admin The role of women within the field of business has evolved monumentally over the past several decades. As this participation has increased, we have also seen a matching rise in the positive correlation between female corporate leadership and favorable company performance. Studies indicate that organizations with strong female leadership tend to outperform their non-inclusive counterparts. With each passing year and major cultural milestone accomplished, it becomes abundantly clear that broad, unbiased representation is always fruitful for a company.
Several sectors within the business arena have historically been dominated by men. It is only in recent years that we have witnessed a near-global overhaul of the existing status quo and watched women reclaim their rightful place at the head of conference tables, board rooms and org charts. Today, women are rapidly expanding their roles within this competitive domain and effectively establishing themselves as definitive business and industry leaders, regardless of gender. They are helming some of the most successful ventures of our era with ease, precision and style. Their resilience in successfully managing both the home and the work worlds is commendable, if superhuman. One such fearlessly trail-blazing woman in business is Nicole Rodrigues.
Armed with her hard-earned mastery of public relations and marketing and driven by her mission to meaningfully disrupt the way in which PR is done in the modern era, Nicole brought her lifelong dream of establishing her own agency to fruition in 2014 when she founded NRPR Group. NRPR Group is an award-winning, exclusive boutique public relations and marketing machine serving game changers and disruptors around the world. From startups to Fortune 500 companies within the consumer tech, fintech, healthtech, enterprise software, mobile, digital entertainment, lifestyle, sports and consumer products industries, NRPR services the best-of-the best clients with an individually optimized, results-oriented approach that positively impacts clients’ bottom lines.
The Legend of the Master Storyteller
As founder and CEO of NRPR Group, Nicole is positively transforming the digital PR landscape, one strategy and campaign at a time. A graduate from San Jose State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Public Relations, she is currently an Executive MBA Candidate at UCLA Anderson School of Management – class of 2022.
In the initial days of her illustrious career, Nicole started working at an enterprise software company. To pursue her dream of working with the Oakland Raiders, she bid adieu to the tech world for an opportunity to intern directly with the team. This blossomed into a full-time position as Player Development Coordinator for the NFL organization. The invaluable experience she earned there allowed her to hone the requisite skillset to ace the consumer, sports and entertainment PR strategy arena. Consequently, Nicole worked as the in-house PR Manager at MOBITV, Senior PR Manager at Voce Communications and Director of Consumer Marketing at Demand Media. Finally, after she knew she had gained the experience and expertise needed to launch the agency of her dreams, she left her position as VP of Digital Entertainment at Bender/Helper to lay the foundation of her very own PR legacy: NRPR Group, Inc.
I wanted to create an agency that did not simply provide typical PR strategies. I wanted to create a firm that was fueled by innovation and attuned to the needs of our inevitable digital future – Nicole Rodrigues
An Illustrious Legacy
Nicole’s value as a leading innovator in a predominantly-male industry has been widely recognized over the years across the PR landscape. She was appointed as a member of the Forbes Agency Council, a globally recognized, invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. She is one of eight hand-selected board members for The Organization of American Women in Public Relations (Women in PR USA), while also sitting on the boards of Fremont College, the Kenley Jansen Foundation, Gradelo and Dock. As an avid writer and industry thought leader, Nicole regularly contributes articles and expert insights to Forbes, Entrepreneur, Bulldog Reporter, Working Mother Magazine, Adweek, PR News and The HYPE Magazine, among others. She is also a recurring speaker on Women Entrepreneurs Radio, Today in Marketing and Business Rockstars Radio as an expert in publicity and social media marketing.
With more than 20 years of experience in the PR, social media and digital marketing domains, Nicole helps her team bridge the gap between technology, various consumer industries and the media. Her expertise has benefited several renowned brands, such as: Heal, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Dialpad, Dolby, Yahoo!, MOBITV, Sony PlayStation, Plantronics, Hulu, YouTube, M-GO, LA Comic Con, Demand Media (now Leaf Group) and other prominent companies.
She’s taken her passion for public relations to new heights and new platforms by creating PRfect Pitch/PRfect Pitch LIVE, a PR-focused show geared toward helping PR, marketing and media professionals step up their game and incorporate best practices to develop better relationships. Nicole is the proud creator of the award-winning YouTube video series, PRactical Guide to Publicity, which was created with the objective of extending a helping hand to CEOs, CMOs and business leaders to better understand the benefits of digital marketing and PR.
Nicole’s Motivational Ideal
Nicole’s mother has always been a formidable source of motivation for her. As her resilient pillar of strength, she inspired Nicole to take charge of her life early on and instilled countless notable lessons within her along the way. From a young age, Nicole watched her mother work as a business owner while raising six children on her own. This glittering example of empowered female leadership coupled with bold motherhood inspires Nicole to champion her own roles as the tireless leader of NRPR Group and mother to a college-aged daughter who is already discovering her own path in life.
Steaming the Locomotive of Innovation
Creating a PR agency that was distinctively designed to stand out in a crowded marketplace was Nicole’s seminal objective. Built on the cornerstones of impact and innovation, NRPR exemplifies the PR agency of the future. Its expert staff think like entrepreneurs who truly understand how the marketing and corporate ecosystems operate and interact, so they are able to maximize the role of PR and creative marketing in moving an organization toward its business and brand goals. They work closely with CEOs, executives and internal PR/marketing teams to develop and implement strategic, tailored and integrated communication programs spanning public relations, marketing, communications, social media, digital marketing and video services. They uncover the vision, mission and competitive differentiators of each client’s company to effectively share those stories with appropriate audiences. NRPR has earned a reputation of accountability, reliability and creativity by delivering clients substantial coverage and media opportunities. The agency is committed to the advancement of our collective digital future. Maneuvering the ever-altering PR landscape can be a daunting task. However, Nicole succeeds in effortlessly acing this endeavor by focusing on the development of tools that keep the agency ahead of the market curve.
