Tracy Lamourie, a high profile international award winning publicist, is the Founder and Managing Director of Lamourie Media Inc. A Universal Women’s Network 2020 Woman of Inspiration Winner for the Women In Media award and the author of the upcoming book GET REPPED – Build Your Brand With Effective Public and Media Relations. She is a well known long time advocate on a myriad of important worldwide issues and an award-winning international publicist working across industries from major entertainment projects to small businesses. Tracy is passionate about amplifying important messages and being a voice for those who most need one.
Recognized by media around the world for her 20-year campaign that ultimately helped free an innocent man from death row to her work getting clients major media attention and for her local community work, she is the winner of the FIRST PLACE PLATINUM award Hamilton Spectator ReadersChoice for PR 2018, Diamond 2019.She is a 2020 RBC Women of Influence Nominee and was also recently nominated for the internationally prestigious 2020 Tällberg/Eliasson Global Leadership Prize. She has been frequently quoted in the international media on both human rights issues and as a Public Relations thought leader. A frequent guest on TV, radio and high profile podcasts around the world on topics of leadership, empowerment, and entrepreneurship as well as all aspects of media and public relations.
Please tell us a little bit about your company – what is Lamourie Media all about?
We are an international award winning Publicity, PR and media company working with clients across industries, shining a spotlight on the great work creatives across the entertainment spectrum are doing, and elevating and celebrating and elevating important voices and messaging.
Tell us a little bit about your background and how you started your company?
That’s actually a pretty fascinating story, and for the long version google me and look for the article quoting me in Rolling Stone, Prosperi Press, or the Hamilton Spectator, which have all documented my unique path to my work. Basically, I had a background in marketing and in our twenties my husband and now business partner Dave Parkinson and I had a radio show in Toronto. So we were young activists, and had some media savvy, and we became award of the case of an innocent man named Jimmy Dennis who was then on Death Row in Pennsylvania. To alert media around the world about this travesty of justice, I literally went over to Alta Vista (the precursor of Google!) and searched for templates on how to write a press release, and figured it out pretty quickly! That first press release and ones we did over the years in that unpaid advocacy work of the heart, about Jimmy Dennis and then about other injustices regarding the US death penalty, got international pickup from CNN to NBC to Court TV to MSNBC to Der Speigel to People to THe National Enquirer! Meanwhile as all this was going on, I was just going about my day job in marketing. It suddenly hit me one day, 15 or so years later, that I was actually a hugely effective – even though untrained! publicist – and from that day on I literally decided I wasn’t going to make a ton of calls a day for something I didn’t care about ever again. I started getting clients as a freelancer doing PR and publicity and writing content work. In 2015 we formed Lamourie PR as a General Partnership and in the fall of covid – 2020, we upped our game, scaled up and incorporated as Lamourie Media.
What are your plans, how do you plan to grow this company?
While we missed the international travel and VIP parties, we actually had a really good year in 2020 as a business. Fascinating clients with incredible messages continued to come our way and refer others to us, we streamlined operations, we increased revenues, built powerful networks across industries, and I built my own brand as a speaker on issues related to media, publicity, entrepreneurship, leadership and more on a global level during lockdown via the power of zoom! Additionally, my cofounder is pursuing investment strategies that we expect to help Lamourie Media leverage its power. We continue to follow those increasingly successful strategies into 2021 and beyond.
What was the biggest problem you encountered with your business and how did you overcome it?
I had no funding, no backing, no personal funds to draw on. Basically I started this business in the corner of the living room of the rental apartment we were in at the time, on old – and I mean old – desktop, and an internet connection, and a whole lot of determination, drive, and dedication. How did I overcome it? With determination, drive and dedication!
What were the top mistakes you made starting your business and what did you learn from it?
I was great at what I did, but I didn’t know a single thing about running a business. I’m so grateful that I started working with the truly incredible Jane McCormick of McCormick Consulting. She really has helped me turn around my entire backend, understand my worth and increase my prices, encouraged us to and takes us through the process of incorporating, she’s brilliant and patient and truly cares about her clients. She’s a gem, and that ain’t no PR spin!
How do you separate yourself from your competitors?
I’m a skilled, savvy, smart publicist – and I do for myself and my brand, when I have time – what I do for my clients and their brands – and I speak publicly around the world about how I can help any entrepreneur elevate themselves to the top of whatever industry they are in. I’ve been booked on more than 90 podcasts around the world between Oct 2020 and next April – I don’t know what other publicists are doing to build their brands but I don’t hear them out there speaking to and educating entrepreneurs about why they should stop thinking about advertising and start thinking about earned media – that means getting interviewed in actual TV, radio, news – the spots you can’t buy, the ones I publicist can with their skills and contacts get you! So I differentiate myself by DOING. I’m also pretty personally well known since I’ve lived a life in radio, advocacy, politics, etc so I’m not a back ground girl though I can be if its needed of course!
What is one thing that you do daily to grow as an entrepreneur?
Since lockdown and the lack of travel, I have been a guest on a podcast a day nearly every day – I spend ten minutes or so a day pitching myself to interesting podcasts the way I pitch my clients to media, and because of my unique story, important skillset and ability to educate entrepreneurs and executives from across industries on how they can elevate themselves past their competition, get new clients, build their brand or their personal reputation as a thought leader by the effective use of PR or media.
What are three books or courses you recommend for new entrepreneurs?
- The 30 Percent Solution by Lew Bayer
- Straight Up From the Tea Cup by Toni Dupree
- Not Your Average Cup of Joe by Joseph Braithwaite
What is the one thing you wish you knew before starting your business?
That I should have incorporated from the beginning, there are so many advantages!
What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your business?
I have never bought a single ad, I’m a publicist and I believe in getting media talking about you and that is the only and most effective way I have grown my business, other than to continue to do excellent work and provide stellar care and service so that clients continue to recommend me to their friends and colleagues.
If you only had $1000 dollars to start a new business, knowing everything you know now, how would you spend it?
A computer, an internet connection, and a publicist if I wasn’t one myself! After all it’s like Bill Gates said, if he was down to his last 100 bucks, he’d spend it on PR. No matter how awesome what you are doing is, its no good if no one has ever heard of it.
What’s your best piece of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs?
Work hard, then work harder, and as Jimmy Dennis always says, “never ever give up!”
What is your favorite quote?
“Never ever give up,” Jimmy Dennis ….. and “Don’t dream it, be it” From Rocky Horror Picture Show.. and I heard this one last year – no idea who said it but I have been repeating it ever since I read it… “We didn’t get this far to only get this far”
How can we get in touch with you?
You can visit my company website lamouriemedia.com, find me on social media via Facebook, Instagram.
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