Maleeka Hollaway

“ The thing I love about PR is the thrill of the chase. We have to always be “on” and paying attention to the news media cycle...”

Q. Thanks for Interviewing with us.

Tell everyone who you are and where you’re from?

A. My name is Maleeka T. Hollaway.

I am an award-winning Publicist and PR agency owner. I am from and live in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s not often you meet someone born and raised from here. Natives are rare these days.

Q. How would you explain Public

Relations?

A. I define Public Relations as the management of a person’s, company or brand’s reputation with the public. As a public relations professional, we help our clients connect with their intended audience through thoughtleadership and story-telling.

Q. Tell us about your company “The

Official Maleeka Group”? A. My agency, The Official Maleeka

Group, LLC., is affectionately known as The OMG, is a fullservice public relations and brand communications agency specializing in business lifestyle and entrepreneurship. Our bread and butter are working with CEOs who want to set into the spotlight and stop hiding behind their companies.

They have a wealth of knowledge and insight to share; they often don’t have the time to do the work themselves to find and secure opportunities to boost their personal brands. That’s where we come in.

Q. What is one of the biggest challenges in the PR world?

A. In my opinion, one of the biggest challenges in the PR world is the management ofexpectations. Many times, those so-called professionals in our industry do not have a robust understanding of all the things we can do to support our clients therefore, there is a lot of overpromising and under-delivering.

In addition, with digital marketing and social media marketing on the rise, the public often limits our abilities to being a glorified social media manager. I spent a lot of my time educating on the ins and outs of the industry to demystify what public relations is and the power it can have on a person or business.

Q. What sorts of work and clients do you find most interesting?

A. I adore working with my small business owners. Before we take on new clients, we first have to be in love with the person and what they stand for. I have found that successful entrepreneurs have the most engaging personal stories that make me want to help them get the message out to the masses. The clients we work with help make complex business principle simple. Just like what we aim to do with our PR work. We make brand communications simple.

Q. What do you love about being in

PR?

A. The thing I love about PR is the thrill of the chase. We have to always be “on” and paying attention to the news media cycle. We have to strategize constantly. We have to build relationships. Most of the work we do is never publicly seen. People just see the results. While I enjoy getting the results our clients want such as media mentions, quotes, interviews and the like, I really enjoy everything that happens leading up to the win.

Q. What are some of your other hobbies?

A. Other hobbies?!?! Who has time for hobbies?!? Alongside my business,

I’m a mother and a full-time doctoral student. So, hobbies are few.

However, when I do unplug from the serious life, I enjoy traveling, wine tasting, laughing with family and friends and spa days.

Q. What projects are you working on right now?

A. Ouragency is growing like crazy

Q. A. Q. A.

so any project I’m working on is centered around the business. Last year, we launched a membership teaching the public how to do their own PR to build their social proof. When we decided to have a live event, the pandemic hit. Right now, we are shifting the focus to an online event and continuing to push the membership. We have publicists as members, business owners, corporate consultants and more as members. Our job is supporting them in implementing the membership knowledge to get their own results. Oh, and I’m helping my daughter

create her own business.

What do you think is one thing PR do not get enough credit for?

Professionals in PR do not get enough credit for wearing multiple hats. We are copy writers, social media strategists, advertising and marketing consultants, crisis management, booking agents and sometimes therapists. We do a lot that the public doesn’t notice. But I’m glad to work with clients who

appreciate all of what we do.

Where can the audience follow you?

I would love to connect with you all. Follow me on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter at @ officialmaleeka. Also, learn more about my online community at www. socialproofsuccess.com and www. yournewpublicist.com. (P.S. Find me on LinkedIn too!)