Nicole Bestard Interview: Path to PR

When Nicole Bestard started Quarter Horse in 2020, she didn’t know she was founding an agency. It was deep in the most uncertain days of the pandemic, and Nicole wanted to bring her decades of experience in public relations—along with her journalism background and lifelong creative writing—to working one-on-one with founders. She figured she’d be a one-pony show, collaborating with others as needed.

Nicole wanted her PR work to meet the rising need for mission-driven strategic counsel with compassion as well as critical thought—but she was determined to work only for an agency that lived the values she knew from experience were essential to creating the kind of work, and the kind of workplace, that could elevate the industry. Before long, Quarter Horse was up and running.

Three years later, it’s safe to say Nicole has not only built an agency from the ground up, she’s created a culture that balances ambition and hard work with consideration and generosity. As Quarter Horse’s Senior Staff Writer, I sat down with Nicole to learn more about her path, and hear how she went from hating PR to founding Quarter Horse.

Lindsay Lee Wallace: How did you start working in PR?

Nicole Bestard: Accidentally—100% accidentally. I was working as a journalist, which I loved because I was being paid to write. And then the publication I wrote for was sold, which just goes to show that journalism has been a precarious industry for ages. Like the droves of laid-off reporters who enter the workforce with every shuttered newsroom today, I found it nearly impossible to find another job in journalism. But I had a lot of friends in PR, so I thought I’d see how I liked it.

And in fact, I hated it.

I decided pretty quickly that PR was not for me. I applied and was accepted to a poetry MFA program at the University of Southern California, and quit my PR job in celebration. Eventually, however, I realized I’d still need a steady income—and a friend I’d made in PR, Katherine Jarvis, reached out and said, “I’ve started my own PR agency, you should come work for me.”

LLW: And you said yes?

NB: I said, “Absolutely not, I hate PR.” And she said, “Well, what if I cook for you?” So I literally followed my stomach. But I always thought PR was a temporary gig until I finished grad school, and I continued to think that for years. Then one day I looked up and realized I’d been working in PR for two decades.

I also realized that, like in my journo jobs, I was being paid to write. And beyond that, I found that my journalist background helped me, as a strategic comms partner, offer clients perspective on what reporters need and how things are perceived. I realized PR, like journalism, is a great job for someone who is insatiably curious.

LLW: And that made you realize you didn’t hate PR after all?

NB: Well, not entirely. The other important realization I had was that a lot of my unhappiness in my first PR job was cultural. Agency life is known for having a culture that’s really competitive, ridiculously petty, and full of politics and drama. A lot of people put up with it because they believe that if they bear it long enough they’ll eventually be making a good salary and have a good title, and they may even have a bit more control over the situation. And many put up with it because they think that’s all there is. But when Katherine said, “Come work at my agency, we’re going to do it differently,” I trusted she’d be able to build a supportive culture—and she did.

And building that culture has obviously paid off: Katherine’s agency, Jarvis Communications, is the leading wine PR agency and has been going strong for 18 years now.

LLW: And when you founded Quarter Horse, you wanted to do the same.

NB: By the time I founded Quarter Horse, I’d had the benefit of working in a few different agencies that invested a lot in a really nurturing, fun, smart, and thoughtful culture. And I realized you have to be intentional about the culture you’re building. Today, there are more and more people in PR who understand this—I’m proud to be among them.

LLW: I really appreciate knowing that the experience you bring to Quarter Horse is based on both your values and your experience in an industry that has been problematic in its history but is working to reckon with that history. For example, PR is affected by the same forces that lead to corporate spaces being male-dominated, but at the same time, it’s a majority female profession. It seems like there’s a fair amount of nuance in that dynamic.

NB: Yeah, and I think some of it is based on somewhat damaging stereotypes about women’s “soft skills,” and our abilities at organization and planning. When I think back to my education, it was made very clear that as a girl, math lessons were going to be helpful for me in a clerical capacity, whereas boys were encouraged to develop deeper understandings, and to lean in further. As boys grow up and become men, and as those men develop careers, they have more access to financial information, and are more likely to be included in decision-making conversations. That access keeps them informed so they can continue pursuing promotions. As an entrepreneur and small business owner, I’ve only recently fully come to terms with how that undervaluing of certain skills has not only held me back, but is holding other women back—and holding men back.

But I have also been fortunate enough to benefit from the guidance of those who prioritized transparency and access. When I made the move from working at smaller companies to joining my first big agency, I had a manager and other leaders who were super transparent about the financial aspects of the business. Even before it was a core responsibility, my direct manager felt it important that I understand exactly how a profit and loss sheet worked, how to forecast, and other “hard” skills that are necessary to move up to certain roles in a PR career, but that many aren’t told are required. That opportunity has served me well to this day, and I want to make sure our team at Quarter Horse has that same level of transparency and access to understanding how the business works, and where we stand. It’s about everyone having the opportunity to understand the numbers, both in terms of what they mean for the company, and what they mean for each team member’s own career.

LLW: Is Quarter Horse an all-women agency by design?

NB: Nope. And I want to point out that we’re not only all-women, we’re also homogenous in another way: we’re currently entirely white. Everyone talks about wanting to recruit diverse teams—or at least pays lip service to that goal—but the truth is, many of us nonetheless continue to hire people who look like us. As a startup founder, I didn’t think Quarter Horse would be more than me and maybe one other employee at first, and with a team of two, I didn’t immediately feel I was contributing to anything structural. Then as needs came up, we continued to hire from within our network, but we also felt a pressure to hire and grow quickly, which in retrospect I can say superseded other goals we had at the time that we should have prioritized, like creating a more diverse staff. Going forward, we’re trying to grow in ways that deliberately resist just falling back on our networks, and to really prioritize being thoughtful and purposeful.

We also try to stay aware of what we might fail to consider right off the bat due to the similarity of our positionalities and experiences, and to keep in mind the viewpoints that are left out of our work. And I also know being in the minority in any space can put a lot of pressure on a person to represent an entire perspective. It has become a cliché to say it but diversity is crucial. I wouldn’t be where I am without mentors and colleagues of all kinds whom I’ve learned from and shared my perspective with, and that’s what I am dedicated to building towards at Quarter Horse.

LLW: And at Quarter Horse, you’ve been very deliberate about setting out the agency’s values and ethics. Why has that been so important, and what has that process been like as a founder, especially as new people have joined your team?

NB: The “why” is accountability. Values and ethics are easy to talk about, but it’s harder to hold yourself accountable, so writing it down is important. It’s not foolproof, but I really believe that if you are walking the walk, you attract people with similar values. So far that’s held true for us in terms of both employees and, importantly, clients. What’s inspired me the most is working with clients who not only have really strong values, but live those values. I’m also aware that we’re lucky to have such clients.

For example, we helped write the brand values for one of our earliest clients, EngageSmart, and love is one of them. Some people might scoff at that, but when you get to know their team members, you see that there is a genuine care for one another and for those they’re helping.

Another of our oldest clients, Silicon Ranch Corporation, asserts in their values that they believe in square corners—meaning they don’t cut corners, they do what they say they’ll do and make sure to follow through. And that’s true in every part of their business. It’s evident in the care they bring to the work we do together, and that’s what makes them such great partners.

LLW: So you came into PR accidentally and hated it. Then you started your own agency. How do you see PR now?

NB: I think PR is simply helping other people do the right thing. We’re humans, and they’re humans, we’re all fallible and the right thing is not always obvious. We’re here to be a counselor and voice of educated reason, and provide perspective and research. If we’re doing our job really well, we’re helping people do the right thing.