Jenna Guarneri is the CEO and founder of JMG Public Relations, an award-winning public relations firm based in New York City. Jenna counsels innovators changing the world with their B2B and B2C venture backed startup companies. She is known for delivering quality work while fostering meaningful relationships with her clients, team, and media contacts. Jenna is an authority with a proven track record on reputation management, media relations, and brand communication.
In 2015, Jenna launched JMG Public Relations offering a unique blend of creative thinking, strategizing, and execution of public relations campaigns. Jenna has the privilege of working with clients in all industries, including real estate, media, business, entertainment, lifestyle, fitness, and more.
JMG Public Relations is the winner of the Best of New York award for the PR category for both 2018 and 2019, as well as ‘Best PR Agency’ in 2018 by the Best of Small Business Awards. Jenna was also named a ‘Woman to Watch in 2018’ by the New York Real Estate Journal.
In 2017, Jenna launched the “Comforting Hearts” fundraising campaign which provides ‘comfort blankets’ to heart transplant patients at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center, which houses the third largest Transplant Program in the nation. Jenna is the Communications Chair of the Entrepreneur’s Organization Accelerator Program in New York, as well as a Board Member of the Pace University Transformative Leadership Certificate Program.
Jenna is a graduate of Baruch College with a B.A. in Corporate Communications. She graduated cum laude and is a member of Gold Key International Honour Society.
Please tell us a little bit about your company – what is JMG Public Relations all about?
JMG Public Relations is an award-winning firm for innovators who are changing the world, making it a better place for future generations. They are creating ideas that are changing an antiquated industry or they are creating a whole new category.
Our clients have been placed in what we call the “1% of media’ including Inc Magazine, Fast Company, Entrepreneur, the Wall Street Journal and on national television networks like CNBC’s ‘The Exchange’, Fox & Friends, and TODAY. You name it, we’ve had a placement there.
What would you say are the top 3 skills needed to be a successful entrepreneur, and why?
- Patience: Success doesn’t come easy and it requires a long-term commitment.
- Perseverance: There will be obstacles and if you stick it out, you will persevere.
- Scrappiness: At the beginning of your journey, you will need to make a lot of decisions that require you to be conscious of your bottom line while producing an impactful return on your investment.
How do you separate yourself from your competitors?
Most clients come to us because they say their last PR firm didn’t produce enough results, they weren’t responding to their emails in a timely fashion. They felt like a ‘small fish in a big sea,’ and overall, that their firm didn’t feel like they ‘understood them.’ We focus on solving those problems for clients. We are passionate about our work and the relationship we have with our clients.
When we work with a new client, we look at the brand from a much more holistic perspective. We ask questions like, ‘how is your consumer engaging with you?’, ‘what are their pain points?’, and ‘of those paint points, what is the brand solving?’ We dig deep to understand the ‘WHY?’ It’s an important word when dealing with our three pillars of communication; our clients, internally as a team, and with the media.
What are your plans for the future, how do you plan to grow this company?
Our plans are to continuously double year after year. We faired extremely well during COVID-19, especially when compared to other firms. While PR wasn’t a focus for many brands and the media cycles were so saturated by the pandemic, we focused last year on building our network, improving our processes and laying the groundwork for when businesses started to go back to a (new) normal.
What is the one thing you wish you knew before starting your business?
Being an entrepreneur, you can never stop learning. I personally did not attend business school, so I had to be scrappy in the beginning of my journey to figure out more than what others may have had to. I wish I searched for a mentor earlier on in my entrepreneurial journey until waiting until year three or four. Now I have the privilege of having been mentored by some of the most incredible people, but I could have learned quicker certain tricks of the trade probably sooner had I worked with a mentor sooner.
If you had the chance to start your career over again what would you do differently?
Absolutely nothing. You grow from every curveball life throws at you and every misstep you make. You become more successful as an entrepreneur by having more experiences and not all experiences can be good. It just depends on how you handle the experiences that will affect how you end up.
I am a huge fan of Mike McFall’s book called “Grind: A No-bullsh*t Approach to Take Your Business from Concept to Cash Flow” which helps entrepreneurs identify the common-sense strategies needed to turn their start-up idea into a positive cash flow business.
I also suggest the podcast by Michael Woodward called JumbleThink which tells the stories of dreamers, makers, innovators, and influencers who are impacting culture and changing the world around them.
For an online course, I suggest Pace University’s Transformative Leadership certificate program which focuses on teaching innovative thinking as a means of advancing technical, analytical, and communication skills to address today’s changing landscape.
What is your favorite quote?
This is much more than a quote, but my favorite speech of all time is Teddy Roosevelt’s ‘The Man in the Arena.’
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
– Teddy Roosevelt, The Man in the Arena
What’s your best piece of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs?
Never stop learning and never stop trying. The harder you work towards your goals, the more indestructible you become.
How can we get in touch with you?
To follow my work, you can check out the blog on our website, in addition to my column as a Forbes contributor. You can also follow me on Instagram for more information relative to my personal life or on my business account, here.
Entrepreneur Interview: PR Entrepreneurs: Before Starting a PR Business, I Wish I Knew