Remaining cognizant to evolving client needs is an essential step in the direction of innovative agency resilience. The motivation and demonstrated ability to develop PR strategies and offerings in correspondence to the needs of the clients are essential to Nicole and her team.
Learning the Cornerstones of a Well-Balanced Life
Organizational structure and strategic execution are key elements to translating ideated brilliance into actual tangible results. Nicole believes that curating a detail-oriented, hyper-targeted plan is essential to achieving any success and/or accolades. Anybody can arrive at a great idea, but few possess the actionable vision, skills, determination and grit to bring them to fruition. Executing strategies with the same efficacy as a team’s expert leaders requires the selection of the best talent.
Nicole firmly believes that a critical part of creating a successful, scalable company is the commitment from senior management to never forego any opportunity to learn and derive new modalities of industry knowledge. She is a staunch advocate for strong mentorship and cross-coaching within teams. Her faith rests in the undeniably potent theory that teaching and learning must remain the constant companions of any individual operating within the world of PR. Seniors in the industry must be willing to guide/train the recent entrants to the field, and those newcomers must remain humble, eager and coachable. Nicole has continued to enhance her own learning curve by pursuing an MBA and gaining more knowledge to effectively blueprint and modify strategies for achieving even higher measurements of success.
Maintaining a Razor-Sharp Focus
The physical and mental well-being of a leader often dictates the overall success of a venture. Nicole is aware of the stressful nature of her job. Thus, she maintains her notoriously optimistic outlook and high energy by following a well-drafted daily routine that includes: exercise in the morning to keep her body/mind sharp and focused, refraining from checking emails for at least 30 minutes after waking up and maintaining detailed task lists and calendars to effectively organize her day. According to Nicole, the quiet of the night is the ideal time for her to engage with editorial, messaging and writing tasks. She believes that spending time outdoors, even once a week for a quick run or game of golf, can effectively enhance the stress-management capabilities of any individual.
Annihilating the Myriad Adversaries
Nicole endured her own share of obstacles in the initial days of her career. She noted that much of the criticism directed toward her emanated primarily from other women. She was often disparaged for being an upbeat woman who dresses well and takes care of herself. She was also subjected to negative gender stereotyping by a number of men in the industry who felt comfortable asserting that she was “too pretty to be smart.” However, these remarks did not discourage her from claiming standout success. Instead, they fueled her inextinguishable fire to forever bring her A-game to all business interactions and ensure she would be taken seriously by colleagues, clients and leadership.
Achieving Novel Accolades
Nicole has been awarded several times for her unparalleled contribution to the field of PR. Some of her recent wins include: a Silver win from the 2020 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 2019 LA Business Journal “Women of Influence” Award, a 2019 Ragan/PR Daily “ACE PR Professional of the Year” Award and a 2018 Bulldog Reporter Stars of PR award for “PR Professional Who Makes a Difference.” Nicole was also the recipient of Bulldog Reporter’s 2017 Gold “Public Relations Professional of the Year” title. These accolades not only represent her position as a top leading industry professional, but also place her amongst the game-changing females who are disrupting the business arena throughout the 21st century.
Ideating Her Second Venture: Young Dreamers
In 2017, Nicole launched the “Make it Happen” project as a part of NRPR Group’s Corporate Social Responsibility Program. After she recognized that the project was her opportunity to help foster a community of emotionally intelligent young leaders who will spark a positive ripple effect as they enter the workforce, she evolved the CSR program into her second full-scale venture, the Young Dreamers Foundation. The non-profit’s ongoing initiatives consist of a speaking tour for Nicole, where she visits schools in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, the San Francisco Bay Area (etc.) to talk with students about setting achievable goals, building their personal brands and persevering through any of life’s ups and downs.
Optimizing in the Midst of a Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic has considerably affected all domains of the global business field. Nicole mentions that, while some clients at NRPR had to reduce their budgets in response to the pandemic, others were able to expand theirs. New client projects were ideated/launched that provided the agency with fresh insights into previously unfamiliar fields. NRPR is expected to flourish even further in the coming months, as more organizations revamp their product lines and require additional marketing support. In January 2020, Nicole launched NRPR Productions, a full-service production company that offers NRPR clients comprehensive digital content creation support. In early 2021, the agency launched its boldest new venture yet, NRPR Business Pro (Biz Pro™). Created in response to a demonstrated client need, NRPR Biz Pro offers new businesses full concept-to-opening launch support, ranging from legal entity creation to brand identity and design. This expansion of services effectively closes the gap between business/brand development and post-launch positioning, thereby significantly differentiating NRPR’s offerings portfolio from any other public relations company in the market.
In terms of her career trajectory and experiences, Nicole has zero regrets, but she would offer her younger self one tiny morsel of loving advice: sleep more now, while you can, as workloads only increase as you elevate your impact. Nicole is an inspiration for women all over the world who aspire to become formidable figures and masters of their field within any area of business.
Magazine 
