Meet Chad Shearer of Caren West PR in Downtown

Today we’d like to introduce you to Chad Shearer.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Chad. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Caren West PR was originally started in Atlanta, Georgia as a dual agency, focusing on public relations and graphic design. The company’s namesake and my business partner headed up the PR side of things, while I operated more as the CWPR’s creative director.

Over the years and since branching out to Phoenix, we have increased our focus on public relations specifically in the music festival vertical. I am now solely focused on music festival PR, with large format festivals in Arizona, Texas, New Mexico, Alaska, Georgia, Tennessee and South Carolina. With Arizona and Phoenix we are handling PR and media operations behind over 200 events a year, involving nearly 400 artists.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Anyone that tells you that growing a small business has been a smooth road is most likely not be honest with themselves. We have been incredibly fortunate over our 12-year history, having the opportunity to work with some truly remarkable people and projects. The biggest challenge came in 2007/2008 when the recession was laying waste to companies across every imaginable industry. PR especially was tough because one of the first budget cuts for businesses will be advertising and public relations.

And while our peers chose to keep their heads down, CWPR took a different approach- offering pro-bono services to community groups and organizations only asking for logo placement in return. The effect this had was that when the recession had subsided and people had budgets- restaurants especially, CWPR was everyone’s first call. We had been the only one talking during that period.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
Caren West PR is a lifestyle and entertainment public relations firm. We specialize in fashion, restaurants, music festivals, art galleries, salons and much more. When my mom asks me what CWPR does, I tell her to think about what she likes to do for fun and we probably represent in some capacity. We rep the people who are doing your hair and nails, so you can go out to one of our restaurants in the new clothes you bought from yet another client. We rep the beer in your glass and the art you are admiring, as you drink it.

Ultimately our goal is to get our clients in the newspapers, magazines and online, as well as on TV and the radio. We are trying to start a dialogue that will get people excited about what our client is doing and creating and then have that dialogue go viral. And while a big part of PR focuses on the positive of our client’s stories, we also specialize in crisis PR should something arise that requires those skills.

As far as a proud moment for CWPR… we once beat out O Magazine (the Oprah Winfrey publication) for the best special event of the year. Not too shabby.

What were you like growing up?
I would like to say I was very creative, but also painfully shy. I recall working in the yard with my Dad and asking him what he thought I would grow up to be. He told me that he thought I would end up on Saturday Night Live. Didn’t quite hit the mark, but I still have an entertaining life.

Contact Info:

• Address: 7310 N 16th Street
  suite 275
  Phoenix AZ 85020
• Website: http://www.carenwestpr.com
• Phone: 404-614-0006
• Email: chadavid@carenwestpr.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carenwestpr/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carenwestpr/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/carenwestpr

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