An entrepreneur has the unique responsibility moving forward with their calling and their vision of how they can help the world. An entrepreneur has the responsibility to take the dream that’s been sparked inside of them and transform it into a business that can help their customers/clients achieve their goals, support the success and growth of their staff and scale the organization. An entrepreneur also has a responsibility to help other entrepreneurs and budding business owners develop necessary leadership and business skills.
As The Business Fame’s cover story for this year’s “The Most Influential Businesswomen to Follow in 2021” issue, Nicole Rodrigues, founder and CEO of NRPR Group, is a dynamic, catalytic and successful entrepreneur committed to serving excellence and impacting industries.
Leading the Way
As a fearless female leader, Nicole is especially committed to helping other women in business succeed, step beyond stereotypes, be taken seriously, maintain a healthy and sustainable work-life balance, and overcome any obstacles that might arise on their entrepreneurial journeys.
Nicole has been hustling and refining her tireless work ethic since she was a teenager working odd jobs around town. Her first professional role was at an enterprise software company. While she loved that job, she decided to leave tech to pursue her dream of working with the Oakland (now Las Vegas) Raiders. She began her work there as an intern before moving into a paid position as Player Development Coordinator. She trained the players, coaches and staff on how to speak with the media and wrote for both the game day magazine and the website. She also cheered for the team as a Raiderette. From there, she served in several other in-house and agency roles/capacities, including as in-house PR Manager at MOBITV and Senior PR Manager at Voce Communications. She was later recruited by Demand Media as their Director of Consumer Marketing and by Bender/Helper As VP of Digital Entertainment. Throughout her PR tenure, she has advised major marquee clients, including Sony Pictures Entertainment, Dial pad, Dolby, Yahoo!, MOBITV, Paige, Heal, Sony PlayStation, Plantronics, Hulu, YouTube and M-GO.
In 2014, after she was confident she had cultivated the expertise and experience necessary to launch her own full-service PR agency, Nicole left Bender/Helper to start NRPR Group. One of the first clients to sign with NRPR was MOBITV, which demonstrates the relationship Nicole built with them as a competent, trusted advisor and employee.
The Company
NRPR Group specializes in helping businesses of all sizes identify and reach their business goals with highly-tailored public relations and marketing plans that map back to meaningful results. From the beginning, Nicole’s Vision has been to lead an agency where both clients and employees are successful and beyond satisfied. She coaches and mentors her team members to positively push themselves to achieve their goals, expand and improve upon their skill sets, and feel confident in the work/results they are delivering.
NRPR serves consumer, digital and enterprise technology companies, for whom they provide public relations, marketing, communications, social media marketing, event planning, influencer relations, executive thought leadership and digital marketing services. Nicole and her teamwork closely with C-suite executives and internal Marketing & PR teams to uncover each brand’s true mission, vision and competitive differentiators in order to meaningfully share those stories with appropriate key audiences.
Unlike many other agencies in the industry, NRPR does not view the primary role of public relations as simply issuing and releasing press releases to as many media professionals as possible and measuring those results. Nicole Believes this kind of public relations work is lazy and ineffective. She has taught her team members to instead seek to establish strong, symbiotic, supportive relationships with media that go beyond press release circulation or a quick coverage and help them achieve their own goals. This thoughtful approach ensures earned coverage is a win for both parties. To accomplish these ends, the NRPR team takes the time to research each target’s outlet, audience and past coverage before pitching and develop relevant, proactive client stories that match and provide value to each individual media target. NRPR views public relations as the art of brand storytelling and proactively seeking opportunities for mutually beneficial coverage as part of an integrated marketing plan.
The Road Ahead
NRPR Group will continue to evaluate markets/industries and look for tools, trends and services that will help clients achieve lasting success. In 2020, Nicole opened NRPR Productions to increase the agency’s capabilities to support branded content creation, including commercials, corporate videos and YouTube series, for clients. Later that same year, in response to a demonstrated need from existing clients who were navigating the pandemic, NRPR expanded its offerings portfolio further by launching its newest division, NRPR Business Pro (Biz Pro™). The first service of its kind within the PR industry, Biz Pro offers clients full concept-to-opening launch support, ranging from legal entity creation to brand identity and design. NRPR understands that, as a company moves from zero to start-up and prepares to launch, many of the fundamental business details, such as registering the company, setting up bank accounts, designing a website and securing legal counsel, can be overwhelming. NRPR is the first and only PR firm to close this gap between business development and brand positioning.
On a personal level, Nicole is currently enrolled in UCLA’s Anderson School of Management (Class of 2022), working toward earned her MBA. Her studies helper better identify new ways to scale the agency, strengthen the team and meaningfully disrupt the industry.
An Eventful Journey
Nicole’s Awards and Accolades
“I have accomplished many things that I can be proud of,” says Nicole. “I was the first in my family to graduate college. I worked hard in high school to earn the right scholarships and held three jobs during college to pay for my education. From the moment I discovered a career in Public Relations, I knew I wanted to gain the experience and expertise necessary to open up my own agency and meaningfully disrupt the industry itself.”
“Every time I walk into the office and see ‘NRPR Group’ printed on the door, I feel a sense of pride, accomplishment and a push to continue thoughtfully growing the company.”
Beyond NRPR Group and its newest subsidiaries, Nicole has also founded the Young Dreamers Foundation to carry out her lifelong mission of fostering a community of emotionally intelligent young leaders who will spark a positive ripple effect while accomplishing their own dreams. In 2019, while managing the operations of both organizations, she authored her first book, Beverly Hills Boss, and launched the brand’s YouTube channel.
NRPR Group and Nicole have been honored with numerous awards over the years, including a 2020 Silver wind from the Women World Awards for “Female Achievers | Business Role Model of the Year,” a Gold win from the 2020 PR World Awards for “Advertising Agency of the Year | 11 – 2,499 Employees,” a 2020 Silver Stevie Award for “Communications, Investor Relations or PR Executive of the Year,” a 2019LA Business Journal “Women of Influence” award, Ragan/PR Daily “ACE PR Professional of the Year – Honorable Mention” in 2019, a 2018Bulldog Reporter“ Stars of PR – PR Professional Who Makes a Difference” award, a Gold award for “Public or Media Relations Professional of the Year” in Bulldog Reporter’s “Stars of PR 2017” and more. These awards recognize and validate Nicole’s Continued commitment to creating successful, lasting relationships with both clients and media, producing ongoing buzz and innovating across industries.
Nicole’s Message to Budding Female Entrepreneurs
Nicole Has several pieces of advice to offer other women who are pursuing entrepreneurship and/or leaving an impact on the world of public relations. First, she says, “Do not give into societal stigmas that seek to stop you from diving into what you want in life. Don’t let anyone tell you that something is not appropriate or fitting for a woman. Do not change who you are as women to fit into gender-role stereotypes. Being feminine, caring, understanding, cooperative and organized has really helped me grow as a professional and gain respect along the way. It is more than okay to chase your dreams as men do and still be nurturing to your children. Your kids will understand. They will look up to you and admire you for the hard work you put into your career. I want to encourage working mothers (and future working mothers) to take pride in the fact that women in power who are great at work are also great at life.”
Second, she offers, “Understand that no matter how much you plan, there will always be some unexpected developments that you’ll have to navigate around. We learn from how we maneuver through challenges, including the current pandemic. To keep you on track despite any obstacles, it is critical to have systems and best practices in place that help mitigate those risks and navigate through them effectively.”
