MY PHILOSOPHY
You don’t need an agency. You need a PR system.
I started this business because I kept meeting brilliant people getting terrible PR advice. They would hire an agency, pay thousands a month, and have nothing to show for it. Or they would try to do it themselves and get nowhere.
I spent fifteen years inside America's top newsrooms and training the journalists in them. I know what reporters actually respond to and how to build an engaged audience online. I am also a professional speaker, so I know what it takes to land a stage and get paid for it.
In 2022 I launched this business to give experts, founders, and organizations a way to get major attention without hiring a publicist. My clients have landed exclusives in the New York Times, gone viral at SXSW, and raised $2.4 million on Kickstarter — all within a month of working together.
You absolutely can do this , too. That’s what my team and I are here to help you do.
MY BIO
About Tracy Samantha Schmidt
I help experts of every kind get known: founders, executives, clinicians, academics, scientists, artists, and consultants.
I learned how the media works from the inside. I began my career as the youngest reporter at TIME Magazine, covering the rise of social media and the new ways of reporting that came with it. My master's thesis ran in TIME and was picked up by the Today Show, Oprah, MTV, and Vogue.
I went on to co-found ChicagoNow, the Chicago Tribune's influencer network, co-host a radio show on WGN, and run global social strategy as a media executive at Crain, where I unified eighteen newsrooms and trained hundreds of journalists. I have been a regular commentator on ABC, CBS, and FOX.
I also teach it. I spent a decade teaching marketing at the University of Chicago, led graduate journalism courses at DePaul University, and designed a nationwide social media training program for the National Association of Broadcasters. Additionally, I taught personal branding to thousands of people at conferences across the United States.
By 2022, after advising over 100 brands on marketing and communications, I kept seeing the same thing: the people with the best ideas often had the worst representation. So I changed direction and started teaching experts to run their own PR. Since then my clients have landed top-tier coverage, gone viral, booked major keynotes, and raised millions.
I am a Chicago native now living in the heart of Michigan's Upper Peninsula with my husband. When I am not working I paint, write novels, and hike.
Select clients
Aether Biomedical • Advocate Healthcare • American Library Association • American Society of Anesthesiologists • Brightpoint • The Chicago Network • Crain Communications • Gundir • i.c.stars • Institute for Nonviolence Chicago • Keenan Reid Strategies • Kin + Carta • Kin Insurance • National Association of Broadcasters • National Association of Realtors • NORC • Oliva Capital • Origin Investments • Rotary International • The Joffrey Ballet • Unify America • University of Chicago • University of Illinois • YPO •
Since 2010, I have advised 100+ brands on marketing and communications, including: