Welcome Tala Kseibi, to PRSay – the podcast of the Houston PRSA Chapter.
On this episode, Tala shares about Encouraging Young Adults To Purse Careers in PR.
As a Public Relations Manager at Love Advertising, Tala is driven by a passion for effective communication and strategic brand management. With a Bachelor of Arts in Communication, focusing on Public Relations from The University of Texas at San Antonio, Tala refined her skills in media relations and successfully crafted and executed communication strategies, securing coverage in various online and broadcast local and trade publications.
Currently, Tala proudly serves as one of the 2024 PRSA Houston Board Directors and will be leading the New Young Professionals Committee. Her leadership journey includes being the President of the PRSSA at UTSA and a board member of the PRSA San Antonio, where she revitalized the chapter within a semester and raised substantial funds. Committed to inclusive initiatives, her background reflects a dedication to community engagement and diverse perspectives.
Connect with Tala at:
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/tala-kseibi-04727a172
Learn more about the PRSA Houston Chapter, our events and opportunities at www.prsahouston.org.
PRSay is brought to you by Veronica V. Sopher, Public Relations
Welcome Tala Kseibi, to PRSay – the podcast of the Houston PRSA Chapter.
On this episode, Tala shares about Encouraging Young Adults To Purse Careers in PR.
As a Public Relations Manager at Love Advertising, Tala is driven by a passion for effective communication and strategic brand management. With a Bachelor of Arts in Communication, focusing on Public Relations from The University of Texas at San Antonio, Tala refined her skills in media relations and successfully crafted and executed communication strategies, securing coverage in various online and broadcast local and trade publications.
Currently, Tala proudly serves as one of the 2024 PRSA Houston Board Directors and will be leading the New Young Professionals Committee. Her leadership journey includes being the President of the PRSSA at UTSA and a board member of the PRSA San Antonio, where she revitalized the chapter within a semester and raised substantial funds. Committed to inclusive initiatives, her background reflects a dedication to community engagement and diverse perspectives.
Connect with Tala at:
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/tala-kseibi-04727a172
Learn more about the PRSA Houston Chapter, our events and opportunities at www.prsahouston.org.
PRSay is brought to you by Veronica V. Sopher, Public Relations
Hello, and welcome to PRSay, this is the Houston chapter of well, this is PRSay, the Houston chapters award-winning podcast, we get an opportunity to connect with all of our members here on PRSA. And we bring you our members, we introduce them to you ask you to connect with them so that we do meet in person, you've got an opportunity to already have something to talk about and really just grow your network because that's what we're trying to do here in our PRSA chapter in Houston. So with that we're going to bring on our guest, we've got a fantastic guest joining us today from Love Advertising. But before I introduce Tala, I want to make sure that I remind you to hit subscribe because we don't want you to miss any episodes of PRSay. If you're watching on Facebook or LinkedIn, drop us some comments, and we'll be sure to connect with you as well. So with that, let me go ahead and bring on Tala Kseibi from Love Advertising, welcome.
Tala K:Hello, thank you so much for having me on here.
Veronica Sopher:Yes, you bet. We're so excited to connect. So first of all, I love your name. And I hope I pronounced it correctly. Tell me the origin journey. Yes.
Tala K:It's actually from Syria. I'm originally from Syria.
Veronica Sopher:I love it. I love it. Well, I love your name. Tell you tell me a little bit about yourself and how you got started in communications?
Tala K:Yes, so my name is Tala. Like you said, I'm currently a PR manager. I love advertising. My journey started at UTSA. I went to college there at University of Texas at San Antonio. I had majored in public relations to communications with a PR focus. But before that, I did switch majors. Before I got to PR actually, I was a political science major on a pre-law track. Last-minute changes happened throughout my junior year. It was awesome. You know, I hadn't known a lot about PR before that I before I met with my advisor. And I was like, listen, I don't know, if political science is my thing. I need to find my thing. You know, it's my junior year. And then she recommended communications. And then she was like, we have three different tracks. We have HR PR, and I think there was one more thing and I was like, What is PR? And then she's like, it's public relations. This is kind of what it entails. And at that point, I was still like, this sounds interesting. I don't know much about it yet. But it does sound interesting. So I actually ended up switching my major that day started classes the week after I believe. And literally the first class I took with PR I just I was like, this is it. Love is what I want. It's just like, click.
Veronica Sopher:Yeah. Oh, I love that you got guided right to it. And you knew exactly this was for you.
Tala K:Yes. And so I was there at UTSA. I continued my education with PR. I had a great mentor throughout my time there Dr. Khan. So he's a professor at UTSA, who actually taught me more about PRSA PRSSA in San Antonio chapter and all of that. My senior year, he had asked me to reactivate the PRSSA student chapter at UTSA. And I was like, okay, for sure, I don't know appears to say is yet but I took on the role. And then I reactivated that chapter. And throughout that time, I had made a lot of connections with great members and mentors and PR pros in San Antonio who have really I mean, I've looked up to them a lot, and they're the reason why I'm where I'm at right now.
Veronica Sopher:Oh, I love it. Yes. We love our friends in San Antonio. I'm good friends with Rebecca and Monica down there in the PRSA. The San Antonio chapter. They're fantastic. So Oh, that's wonderful. So what brought you to Houston? How did you get from being a leader and PRSSA at UTSA over to Houston.
Tala K:I was originally from Houston. I was in Houston, but I went to college in San Antonio. So I spent four years there, you know, and then I came back here. I had plans to come back here after I'd graduated. But, you know, starting my career there in San Antonio, my senior year I was working. Chin's researcher and writer, student assistant in a way. And then that semester is when I took on that PRSSA leadership role recruited over 20 members and we raised over 5k$1,000 for the chapter and it's currently still alive chapter at UTSA. It has a big, big spot in my heart. And kind of how I led to Houston, where I landed Love Advertising is because we normally get like, internship opportunities, you know, through peers is safer students and I had received that email. I was like, Oh, this isn't Houston. I'd look into it, shared it with my members. I looked into it a little bit more applied the same day, interviewed, got the internship. So two weeks after I had graduated from UTSA. I started my internship here. It was like a 10-week internship until August. Great experience. I mean, I have a great group of leaders with me as well and coworkers. So after my internship had ended, I stayed on as a full-time contractor, and I'm currently a PR manager managing some accounts at Love Advertising. So it's been great. I mean, I love PR and what it can bring to us.
Veronica Sopher:Oh, that's fantastic. What kind of accounts are you working on? What do you what do you enjoy most about them?
Tala K:Everything. I mean, you know, PR, there's something new every day, we're learning something new every single day. And I think that's what really keeps me going. And having the opportunity to work with different several clients. So I work with a lot of b2b and b2c, some home services, Jomar services, as well as trade outlets. So we work a lot with paid media, material handling industry insurance, and just several different clients who have never thought I learned about forklifts, right with the material handling like things that take us and brings us our packages and all of that in warehouses. So it's been a great experience. And I think what I love most about it, like I said, is the diversity of it. And you know, everyday something new, I'm working on several different clients. It's not just one same thing. There's always new opportunities that come our way and kind of keeps my mind going and staying creative and, like timely. And I think with the new trends, it's happening and just ever changing. So I love them.
Veronica Sopher:Oh, that's fantastic. I agree. It's you find you find out things you didn't know even existed in public relations.
Tala K:100% It's a wealth of information.
Veronica Sopher:It is. Well, I gotta tell you, I love your energy. And I know that public relations in the Houston area and quite honestly, in our state are in good hands with students like you. And we've got some fantastic PSSA chapters. And San Antonio, it sounds like they are primed and ready to continue to grow that chapter. So good job there. thing. Yeah. So before, before we wrap up, I want to ask quickly, what are a couple of pieces of advice you would give to students coming out of those chapters? What do students need to be thinking about now about our profession? Because oftentimes, we know what our advisors tell us, excuse me, we may have mentors. But at the end of the day, like you said, there are things we don't even know about our industry, what are a couple of pieces of advice you would pass on to students who are graduating, um,
Tala K:The main thing I would say is put yourself out there. Run after people, connect with people, make those connections, you know, a lot of times things don't come to you have to go to them sometimes right, find the answers to the questions that you're looking for. Definitely join PRSA Houston, become members. And if you're currently a student, do join the chapters, I mean, PRSSA chapters, it's a great way to start your career. Not only does it give you internship opportunities, networking, but it really fulfills that professional side. And like, you know, it inspires you to do more as well. So I definitely encourage students to become parents to say chapters, like be involved in organizations, talk to them, talk to people you want to learn more about. I also another thing I wanted to mention, I'm currently a PRSA Houston, on the board director, also will be leading the new young professionals committee. So if anyone is interested, make sure hey, you know, there's so much happening next year, this coming year, and so many great events and ways to like go enhance our organization and bring on more young students like us, because we are the future as well, you know, and we bring the new ideas and just the fresh side of us. So definitely get out there, I think is the main thing. Don't be afraid to ask questions to put yourself out there. I mean, that's part of PR as well. You always have the extroverted PR professional, sometimes there's an introverted PR professional that not a lot of people really know. But it's just putting yourself out there, I would say is the main thing.
Veronica Sopher:Oh, that's great advice. And it's true. And it's a great reminder for those of us who are in our mid-careers or towards the end looking towards retirement, it's a great reminder, we've got to keep learning we got to keep growing and networking is the way to do it. So tell you that's brilliant for everybody. So thank you for that advice. How can people connect with you, how do you want people to reach out to you and get to know you. I love that you're serving the organization in a leadership role. I think that's fantastic and super exciting for someone who's been at it for a little while to see the young energy come in. How can people connect with you?
Tala K:People can connect with me on LinkedIn. So my full name TALA KSEIBI, and just send me a connection request and know if you'd like to me I'm happy to meet with anyone I'm at Love Advertising. We also have summer internships that are starting up where applications are going live next week. So if you're also considered an internship, let me know we run the internship program. So yeah,
Veronica Sopher:I love it. Let's get some. Let's get more students in. Alright, tell ya, I'm definitely going to connect with you because I don't think we're connected on LinkedIn. So as soon as we wrap up with this, you can expect that in your in your LinkedIn box.
Tala K:Awesome. Well, thank you so much for having me on here.
Veronica Sopher:You bet. You bet. All right, guys, if you haven't connected with Talia, make sure you do. This is our future. We've got some amazing young professionals coming into the space here in our Houston chapter. And we want to make sure that we stay connected with them, impart some of our wisdom that we have and then take some of their new ideas and really grow for our clients and for all the projects that we're working on. So with that, I'm going to wrap up this episode of PRSay Remember to hit subscribe if you are listening to the podcast and if you are watching on LinkedIn or Facebook, drop us some comments Italian I can be sure to connect. And with that, we'll wrap up this episode and we'll see you at the next one.