March 2, 2020

Meet Callie Neatherlin of Caption Communications in Rockwall

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Callie Neatherlin.

Callie, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
My PR journey began in college at Texas State University in San Marcos. Majoring in communications with a PR focus, I secured a few internships to gain 9-5 experiences and quickly found out that PR isn’t a 9-5 but a 24-7 kind of job, and I loved it. I began working for a boutique agency in Houston immediately after college in 2007, making my way up to Senior Account Manager. After several years at the agency, I moved into Global Marketing Communications Lead to manage PR and Communications for an international oil and gas and energy company. At six months pregnant with our first kiddo, my husband had a career opportunity that would take us to Austin, Texas. Initially, I thought I was going to have to find another job in Austin, but upon sharing this moving news with my company, they immediately asked me to start my own LLC so they could continue working with me and contract PR out. Caption Communications was then developed in 2014 in Austin. With one client in Houston, I began networking with past connections, coworkers, and friends to get the word out that I’ve begun my own company and began securing more local clients. From there, I continued my main focus in Austin while still managing clients in both Houston and Dallas. In 2018, my family and I moved back to the Dallas area, moving our HQ just outside of Dallas in Rockwall.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
So many challenges! In the beginning, it was a matter of learning how to wear all the hats and manage each part of the business on my own. PR is constantly changing, so staying ahead of the trends can be a challenge, but one you must be willing to face and overcome to be successful.

Self-doubt is something that always tries to sneak in, and I think all of us feel at one point or another. As I’ve gotten older and more experienced, I’ve learned that there is room for everyone and through collaborations and supporting others and their businesses I’m able to continue taking my business while also achieving personal growth to the next level.

Ultimately though, the passing of my mom in 2016 has been the biggest challenge in my personal life and career. She was my biggest supporter, best friend and real-life hero and her passing was tragic for our entire family. Shortly after that, I became pregnant with my daughter and her due date was an exact year to the day of my mom’s passing. So that year in itself was challenging. I relied heavily on my family, the Caption team and even clients for their grace and support while I navigated and overcame unfamiliar waters.

Please tell us about your business.
Caption Communications is a strategic public relations and marketing firm dedicated to helping brands generate visibility and awareness by marketing to each client’s target audience. I’ve created a strategy that focuses on a face-to-face method of business to get to know clients and their brands to formulate a plan specifically designed for our client’s goals. We are non-niche specific and the wide variety of industries we’ve worked with has allowed us to master different approaches to the development and executions of our client’s marketing programs and PR campaigns.

Our services are comprehensive and include public relations, event management, strategy, and media/influencer relations. I’ve built my company around the necessity of strong relationships with clients and we are constantly working to take client’s businesses to further success through an effective PR and marketing campaign.

What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
Launching Caption Communications and being blessed with the opportunity to keep growing. And client specifically, being able to create and execute an outside summer music campaign in Austin for Anheuser Busch while seven months pregnant.

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