About Us Archives - Audacia Strategies

Drinking Our Own Champagne: What We Learned in 2022

January 13, 2023/0 Comments/in About Us, Business Values, Our Team, Value Proposition /by audacia_editor

Having a crisp, clean, and differentiated value proposition for your company is no small task. Being able to speak accurately and authentically about where you are and where you’re going is useful beyond your next networking event. We do this work every day with our clients, and over the last few months, Audacia Strategies went through this process too. I want to give you an inside look into what we learned from putting our money where our mouth is.

Having a value proposition describing who you are today and where you’re going in the future matters. Think about it like sailing: If you’re one degree off, that doesn’t sound like a big deal in the short term, but over a whole voyage, you can end up hundreds of miles from where you were intending to go. Creating a value proposition is about making sure you’re on the course that’s right for you and your business.

How do you begin the task of writing a statement (yes, it needs to be one single statement or talking point) of who you are today, what you believe in, and who you will be in the future? And what it is really like on the inside logistically, professionally, and emotionally?

The Value Proposition

It’s hard to explain your business and what you offer in 15 seconds over your second glass of wine at a cocktail party. But when you do, it can transform how you talk to customers about both their visions and their pain points. And the way you communicate your value will attract the clients who need what you offer.

Creating the right value proposition is a reflective and often research-intensive task. When we worked with our client, Xator, we spoke to 35 employees from across the company and around the world. We reviewed their customers’ feedback, looked critically at all of their marketing material, and evaluated their top competitors’ message positioning and language. With this research in hand, our team shared our findings and highlighted opportunities for Xator to better define who they are, what they do, and why it matters. You can read more about our work with Xator in this case study.

The result was a succinct, evocative, and authentic statement of what Xator does—no jargon needed. When you hit the nail on the head, you see the shift: eyes light up, and people get excited to hear an accurate, authentic reflection of who they are and where they’re going. When this process is complete, it feels like magic, and companies know they finally found their secret sauce. It’s empowering to discover the right words to describe what you’re offering to the world. And once you have those words, you want to share them with everyone all the time!

After witnessing several of our clients’ transformations, we knew we needed to experience it for ourselves.

The Opportunities and Sacrifices of Drinking Our Own Champagne

As we enter our eighth year (!), we knew it was time to reconsider how we talk about Audacia Strategies. Our firm has evolved since our launch in 2015. You can’t throw a stone without hitting 12 communication firms of various shades. And while people have an idea of what a communications firm does, Audacia isn’t a communications firm or a PR firm, or a marketing agency. Let’s face it, we don’t fit the standard mold. We choose to see this as an opportunity, rather than a disadvantage, though.

Audacia Strategies is an advisory firm helping business leaders build the businesses of the future and uncover opportunities they never thought possible. We do this through a relentless focus on communications.

Our mission? We help businesses change, lead, and succeed.

Yep, those sentences sound simple, but an incredible amount of work went into gaining that clarity.

As I’ve said before, it’s hard to see yourself from the outside. Reflecting on where we’ve been and where we’re going has been a rich experience made possible only by investing and redistributing time, resources, and energy towards this project. Time that would otherwise have been spent on day-to-day tasks was instead filled with reflection, research, dreaming, hard conversations, and lots of listening. We listened to feedback from our clients, our employees, and our leadership about where we make the biggest impact for our clients and the type of work we absolutely love to do.

From the Founder’s Seat

As a leader and founder, one of the hardest parts of this process is letting go of what I thought the company might be at its outset. The dream of Audacia Strategies started on a bus between San Juan del Sur and Managua, Nicaragua in a notebook I just happened to have with me. Revisiting our value proposition presented an opportunity to view the company not for what I expected it to be, but for what it is and what we hope it will accomplish. This is an essential mindset shift for doing this work (more on this in a minute).

In the beginning, I thought we’d bounce from transaction to transaction and focus on M&A. Our original focus on transactions taught me some lessons about how transactions could be done even better:

As I got deeper into the business, I realized that the pre-transaction and post-transaction work is just as meaningful as the work that happens in the war room with lawyers and bankers.
Also, having a plan longer than 35-45 days post-close is crucial. Focusing on employee engagement, customer experience and awareness, metrics for success, and subsequent strategic and organizational changes sets a company up for success post-close.

