A Letter from our CEO/Founder: 25 Years in PR

By David Barkoe
Published August 23, 2023

25 years. A quarter century. That’s how long I’ve been working in PR this month.  

When I say it and then type it out, it’s amazing to me.  

At the University of Maryland, where I had to drop out of business school because I couldn't deal with or pass the accounting classes, I didn’t have any idea what PR was. I knew I loved media, having grown up in the 80s and 90s and taken various film and pop culture classes as an American Studies major. 

Upon graduating, I knew I wanted a job in media so I thought I’d go work for NBC or one of the networks or even an ad agency. But I ended up finding a job at GCI Group via an ad in The New York Times classified section, which was the only way to find a job in 1998.  

I was young, had terrible style but was eager to learn and do. So off I went on August 20, 1998 starting as an administrative assistant. I remember some of the very early days – the office at 777 3rd Ave, many of my colleagues and bosses. But there are two things I remember most clearly from that time in my career that have truly shaped who I am today as a person, a professional, entrepreneur and boss.  

The first was the day they brought me, and 6-7 other admin assistants, into a small conference room. There were maybe 10 seats around the table. It was a small room. They put a phone in the middle of the table and said, “Pick up the phone and pretend you’re talking to a reporter and pitch them on X.”  

We all looked at each other like our bosses were crazy and what the heck are we gonna do now. There we were, a bunch of early 20-somethings making $25k a year, being told to pitch in front of each other on a phone with no one on the other end. I don’t remember what we had to say or what I “pitched.” That moment has stuck with me forever.  

You have to be ready. You have to be comfortable talking. You have to be comfortable talking in front of other people, especially when we were all in bullpen-style cubicles and had to pitch on the phone all day (still early days of email). 

I still tell this story to our new, young, and fresh Carve teammates. Not because I want to reminisce on the good ol’ days. But because these were important lessons I learned about the art of PR, the art of being part of a team, that art of being a leader, the art of standing out in a crowd and the art of not taking no for an answer!

The other big moment happened midway through my first year at GCI Group. Administrative assistants had to do all types of tasks beyond learning actual PR. Photocopying, answering phones, getting one of my bosses oatmeal with brown sugar at the 777 Cafe every morning and manning the front desk by the elevators.  

And while these were all valuable learning experiences (except for the oatmeal part because god forbid I forgot to put brown sugar on the oatmeal), I felt this role wasn’t properly titled or suited for someone, who truly wanted a career in PR vs. being an admin/secretary. Manning the check-in desk for an hour or two took me away from learning PR, from pitching, from doing the things I needed to do to get promoted, get a raise, and get moving on my career.  

So rather than sit back and be miserable, I did something about it.  

I came up with a plan to create, from scratch, the role of Account Coordinator at GCI Group, which at the time was one of the biggest PR firms in the world. I told my managers about the plan and they encouraged me to directly approach the global CEO of GCI Group, Bob Feldman. 

I can picture myself in Bob’s office, outlining my proposal, why it was good for the agency, and good for the first-year employees. I don’t remember exactly what happened after that, but they said yes. Shortly after that meeting my title, and that of a few of my colleagues who were administrative assistants, had their titles changed to Account Coordinator, with new roles and responsibilities defined and a career path laid out.  

This is still one of my proudest moments in PR and it is one of the bedrocks of our culture here at Carve.  

Every employee at Carve has a say. We are open to listening to all ideas on how to make something better, how to do something a different way, how to treat people, how to have fun, how to deal with clients…you name it. All Carvers know at any point, they can come to me with an idea or solution and that I will listen, evaluate, and give feedback and we, as a team, will either implement the idea/solution to its fullest or partially. And if we don’t, we will have at least listened and illustrated why we didn’t.

There were many other lessons I learned at GCI and throughout all of the stops along the way. 

But as I look back on 25 years, these first two memories, two lessons, are still so strong in my mind. They serve as the foundation for the agency I am creating with our team and hope to continue to shape and mold into the future.