Latest / The Jeff Crilley Show / Kelly J. Kitchens, CEO, Kelly Kitchens PR | The Jeff Crilley Show
Transcript
- Coming up next on the Jeff Crilley Show, you're gonna meet the great Kelly Kitchens. She's a dear friend, and she's one of the most respected PR people in North Texas. Her incredible journey just ahead. Many are predicting that the worst is yet to come, which is unfortunate, said one person here. Until now, they've enjoyed the reputation of being the nation's icebox. Watched a burglar in his home this morning by webcam. As a journalist of over twenty five years, stories are what make my world turn. Reporting live from The Dallas Newsroom tonight, Jeff Crilley, Fox four news. But in 2008, I took the jump from my familiar life and started a PR firm from my home. We're talking about anyone with a camcorder like the one I'm using becomes television network. We started slowly growing the company, and we now have over a 100 clients. And we've branched into the world of live digital broadcasting. I now own eight different TV studios and have a huge team. And the stories that I now get to share are sometimes the most important of my life. Life has a funny way of coming around full circle. This is The Jeff Crilley Show. Well, I was a TV journalist here in North Texas from 1992 until 2008 when I left to start my own PR firm, and there are very few PR people in North Texas that I respect more than my next guest. Kelly Kitchens is in the studio she's the CEO I'm gonna call that Chief Enthusiasm Officer of Kelly Kitchens PR thanks for coming on the show. Thank you Jeff I so appreciate you having me here. Well one of the things I love about you is that you have a background in journalism which I think really helps you with the media. So let's start with your journey. Okay. Tell us about your journalism years. Well I actually said I wanted to be a journalist when I was 14 and I was on Yerbichstaff, and I knew right then, I was like this is where I wanna go. And so I was on year break staff in high school and in college and I knew I wanted to go into fashion film, something of that Yes. That way and not necessarily into hard news. And so, that part of the journey got a little muddled, but then it all worked out because there was a student paper that came out at North Texas that used to be also, well it was at SMU at the same time and when they came up to North Texas everything at SMU was all, was everything was about sororities or fraternities and I said that's not gonna work at us at North Texas. Yeah, right. I said we've got to cover music and art and theater and the publisher who was a student at SMU, he was like, well I don't know anything about that and I said, I do And so, he said, well you're gonna be the entertainment editor for The Student Voice. Wow. Then The Student Voice turned into The Met. Wow. The Arts and Entertainment Weekly Guide that came out starting in 1994. Very popular publication, shout out to Randstagen, because it was a brilliant kind of alternative newspaper to the Dallas Morning News. Yeah. Tell us about your days with the Met, what was that like? Oh my goodness, it was a lot of work. So, I was the calendar editor and the film editor and when it started in April 1994, was, I everybody who had anything to do with arts entertainment in all of North Texas had to contact me to get into the paper. Wow. And so I found all of these contacts and I was just really enamored with what they were doing and how they were, you know, getting stuff Sure, to sure. And so being the calendar editor, that's how I met all of them, and then I was the film editor as well, which film is one of my passions. Sure. And so it was a perfect fit. Alright, when did you decide to go out on your own? Well, it was March 1995. Okay. And So thirty one years. My last day at the Met was 03/31/1995. Wow. And so I woke up the next morning and was like, well, I guess I started my own business. That's amazing and very few PR firms get to be around for thirty one years, was that, I mean did it go by in a blink of an eye for you? Partially, I mean nineeleven really slowed things down, Sure. Quite a bit, I ended up having, because I was always taking on entertainment clients and about nineeleven people nested for a really long time people don't remember that, but they did. They stopped going to restaurants, they stopped going to theaters, stopped going to plays and movies. And so, as I was losing clients, I was having to find other ways to stay active. So, I took on some doctors and lawyers and childcare experts, but I always kept you know, one, yeah, one fun one. Yeah. In the background, so that, you know, or not in the background, but with so that I could still be involved with that. Love that. We're gonna put up your website, so people can see this. Okay. You specialize in entertainment and that includes film, music, theater, art, why is that such a passion for you? It just is my whole life. My mother, when I grew up in Fort Worth took me to Casa Mignana starting when I was like three or four, and I think it's important to teach kids how to be good audience members. Yes. And so then when we moved to Houston, we were at the ballet and the opera and the symphony and I just, I loved having all of that exposure. Yes. And it's so important to maintain these entities that have been around a long time, but we need to maintain them. And you love film festivals. I do. Talk about that part I of your do. You know my very first film festival that I worked was the Dallas Video Fest in 1999, and got to work with Paul Rubens. Oh wow. He came in town for he won the Ernie Kovacs Award that year. Very cool. That was so cool. Yeah, and so I've been working with the Dallas Video Fest. I had a little few off years, but for the majority of that time, came back in 2012. And then, but yeah, so from there, I've been the director of press and publicity for Dallas International Film Festival, for Lone Star Film Festival, for Frame for Frame in Arlington, Thin Line in Denton, Tallgrass in Wichita, Kansas. And you know some of them