Raising Kids, Building Empires: Lamarra Rice on Motherhood, Hard Work, and the Quiet Architecture of GCPR Communications

For Immediate Release

BERGEN COUNTY, N.J. — There is a version of the founder story that the internet has trained us to expect: a clean arc, a single break, a tidy quote about "the grind." Lamarra Rice — Bronx born, Bergen County, New Jersey based — founder of GCPR Communications, is not interested in telling that one.

"I'm raising kids in real time while I'm building this," Rice said in a conversation from her Bergen County, New Jersey office this week. "There is no version of my day where I get to clock out of being a mom to be a CEO, or clock out of being a CEO to be a mom. They happen at the same table. Sometimes in the same sentence."

That honesty — about the double shift, about the cost of building, about what gets lost and what gets won — is the through-line of a career that has taken Rice from cold-pitching reporters on a borrowed laptop to running a boutique public relations firm representing artists, athletes, executives, and Fortune-recognized brands.

Starting From Where She Started From

Rice is candid about the fact that GCPR Communications did not begin in a glass tower. It began on a kitchen counter, between school pickups, while she was figuring out — out loud, in front of her children — how to turn a relentless work ethic into a real business.

"I want my kids to know where this started," she said. "Not the highlight reel. The part where the Wi-Fi went out and I finished the pitch on my phone in the car. The part where I said no to things that would have paid that week but cost me the next ten years. That's the part that builds an empire. The boring, unglamorous, repeatable part."

She is careful with the word empire. She uses it on purpose.

"An empire isn't a logo. It isn't a follower count. It's what you leave standing when you're not in the room," Rice said. "That's what I'm trying to model for my children. Not how to be famous. How to be unmovable."

The Lesson She Wants Her Children to Take

Ask Rice what she wants her kids to actually learn from watching her build GCPR, and the answer is not what you'd expect from a publicist.

"I don't want them to learn how to spin a story," she said. "I want them to learn how to keep their word. How to send the follow-up. How to do the unsexy work after the meeting is over. The world will teach them how to talk. I want to teach them how to deliver."

She pauses, then adds: "And I want them to know they're allowed to want big things. Loudly. Without apologizing."

GCPR as the Receipt

GCPR Communications — now a multi-industry firm with a roster spanning music, sports, entertainment, jewelry, beauty, lifestyle, and luxury residential design — has become, in Rice's words, "the receipt."

"Every retainer we close, every client win, every placement in The Source or People or FOX — that's not just business. That's evidence," she said. "Evidence for my kids that the long way works. Evidence for the next young woman who's trying to figure out if she's allowed to build something this big from where she started."

The firm's recent client work — from the MMinteriors luxury residential spotlight to ongoing campaigns in hip-hop, reality television, and professional sports — sits inside a larger thesis Rice has been quietly executing for over a decade: that boutique, founder-led PR done with discipline can outperform agencies five times its size.

What Comes Next

Rice is in the middle of a planned growth phase for GCPR Communications, including expanded social media management offerings, a vendor directory built for accountability, and infrastructure investments in compliance, security, and client-facing technology. She is also, publicly for the first time, preparing the firm for a seed capital raise.

"I'm not building this to flip it," she said. "I'm building this so my kids inherit a real thing. A name that means something. A standard that doesn't move when the market does."

Asked what she would tell the version of herself who started GCPR years ago at that kitchen counter, Rice does not hesitate.

"Keep going," she said. "You're not behind. You're early."

About GCPR Communications

GCPR Communications is a boutique public relations and communications firm based in Bergen County, New Jersey, serving clients across music, entertainment, sports, beauty, lifestyle, luxury design, and professional services. Founded by Lamarra Rice — a Bronx native — GCPR offers retainer-based publicity, media relations, social media management, crisis communications, and white-glove client services. Learn more at gcprhq.com.

Media Contact

GCPR Communications — info@gcprhq.com — gcprhq.com

Contributor: S.D., GCPR Media Contributor