"Find that fire, rekindle your excitement - believe in yourself, in the future - create strategies, act in accord!"
Tracy Lamourie Tweet
Tracy Lamourie, a high profile international award-winning publicist, is the Founder and Managing Director of Lamourie Media Inc. a Universal Women’s Network 2020 Woman of Inspiration Winner for the Women In Media award, the iWoman Global Awards winner for Mass Media 2021, and the author of the upcoming book GET REPPED – Build Your Brand With Effective Public and Media Relations. Featured in Rolling Stone Magazine, The Hollywood Times, NBC TV, and other major media, Tracy is an award-winning international publicist working across borders and across industries from major entertainment projects to small businesses.
She is also a well-known long-time advocate on a myriad of important worldwide issues, passionate about amplifying important messages and being a voice for those who most need one. Recognized by media around the world for her 20-year campaign that ultimately helped free an innocent man from death row to her work getting clients major media attention. In addition to her Women of Inspiration award, she is the winner of the First Place, Platinum award Hamilton Spectator ReadersChoice for PR 2018, and for Diamond 2019.
In 2020 she was both an RBC Women of Influence Nominee and a nominee for the internationally prestigious 2020 Tällberg/Eliasson Global Leadership Prize. Tracy has guested more than 200 times on panels, TV, radio, and high-profile podcasts around the world speaking on leadership, empowerment, and entrepreneurship as well as all aspects of media and publicity. Tracy also speaks to diverse corporate and academic audiences (recent appearances include the Pennsylvania PR Association and Ottawa’s Algonquin College).
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Table of Contents
We are thrilled to have you join us today, welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine’s exclusive interview! Let’s start off with a little introduction. Tell our readers a bit about yourself and your company.
Tracy Lamourie: I’m the co founder and Managing Director of Lamourie Media – an international PR company serving clients across industries and across borders, My co-founder is my husband of 27 years and business partner, Dave Parkinson, who primarily looks after the financial side of Lamourie Media – everything from payroll to crypto investments – as well as audio / visual and tech- while I am client facing and run the PR and generating media interest for our clients side of the business.
Our origin story is a pretty interesting one – It’s well documented by media around the world – including Rolling Stone Magazine! – that our first outreach to media wasn’t as the heads of a PR company – but as young activists in our 20s, long ago, attempting to let the world know about an innocent man named Jimmy Dennis, who at that time was innocent on death row. Over a 20 year campaign that was ultimately successful Dennis was released in 2017 and today he is an internationally acclaimed RnB artist – who we rep at Lamourie Media! Today we work across industries – film, TV, music, tech, fashion, beauty, crypto – bringing the stories of fascinating people and the amazing things they are doing – to global attention. It’s very rewarding – emotionally and financially!
2020 and 2021 threw a lot of curve balls into business on a global scale. Based on the experience gleaned in the past couple years, how can businesses thrive in 2022? What lessons have you learned?
Tracy Lamourie: The word of the last few years has definitely been pivot! You have to be strategic, able to figure out the playing field you might unexpectedly find yourself on, connecting and networking has never been more vital – what can you do to help them, what can they do to help you? Consider ways to do things differently, find ways to do business with people who aren’t in your neighborhood, expand your reputation (use local media,podcasts to get your message out), find ways to tell your story and let as many people hear it as possible!
The pandemic seems to keep on disrupting the economy, what should businesses focus on in 2022? What advice would you share?
Tracy Lamourie: I’m lucky in my business that I have a diverse customer base – so something that negatively affects even several industries won’t necessarily affect me. Diversify the kind of services you provide and the locations (virtual or in person) where you can provide them if you can for best results.
And it’s really important to use any slow time to build your personal reputation for thought leadership which can make all the difference in the world in terms of future success, the opportunities you are presented with, etc.
How has the pandemic changed your industry and how have you adapted?
Tracy Lamourie: The biggest change is probably the same as it is for so many other industries – one word – ZOOM. Shoutout to Streamyard, Google Meet – all of ‘em, really. All those conferences and events became sized to the screen – which felt limiting in a lot of ways but it also expanded possibilities in other ways.
Media now frequently interview experts like me and my clients over zoom and other streaming services now – so I’ve had clients who in the past wouldn’t have been interviewed in person by major media outlets because they were far from the studios get interviewed from their sofas – the hosts were often at home on their own sofas, too! The pandemic hasn’t really changed how reporters and publicists exchange information though – and that’s most of what we do!
