C'mon, you know.

If you want to make a difference, you’ve got to be different. That’s the deal. That’s derekPR and that’s me. I welcome you to follow the Yellow Brick Road with me as my business model has been likened to the finale of The Wizard of Oz. Everything appears theatrical, magical and grandiose yet when the curtain is pulled like it was Oz's last scene, you realize that it is one person who happens to have the right levers and gears.

Yet if you think it’s just me, one dude with a typewriter and a phone, I can confidently say it’s not.

In my career prior to starting derekPR, I worked the best PR agencies in the world, and the worst. I worked with the best communicators and the smartest of the smart business people in that industry, and the rest. I aligned with the best and built an unbeatable brain trust with like-minded and not-so-like-of-mind experts for lifetime partnerships.

It seems like I have former presidents of PR agencies and a collection of their top people, an award-winning crisis communicator, marketing and business MBAs and other niche specialists on staff. I do not, yet I have all of the above on speed dial and they answer the call when and only when I need them. I reciprocate those luxury relationships with creative ideas inside and outside of the box.

Someone who has been in that inner circle with me for decades labeled me as different smart, saying I would probably win a spelling bee yet would crash and burn at the science fair. He went on to say that communication is my love language and that I can turn uncommon sense into a game changer. “You have that sixth sense.”

I don’t see dead people yet I do see angles and approaches others don’t, including how to navigate in an industry where you have to reinvent yourself almost daily. I have been doing that for 19 years. Some years were great, some steady, a couple suboptimum and the latter was when I learned the most.

derekPR produces all you would expect from a traditional PR firm and exceed those expectations almost always. Collectively, derekPR is scrappy, nimble, highly responsive and exceptionally communicative. I bring creativity, time, counsel, candor and decisiveness to your team. I am not looking to replace anyone. I am completely collaborative and I don’t typically compete with other agencies.

There is pure positivity here, no drama. There are no musical chairs for the carousel of account representatives, no taking a week to get a team together for ideation. You will have a key to 150 years of industry experience with a single call to me, all for a retainer that in most cases equate to the approximate compensation package an entry level team member.

I call it spinning plates, similar to the state fair guy who had the inexplicable talent of keeping 10 plates spinning on cue sticks, all at the same time. That’s the PR version of me, I look for blue waters and avoid the red. Like the Jerry Maguire memo stated, “fewer clients, more attention.” That can’t happen at a big agency. It happens with me.

If you are looking for a true alliance and are “Off to see the Wizard,” you just found him. There is no place like home and that’s what I intend to be for you. So, let’s go dancing and tell Dorothy and Toto I said hello.

Derek