Aeris PR Founder and CEO Katerina Antonova leads an company specializing in boosting model recognition for tech startups in varied areas, incomes respect for her modern strategy to merging know-how and communication.

Antonova is a seasoned international PR marketing consultant famend for her experience in industries resembling AI, AR/VR, fintech, and martech. She additionally passionately helps feminine entrepreneurs by means of her worldwide Womenpreneur membership. 

We caught up with Antonova to get her tackle the way forward for comms execs and the evolving communications {industry}.

What e-book, podcast or different media do you advocate to different comms execs?

Let’s begin with books. My first suggestion can be “Made to Stick: Why Some Concepts Survive and Others Die” by Chip Heath and Dan Heath. As communication execs, we all the time attempt to carve out messages which might be memorable, and this e-book analyzes why sure concepts turn out to be eternal whereas others don’t.

The second e-book I need to advocate is “Constructing A StoryBrand: Make clear Your Message So Clients Will Pay attention” by Donald Miller. At this time, within the age once we are bombarded by new data nearly each minute, it’s essential for a enterprise to have a transparent and compelling message to be able to minimize by means of the noise. To realize that, one ought to study to simplify what they’re making an attempt to say. This e-book helps with that.

As my third suggestion, I’d go together with “Contagious: Why Issues Catch On” by Jonah Berger. It’s a superb match for my first suggestion as a result of this e-book explores why some merchandise and concepts go viral and the way a enterprise can leverage these insights.

As for podcasts, normally I flip to “The PR Week” for industry-related information, developments overview, and interviews. I like “The Artwork Of Allure” for priceless ideas and tips for environment friendly communication which might be useful in each private {and professional} settings. I additionally like “How I Constructed This” with Man Raz. It’s not strictly about communications however these interviews with entrepreneurs can provide priceless classes on branding, messaging, and storytelling. 

As well as, I’d advocate listening to TED Talks. Plenty of them are about communication, storytelling, and media, and so they can spark inspiration.

What’s your favourite instrument you employ often for work?  

I take advantage of a set of go-to instruments frequently, every helps me with specific duties. Zoom permits me to speak with my purchasers and my workforce. In each circumstances, these are people who find themselves located in numerous international locations and continually journey, similar to me. At Aeris PR all of us work remotely and our purchasers are tech corporations from the US and Europe, so video calls are probably the most environment friendly technique of communication.

Dilims is one other app that helps me with communication with the purchasers and the workforce. It permits holding observe of workplace hours in varied time zones and discovering overlapping slots for conferences with individuals working inside them. Additionally, I intensively use Notion as an area to retailer data and a instrument to share it with others and Miro, an internet whiteboard that’s nice for collaboration. 

These might not be precisely instruments for work, however I often use apps for meditation to be able to recharge, regain focus, clear my thoughts, and maintain anxiousness away. I believe they assist me to work higher and keep away from burning out, so they’re essential too.

What excites you most about the way forward for communications?

Just lately there have been numerous technological breakthroughs which might be altering the panorama of media specifically and human communication on the whole. To begin with, let’s take one of the crucial hyped-up subjects of the current – synthetic intelligence. It’s fascinating to see how AI helps pace up some communication-related processes. As an illustration, it will possibly fairly effectively compose drafts for emails, displays, social media posts, and different texts.

Secondly, it’s very seemingly that sooner or later sooner or later AR and VR are going to be a typical a part of communications. These applied sciences are already used fairly broadly, and a communication skilled ought to think about incorporating them into their technique when brainstorming. Possibly, now it’s not in such a excessive demand however issues are altering quick these days. So, it’s higher to consider it now.

What communications problem retains you up at evening?   

Truthfully, I don’t expertise any bother with sleeping at evening. Firstly, I do my job totally and pretty, so my conscience is all the time clear. Secondly, by now, I’ve discovered the right way to take management of stress with the assistance of meditation and yoga. These two issues have extremely boosted my capability to maintain calm.

Usually, I want to maintain my deal with issues that get me up within the morning as a result of my work drives me and provides me vitality. Typically, although, if I journey late at evening or transfer to a special time zone, I may go late within the night and even throughout evening time. I journey loads and my workforce and purchasers are all in numerous time zones, so work retains me awake at evening once in a while.                                                                                                     

What’s the most important problem you’ve overcome in your profession?

At Aeris, we’re all the time formidable. We’re continually making an attempt to surpass our shopper’s expectations by serving to them to get printed within the top-tier media retailers which might be nearly unimaginable to get into. It’s all the time a problem however an thrilling one. We get pleasure from it.

Additionally, we principally work with early-stage startups and it has its challenges. Above all, we’re very versatile and adaptable. As an illustration, we had a shopper who determined to barely shift and broaden the positioning of his startup and alter its technique after three months of working with us. Our workforce rapidly tailored to that by crafting a brand new PR plan for the upcoming three months whereas holding some bits of the earlier plan and merging them with our new concepts organically.  

What’s the greatest recommendation you’ve ever gotten?

There’s loads that I’ve discovered by means of the years that I’ve been working within the area. Most likely, the very best piece of recommendation can be to all the time take note the place you’re going and why, that means that it’s best to all the time keep in mind your targets and values and verify once in a while in case your present trajectory is well-aligned with them. And, after all, it’s best to always remember to benefit from the journey.

One other helpful piece of recommendation can be to by no means cease studying. There are some common classes that all of us must study whereas rising personally and professionally. There are some issues that it’s important to study relying in your background and the trail that you simply’ve walked up this very second. 

For an entrepreneur and a frontrunner, it’s essential to study to delegate and belief your workforce, to keep away from the need to manage all the pieces on a regular basis and micromanage. By the way in which, going again to the query about sleeping at evening, studying these classes additionally helps to lower stress and sleep properly.

Isis Simpson-Mersha is a convention producer/ reporter for Ragan. Observe her on LinkedIn.

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