5 minutes with Lauren Parker

President and CEO, Lauren Parker, brings the secret sauce to our agency. We sat down with her to learn more about how FrazierHeiby operates and what it takes for client success.

How would you describe what makes FrazierHeiby unique?

At FrazierHeiby, we are an intelligent communications consultancy. We operate from a place of information and insights, rather than guts and guessing. At the onset of working with new clients, our team takes a deep dive into their business and the broader market context in which they operate. Once we have a clear understanding of business objectives and the market landscape, this allows us to bring all of our marketing and communications tools to help craft, refine and elevate the way each client presents themselves and their experts to the world.

What is your favorite thing to do for clients?

I love getting curious and sitting down with a subject matter expert. I’ve talked to neuroscientists, systems engineers, farmers, dentists, teachers, architects, and more. I enjoy “mining for gems” to get their point of view. When I can come in as an objective third party, it's an exciting opportunity to play back what I’ve heard, connecting some unexpected dots that play into what we produce for their brand.

What has been your favorite client project/interaction?

Recently, I met with one of our clients, St. Elizabeth’s Healthcare, a premier healthcare system in the Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky area. Our team has led a lot of the communications and marketing efforts promoting their new oncology center. We toured the facility with the head oncologist. At the end of the tour, he turned to us and said, “You, as communicators, are saving lives.” He went on to say, “While I can’t always save people when they come to our center, you get the message out about preventative behavior and practices that people can apply to their lives today to keep them from getting to the point where they have to come visit.” As communicators, we don’t see ourselves as saving lives, but it was a touching framing that showed what we do does matter and makes a difference.

We recently won 14 PRisms. What does that mean for us as an agency or for our clients?

We’re not in it for the awards, but we love to see our clients win. We love when the hard work, brain power and creative thinking we do on behalf of our clients is recognized. It’s a huge opportunity to come together as a team in recognition of the work. None of the awards we received came from a project that only one person touched. When we came together to celebrate our 14 PRism awards, including a perfect score Best of Show, it was a nice moment for us to acknowledge the hard work that everyone on our team has been hustling to achieve.

What is your favorite thing about the FrazierHeiby culture?

When Ann, Whitney and I decided that we wanted to take ownership of the business (which was not on any of our BINGO cards when we started our careers!) we knew we wanted to be intentional about creating a culture where we would want to work for the next 20-30 years. Everything that goes into our employee experience is done with great care and appreciation for our people. We aren’t selling widgets; we’re selling the brainpower of our people. And that means we want to take really good care of those we work with. That’s translated in our “work when, where and how you are most productive” policy to our 12-weeks of fully paid family leave, down to the way we encourage our team to unplug and take the time they need to recharge their batteries and prioritize their families and their mental health. We continue to push the boundaries of what that culture can look like that makes us excited as we continue to add new talent.

What makes FrazierHeiby THE best agency partner?

There are a lot of agencies that do great work. But for us, we hang our hat on the fact that we really care about the success of our clients. Our team puts a ton of effort into every single detail that we put in front of our clients because we are so incredibly proud of what we are capable of producing. Our goal is not to just meet but to always exceed clients’ expectations. As a team, we feel the most pride in our work when we know everything that’s going out, whether it’s a meeting agenda or an 18-month strategic plan, that there has been care and thought and strategic thinking behind every detail. This includes everything from the substance to the creative design elements. We want to make sure we are going the extra mile in everything we do so that whoever comes across it can feel impressed. We have a high bar but it’s worth it because, simply put, our work is outstanding.

“5 Minutes with” is a monthly blog series exploring life at FrazierHeiby. Get to know more about the FrazierHeiby culture, our team dynamic and how we partner with clients to solve complex communications problems.