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Up and Comers: Charm Offensive
Elizabeth Smithgall works to win friends and influence people. And does a lot of both.
by Charles Molineaux
January 1, 2008
T
o hear her boss tell it, Elizabeth Smithgall projects a compelling charm to one and all,
from the cleaning crew to... the President of the United States. "Elizabeth immediately gives you
the impression that you're the most important person she's ever met," explains Joe Ledlie,
president of the Ledlie Group public relations firm.
Smithgall shrugs it off as second nature. "There's something to just reaching out to
people," she insists, "just being friendly, making eye contact and letting them know that you see
them and acknowledge them. You never know who's going to be important to you in your life. Why not
be nice to everybody?"
Still a
relative newcomer after two-and-a-half years as an associate at the firm, Smithgall has made what
Ledlie considers remarkable progress. He observes "a year ago she was spending most of her time
monitoring media. Today she's guiding clients. That's a process that normally takes three to five
years."
It's a process Smithgall says has been thankfully fast, and unexpected. "I like to do every
little thing. I signed up thinking it would be doing pitching and press releases, all that PR
stuff, but I've ended up doing a lot of different work. I got to write a speech for a 'CFO of the
year' award dinner. I got to plan an event for a European chocolatier launching in America. I've
gotten to do some work for a nonprofit, which I like because, at the end of the day, it's a good
cause."
That nonprofit, the green-themed EARTH University of Costa Rica, also brought to the fore a
timely talent Smithgall feared was destined to languish, her fluency in Spanish. She majored in it
at her alma mater, UGA, and fine-tuned it while living in Spain, and found it suddenly priceless
managing communications between Costa Rica and the United States. "That was great," she
exclaims. "I didn't think I'd get to do anything with my Spanish, just starting with a PR firm in
Atlanta."
Ledlie found that skill a valuable window into Smithgall's winning character in one of two
striking encounters. The first was her interaction with the firm's Hispanic nighttime janitors.
"She engages them in a lengthy conversation, and it's not just to practice her Spanish. It soon
turns into a personal interest in the welfare of the people she's talking to. And she does that
with everybody."
The second encounter was with none other than President Bush during his recent visit to Cobb
County. While she was one among dozens in the receiving line, Ledlie recalls Smithgall grabbing and
holding the president's attention by talking about his daughter Jenna. "It was really something,"
Ledlie says. "She said, 'Hey, Mr. President, I saw Jenna down in Coffee County the other day at a
wedding.'"
Smithgall says her comment wasn't planned. "Everyone else was like 'Okay, what about this
policy, ' or 'What about this?' whatever! It seemed like everyone wanted his autograph or his
picture, and I thought, 'Well, I'm going to walk over and talk to him about Jenna!'"
"He was chuckling the whole time," Ledlie marvels, "and he moved to the next person still
chuckling. He was still chuckling, and that's how Elizabeth leaves them, whether they're high
or low."
"I've never been a shy person," Smithgall acknowledges. "I'm really interested
in other people. When I meet them, I wonder who they are, where they're coming from, what they're
up to. It's a curiosity about others."
Smithgall's enthusiastic attention gets high marks from clients like developer Bruce Nicely.
"She probably deals with a lot of different enterprises or concepts," he muses "but she shows a
sincere interest in my specific project. It's not just a J-O-B to her. She takes ownership."
Nicely views an effective community outreach campaign as crucial as he positions his planned
Symphony residential development in Henry County as environmentally friendly to a skeptical public.
With such high stakes, both he and Smithgall acknowledge periodic disagreements over approaches and
ideas, disagreements in which Nicely says Smithgall is often persuasive enough to convince him to
try things her way.
"We have good personality chemistry I guess," Smithgall says. "We enjoy each other's
conversation. If something isn't right, I can make him laugh about it instead of freaking
out. He takes my advice pretty seriously considering that he knows I'm 26 years old."
For his part, Nicely finds her relative youth a plus. "I think that's been an asset. She's
open-minded and spirited. She keeps a positive attitude, and she stays upbeat about it. She really
does make an effort to keep it fun and an interactive process."
Smithgall's efforts to be engaged and invested extend well beyond the office. She proudly
mentions her place on the junior committee for Atlanta's Shepherd Center, and her work with the
highway safety advocacy group, Road Safe America. (Cullum Owings, the student whose death
inspired the founding of Road Safe was, she says, one of her best friends.) But she waxes most
enthusiastically about her involvement with Interfaith Outreach House, a transitional housing
charity aimed at getting homeless families back on their feet.
It's a project she hopes to make a joint effort with her husband, Jason, a commercial real
estate associate. Interfaith's mission she admires, she says, but she also speaks of the simple
fact that it's still small and struggling as a compelling rationale for greater
participation. "I'm interested in doing something like that because it's very small right
now, and I'm interested in trying to help them expand and do some great things."
"Great things" have become something of a family affair. Smithgall says she spent
years watching her father awe and impress virtually everyone he met. Now she is linked to a
tradition of high-profile involvement through her husband, Jason. The Smithgall family has a
history of philanthropy that Elizabeth Smithgall finds herself challenged to live up.
"They've set a really high standard," she grants. "You feel pressure to do as much as, or
better than, the people before you, and there's a lot of responsibility that comes with that.
That itch to make a mark she considers a family trait. "I've grown up around people
who've done some amazing things, and I ask, 'What am I going to do that's going to be
amazing?' I hope I can try and compete. We'll see what that's going to be."
