The athlete turned public relations guru discusses giving birth during the pandemic while co-running a thriving business.

By Lindzi Scharf

Leland Drummond is a brand-savvy shape-shifter whose innate ability to adapt has served her well throughout her career – not to mention during the pandemic.

The former competitive athlete turned public relations guru is one-half of Azione, a firm that has helped companies including Away, Sakara Life, Sweetgreen, MedMen, Madhappy, Stance, Bandier, and Moon Juice become household names, in addition to having represented major brands like Cole Haan, Fender, Club Monaco, Equinox, Mansur Gavriel, and Outdoor Voices.

Since launching her company with co-founder Michele Thomas, eleven years ago, Drummond has perfected the art of multi-tasking. However, her skills were truly put to the test as she navigated giving birth to her second-born while co-running a company with fifty-three employees in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York – during a pandemic with shifting dynamics.

“It was such an insane time to bring a child into the world, when all you want to do is nurture and nest, and you’re suddenly working from home,” Drummond says, seated on a white couch in her Costa Mesa abode as her dogs Oscar and Otis bark in the background. “In the midst of all of that, many of our clients were unsure of what the future held for them. Commerce stopped and everyone had no idea what was going on. We’re super lucky that a lot of our clients stayed on, but they were also nervous about what that future looked like. Everyone was trying to figure it out. So there was a lot of transitioning happening within our business and our portfolio. We had no idea [how things would unfold] and I was about to go on a maternity leave… whatever that means when you own a company.”

She’s quick to credit Thomas, Azione’s managing director, Stephen Wright, and her loyal team with keeping the business afloat while she admittedly “had to, at some point, leave and have a baby.” Reflecting on that time, Drummond remembers, “There were so many unknowns to every single thing. There was a lot of fear around giving birth because of the [pandemic]. I had a lot of friends in New York that were opting in the eleventh hour to do home births in their apartments because there was such a fear around going to hospital and getting sick. And we didn’t know if [my husband] was going to be able to come in with me. I actually induced a week early because we weren’t sure if it was going to start getting worse here soon. They had all the tents up in preparation for a surge.”

Her son Maddox was born on April 9th. Drummond exhales. “It’s been a year.” A shiny blue Mylar balloon says “1” in the distance. She and her husband Peter have plans to celebrate Maddox’s first birthday that night alongside their five-year-old son, Oliver.

“It’s hard to summarize,” she says. “It’s all a blur.”

THE SILVER LINING

Even so, Drummond recalls being blown away by how her team came together and pulled through what proved to be a challenging time for everyone. “We operated with a skeleton crew,” she explains. “Our team took some hits and we all did across the board.” But Drummond says the silver lining revealed itself over time. “It was almost a blessing in disguise,” she says. “My partner handled everything so incredibly well and then we rebuilt from the trenches.”

The pandemic helped Drummond prioritize what’s important personally and professionally. “Work is so primary and primal when you own something,” she says, “but simultaneously so many important terrifying things were going on. People were suffering such loss.” As a result, Drummond feels the pandemic has helped humanize people on each end of the business. “Everyone asked one another how they were doing so much more frequently,” she says. “It was like, ‘How can we support one another? We’re all in this together at this point. We want everyone to do well.’”

As consumers became more comfortable with the new norm, commerce picked back up, which led to greater brand confidence – and new opportunities. “We even started signing businesses or people started reinstating their contracts and we were able to bring some people back and build again,” she says. “We have all this young talent that’s come in. It’s their first job ever and we’re taking the time to talk to them: ‘How does it feel to not actually see and meet the people that you’re working with in your first job? I’m sorry you haven’t seen the office yet.’ We’ve been hiring. We’re lucky.”

The distance has also led to closer communication amongst her team—despite everyone continuing to work remotely. “You’re so separate from one another,” she says, “but you’re also more unified because you’re over-communicating.”

