Today we’d like to introduce you to Laura Pennino.
Hi Laura, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I never planned to own a PR firm. In fact, I never planned to work in PR when I was in my teens and early 20s. I always enjoyed writing, reading and spending time with animals on our family farm north of New Orleans as a child and young adult. I loved growing up on 25 acres in Covington, LA. I was always outside taking care of our racehorses, cleaning stalls, mending and painting fences, baling hay, and unloading heavy sacks of feed. In school, I was in the honors program and was equally comfortable with science and math, language arts, and writing. Originally, I wanted to be a veterinarian but I knew that financing any college experience would be a major challenge. The idea of going to college and being broke for seven years was not appealing.
So I applied for and received a journalism scholarship, which led me to pursue the journalism program at LSU. I completed LSU in 3 1/2 years in December 1980 and realized very quickly after seven writing and editing internships while attending LSU that I loved writing but I hated being in what was then a very loud and chaotic newsroom environment. I worked for three months at The Hammond Daily Star. I resigned without a full-time job, took on freelance writing projects, and then entered grad school at LSU in the Fall of 1981. Grad school was enjoyable and I aced my classes, securing a 4.0 and a slot on the Dean’s List. However, I really wanted to work and make money. I found a full-time job at a Baton Rouge bank working as a newsletter editor and that led me to community relations activities and press release writing. From there, I moved to Dallas and became a technical editor at an engineering company. At the age of 25, I taught myself how to do public relations and found I was effective in securing national articles in industry trade magazines, working with editors and supporting trade shows and conferences. I knew I was ready for “bigger and better” so I pursued a job with Edelman PR in Dallas and the rest is history. I have worked with clients, teams and media all over the world. I transferred with Edelman to Houston to take on the role of Senior VP and head of the Houston Office in 1996.
By February 1998, it was time for me to take a break from full-time big agency work. I negotiated a part-time arrangement with Fleishman-Hillard, another top 10 global PR firm, and loved being able to work strategically and effectively 25 to 30 hours a week and enjoy my home and my neighbors in the Clear Lake area. I founded Pennino and Partners on Sept. 3, 1998 not even caring to officially launch or accept clients. By the spring 1999, colleagues and friends were asking me if I was really open for business. I said yes so clients started coming my way! Pennino and Partners will celebrate 25 years of uninterrupted continuous operations. I am extremely thankful for my business, my clients, my team members and consultants, media, and community partners who make me a better person and professional 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 have had many hard and sad experiences that have made me better and not bitter. Some of them are: the suicide of my brother and the recent loss of my sister due to Stage 4 stomach cancer, economic challenges that impacted client budgets, depleting my investments and selling a house to keep my staff employed from 2000 through 2003 after the dotcom bubble burst, the COVID pandemic, keeping a business running while experiencing a heartbreaking divorce, having to taking legal action against a few bad actors to secure payments that they owed my firm (fortunately this has only happened twice), navigating my own early-stage breast cancer diagnosis and opting for treatments that the doctors didn’t even mention but that were possible for me. Thankfully, I have been cancer free since December 2014. I have continued to work throughout all this. I am a better, stronger person for all of these experiences.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Pennino and Partners?
Pennino and Partners specializes in writing and public relations services for clients of all types, anywhere in the world. We are a pet-friendly workplace and all of our team members are animal lovers. Sometimes, foster animals hang out in the office with us or participate in parades and special events. We do our best to help everyone we can, even if there is no budget – sharing an idea or some tips or some examples of work completed is easy. We are known for our authenticity, our integrity, and solid work ethic. We are collaborative and provide big agency thinking and big agency experience without requiring our clients to pay a minimum retainer fee or sign a long-term contract. We specialize in issues and crisis communications, PR planning, executive communications, community engagement, writing (bylined articles, guest commentaries, case studies, bios, company profiles, fact sheets, white papers), media relations and publicity, strategic alliance development, communications audits, and assisting our clients with “big stuff” like securing speaking engagements, applying for awards, and pursuing appointments with the Governor!
How can people work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
I am always open to providing a complimentary 30-minute phone or video consultation. Just email me at lp@penninoandpartners.com. For any urgent questions or needs, please call or text me at 713-419-1776. Additionally, my team and I are always open to getting to know members of the media, business owners, young professionals, nonprofit leaders and community organizations. If we cannot help in some way, we will recommend others who can!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.penninoandpartners.com
Image Credits
Photos courtesy of Pennino and Partners.