Leaders must look honestly at their company and whether their vision matches reality. We chose to invest our resources in asking:

Who is Audacia today?
How do we view ourselves aspirationally?
What language can we use to better connect with our clients?

The Emotional Side of Value Propositions

As a founder, I must be willing to take on the challenge of viewing the company not for what I expected us to be, but for what we are. This process sometimes involves mourning what might have been, even if what’s coming is probably (certainly) better. Because I’ve been on the other side of the table sitting across from leaders who needed assistance in moving through this grief, or moving beyond fear or ego, I was (somewhat) prepared for this process.

Getting the reflections needed for accurate self-perception and self-definition requires humility. When I’m in a meeting with customers or employees, I have to remind myself to be present and listen without interjecting and without trying to course-correct. I might think that because I have the vision I have the right answers, but that isn’t necessarily true.

Just like our clients, I have to trust that we will discover the right charter through this process. That taking in every perspective means that we can think bigger about ourselves, and help our clients think bigger about what opportunities we can offer them.

Looking Forward: Finding Your “Why”

In all of this, Audacia had to do what every company we serve must do: find our “why.” Without your “why,” a value proposition is empty.

Companies aren’t people, but company culture is very much built by people. Finding the individual and collective “why” gives companies their secret sauce, and it’s hard-won. This process brings up core questions about identity, value, and security. It’s especially hard to do this process when you’re as emotionally invested as most leaders are.

For me, having our “why” made it easier for me to let go of my early vision for Audacia. I began to look forward with even more clarity. We help business leaders build the businesses of the future and uncover opportunities they never thought possible. Holding to this value proposition—one that speaks to our employees, partners, and clients as much as it speaks to me—allows all of us to look ahead and see the next evolution of Audacia Strategies.

Final Thoughts

I’ll leave you with a final thought about why we do this. Business is at a turning point right now. While our parents put their heads down and worked, companies demand more of individuals today. In turn, individuals are demanding more from companies. To stay competitive and functional, companies need to be more reflective and insightful.

Serving your clients and employees the way they serve you requires learning how to be authentic in the business world. Society and expectations about work are shifting rapidly. Beyond knowing why you do what you do—a core component of what makes or breaks a sense of purpose—an authentic value proposition helps your clients and employees share your excitement about what you do. Just like coaching or therapy, it’s hard, but it’s some of the most valuable work you can do. Trust us, we’ve been through it.

Ready to take the leap and find the value proposition that speaks to your secret sauce? Reach out to the team today.

Photo credit: Group Of People Raising A Toast by Scopio from NounProject.com

Reading, Listening, Watching – Your Prescription for Recharging

December 15, 2022/1 Comment/in About Us, Weekend Reading /by audacia_editor

As the year comes to an end, I’ve been reflecting on all the hard work the Audacia team has put in over the last year. I love what I do, I love the work my team and I do together, and I also love getting the chance to step into other universes of information and story through books, podcasts, and TV. The ROI from learning, relaxing, and enjoying is always worth it. Here’s what I’m reading, watching, and listening to this winter.

Reading

Corporate Rehab

Corporate Rehab is about building a business that isn’t toxic. Jennie Blumenthal talks about how leaders can become addicted to the hustle culture, the steps we can take to recover, and how to lead at the next level without losing yourself in the process.

The author, Jennie, was my coach for a period of time and I learned so much from her. I was anxiously waiting to read her book and it does not disappoint! I have been devouring this book. Jennie interviewed 300 female executives, and her book presents their stories, lessons learned, as well as the REHAB framework we can all learn from.

I cut my teeth in large corporations and while I’m grateful for the opportunities, my mentors, and the friendships over the years, the hustle culture discussed is real. Jennie’s work has inspired me to look inside myself, understand my story, and articulate my values. As a leader, I’m thinking deeply about building culture and how I show up for the Audacia team and our clients. I’m being helped along in this process by my awesome coach, Clay Parcells. Thanks Clay!

Instagram

By reading here, I mean not reading! For the past several months, I have put myself on an Instagram diet where I allow myself only 1 min of Instagram Monday through Thursday. It’s been AMAZING for my productivity and my mental health and leaves more time for… well, life!

