When Jennifer Kaplan talks about building a business, she rarely starts with revenue graphs or milestone moments. Instead, she goes back to the thing that has always driven her: a deep instinct to help people tell their stories. Long before she became the leader of a rapidly growing PR firm, Kaplan was the person connecting people, elevating ideas and making sure good work found the attention it deserved.
“I’ve always loved being the bridge between someone doing something meaningful and the community that should know about it,” she says. “At some point, I realized I could take that passion and build an entire business around it.”
That early vision didn’t begin with a formal business plan. It began with intuition and the willingness to figure things out while moving forward. In the early years, Kaplan resisted the temptation to emulate someone else’s leadership style. Instead, she built Evolve PR & Marketing
piece by piece, guided by relationships, instincts and a belief that good work is rooted in connection.
Her leadership philosophy wasn’t formed overnight. It evolved through moments she now recognizes as turning points, times when she had to choose between trying to do everything herself or trusting others enough to let go. “Early on, I thought I had to have every answer,” she says. “Now I know that leadership is really about recognizing when a moment is asking you to learn, stretch or see something differently.”
As the company grew, Kaplan realized that many of the most important decisions weren’t about strategy; they were about people. Choosing when to hire. When to slow down. When to expand benefits. When to step back so others could step forward. She describes those choices not as grand strategic leaps, but as steady shifts that built the foundation for the agency’s culture and long-term stability.
With growth came new challenges, and new lessons in leadership. Kaplan’s biggest ongoing work has been learning to delegate more, trust more and resist the urge to carry everything alone. “There’s only so much any leader can control,” she says. “Letting go isn’t a weakness. It’s how you build a team that’s truly empowered.”
Her approach to difficult decisions has also changed over time. She now asks a series of quiet questions before she acts: How will this affect the team? Does it align with our values? Does it protect the reputation we’ve built? She rarely centers herself in the equation. “I try not to make decisions from a place of ‘What do I want?’” she says. “It’s always about the bigger picture — the people, the culture and the long-term health of the organization.”
Driving sustained momentum in a competitive industry has required clarity above all else. Kaplan focuses on intentional growth rather than fast growth, rooting every expansion or shift in relationships and long-term thinking. She balances big-picture vision with a daily awareness of what her team and clients need in real time, an ongoing negotiation between the future and the present.
If there’s one constant in Kaplan’s leadership, it’s awareness — awareness of people, timing and the subtle cues that reveal when something needs attention or change. She credits that awareness to years of paying close attention to the environments around her. “I’m less driven by ego than I was in my twenties,” she says. “Now I’m driven by what’s happening around me; the needs, the opportunities and the moments where I can help someone grow.”
Success, for Kaplan, has shifted over the years. Awards and company milestones matter, but they are not the metric she uses to define effective leadership. Today, success looks like mentoring emerging leaders, supporting her community and creating space for others to do their best work. “Making a difference in people’s lives, that’s the part that lasts,” she says.
Looking ahead, Kaplan sees her own evolution continuing. She is still hungry to learn, still energized by new ideas, and still committed to leading with clarity and curiosity. “There’s so much more I want to do,” she says. “The goal now is to stay open, to keep learning from the people and situations around me, and to keep growing right along with them.”
Evolve PR in a Nutshell
- Founded in 2010, Evolve PR & Marketing is now in its 15th year.
- Represents more than 140 clients across industries that include hospitality, real estate, retail, nonprofit, technology, finance and more.
- Supported by a full-time team of 28.
- Recognized as the largest PR agency in Arizona based on team size and client scope.
Did You Know: Research shows that stories are 22 times more memorable than facts alone. It’s one reason Jennifer Kaplan built her entire business around narrative, believing that the right story, told clearly, can change the trajectory of a brand.
