July 6, 2026
Why Independent PR Firms Are Outperforming Holding Companies Right Now
That Solo Life Episode 346: Why Independent PR Firms Are Outperforming Holding Companies Right Now
Episode Summary
It's the week after the Fourth of July, and Karen and Michelle are talking about a different kind of independence. It turns out that the future of PR looks a lot like its past: closer to the work, the relationships, and the accountability that got lost as holding companies scaled. Karen and Michelle walk through the data backing that argument — holding company headcount cuts, a Forrester forecast for 2026, independent firm revenue and growth figures, and a client tenure study that should make every solo practitioner feel validated. This is a celebratory, data-backed episode about why this moment belongs to independent practitioners, and a reminder that going solo doesn't mean going it alone.
Episode Highlights
- [01:13] The Article That Sparked This Episode: Karen and Michelle discuss a PR News article by Jennifer Risi founder and president of The Sway Effect, titled “Old School Is the New School: How Independent PR Is Outrunning the Holding Company Model.” According to the article the future of PR looks like its past, not the bloated, multi-layered approval structures that came with scale, but direct relationships, accountability, and responsiveness.
- [02:29] The Industry Backdrop: Mergers, Layoffs, and a Symbolic Real Estate Shift: The article was published around Cannes Lions, timed against a wave of holding company consolidation, including a major agency merger referenced in the piece. Michelle highlights a striking detail: WPP gave up its longtime beach space at Cannes, and an independent agency took it over, a literal changing of the guard discussed in the original article.
- [03:10] The Headcount Numbers Behind the Shift: According to the article, holding companies cut headcount by an average of 8% in 2025, with a Forrester forecast cited for a 15% reduction in 2026. Karen and Michelle are clear that this isn't something to celebrate, hey don't take pleasure in layoffs or peers in the industry struggling, but the data underscores the structural shift taking place. All source data referenced in the episode will be linked in the show notes.
- [05:59] Independent Firms Are Posting Real Growth: Citing O’Dwyer's 2026 independent PR firm rankings, the independent sector pushed combined fee income to $4.8 billion, with nearly a third of the top 140 independent firms surveyed posting double-digit growth in the same year holding companies were announcing layoffs. Karen and Michelle's takeaway for solo listeners who haven't seen that kind of growth yet: there is work being awarded right now, and consistency in business development matters more than ever.
- [07:08] Independent Clients Stick Around Longer: A 2025 joint study from the ANA and the 4A's found that clients stay with independent agencies an average of 7.3 years, compared to 5.8 years at holding company agencies. Karen notes this surprised her. She expected the gap to be even wider based on anecdotal experience with solo practitioners but the data confirms what many independents have felt for years: that tenure reflects trust renewed over and over again, not just convenience.
- [10:21] Why Now? Two Forces Colliding: Michelle frames the moment as two things happening at once. The holding company model scaled to a point where margin optimization started to outweigh relationship investment. At the same time, AI emerged and gave independent practitioners the tools to work smarter and keep pace without the overhead that scale requires.
- [11:11] The Counterintuitive AI Argument: Judgment Becomes More Valuable, Not Less: The article asserts that AI doesn't make communications less important; it makes human judgment more valuable. When the media environment is fragmented, and machine-generated content adds speed and volume to an already chaotic landscape, clients need a human who can say what's actually real, what matters, and what to do next. That judgment cannot be automated and it does not live in headcount, it lives in a person.
- [13:14] Independence Means Choosing What You Carry: Independence isn't the absence of structure, it's choosing what structure to carry. For a solo practitioner, that means no committee, no internal routing, no extra layers, just the strategy, the execution, and the phone call. Karen adds an honest counterpoint: that freedom carries real weight too, and most solos who are drawn to this work want that weight. It's not a burden when it's the work you signed up for.
- [16:19] The Honest Tension: Concentration Without a Bench: Michelle names the tradeoff directly. Being the whole agency means there's no one to hand a midnight crisis to, no colleague down the hall to sanity-check a risky call. The freedom and the isolation come in the same box. Karen's answer is the Solo PR Pro community — built specifically to give independent practitioners the peer support, expertise, and gut-checks that solo work doesn't naturally include.
