P14: Starting Your First Business… Minutes 🕒 after Your First Born 👶… Pops Out… (Amy Power of The Power Group)
Video & Audio of Our Call:
Background:
Amy Power is the Founder of The Power Group headquartered in Dallas, TX. Amy tells us about how she built her company & what she's learned by working hand-in-hand with CEO's & Marketing Directors nationally…
Amy has been a publicist for more than 20 years. She has public relations and marketing experience that spans the following industries: consumer packaged goods, commercial real estate, franchising, outsourcing, telecommunications, sports marketing, automotive and aviation, luxury marketing, medical and dental, nonprofits, as well as a wide array of retail concepts.
Time-Stamped Show Notes:
- [0:05] Amy Power is the founder and CEO of the Power Group, which is a PR and social media crisis management firm. They are based in Dallas, Texas and have been in the business for 20 years.
- [1:23] When she started the business, Amy wanted something different that is far from the normal 9 to 5 job. She got the idea of scaling the business because of something she heard on the radio while driving.
- [3:24] Amy shares some interesting examples of how they do crisis management for their client.
- [6:30] Several years ago, Amy dealt with one of their funniest but very serious crisis management jobs involving a guy who had a lockjaw because of a big sandwich.
- [13:44] In 1990, she moved to Dallas and took an internship in a small PR firm earning $5 an hour.
- [16:05] When she met her husband, whose last name was Power, she thought it would make a great name for her agency. Amy’s last name was Fisher.
- [21:00] In 1999, she was about to give birth to her first child when she received a very important phone call.
- [24:39] Amy came up with a specific amount that she would charge to her clients during the earliest days of the business.
- [27:35] Even though her dream was to have a virtual agency where everyone works from home, the employees wanted to have a real office space. She shares an interesting story of how they got this office space.
- [30:59] As the company grows and gets bigger, Amy realized she needed full-time employees instead of contractors.
- [32:27] She got some bad advice in the early years of her business.
- [36:58] Amy and Austin discuss about getting advice from the right people.
- [41:44] Her company offers a 30-day guarantee, which the clients really value and cherish.
- [44:05] Focusing on a clean and healthy business reputation is one of Amy’s final advice.
Fabulous 4 Questions:
- 📖📚 Favorite Books? I love all Sherlock Holmes mysteries. I can read them over and over. I love the British language.
- 🙌😎 Favorite Amazon.com purchase? When we officially became a military family, I bought my husband a US Air Force Dad T shirt! We are so proud of our son.
- 🌱💸 Favorite Tool that's GROWN your Business? Traction by Gino Wickman & Entrepreneurs Operating System (EOS) by Gino Wickman.
- 💭💡 BIGGEST Challenge keeping your Business from GROWING? I want bigger clients. I want to work with brands like Pepsi, Frito-Lay, etc. If we get our foot in the door I know we can do it. We’ve done it with Borden Dairy Company and others.
Key Point from the Interview:
- “I’m driving on a weekend listening to talk radio, and the guy was talking about business and he said – Well if you can’t go on vacation and leave your company for a week, you basically have just created another job for yourself. And I truly wanted to bang my head against the steering wheel because I thought oh my gosh, that’s what I’ve done, I’ve created another job.”
Resources Mentioned:
- LinkedIn: @AmyPowerPR
- The Power Group
- ‘Wicked' Sandwich Leads to Lockjaw for Chad Ettmueller
- Entrepreneurs’ Organization Dallas
- ADP Payroll Company
Secret Resources:
