Today we’d like to introduce you to Ariana Adams.
Hi Ariana, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I first started my journey in public relations during my sophomore year in college at Texas State University. In 2018, a group of my friends and peers felt like our school lacked diversity and the opportunity to listen in and hear perspectives in the fashion and media industries. We were creative and wanted to connect with other Black creatives, fashion designers, and media professionals. . We decided to create Texas State Fashion Week. During this time, we gathered 5 panelist speakers FUCCI, a fashion designer, Phreshy, a celebrity publicist, Kiki Ayers, a celebrity publicist. We were able to put on a fashion show twice that resulted in over 10 fashion designers, 50 models, and over 1000 students attending. It was amazing and opened up my eyes to what I could do. During this time, I began to fall in love with public and media relations, which spurred my journey. For the first time in my life, I felt passionate, driven, and ambitious. I was addicted to the feeling of helping others’ dreams come true and knew that PR was a great field to help others manifest their brands and businesses into reality. I didn’t know where to start to find ways to enter this industry, but I tried everything and anything. That’s how dedicated I was. I reached out to possibly hundreds of agencies and publicists big and small every day after our Texas State Fashion week, offering my help with their agencies just to learn and gain as much knowledge as possible. After many no’s and rejections, I finally was able to secure two internships at two Black-owned agencies. I got to work with clients such as Jayda Wayda, Black Ink Crew, WAGS ATL, WAGS LA, celebrity hair stylists, and other brands and influencers. I then went on to secure other PR internships in tech PR, beauty PR, and activism. I was hooked. People began to take notice of my work. I had rappers, artists, fashion designers, business owners, and CEOS reaching out to me to ask for my services. I did work with a few clients but felt like I wanted to build my credibility within the industry so that I could really learn and then make an impact within the black community. I began to connect with 10 people in the media industry every single day on LinkedIn, I commented on people’s posts, I asked for advice, for referrals, I even started posting on my own LinkedIn things I had learned or was learning. I then started my community initiative, For Every Girl PR to help undergrads and graduates secure opportunities to build out their career – in PR there isn’t an actual “career roadmap” it’s all based on opportunity and looking for that opportunity. I learned that and wanted to share it with others; so many girls would DM me and ask me how to get internships or how I had got to where I am and FEG was the perfect way to share my tips. Soon, people started to take notice of me there as well. I had a recruiter reach out to me and said that they had been watching me and wanted to give me an opportunity to work at one of the top global PR firms in the world – Hill and Knowlton Strategies. They were ranked 10 in 2021. I truly did the work. I didn’t give up. I didn’t stop. I kept going and that’s what got me to where I am today.
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?
It hasn’t been a smooth road, but I’ve learned – and this is going to sound generic – but you have to walk by faith and trust and believe that what you want is going to materialize in your life. I’ve faced many struggles. I lost both of my parents at the age of 10 and although I was raised by my grandmother, our family had a lot of trauma from my mother’s death. That left me helpless in most cases as I couldn’t always get the help or motivation I needed. I had to learn how to rely on myself and my desire for more kept me going. Beyond my parent’s death, looking for opportunities didn’t come easy for me. I got so many no’s, rejections, or no responses. There was a point in time where I questioned everything and questioned the path of PR that I had taken. But I felt like it was the career I wanted to be in and wanted to make an impact in, so I picked myself back up and kept going. I kept going even when I didn’t see any results from my labor or connections. I wanted an opportunity, so I made sure that I was ready to take it when it did come, even if I couldn’t see it at the moment. That’s what you have to consistently do; believe that on the other side, you will have your reward one way or another.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I specialize in public relations, media relations, and social media. My professional revolves around looking for opportunities to communicate a particular and positive narrative around a brand, monitoring news for any opportunities or watching out for crises, developing strategies to put our clients in the best light, and creating social media and social narratives around our target audience. Everything that I do revolves around how we can communicate to a mass amount of people in a way that our target audience will resonate and accept.
I believe what sets me apart from others is that this professional highlights my best strengths and some of my weaknesses. Due to that fact, I believe I work very hard because my profession is tied to me professionally and personally. I know that sounds strange, but I love this profession because of that. I am very good at communicating with people and am able to articulate myself well, but I also have a natural ability on how to write and communicate a particular narrative across. I do it with my own social media. I tell people “you are your own publicist.” I appreciate the fact that while I can use my strengths and that they’re good strengths to have within this profession, I also have the opportunity to work on certain weaknesses that I have. Most people completely rely on their strengths and don’t work on their weaknesses. I strive to work on those weaknesses as best as I can and this professional helps me do that. Doing that also helps me surround myself with people that are strong where I am weak, therefore creating an authentic working environment, which allows me to connect with a variety of creative people, which I love.
How can people work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
The best way to support me at this moment is through LinkedIn – connecting with me personally on there as well as following For Every Girl PR would be the best support. Right now, I am working hard to connect myself and grow professionally.
At some point, you realize that you have to do the “hard work” to be who and go where you want to be. This is that time for me. I have a very clear end goal of who I’d like to become and what I’d like to do, and LinkedIn is a great way for you to stay up with me and support what I have coming in the future. You just may want to be a part of it!
I guess you can also follow me on Instagram too at @TheRealMsAdams haha!
Contact Info:
- Email: ArianaAdamsPR@Gmail.com
- Instagram: Instagram.com/therealmsadams
