How One Publicist Is Disrupting The Public Relations Industry From Her Airstream

PR guru Heather DeSantis runs a successful, fully-remote PR agency while living the nomadic lifestyle.

October 30 marks National Publicist Day, a time to really recognize publicists for all of their efforts and hard work. The PR industry isn’t easy, but there are more people interested every day.

A stand-out PR pro is someone who not only advocates for themselves, but also their clients, and works with brands that they actually believe in. One shining star is Heather DeSantis, the nomadic Founder of lifestyle, food, and beverage PR firm, Publicity For Good. DeSantis not only helps brands increase awareness but also build a legacy, especially around for-good components.

As a PR maven (and Forbes 30 Under 30 Nominee), DeSantis not only runs a company of 15 employees, and growing, but the entire agency is fully-remote, and she is currently running it from a 30-foot Airstream where she moves from city to city on a weekly basis.

Heather DeSantis shares how she travels while running and successful PR agency, why company culture is important when running a remote team, and how others call follow suit.

Where are you based now?

That’s a complicated question at the moment. Today I’m in Mexico with my local church on my first missions trip and staying at an orphanage. We came from a workcation in Bali. However, we’re returning to San Diego soon.

I’m originally from the Midwest and often return home to Columbus, Ohio so at the moment we’re bi-coastal as well.

When did you become officially nomadic?

It’s hard to put an exact date on it. After college, I lived at home for a while, but when I started my own business, I happened to move to San Diego completely by accident. My move wasn’t pre-planned at all. At the time I had just started my agency, Publicity For Good, and was a solopreneur.

I bought a one-way ticket to San Diego, CA to assist a client during a media tour because I had no idea when the tour would end. I ended up loving it and staying. I wasn’t fulfilled in my previous work at an Ad Agency, and I felt like I needed a big change. California was so beautiful, so I really just decided to stay and live out of a suitcase for a while.

I was in San Diego for a while and met my boyfriend, Austin. His love of travel really inspired me and slowly we turned to the nomadic life. We got an Airstream and started traveling around the US. Eventually, we hope to visit all of our PFG employees in our Airstream.

Did you ever have any worries, especially financial?

I didn’t have many worries financially because I chose to have minimal expenses at the time. My agency was just me, and I found a room for rent through a client by chance. I wasn’t living beyond my means, but I was throwing myself into work more than anything

It was hard being so far from family and friends. This was the first time I had to learn to manage my relationships from thousands of miles away. I was afraid of isolating myself as well, and I ended up doing so anyway.

Now, we service over 20 clients a month and work every day to ensure that they’re happy with our work as a team. Having an online business has allowed us all the freedom to work from where we want, which is how I’ve always imagined running a company. We work with incredible brands including hard kombucha brand Flying Embers; instant coffee game changer InstaBrew; new haircare brand My Israel’s Miracle; the original organic lip balm brand Eco Lips; Chinese herbal formula company DAO Labs; Noble kava supplement brand Fiji Kava; and more!

What is the culture like for Publicity For Good employees?

We have 15 employees at the moment, and everyone is spread not just all over the country, but the world as well. We have two employees in San Diego, but another based in Singapore. However, we all communicate together every day, which is what really keeps us centered as a team.

During our daily team huddles, we, of course, discuss anything going on with clients and we ensure we’re staying on top of our tasks, but we end our calls with positive highlights and gratitude. We also use Slack to ping each other throughout the workday. We like to post random wins, or even memes that we come across throughout the day. It helps us feel more like a team being in constant contact.

What’s your advice to someone who wants to move somewhere and start their own business?

It's very important to follow your intuition! You should also be intentional and figure out why you really want to make a big move.

You should also not be afraid to communicate with your friends and family about what you’re doing. I was afraid to tell anyone about my plans because I thought that they would judge me, and that was a mistake.

What do you love most about your life now?

Now that we’re living in an Airstream I love that we don’t have to depend on a plane to travel. It’s also caused me to have a much simpler life.

I also love that I can travel around the country and beyond while building a remote business and that my employees are happy to have the freedom to do the same. We don’t want to be stuck in one region, so we want to travel and get to know different places and people.

What’s next for you?

We are currently working on expanding our agency, and how to go about doing. We’re also adding some exciting new clients to our roster!

My boyfriend recently got out of the US Navy, so we’ve been taking advantage of our ability to travel. We’ll be roaming around California for a bit, but I’ll return Ohio for a bit next month. We’ll be exploring the area while working, and next year we’ll be taking the airstream across the US.

For more information please visit publicityforgood.com or join our email list for monthly marketing reports.