Resources & Additional Information
- PR News — Old School Is the New School (Jennifer Risi, The Sway Effect):
- O’Dwyer's - Independent PR Firm Rankings 2026
- ANA / 4A's Joint Client Tenure Study, 2025 - Press Release
- Solo PR Pro membership community: soloprpro.com
- That Solo Life podcast website: thatsololife.com
Host & Show Info
That Solo Life is a podcast created for public relations, communication, and marketing professionals who work as independent and small practitioners. Hosted by Karen Swim, APR, President of Solo PR Pro, and Michelle Kane, Principal of Voice Matters, the show delivers expert insights, encouragement, and practical advice for solo PR pros navigating today's dynamic professional landscape.
Listen to all episodes and catch up on previous conversations at thatsololife.com.
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That Solo Life Episode 346: Why Independent PR Firms Are Outperforming Holding Companies Right Now
Michelle Kane (00:00):
Hey, Karen. So it's the week right after the 4th of July weekend and fireworks, cookouts, that neighbor that starts early and goes hard way into the night, great, as our dogs hide under the beds, but that's all right. But here on that Solo Life, we're talking about a different kind of independence and the kind that, well, might not require sparklers, but you might want to light one up anyway, right?
Karen Swim, APR (00:26):
Right. Because while everybody is still celebrating one kind of freedom, even this week, there is a quieter independent story that's happening in our own industry. And so for once the big trade headlines are saying out loud what a lot of us have known for years, going independent is no longer the risky little sibling of the agency world. It might actually be the smart money.
Michelle Kane (00:54):
Sweet. So today we're going to get into why. There's a provocative article; there's some fresh data and one question we want every solo and small shop listener to sit with. What if the thing you were told to apologize for is exactly your advantage?
Karen Swim, APR (01:13):
Let's get into it. So the spark for this episode today, it was actually inspired by a PR news article. And the headline of the article is Old School is the New School: How Independent PR is Outrunning the Holding Company Model.
Michelle Kane (01:51):
Oh my gosh, that's fabulous. And shout out to Jennifer Risi. She's the founder and president of the Sway Effect who wrote this article. And I love the framing because her whole argument is that the future of PR looks a lot like the past. Oh, thank God. Not the bloated 14 layers of approval pass though because no one wants that. But the version that existed before scale became the only thing anyone measured, right? We're getting back to the work, to the relationships, to the accountability, to the straight talk, to being that partner that actually picks up the phone when a client needs you.
Karen Swim, APR (02:29):
Yeah. And the timing is pretty pointed. Even though this was a couple of weeks ago, it came out around Cans, Lions while the trades were full of the opposite story, merger after merger and historic agency names getting absorbed into network. And the big one that this article points to is Ketchum and Golin combining.
Michelle Kane (02:52):
Yeah. And there's even a physical symbol that she pointed to that I just can't stop thinking about. WPP gave up its prized beach space at Cannes and an independent took it over. But the real estate of the industry right there, literally changing hands, which is really exciting.
Karen Swim, APR (03:10):
Wow. And then there's the part that should truly make all of us pause. In this article, she wrote that holding companies cut headcount by an average of 8% in 2025. And of course we will link to all of the source data in the show notes, but there was a forecast attributed to Forrester that of a 15% reduction in 2026.
Michelle Kane (03:36):
Wow. And yeah, you flagged that to me before we came on air.
Karen Swim, APR (03:41):
Yeah.
Michelle Kane (03:41):
It's nothing.
Karen Swim, APR (03:43):
Yeah. No one is celebrating that. We love seeing independents finally get some recognition that it's a worthy business model, but we will never celebrate layoffs and our peers in the industry struggling. So again, we'll link to that article and we want it to just share those stats, but you'll have the source material so that you can check out that for yourself as well.
Michelle Kane (04:10):
Yeah, definitely. And there is a line in there that's probably going to stand out to a lot of people. One global holding company CEO reportedly said anonymously, of course, by 2028, we'll double the profits and have the people. And again, we're not dancing on anybody's occupational grave and these CEOs anyway, I won't delve into that, but-
Karen Swim, APR (04:40):
Doubling profits and having the people. So I think the unspoken truth here is that they probably think that with technology, AI, that they will probably be able to get the work done in a more efficient way. It will be interesting to see how that plays out because of course in the short term, we're seeing a bloodbath across so many industries, but that's not going to last and we all know that. So we're not co-signing that thinking at all because I feel like even though that quote is not attributed to a specific person, it definitely reflects a mood that ... And it's a model that we're seeing where people are just being treated like a cost to cut.
