A latte with Katie Zeppieri

In this episode, Matisse chats with Katie Zeppieri, the founder and chief brand strategist of The MicDrop Agency, about all things branding.

About Katie Zeppieri
Katie Zeppieri is a 2x TEDx speaker, author, social influencer, media personality, and founder and chief brand strategist of The MicDrop Agency, an award-winning and fast-growing boutique PR and marketing firm specializing in brand amplification for innovative companies and people. MicDrop’s roster of clients ranges from high-growth tech startups to serial entrepreneurs to C-suite executives and reality TV stars, including Netflix “Love Is Blind” stars Deepti Vempati and Kelly Chase, who together have a combined total of over 1.4 million followers.

Katie is a sought-after speaker, consultant and guest expert who speaks brand strategy, PR and marketing. Some of the topics Katie is frequently asked to speak about include: how to attract media attention, how to use speaking to build your business, and how to build a personal brand. She has been featured in numerous publications, including Forbes, The Huffington Post, Virgin Radio, and SiriusXM, and most recently, she has been recognized as the 2024 Emerging Leader in the Marketing and Advertising category by The Peak.

Before launching The MicDrop Agency, Katie built GIRL TALK Day, Canada's largest girl empowerment event, and an international school chapter network impacting over 100 schools and reaching over 15,000 girls in the seven years of the organization's operation.

Katie has recently launched a podcast titled Get Mic'd with Katie Zeppieri, a marketing podcast about the ins and outs of building a notable brand. Each episode features interviews with high-profile people—from entrepreneurs to executives—who have exceptional experience in marketing, branding, and PR. The audience for this podcast is CEOs, entrepreneurs, and marketing professionals looking to uplevel their game. Some noteworthy guests include the Shark Tank investor Matt Higgins and CEO of The Atlantic, Nicholas Thompson. 

Katie is on a mission to redefine the status quo in Marketing and PR. She's built The MicDrop Agency into a modern powerhouse, setting the standard for the future of Communications. By seamlessly integrating Marketing, PR, Branding, Communications, and Digital Strategies, Katie empowers innovative companies and individuals to not just amplify their brand but authentically connect with and captivate their audience.

Follow Katie and The MicDrop Agency:
Website - The MicDrop Agency
LinkedIn - Katie Zeppieri

Connect with PR & Lattes
Website: PR & Lattes
Instagram: @PRAndLattes
Host: @MatisseNelis

Transcript

Music: 0:00

[Music]

Matisse Hamel-Nelis: 0:02

Hello and welcome back for another episode of PR & Lattes, the podcast where you can fill up your cup on everything PR and communications. I'm your host, Matisse Hamel-Nelis, and I am so excited to have you join me today for a brand new episode. Before we get started, make sure you subscribe to this podcast wherever you're listening to it, to get notified each week during the season when a new episode drops. You can also subscribe to our newsletter by visiting our website, PRandlattes.com. On the website, you'll find our podcast episodes, plus our amazing blogs with new ones being uploaded every Monday morning. And of course, make sure you're following us on socials, on Instagram, at @PRAndLattes and on LinkedIn, PR & Lattes. On today's episode, I'm chatting with Katie Zeppieri, a two time TEDx speaker, author, social influencer, media personality and founder and chief brand strategist of The MicDrop Agency, an award-winning and fast-growing boutique PR and marketing firm. But before launching The MicDrop Agency, Katie built Girl Talk Day, Canada's largest girl empowerment event and an international school chapter network, impacting over 100 schools and reaching over 15,000 girls in the seven years of the organization's operations. So it's no wonder that I wanted to chat with Katie about all things branding, from the business side to building your own personal brand, we get into all of it. So grab your latte, sit back and enjoy! Unlike other days where I'm excited about our guests, I am beyond thrilled for today's guest on our podcast, Katie. Welcome to PR & Lattes!attes. How are you?

Katie Zeppieri: 1:42

I am fabulous. Thank you so much for having me.

Matisse Hamel-Nelis: 1:46

I'm so excited to have you. I have been such a big fan of yours for forever. Fun fact, we actually went to high school together different years, but we did, and just watching you thrive and soar in your career has just I can't even put into words what it's done to my heart and just like pride to be like, Look at you, go, look at you. Go,

Katie Zeppieri: 2:05

When you mention this, we have the same connection. I just think that's so cool. And we were both involved in the Culture of Peace, which was this, like amazing human rights focused.

Matisse Hamel-Nelis: 2:15

Yeah.

Katie Zeppieri: 2:16

A group in our school, which was really ahead of its time. I think...

