Our clients have ranged from inspiring organizations, changemaker business owners, and innovation-driven team leaders. They all share one common mindset – ‘we can and will do better’.
Their vision is to create and implement better business practices and solutions that impact their teams, company, community, industry or a global audience.
It’s something that resonates with KV Comms strongly. It’s exactly why we started and what we’re working to achieve.
Each business has its own exclusive goals and it’s not without its challenges. We’re inspired by the fellow rebels, misfits, and mavericks who step up to break the mould. We want to see more people break free with their capabilities and support them to blaze their own trail. So how can businesses take action and bring their strategy to life?
As KV Comms moves into its next stage, we share some of the key learnings we’ve experienced along the way to build strategic vision into reality.
#1 Just Get Started.
Your vision will be your north star. How you get there will require flexibility and creativity!
Just accept it will be a learning process, taking one step at a time towards that vision or goal. You will have many side steps and detours providing learning and better focus, don’t fear it – it’s all connecting you to something even better in the end.
Steve Jobs said;
“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So, you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future…”
KV Comms was founded to drive a better agency comms model to provide real impact. I believe PR and comms are key to supporting leadership with strategy, creativity, community and connection.
This challenge inspired a more focused vision for KV Comms; to best support positive and inspiring business practices and solutions, and become an active and supportive leader of that community.
I had no idea what that would look like, let alone how I would do it. I just had to put one foot in front of another, embrace tried and tested ways of working, whilst guided by the vision of what I wanted to create.
It’s certainly been a process as we navigated through an evolving comms landscape with advancing technology and a desire to create a better legacy for us, and for others. We continue to learn and are excited about this new business model to support us as we aim to consistently improve.
#2 Define Your Values.
You may already have defined your company brand, which outlines your mission and values clearly.
You will need others to align with and support your vision. Do these people align with your values in how you want to work? Skills and talent are certainly important, but building a community of great people who share your values is priceless.
Certain values important to me weren’t evident or applicable with 90s-style agency ethics, so I decided to work in a way that felt more aligned to me, focusing on:
- Transparency and honesty
- Collaboration over competition
- Human-focused businesses and marketing practices
- Strategy over glamour and trend cycles
- Long-term success over short-term wins
At the same time, I was introduced to Simon Sinek’s ‘Start with Why’ (read the blog here) and became even clearer how comms supports leadership with storytelling and connection. Something clicked, and I knew, in my gut, this was the way forward.
Once you get started, opportunities, connections, and ideas start to present themselves…you just need to start!
#3 Focus On Solutions And Not Other People’s Opinions.
Do what’s needed to support your needs, not other people’s expectations.
If you’re trying to create meaningful change or impact, you’re in this for the long game. We experience our challenges and restrictions, and the goal is to work around these obstacles to move forward.
Your solutions may seem unorthodox at the time, but what is dismissed now, may be respected for its creativity later.
I didn’t have the resources or manpower to move at speed. My focus was to be flexible to client needs first, and learn what they truly valued, whilst navigating through a changing business and marketing landscape.
This included:
- Flexible and regular services instead of lengthy retainers.
- Working at flexible workspaces, working from home and coworking spaces
- Partnering with trusted and aligned consultants for projects they were suited for, rather than speedily hiring a team I couldn’t afford.
Whilst some may not have considered this flexible way of working ‘professional’, despite our years’ experience, this set up is now commonly understood as a ‘micro agency’. Go figure!
The benefits have given us a solid operations base to serve clients, build up now as we have a team, and for the first time, can shape the company growth more confidently.
#4 Embrace The Power of Community
Carving your own path can be a lonely experience. You’re travelling down a road that hasn’t been created yet, let alone travelled!
It’s important to find your tribe – fellow strategists, creative thinkers, problem solvers and action takers who can offer a different view.
Community is mainly considered a space where you can connect, engage and build deeper connections with your audience. I see ‘community’ as much broader. PR strategy involves the relationships and reputation you have with your audiences.
That is how you build a solid community – by breaking down the silos and breaking through together with a shared mission.
When I first founded my company, I stopped reading the industry trade titles. At the time, they were mainly featuring big agencies and case studies based on ideal client budgets. Instead, I wanted to hear from agencies of all sizes and have a transparent view of the challenges and solutions available.
I came across PR dynamo Sarah Hall and her FuturePRoof book, where more established, small-mid-sized agency owners not only recognised the same issues but had also implemented similar solutions as I outlined in point 3.
I FELT SO VALIDATED!
Since then, I’ve been part of various business communities and have found immense value, support, creativity and solidarity that has helped me push through to each stage.
Fast forward to my recent experience at the Mark Schaefer Marketing Retreat, Uprising. I have a firm belief that humanity in business and marketing will always win, and why community is so important. Again, the validation was an absolute game changer and has provided the confidence to launch this new approach.
#5 When You Know Better, Do Better.
We all need a starting point from which to prove our concept, mission or new direction. It’s at this stage budget, time and resources are most likely limited.
Often founders, team leaders can feel the overwhelm of where to spend the budget, tempted with big activities before they’ve got the infrastructure or processes to maximise the efforts effectively.
We work with our clients to help streamline this process in the first instance, focusing on the activities that will help them reach their goals, but also deliver results.
It’s always crucial to set benchmarks and targets. There are rarely bad decisions once this initial strategy has been implemented, just what needs to be refined and done better.
We’re living in an opportune time where tech is enabling us to work far more efficiently. Once we’ve identified what we need to address, develop further, we look at how we can embed these improvements into our processes, and where to automate.
For a decade, I’ve been working with a streamlined business model. It was cost-effective and served its purpose at the time. Now we move forward with this next evolution, we have improved the processes and systems to support our clients more efficiently. Now we can help more businesses at scale with our approach. We can track and measure our results, and most importantly, support a team I now feel confident to grow and support.
From Strategy To Reality
Over the years, I’ve seen too many talented individuals not start their company, launch their idea, or more painfully, had a great idea but ran out of budget, spending limited resources in the wrong way and had to cut the cord.
We have developed a strategic framework that helps our clients bring these different audiences together in their comms. This helps you break free from constraints and restrictions and break out with the force of your community behind you! Read more about our 5 Spheres Framework here.
I truly believe that creative, conscious and brave businesses and entrepreneurs deserve the support they need to help make their vision a reality, and that is why our business model and framework were designed to support them.
If you’re a rebel, maverick and disruptive business or team leader, book in a Discovery Call here, and we’d love to see how we can support your vision and make a positive impact.