How to “Speak Startup” in the PR World
Cut through the noise and help your startup gain PR traction
In Season 3, Episode 1 of the #MettaTalks Podcast, we were joined by Cathy White, CEO of CEW Communications, who in their own words “Speak Startup”. CEW specialise in communications to help scale businesses in #tech, #digital and the #startup ecosystem, and have supported over 400+ companies and entrepreneurs across Europe.
Listen on :
Spotify: http://bit.ly/40tmRqj
Google: https://bit.ly/3MyLURv
Amazon: http://bit.ly/3TFBzs5
Apple: https://bit.ly/3Qf0st1
Cathy fell into the world of tech, startup and venture in 2011, when Silicon Roundabout in London in particular was going from strength to strength, and there were loads of really exciting companies growing very quickly. After getting a taste for running her own thing, Cathy found out she was pretty good at storytelling in a different way, and decided to launch CEW 6 years ago — “slightly created out of a need to prove to various men that I could, but also because I’ve had so many people tell me that I should run my own agency.”
Check out a few highlights from the podcast below:
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Nicole: What originally attracted you to working in/with startups?, and what made you want to stick in the space that you’re in now?
Cathy: “I just kind of got a bit of a high from it. It’s like a drug, going along and getting sucked into other people’s enthusiasm. And you know, I was fortunate enough to meet people that are incredibly intelligent, in fields very different to my own. And you will always feel like you’re learning something new. And that’s always been really important to me, to feel like you’re still stretching yourself every single day with every new person that you’re meeting.
I’m never going to be an expert in quantum computing, but it’s fascinating understanding something within that realm that an expert can tell you and what it means for the future.”
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Nicole: At CEW you describe yourselves as a company where you challenge the traditional way of doing things — what have your experiences with that been like?
Cathy: “So, when I first put that line together, what it specifically was referring to is trying to be different from the typical agency mould. Most of the clients that we work with, things go wrong, things change, that’s normal, you need to be able to very quickly react and come up with a new plan and go. And so this is what the whole “we don’t do things the traditional way” is referring to — we’re trying to be more startup. And we do speak startup because it’s the only clients that we have. So for me, challenging the traditional is kind of a bit of a middle finger up at the very big old school agencies, because we don’t need to be like that. We just need to focus on what the really critical, important things are and do that bit rather than the song and dance that has to go alongside it.”
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Wil: What would you say the most common misconceptions from early-stage/first-time founders are when they’re trying to get into the PR world? Do you have any tips or tricks for people that haven’t necessarily been in this world before?
Cathy: “You need to remove your ego from the equation. It’s practising humility, it’s being humble. So no one knows about you. If you’ve started a company, you’ve never done press or you’ve not even started on marketing yet, apart from those that you’ve actually spoken to. No one knows you exist. And also, quite bluntly, no one cares. And the reason I want to point this out, is because the fact you exist from a PR perspective, the fact you exist is not news. The problem you’re fixing, how big that problem is, what the future looks like, with your product, your solution, etc, etc. — that could be interesting. You’ve got to prove yourself to journalists. And they’re blunt, and they will ask difficult questions. And you will very quickly have your ego broken. So practise humility.”
“It’s also learning to speak the language of your target audience, right? So that’s your customers or investors or partners, or whatever. And the journalist is sort of the middleman in a way. So, you’ve got to convince them that this is interesting enough that their readers are going to want to read whatever it is, or watch or whatever it is. So yeah, journalists are special beasts. They’re great fun, if you know how to work with them.”
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Nicole: How did you get into Angel Investing, and do you have any tips for anyone looking to get into investing themselves?
Cathy: “Well, I blame Wil! So I’ve known for a while — one of my ambitions was to get to a point where I could start making angel investments, and I knew I wanted to get to a point where I could start backing the companies I found most relevant and exciting to me. So I would describe myself as a baby angel, maybe a toddler angel. I feel like I’m just starting to wobble around and find my feet.
My first investment is thanks to Wil, because Wil introduced me to a company that needed some free PR to help them out. And I thought what they were doing was really interesting. Then my second investment was into someone that I’ve known for years and years and years. And then the others that have come through to me, it’s all being introductions. And that’s been the case with all of the others actually — they’ve all come through by introduction through the guys.”
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Wil: You’ve worked with over 400 companies or entrepreneurs across Europe over the last six years — what would you say are some of the best practices that you’ve seen that has led to real impact either on them or on you as the CEW team?
Cathy: “So honestly, the clients that we’ve worked with that do it best, and it is the muscle you consistently have to train is sharing as much information as possible with the PR team and thinking outside of the box in terms of what they could comment on. And we do that as well. So our job is literally to look for opportunities where you could be commenting, reacting, writing a thought leadership article, etc, etc, etc. And the ones that tend to perform the best are the ones that don’t religiously stay in their own lane. So it’s consistently coming up with different theories that might work and trying them out. And if they don’t, very quickly changing direction and trying something new rather than sticking to something that’s broken.
And the same goes for PR. Same goes for storytelling, you’ve got to try lots of different versions and lots of different sorts of stories, forlots of different types of people. So I think the winners are the ones that have that mentality, they’re willing to share as much information and willing to experiment — and give things a go.”
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Nicole: Do you have any examples of a standout experience where yourself or the startups that you work with have used innovation to drive change for good?
Cathy: “The one thing I’m very conscious of, is that we all need to get really good at catching the bad actors. And I mean, the bad actors that are greenwashing for the sake of green washing, coming up with DEI programmes that mean nothing, promising something one day and ripping it away the next. So I can’t think of a really good example on my side on the innovation front — but what I would pass along to anyone listening, if they’re thinking about innovating, whether it’s from a sustainability angle, or whether it’s something that’s different for their team — commit to it, and don’t do it as a PR exercise, because the world’s getting really good now at telling which one was a PR exercise of no value, and which ones carry value that sometimes you get some good PR from it. So innovate to actually innovate, don’t innovate to get press clippings.
“We’re moving into a world more and more every single day that really gives a crap about how sustainable you are, how green you are, what you’re doing for other human beings. And if you cut corners now, it’s going to harm you later.”
A huge thank you again to Cathy for joining us on the #MettaTalks podcast. You can connect with Cathy on LinkedIn, and check out the CEW Communications website.
Listen to the full podcast episode on :
Spotify: http://bit.ly/40tmRqj
Google: https://bit.ly/3MyLURv
Amazon: http://bit.ly/3TFBzs5
Apple: https://bit.ly/3Qf0st1
#Metta #MettaTalks #MettaTalksPodcast #startup #founders #ecosystem #entrepreneur #technews #startupbusiness #startuplife #tech #innovation #digital #ecosystem #startupecosystem #PR #publicrelations
