Justin Breen’s first date with his future wife, Sarah, took place Aug. 28, 2004 – two days before she started medical school.
“We have been through a lot together and have seen the ups and downs of life in a doctor family,” said Breen, who now lives in Chicago’s north suburbs with Sarah – a pediatrician — and their two children – Jake, 5, and Chase, 3.
Breen recently left mainstream media after an award-winning career over two decades in Chicago, Indiana and South Dakota as an editor and writer to start his own public relations firm – BrEpic Communications LLC.
Breen started BrEpic because he saw a void in the PR field of how to properly write and pitch stories to mainstream media. As an editor and writer, he would receive hundreds of emails per day filled with press releases that didn’t accurately and creatively describe stories.
Breen realized that writing actual stories for his clients – the same kind of clicky, viral stories while he worked for DNAinfo and other newsroom organizations – and then marketing the story individually to his media contacts across the country, would be far more successful.
“For years and years, I saw how most PR firms failed when it came to selling stories on behalf of their clients,” Breen said. “I believed BrEpic could do a better, more efficient job.”
He’s been proven correct as BrEpic already has several clients and recently signed The Allstate Foundation and LISC – a national nonprofit that revitalizes communities and brings greater economic opportunities to residents – to exciting, long-term deals.
Breen creates newsrooms for his clients and successfully pitches those stories to mainstream media. He specializes in positive, inspirational stories – the same type of content he wrote as a member of the media. BrEpic clients have appeared in the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Sun-Times, WGN-TV, Patch as well as a host of several other national, regional and local media outlets.
“The beauty of BrEpic is that it works with any type of business, as long as there’s a good story to tell,” said Breen, whose clients include law firms, accounting firms, music businesses, nonprofits and education companies.
“BrEpic has been an immediate success because of my ability to find clicky stories and share them with my media contacts across the country. These stories are not typical PR stories, but actual good content that the media can use to tell their own version of the story.”
Breen also is a graduate of the University of Illinois and is the current Journalism Chair for the College of Media Alumni Board.
“It’s always amazing to see so many University of Illinois graduates across the country telling great stories, and I’m happy to send them the work that I’ve done through BrEpic,” Breen said.
Breen would love to work with other “Dads Married to Doctors Group” members, as he understands what it’s like to be married to a doctor while having your own business career.
“Being married to a doctor is a truly wonderful thing, and I want to help other DMD members grow their own businesses and brands,” Breen said.
For more information on BrEpic, visit www.Facebook.com/BrEpic or www.BrEpicLLC.com
Curtis is a dad to three little girls and has been married to an ER Doc for over 13 years. Life is busy, but life is good! He enjoys bourbon, poker and meeting new friends, which is what led him to create the facebook group, Dads Married to Doctors. His mantra, “Life is BETTER when we do life together!”
Very proud of my Nephew on his new business.
He has always been an exceptional writer and his best pieces have always been emotionally orientated. I wish him and his beautiful family the best, for the best is always yet to come.