Today we’d like to introduce you to Mackenzie Judge.
Hi Mackenzie, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Growing up in a very entrepreneurial household, I always wanted to own my own company and knew I would one day. I really always wanted it to be related to beauty. I actually always thought I would have my own cosmetics brand, and maybe I will one day, but being in college that was a huge goal of mine. I quickly realized that you better have a lineup of investors ready to go + years of business experience beforehand, and just coming out of school, this obviously was not a realistic scenario.
I decided to try a few beauty-related jobs, internships, etc. and grew my experience through trying the agency route, which was a great learning experience. I worked for two agencies at two very different levels and got to see a start-up vs an established agency, along with what I liked and didn’t like with how they operated.
Over time, I felt capped in the agencies I was working with and that I was also getting thrown clients that didn’t fit that beauty category anymore and decided to just freelance and see what clients I could pick up on my own. The more I started this angle, the more I realized that I was ready to just go all in and create a beauty and fashion-focused agency that operated in the transparent and organized sense that I wanted it to, along with being able to have control to sign and work with clients that I am passionate about and align with my core values and interests, and therefore Blonde PR was born!
Blonde is a baby new agency, being that we’re eight months old, but it has just blown my expectations out of the water, and I am so beyond grateful to love what I do for work so much every day!
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I think everything has its challenges, its ups and downs, its frustrating moments, etc, and although I am so lucky and grateful for where we’re at, of course it doesn’t come easy. We are still in a very beginning phase that is always changing and we’re always pivoting to the next step to grow the agency up. It’s truly the entrepreneur hustle that everyone talks about, and it’s real – late nights, early mornings, planning multiple events at once, making sure every client is getting the attention they deserve, building a team, all the admin and legal, there’s a lot to balance, and so it is a very busy category that you really can’t fall behind in.
That being said, it’s the most rewarding and fulfilling job to be able to have all of these things to balance because, at the end of the day, it’s something I created, and it will always be so special to me – I would never want it any other way. Working for yourself is, at least for me, the ultimate luxury.
As you know, we’re big fans of Blonde PR. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
Blonde PR is a full service, boutique PR and marketing agency that does all of the traditional and digital aspects of the services. We work primarily with clients in the categories of beauty, fashion, wellness, lifestyle, luxury, and travel, and we work with clients on both the brand and the talent side.
I would say Blonde is known for our events, activations, and brand trips as we really put a lot of thought and detail into our events to give them that extra “wow” factor, those extra “snap a photo for my Instagram story” details and the extra mile to make our guests have an experience they won’t forget.
I truly think what sets us apart from others is our loyalty to the agency’s values. To elaborate on this, in our industry, we unfortunately see a lot of agencies that give the industry a bad rap. This agency charges insane rates, this one was caught for black market PR, this one treats their employees badly, this one overpromises and under delivers, it could go on forever. A lot of clients feel like another “number” to agencies, where we are committed to making sure our clientele always knows what’s going on, receives what we’ve agreed on in a work scope, and understands where their brand is at in the PR / marketing strategy. We give our clients full access to us 24/7; they don’t have to wait for some monthly update meeting to get in touch with us because they deserve to know what is in the works. We are also extremely picky with whom we sign on as a client with Blonde. We want to make sure that it is a brand or service that we would actually use, someone whose brand values align with ours, and someone who honestly also fits the aesthetic of our agency as well. We will never sign on a client far out of our categories because we know who our media connections are, and if we bring on someone outside of those categories, in my mind, that’s stealing a client’s money, knowing that it’s a category we just don’t perform for.
For me, I am so proud of the little agency we’ve built as a small team so far. We always get complimented on our pink, girly, and extra branding and how everything we do and everyone we work with is so “on brand,” and it makes me so happy to know that people on the outside are seeing the message we are trying to portray as well. I think brand identity is SO important, even for a service agency, and I really do think it attracts the clientele you’re going after as well – so that always makes me happy to hear that people are seeing what I’m envisioning.
Something that I love people to also know about us is that we’re a flexible agency, which isn’t very normal in our industry either. Again, most agencies are very “cookie cutter” and have a process of doing things that they won’t stray away from, as well as pricing packages they aren’t willing to budge on. To me, every company is so different in their own ways, so how can they possibly all be on the same plan? With us, every single client has a customized package, plan, and strategy that will be different from the rest because they’re not the rest. There are a lot of factors that go into this setup process, but I can assure you from being at other agencies that we do it differently.
Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
Starting Blonde PR is definitely the biggest risk I’ve ever taken. I am super open about being very young in the industry and I think that being 24 in the space and being up against vets that have been here for decades was intimidating in the beginning. It was kind of like, how do I get clients to work with me vs someone who has been here for years?
I decided to literally just go for it and do it the way I know how, and I’ve been very lucky to have it work and I truly think that it’s because I just decided to show people what the agency can do, that it’s been easy for people to understand the measurable results that we’ve created.
I’ve always wanted to work for myself, but truly didn’t think it would happen until I was in my late 20s? 30s? but I know it was the best decision I’ve ever made, and although scary and always stressful, there will never be anything better than knowing I did this by myself, for myself, and now have a platform to be able to help others do it for themselves as well.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.blondepr.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blondepublicrelations/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mackenzie-judge-164163182/
- Other: https://www.blondepr.com/contact
Image Credits
Tia Boyd @tiabboyd.photography Megan Moore @meganw.photography Sahil Kumar @bysahilkumar