BUILDING FROM SCRATCH

Drummond is an expert at the art of adaptation. She and Thomas founded Azione in 2010 when they noticed a shift in media consumption habits. “We always had a different idea of what the communications landscape could be,” Drummond says. “We were so ready to change as the media landscape changed. … We wanted to take a more action-centric approach to PR. We were tired of receiving marketing plans and regurgitating them. We wanted to do something that was much more of a creative agency approach where we could get in with marketing teams, with CEOs, with founders, and really say, ‘How can we be an active partner in what we’re doing?’ We always had these aspirational ideas of what we could become and wanted to do something that was smarter than the traditional thought process.”

As a result, beyond traditional PR, which typically surrounds placing stories in media, Azione is often involved in big picture conversations. “Doing creative strategy is my biggest dream,” Drummond says. “If you want to reach a certain audience, we discuss the different mediums for reaching them. There’s now TikTok and Clubhouse. There’s celebrity talent arrangements. There’s product collaborations. So we can we go to a brand and say, ‘If you combine these kinds of things, you’re going to build a whole new type of audience for your company.’ It’s nice to be on the ideation side.”

Thomas and Drummond’s varied backgrounds led to their outside-the-box approach. Drummond started her career in corporate communications at Disney working on a graffiti art campaign for Tinkerbell and Mickey Mouse clothing collaborations. From there, she dabbled in personal PR working with a company that represented Jeremy Piven during the “Entourage” era and Justin Baldoni, years before he landed “Jane the Virgin.” Many of those relationships have since referred new business her way.

Drummond and Thomas met while working at a small PR firm overseeing consumer brands. “Michele and I started to work together and realized that we were a powerful team,” she says. “We had the same understanding of brands and people.” They eventually decided to strike out on their own. “I didn’t know how to hire anyone,” Drummond recalls. “I didn’t know how to be a boss. I was twenty-seven. I was figuring all of that out as we went along as anyone does.”

She continues, “We got a tiny office on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood with our two computers and set up shop and sent e-mails to everyone saying we were starting our own company called Azione, which means action in Italian. Our mentality from day one was: ‘It’s not about the money. It was always about bringing heart to everything that we’re doing and being active participants in the building of brands.’ Our methodology has never changed. Be malleable in the process of working with brands; listen more than you talk; and be creative in terms of the way that you’re telling stories.”

Their approach served them well as their industry shifted as a result of the evolving media landscape.

“There was no social media,” Drummond says, reflecting on her earliest years in the industry. “There was no influencer. The celebrity had a totally different role. And the definition of a celebrity was much more associated with the work that they did than their image – and then there was a real consolidation of media too. Michele and I talk about it all the time. You need to be creative to get stories out there and ensure that they don’t feel like a placement.”

When Drummond and Thomas first started their careers, their job description was likely to be described as publicity. Asked what their occupation is now, Drummond shrugs. “We work with incredible brands and help to tell their stories,” she says. “We’re creative agents. It’s all B.S. marketing speak, really. Publicity has always been a vocation that has gotten called down into something that isn’t as maybe respected as some of the other [fields], but everyone is extremely hardworking and there are so many different aspects of what PR is. I think for us, it’s like, ‘Whatever the need is – we can meet it and we can always shape-shift.’”

SHAPE-SHIFTING

Drummond found her way to brand building as a result of her background as a competitive athlete. Born in Manhattan and raised in Connecticut, Drummond began snowboarding at thirteen, she says, “mostly because all the cute boys went snowboarding.” She laughs. “I wanted to get good at it, so I went every single day. I ended up becoming quite competitive and did bigger jump competitions and freestyle stuff and got a couple sponsors.”

She then attended University of Colorado at Boulder as an English and journalism major. She jokes, “Another boy in another life led me to Los Angeles. I’d hurt my knee and wasn’t able to snowboard as competitively as I did, but one of the things that was interesting about that time was that I’d worked as a sponsored athlete before getting injured, so I got to hang out with brands and work with them on some of the marketing. There weren’t a lot of women in the sport at the time, so it was an interesting vantage point to see how these fashion and action sports brands worked with both athletes and their teams and crews. After college, upon realizing I wasn’t going to be a snowboarder, I turned to [what felt familiar].”

