10-week cohorts for up to 5 experts
Get your experts
booked and quoted
Without stretching your comms team
Our publicists build each expert a PR system they can run
to book speaking gigs, attract press, and grow their following.
One flat fee. No retainers, ever.
Ask about a cohortWant a workshop or seminar for a larger group? See PR training.
Media coveragePodcast & YouTube showsStagesSocial media
Clients featured in
In their words
“Working with Tracy has been a game-changer for i.c.stars. We’ve gained visibility in all of our regional markets and on the national stage while also building the internal skills to tell our story with confidence.”
Elizabeth Ferruelo
Chief Revenue Officer, i.c.stars
“It is through this carefully orchestrated process of organizational inquiry that the messaging reveals itself, and it has proven to resonate deeply with both our internal team and external audiences, including funders.”
Sonny Garg
The Institute for Nonviolence Chicago
Meet Tracy
Your experts have more to say than your team has time to pitch.
So I built a smarter way.
I’m a former TIME Magazine journalist and media executive. In a cohort, our publicists build each of your experts a PR system they can run. They book their own speaking gigs, attract press, and grow their following. Your comms team stays in charge of the message.
In their words
“As a Johns Hopkins University Provost’s Fellow, I spent over a year training in public-facing and media skills. I then had the amazing opportunity to work with Tracy, who transformed my outlook, presence, and messaging far more than what I learned during the year.”
Dr. Emily Boss
Surgeon and Professor, Johns Hopkins University
“Tracy was able to find a way to take what I considered my greatest weakness as a science communicator and turn it into my greatest strength. It’s the kind of insight that only a seasoned veteran of the PR industry can provide.”
Dr. Justin Gregg
Animal cognition scientist and bestselling author
Select clients
The PR Accelerator for Organizations
Hire publicists once.
Keep the system.
The PR Accelerator runs as a 10-week cohort for up to five of your experts. We set each one up to attract their own speaking engagements, earn media coverage, and grow their social media following, all aligned with your organization’s goals and messaging. Your comms team gets the visibility without carrying the outreach. One flat fee.
Most clients save 75% or more on annual agency fees
With our publicists
Your experts
With our publicists
Your experts
01
We nail your message
and PR strategy.
Work with Tracy to set your organization’s goals, then shape each expert’s message to support them.
02
Our publicists build your campaigns and PR system.
Our team creates PR campaigns you can immediately run and a PR system you can keep running after we’re done.
03
You send the emails
and run the system.
Tracy trains each expert to keep pitching on their own, and ongoing coaching is there when they want it.
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Narrative Development
Each expert’s big idea, shaped into a story people remember, with talking points that stay on message for your organization.
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Signature Talk & Speaker Kit
We shape each expert’s talk, build their speaker kit, and set up a system that makes applying to conferences easy.
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Personalized Media Relations
Hand-built lists and personalized pitches for press, podcasts, YouTube shows, and creators, ready for each expert to send.
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Social Media Strategy & Coaching
A focused plan for where each expert shows up online and what they post, with coaching to keep it going.
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Weekly Project Plan
The first 60 days, planned week by week for each expert or their assistant to run.
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PR Video Library
Our tutorials for learning to handle PR like a pro.
Custom AI AgentsOptional
Aligned to your organization’s goals and messaging and to our methodology. The agents are designed to draft pitches only.
Press coverage
Where our clients’ pitches landed.
Here is some of the media coverage we helped our clients secure themselves.
Is this you?
Built for comms teams with experts worth hearing.
This is for you if
- You have faculty, researchers, executives, or advisors who should be speaking, quoted, and visible online.
- Your team gets more requests to promote experts than it has time for.
- You want each expert’s visibility to advance your organization’s goals.
- Each expert, or someone supporting them, can give the system 3 to 4 hours a week.
This probably isn’t a fit if
- You want an agency to pitch your experts every month.
- You need coverage this week.
- Your experts can’t set aside time to send the emails we write.
Questions comms leaders ask us
Who is this for?
Communications and marketing leaders at organizations with several experts who should be better known, from businesses and nonprofits to universities like Johns Hopkins. Your experts might be faculty, researchers, executives, or advisors.
How does this help my team?
