.

Drake said it best in his song Headlines: “ I might be too strung out on compliments/ overdosed on confidence/started not to give a fuck and stopped fearing the consequence.” For those who aren’t familiar with my brand or my journey, Pretti Talk started as a radio show and was the springboard to the most destructive year in my career and perhaps my life. So destructive that after having fiscally (and publicity wise) the best year of my career, 2017 ended with me clientless, with a tarnished reputation, depressed, ashamed, and lost. I'd become something I wasn't in hopes of impressing people I'd normally want nothing to do with.

Unsure what was going to be next for my company, I took some time off. I studied a lot, fell in love with me and started dreaming again. Before I finally started to feel like me I desperately wanted to go back- back to who I was before Pretti Petty and back to who I was before the heartbreak, but I couldn't. It wasn't until October when I decided to relaunch Pretti Talk as a blog and not a podcast that I realized it was a good thing. All the mess I created around my brand gave me wisdom, gave me sharper instincts (and the courage to follow them), but most of all it made me resilient. So while I couldn't go back to being that woman (Thank Goodness!) I could go back to the brand I was supposed to be building all along- and Pretti Talk the blog was born.

Deciding to go back to my original why, helped me find my most authentic voice. It helped me to stop apologizing for having opinions that conflicted with the masses and to embrace my quirks. Quirks make the story and at the end of the day as a publicist I want to tell a great and authentic story that not only my audience but the audience of my clients can relate to. So to all who've stuck with me and to those about to embark on part 2 of this journey with me, I just want to say thank you and I hope you enjoy the view through my rose tinted contacts.