What advice do you wish you received when the pandemic started and what do you intend on improving in 2022?
Tracy Lamourie: I’m pretty lucky to be able to say that looking back, we did everything right in the strategic decisions we made about the directions we were taking Lamourie Media in, about the things we did to position ourselves, our company ,and our clients for success through two unprecedented years. When all the events, concerts, shows, conferences we were involved in came to a hard stop in the first month of the pandemic, literally 70 or 80 percent of our business was paused or stopped. After a week of staring at the news in shock and worrying – I went back to my desk and got serious about getting back to work – and within a week or two we were actually signing on more clients than we had been pre pandemic – because though all the shows and events were over for now, there were still a lot of entrepreneurs, creatives and executives that needed things promoted – and there was actually a new influx of solopreuners, authors, and others starting new projects during the pandemic that they needed help letting the world know about.
So we’re blessed to have continued to do well over the last two years -last year was financially our best year ever. In terms of improving, I’d like to be start hiring more this year but we’re also planning a lot of business travel so I’m not sure how and where I’ll find the time to find and onboard senior staff that can help us grow.
Online business surged higher than ever, B2B, B2C, online shopping, virtual meetings, remote work, Zoom medical consultations, what are your expectations for 2022?
Tracy Lamourie: While we will see a return to pre pandemic activity – I know a lot of us can’t wait for in person conferences and networking at far flung locations to be our norm again, I think we’ll see a hybrid where we also continue to utilize the tools that have become so familiar to us over the last 2 years for the convenience and cost savings.
How many hours a day do you spend in front of a screen?
Tracy Lamourie: 15 to 18 – my computer or phone screen. Most of that is work – 1 or sometimes 2 hours a day you’ll catch me watching a streaming movie service ( I subscribe to 5 or 6 of them though I’m usually just listening to movies or tv documentaries in the background while I work.
The majority of executives use stories to persuade and communicate in the workplace. Can you share with our readers examples of how you implement that in your business to communicate effectively with your team?
Tracy Lamourie: Our team is limited to me and my husband and business partner now so it doesn’t really apply – however we use stories every day to communicate what our clients are doing to the media and to the world!
Business is all about overcoming obstacles and creating opportunities for growth. What do you see as the real challenge right now?
Tracy Lamourie: Many business owners – like many people in general – are just feeling overwhelmed, depressed. The biggest challenge for many is not to give in to that. Find that fire, rekindle your excitement – believe in yourself, in the future – create strategies, act in accord!
In 2022, what are you most interested in learning about? Crypto, NFTs, online marketing, or any other skill sets? Please share your motivations.
Tracy Lamourie: I continue to learn more about the metaverse, the world of crypto and all the possibilities of blockchain – my husband and business partner Dave has been in the space as an investor for years and more recently we’ve had a lot of projects on the PR and media side involving blockchain and there is just so much opportunity there!
A record 4.4 million Americans left their jobs in September in 2021, accelerating a trend that has become known as the Great Resignation. 47% of people plan to leave their job during 2022. Most are leaving because of their boss or their company culture. 82% of people feel unheard, undervalued and misunderstood in the workplace. Do you think leaders see the data and think “that’s not me – I’m not that boss they don’t want to work for? What changes do you think need to happen?
Tracy Lamourie: One thing – stop paying people minimum wage – that’s just insulting- when you offer minimum wage you are literally saying to someone “I really don’t value or care about you, and if I could pay you less I would” – what kind of loyalty should employers even hope or expect in that scenario? Even in higher wage brackets if you aren’t investing in the human side of the people that devote most of their lives to your enterprise, you shouldn’t expect them to care much about you either. Invest in your people – emotionally, financially – they truly are they your biggest asset.
On a lighter note, if you had the ability to pick any business superpower, what would it be and how would you put it into practice?
Tracy Lamourie: The ability to put together a killer business plan, find the perfect partners and staff and instantly attract investors to it!
What does “success” in 2022 mean to you? It could be on a personal or business level, please share your vision.
Tracy Lamourie: I think I’ve reached it. The luxury of only working on things you want to work on – being able to say no to projects that don’t resonate.
To be in a position to be able to help people…. and to have the ability to go places you’ve always wanted to go (travel).
Mike Weiss, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Tracy Lamourie for taking the time to do this interview and share her knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Tracy Lamourie or her company, you can do it through her – Instagram
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