Smart, confident, elegant and inspiring — these are a few words that perfectly describe Farissa Knox, a female entrepreneur who has managed to create leading ventures spanning marketing, advertising and entertainment. Starting her career path as an advertising sales executive in a company, Knox subsequently became the founder of RLM Media, WhatRUWearing Productions, and the author of Love, Sex and Friendship: In No Particular Order.
Throughout her journey, she has been a role model to other women who also want to break through the shackles of full-time employment and do something of their own that is more satisfying and rewarding. The latest in her ongoing endeavors is PRGirl, a reality web series streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
Prior to starting her ventures, Knox worked as an advertising sales executive, selling ads for radio stations across the country on the nationally representative firm level. She sold advertising for 5 years before starting her own company.
According to Knox, the intense job insecurity during the financial crisis of 2008 encouraged her to put her fate into her own hands and start her own media agency. She initially served ad agencies in Chicago and the Midwest region by planning and buying their media buys.
A few years later, she decided to expand her business, which inspired her to create WhatRUWearing, a production house that specializes in creating digital content within the video, editorial, social media and audio space for the industries of fashion, style, beauty, and creativity. The latest reality series, PRGirl, is the production of WRUW.
Knox describes herself as a businesswoman who loves the art of communication and creativity. She says, “I am a natural nurturer, so I enjoy the process of pouring life into a business, idea or person and watching it (or them) come to life.”
WRUW Productions is a production house that focuses on one-off series and documentary-style video cinematography for today’s young woman who loves fashion, style, beauty, and creativity. The firm’s largest production to date is PRGirl, which is a reality series focused on the professional and personal lives of three young ladies running the worlds of fashion, beauty, and lifestyle public relations.
Being a marketing person herself, Knox tries to maintain a strong digital and social media presence across all possible channels to give the audience opportunities to connect with all her brands.
According to Knox, her main goal is to make content that today’s young woman is not just entertained by, but also proud of and inspired by. “It is very important to me that all women, no matter their race, size or complexity, see themselves in the stories I choose to tell, otherwise I’m not moving the needle,” says Knox.
Knox believes that “not giving up” is her life’s biggest achievement so far. She says, “It is very easy to get discouraged and doubt why you even decided to start a business in the first place. But I remind myself, when I am in those moments, that all I have to do is keep going past that feeling where most people give up, because that is where true success lies.”
According to Knox, it really depends on what stage your company is at. Sharing her personal experience, she said that in the beginning, it was nice to work from home as she was building the foundation of her business. Now that she has experienced growth, she must go to the office, but whenever she gets a chance to work from home, it’s like a breath of fresh air for her. She can focus even more on her tasks than when she is in the office.
Knox has a very positive outlook for the future of her business. While she is quite confident about the prospects of her ad agency, she envisions to expand WRUW Productions and the PRGirl show across the country and swell interest from the likes of Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu.
She also hopes to create more series based on reality as well as a couple of documentaries about people that inspire her and have those available for the masses to enjoy. Visit www.prgirlseries.com and www.farissaknox.com.