Matisse Hamel-Nelis: 2:19

Really was it really, really was our principal, Mr. Morrison, was the one who brought it to Anderson, and it was an absolutely fantastic way to get to know the social and political issues that were happening, but at the same time getting to practice what we now do as a career, funnily enough, right? And promotion and understanding and sharing that knowledge.

Katie Zeppieri: 2:38

Absolutely, I think you learn. How do I get students at that time to care about some of these really big topics. Exactly, exactly. Well, we're not here to talk about culture peace and the good old days. But can you share with everybody a little bit about your incredible story in PR and marketing and your whole journey? Really?

Matisse Hamel-Nelis: 2:59

Yeah.

Katie Zeppieri: 2:59

I think of myself as sort of an accidental It was definitely how I got started along the way, I started marketer, an accidental publicist. I really do I I did know that I loved media, and I pursued a degree in radio and speaking when I was in high school to elementary schools, I television broadcasting at that time at then Ryerson, and I was excited about how you could use media and storytelling to really talked about standing up against bullying and being a leader and change opinion and persuade people and inspire people. Ultimately, I think, like we talked about the Culture of Peace route. That's where it was for me. Like social entrepreneurship. what it means to make your mark on the world. Those were all things that I was really passionate about. And I feel like as I started to get more experience with that, I was like, this is really what I want to do. I think I'm enjoying learning about media. I think this is going to be helpful. But fundamentally, I think I want to start my own company, and I want to create resources for youth, and, you know, build events for youth. And that's, that's really where I began.

Matisse Hamel-Nelis: 4:15

I love it. Absolutely love it. So you've created this incredible brand for yourself and for in your company as well. So what do you think are those fundamentals when it comes to building a notable brand and gaining that recognition?

Katie Zeppieri: 4:28

I think, as someone in PR and comms, and for everybody who's listening in and working in that space, we're always busy promoting other brands, and we're always busy worrying about, you know, someone else's image, and that's that's we love, that we live for, that that's why we do what we do. I think it's important to not forget about how you build your own narrative too along the way, because whether you know we like it or not, every single person who is is working is building a personal brand, and you have one, and you you don't even recognize it. Perhaps, the way that you interview for jobs, the way that you interact with your colleagues, the way that you show up online, every single one of these touch points is building who you are as a brand, and the way that I like to define it is, what would somebody say about you if you weren't in the room? How would they describe you? How would they talk about your skills, your strengths, your personality? That's that's brand you is what that is. And so I think being intentional about that is really important. I often say this to clients. I'll say, you know, the first step of good PR is obviously do great work, work that people want to talk about and know about and build cool products and build cool services. But the second part of good PR is telling people about it and using different forms of storytelling to do that. And I think the same can be said for you as like a PR and comms professional of how do I celebrate the wins, the things that are going really well in my job and my experiences. How do I, you know, let my team feel supported? How do I let my boss know some of the achievements that we're having? How do I track some of the successes? How do I talk about the work that I do online and attract new opportunities in that way? I mean, it's been really cool to see I've started to connect with and follow people on LinkedIn, especially who are, you know, they're not the founder of a company, they're not the founder of an organization, but maybe they're a VP, or maybe they're the head of marketing. But the way that they talk on their social media pages about how passionate they are about what the company does, and, you know, describe and share stories about the product or service in a way that you wouldn't just get from watching typical marketing. You're kind of hearing it from them, and you're thinking, wow, this person is adding so much additional value for the company that they're working for. They don't even realize it.

Matisse Hamel-Nelis: 6:57

Yeah, exactly. They become the advocates for the company without necessarily wearing the brand all the time, if that makes sense.

Katie Zeppieri: 7:03

Yeah. And it feels really organic to do that. So you immediately have this, like personal connection that you know towards the person, and they're pointing back to their company.

Matisse Hamel-Nelis: 7:12

Yeah. And that totally speaks to like the brand's core identity. Who is the brand, whether it be yourself or an organization. What do people say about you when you are not in the room when you're not right there in their face, right? I think that's the core to any brand's identity. Do you agree with that?

Katie Zeppieri: 7:27

I absolutely agree with that. I think authenticity is, you know, a buzzword, but it's also really crucial and important in the age of so much content marketing and a push and encouragement for brands to have a real face like they we want to hear from brands. We don't just want to see like the typical marketing videos that they're producing. We want to hear from from the CEO. We want to hear from the founder. We want to hear from the teams. We want to see the people behind the brands. And I think brand growth is is very much tied to being and building an authentic brand today.

