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Women Who Went for It! is a bi-weekly podcast, hosted by Career Change Agent, Sara McArdle. The show features inspiring chats with successful industry changers who share how they found the clarity, courage and motivation to step into a deeper vocation and a life of meaning and fulfillment. We hope you'll see just how many before you have GONE for it—and they're eternally grateful that they took the risk!

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  2. Episode 007: From Audio Production to Founding a PR Firm with Sabrina Hutchinson

Episode 007: From Audio Production to Founding a PR Firm with Sabrina Hutchinson

Mar 4, 2018

Sabrina Hutchinson
 
In this episode, Sara chats with Sabrina Hutchinson about moving from audio production to founding a successful PR firm in Los Angeles. Sabrina talks about saying "yes" and figuring the "how" out later, her passion for building & maintaining lifelong relationships, having a de facto "board of directors" and defining her ideal client. In 2011, Sabrina leveraged 15 years of sales and marketing experience and founded Defiant Public Relations, an entertainment PR firm working with composers, actors and entertainment brands.
 
Sara and Sabrina discuss:
  • How Sara and Sabrina got connected
  • Sabrina's career path
  • Studying business and accounting at university
  • Working as the studio director at a recording studio in Seattle
  • Making a move into the creative and tech recruiting industry
  • Moving to Los Angeles
  • Sabrina's decision to become an entrepreneur in something
  • Deciding to start a PR firm
  • Building her business from the ground up
  • Standing out from the crowd
  • The importance of reaching out to one's network
  • Her passion for making relationships that last a lifetime
  • Building her business on referrals
  • Sabrina's love for events
  • Being an early adopter
  • Sabrina's mentors and role models:
    • Laura Porto Stockwell
    • Lance Williams
    • Dave Holloway
    • Joel Eby
    • Bryan Richardson
  • Courageously saying "yes" to new opportunities and *then* figuring out how to do them
  • Picking your own "de facto board of directors"
  • People who've pushed back
  • Unfounded fears
  • Her strategy for staying focused on the positive
  • The time it takes to build a business
  • Defining her "ideal client" personas
  • Balancing to prevent burnout
  • Saying "no" to the thing that's not a good fit
  • Treating everyone—even acquaintances, even during difficult times—with respect, kindness and decency
  • Connecting with our deepest values and core beliefs to lead us in the right direction
  • Finding inspiration from terrific business leaders
  • Maintaining a gold standard of client service
  • Treating everyone like a client
  • Giving back, not just taking
  • Resisting the temptation to quit
  • Side hustles and passion projects
  • Trying things on to see what's a fit
  • Baby steps to change
  • Learning how to trust herself
  • Having people in your life who ask you the right questions and see the potential in you that you may not see in yourself
  • Being ok with changing your mind
  • The dangerous myth of "failure"
  • The power of meditation to clear the mind and help find the answers within
  • A quote Sabrina lives by
  • Realizing that you don't have to have it all figured out in advance; just take one step at a time
  • And more...
 
Connect with Sabrina:
 
Sabrina's full bio:
With over 20 years of marketing, public relations and advertising experience, Sabrina Hutchinson's work has focused on strategic campaigns at the intersection of entertainment and communication. Sabrina's early career involved partnering with Microsoft on their original framework for Internet broadcasting, streaming technology "Netshow 1.0." Since then, she has written and produced advertising and marketing copy, casted and directed top creative talent, produced and publicized high-profile public events, and guided the careers of celebrities, entertainers, artists and brands. In 2011, Sabrina leveraged 15 years of sales and marketing experience and founded Defiant Public Relations, an entertainment PR firm working with composers, actors and entertainment brands. As a Hollywood publicist, Sabrina has worked with top media outlets including The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Entertainment Tonight, Extra, Access Hollywood, Entertainment Weekly, Variety, Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter, Buzzfeed, and Yahoo! Some of her PR, marketing and advertising clients Orlando Jones, Nicole Beharie, Brian Tee, Joey Newman, Scott Doherty, Tree Adams, Fred Coury, Kevin Martin, Joshua Mosley, Whole Planet Foundation, Warner Brothers, MTV, Nintendo, the Seattle Seahawks and the Seattle International Film Festival. Agency clients include Publicis, DDB, Cole & Weber, Wong Doody, DNA, Edelman and more.