Listening

Do Hard Things

This book by Steve Magnus popped up on my Instagram feed so I added it to my Libby account and I’ve been listening to the audiobook (personally, I find it easier to listen to business books than to read them). This book presents stellar research and storytelling about the science of performance, toughness, and resilience. It has helped me rethink how I work, tap into my instincts, and build greater resilience.

Private Equity Deals with Capital Allocators Podcast

I was really struck by the conversation and depth of this episode of Private Equity Deals with Capital Allocators. This one is perhaps a little niche-y – Bain Capital has been a wonderful Audacia partner and Zelis is one of our awesome clients. Still, it’s a great conversation about strategy and financing. It talks about how Zelis is addressing some of the most abrasive aspects of the healthcare system including pricing, explaining, and paying for healthcare claims.

It was incredible to hear the backstory on Zelis from the folks that were (and are) “in the room.”

I learned a ton from the episode and now I’m looking forward to listening to more. I have the first episode in my queue for the holiday break. I’m fascinated by the impact that employee ownership can have on a business and Pete Stavros, Co-Head of Americas Private Equity at KKR, is doing impressive work on this front.

Watching

The Bear

OMG this show. It’s incredibly intense and for those who have ever worked in the food service business at any level, it’s probably bringing back memories (or nightmares) of being “in the weeds.” It’s about a young chef from the world of fine dining who comes home to Chicago to run his family’s sandwich shop after the suicide of his older brother who left behind debts, a rundown kitchen, and a diverse and chaotic staff.

Behind the food and frenetic chopping scenes, this is a story about character building and relationships. It’s stressful but compelling and an awesome escape at the end of the day, which is really all I want from a television show.

Elf

I can’t help it, it’s my favorite! I love the pure joy of the movie and the many quotable moments. “SANTA! I know him!” My preschoolers aren’t ready for the movie but there are many moments where their pure joy for the Christmas holiday reminds me of Buddy the Elf, and it never fails to make me smile.

I don’t know about you, but I’m ready for this holiday break! I’d love to know in the comments what you’ll be reading, watching, and listening to during your downtime. From all of us at Audacia to all of you, we wish you a restful and healthy holiday break. See you in 2023!

Photo credit: Scopio from NounProject.com

Growth, Reflection, and Change in 2022

December 14, 2022/0 Comments/in About Us, Business Transformation /by audacia_editor

How quickly a year goes by! It feels like we were just in the thick of it with new transitions and M&A deals. Suddenly, it’s all in the rearview mirror.

At the end of the year, many of us who take time to reflect have the tendency to skip to the resolutions for next year. As humans, we have a bias toward the negative. We zoom in on what didn’t work as well as we hoped, and with the best of intentions, we immediately focus on resolutions for next year. This bias means we don’t always take time to feel pride and satisfaction about what we accomplished.

So, I’m going to give it to you straight: 2022 has been a phenomenal year for Audacia.

Our seventh year of business was transformative for us. Our business grew in more ways than one, we got clear about who we are, and we thought hard about what our priorities mean to us. While this sounds simple laid out in a list, an enormous amount of work went into all of this. Let me share some of our 2022 highlights with you.

Business Growth

We’ve had an incredible and growth-filled year for our business. We grew our team to 14 strong and growing (check out these interviews with Sarah Deming and Sarah Gershman). Together, we worked to create the same culture of trust and transparency we work to instill in our clients. Because I trust my team, I’m able to focus my energy on big-picture strategy.

On the numbers side, we doubled our top-line after multiple years of phenomenal growth. In addition to growing our team and top-line, we’ve been lucky to benefit from a growing community of supporters, partners, and subcontractors. We entered into many new rewarding subcontractor relationships and have received the benefit of expertise in everything from value propositions to executive presence.

We also had the opportunity to work with wonderful clients like Xator. In just a few months, we helped them craft a succinct, evocative, and authentic statement of what Xator does—no jargon needed. We got to watch the internal and external transformation that happens when employees can speak authentically and accurately about what they do.

And make no mistake, we worked hard to get to this point. We interviewed employees, read reviews, analyzed their competitive market positioning, and critically examined the marketing materials of both Xator and their competitors. If you want to hear more about this process, stay tuned for a case study in January!