Matisse Hamel-Nelis: 8:07

Who do you think has been doing that really well from a organization or brand perspective, and why did it resonate so well with you?

Katie Zeppieri: 8:13

I mean, the obvious answer that comes to mind and someone that I'm not only a fan of musically speaking, and have been since high school, but also just I admire so much from a marketing and PR perspective, is Taylor Swift.

Matisse Hamel-Nelis: 8:29

Yeah.

Katie Zeppieri: 8:30

And she is someone who has owned every single aspect of her journey. Because if we think about it, flashback a couple years ago to when she was under great scrutiny. You know, she was having some very public feuds with very high profile people. And there was a time where, like, cancel Taylor Swift, or the Taylor Swift is over party was a trending hashtag worldwide, on then Twitter, and just to see how she has navigated so many different challenges along the way, the way that she has gone up against companies to say, hey, I want to advocate for artists to be paid more, the way that she has called out, you know, she was physically like, harassed at the radio interviews and how she she decided to put forward a lawsuit on this for like, a $1 amount, just really for the principle of standing up for what she believes in. So I say all of this to say, there's an authenticity that comes to owning the different parts of your story, even the stuff that you don't like and aren't proud of, because just like anybody else, she's had some things that she would probably consider to be mistakes, where she said things if she's regretted that sort of thing, but the first thing that you need to do is to show up and to own those parts of your story and kind of tie it together. And so I realized that she is like in the spotlight, but and a name that comes to mind. But I think so much more than just being this talented businesswoman and artist, she really is a master marketer, and she understands PR very well.

Matisse Hamel-Nelis: 10:11

She should be a masterclass for all to take to be like, Oh, this is how we do it, right, got it Okay, right? Even the missteps turn into successes with her, right? And so how do you take that negative press, although there is that saying all press is good for us, you know, but really turn the negative into a positive down the line? So, excellent example. Excellent example. So we've talked a bit about authenticity and story building. How important is that storytelling in brand building overall, and what are some key components that help make a compelling brand story?

Katie Zeppieri: 10:49

To have a really good story, you need to have conflict, you need to have pain, and that's a really crucial part of good good marketing. In my view, it's...someone will not know that they need your product or service until they recognize that you understand the pain that they are facing, the pain that they have. What is the challenge that your product or service is solving for them? And ideally, you're hopefully hitting on something that's a really big problem, something that keeps them up at night. Them up at night, something that's taking up, you know, hours more in their weeks. And you can now with your product or service, you can automate this or, you know, what is the pain point, what is the problem? Just like Donald Miller has a book, The Story Brand and a podcast around this, and I really love this concept of the customer should always be the hero of any story, and you as this business, you're the guide. You're the wizard that shows up partway along, you know the journey, but you show up after there's a what, a problem, a challenge, of paint. So the heroes going along their journey, something goes wrong. You know, something bad is happening. Or, you know, in a much more modern sense, we think about somebody's sort of, say, working their their nine-to-five, and they're spending hours and hours. I just heard a statistic recently that for knowledge workers, about 60% of their day is actually spent just like preparing for their work, like organizing Excel sheets, organizing documents, not even getting to work on, like the heart of the material itself, right? So there's a pain, there's a problem. I hear what's going about, but oh my goodness, I can't keep up with my task list because, you know, I'm spending so much time on these documents and manual processes. And then comes the guide, which is this software solution that comes in and you're there to kind of help, take their hand and lead them to the other side. There's a story there. And how do we help? How do we help our customers get from one place where they are now to where they want to be? And you can do that really effectively, if you first make them recognize that you understand them. And the best way to do that is to show that you understand their pain.

Matisse Hamel-Nelis: 13:09

Yeah, kind of like the hero's journey. Become that hero for the for the person who's trying to go through with this struggle, right? What is their hero's journey? Where do you find when businesses are trying to tell this story and trying to resonate with their audience, being like, I understand your pain. Where do you feel like they maybe make mistakes in doing so, in telling their brand story?

Katie Zeppieri: 13:31

I think people, certainly, some of the clients that I've worked with and examples that I've seen, they will almost feel like they're being repetitive. And I think that sometimes this is really easy to assume, especially when we're, you know, you're the person there creating content for the next month to talk about very similar things. So to you, it's going to feel very much, you know, the same and repetitive, and I'm talking about this. But again, I think it's a mistake not to keep reminding people of the problem that you're solving. I mean, think about just from even like a charity perspective, that are trying to get people to donate to their cause. Nobody's going to want to donate to that cause if you do not illustrate for them that there is a major need, and how, how do you convey that? How do you convey that there's a major need? While you share data, you share stats, but you really highlight the problem that they're solving, hunger. World hunger is a problem. Here are the countries and places in the world that are most affected. But better than all of that, the storytelling masterpiece would be to highlight one person, to pick one person, one person's story and showcase that, and that's just such a beautiful way to connect to people on an emotional level. That helps, you know, connect with somebody. It also helps you recognize, here is the problem, and you get people almost like they're they're nodding their heads, they're leaning in, and from there they're in a really good position to talk about, you know, how you can help, or what's the solution?

