Her Story
About Rachel
Rachel Fishbein is the founder and owner of Making Headlines Public Relations, a firm she established in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 30 years ago after deciding the traditional ad agency model did not suit her needs following the birth of her first child. She began her career as a copywriter before moving into public relations, drawing on her college studies in journalism to excel in media relations and strategic communication. Fishbein works independently with mission-driven clients, emphasizing deep research into media outlets, honest feedback, and relationship building to amplify stories through both traditional media and social channels. She serves as vice president of the Philadelphia Public Relations Association, where she networks and mentors others, and has taught strategic communication for 15 years, including 11 years at Temple University and the past four years at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Fishbein attributes her success to a strong support network, prior networking, and identifying her strengths in clear communication, while advising young professionals to seek mentors, embrace challenges, and build confidence in their ability to learn.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Rachel
01What do you attribute your success to?
I credit my success to a couple of things. One, I have a really great support network. I'm very lucky, you know, I'm married, and I have a partner who really stands behind me, and really believes in me. I had done a lot of networking already in my career. I believe in building relationships, so I had people to go to. The first day I decided to do this, I reached out to those people. I think sometimes you have to fake confidence. And I guess one other thing I'd say is figure out what your sweet spot is. I am very honest with my clients. They always know what I think about what they're telling me, and I think that's great, because it saves us both time. And I expect them to tell me what they think. So figure out your strengths. And that's what I did. I built upon what I was good at to make this work.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
While women and men are plagued similarly by imposter syndrome, women tend to let it get in their way in a way that men don't. When women apply for a job, they feel like they have to know how to do everything and have done it before. Men do not. Women need to have faith in their ability to learn and grow. Look at an organization you're thinking of working at. Do they have strong female leaders? Find a mentor. Someone you respect once you're in. Really go to them. Ask them if they're willing to mentor you. Don't be afraid to do something scary. If it's not hard or scary, you're not brave. Figure out what your sweet spot is and build upon what you are good at.
03What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
I do think it's two things. Number one, it's tied to AI, figuring out understanding where we bring value and where we can do things like use technology to work fast and smarter. Being intimidated by AI because I don't really believe it can replace the creativity of human thinking and that human connection. The next thing is just what's going on in the media. The way the media has shrunken, it's so much harder to form relationships with the media. And then what's going on in social media, how divisive social media is, how do we use social media to support our work. People will say that we don't really need to do media relations anymore and I think it's exactly the opposite. Social media gives us the ability to amplify the media relations we do.
Join Influential Women and start making an impact. Register now.