If you’ve ever attended an opening, charity function or other event held at a local restaurant, chances are there are people working behind the scenes who aren’t directly related to the food and dining side of things bringing everything together.

Krystal Yoseph is one of those people in Oklahoma City.

“It’s list management. It’s media relations. It’s, sometimes, the influencer thing. If I’m working a soft open, I’m bussing tables, I’m greeting people, I’m a hostess. If it’s like if we’ve got to get a proclamation from the mayor, I’m reaching out to that office,” Yoseph said. “Whatever the thing is, that’s going to make it stand out.”

Owner of Konjo Concepts, Yoseph operates boutique PR and concierge services for clients in the metro area (and beyond when needed), and having cut her teeth working in the restaurant industry, she loves getting to continue working with them in her current role.

“I consider myself a restaurant adjacent person enough to where like I’ll always do whatever I can to support restaurants, and that’s anything from working with 84 Hospitality Group now to when Chef Gordon Ramsay decides to open up a restaurant in Oklahoma City and they give me a call to help out with that concept,” Yoseph said.

How did Krystal Yoseph land in public relations?

“It feels like magic looking back, but obviously it was intentional and it was incremental and I’ve been moving towards all this all along,” Yoseph said.

Despite having a degree in public relations from the University of Oklahoma, she did not immediately find herself in the career field.

Having worked in the service industry during college, she moved to the nation’s capital and took a job with the National Restaurant Association — initially working in accounts receivable.

“They very quickly realized, ‘You’re not a finance person,'” she said. “I was like, ‘Yeah, I’d kind of like to get into comms.’ They didn’t have a position open. I transitioned into corporate restaurant sales for the association, but while I was there, I got a look at restaurant lobbying and government affairs department and what that looked like.”

Through her time at the restaurant association, Yoseph learned more about the restaurant industry from the corporate perspective and even made contacts within the Oklahoma Restaurant Association. She transitioned to sales and marketing focused on local restaurants for a high-end, luxury magazine in D.C. before eventually landing in public relations.

“Finally got my big break, if you will, in PR — I worked for an agency called now called TAAPR — it was an amazing woman named Aba [Kwawu],” Yoseph said. “I just wanted her insight. Just her being a Black woman, she has this amazing PR firm. It truly didn’t dawn on me at that time that getting a job with her could ever even be a possibility, because by then I’m five, six years removed from college.”

From D.C. to OKC: Coming home and creating a brand

Yoseph really believes she grew during her time in D.C., watching as technology and the growth of social media use blossomed around her. Being in a major city and watching those advances happen prepared her for handling the growth of the food scene back home in Oklahoma City, as well.

Courted by friends, family and the growth and change in her hometown, Yoseph returned working for a local public relations firm before going into business for herself with Konjo Concepts.

She’s built that brand and recently added a second offering, Konjo Concierge, an arm designed to connect people to experiences in the city. Whether helping lifelong locals change up their routines or giving transplants experiences that help them acclimate to their new city, Yoseph hopes to continue growing Konjo Concierge through excellent service to her community.

“That will be my legacy and my love letter to Oklahoma City. Being from here, I know Oklahoma City before it was, the top five, the top 10, the top 20, that best place to live and all that, so I’ve been along the journey and even, you know, in the last five to 10 years, the contributions that I feel so lucky to have been able to offer up in my own way, I want to definitely continue that,” she said.

“Concierge is where I really see the footprint expanding for the Konjo brand. PR will always be a big part of it, getting to work with media and dabbling with influencers and just kind of anticipating the landscape as things change is really fun.”

‘That lineage has already been set’

Yoseph said Kwawu’s investment in her as a young Black woman all those years ago inspires her to be an example for others like her with aspirations of working in public relations or owning businesses.

“I’ve been so lucky to start my own PR firm. I just hired an assistant, she’s a young Black woman — was that on purpose or not? It doesn’t matter, but it’s happening — and so I’m able to see kind of forwards and backwards right now, and I think that’s really cool,” she said.

“I think it’s pretty magical and being able to step into rooms where a lot of times my whole life I’ve been the only Black person in a room, I take that very seriously, but also because that experience that I had in D.C. if I’m on the list or if I’m invited to the meeting, I don’t I don’t sit in the corner like, ‘Oh, my gosh, I’m the only Black person here.'”

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Krystal Yoseph uses PR skillset to advance local brands, restaurants