The launch of Azione allowed Drummond to tap into her personal passions. “I’ve always felt like sports and movement are such a core part of my happiness and emotional wellbeing,” she says. “We work with so many brands in that space and I think it’s an intimate knowledge of understanding what makes that consumer tick and what they want that—because I am that consumer.’”

Her personal interest in the wellness space has also proven helpful. She points to organic food delivery service Sakara Life as an example. “I was introduced to Sakara Life through a friend,” she explains. “I ate their food and I was like, ‘How can I work with you? Will trade PR for food,’ and it’s been seven or eight years that we’ve been working together. Being a part of that every step.” Based on her experience, Drummond advises, “Always talk about what you know so you can tell better stories about it.”

WHAT’S NEXT

Drummond’s latest endeavor with Thomas is an extension of her past and present. She continues to remain active with a love of working out and Pilates. As a result, she and Thomas are launching a brand of their own, which will debut in 2022. Drummond describes LDMA (Life Deserves More Action) as “intimates for an active woman.”

“As someone who works out everyday, I realized there wasn’t an incredible pair of underwear that makes you feel strong and sexy, but also performs at a really high level – both for working out and for your everyday, busy life,” Drummond says. “So we’ve been creating one.” The company has been three years in the making. “We have worked tirelessly over the last several years to source the best fabric, perfect the most functional and innovative design, and find the best factory to manufacture the highest quality performance garments,” she says, sharing that LDMA’s active essentials are the core focus of their burgeoning business.

LDMA’s season one drop will consist of four styles (a high sculpt thong; a high sculpt brief; a low rise invisible thong; and a low rise invisible brief) with a price range of $25 – $35 and bundled rates available for their favorite combos. “We’ve developed two perfect waist heights to blend seamlessly into your workout wardrobe and your everyday busy life,” Drummond says. “We’ll also be dropping some limited-edition active essentials ranging from apparel to accessories on a seasonal basis made to complement the LDMA lifestyle.”

Drummond says anyone interested should sign up to get on the brand’s early access list at LDMAbrand.com.

“It’s been such a humbling, crazy experience,” she says. “We have built a lot of brands for other people and we wanted to build one for ourselves. Kudos to every single person out there that has built a brand because it’s hard as hell.”

Simultaneously, Drummond is raising her two sons while forging ahead with Azione. “You can’t not feel so grateful that people stuck around for the ride,” she says. “We’re working with brands that are dream clients. I ended up being super grateful for all of it. We’re stronger than ever.”

HOW SHE LIVES…

The former New Yorker has lived in California off and on for years. She moved into her Costa Mesa home — decorated in collaboration with interior firm Uliv Design — in February 2020, one month before the country went into quarantine due to COVID. “My mom came out for this little baby shower/sprinkle that I was having and two days later, New York went into full lockdown,” she recalls. “She came out for that and never went back. We got her out of her apartment and she moved in with us [for a while].” Asked if Drummond ever sees herself moving back to the East Coast, she says, “I miss New York to visit, but I’m blessed where I live now.”

THE SURFBOARD

“We had this made for our office in Culver City,” Drummond says, referencing a large marble surfboard created by Jeff Beck of Nine Lights Surfboards. “Michele and I had some contacts that make custom surfboards. So he created a surfboard for our office and he gave me an extra one that he had. Neither Michele nor I are surfers, which is ironic.”

HER FAMILY

“I moved to New York a year or so after we started Azione because I met my husband at the same time,” Drummond explains. “We met at a party in South Hampton. I went out to Long Island to visit my dad who lives there and went to a party. My husband is from Portugal, but we hit it off and met up a few times over the course of a week in New York while he was visiting. Then he went back to Portugal and I went back to Los Angeles. We were pen pals and phone pals for a while and then he invited me to come to Portugal. When I went out to visit him, we had this wild, spiritual connection. We sort of just knew that we were soulmates. We fell in love. I went back to L.A., but we were like, ‘We need to find a way to get to each other.’ So we both moved to New York, which was sort of in the middle of California and Portugal.” As a result, Drummond opened up a New York branch of Azione. “I rented an office in New York,” she remembers. “It was in a tiny little glass space and I had boxes all around me, but I took a picture of the lobby and was like, ‘We’re bi-coastal.’” She and her husband eventually found their way back to Southern California in 2017. “I was in New York pushing a stroller through Brooklyn in the snow and it was seventy-five and sunny in Los Angeles,” she laughs.