Matisse Hamel-Nelis: 15:04

Yeah, and I think you bring up a really great point in the having a person to be sort of associated with it, versus just the big brand or big organization, because that can also be very overwhelming. I mean, like, okay, so I'm supporting, insert name of charity here. You do so much, like, what, what exactly am I helping to do? Right? I understand there's lots that you do, but I don't, I can't necessarily connect with the person that's doing it, or getting the the assistance, or whatever the case may be. So having that one person, and we see this a lot with like, direct mail and that sort of thing, really helps drive the message home, or bring that story home that your efforts, your contributions, your donations, are helping this individual, and this is how, right. So I love that you brought that up. Absolutely love that. So, PR...PR, as in all things, plays a role in a brand and its marketing strategy, but at what point does PR come into play, come in to play a role in the marketing strategy, and how can business leverage it better than they currently do?

Katie Zeppieri: 16:11

I think we work with startups at the mic drop agency that's a big part of the clients that we serve. So I understand this sort of delicate balance of a startup will will begin with this idea, and, you know, either bootstrap or secure funding and go about kind of building out their their team, finding product market that there's so many different aspects that come into play there that are really, really important. And you're right, like, sometimes companies will think, "Well, do I need PR now?" PR sounds like this, 10 years down the line, or five years down the line we got this really big, you know, budget, that's when we're going to start thinking about it. Or, you know, once we've kind of achieved certain accolades, like, that's when we're going to be in a good position for PR. But I think we just need to simplify what we're talking about, public relations. It's, what does the public think about you, and what does it think about your company, and what does it think about your brand? And really, I emphasize that every single person on a team should be thinking about what they're doing with a PR mindset, is what I'll call it. It's, you know, here's what we're doing that's great. Here's here's the new product developments that we're adding, but what is the story that we're going to tell to the public? What are we communicating on the other side? So I think that you can have that mindset and start applying it from the beginning. I also think that telling your story and and getting people to understand more about the why behind what it is that you're building is critical. And we we talked about this need to connect with a person. We specialize in B2B marketing in particular, and that sales channel is very different than direct to consumer, B2B marketing, you're, you know, you're selling to other companies, and you know, where are you going to find them, right? Not always, but sometimes it is on various social media channels that's certainly one way. LinkedIn tends to be the biggest one for B2B. But in addition to that, you want to find ways to connect with this target audience, through events, through speaking, through the podcast, the industry publications that people are listening to, those are all really excellent channels to reach your target audience. And so I'm a big believer in encouraging founders and executives within teams to become spokespeople for the companies right away. You don't need to wait until you've got a really big budget, even if you can't, you know, yet, afford to bring in someone to manage your PR. You could be pitching yourself for speaking opportunities. You could be reaching out to some podcasts in your space, and starting there, of course, at a certain point, as you know, it's a full-time job, manage to manage a brand and to really help take it to the next level. And at that point, when you know when it makes financial sense for a startup, that's the right time to then bring in somebody who can really help elevate but you don't need to wait for that. You can actually start thinking about how to incorporate PR into your into your brand and strategy now.

Matisse Hamel-Nelis: 19:26

I completely agree, particularly with startups where you know you have the thought leadership already as the founder, or the C suite of individuals, even just simply posting on LinkedIn, sharing thoughts, ideas, you know, how the business came to be, why the business is needed, so on and so forth, can already help build that thought leadership within the space. And then, like you said, when they get to that point where it's like, okay, we need help now. We need more capacity to help us with this, that's when you can bring somebody in. But PR starts so easily and simply with just even the social media posts, right?

Katie Zeppieri: 19:59

Yeah, 100%. And I know I focused on B2B, but I feel like even in B2C, like, where consumers care now about who is the person behind this big brand that I'm following right? Like, what's the why behind this? Like, why do they care? And so I agree with you, I think, like, exactly an example of really good comms is the founder posting a video and talking about why they created this company in the first place.

