New Ladder To Success

She is the face behind many A-list celebrities and entertainment companies. Lorena Meza, founder and President of LM Public Relations, is one of the brightest young public relations executives in Hollywood right now.

Lorena Meza is a twenty five year old publicist who has found a niche working with a special clientele of talent and entertainment based companies. So, if you have a need for media exposure, this young woman is one to watch…

NewLadderToSuccess (NLTS):   Dear Lorena, thank you for speaking with us. First, how did you begin your career in public relations?

Lorena Meza (Lorena):   I started working in Public Relations while I was a student enrolled at CSULA. I was working towards a Masters of Communications. My professor Dr. Susan Regan became a great friend and mentor and suggested that I get an internship in television. She recommended a competitive program at the Academy of Television, Arts and Sciences. I applied for it, but I didn’t get in. But I did manage to get the attention of an executive publicist from Fox Broadcasting. He was the one who emailed me and asked me if I’d be interested in working in publicity. This was really my big break. Next thing I knew, I was working as a PR Intern at the Fox lot. It was a dream come true. I loved every minute of it.

NLTS:   Is this career everything you expected?

Lorena:   At the beginning, I didn’t have any expectations. My biggest goal when I was a student was getting into the entertainment industry. I had good grades and had the respect of my professors. So, the biggest challenge was taking a step into the Industry, landing a job and surviving Hollywood. Hollywood is competitive and I knew it was going to be hard. So, without really thinking too hard about it, I took the steps in the direction to where I wanted to be. Fortunately everything worked out.

NLTS:   What is the most enjoyable aspect of your job? What is the least enjoyable part?

Lorena:   I love helping people to reach their dreams, to achieve a certain level they want to achieve within their career. All of our clients become sources of referrals; so their success becomes closely tied to the company’s success. It’s a fulfilling moment when our clients show their appreciation for attention that we help them get.

My job sometimes requires me to go out late at night and to wake up early in the morning. That’s hard on my body sometimes, especially since I love to stay at home with my dog and my boyfriend.

NLTS:    Have you ever considered put yourself in front of the camera?

Lorena:   I used to be in front of the camera when I was younger. When I was in college at UC Santa Cruz I starred in a few independent films. And during my summer breaks I worked as an extra in Hollywood. I also did some commercials when I was nineteen.

It was fun when I was a teenager, but I don’t remember being in love with the camera. Being on set is tiring. Have you ever done it? You sit around for a few hours while producers and cameramen set up a shot, and finally when the shot is set, you step in front of the camera, you say a few lines, and then you wait for another long time until the next shot is set up (laughing).

It requires a lot of patience to shoot a film. I have so much respect for actors who can stay in character for days at a time because when you shoot a film, you don’t always shoot in sequence and half of the day you are waiting for the crew to set up shots. My boyfriend is a producer so I’ve been on the set a lot lately and have a lot respect for anyone that works on set.

NLTS:   Do you find being an attractive woman as an advantage or a disadvantage to do business?

Lorena:   Well first of all, thank you for the compliment. I don’t consider myself attractive or not attractive. There’s no right answer to that one. At the end of the day, my client will calls me and ask, “What have you done for me today?” At that moment in business it doesn’t matter how attractive I look. What does matter is whether or not I was able to deliver something valuable for that client. Also, a lot of my work is done through writing and phone calls. Overall, I think that being properly groomed in face to face interactions is always an advantage.

NLTS:   What made you decide to build your own company?

Lorena:   I was doing so much for the clients whom I worked with, so the clients actually encouraged me to start my own business. They wanted to hire me and to work with me exclusively. The only way that I could work for them and be fair to my then employer was by leaving my In-house position at the Laugh Factory comedy club and starting my own firm.

I’m really grateful to my first clients who were comedians since I had worked in that field. I have received so much support from them and they are truly remarkable people. In fact, my clients have been a great source of referrals and they continue to introduce me to more people in the Industry.

NLTS:  Do you have any business partners?

Lorena:    Right now, I am the sole proprietor. I received some funding from my family, but so right now it’s just me. I am looking into teaming up with a partner or possibly an investor.

NLTS:  Do you find it difficult running the business all by yourself?

