Written in Partnership with Tedfuel
It doesn’t matter how good your next movie is or the fact that you have an amazing product ready for the masses; if there’s no one letting the world know, then it may fizzle out before it even has a chance to become something big. This is where Public Relations or PR comes in, and there’s no one better out there these days than Jane Owen. She is a total master at her craft and has been able to become a true staple in the PR community.
Simple beginnings
Initially, Jane Owen, who hails originall from New York City with an education from the UK, started out where many do, and that is right at the bottom. Initially, Jane wanted to be on the other side of the curtain, and that’s where she felt acting was the best option. Yet after University, her skill sets directed her toward a life of PR.
But, of course, that doesn’t mean she doesn’t get to enjoy some of the benefits actors do, as she’s no stranger to being at movie premieres or walking along the red carpet near her clients.
All of this came from a passion for being the best at what she excelled at. As soon as she was able to build up enough of a profile and experience in PR, she went off on her own and started JOPR in 2011. This was not a smooth Hollywood-like transition and required a lot of time to build out her own clientele eventually.
One thing with Jane is that humility and being humble are not foreign concepts to her. This concept came at her fast with one of her earliest jobs as a bar-back in a British pub. The hours spent constantly cleaning up the plates and dishes showed her that she had the passion and energy to be successful at anything.
She was willing to go through the grueling process of always being available to any type of client at the beginning, regardless of the exposure that it brought here, and would be afraid to barge into a few offices to get the kind of press and communication necessary to whoever her client was at the time.
How she was able to find success and keep it
It didn’t hurt that Jane had such a motivating focus for her clients, no matter how daunting the task was at hand, but that wasn’t the only ingredient in her recipe for success. Jane is one of those iconic PR professionals who understood how the industry worked early on. She realized that not only was it essential to push out the message for her clients but that shaping and influencing that message was also a key component.
In fact, there are multiple times, as any PR professional knows, and as Jane is no stranger to, that it’s just as important to not have certain types of news come out in PR as well. Jane was able to become this master strategist as she quickly understood the importance of relationships. That’s why besides her enthusiasm, she also understands the power of building out her network early on and that proper relationship with reporters and news outlets. Crafting the perfect message is always one of the primary outcomes for Jane and her own PR company.
Yet it doesn’t stop at crafting that message only, as she also works to maintain the integrity of the information. In addition, Jane helps to prepare clients with a curated end-to-end PR solution so that the clients are ready for anything that may be asked and are able to communicate effectively.
Jane always likes to reference that one of her success points also comes from the mentorship that came from Joan Rolls, a legend in the industry herself. Joan has been a mentor to many successful women who have become their own industry leaders in their respective fields. Jane Owen was no different as she was able to realize that she would have to work extremely hard to eventually build out that business as a businesswoman back in the day.
Taking that leap to become an independent PR company that eventually became its own powerhouse is a contributing factor to her success. She expanded on that core thinking and also worked hard to build out her staffing with similar mentalities. As a result, her staff helps to keep the PR engine running and is only built with highly effective people that Jane herself handpicked many of. Surrounding herself with those types of people has helped motivate Jane to keep pushing forward and to tirelessly work on herself and her company.
Shifting into new methods
Jane also saw how the industry itself was changing and realized that she would start to have a more digital-focused clientele that expected results in a much different manner. So rather than shun these social media and digital channels, Jane embraced them as she embraces everything in her life really.
She saw this as a new opportunity and challenge that she wanted to successfully complete every time. She enjoys the more recent, rapid pace that her clients expect and hasn’t lost touch with her skill set or accomplishing the clients’ wishes.
It’s not just about helping to develop social media campaigns for a launch product, but it’s also about truly understanding the reach social media can have. Jane saw the movement early on and realized that with one wrong misstep in the new age of marketing and PR, it could be global in a matter of hours, if not days. That’s the other side of the challenge where she works with her clients on their exposure through social media and always takes care of how they portray themselves.
Going strong and expanding
After recently celebrating her company’s ten-year anniversary in 2021, Jane has shown no signs of stopping. This is demonstrated by the fact that her company JOPR continues to win accolades and awards, such as the Los Angeles Business Award in Public Relations five times in a row, and recently holds a standing as Top Public Relations Companies by Designrush through 2022.
Yet building her career within the silver screen industry, she’s now fully committed to expanding her reach with large multinational organizations across the globe. She’s expanded her team already beyond the US and will continue to focus her business on this much larger scale itself.
With her expansionary plans, Jane will also be retooling the PR industry she’s helped shape by finding new strategies that are more adaptable to the current trends in technology and social media channels. While she still focuses on client events, she has successfully pivoted into this digital arena of working with influencers, clients, celebrities, companies, and everyone who may be involved, on equal footing, to get the right message out every time.
Watching how Jane Owen has developed herself, built her own business from next to nothing, and easily adapted to the ever-changing landscape is a truly delightful experience and lesson that many people can follow. For anyone interested to find out more details about Jane and her company, you can reach out to her via her site here – https://janeowenpr.com
Advertising disclosure: We may receive compensation for some of the links in our stories. Thank you for supporting LA Weekly and our advertisers.