Matisse Hamel-Nelis: 20:25

Exactly. And I think we're starting to see more and more on Instagram, and not so much LinkedIn. They have already had their profile on LinkedIn, but on like Instagram and even threads and X, for those who still use X, we're starting to see more and more of those CEOs and founders come out and share content to be more personable, versus just the person at the top of the food chain, if you will. In their business, it's like, no, no, I'm a human. This is what I do. These are my passions. This is what I love to do, and this is why it relates to what I do in my day to day job, which has been really interesting to see. to

Katie Zeppieri: 20:55

We are we're done with corporate speak, really when it comes to marketing and videos, and especially on social media, people want to hear from you, and it needs to be in a in a voice that makes sense for your brand. And you know, it's not about just like talking people, right? It's, it's really playing with them and having a conversation,.

Matisse Hamel-Nelis: 21:18

Yeah, yeah. That's very, very true in terms of building that brand and using PR. What do you think are the metrics that businesses should really be focusing on when measuring the success of their PR and marketing efforts, but more so the PR side of things? Because usually it's the Alright, so what's, what's the ad sales on that? Like? What does that look like? And we're, we're not we? No, no, we don't do that, no. So what do you think are those metrics to help push the PR side of things when it comes to business?

Katie Zeppieri: 21:46

It can be so difficult to measure and track the full impact of marketing and PR. And I'm sure everyone listening in is nodding along, because that is part of the struggle, right? It is real. We are living in a time where we have so many tools to help us from a data perspective, but there's always going to be this part that you cannot quantify. There's this essence, there's this sense, there's this people hearing about your brand, you know, learning about it. There's this word of mouth part, you know, things that we don't see and cannot measure, and that is part of the magic. I always think about marketing and PR, it's, it's a science, for sure, but it's also an art, and it's a little bit of magic. There's that happens, you know, out there that you don't always get a chance to see, but you can feel momentum building. You can see an increase in terms of just how people are engaging and interacting with your brand. So I acknowledge all of those things. Having said that, I think it's really, really smart for marketers, for communications professionals, to do their best to try to tie their metrics that they track to the larger company goals. If we come into meetings and we're sitting there with all departments just talking about the number the million impressions we got, you know, people are gonna roll their eyes at that. And, you know, it makes sense. What does that mean, and what does that actually translate to for the company? So I think it's important and it's incumbent on us. This is part of like, personal brand building for communication specials, like, how do we tell the success of the work that we're doing? So trying to pick some metrics that do tie to sales goals. At the end of the day a business is in it to sell, like, that's what they want to do, and marketing PR are certainly part of that. So I think things like, you know, obviously everything from just monitoring like traffic to a site, but then looking for some really good conversion metrics. So things like, you know, Lead Magnet downloads are really important. What are things you know, how many people are going to your site and actually engaging with something downloading, something like a high value type of action, and also tracking website traffic and conversions based on the day that the podcast episode that you got your client on, you know, aired, and what was, what was the search results like for it on that day, and which channels did people come from, and really trying to tell a story, and that's where it's, like, dependent on you to try and tell a bit of a narrative. It's like, okay, yeah, you know, we got this magazine feature for you, and we saw this jump in traffic on that particular day, right? And looking for ways that you can kind of help tell a story, just to say that there's this brand awareness. So it's not easy. It's not like a one size fits all, but I would say, like, if you can tie back and point to how this is helping the company fundamentally lead to sales, if you can, it's only going to enhance the credibility that you're going to have.

Matisse Hamel-Nelis: 24:54

Very much so and it continues that storytelling. It's not just about storytelling for the brand, but storytelling with your data and metrics, right, to help others understand because we'll be like, Wow, that's a great amount of impressions, and others who have no idea what we're talking about, like you mentioned, will just be like, cool. What about that? I don't understand how, why that's a big deal, right? So being able to do that storytelling and weaving that into not just doing it for the brand, but also helping those within the brand understand the the work of PR and what it can do for them, and PR and comms, that's also so key, and so so important to get even a seat at the table down the road if you don't already have one.

Katie Zeppieri: 25:33

And that's a tip, actually, that's that's something that I've really found to be important in terms of, how do you measure the success of marketing. Yes, we should be using storytelling for ourselves so. So here's an example. At a recent client update meeting, I actually picked two of their recent customers, and I traced back the habits and interactions of that customer from initial like contact point, when they kind of came on our radar right when they when they were just this lead. What were the different touch points with marketing? So I was able to kind of see, okay, wow. Here's where they downloaded our free guide on X. Here's the number of times that they opened the newsletter. Here are the links that they engage with when they did that. Here's the events that they attended. They came to our happy hour event. Then they did this, like you start to play out this, this life cycle. Because, you know, you can really feel like, do all of these individual actions matter, and they accumulate to create this repetition. And the customer, they're like, I'm ready to I'm ready to buy. So I think having and almost highlighting a couple individual customers that maybe your quarterly checkpoints and show how they've like touched the marketing and PR aspects of what you've worked on, is a really great way to demonstrate value.