Michelle Kane (05:26):
Yeah, definitely. Definitely. And we're already seeing though how some corporations who did this earlier, they're hiring people back. I've seen it in the automotive industry. Where are they calling it? They're hiring back the gray beards because their AI initiatives are failing miserably and it's costing the money. So we shall see. But another thing that Risi brings in this article is the receipts, which we always like. We like to have proof, we like to have the facts and the proof she's presenting is on the side of us independents.
Karen Swim, APR (05:59):
Yeah, they are. I mean, from O'Dwyer's independent PR firm rankings in 2026, they showed that the independent sector pushed combined fee income to 4.8 billion and out of the top 140 independent firms that they surveyed, nearly a third of those posted double digit growth.
Michelle Kane (06:24):
On third double digits. That's amazing. And that's something for all of us to sit with and think about as we think, "Oh, I can't go after that business. I'm too little." No. And this is all in the same year that the large corporations are announcing layoffs. So as we say so often, there is work to be had out there.
Karen Swim, APR (06:44):
I completely agree with you, Michelle. And for those who weren't on that growth trajectory, I hope that this gives you some hope and some confidence that, you know what, it is our moment and work is being awarded. We just have to hang in there, do the business development, stay consistent and don't get discouraged.
Michelle Kane (07:08):
Yeah, definitely, definitely. And there's another stat that made me go, "Whoop, a 2025 joint study from the ANA and the four A's found that clients stay with independent agencies an average of 7.3 years at holding company agencies only 5.8 years."
Karen Swim, APR (07:29):
I mean, I want to be honest with you and tell you that I'm actually surprised the holding company number is that high because anecdotally, I think that if we polled our solos, I hear this all the time, we keep clients for a long time. People have clients for 10, 15, 20 years, but this data shows that we independents keep our clients a year and a half longer. They stick around. And I think that what that tenure actually measures, it's not vanity, but it's trust and it's trust that's renewed over and over again. That’s amazing. That should make every independent out there feel really good.
Michelle Kane (08:16):
Yeah. And I really want not just us to, but all of our solo listeners to really take ownership of that because you are part of that. It's not like, oh, you're independent. Oh, you're just freelancing then and you're not very stable. What if you can't hold on to clients where many of us can say, we've had clients sticking around for quite a while as opposed to agencies. And I think that stems back to the relationships we build with them among other things.
Karen Swim, APR (08:50):
I completely agree. And again, we say this a lot. We've talked about the differences between large agencies and small agencies and I believe, and I know you do too, we believe on the show that they both have a place and they're both important, but they're very different. When you have a huge org chart, there are just some things that maybe don't happen. With independent agencies, you have direct access to the person who's actually doing the work. Think about the power of that. This is somebody who knows the business well and you can call them with an idea before they call you with a problem. I mean, that's powerful.
Michelle Kane (09:34):
Yeah, that is everything. And we also have that opportunity to make our clients think that we're almost like a concierge service for their promotions and that's because it's true. So the big question then is why now?
Karen Swim, APR (09:52):
Yeah, exactly. I think you're right. Independence has already ... It's always existed. And we've seen not just with solo PR Pro, we've seen how much independent practitioners contribute to the GDP. It's not anything new. It's just I think that we're seeing it really come to the forefront in the PR industry. So let’s pull that thread a little bit.
Michelle Kane (10:22):
Yeah, definitely. Well, I think it's two things colliding at once, right? You've got the holding company model. It got so big before and then it started optimizing the wrong things. Of course, your number crunchers are going to be like, "Margin, margin, margin over the relationships." And how often we said business is kind of like dating. If your significant other, your client doesn't feel attended to, they're going to start probably either, if not looking elsewhere, thinking about breaking up with you. And then of course AI showed up and turned everything on its head because that has empowered us independents to work even smarter and keep up the pace.
Karen Swim, APR (11:07):
Yeah. I mean, and say more about that whole AI piece because the article does make an argument that I think is probably counterintuitive for a lot of people.
Michelle Kane (11:18):
Oh, totally. Yeah. She makes the point that AI doesn't make communications less important. It makes human judgment more valuable, right? The reasoning isn't up to snuff because you know best, you know your client best, you know the actual landscape best, you're living it. So when the media environment is as fragmented as it is, the culture shifts so quickly and now you've got machine generated speed and volume piled on top and ugh, clients need a human who can get in there and tell them what's real, what really matters and all that noise and what actually to do next. What is our next step? And you can't automate that.
Karen Swim, APR (12:00):
I agree. Judgment does not live in headcount. It lives in a person. So picture the client whose product gets dragged in some online pile up at 9:00 PM on a Friday night. They don't need 14 people on deck. They need one trusted voice who says, "Here's what's actually happening, here's what we ignore and here's the one thing that we can do tonight."
