We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Hayley Antonian a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hayley, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?
Thank you for that compliment, I think it’s a work in progress. Initially I think my resilience stems from a young age – starting when I was diagnosed with an auto immune disease at the age of 10. I missed a lot of school and had limitations that separated me from my peers. I had to learn to push forward and work hard to catch up with schoolwork, social activities, and friendships. This perseverance helped me later in life – establishing a career in PR, having a daughter who has special needs, and when I decided to start a company (Scenario). The path might not always be what I expected but it is mine, and all the pit falls along the way have allowed for key learnings and growth.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself (and your company) before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I am an east coast girl, originally from Williamstown, MA (a small town in the Berkshires in Western MA). I then went south for school, attending Emory University, and then made my way out West, post college. I started my career as an assistant at the William Morris Endeavor agency, then moved to personal PR at Marleah Leslie & Assoc. before settling at BWR (Baker Winokur Ryder). I stayed there for over 15 years, heading up their fashion/beauty/lifestyle department on the west coast. Almost 5 years ago I took the leap and started Scenario with my partners – Ron Hofmann and Steven Wilson. Scenario is a communications agency of highly experienced practitioners across all skill sets including media relations, event marketing, influencer marketing and social media management. We serve a wide range of clients including entertainment, fashion, hospitality, wellness/beauty and tech among others. We are agile, strategic, responsive and results driven. Of course, there are always bumps along the way (with every start up), but that has motivated us to continue to do and be better – in all areas – client management, media relations and employee relations. We are eager to continue to grow our business, service offerings and team members. We just made Inc. magazine’s list of fastest growing companies so that was an exciting milestone and moment! We also place a strong importance on community, culture, and family. As a mother of three young children (ages 10, 7 and 4) it was very important to me when starting Scenario to provide the flexibility and encouragement to have both worlds– family life and professional career – coexist successfully.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
The qualities or skills that were most impactful in my journey were those that I didn’t learn in school. I think persistence, dedication, empathy and communication are among the top. Whether it was continually following up with my dream clients until they became a reality, dedicating myself to the job (coming in early, staying late, researching during my free time), showing compassion for clients and/or co-workers, or communicating effectively – they all proved essential for being successful at the job.
In terms of advice for people looking to go into a career in communications or publicity, I would say the things that I would recommend would be interning and gathering advice from as many people in the profession as possible. Educating yourself about all aspects of the job and what types of PR interest you are important – personal, entertainment, brand, etc. By talking to people in all areas of the industry you can learn about different styles of execution and leadership and incorporate those lessons and learnings into your own practice.
Tell us what your ideal client would be like?
I am interested in so many areas of PR that it is not the “category” that makes a client intriguing to me. The ‘ideal’ client is someone with a passion for what they are doing. The willingness to want to partner to grow and build their brand, company, event, festival…To be open to ideas, trying new things, pushing the boundaries, being nimble. Finding people that have the same drive and vision is always inspiring and invigorating.
We are always looking to partner with new people and clients!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.scenariopr.com
- Instagram: @hayleyantonian, @ourscenario
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hayley.scheckantonian/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hayley-scheck-antonian-66112a23/
Image Credits
Group photo – Vivien Kililiea Best
