In this episode, Samantha Levitin shares her journey from a PR veteran to founding Levitan Collective, highlighting the importance of networking, authenticity, and leveraging PR for small businesses. Discover how she navigates challenges, builds meaningful connections, and stays true to her passion.
Samantha Levitin hadn’t taken a real day off in 16 years. She worked through her honeymoon and wrote pitches the night before her water broke. So when maternity leave finally made her stop, she didn’t rest. She got restless. In the middle of it, she walked away from the New York PR firm she’d been with for 13 years, no plan in hand, and found out the network she’d spent a career building had been waiting on her the whole time.
Three months later, Levitin Collective had its first signed client, The Maze, an alcohol free members club she started working with while it was still a construction site. It built a 2,600 person waitlist before the doors opened. The rest of her business came the same way, through referrals and the moms she met at a baby music class she joined just to have people to talk to. She didn’t want to be the mommy PR girl. That network became her pipeline anyway. A year into running her own firm, she still won’t hire, because clients who hire her get her. She turns down work that doesn’t fit, sends some of it to other publicists, and she’s betting AI makes earned media more valuable, not less. If you’ve been waiting to go out on your own, or trying to grow without a marketing machine behind you, here’s what Samantha learned in her first year.
1️⃣ Your next client is already in your contacts
Samantha spent 16 years building relationships without ever asking them for anything. The day she announced she was going out on her own, people lined up with intros, and her first client came through a friend’s phone call. Before you spend a dollar on ads or cold outreach, tell the people who already know your work what you’re building. Skip that, and you’ll pay strangers for attention your network would’ve given you for free.
2️⃣ Saying no is how a solo founder scales
Samantha won’t hire right now, because clients who hire her get her, not a junior they’ve never met. She turns down work that doesn’t fit her brand and sends some of it to other publicists who’ll do it better. That protects the reason people refer her in the first place. Take every client that comes your way, and you’ll end up overbooked, off brand, and handing off the thing people actually paid for.
3️⃣ AI can only recommend what’s already written about you
When someone asks ChatGPT or Claude for the best company in your space, the answer comes from what’s been published. Samantha sees that as the strongest case for earned media right now. Press, features, and thought leadership pieces are what AI pulls from. If nobody’s writing about you, you don’t exist in the answer, no matter how good your work is.
Timestamps
0:00 Meet Samantha Levitin and Levitin Collective
0:55 Sixteen years in PR without a single day off
1:33 She left her firm in the middle of maternity leave with no plan
2:02 The phone call that turned a maybe into a business
3:00 Why the worst case of going out on your own isn’t that bad
3:54 The network she had all along and never used
4:29 How a club under construction became her first client
6:44 Why she won’t hire, and what clients get instead
7:11 She didn’t want to be the mommy PR girl. Then it paid off
8:15 How a baby music class became her office
9:46 From construction site to a 2,600 person waitlist
12:28 Saying no to work that doesn’t fit, a year in
13:51 Why AI search makes PR more valuable, not less
15:19 How to answer the client who wants guaranteed ROI
17:15 Why she sends business to her competitors
20:57 What working for herself taught her about her own strength
22:36 The founder who never really logs off
29:00 Agency life vs in house, and why speed wins for her
30:53 The only advice she got was do it already
32:07 The connector habit that keeps bringing in business
36:28 Why she wouldn’t change a thing about her business today
39:56 Running Manhattan with bags of shoes, and how she found PR
42:45 The networks that feed a solo founder’s pipeline
46:51 Her advice to anyone still waiting to start
47:55 How small businesses should actually use PR
49:14 Why relationships are the one thing AI can’t pitch
50:58 Where to find Samantha and Levitin Collective
Samantha built Levitin Collective on the network she didn’t know she had, so if you’re ready to get your story in front of the right people, find her here.