Charming Robin

By Lisette Barajas and Kathy Ballesteros

On March 26, 2020 PRSSA had the pleasure of hosting Robin Tolkan-Doyle, CEO of Charmed PR, as our guest speaker. She offered valuable insight and expert advice relating to the PR industry. Robin is a fellow Northridge native, having attended CSUN for a part of her college career before transferring to UC Irvine where she majored in English. Like many of us today, she was not so sure on what her career path would be. After graduating from college, she and her friend decided to go to England, obtain work permits and start their careers there. She knew she wanted to dive into the media realm, so she began internships involving media like radio, BBC, and cosmopolitan magazine. Cosmopolitan was her very first taste in the magazine world and she fell in love. She later moved to People magazine where she became an editorial assistant and Teen magazine where she was able to gain more experience. As a beauty editor she learned how press releases should be written and how businesses successfully marketed their products within magazines. After gaining this experience Robin decided to go in a slightly different direction and started her own business. Through her prior work in magazines she had built the relationships to generate enough press to build her hair accessory company to success. After her success, many of her friends noticed the skill Robin had to promote a brand and asked for her help to build their companies and generate the publicity that would establish them.

Robin shared with us that she had never really wanted to be a publicist or enter that industry, however she saw an opportunity when her friend asked for her help. She realized that not only did she have the knowledge to help her friend gain the platform and media attention she wanted; she also had the right connections to do so. She managed to get her friend’s product in Elle Magazine and as time has gone on, she has continued to expand her clientele, focusing primarily on the beauty industry. She shares that she has been fortunate enough to get referrals from friends as well as through other websites that promote her company such as Beauty Independent. 90% of her clients are female owned companies and she has always preferred to have a smaller and more selective group of clients. She shared an exciting new initiative that she and The Better Skin Co. will be launching this month in honor of International Women’s Month. They have partnered with the Distinguished Young Women organization which offers scholarships to high school girls, and the Better Skin Co. will be matching all donations made through their website. Robin offers this piece of advice; you have to go out and try many different things until you find the one you are passionate about. You must be honest with yourself about it, do not fool yourself with claiming to be passionate about something you really are not passionate about and be confident in your decision.