Michelle Kane (12:31):
Yep, absolutely. And a solo can be that voice instantly because there's nothing between you and making the call. Yeah, I know I've been that person as I'm doom scrolling in the evening, you're like, "Ugh."
Karen Swim, APR (12:47):
Absolutely. I mean, I think the message to companies that are not getting this is, that's why we bet on people over scale. And that's the line that matters more than any single statistics. Independence wins not because being smaller forces you to be all of the things that scale lets you avoid accountable, responsive, and close to the work.
Michelle Kane (13:14):
That's so true. So true. And here's where we can really ring in ha, the 4th of July metaphor. Independence does not mean you don't have structure, right? Independence is choosing what you carry. So the author of this article, Risi, she has the idea about not carrying what clients don't need, right? So for a solo, that's your entire operating model, right? We don't have the machinery to root things through. We don't have to say, "Oh, we have to take that into our little committee and blah, blah, blah." You're the strategy and the execution and the phone call. You can solve a client's problem with much more speed, efficiency and I don't want to say correctness, but again, we're not slacking off on big agencies, but when there's a lot of moving parts, things take longer. That's just how it is.
Karen Swim, APR (14:05):
And I mean, let's shout that because there is freedom in that, but if we're being honest, there's also weight in it too. And I honestly think a lot of people, a lot of solos, if you talk to them, that's one of the reasons that they were attracted to working like that. They wanted that weight. And I feel like when you're caught to it, it's not really a weight, it's what your assignment is. So I love that, but we are so close and I know none of us takes that for granted. I had a little crisis situation last week with a client and I felt it in every piece of my being, but I was able to focus in on it, concentrate and really not only give them what they asked for but much more and help to tailor the thinking and guard against it in the future.
(14:56):
Fortunately, it was just a little blip on the radar, but we do, because we're close to the work, because we know that people, these are the kind of things that just make our work so rich and so rewarding.
Michelle Kane (15:11):
So true. So true. I mean, I tell my clients all the time, I become your champion and it's because I get to know you, I care about you and I want you to win. It's not just, "Oh yeah, I'll do that, cash your check, blah, blah." I think it's a double edged sword in our business. You can't just run the numbers and put it out of your mind. But with all our pro raw talk, we don't want to romanticize this too much. I mean, this article was mostly about independent agencies, firms with teams such as she mentions in the sway effect, but like you and I, a lot of our listeners are solos, we work with partners on projects, which really distills it down to the true meaning of independence.
Karen Swim, APR (15:57):
It does. I mean, I think it makes us the purest version of what this article describes. So all the things that are credit to independence, the trust, the responsiveness, the direct access, the judgment, a solo PR pro embodies all of it with nothing in between. So that's the advantage and it's fully concentrated.
Michelle Kane (16:19):
Right. That same concentration is the hard part, right? When you're the whole agency, there's no bench, no one to hand it off to with the midnight crisis off to no colleague down the hall to sanity check the risky call. So the freedom and the isolation, they come in the same box, but I think most of our listeners out there, we have each other. We have sounding boards. I know I could ping you Karen and go, "Oh, what do you think about this? " It’s the beauty of our solo community.
Karen Swim, APR (16:51):
And I will say, sorry, shameless plug, but what the article didn't know is that Solo PR Pro exists. So that's our unique superpower for Solo PR Pro members is that yes, many people are independent or have one or two people or just work with contractors. However, we are definitely not alone and we have a community and we have all of those same benefits of colleagues and people that you can tap that are experts in different subjects. I had to say that because that excites you.
Karen Swim, APR (17:28):
That there is a niche being filled. But you're right, the honest tension that we always come back to is that the market is finally validating independence and the data is telling us that clients want exactly what we offer. So the headlines say the old model is straining, this is definitely our moment. So woo-hoo. Happy Independence Day to independents.
Michelle Kane (17:58):
I feel like I have to go set off some firecrackers and the beauty of it is you don't have to, excuse me, be alone to be independent. I got so excited.
Karen Swim, APR (18:08):
Yeah, I agree. I love this. Again, solo PR pro. I'm sorry, but the headlines write themselves for this episode. It's so true. And I love our members. I mean, we have a unique group of people that are members that are so smart and I love that we are built for independent practitioners. We were built by independent practitioners and nobody hands you that solo path on your own. It's just handed to you by default. But with this peer support, you definitely have the resources and the handholding and the gut checks and all of those things that you need.
