Reflections on Ten Years of Restoring Common Sense to Communications

Eleven years ago, a colleague gave me this advice when I asked him about building RENEWPR: “You aren't a true business until you've been hired by someone who doesn't know you.” 

That was sound counsel – you might even say “common sense” – and I have thought about it a lot as we have grown the firm over the past ten years from me to more than half a dozen partner agencies and a Team of seven independent PR professionals (not to mention our amazing COO, my wonderful husband Mark Pimble). Now, after 10 years, I would add this idea to what my colleague told me: “You are a true business because of the people you know, the people who help you, and the people you enjoy working with.” I have been so lucky to work with so many wonderful people in the past ten years. And these relationships have set RENEWPR up for continued success in the years to come.

I set “restoring common sense to communications” as our tagline and mission statement because it seemed like such a good encapsulation of what I wanted to do: so much of effective communications is just good judgment. Reminding people of that and then helping them figure out what that means in the context of their particular challenge is what we do every day. And fortunately, we’ve had the opportunity to do that with many different people facing many different challenges. And we’ve expanded our original focus from energy and environment to equity and joined with a colleague (the fabulous LaTricia Woods of Mahogany Xan Communications in Arizona) to launch the first national inclusive agency network, The Change Agencies.

Through it all, a constant has been the need to help people determine how best to communicate and then to assist them in bringing that communication to life. It’s a wonderful thing to have the opportunity to do that both for organizations focused on the places where people can find agreement and get things done as well as for people who want to do good in the world.

As we celebrate ten years and look to the future, my principal feeling right now, on the actual tenth anniversary date of our business, is gratitude. Gratitude for the clients, industry colleagues, partners, fellow members of The Change Agencies and the RENEWPR Team who helped us get here. Let me list them here to publicly acknowledge them and thank them for the part they play in our success.

Clients: Advanced Energy Management Alliance, Believe Out Loud, Bergey Windpower, Bluesource, Building Action, The Business Council for Sustainable Energy, Carbon Capture Coalition, CarbonCapture Inc., Center for Resource Solutions, CEO Climate Dialogue, Clean Air Task Force, Coalition for Community Solar Access, Common Ground Alliance, Conservation Lands Foundation, DSM, E2, Edward M. Kennedy Institute, Family Equality, Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, Gill Foundation, Great Plains Institute, Greenwood Energy, Greenwood Sustainable Infrastructure, Industrial Innovation Initiative, Institute of the Americas, International Finance Corporation, Itron, Mathison, Mostrata Media, National Association of Workforce Boards, National Wildlife Federation, Natixis, Nuclear Innovation Alliance, Solar Energy Industries Association, Smart Electric Power Alliance, Solar Energy Trade Shows, Solar Power International, RE+, Reaching Out MBA, Renewable Thermal Collaborative, The Wilderness Society, TVB, Topsoe, USEA and the LGBTQ Victory Fund.

Industry Colleagues: Cristina Aby-Azar, Roger Ballentine, Beth Balsam, Shonali Burke, Chiqui Cartagena, Chino Chapa, Tanya Churchmuch, Chris Cimko, Charlotte Clymer, Maura Corbett, Cindi Creager, Arika Daniels, Shelley Fidler, Jon Goldberg, Taylor Gross and the team at The Herald Group, Wendy Hagen, Katherine Hamilton, Missy Hurley, Darlene Hollywood, Ken Jacobs, David Leiter, Jason Mida, Christine Middleton, Hinda Mitchell, Thomas D. Pagano, Aaron Perlut, Dana Phelps, Renee Rosenfeld, Thomas Sanchez, Anthony Shop, Alexis Davis Smith, Shelley Spector, Al Stewart, Patrice Tanaka, Laura Taylor, Brad Townsend, Peter Van Dyke, Audrey Waters, Matt Well, Scott Widmeyer, Bob Witeck, Scott Wolfson, Sharon Wright, Pattie Yu, Christina Yumul

Partners: Cynthia McCafferty of Hawthorne Strategy Group, Deborah Sauri of iSPY CREATIVE, Lisa Fels of Succession Communications, Joe Fuld of The Campaign Workshop, Stacia Tipton of Tipton Inc, Jay Buys of Visceral

The Change Agencies: LaTricia Woods of Mahogany Xan Communications, April Hale of AHalePR, Audrey Ponzio of APC Collective, Tammy Belton-Davis of Athena Communications LLC, John Avila of Avila Creative Inc., Bernadette Davis of BDC Strategy Group, Mike Utaegbulam of Black Digital, Abenaa Hayes of Elysee Consulting, Sandy Diaz Haley of SDH Communications, Shawn Smith of Shawn Smith Communications, Kristelle Siarza Moon of Siarza, Sandra Wills Hannon of The Hannon Group, Sonia Diaz of Zaid PR, Zeke Stokes of Zeke Stokes Strategies

RENEWPR Team: Lowen Baumgarten, Jayne Brady, Darren Goode, Steve Kauffman, Annette Larkin, Jessica Lass, Sarah Prud’homme

I'm so grateful to each of you and so thankful for your friendship, collaboration and support. Here’s to the next ten years and to each of you for helping make our mission possible! Thank you.