Meet Kelly Howard of EightSixtySouth in Downtown Los Angeles

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kelly Howard.

So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
Originally from a small-town in Minnesota, I discovered my interest in the public relations industry when I was a junior in high school (true story – from a movie on the ABC Family Channel). I pursued this interest at Iowa State University, earning a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism/Mass Communications with an emphasis in Public Relations.

After multiple internships in the industry, I knew I had found my calling – however, upon graduation in 2008, the economy had a slightly different idea. It was the height of the recession and hardly anyone, particularly PR agencies, were hiring. I sent out over 400 resumes with no avail. To make ends meet, I found myself living at home, working at a grocery store during the day and bartending/waiting tables at night.

Refusing to give up, I continued to put feelers out there and utilize my network to uncover potential opportunities. I was eventually put in touch with a woman in LA who worked in-house for a major denim brand handling PR & Marketing. After an introductory phone chat, while their team wasn’t hiring, she agreed to put me in touch with her network of fellow publicists to see if anything stuck.

My soon-to-be future boss responded and let me know she would interview me once I moved to LA. Move for an interview? A bit difficult on a grocery story/bartending budget. However, I countered her and offered to fly myself to LA if she would give me an hour of her time.

Fast forward to a flight to LA, an hour-long interview – and an offer that came a month later. That “offer,” however, was for a 60-day trial at $1,000/month. Not much to make a living on out in Los Angeles – but I knew if I didn’t take it, someone else would. With that, I packed up my car and made the move across the country.

It was at this agency I began to make a name for myself and learned what it truly meant to be a publicist – PR Bootcamp as I like to call it. This was before Instagram, before anyone knew what a “social media influencer” was, before blogging was a thing… your results were measured on how much “ink” you could get for your clients in magazines, on television, and on the very beginnings of what is today’s vast online landscape.

I worked at this agency for three and a half years before being recruited by an agency called Post+Beam Headquartered in New York, their LA office was looking for a PR Director to come in and lead strategy for their West Coast roster of clients.

After a lengthy interview process, I made the leap and looked forward to the challenge of a new company, a new office, and a new team. Six months in, however, the head of the LA office (and my immediate boss) decided to pursue another opportunity. I quickly shifted to take on her role – and served as Post+Beam’s West Coast Director for the next three years.

It was toward the end of 2016 where I had the opportunity to acquire the company – the details of how and why we can get into at another time, but needless to say, I was presented with an opportunity that doesn’t come along every day. One day I was an employee, the next I was the boss.

After the decision was made, it was initially quite logistical – transitioning financial, contracts, employees, etc. into my name. Throughout the process, however, I decided to take the company through an entire rebrand, evolving Post+Beam to what is now, EightSixtySouth.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Ha. No, definitely not a smooth road. More like a hiking trail with bumps, potholes, peaks and valleys – with plenty of falls and bruises along the way.

About a year into the acquisition, around the same time Post+Beam was just emerging from the rebrand into what is now EightSixtySouth, I lost nearly 75% of my client roster – mostly for reasons not within our control. I honestly didn’t know what I was going to do, I looked at my budget and all I saw was red. Something had to change.

It was around this same time that we finally began to embody who we were at EightSixtySouth. Prior to, we had been straddling this narrative of who we used to be (Post+Beam) vs. who we had become (EightSixtySouth), and it showed.

When we finally embraced EightSixtySouth, something shifted. Our message, our energy, and our purpose all began to bleed through our work. And within six months, we had signed over 30 clients.

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the EightSixtySouth story. Tell us more about the business.
EightSixtySouth is a strategic communications agency that works with clients across multiple verticals: Strategy, Public Relations, Digital and Influencer Engagement, Social Media, Copywriting and Events.

We’ve worked with a diverse roster of clients across the fashion, beauty & lifestyle industries, developing multi-faceted, impactful strategies while still focusing on data-driven results. Our expertise includes working with large, national brands such as W Hotels and Men’s Fitness, to boutique brands like The Beach People and Lokai.

What sets us apart? I always tell my clients that when it comes to PR firms, we all pretty much do the same thing… but we don’t all do it the same way. At the end of the day, you want to be in business with someone who gives a sh*t and has your back. And we do just that – we love what we do, and it shows. We care, to a fault, about our clients and our people. And we measure our success as a company by the success of our clients and our team.

Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
Calling it luck doesn’t do justice to the work and journey that led you to the opportunity one might call “lucky.”

Opportunities are all around us – it’s 1) being aware that it even exists in the first place, and 2) what you do with that “opportunity” when it’s presented to you that makes the difference.

Someone could get “lucky” and win a million dollars – but do they have the business sense, awareness and thought process to make that money work for them? Or do they frivolously spend every penny?

When I was offered the opportunity to acquire Post+Beam – some may call that luck (at that time I probably would have called it scary as sh*t). But I knew that an opportunity like that doesn’t come along every day – and I figured out what resources and advice I needed to make it happen.

As far as bad luck? That could be considered any failure. But any failure is an opportunity to learn something – why did it happen, what was my part in it – and for those things that were within my control, what can I do differently to change the outcome next time.

At the end of the day, I consider myself “lucky” to have the amazing team I do, the network of friends and loved ones to lean on for support, and to have learned as much as I have on this crazy journey. So, in that sense, yes, luck has played a part in my business. But was it luck that got me here? No, that was a delicate combination of hard work, caffeine, and hustle.

Contact Info:

• Address: 860 S. Los Angeles St. Mezz 2 Los Angeles, CA 90014
• Website: www.eightsixtysouth.com
• Phone: 213-407-5766
• Email: info@eightsixtysouth.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/eightsixtysouth
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eightsixtysouth
• Other: www.instagram.com/kellylynnhoward

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