kind of come and go and you know that's the way it goes, but I love being involved with the film festivals. And because I'm a former journalist and we share that DNA, A former journalist pitching a journalist knows the language. Yes, and we know what you need. I'm always telling clients, I'm like, we need, you've got to give photographs where the JPEG title is the name, is the caption of the photograph, with a photo credit And in you can put like two fifty characters in a JPEG title, so that it's right there with that photo, so that when a journalist gets a photo, and it doesn't say IMG underscore four thirty two, because Right. Where's that gonna go in your computer? Exactly. But if you've got the name of the film festival, if you've got DIP and then you have the name of the film and then what it is, boom, it's right there. And you were telling me before we started rolling that you get a lot of referrals from journalists. I do. I felt so blessed. It is, that is, that is the absolute highest honor compliment that I ever get. And to me that tells me that they like the way I deal with them and the way I get things to them, and so yeah, it's, I mean, and it started with Philip Wunch at The Dallas Morning News. Legendary journalist. Legendary, and he gave me a film, he told the filmmaker, you need to call Kelly Kitchens and that was right when I left the Met. Wow, you've been honored by the Fort Worth Business Press and The Dallas Morning News, they call you a master publicist, that has to feel good to get that from your colleagues. It does, it does, oh gosh, it did indeed, yeah, that was, in particular, I was doing publicity on myself for the very first time, because I was doing a publicity 101 class. Okay. And this was like in 2003 or 2004, and I was like, I've gotta get me out there. And then that, so that fast forwards to the fact that I started my own film festival in Garland. Wow. In 2023. So I'm the festival director and the festival publicist for It Came From Texas, which is all films that were made in Texas. Beautiful. And, you know, and so, it's really funny to quote yourself in a press release. It is, I mean, Kelly I Kitchens said, what? Yeah, mean publicists were designed to be in the background and put a spotlight on our clients. I want to put up an article because you were featured in an article on TCM Classic Film Festival and let's put this up on the screen and scroll down cause there's some beautiful images there. Tell us about your relationship with TCM. Oh, is really amazing. So the very first TCM Film Festival was 2010 and my husband and I, the opening night film was Star Is Born with Judy Garland and James Mason, Judy Garland is my, I always call her my first love. So, I was like, Mark, we have to go to this. And we have gone every year, you can see, oh, that picture right there with the big group. Oh, the big group picture, yep. It's just a portion of the group that I started after that first film festival on Facebook, because we met so many cool people from all over the country and several from around the world, that was like, I want to keep in touch with these And that group has now, I mean that's been going on sixteen years. Wow. And you know, we have a, that was a pre festival party that we have a get together, everybody comes together and it's, you know, I know deep down that TCM, people that work TCM, love us. Since we were talking about film, we were both at the Dallas Press and Media Club recently and we spent an hour talking about AI. Yes. What are your friends in the movie world thinking about AI? Well, what's interesting is I'm gonna work with Bart on an AI film festival. Oh, wow, okay. And we are planning that at the end of the year. Cool. And you know, I there's things that Bart Bart Weiss is, he started Dallas Video Fest in 1987, because if you think about it, in the eighties, people going to film festivals had to make their films on film. Yes. 16 or 35 millimeter. They could not make it on video, like, you know, VHS or whatever. So that would, so he was like, there are good things being made on video. And so he's wanting to open it up to that and not say, I'm just gonna exclude this film because it was made on video, you know, shot on video. Well, it's the same thought processes for AI. Yes. Yes, there are things we need to be aware of, there are things we need to be cautious of, we need to double check, sources and verify, I mean, 100%. But, it's here, it's going to be here, and we need to figure it out, and I love that Bart is embracing this, and you know, and I'm not exactly sure how he's going to make it all work, but I can't wait for this process to unfold and to have the conversation about it. Not just say, Oh, I don't want to see that because it has AI stuff in it. Right. Just about everything has AI stuff in it now. Wow. I mean, you see a bear taking a fawn or a puppy to the door, that's not a bear. Right. I mean, was not a real story. Right. So, I mean, we need to be able to look out for things like that, and know, and know that bears are not our friends. Do not think a bear is going to be kind to you. Anyway. Kelly, you're delightful. We have about a minute left. Okay. So give us final thoughts. What do you wanna leave people with about your career? You know, you've had thirty one years. What's the next thirty one years look like? You know, I'm here for the ride. Things are changing, things have changed drastically, you know, even just since the pandemic and you know, all of that too, is a whole other conversation. But you know, I embrace bloggers and podcasters, influencers, online outlets, not just, you know, radio, TV what's Although left of I embrace all of them, you know, and want to help them as much as I can because I know they are way overworked. Wow. So count me in as as partner. I love it. Kelly, thank you for sharing your heart and your wisdom with us. We're gonna end with her website, the great Kelly J. Kitchens in the studio. Thank you so much for sharing sharing your wisdom with us. That's it for now. We'll see you next time.