Today we’d like to introduce you to David Weissman.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I’ve always loved influencing large audiences by educating them with information they didn’t know and can use to improve their lives. My journey started in high school when I took a journalism course. That led me to applying for a position as a reporter/photographer at the Maryland Beachcomber in the summer before my freshman year at the University of Maryland. I knew then, journalism would become an important part of my career. I never thought about another major besides Journalism while attending college and I dove into it. Each summer, through my senior year, I continued to work as a reporter and photographer for the Beachcomber and then at the Maryland Coast Dispatch. In addition to writing hard news an investigative pieces, I found a passion for fashion photography. and got to practice that quite a bit during my summer positions. During my senior year of college, I was at a crossroads. Having earned a B.S. in Journalism, I needed to decide whether I should I continue with journalism and photography, or should I look for a career that would allow me to continue to write, but also elevate my ability to persuade audiences with my words. I decided to go to law school and earned my J.D. at Hofstra Law School. Upon graduation from law school, I earned an opportunity to become a judicial clerk for three state judges in Mays Landing, New Jersey. My role was to vet criminal court motions and, based on applicable law, draft opinions for the judges. Without revealing my age, I will tell you I was the first clerk to bring a laptop to the office so I could most efficiently draft opinions. Using advanced technology allowed me to do my job very well and more importantly, allowed me to spend more time in court watching trials. Perhaps the greatest satisfaction I experienced in that role was, after I became well-versed in the case law impacting the most criminal court motions, watching the judges read their opinions from the bench and realizing that most of their words were actually mine. That clerkship earned me a fabulous opportunity as an associate attorney doing civil defense work at a large law firm in Atlantic City. I became a trial attorney and practiced for more than 10 years before reaching another fork in the road. In my 10th year of practice, my children were 4 and 1 and I was sitting in my office billing 2,000 hours per year and couldn’t leave the office until I billed 8 hours a day. My kids’ lives were passing in front of me and I was missing a lot. At that time, I was also involved in a horrible motor vehicle accident with my daughter strapped into a car seat in the back. I was ejected and suffered devastating injuries in the rollover, but thankfully, my daughter was unhurt. It was time to reevaluate my life. As a litigator, your decisions have final consequences and it’s usually a half a loaf. The big trial wins are occasional with persuading your client that this is the best way to conclude a case being more constant. All the days, weeks and months of trial prep gone in an instantaneous settlement. Opportunities to persuade usually came with motion briefs and arguments where there were highlights. Trials were amazing, but all the while, I was persuading judges of one, arbitration panels of 3, juries of 6 or 12 and of course, my colleagues. Not the kind of audience I had as a reporter. I started exploring other careers that would put me back on path of influencing larger groups. I wanted a career that would allow me to maximize the skills I learned as an attorney, while also giving me more freedom to communicate. So, I started taking crisis communications courses at the local college. I quickly learned that crisis work was a subset of PR. Personally, I was done with the law at that point. My wife and I agreed that we wanted to change our lifestyle and start fresh. My sister and brother had relocated to Arizona and we had already been visiting them during holidays and on vacation. We decided to throw caution to the wind and move to Scottsdale Arizona. My wife was a teacher at the time and we knew she could get a job. I didn’t have one when we packed our car with two little kids and drove from Mays Landing New Jersey to Scottsdale Arizona. When we arrived, I landed a position as Director of Charitiable Works for an advertising agency in town. It was not a pure PR role, but more of a strategic role around helping nonprofits maximize their visibility on a shoestring budget. I was exposed to PR and loved learning more. Unfortunately, that agency imploded and I was looking for a job. I knew that the media relations aspect of PR was something that really intrigued me and I wanted a posltion that would help me learn the ropes. I found an opportunity with Maricopa County Animal Care & Control as Community Relations Supervisor and Public Information Officer. That position allwed me to help get dogs and cats adopted while also honing my persuasive communications skills. I developed many media contacts in that role and learned how to pitch. That led to an amazing opportunity with a large, regional adveritisng and public relations agency where I was hired as a senior account executive. I would be with that agency for 11 years, rising through the ranks and leading PR for the Phoenix office. I learned every aspect of the business and got my wish to be in a position where my work influenced thousands. I also learned that I loved being behind the scenes, making others appear as the best versions of themselves. Perhaps the greatest benefit was that I learned that PR is a job that, unlike the practice of law, always has a tomorrow. More importantly, I learned that I could work in a variety of verticles, that no day would ever be the same and that I could put smiles on people’s faces every day. After 11 years, I was part of a large restructure at the agency. It hurt, but it was the best thing, but it couldn’t have come at a greater time in my career. To that point, my life was very focused on having a salary and benefits so I could help support my family. My kids were older so that was less important. I wanted to jump out on my own, but despite being laid off, my former agency enforced a noncompete clause that prevented from working with past clients for at least a year. I was mad, but channeled that into a senior director of communications role at Arizona State University. I learned a lot about internal communications and how to work directly with senior leadership at the most innovative university in the nation. After a year, I found my desire to start my own PR firm stronger than ever. I reached out to my largest, favorite, most fun clients at my former agency and they passionately fired the other agency to come on with me! It was a huge responsibility launching PRBULLDOG in 2019. My new clients were used to the support of a large, integrated agency and now they had me. Why? How? Well, my sales pitch was not only based upon our history together, but also that I could provide senior-level skills, personal dedication and amplify the results we achieved at my former agency for 2/3 of those fees. The proof is in the pudding. Now in my 7th year as Principal & Chief Strategist at PRBULLDOG, the clients that came with me in telecommunications and law remain with us today. As they have grown, so has our work for them. Perhaps one of my favorite things about my role is working with different interns from the Cronkite School of Journalism at ASU each semester. We give them a front row seat to how to be effective in the trenches of PR while also giving them a peek behind the curtain to the business of PR. PRBULLDOG has expanded to include other large clients in healthcare, automotive, and large foundations and more. I’ve grown my book of business to nearly $500K and every day I wake up and can’t wait to get started. I found a role that lets me do everything I learned how to do as a litigator, but without the rules and with exponential opportunity to educate and influence even larger audiences. It’s really the position so many wish for – Doing something for work that lets you earn more than you could have imagined for yourself while putting smiles on people’s faces every day.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
When you have your own firm, keeping clients happy is not always easy. There are ebbs and flows, but at the end of each day we understsand that results matter. When we have experienced the ebbs, we use those opportunities to dig in, leverage our relationships, try harder and come out on the other side better for it. Clients see that. That’s why they stay.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I chose this question because I don’t think most people view PR professionals as “creatives”. But we are. My particular creative talent is connecting the dots from the client’s goal to its execution through PR strategy and tactics. Here’s a quick example. One of my healthcare clients told me about a group of seniors who formed a travel club at the client’s community center. The center serves 55+ with a full gym, classroom and living-room like socialization area. The client wanted to promote mental health. After interviewing the travel group, I learned that their motivation was more than travel, but also to stave off social isolation that happens as one gets older. I dubbed them the Goodyear 6 and built a storyline around how their connectedness through the center made them a family of sorts. They shared secrets and supported each other through their most difficult times as they regained their joie de vie. I pitched their story to a major metropolitan newspaper and that story came to live on the cover of the paper. Understanding client goals and bringing those objectives to life by connecting the dots is our creative secret sauce.
Alright, so to wrap up, is there anything else you’d like to share with us?
I think I have shared a lot.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://myprbulldog.com/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PRBulldog
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/prbulldog/posts/?feedView=all