Unknown: 26:53

value.

Matisse Hamel-Nelis: 26:53

Yeah, and it sort of creates a buyer persona, if you will, with real people, versus just the assumption like this is a buyer persona we think will work, but instead it's actually no, this is what worked, and this is the buyer persona that we're targeting, and we're looking at

Katie Zeppieri: 27:07

Yes.

Matisse Hamel-Nelis: 27:07

Yes. Excellent, amazing, amazing. Well, the big thing that everyone talks about are personal brands. We've talked about the big brands and the organizations, but you have built such an incredible personal brand. And I keep saying incredible in this podcast when it comes to you, because incredible, fantastic, phenomenal. I need a thesaurus in front of me realistically, but you have done such a phenomenal job. We'll use that word today in building your own personal brand, that then has led to your own agency, so on and so forth. So from a personal branding perspective, what do you recommend being those first steps for someone who's trying to build their personal brand, particularly in PR and communications? I

Katie Zeppieri: 27:46

I love this question, and thank you for that. I think when I opened and telling you I accidentally, kind of came into marketing and PR, what I realized over the course of again, I started as a social entrepreneur, building a building an organization called Make Your Mark for for youth and running summer camps. Then that went into girl empowerment, and I built Girl Talk Day and a whole different journey to like, hey, now I'm going to open a marketing and PR agency. But one of the things that I look back and I recognize that I did was I was building a personal brand all the way along, I was looking for ways to kind of tell a narrative, get in front of the camera, speak on stages, and just communicate, communicate, communicate. And that has been like fundamental in terms of, I think, firsthand experience that I got, that I'm now able to pass on to clients like I was, I was building that brand, I was building that personal brand, and I was building these startups along the way, with my own with my own funds at that time, right? So you're testing and you're making mistakes, and you're doing all this stuff, and I think it gives you like this really good battleground, but that's the power of a personal brand. And a personal brand is good because it never ties you to one specific role or one specific position or company. It's you, and it's your kind of journey and development your skills that you learn along the way, and it helps attract new opportunities. It means that when someone you know meets you at an event and then goes look and looks you up online. They learn so much more about you if they look you up in advance of meeting you with which most people, I would say now do to get a sense of who the person is, they're gonna find you know a lot more about you. So it's gonna be that much more of a personal type of conversation employers, right? Like employers, before they meet you as part of the interview process, they're going to be checking you out and trying to get a sense of you for sure along the way. So the question is, like, how do you start? Like, how do you sort of begin building your personal brand? I really think your LinkedIn profile is the first place to start.

Matisse Hamel-Nelis: 29:55

Yes.

Katie Zeppieri: 29:55

How you watch?

Matisse Hamel-Nelis: 29:56

Yes.

Katie Zeppieri: 29:57

It makes you think about your brandin a very like linear way. LinkedIn is asking you all the questions on there. You're there's a cover photo at the top where you can, you know, put something interesting about yourself, or a picture that shows you in the zone doing your thing. You know, you've got your your profile picture, you've got this headliner. I mean, it's a headliner at the top. It's just like the top of an article, like, what people to know about you? What do you want it to say? Then you've got this about section. Oh, wow, about, like, for many people, they hadn't written a bio for themselves before, hadn't thought of that. So how do I sort of summarize my career experiences into this? You know, little word count here and make it engaging. Then you've got all of your professional experiences documented. It's your resume on steroids out there for the public to see. And you can talk about what you did and what accomplishments you had in each of these different roles. You can attach media to it, and I mean PR and comms professionals, this is awesome. We love this, right? Because I can say like,"Hey, I worked on, you know, led this campaign that had these results," and you can actually link to the videos that you worked on, the interviews, like, wow. And I'm just scratching the surface of what you can do with your LinkedIn profile. So I always recommend that people start there, because once you sort of take the time to actually, you know, think about your story. And I think that that's really important, you have to ask yourself, if I were telling my life story, my career story, in this case, to somebody else, what would be the the pieces that I would want to highlight that would be most interesting about them? So, you know, interesting projects that you've worked on, failures that you learned from even can be amazing stories like putting all of those sorts of pieces together and thinking about, what are the skills that you really want to highlight about yourself? And if you're not sure about this, I think sometimes people can be quite humble. Ask yourself, like, what is it that I off most often get complimented on? What does my sort of boss or manager, like praise me on in my work? Maybe it's that I'm, like, extremely detail oriented. Maybe I'm a really good oral communicator. Whatever it might be starting to think about like, what are the skills that I really want to emphasize, and then what parts of my sort of career journey can I highlight? So I think starting by optimizing your LinkedIn page is a fabulous beginning. From there, you know, that kind of helps you think about yourself in this way of, if I were introducing myself to somebody else, how would I want to describe my background? If I'm in an interview, how would I talk about my experiences? So that's an opportunity for you to kind of take it to the next level there. And then I'd say, once you've got a really active LinkedIn profile, people are not posting enough on LinkedIn and kind of like overlooked, you know, TikTok sexy and you know everything like that, but LinkedIn is way sexier. You just have to...

