Level Up: Practical Ways to Grow in an Agency

On September 24, 2025, the PR Club hosted “How to Level Up – Growth in an Agency,” a panel featuring PR and marketing pros across career stages. The in-person discussion took place in Boston and featured:

The conversation hit on what it really takes to advance in an agency, from your first internship to becoming a member of the C-suite. 

We pulled some helpful tips and tricks from the panel to guide potential next steps  in your career:

“Leveling up” starts with learning—and delegating

Leveling up isn’t a one-off goal; it’s a mindset. The more you learn, the more you expand the kinds of problems you can solve. That means deliberately building new skills and learning to delegate so your time shifts from doing everything to doing the right things. 

Pro tip: Our panelists agreed that delegation isn’t abdication, it’s how you open bandwidth for higher-impact work and help your team grow alongside you.

Find your voice by delivering outcomes

Speaking up means standing out. But it’s not easy to find your voice at an agency, especially early on in your career. With so many people, so many different personalities, and meetings, it’s hard to find the right time to raise your hand and let your voice be heard. Our panelists noted that these opportunities don’t just fall into your lap–you have to earn them. 

Credibility comes from doing excellent work, showing up, and driving results. As wins accumulate, your confidence to weigh in grows naturally. Until then, jump in and be proactive. What does that mean exactly? Part of being proactive is doing the work before it’s assigned or thinking ahead. Get a jump start on a media list, write an embargo pitch, or draft a quick social strategy. 

Pro tip: Share the thinking behind a project or action item, not just the deliverable. Walk your manager through your recommendations and thought process. You don’t have to be the loudest voice in the room to stand out, but part of advocating for yourself is advocating for your work.  

Signs you’re ready to move up

What does the leap from tactical executor to leader look like? Our panelists highlighted a few key areas they recognize in colleagues: 

  • Autonomy with clients. You can chart the path without being told each step.
  • Clear recommendations. You make confident calls—and back them up with data, rationale, and expected outcomes.
  • Multiple paths forward. You don’t bring problems; you bring options (with trade-offs).
  • Visible thought process. You show how you think, not just what you did.
  • Feedback fluency. You absorb input without getting defensive and can integrate it quickly. 

To sum it up, you’re not just doing good work, you’re directing good work.

Pro tip: Being receptive to feedback is one of the most critical aspects of PR (and business) you can master. When you leap to defend an idea or strategy that didn’t quite land with a client, or overexplain a mistake or grammar error, valuable time that could otherwise be spent looking forward is wasted.  Take in feedback and understand it’s not personal. Even if you don’t agree with the feedback, know that it is coming from a different perspective – take every piece of feedback in stride and keep looking forward. 

The power of “no” (and when to use it)

Saying yes to everything is the fastest way to stall growth. Seems counter-intuitive, right? Wrong. Strategic “no’s” protect the quality of your work and your team’s focus. Our panelists encourage you to say: 

  • “No” to low-leverage tasks you can automate, templatize, or delegate. Does this press release really need four hours of writing? The answer is probably no. Find ways to work smarter and say “no” to spinning your wheels on something that may not require the level of effort you initially think it does. 
  • “No” to misaligned asks that dilute strategy. Instead, offer an alternative that ties back to goals.
  • “No” for now, when you need to slow down to get it right. It’s ok if you can’t get something done perfectly in an hour. You can say “no” to the rush and “yes” to an added day to get a project written. Just communicate effectively and see if the task has room for flexibility.

Pro tip: Pair every “no” with logical rationale and recommended next steps. You need to guard your time (and your sanity), but saying “no” to every task, no matter the task, won’t get you very far either. Be strategic, be thoughtful, and ask questions along the way to better understand the power of “no.” 

Navigating the “messy middle”

Mid-level roles can feel like a squeeze: you’re communicating up and down, managing expectations in both directions, and maintaining momentum for your clients, your colleagues, and your agency. So while you may feel trapped in the middle, ask yourself: What is the best way I can create value and efficiency for my team? 

  • Upward: Synthesize, don’t summarize. Bring patterns, risks, and crisp trade-offs to those above you. Managing up is one of the most difficult, but important tasks to master in the middle. Your job in the middle is to work with the above, not make their lives harder. 
  • Downward: Clarify ownership and outcomes. Remove blockers. Share context early and often. Helping others grow around you is one of the key steps in moving upward. You need to tend your entire garden; no one wants just one pretty flower. 
  • Across: See the forest and the trees. Spot cross-account opportunities, reusable assets, and repeatable plays.

Pro tip: This is where leadership muscles develop: prioritization, leading by example, and calm execution under pressure.

Slow down to speed up

When the stakes rise, so does the temptation to rush. Resist it. A short pause to clarify, define success, and align on trade-offs often saves hours.. Ask for help as soon as possible to gain clarity.. “Can you pressure-test this logic?” is a leadership move, not a weakness.

Pro tip: Our panelists have all individually struggled with slowing down in their own way. As PR pros, it’s natural to want to jump into a problem and solve it quickly, mark something off your to-do list, or pass something off to another teammate. But slowing down (even when you don’t want to) can help your brain see things in a new light. 

Become comfortable in moments of discomfort 

Growth and comfort rarely coexist. If you’re never a little uncomfortable, you’re probably repeating what you already know. Volunteer for that presentation. Draft the first version of that strategy. Raise your hand for the ambiguous project. You can’t go back to what’s comfortable and expect different results—lean into the stretch.

Pro tip: Those who become comfortable with comfort rarely grow. Be proactive about asking your manager what tasks you can stretch to complete or shadow a senior team member on. Doing the job before you’re promoted is the best way to thrive in a new role.

Lead with empathy and find your speciality 

Three  levers accelerate your trajectory:

  • Empathy: Understand client pressures, internal dynamics, and teammate bandwidth. Empathy improves recommendations, forecasting, and collaboration.
  • Specialization: Carve out an area where you’re known as a go-to—whether that’s media strategy, integrated campaigns, analytics, crisis response, or a vertical. Depth builds trust; trust earns you a seat earlier.
  • Self-awareness: Know your edge, your gaps, and your team’s strengths. Staff to strengths, coach to gaps, and be honest about capacity. 

Pro tip: When everyone is doing their best, most-fitting work, quality rises and careers move faster.

A final word 

Leveling up in an agency is less about waiting for permission and more about building momentum. Delegate to create space, say no (within reason) to protect quality, embrace discomfort to expand your range, and practice empathy to bring people with you. 

Pro tip: If you keep learning and show your work, the title tends to catch up.

This blog was written by Kaitlynn Cooney, President, PR Club

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