It takes work off your plate. Each expert learns to attract their own speaking engagements, earn media coverage, and grow their social media following, all lined up with your messaging. Your team stops fielding every request and keeps the system after we’re done.
Who does the work?
Tracy and our publicists do the strategy and the writing. Tracy leads the messaging work with each expert, and our team builds their campaigns, media lists, and PR system. Each expert, or someone supporting them, sends the emails we write, so your team doesn’t have to.
How many experts can join a cohort?
Up to five. Each expert gets 1:1 time with our team, and the program runs 10 weeks.
How is this different from your PR training?
In a cohort, our publicists work 1:1 with each expert and build their campaigns and PR system for them. Our custom PR training is workshops and seminars that teach a larger group to do the work themselves. See PR training.
Do you guarantee coverage?
No, and be careful with anyone who does. Journalists, producers, and conference organizers decide what they cover and who they book. What we stand behind is the work: a clear message for each expert, pitches written for the right people, and a system your experts can keep running.
Case studies
What getting the right attention looks like.
University
From media training to coverage in NYT, CNN, and Oprah
After a full year of media training through the provost’s office, Johns Hopkins University wanted its fellows to leave with skills they could use. We ran a cohort of five professors through The PR Accelerator, helping each one refine their narrative, book their own speaking gigs, and attract press coverage. Within three months of finishing, the professors had secured their own coverage in outlets like The New York Times, CNN, Oprah, and Politico.
- Five professors in one cohort
- Their own coverage in NYT, CNN, Oprah, and Politico within three months
Marketing company
From behind the scenes to podcasts and trade press
Gundir, the company behind PostReminder and VoteReminder, wanted its leaders to be better known in their industry. We worked with three of its executives to refine their personal narratives and set them up to book their own podcast interviews and earn coverage in trade outlets, with a social media strategy aligned to that outreach. They booked the interviews and earned the coverage themselves.
- Three executives in one engagement
- Podcast interviews and trade coverage they landed themselves
Digital consultancy
From quiet experts to visible leaders
Kin + Carta wanted its executives to share their expertise more often, online and with the media. We worked with several of them to refine their personal narratives so they could speak about their work with confidence on social media and in interviews. We also helped a rising star on the team shape his thought leadership into a popular newsletter and write articles for media publications.
- Personal narratives for several executives
- A popular newsletter and bylined articles for a rising leader
Industrial AI company
From a brand-new field to international recognition
In 2017, Uptake Technologies was a unicorn building a new market in industrial AI. We worked with several of its subject matter experts to refine their personal narratives, interviewed them to capture their expertise, and worked with the in-house production team to turn it into content for sales, social media, and PR on the then-new fields of machine learning and data science. We also worked with the cybersecurity team on videos for a hacker competition and led its digital strategy, and the videos went viral. Shortly after, Uptake was named a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer and to the CNBC Disruptor 50.
- World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer
- CNBC Disruptor 50
Community nonprofit
From complex work to a message that clicks
The Institute for Nonviolence Chicago does work that is hard to sum up in a sentence, and wanted funders to get it fast. Our messaging process uncovered its differentiator, an innovator that develops new methods for reducing gun violence and teaches them worldwide, and the reframe resonated with foundations immediately.
- Messaging that lands with funders and donors
- A differentiator the whole team can say
National nonprofit
From founder transition to national stage
As its founder stepped down after 25 years, i.c.stars wanted steady visibility through the change. We built the PR strategy and system its team ran across regional markets, and helped the new CEO land a national appearance and a print op-ed.
- Coverage across regional markets
- Op-ed published in print
Social services agency
From regional coverage to consistent tier-one placements
Brightpoint wanted consistent coverage in tier-one outlets, in Chicago and nationally. We worked with its communications team to build a new PR strategy and the media outreach assets to run it. Within a year the team was landing coverage in its target Chicago outlets on a regular basis and drawing national media attention.
- Profiled in Business Insider
- First-ever placement in the Chicago Tribune
Custom PR training
Want to train your experts instead?
Tracy designs and leads custom PR training for subject matter experts, board members, and association members.
Next step
Ready to take the load off your comms team?
Tell us about your organization and the experts you have in mind. We’ll walk you through how a cohort works, share pricing, and tell you honestly if it’s not a fit.
Ask about a cohort