A Sweet NEW Year Indeed

With much gratitude, I am announcing today that I am leaving Ketchum, my work home for the past eight years. My last day is Friday. Just in case you don’t have the time to read this whole post…here’s the news; I am starting my own company with my husband. The company is called Curious Cat Media. We're focusing on helping people live intentionally.

Intentional living is an ideal that has been developing in my career and personal life for quite some time -- without me knowing it. That’s a funny statement because it’s basically the opposite of intentional, right? It "just happened." But, in truth, it didn’t just happen. I am starting to believe that you manifest what you put out into the world.

As I reflect on my career so far, I see the journey that was to come, a lot of cool experiences and some mistakes too!

I will never forget how my colleagues at Ogilvy PR laughed at me when I went on a fitness retreat in 2010 to learn from my then favorite fitness professional, Chalene Johnson, creator of Turbo Kick. “You’re going away with people you don’t know to workout all day?” they asked. Now people are shelling out big bucks to go on wellness and fitness retreats.

My first weight loss client was NutriSystem. We helped Tori Spelling lose the weight from her first baby (now she’s up to like six kids and on the weight-loss bandwagon again). I remember when I was talking to Joey Fatone’s manager about his potential to work with NutriSystem. He told me that Joey was the only one from ‘NSync who had made something of himself! I said, um, I think there is this other guy named Justin Timberlake who is kind of a big deal. I remember the times when I helped Bertolli Frozen Meals launch its products in celebrity gifting suites at the Emmys and Golden Globes. No mass brands had ever shown up at award shows before and it was so cool to blaze that trail. I got to meet and work with some incredible people, got to breathe air around Oprah and had the most hilarious exchange with Howie Mandel while I was trying to hand him a branded prop during the taping of a segment for Access Hollywood.

We sent Marisa Tomei and Rocco DiSpirito “Into the Heart of Italy,” and when we launched the program to media in 2010 and Ms. Tomei didn’t want to be too close to any press at lunch, I told her “the Pope Mobile wasn’t available for the luncheon.” I also sent a really inappropriate email to her manager by accident and rocked in the fetal position on the floor under my desk for about 20 minutes.

To celebrate this trip to Italy (which I did not get to go on, and am still sore about), we threw a celeb-studded party in LA. I had to share this picture of me and Rob Lowe after I told his wife that his picture was spread all over my teenage bedroom walls.

Six months after I joined Ketchum to run the Pfizer Consumer Healthcare business, we had the opportunity to work with Weight Watchers. It was my dream to represent the “holy grail” of weight loss brands. When then CEO Dave Kirchoff explained his vision to make WW obsolete by reversing the obesity crisis in the world, I fell even more in love with the brand. Getting to meet Jennifer Hudson and Jessica Simpson were pretty cool moments, but my favorite memory was sitting in a room with then CMO Dave Burwick, and talking about where to debut the new Jennifer ad. We decided to put it on X-Factor because the ad flew right in the face of Simon Cowell who had been so mean to Jennifer. When the ad ran, I thought to myself, “wow, I helped make this happen.” I also helped open Jennifer’s own WW center in Chicago and worked with then Mayor, Rahm Emanuel to bring the potential to live healthier lives to inner city Chicago.

 In 2012, I got to work with Jon Bon Jovi for Advil. He did the ad to raise awareness for his Soul Kitchen, a co-op for people in New Jersey who are living in poverty. I will never forget how much he didn't want the Advil bottle in the shot. It was an ad. For Advil.

The campaign we kicked off was called “Advil: Relief In Action.” I got to interview Regis Philbin and his wife at their beautiful home, we helped relief workers after Hurricane Sandy and we were able to make a real difference in people’s lives by supporting Team Rubicon and their relief efforts.

In May, 2012, I sent a text to my Advil client after completing my first Tough Mudder. It was a picture of a trial-size packet of Advil and my filthy mud-covered bib. I said, “We have to bring Advil here, everything hurts.” The next year, we sponsored Tough Mudder, and I got to run the course with some of my best friends and colleagues. We wore Advil branded t-shirts and got to take pics in front of the obstacle I helped conceive, “Relief In Action,” where you had to fireman carry a partner. I chose my sister.

Perhaps my favorite part of my time at Ketchum was growing the Food & Wellness practice in New York. My vision was to help my team of 25 find their own specialty within our group and be celebrated for being themselves. We set a financial goal and we all knew what our role was in making it happen. We set personal goals and we helped one another reach them. I helped my colleague become PRWeek 40 Under 40 for being a trailblazer in her industry. We helped people realize they were meant to do nutrition work or run a triathalon or go back to school. We worked out together, we laughed together, we cried together and we made work fun. We learned our social styles, we did Myers-Briggs and we got pretty drunk at my house. We celebrated our differences and we built a culture within a culture. It was a shining moment in my career when I received feedback through an anonymous survey that our engagement rate and intent to stay was the highest in the office. I was so proud to have been a part of creating an environment where people felt they were a part of something. Maybe it was the monthly meetings with meme-filled slides that told the story of where we were as a team, or maybe it was the fact that our energy attracted incredible clients that made our days richer. But, whatever it was, it felt magical even on the hard days.

I will always be grateful to Ketchum for helping me find a voice in the fitness space. When we pitched the idea of Ketchum FIT to Paul Holmes in 2014, I remember saying, “these fitness professionals who are teaching hundreds of people every day all around the city have the power to make brands famous.” He was skeptical, but nodded and put the idea in his recap from the meeting. Four years later, the words “Fitness Micro-Influencer” explain exactly what we were talking about.

It’s hard to see what you’re building when you’re in the middle of building it. It can feel like a day to day grind, not necessarily a deliberate path or journey. But, looking back on this last chapter of my career, it has been leading up to this very moment.

Our new company, Curious Cat Media, helps people to live intentionally. Through the clients we support, the influencers we work with and the experiences and content we create, we hope to inspire people to live happy lives by their own design. Stay tuned for our new website and some exciting client work. We have much more news to share and I can’t wait to make new memories with new clients and brands. We are excited to support companies that share our values in making the world a more intentional, happy, peaceful place to live. I hope you will follow along our journey and I hope we’ll be a part of yours.

In the meantime, L’Shana Tova to all who celebrate. Rosh Hashanah has always been a time of resetting and reflection for me. This year is one I know I will hold as a milestone; that time I trusted myself and put myself out there to do what I have been building toward my whole career (and maybe life). Thank you to all who have supported me so far. To all who will in the future -- I can’t wait to meet you.