Michelle Kane (18:57):
Absolutely. Absolutely. And you and Kelly, before you have developed all kinds of great proprietary resources for the solo, for everyone from who's just starting out to seasoned. Yes, I'm here on this podcast, but I will say it again because I probably haven't said it in a hundred episodes or so seeing way back in the beautiful Twitter days, just seeing that this existed made me realize I could do this. There were other people like, "What like me to do it? " And I have to say our members are kind, they're generous, they're sincere. It's truly a beautiful, safe place. Our Facebook group is private, it's a safe room. You can ask a question you would never post publicly out of fear of, "Ooh, people are going to think, I don't know what I'm doing." But no, no. You can ask about, "Hey, I just fired a client," or, "Am I crazy or is this brief impossible?" Or, "What do you mean they want all this for so little money?
(19:57):
Should I waste my time?" And you can get answers from people who've been exactly where you are and I always say it's like the best online staff meeting ever.
Karen Swim, APR (20:08):
It's basically all the upside of independence, but none of the isolation.
Michelle Kane (20:13):
That's true. That's true. So check it out at soloprpro.com. But as the fireworks continue to go off, I'm sure, because once these people buy their fireworks, they'll be shooting them off all summer.
Karen Swim, APR (20:25):
Unfortunately.
Michelle Kane (20:25):It's the week after the Fourth of July, and Karen and Michelle are talking about a different kind of independence. It turns out that the future of PR looks a lot like its past: closer to the work, the relationships, and the accountability that got lost as holding companies scaled. Karen and Michelle walk through the data backing that argument — holding company headcount cuts, a Forrester forecast for 2026, independent firm revenue and growth figures, and a client tenure study that should make every solo practitioner feel validated. This is a celebratory, data-backed episode about why this moment belongs to independent practitioners, and a reminder that going solo doesn't mean going it alone.
Here's our toast. We are toasting the independence to all of us, to everyone who bet on yourself and who bet on people over scale. We salute you and we are grateful to have you in our community
Karen Swim, APR (20:40):
And I for one am celebrating that the market is finally catching up to where we always were. So solos keep going.
Michelle Kane (20:51):
Yep, keep going. Visit soloprpro.com. Check our podcast out at thatsololife.com where we have past episodes and if you want to see us on YouTube and if you did get benefit from this, please do share it around. That's how we grow, right? And until next time, thanks for listening to That Solo Life.
Karen Swim, APR (21:13):
Happy 4th of July, everybody.
Michelle Kane (00:00):
Hey, Karen. So it's the week right after the 4th of July weekend and fireworks, cookouts, that neighbor that starts early and goes hard way into the night, great, as our dogs hide under the beds, but that's all right. But here on that Solo Life, we're talking about a different kind of independence and the kind that, well, might not require sparklers, but you might want to light one up anyway, right?
Karen Swim, APR (00:26):
Right. Because while everybody is still celebrating one kind of freedom, even this week, there is a quieter independent story that's happening in our own industry. And so for once the big trade headlines are saying out loud what a lot of us have known for years, going independent is no longer the risky little sibling of the agency world. It might actually be the smart money.
Michelle Kane (00:54):
Sweet. So today we're going to get into why. There's a provocative article; there's some fresh data and one question we want every solo and small shop listener to sit with. What if the thing you were told to apologize for is exactly your advantage?
Karen Swim, APR (01:13):
Let's get into it. So the spark for this episode today, it was actually inspired by a PR news article. And the headline of the article is Old School is the New School: How Independent PR is Outrunning the Holding Company Model.
Michelle Kane (01:51):
Oh my gosh, that's fabulous. And shout out to Jennifer Risi. She's the founder and president of the Sway Effect who wrote this article. And I love the framing because her whole argument is that the future of PR looks a lot like the past. Oh, thank God. Not the bloated 14 layers of approval pass though because no one wants that. But the version that existed before scale became the only thing anyone measured, right? We're getting back to the work, to the relationships, to the accountability, to the straight talk, to being that partner that actually picks up the phone when a client needs you.
Karen Swim, APR (02:29):
Yeah. And the timing is pretty pointed. Even though this was a couple of weeks ago, it came out around Cans, Lions while the trades were full of the opposite story, merger after merger and historic agency names getting absorbed into network. And the big one that this article points to is Ketchum and Golin combining.