Matisse Hamel-Nelis: 32:48

I think so too. And I get laughing by my students, and I'm like, no, no, no. That is where the people who will hire you live, reside. That is where they hang out. That is the place to be. Yes, there's also Tiktok, but LinkedIn is the place to be.

Katie Zeppieri: 33:02

I agree with you completely, because you are again every time that you post on LinkedIn and share what you're working on in company, like if you want to, if you want to excel in your career, if you want to build your business, you're getting a chance to tell the world about the great stuff that you're working on. And if they find that engaging, they can go click and look at your whole resume on steroids, on display, and might connect and want to do business with you exactly.

Matisse Hamel-Nelis: 33:27

And I think that leads really well into the next question about how to differentiate yourself in such a saturated market with PR and communications in particular at this time, I think if you have your LinkedIn built out properly and you are engaging, you're standing out, you're differentiating yourself from all the other let's say PR grads, or PR and comms folks who have just maybe either lost their job or looking for something new, but haven't really utilized their LinkedIn profile. And talking to a friend of mine who used to work for a recruitment agency, she said you knew when people were either at either lost their job, or were starting to think, I need something different, because suddenly they were talking all the time on LinkedIn. Right? She's like, you knew something had happened more. So for those who are just starting to search because they were wanting to something different and so...But if you have that consistency in your posting, and you're always there and you're talking about what you're doing, and you know, engaging, not just sharing your own content, but actually engaging with other people's content. So it's not all about you. It's about stop sharing. I think that will make you stand out. What do you think?

Katie Zeppieri: 34:31

I agree with that completely, and I like that take. I think that's a really important point that you made idea sharing. So sometimes we can get so caught up in thinking, Oh, I'm not really confident like being in for the camera, or I don't really want to put put too much out there, or don't want to make this like it's all about me, right kind of thing. But if you frame it as, how can I add value to somebody else? It's about sharing ideas and concepts that are going to help empower people and help make them think differently. That's a whole other conversation. I feel like that's a lot more comfortable. And I think you're also right. It's not only about posting, it's also about, how do I engage with those around me, how do I build my network? So that's why, for me, like, the first thing that I'm asking basically everybody I meet is, Where can I get you on LinkedIn? Kind of thing, where can I find you on LinkedIn, and adding that person and looking for ways to build like a really meaningful connection. Relationships are essential in any industry, in any field, PR and comms. We need to be masters of relationships. And the best way to build like meaningful relationships is through adding value to somebody else. So how can I take the time to learn about what somebody else is interested in, enough that I think of them when I come across an article that's related to an area, a subject matter that they care about, right and forward from that article with a little personal note, engaging and commenting on their on their photos, and, you know, adding your own insights to that as well. That's that's meaningful relationship building.

Matisse Hamel-Nelis: 36:03

Yeah, completely, completely agree. Now we've talked about authenticity with brands. Authenticity comes with our own brand. But how have you seen or what do you think is happening to authenticity now that AI is playing a bigger part in creating content and in post creation, if you will?

Katie Zeppieri: 36:19

Yes, you can sniff out at this point. I mean, I can't speak to what it's going to be like in 10 or 20 plus years, but I do feel like it will always be the case. That you can tell when there is somebody who is reading a script and when somebody who's actually talking from like a place of experience, and I'm using that in this one example, but I think in so many different ways. So, you know, search engines are deprioritizing AI generated content, because everybody was pumping out blogs just automatically AI generated and I think that when you start to do that, you kind of lose this like specialness, this uniqueness, a voice, a take an angle that you get from bringing in your own personality. So I think if anything, leaning into your personality and your unique personality is so important too. Are you funny? Are you sarcastic? Are you energetic? Are you a little bit more more monitored? Like, what are the things about you that are sort of uniquely you? And trying to lean into that as much as possible can really help you stand out, because we're all going to be using the same tools, but it's the voice and sort of what we say that's really going to matter.

