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Quality time with family key for PR pro
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sunday, November 02, 2008
Mitch Leff is known around Atlanta as a PR professional with his finger on the pulse of the city.
Through his company, Leff & Associates, he operates a media Web site, www.mitchsmediamatch.com, that connects reporters with experts and sources, and a database of all Atlanta media, www.leffsatlantamedia.com. He can often be found at many of the top forums on communications and holding court at a table of media professionals.
Building relationships is a founding principle for Mitch Leff, who owns the public relations firm Leff & Associates.
• Age: 42
• Employment: President, Leff & Associates
• Education: Bachelor's in business from Emory University
• Marital status: Married, wife Karen Eisele Leff; sons, Jack, 8, Harry, 6
• Hobbies: Fishing, billiards and reading (mostly science fiction and history)
• Book recently read: "The Tipping Point," by Malcolm Gladwell
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But when he’s with his sons Harry, 6, and Jack, 8, he’s just Dad. He’s Dad the Cub Scout den leader for Harry, and Dad the soccer coach for Jack.
He’s Dad, who takes both fishing at different sites around Atlanta.
“I just love doing things with my sons,” he said.
A native of North Massapequa, N.Y., Leff moved to metro Atlanta when he was 13. He has worked throughout the metro area in various companies, including public relations firms Cohn & Wolfe and Edelman, as well as media giant Turner Broadcasting.
He started Leff & Associates six years ago when he came to a crossroads in his life. He had been laid off from Turner Learning, the educational division of Turner Broadcasting System, and wanted a new job that would allow him to be at home in the evenings with his family.
The company is essentially Leff and a few other independent PR professionals who partner with him on projects as needed.
When not hanging with his sons, his other passion is volunteering for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Atlanta. He has worked with the group since 1989, when a boss told him to write something funny for a roast of boxer Evander Holyfield.
“I didn’t know anything about writing jokes,” he said, explaining that he followed through and found that he did indeed have a funny bone.
Q: What got you into the world of PR?
A: I have a degree in business with a concentration in finance. But I graduated a year after the stock market crash of 1987 — sound familiar? — and there were a lot of people going into finance. I just wasn’t finding what I wanted. I talked to a few PR and marketing agencies, and I was fortunate to get a job right out of school.
Q: Are there benefits to being head of Leff & Associates?
A: I didn’t want a job where I would be traveling all the time and I would be out working late. I wanted to be able to spend quality time with my family. So I took the advice of a lot of people who had been telling me all the time to go into my own business.
Q: What makes Mitch Leff tick?
A: I look at life as building relationships with people. People have gotten so used to e-mail and Facebook, but I go to meet with reporters and have breakfast, lunch and dinner with them. That builds relationships, not just short-term, but long-term. The reporter you meet today will in 10 years be an editor that you’ve built a lasting relationship with.
Q: In a downturn, marketing is often the first department to face cuts. Has that hurt you financially?
A: Not really. A lot of companies will look for ways to cut costs. But they will also look for ways to boost sales. They understand that if you cut marketing totally, you’re just hurting yourself.
Q: Does being smaller make it easier to position Leff & Associates?
A: I don’t know about the bigger agencies in town, but the smaller agencies are doing fine. When they come to an agency like mine, they get me. You don’t always get that with the big agencies.
Q: Leff & Associates partners with others to offer a full plate of services. Is that a successful model?
A: We all share our expertise and business. I can’t tell you how many times a week that I get someone saying, “I got this lead on business that I can’t get to or I’m too busy. Is this something you might be interested in?”
Q: What excites you these days?
A: I’m always working on my new Web site and my media blog. They’re starting to get some traction. Sometimes it takes a little time to build.
Q: What can readers of them expect?
A: I want to report about new media in town, what changes are being made, not just at the bigger outlets, but the small ones, too. I want to cover trends in media, what’s working and what’s not.
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