Michelle Kane (02:52):
Yeah. And there's even a physical symbol that she pointed to that I just can't stop thinking about. WPP gave up its prized beach space at Cannes and an independent took it over. But the real estate of the industry right there, literally changing hands, which is really exciting.
Karen Swim, APR (03:10):
Wow. And then there's the part that should truly make all of us pause. In this article, she wrote that holding companies cut headcount by an average of 8% in 2025. And of course we will link to all of the source data in the show notes, but there was a forecast attributed to Forrester that of a 15% reduction in 2026.
Michelle Kane (03:36):
Wow. And yeah, you flagged that to me before we came on air.
Karen Swim, APR (03:41):
Yeah.
Michelle Kane (03:41):
It's nothing.
Karen Swim, APR (03:43):
Yeah. No one is celebrating that. We love seeing independents finally get some recognition that it's a worthy business model, but we will never celebrate layoffs and our peers in the industry struggling. So again, we'll link to that article and we want it to just share those stats, but you'll have the source material so that you can check out that for yourself as well.
Michelle Kane (04:10):
Yeah, definitely. And there is a line in there that's probably going to stand out to a lot of people. One global holding company CEO reportedly said anonymously, of course, by 2028, we'll double the profits and have the people. And again, we're not dancing on anybody's occupational grave and these CEOs anyway, I won't delve into that, but-
Karen Swim, APR (04:40):
Doubling profits and having the people. So I think the unspoken truth here is that they probably think that with technology, AI, that they will probably be able to get the work done in a more efficient way. It will be interesting to see how that plays out because of course in the short term, we're seeing a bloodbath across so many industries, but that's not going to last and we all know that. So we're not co-signing that thinking at all because I feel like even though that quote is not attributed to a specific person, it definitely reflects a mood that ... And it's a model that we're seeing where people are just being treated like a cost to cut.
Michelle Kane (05:26):
Yeah, definitely. Definitely. And we're already seeing though how some corporations who did this earlier, they're hiring people back. I've seen it in the automotive industry. Where are they calling it? They're hiring back the gray beards because their AI initiatives are failing miserably and it's costing the money. So we shall see. But another thing that Risi brings in this article is the receipts, which we always like. We like to have proof, we like to have the facts and the proof she's presenting is on the side of us independents.
Karen Swim, APR (05:59):
Yeah, they are. I mean, from O'Dwyer's independent PR firm rankings in 2026, they showed that the independent sector pushed combined fee income to 4.8 billion and out of the top 140 independent firms that they surveyed, nearly a third of those posted double digit growth.
Michelle Kane (06:24):
On third double digits. That's amazing. And that's something for all of us to sit with and think about as we think, "Oh, I can't go after that business. I'm too little." No. And this is all in the same year that the large corporations are announcing layoffs. So as we say so often, there is work to be had out there.
Karen Swim, APR (06:44):
I completely agree with you, Michelle. And for those who weren't on that growth trajectory, I hope that this gives you some hope and some confidence that, you know what, it is our moment and work is being awarded. We just have to hang in there, do the business development, stay consistent and don't get discouraged.
Michelle Kane (07:08):
Yeah, definitely, definitely. And there's another stat that made me go, "Whoop, a 2025 joint study from the ANA and the four A's found that clients stay with independent agencies an average of 7.3 years at holding company agencies only 5.8 years."
Karen Swim, APR (07:29):
I mean, I want to be honest with you and tell you that I'm actually surprised the holding company number is that high because anecdotally, I think that if we polled our solos, I hear this all the time, we keep clients for a long time. People have clients for 10, 15, 20 years, but this data shows that we independents keep our clients a year and a half longer. They stick around. And I think that what that tenure actually measures, it's not vanity, but it's trust and it's trust that's renewed over and over again. That’s amazing. That should make every independent out there feel really good.
Michelle Kane (08:16):
Yeah. And I really want not just us to, but all of our solo listeners to really take ownership of that because you are part of that. It's not like, oh, you're independent. Oh, you're just freelancing then and you're not very stable. What if you can't hold on to clients where many of us can say, we've had clients sticking around for quite a while as opposed to agencies. And I think that stems back to the relationships we build with them among other things.
Karen Swim, APR (08:50):
I completely agree. And again, we say this a lot. We've talked about the differences between large agencies and small agencies and I believe, and I know you do too, we believe on the show that they both have a place and they're both important, but they're very different. When you have a huge org chart, there are just some things that maybe don't happen. With independent agencies, you have direct access to the person who's actually doing the work. Think about the power of that. This is somebody who knows the business well and you can call them with an idea before they call you with a problem. I mean, that's powerful.
