The Sevan Blog

Patrice Cameau takes on one of the most complex jobs in the world head-on: making others look amazing in the eye of the public. And she does it with ease and delight while married, raising a well-rounded son and constantly endeavoring to up her game. She is testament that what most write off as merely smoke and mirrors behind the glitz of personas is actually brimming with dedication, sweat and hustle. She creates the magic in her own life and in the lives of a growing list of happy clients.

Sevan sat down with Patrice over lunch at Busboys and Poets in DC…

Patrice: I try not to compare myself to other people. On Oprah’s Master Class, she said she was always worried about her competition, and she finally realized if you’re going forward you can’t move back, right? So I’m trying to always tell myself that. Like when me and RJ (son) race, he’s always looking back at me when he’s running, and I’m like, RJ, don’t look at me. If you keep looking at me, you’re not going to win. So as I tell him that, I’m telling myself that. There’s a lot of people around here who are publicists, or who add PR to the end of their name. And I love Twitter, but unfortunately that is what Twitter has done to jobs in the entertainment industry…publicity, stylists, photographers…it’s really desensitized. It’s watered it down to the umpteenth degree and it’s frustrating. But at the end of the day, I know I might not have 2,000 followers, but the 900 that I do have really appreciate everything that I say. They talk back to me. They’re not just randoms; they get it and they understand.

As far as I’m concerned, if you haven’t gotten a client in any type of reputable media publication then you’re not a publicist. That’s what we do. It’s not about tweeting for somebody. That’s a little piece of it, but if I’m not looking at a magazine or looking on a blog, and if I have not built a relationship with that reporter or that journalist or that photographer…at the end of the day, that’s what matters. So it may take me 10 years to get a client that’s paying money for me to actually live, but it’s okay because everything that I did built up to it. And I really think people say good things about me.

Patrice: I know and do what’s right and I expect you to do the same. At the end of the day, a publicist is behind the scenes. I’ve always known that. If you see me out, I’m actually saying please don’t take my picture if I’m at an event. If I’m doing an event, you don’t need to know who I am. That’s where people get it confused; now because of social media and reality TV, they think the publicist is the celebrity. No. Publicists that are celebrities like Marvet Britto, she’s been in the game for 20 years. Before anybody even had an inkling of who she was. Now she’s just reaping the benefits because of her celebrity clients. Who built this? She built it, and now people start to ask who she is.

And then even for the overnight success stories like with Justin Bieber, it actually wasn’t overnight for him. That’s all we saw. This dude has been friggin playing the piano and drums since he was in the womb, you know what I’m saying? Everybody is looking for the quick thing and nobody is really understanding [that] it’s so much more than your social media sphere. That’s a great avenue, but it’s just one avenue. What other things are you doing to build your audience?

Sevan: I think a lot of people don’t realize that PR is actually in the communications field. What do you think about that?

Patrice: At [The University of] Maryland, Communications has four tracks: rhetoric, speech, general and PR. Maryland, which has one of the top journalism and communications schools, was like in order to do the PR track, you have to take two journalism classes. In order to take those classes you have to pass the TWSE, which is a writing and grammar class. If you cannot pass this test, you cannot get into those classes. Weeded them suckers out easily. For me it was nothing, because I love English; and I was an English teacher for two years. We had to take two journalism classes with an actual reporter, and she said, “I hate public relations people because you guys don’t get it. You don’t know how to write. You don’t know that I’m on deadline. You don’t know how a newsroom works. I hate you all.” And if you got one thing wrong you failed the assignment, and it was tough. I got a C in that class. Then we had to take another one, designing a newspaper layout, etc. And that’s the only way that you’ll understand. Not to discredit anybody who hasn’t cause I’m not sitting here saying you gotta go to school and you gotta do this, but you’ve got to study it. That’s what public relations is. It’s strategic planning to reach your designated audiences, and it’s understood that being able to reach the media is actually the biggest audience because they have access to everybody and that’s how you look credible. It’s so much cheaper than advertising but people don’t know that.

Sevan: I could tell immediately that you get it compared to what I see other people doing. You’re not just making a bunch of tweets, a bunch of noise.

