MQTT_CLIENT: Client was not initialized

I am getting a Client was not initialized error every time I publish to the MQTT broker.
Any ideas?

E (37270) MQTT_CLIENT: Client was not initialized
if(strcmp(payload, "/pool/valve/5/off") == 0)
    		{
    			valve_5_NC();
    			esp_mqtt_client_publish(client, "/pool/state/topic/5", "/pool/valve/state/5/off", 0, 0, 1);
    		}
static const char *TAG = "MQTT_EXAMPLE";

static void log_error_if_nonzero(const char *message, int error_code)
{
    if (error_code != 0)
    {
        ESP_LOGE(TAG, "Last error %s: 0x%x", message, error_code);
    }
}

/*
 * @brief Event handler registered to receive MQTT events
 *
 *  This function is called by the MQTT client event loop.
 *
 * @param handler_args user data registered to the event.
 * @param base Event base for the handler(always MQTT Base in this example).
 * @param event_id The id for the received event.
 * @param event_data The data for the event, esp_mqtt_event_handle_t.
 */
char *payload = NULL;
int new_data = 0;

static void mqtt_event_handler(void *handler_args, esp_event_base_t base, int32_t event_id, void *event_data)
{
    ESP_LOGD(TAG, "Event dispatched from event loop base=%s, event_id=%d", base, event_id);
    esp_mqtt_event_handle_t event = event_data;
    esp_mqtt_client_handle_t client = event->client;
    int msg_id;
    switch ((esp_mqtt_event_id_t)event_id) {
    case MQTT_EVENT_CONNECTED:
        ESP_LOGI(TAG, "MQTT_EVENT_CONNECTED");
        msg_id = esp_mqtt_client_publish(client, "/pool/topic/qos0", "data_3", 0, 1, 0);
        ESP_LOGI(TAG, "sent publish successful, msg_id=%d", msg_id);

        msg_id = esp_mqtt_client_subscribe(client, "/pool/topic/qos0", 0);
        ESP_LOGI(TAG, "sent subscribe successful, msg_id=%d", msg_id);

        msg_id = esp_mqtt_client_subscribe(client, "/pool/topic/qos0", 1);
        ESP_LOGI(TAG, "sent subscribe successful, msg_id=%d", msg_id);

        msg_id = esp_mqtt_client_unsubscribe(client, "");
        ESP_LOGI(TAG, "sent unsubscribe successful, msg_id=%d", msg_id);
        break;
    case MQTT_EVENT_DISCONNECTED:
        ESP_LOGI(TAG, "MQTT_EVENT_DISCONNECTED");
        break;
    case MQTT_EVENT_SUBSCRIBED:
        ESP_LOGI(TAG, "MQTT_EVENT_SUBSCRIBED, msg_id=%d", event->msg_id);
        msg_id = esp_mqtt_client_publish(client, "/pool/topic/qos0", "data", 0, 0, 0);
        ESP_LOGI(TAG, "sent publish successful, msg_id=%d", msg_id);
        break;
    case MQTT_EVENT_UNSUBSCRIBED:
        ESP_LOGI(TAG, "MQTT_EVENT_UNSUBSCRIBED, msg_id=%d", event->msg_id);
        break;
    case MQTT_EVENT_PUBLISHED:
        ESP_LOGI(TAG, "MQTT_EVENT_PUBLISHED, msg_id=%d", event->msg_id);
        break;
    case MQTT_EVENT_DATA:
        ESP_LOGI(TAG, "MQTT_EVENT_DATA");
        printf("TOPIC=%.*s\r\n", event->topic_len, event->topic);
        printf("DATA=%.*s\r\n", event->data_len, event->data);
//===============================================================================================
        payload = event->data;
        new_data = 1;
//===============================================================================================
        break;
    case MQTT_EVENT_ERROR:
        ESP_LOGI(TAG, "MQTT_EVENT_ERROR");
        if (event->error_handle->error_type == MQTT_ERROR_TYPE_TCP_TRANSPORT) {
            log_error_if_nonzero("reported from esp-tls", event->error_handle->esp_tls_last_esp_err);
            log_error_if_nonzero("reported from tls stack", event->error_handle->esp_tls_stack_err);
            log_error_if_nonzero("captured as transport's socket errno",  event->error_handle->esp_transport_sock_errno);
            ESP_LOGI(TAG, "Last errno string (%s)", strerror(event->error_handle->esp_transport_sock_errno));
        }
        break;
    default:
        ESP_LOGI(TAG, "Other event id:%d", event->event_id);
        break;
    }
}

static void mqtt_app_start(void)
{
	esp_mqtt_client_config_t mqtt_cfg = {
	.uri = "mqtt://192.168.1.25",
	.username = "MQTT",
	.password = "Password"
	};
    esp_mqtt_client_handle_t client = esp_mqtt_client_init(&mqtt_cfg);
    /* The last argument may be used to pass data to the event handler, in this example mqtt_event_handler */
    esp_mqtt_client_register_event(client, ESP_EVENT_ANY_ID, mqtt_event_handler, NULL);
    esp_mqtt_client_start(client);
}