Michelle Kane (09:34):
Yeah, that is everything. And we also have that opportunity to make our clients think that we're almost like a concierge service for their promotions and that's because it's true. So the big question then is why now?
Karen Swim, APR (09:52):
Yeah, exactly. I think you're right. Independence has already ... It's always existed. And we've seen not just with solo PR Pro, we've seen how much independent practitioners contribute to the GDP. It's not anything new. It's just I think that we're seeing it really come to the forefront in the PR industry. So let’s pull that thread a little bit.
Michelle Kane (10:22):
Yeah, definitely. Well, I think it's two things colliding at once, right? You've got the holding company model. It got so big before and then it started optimizing the wrong things. Of course, your number crunchers are going to be like, "Margin, margin, margin over the relationships." And how often we said business is kind of like dating. If your significant other, your client doesn't feel attended to, they're going to start probably either, if not looking elsewhere, thinking about breaking up with you. And then of course AI showed up and turned everything on its head because that has empowered us independents to work even smarter and keep up the pace.
Karen Swim, APR (11:07):
Yeah. I mean, and say more about that whole AI piece because the article does make an argument that I think is probably counterintuitive for a lot of people.
Michelle Kane (11:18):
Oh, totally. Yeah. She makes the point that AI doesn't make communications less important. It makes human judgment more valuable, right? The reasoning isn't up to snuff because you know best, you know your client best, you know the actual landscape best, you're living it. So when the media environment is as fragmented as it is, the culture shifts so quickly and now you've got machine generated speed and volume piled on top and ugh, clients need a human who can get in there and tell them what's real, what really matters and all that noise and what actually to do next. What is our next step? And you can't automate that.
Karen Swim, APR (12:00):
I agree. Judgment does not live in headcount. It lives in a person. So picture the client whose product gets dragged in some online pile up at 9:00 PM on a Friday night. They don't need 14 people on deck. They need one trusted voice who says, "Here's what's actually happening, here's what we ignore and here's the one thing that we can do tonight."
Michelle Kane (12:31):
Yep, absolutely. And a solo can be that voice instantly because there's nothing between you and making the call. Yeah, I know I've been that person as I'm doom scrolling in the evening, you're like, "Ugh."
Karen Swim, APR (12:47):
Absolutely. I mean, I think the message to companies that are not getting this is, that's why we bet on people over scale. And that's the line that matters more than any single statistics. Independence wins not because being smaller forces you to be all of the things that scale lets you avoid accountable, responsive, and close to the work.
Michelle Kane (13:14):
That's so true. So true. And here's where we can really ring in ha, the 4th of July metaphor. Independence does not mean you don't have structure, right? Independence is choosing what you carry. So the author of this article, Risi, she has the idea about not carrying what clients don't need, right? So for a solo, that's your entire operating model, right? We don't have the machinery to root things through. We don't have to say, "Oh, we have to take that into our little committee and blah, blah, blah." You're the strategy and the execution and the phone call. You can solve a client's problem with much more speed, efficiency and I don't want to say correctness, but again, we're not slacking off on big agencies, but when there's a lot of moving parts, things take longer. That's just how it is.
Karen Swim, APR (14:05):
And I mean, let's shout that because there is freedom in that, but if we're being honest, there's also weight in it too. And I honestly think a lot of people, a lot of solos, if you talk to them, that's one of the reasons that they were attracted to working like that. They wanted that weight. And I feel like when you're caught to it, it's not really a weight, it's what your assignment is. So I love that, but we are so close and I know none of us takes that for granted. I had a little crisis situation last week with a client and I felt it in every piece of my being, but I was able to focus in on it, concentrate and really not only give them what they asked for but much more and help to tailor the thinking and guard against it in the future.
(14:56):
Fortunately, it was just a little blip on the radar, but we do, because we're close to the work, because we know that people, these are the kind of things that just make our work so rich and so rewarding.
Michelle Kane (15:11):
So true. So true. I mean, I tell my clients all the time, I become your champion and it's because I get to know you, I care about you and I want you to win. It's not just, "Oh yeah, I'll do that, cash your check, blah, blah." I think it's a double edged sword in our business. You can't just run the numbers and put it out of your mind. But with all our pro raw talk, we don't want to romanticize this too much. I mean, this article was mostly about independent agencies, firms with teams such as she mentions in the sway effect, but like you and I, a lot of our listeners are solos, we work with partners on projects, which really distills it down to the true meaning of independence.