Matisse Hamel-Nelis: 37:42

Now, one thing, when it comes to LinkedIn, in a lot of cases, people feel like, I don't want to brag. I hate bragging. I don't like talking about myself, where I'm pumping myself up, or the assumption that they're pumping themselves up. What advice do you give to those people?

Katie Zeppieri: 37:54

So my, uh, nickname is your hype girl.

Matisse Hamel-Nelis: 37:57

I love it.

Katie Zeppieri: 37:58

I hype people up. Um, that's what I love to do, and I'm gonna hype all of you up right now, just talking about this. If you do not, if you do not, promote yourself, other people are not gonna promote you. It's just fundamental, like, if you're not able to see your own achievements in something. How are you going to sell yourself like we're always sort of selling ourselves in conversations? I go back to like a job interview, you might be extremely qualified, but if you're not able to confidently, you know, convince the person on the other side of the table that you have those skills, those strengths, and that you'd be the right person for this role, you might be passed over, and that would be so unfortunate. So I think it's remembering that it's not it's not about bragging, it's about each one of us think of yourself, if it helps, like you would your client, like you would the customers that you work on when you're selling a product. Does it have bugs and issues? For sure, it does. But you're not selling those things. When you're marketing and doing your PR and comms, you're focusing on, what are the highlights, what are the great things about this? And you should do the exact same thing for yourself, like, what are the achievements that I have? And that's going to help put you in a position to just get so many more opportunities that come your way.

Matisse Hamel-Nelis: 39:20

Amazing. This has been absolutely wonderful. I really appreciate it. Katie, my last question for you is, if you could give yourself one tip from a personal branding perspective, based on where you are now, to your younger self, what would it be?

Katie Zeppieri: 39:36

Wow, this is a good question. I think if I could go back and talk to my younger self and just give her insights on personal branding, because now I have a bit of this crystal ball to see the future of content marketing and how much like content is the essence of marketing and comms at this point in time, I think I would have done a better job at documenting experience. Experiences and documenting moments and ideas. I love this idea of you know, before it was the little notebook that you carry in your purse, and now we've got our phone, we got so many tools, whatever works for you. Yeah, I think in any given day, we have so many ideas that come to our mind. So you might have this really great content idea, or something that you're thinking about, like really documenting those parts and also documenting your own experience. Did you have a really memorable week where you learned something, like profound about marketing or PR, like, something really worked, or something really did not work? Kind of documenting those experiences for yourself so that you have them. Those can become really good lessons that you share in the future. They can be examples that you bring up in different meetings conversations. And I think we're in the age now where we're capturing so much of our lives, and I think back then, I wasn't necessarily thinking about that in the same way. So start documenting and capturing moments and ideas.

Matisse Hamel-Nelis: 41:04

Absolutely love that. Absolutely love that. Well, this is PR & Lattes. So before I let you go, I do have to ask, what is your favorite go to caffeinated beverage that helps get you through the day?

Katie Zeppieri: 41:17

I'm a sucker for a cappuccino. I mean, that's, that's, that's for me, and with a little bit of cinnamon on top.

Matisse Hamel-Nelis: 41:24

Love it. Love it. Thank you so much, Katie, for being on today's episode. If people want to get in touch with you, find you follow your business. Where can they find out?

Katie Zeppieri: 41:32

Best Place to contact us is themicdropagency.com, you can also find me on wait for it, LinkedIn. My first name Katie, the last name is Zeppieri, and I'm happy to answer any further questions and connect. Would love to love to see you on LinkedIn.

Matisse Hamel-Nelis: 41:48

Amazing. And we'll make sure to put those in the description of this podcast again. Katie, thank you so much. This has been absolutely amazing.

Katie Zeppieri: 41:55

Matisse, thanks so much for having me!

Matisse Hamel-Nelis: 41:57

You've been listening to the PR & Lattes podcast. Make sure to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts, so you can get notified each week when a new episode drops. You can also subscribe to our weekly newsletter by visiting our website, prandlattes.com on the website, you'll find our podcast episodes as well as amazing blogs with new ones being posted every Monday morning. And of course, make sure to follow us on social, on Instagram, at @PRAndLattes and on LinkedIn. I've been your host. Matisse Hamel-Nelis, thank you so much for listening, and we'll see you next week with a new latte and guest bye for now.