Today we’d like to introduce you to Phil Lobel
Hi Phil , thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I came out to the University of Colorado for my freshman year and had never been to a concert in my life. I heard there was a stadium concert happening on campus with Leon Russel and a few other acts. At the end of the show, I sat there still in awe for about 30 minutes until the stadium cleared. I asked security who does concerts, “How did this happen?” And they said “it’s a group called CU Program Council, at the Student Union on campus.” So I got involved in the CU Program Council. After being there for 5.5 years, I won Billboard Magazine’s “College Talent Buyer of the Year” award in 1978. I decided to take a job with Barry Fey, who I had worked with as a student and promoted all concerts throughout the Rocky Mountains and in a famous place called the Red Rocks Amphitheater. I was there from 1980 to almost 1986. I then decided to pick up all my things, rent out my condo in Denver, drive with my U haul out to Los Angeles and start a PR company. Although I wasn’t sure exactly what we would be doing, I wanted it to be broad enough in name so it didn’t typecast me into just making money through PR so Lobeline Communications came out.
This was not until January of 1986 and by 1987, a friend of mine called me and said he had this client who needed press. I asked, who’s the client? And he said, George Michael. The next day he had a meeting set up at his house up in the Hollywood Hills in Beverly Hills. Around the same time I was hired for the George Michael “Faith,” tour, I met Brad Pitt.
So those two things were happening at the same time and you know, I started getting more clients and more business and I never looked back after that. A few years later, after that, I got David Copperfield for a seventeen-year run!
Then, came Tony Robbins, and I broke him out of that motivational speaker realm and started getting him placements like The View, Larry King Live, and even the cover of Architectural Digest.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
PR is always challenging. Keeping the client happy and balancing the client’s needs with the media’s needs, many times the unexpected happens. There were sometimes major media challenges and fires to put out that would keep you up to the wee hours of the morning. When things went smoothly that’s great, but you couldn’t count on that happening always. And yes, there were many sleepless nights when the media ran stories that shouldn’t have run or stories and things that happened that were beyond your control.
Do you have recommendations for books, apps, blogs, etc?
When I started in 1986, I took a PR class at UCLA from one of the best publicists at the time. So even though as much as I knew, I recognized that learning more from a professional in Los Angeles who did this daily was an important thing to know. This was before the internet and before podcasts, so getting that kind of resource today is very important, but you could search the internet very easily for tips.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://lobeline.com
- Instagram: lobelinepr