Karen Swim, APR (15:57):
It does. I mean, I think it makes us the purest version of what this article describes. So all the things that are credit to independence, the trust, the responsiveness, the direct access, the judgment, a solo PR pro embodies all of it with nothing in between. So that's the advantage and it's fully concentrated.
Michelle Kane (16:19):
Right. That same concentration is the hard part, right? When you're the whole agency, there's no bench, no one to hand it off to with the midnight crisis off to no colleague down the hall to sanity check the risky call. So the freedom and the isolation, they come in the same box, but I think most of our listeners out there, we have each other. We have sounding boards. I know I could ping you Karen and go, "Oh, what do you think about this? " It’s the beauty of our solo community.
Karen Swim, APR (16:51):
And I will say, sorry, shameless plug, but what the article didn't know is that Solo PR Pro exists. So that's our unique superpower for Solo PR Pro members is that yes, many people are independent or have one or two people or just work with contractors. However, we are definitely not alone and we have a community and we have all of those same benefits of colleagues and people that you can tap that are experts in different subjects. I had to say that because that excites you.
Karen Swim, APR (17:28):
That there is a niche being filled. But you're right, the honest tension that we always come back to is that the market is finally validating independence and the data is telling us that clients want exactly what we offer. So the headlines say the old model is straining, this is definitely our moment. So woo-hoo. Happy Independence Day to independents.
Michelle Kane (17:58):
I feel like I have to go set off some firecrackers and the beauty of it is you don't have to, excuse me, be alone to be independent. I got so excited.
Karen Swim, APR (18:08):
Yeah, I agree. I love this. Again, solo PR pro. I'm sorry, but the headlines write themselves for this episode. It's so true. And I love our members. I mean, we have a unique group of people that are members that are so smart and I love that we are built for independent practitioners. We were built by independent practitioners and nobody hands you that solo path on your own. It's just handed to you by default. But with this peer support, you definitely have the resources and the handholding and the gut checks and all of those things that you need.
Michelle Kane (18:57):
Absolutely. Absolutely. And you and Kelly, before you have developed all kinds of great proprietary resources for the solo, for everyone from who's just starting out to seasoned. Yes, I'm here on this podcast, but I will say it again because I probably haven't said it in a hundred episodes or so seeing way back in the beautiful Twitter days, just seeing that this existed made me realize I could do this. There were other people like, "What like me to do it? " And I have to say our members are kind, they're generous, they're sincere. It's truly a beautiful, safe place. Our Facebook group is private, it's a safe room. You can ask a question you would never post publicly out of fear of, "Ooh, people are going to think, I don't know what I'm doing." But no, no. You can ask about, "Hey, I just fired a client," or, "Am I crazy or is this brief impossible?" Or, "What do you mean they want all this for so little money?
(19:57):
Should I waste my time?" And you can get answers from people who've been exactly where you are and I always say it's like the best online staff meeting ever.
Karen Swim, APR (20:08):
It's basically all the upside of independence, but none of the isolation.
Michelle Kane (20:13):
That's true. That's true. So check it out at soloprpro.com. But as the fireworks continue to go off, I'm sure, because once these people buy their fireworks, they'll be shooting them off all summer.
Karen Swim, APR (20:25):
Unfortunately.
Michelle Kane (20:25):It's the week after the Fourth of July, and Karen and Michelle are talking about a different kind of independence. It turns out that the future of PR looks a lot like its past: closer to the work, the relationships, and the accountability that got lost as holding companies scaled. Karen and Michelle walk through the data backing that argument — holding company headcount cuts, a Forrester forecast for 2026, independent firm revenue and growth figures, and a client tenure study that should make every solo practitioner feel validated. This is a celebratory, data-backed episode about why this moment belongs to independent practitioners, and a reminder that going solo doesn't mean going it alone.
Here's our toast. We are toasting the independence to all of us, to everyone who bet on yourself and who bet on people over scale. We salute you and we are grateful to have you in our community
Karen Swim, APR (20:40):
And I for one am celebrating that the market is finally catching up to where we always were. So solos keep going.
Michelle Kane (20:51):
Yep, keep going. Visit soloprpro.com. Check our podcast out at thatsololife.com where we have past episodes and if you want to see us on YouTube and if you did get benefit from this, please do share it around. That's how we grow, right? And until next time, thanks for listening to That Solo Life.
Karen Swim, APR (21:13):
Happy 4th of July, everybody.