From the time she was a young girl, Hailey Bailey knew she wanted to be in show business.
Originally from Fort Worth, Bailey and her family moved to the Willow Park area when she was 9-years old and it was there that she grew especially close to her extended family and nurtured a budding passion for acting.
"I was the kind of kid that was always performing," Bailey said.
Now, as part of the Image public relations firm in Los Angeles, she is helping others nurture that same dream.
Bailey's father owned a car dealership in Fort Worth on University Drive that he had to relocate due to the construction of a toll road over his former property, but Bailey said it turned out to be a good thing for her family.
"It was actually coming at a time in our lives when it really made sense to move out to the Aledo- Willow Park area," Bailey said. "My dad found some different locations for his businesses out in Graford, and the Aledo-Willow Park area was kind of an in-between for our school, which was All Saints Episcopal School at the time. So it was kind of a perfect time.
“Our grandparents all really wanted to live closer, so basically at that time, we packed up and bought my grandmother's house, and she built a new house right on the front of our property. And then my dad's dad moved into a little apartment that we called 'the barn.' It looked like a barn, but it was actually an apartment in the back of our property. So we basically had like a little compound where I got to live out the rest of my childhood with all of my living grandparents."
Growing up, Bailey was into sports, singing and performing.
She earned a spot on the varsity volleyball squad as a freshman and participated in varsity cheerleading before she started focusing on acting.
Bailey, 26, would travel to Dallas once a week for acting classes and said that her journey to public relations, which took her to the University of Texas at Austin and threw a few different PR internships, has been quite the adventure.
"It has been crazy," Bailey said. "I'm just taking it day by day, for sure. I loved going to UT. I was an acting major at UT. I eventually reached a point where I got burnt out and I started to feel like acting looked like a path where I would just have to sit around and wait for someone to give me a yes and give me a job to pay the bills.
“Being raised by two successful entrepreneurs for parents, that career path just didn't really vibe with me anymore as I got older. As I continued on my path at UT, I realized that I was probably better suited towards the business side of the industry. So from there I went for my first internship in Los Angeles.”
Her first internship was with a production company called Temple Hill Entertainment.
“The owner's name is Marty Bowen, and he's actually from Fort Worth himself,” Bailey said. “I loved that internship. It gave me a lot of insight into the industry and started me on my journey of figuring out where I fit in."
An episode during her time as an intern with Temple Hill Entertainment made a big impact on her and was one of her first great experiences in the business.
"I actually pitched something to one of the executives at the time that made it into development," Bailey said. "It never came to fruition, but it kind of made it to that next step, and they emailed me after my internship and told me that my idea had gone on to be something else. I was just kind of surprised. I was like, 'Oh wow! Okay, cool!'"
But it was also at Temple Hill that she recognized that her focus had shifted once again.
"I realized at that first internship that I needed a job that was more hands-on because I like doing something different every day, and that's what my job now entails," Bailey said. "I went back for my senior year at UT. I had a class where we had a guest lecturer who was this fabulous publicist for Aziz Ansari and John Krasinski and a bunch of talented and amazing comedians. Then she told us about her day-to-day, and that was when I realized that that was the job for me."
Bailey said she approached the lecturer and asked what she needed to do make that happen.
"She told me to do some PR internships, and I would be all set, because I already had the entertainment side on my resume," Bailey said. "My senior year at UT I only had like pilates and nutrition on my schedule, so I took two different PR internships for my remaining time at UT. From there I went on to LA, and the rest is history."
Bailey worked for a while for a major PR firm before venturing out on her own last fall, founding Image PR.
Bailey's clients include Brandi Cyrus (Miley's half sister), Eva Gutowski, Charly Jordan, Ellie Zeiler, and Katie Austin.
Her daily routine involves working to present her clients accurately and in the best possible light.
"I help my clients create and maintain a public image," Bailey said. "I make sure that the image they want to put out into the world is put out there on their terms, and the media doesn't run some crazy story about them that isn't quite true. I just try to empower them to feel confident that the story they're putting into the world is a cultivated and accurate representation of who they are."
Fortunately for Bailey, her clients make it easy.
"I pride myself in selecting clients that are good people," Bailey said. "They make my day-to-day a lot less stressful, and the stress that I do feel ends up being worth it because they are great people. I believe in everything they're doing."
Bailey said the most fulfilling aspect of her job is seeing her clients have success.
"I would say its the big wins," Bailey said. "It can be a very stressful job, but once we make it to that big moment and I get to celebrate that with my client, it kind of feels like being Santa on Christmas.
"You know, you've been working really hard, and now you're headlining at the Encore Beach Club, that's a win... These are the things we are building toward, and once we hit a milestone like that, it makes everything worth it."
Bailey attributes her success to her upbringing, the values her parents imparted on her as a young girl and a very special camp from her childhood.
"My parents instilled an amazing work ethic and morals within me and also the camp that I went to as a young kid called Camp Waldemar," Bailey said. "It was life-changing, and it really set me on the right path creatively...they were the first people to ever let me direct a musical and they really believed in me and kind of let me explore my passions for that. I owe most of finding my path to Camp Waldemar."
As far as ever getting back to acting is concerned, Bailey said there are no immediate plans
"I think that ship has sailed,” Bailey said. “I was a master student under Cathryn Sullivan in Dallas for quite some time. I loved her. I loved the program and I loved acting. But ultimately, I don't know that I would want to be in front of the camera any more. I feel like that time in my life was meant to teach me about the industry and how people can get taken advantage of so that I can protect my clients now and moving forward.
"That experience and my experience with the industry helps me advise my clients and consult them correctly in order for them to have success."
Bailey said it still seems surreal at times that she has enjoyed the success she has so far, but added that she does have definite goals for where she would like to take her company in the future.
"I just launched my business in November of 2022," Bailey said. "I'm not even quite a year in, so my goal hasn't changed, but it has expanded. What I really want to do is just continue expanding and working on projects that make me excited, eventually, like producing maybe or creating a product line of my own. The opportunities are endless, and I'm very open minded at this point, knowing that my role has already changed so much in the last eight months in terms of what I'm doing for my clients.
“I'm so much more than a publicist at this point. I really think my ultimate goal is to continue to find a way to be passionate about the projects I am working on."
Bailey said she has had her naysayers over the years, and if she had one bit of advice she could offer to younger people thinking of going into public relations, it would be to persevere.
"I would say don't listen to anyone that tells you that you can’t do it, it's not a real job, or that it's not realistic," Bailey said. "I think a lot of people like to talk and tell you that you will fail, when they don't really understand how big of an industry this is...and if anyone is passionate about it and wants to try, you just have to get out here and go for it. Don't listen to anyone else who tells you it's not realistic or it's not possible, because it is."
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