Patrice: My thing is, it’s not news if it’s not from a news source. So don’t sit here and tell me that this is client news, don’t tweet that this is client news if I can’t click on it in The Washington Post! When people ask me to do little interviews and stuff for their paper I always just say, “Quality over quantity.” Am I the best? Hell no. Do I have so much to learn? Hell yes. But at least I feel like I know the basics and I know that I’m nowhere near where I want to be as far as what I want to know. I think I made the right decision to leave my [last] job.

Sevan: Why do you say you think?

Patrice: You know what, I know I did. But sometimes, like when you can’t pay your bills, you say, did I really do this? Because I really have a car note. I originally thought about leaving my job in November 2010, and it’s funny because I was in Vegas for work. I was on an all expenses paid [trip], nice hotel, company credit card…living the life! And literally while I was there I was like, this sucks! I was like this is not right for me. I’m ready to leave my job. And so from November to March, I basically was just like how the hell am I going to get out of here? I’d applied to jobs, but nobody was calling me back. And I knew that if I would have taken another job I would have been in the same situation: trying to do half my business and half their work, not getting acknowledged for my hard work, just being the errand girl. Meanwhile, I’m going across the country with the CEO, representing him, but they didn’t want to give me a promotion. So one day in March I just woke up and I was like I’m leaving. And I told Ronald (husband) that I was thinking about it, but I didn’t tell him until after I’d already turned in my two weeks and he was cool with it. Now that I’ve done it, I really can’t see myself going back to someone…like, a desk? I have the freedom [now to] drop my son off a little late cause we can hang out a little bit. I pick him up early. It’s just a different kind of life.

Sevan: So is Ronald okay with it now? How does that work?

Patrice: He’s fine. I still hold up my weight financially. While he didn’t know the exact date I was going to hand in my resignation, he was beside me all the way. He would always say, “man, just do it!” He and I have been together longer than I’ve been consulting. He’s been there when I was working for free. He’s been to events that no one covered. He’s the one who stays with our son so I can work late night events, never asking questions. He always gives professional advice and challenges me to think bigger because he he wants this thing to grow…sometimes I think he wants it more than I do!

Patrice: Once I say I’m going to do something, I’m going to do it. Once I feel like God has said do it, once He puts it in my heart, it’s just like I just gotta do it. I don’t like wasting time. I said if I didn’t get the promotion I was going to leave my job. I didn’t get the promotion. They made me interview for a job I was already doing. So after that I was like I can stay here and be miserable and get fired cause that’s what was going to happen, or I can just bow out gracefully. I’m not going to say that if I was working somewhere else I would have left, because if it was a positive environment I might have stayed. But I’m like it all happened for a reason. I didn’t get the promotion for a reason. It’s no coincidence that God put it in my heart to leave back in November when I was in Vegas.

Sevan: How do you find balance?

Patrice: I’ll get up and I’ll drop my son off and then I’ll go work for [about] four hours. And I’ve already put in like two hours of work when I get up in the morning while he sleeps. So then I may go and treat myself for lunch and have a glass of wine. And then I go pick him up. I don’t really travel that much anymore. Last year I was literally all over. You have the work, [then] you have the client event, and you have your family, then you have your you time. So actually I’m by myself a lot and because I’m by myself, I don’t have to go out that much anymore to socialize. And most of the people that I work with I’m actually growing friendships [with], so it’s not really like work anymore, which makes it a lot easier. I see people all the time who work 12-hour days for somebody else. I’m like dude, you’re doing all that for somebody else?

Patrice: Right now my life is just in crazy transition. I really don’t know what’s going to happen, but He’s got it, so you know.

Sevan: It will all work out.

Patrice: It will. Things like this make me feel reassurance that I am doing what I’m supposed to do and I’m all right. I have really good people around me.

Find out more about Patrice {patricecameau.com} and Commun Public Relations {www.communPR.com}. And don’t forget to follow on Twitter: @PatriceCameau and @CommunPR. A special thank you to Nichole Pugh of marienichole Design Group for styling the shoot.

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