Lorena:   It’s not as difficult as I thought. Surprisingly, I made a habit to build my business slowly, so it doesn’t become overwhelming. I’m continually amazed at how many people continue to go to bat for me and to send more clients in my direction. The company as a whole has found a lot of creative ways to keep overhead costs low. Thank God there is an Internet. Our entire staff has been extremely talented and hard working. Because of our tactics we have been able to launch some impressive campaigns with very little costs involved. It doesn’t require a lot of money to advertise my business. Most of our clients come from referrals.

NLTS:  How are you different from your competitors?

Lorena:    The key advantage to my company is that we are heavily involved in new media; otherwise we wouldn’t be able to compete with companies like Rogers & Cowan and BWR. One think that I’ve learned from working at both Rogers and Cowan and BWR is that the big pr firms have a lot of manpower but they take on too many clients. They have to, they have a lot of overhead costs and as a result their publicists are stressed and always taking on more than they can handle. We have been able to manage our accounts more efficiently because we don’t have to take on more accounts than we can handle. We have such low overhead that a slow month or two will not affect us.

Also, we are very Internet savvy and we use it to our advantage. One of the problems with many big firms is they still follow a very out-dated way of doing business. Thanks to Internet we can do anything such as promo videos or electronic press kits with no budget. This is something that used to be very costly and reserved only for clients that have big budgets. We are taking advantage of everything related to new media and this keeps us highly competitive.

NLTS:   How do you find your clients?

Lorena:   We received lots of clients through referral and many of them I knew from my last job at The Laugh Factory.

NLTS:  What type of clients do you work with?

Lorena:   We used to work with just comedians and corporations. Since then we have opened our doors to recording artists, fashion designers, actors and event coordinators. We don’t work with models even though we have been approached and asked by them. But, that could change by next year.

NLTS:  What are your goals?

Lorena:  My biggest goal is to continue to grow my business so that we have offices in both New York and Los Angeles.

Also, I would love to take a vacation. I want to lie on the beach somewhere where the water is warm- the Caribbean Islands is a possibility. I have my mother’s mentality when it comes to vacationing, she always said, “you can rest when you’re dead.” She was only half joking when she said that. I figure I’ll have plenty of time to retire after LM Public Relations really takes off. I’m also in the process of writing a book and I hope to have this finished by next year.

NLTS:  What are the challenges you experienced in your business? How did you overcome them?

Lorena:    I’ve had a lot of challenges, but one of them happened at an old job that I had. I had a really horrible employer once. It made the job very difficult. It is always challenging to work with someone who has a difficult personality. I learned the hard way that there are people out there who don’t want their colleagues to succeed. Backstabbing happens quite often in this industry and it’s a harsh reality of the business. I’ve learned to be less trusting in this Industry.

NLTS:  Do you have a lot of competitors?

Lorena:   Every company has its own reputation. Our niche is in comedy and companies. There is not much too much competition in this area. No one has stolen our clients and we don’t steal anyone else’s clients either. Hollywood is a small community so everything comes around.

My belief is if you work hard for your clients, then there is nothing to worry about.

NLTS:  Who is your favorite comedian?

Lorena:    My favorite is Richard Pryor. He really helped lots of comedians with his style. With him being one the first African-American comics, he managed to gain acceptance with the general public and he opened many doors for the comedians who came after him. Performing comedy is one of the hardest jobs in the world and he made it look easy.

NLTS:  Do you have any other information that you’d like to share with us?

Lorena:   Yes, I’d love to have your readers check out our website at http://www.lmpublicrelations.com/index.html for more information about our company and services we provide. I also want to thank NLTS for spending your valuable time with me. Publicists always set up interviews for other people so on behalf of all of us publicists, thank you.

NLTS:  Thank you so much for sharing your first-hand experience with us.

Related Link:    LM Public Relations

Lorena Meza began her publicity career at Rogers & Cowan. She worked with Fortune 5OO Corporate Accounts such as Coca-Cola, Bodog.com, NASCAR, LPGA, General Mills and National Hockey League. In addition to her work with corporations, she has handled publicity efforts for numerous A-list celebrities. Shortly after working at Rogers & Cowan, she was recruited by the president of Laugh Factory Inc. to head up the Public Relations department at the Laugh Factory Comedy Club in Hollywood.

In 2006, she co-founded LM Public Relations. She holds a Bachelors degree in Political Science from the University of California, Santa Cruz and a Masters in Communications from CSULA. She is a native Angeleno.