57. Tamara Edwards- PR + Personal Branding Expert

Tamara Edwards, Founder and Principal of Tamara Edwards and Co., spent a decade working in public relations for several prominent congressmen in Washington, DC, a fast-paced, highly-choreographed environment that required a great deal of nimbleness and strategic thinking. Once she moved back to her native Chicago, she realized that communication in the rest of the world took on a very different form from the esoteric manner of “the beltway,” yet the same elements for developing political campaigns could also be applied to creating PR packages and personal branding strategies for entrepreneurs.

Now, Tamara offers Personal Brand in a Box, going beyond the usual offerings to provide global business entrepreneurs, industry leaders, philanthropists with the tools, techniques and strategies they need to stay relevant. 

On today’s episode, she’ll discuss what people get wrong about PR. They tend to ask the wrong questions, aren’t willing to put in the groundwork, and want too much too soon. It’s a long game, she explains, and people need to have patience. 

She offers advice on what to look–and look out–for when hiring a PR agent, as well as the limits of PR. 

Quotes:

• “It was apparent to me that the language that we spoke in DC and in the DC bubble, the beltway, as they say, was very different than the conversations that were happening outside.” (9:23 | Tamara)

• “Business leaders have a lot more autonomy to influence–of course, policymakers make huge decisions on our behalf–but at the same time, we're talking about job creators, industry makers that I get to work with, people who are just starting out their business who have a vision. And so taking all of those skills and ideas of how we wrap our hands around these individuals and get them to where they're going was just very much in my nature.” (11:03 | Tamara)

• “Think of why they call it PR campaigns. What is the campaign? What are we campaigning for? So I take a lot of that methodology and apply it. If you're running for office or anything, what are your foundational sort of points of view on X issue? How are you going to deliver that message? And then how are you going to build coalition, community and really get your message out.” (13:06 | Tamara)

• “What makes me really happy is when people say they felt like a celebrity, and they felt so comfortable. And they didn't really think that this was available to them.” (19:41 | Tamara)

• “It's a building block. It's not an overnight thing. It's a long game. It is a very long game.” (25:07 | Tamara) 

• “You have to think like a business person. If you're in a decision-making capacity to make decisions around branding, and maybe it's not something that you've thought about. But all of these things play together, it needs to be comprehensive.” (30:37 | Tamara)
  
  
  

Connect with Tamara Edwards:

Website | https://www.tamaraedwards.co/

Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/itstamaraedwards/

Connect with Nesha: 

Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/neshapai/
Youtube | https://www.youtube.com/@neshapai1480/videos

Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm