Wartime communications quickly became the communications of top brand executives. Owners and top managers of companies that had remained outside the information field until February 2022 are now actively increasing their publicity.
Dmytro Melnykovych asked Natalia Kholod about the usefulness of a communication strategy for building a personal brand. This is a summary of their conversation; you can watch the full broadcast on YouTube.
Reference:
Natalia Kholod is the CEO and founder of WARTO Communications Agency, a strategist, expert in building external and internal communications, and an ambassador of women’s leadership.
Dmytro Melnykovych is a personal brand expert and mentor, CEO of WOO Company, and advises company owners and top executives.
What is a personal brand?
It is a powerful tool for solving specific business problems. Such a rationale requires a strategic approach rather than an emotional one. Outrageousness can be only a part of it. Brand development should not depend on the mood. Strategy is an essential component of any product. A personal brand is the formation of how you should be seen by a certain environment for which you work. Success is not measured by street recognition. We, as an agency, never hire a person who wants a brand for the sake of a brand, because such a client is the biggest curse for a communicator. A brand without a strategy is a road to nowhere.
What is the most important thing in the strategy developed by WARTO Communications Agency?
A clear understanding of what we have to achieve. When a client does this, for example, for the sake of business, they understand that if certain tasks are not completed, the entire process will fail. A personal brand is a job that requires daily effort.
What to do if a client loses motivation?
All PR people are a bit of psychologists. We need to understand what the audience wants and how to move the subject you are working with. Our agency manages the personal brands of five people on the Forbes list, and these people need to be motivated in a certain way. It is important to keep the goal in focus, so you speak the same language. Personality PR is not only about public appearances, but also about influencing the environment in which you are.
What promotion channels do you use?
We currently have one case where we will not use social media at all. The audience he wants to influence is not there. We use platforms depending on the tasks. Sometimes we need the media and internal meetings – closed clubs of investors or other industries. If we need a new manager to be seen as a leader, we involve internal PR, their tools, and the media. When it comes to selling services, you need to start not with what you have, but with what you want: first, we set point B, and then measure the path to it from point A.
If a client does not understand the business goal, what can you advise them?
In my opinion, if they don’t see the goal, they don’t need our services. We had a client, a bank, whose goal was to increase contracts. In this case, there is no motivation to “jump” out of the process, because the business system makes you move. Personal PR will not solve the problem: it is only one of the components.
Is it possible to build a business without the owner’s personal brand?
We once ran a company that was on the Forbes list. The owner was closed to the media. The journalists found out that we were working together and Forbes sent us a request to talk to him. I passed it on to this person, and his response was as follows: “How much does it cost for them to forget about me?”. Sometimes such individuals want to have peace, freedom, and not be recognized on the street. A business can live without a public owner, but the top management must be there. Especially now, during the war, there is a great demand for humanity: consumers want to see who is behind the companies.
Is it time to develop a personal brand?
The companies that have survived have one thing in common: they have paid attention to internal communication, which is the leader’s responsibility – a personal brand.
If a manager focuses only on his personal brand, he begins to limit his company, because everywhere he is expected to be the only one. It’s important not to overplay the story where I = my company, because that’s where your business will end.
Speaking of small and medium-sized businesses, what channels does WARTO recommend to communicate their personal brand?
Channels depend on the goal we are moving towards, not on the size. For large and small businesses, the scale of actions and the message on Instagram, for example, will be different. If we talk about a coach’s outrageous brand, it can go live on Ukraine Speaks. Forbes is open to interesting people. If you are good at your job and know how to present it to the audience, then this is exactly what the media needs.
What is more important: the owner’s brand or the company’s?
For me personally, it is the company’s brand. There are many cases when a brand ambassador behaved inappropriately, and we had to publicly terminate their contracts. If business equals personality, then it becomes dependent on the person. Speaking as a hired employee who has the weight of a public marketer, the personality brand is more important.
When you build a clear personal brand, you have to understand that you can lose part of the audience who will not want to work with you because of the brand. When you focus on certain values, you will be attracted to those who accept them.
When you give a client an algorithm of what to do to achieve a goal, they ask: “What tool would you recommend if I have to choose one?” The answer is simple: “None.” Close it, forget it, and come back when you’re older. An important part of a business communication strategy is a tactical implementation plan.