FLORENCE + THE MACHINE

“Music is such a visceral part of [our relationship],” she says, looking at a framed record. “We were listening to Florence Welch and Florence + the Machine’s “Lungs” on repeat when we dating. … When I went to visit my husband in Portugal for the first time, his mom was in the hospital. It was a lot of emotion – as you’re falling in love with someone and they’re experiencing some kind of loss. His mom ended up passing away when I was out there. We have such memories of the soundtrack to that experience of falling in love amidst all of that. Fast forward, three years later, we were getting married in Portugal and I had done a project with Florence and Skullcandy, which was one of our early clients. I’d sent Florence some headphones and she’d write thank you notes. She was so gracious. I was like, ‘Let’s invite her to the wedding. I’ve got her e-mail—why not? Let’s throw it out there.’ She actually was like, ‘I would have loved to come, but I’m playing in Belgium on that date, but here’s a version of ‘Cosmic Love’ made specially for you guys. Feel free to use it how you want.’ We ended up using it as our first dance. Then she sent us her album, which we then framed and she wrote us a note afterwards because we sent her our wedding video and our first dance of us dancing to her song.”

THE HAT

“There’s a place in Aspen, Colorado,” she says, holding a hat she had made at Kemo Sabe while on vacation. “It says [on the inside], ‘It Seemed Like a Good Idea At the Time.’ You pick your size, shape, band, everything, and you can put feathers on it. They literally mold it from scratch. It’s so cool and I love hats so much. I have a ton of hats.”

HER BEDROOM SHELF

“This is our wedding in Portugal,” Drummond explains, pointing to photos of her and her husband. Nearby are her grandmother’s vintage flasks. “She used to collect them.”

THE NEW YORK MINUTE

“That was a New York moment,” Drummond says, referencing a photo of her and her husband in the rain. “The street was closed. We were in the East Village for a street fair.”

THE VINTAGE TRUNKS

“One was my grandmother’s,” Drummond says of a Louis Vuitton trunk. “The other my mom found in a dumpster in New York, which never happens anymore.”

HER ENGAGEMENT RING

“This was Peter’s mom’s 25th [anniversary] wedding gift,” she says. “He proposed to me with this ring at 11:11 pm on the eve of my thirtieth birthday. We turned it into a necklace at some point because it’s a soft stone that gets scratched. I was worried about it getting completely thrashed by wearing it every day.”

HER BABY BOOK

“This was my baby book,” she says. “My mom spent so much time writing down singular daily memories of all these different, amazing and non-amazing things in our life for the first two years. I just found this the other day. We went to Europe and it includes our travels, so there are little photos and little train tickets. It’s super special. Now there’s Instagram and everything is documented, but people don’t write journal entries about their children anymore. My mom is a writer, so it’s very detailed.”

HER GRANDFATHER’S MEMENTOS

“This was my grandfather’s,” she says, referencing a bracelet. “He was a WW2 veteran. He wore it every day throughout. It says Helen—his wife and my grandmother—on one side and then his name on the other side.” Nearby is her engagement ring as well as a Saint Christopher medal that her grandfather also carried with him. “Isn’t that pretty?”

THE IMPORTANCE OF MOVEMENT

“I’m a pretty even-keeled person, but I think so much of it has to do with my ability to move every day,” she says. “During [the pandemic] so much changed – from going to a gym or a fitness studio to everyone figuring out how to digitally connect to trainers. We made our garage into a gym and I started working out as soon as I could, postpartum, because it was such a mental need for me to find balance in that. When people ask like, ‘What’s the most important thing that you do during your day?’ For me, it’s always movement—even if its finding time to take a walk or go outside and get your body moving and get endorphins going.”