For most publicists, the job is to keep clients in the headlines and themselves out of them. Brian Hart never read the memo.
The fiery founder of Flackable and AuthorPrime has been nominated for Best Publicist in Metro Philly's Best of Philly Awards 2026 — recognition for more than a decade of building two Philadelphia-rooted communications companies, alongside a parallel reputation as one of the city's most outspoken voices for local accountability and underdog causes. Voting is now open.
Hart's path into public relations didn't begin in a glossy agency. After graduating from Temple University in 2012 into a brutal job market, he took a sales job at a small financial firm and made hundreds of cold calls a week from a boiler room outside Philadelphia. He used the hustle to teach himself the language of growing businesses, took over the firm's social media on his own time, and eventually worked his way to JConnelly, a top PR agency in the New York metro area. At 27, he quit and launched Flackable with a single client and a laptop. He hired his first two full-time employees within the year. A decade later, the firm is a national operation, routinely landing clients in premier business news outlets including The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, and Forbes.
Hart's approach is unapologetically direct.
"My clients would rather rein in a stallion than kick a donkey," he says. "I don't ask them what they want — I tell them what they need. Flackable is direct, aggressive, and proactive. We give ambitious brands a tech-enhanced credibility marketing model that actually moves the needle against bigger, slower competitors."
That approach has drawn national recognition. Hart has been named a Bulldog PR Star Under 40 and a PRNEWS Agency Elite Top 100 winner. A former regular columnist for Inc., he has bylines in Entrepreneur, Business Insider, PR Week, and other major outlets, and is a frequent guest on radio, popular livestreams, and industry podcasts. In 2025, Hart launched AuthorPrime, a sister company built on a contrarian read of the creator economy.
"We're in a creator economy where most growth-minded business owners are sitting on a mountain of great content collecting dust," Hart says. "Between podcasts, blogs, webinars, and white papers, they already wrote a book — they just don't know it. AuthorPrime isn't ghostwriting. We take your existing content and transform it into a polished, compelling book in as little as 30 days."
But ask Hart what he's proudest of, and the conversation extends beyond agency work. He's also a podcaster, screenwriter, and frequent media commentator, as well as one of Philadelphia's most active civic voices, willing to use his platform to push back on local institutions when he believes they're failing the people they're meant to serve. He's championed student safety at his alma mater, demanded better for Sixers fans, and pushed publicly for accountability on behalf of crime victims and their families.
"This city raised me. It taught me how to fight," Hart says. "The least I can do is fight back for it."
That fight has also extended to building the next generation of Philadelphia communicators. Dozens of former Flackable interns and entry-level hires have grown into some of the city's brightest PR and digital marketing talent, working across agencies and in-house teams.
At 39, Hart is at the peak of a career he built from the ground up — and he's not slowing down.
"This nomination means more to me than any national award I've received," he says. "Philadelphia is the city that raised me. To be recognized here, by the people who actually live and work in this city, hits different."
Vote for Brian Hart in the Best Publicist category of the 2026 Metro Philly's Best of Philly Awards at MetroPhillysBest.com.
Sponsored content created in partnership with Flackable and AuthorPrime.
