Meet Farbod Esnaashari of Bridge PR in Downtown LA

Today we’d like to introduce you to Farbod Esnaashari.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Farbod. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
My entire life, I was always a fan of the NBA and the WWE, and my journey is one of never letting go the childhood love you have in things.

I’ve wanted to work with the LA Clippers since I was in high school. I started interning with them when I was a college student at 21 years old, and have been at STAPLES Center ever since. In my eight years in the arena, I’ve transitioned from becoming a Marketing Intern, Fan Relations Intern, Advertisement Tech, and now a reporter.

The wildest thing about becoming a reporter is that I had virtually no writing experience four years ago. I didn’t go to school for journalism, and I never considered myself a strong writer. When I was 23, I started writing these deep pieces on Facebook that seemed to resonate with people. I would get text messages from friends telling me how much it meant to them. So I figured I may not be a good writer, but I’m a good storyteller. Four years later, now I’m covering the LA Clippers for Forbes.

At the same time as all of this, I’ve had multiple other jobs as well. I’ve been a researcher for ESPN for seven years as well, finding articles to put on SportsCenter. I also help write WWE, and esports articles for them as well. For a brief period of time, I also worked as a tour guide at Paramount Studios and an audience/talent coordinator at Dr. Phil.

If that wasn’t enough, I’ve also had a full-time job the last three years as well. I work at a Korean media company called ODK Media, which is essentially a Hulu of Korean content. I’m in charge of the company’s social media and help with a lot of their English PR. What’s crazy about that too, is that I went into it with very little knowledge of Korean content. Despite that, I transformed their Facebook page from having only 30k followers to an organic 3.1 million, with around 10-30 million video views a week, by myself.

Most recently, I’ve started helping with representing professional wrestlers. I assist the Braverman Bloom company in representing some of their clients like Kenny Omega. So in total, that’s about five jobs or so.

The one thing I’ve always been very good at is turning air into gold. I’ve taken the most tedious of jobs and transformed it into something worth having. While at the same time never letting go of the things I love. It’s a lot of work, but it’s the only way to do everything you love.

Has it been a smooth road?
I’ve commuted from Orange County to Los Angeles for eight years, so that’s always been a thing. The biggest struggle is just never letting go. It would have been so easy to let go of the Clipper and ESPN jobs and take a different route into life, but I would have never been who I am. I’ve had to sacrifice a lot of high paying jobs, to be in this exact position that I am.

The most memorable struggle though came right after college. I graduated the top of UCI’s Marketing Class with a 3.98 GPA and expected the world. Instead, I didn’t get a job with the Clippers, got injured, and quickly learned that life teaches you how to fail with grace. Within a span of 5 months, I had an interviewer at FOX Sports tell me “they were worried I was too smart for their job, and that I’d get bored and bail”, and an interviewer at Paramount Studios tell me “they were worried I didn’t know how to use a phone, so I had to start out giving tours.”

For the longest time, I felt like I wasn’t reaching my full potential, wasn’t accomplishing much, and wasn’t making much money. I had to watch all of my peers gloat about their full-time positions, while I tried to figure out my place. I was routinely driving 1 hour and 40 minutes, one way, to work at a movie studio, and make $11 an hour to give tours, when I felt like I deserved more. In retrospect, it built the character needed for me to succeed today. I would have never learned to hustle or scrap, the way I do, without that job.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
I wouldn’t necessarily say that I am a company, but more an individual. I do have a service called Bridge PR, where I help celebrities, athletes, and K-POP stars build bridges with brands. I want to link WWE Superstars or K-POP Stars with the LA Clippers or build unique bridges that only I’m capable of. An example of that is the WWE Night at the Clipper game that I set up a couple of years ago. Another example would be setting Kenny Omega up with Gamespot during E3.

What sets me apart from other human beings though, is the totality of things. It’s very rare to find someone with the exact set of specific knowledge and connections I have: NBA, K-POP, esports, entertainment, reporting, PR, and professional wrestling. That totality of what is brought to the table is very unique in my opinion.

Is our city a good place to do what you do?
Los Angeles is the perfect city. Every single brand, movie studio, top sports teams, are all here. If someone was starting out, I would definitely tell them to start in LA.

However, telling someone to just “chase their dreams” is dangerous. What people need to realize is that while chasing their dreams, they need to have a legitimate financial backing, whether it’s a full-time job or not. If you want to do what you love, you need to work multiple jobs and work even harder. LA could always do a better job of providing more income for those ‘dream’ jobs.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.bridgepr.co
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: instagram.com/thedailyclip
• Twitter: twitter.com/farbod_e

Image Credit:
Jacob Gonzalez, Adam Pantozzi

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