Audacia’s Value Proposition

In addition to working with clients like Xator on their value proposition, we invested time, resources, and energy into working on our own value proposition. Our firm has evolved and changed since our launch in 2015. While people have an idea of what a communications firm does, Audacia isn’t a communications firm, or a PR firm, or a marketing agency. Let’s face it, we don’t fit the standard mold. In the midst of our evolution and growth, we needed to revisit how we talk about what we do. We chose to see this challenge as an opportunity to walk the walk.

In other words, we went through the same process we used for Xator and other clients: the ultimate act of putting our money where our mouth is. The process was rich: we learned so much about ourselves, about our clients, and we gained insight into how we’ve changed. And what did we learn?

Audacia Strategies is an advisory firm helping business leaders build the businesses of the future and uncover opportunities they never thought possible. We do this through a relentless focus on communications.

It might sound simple, but it took us months of work to get here. We’ll tell you more about how this process looked on the inside early next year.

Learning to Prioritize

I know my clients get overwhelmed by their day-to-day and that can keep them from achieving their strategy. Over the last year, it often felt like we were more often ruled by the urgent than the important, and we spent a lot of time thinking about this. Here’s what we learned.

First, our urgent is usually our clients’ important and urgent. What we do means we’re on call for a corporation when there’s a new CEO or when there’s a significant transaction. It isn’t necessarily a bad thing to prioritize the urgent, and it’s part of doing business when you work with companies in transition.

Second, although it often felt like our days were ruled by the urgent, an imperfect devotion to the important still allowed us to prioritize our value proposition. It’s hard for companies to prioritize such reflective and research-intensive work, hence the need for external comms teams. But despite the days that felt ruled by the urgent, we managed to step back and do this important and clarifying work.

As we look to 2023, we’re thinking about how to attend to the urgent without letting it pull us off track. What are the changes we need to make in terms of our operations, staffing, and management to ensure we can balance the urgent and the important? How can we set realistic expectations for both ourselves and our customers? As much as we want it all done tomorrow, it doesn’t work like that. At Audacia, we want to continue to focus on dreaming big about the outcomes we want and work backward from there. The smartest way to invest your time is to start from where you are rather than where you wish you were.

Closing the Year With Gratitude

In reflecting on all the growth Audacia experienced this year, I want to offer gratitude for our clients, our team members, our business partners, and all of those who have referred business to us and supported us along the way. It feels like just yesterday that we started, yet here we are entering our eighth year of business. We are incredibly grateful for all of our supporters, and we are so lucky to do what we do.

On behalf of the Audacia Strategies team, we wish you a joyful holiday season and a healthy, happy new year. Let’s make 2023 Audacious!

Photo credit: Jacob Lund Photography from NounProject.com

Reflecting on the Evolution of Audacia: 3 Big Changes and Lessons Learned

September 6, 2022/0 Comments/in About Us, Corporate Culture, Our Team, Transformative Change /by audacia_editor

In business, there is often a tendency to set goals, chase them down, and then set more goals. Rinse. Repeat. Taking a step back from this relentless pursuit of achievement to take stock of lessons learned, though, is critical.

We see this tendency all the time with our clients working through big transformations. If they become overly focused on getting through what they think of as the “hard part” – the merger, the transition, the restructuring – without picking their heads up, they can miss what’s even more important. Without understanding how that big transformation fits into the overall strategy, there’s a risk that you’re simply going through the motions, making change for change’s sake. There’s almost nothing worse than a checklist untethered from a strategy.

At Audacia, we periodically reflect on where we’ve been, so that we can move forward with our eyes wide open. In that spirit, let’s look at the biggest changes and lessons learned from the past (almost) seven years.

1. The Team is Growing

One of the most visible changes that we’ve made over the years is our growing team. In the beginning, it was hard to think about bringing others on. Sure, I was happy to quietly partner with people I had worked with throughout my corporate career, but the thought of developing my own team… shudder, at least in those early days.

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, entrepreneurship doesn’t run in my blood, and the idea of being responsible for other peoples’ livelihoods was scary at first. But, of course, the stories my mind invented were much more terrifying than the reality.

In fact, building out our team of experts, partners, and employees has been one of the greatest joys of running the business. Today we’re 14 strong and growing. Together, we have created a culture of trust and transparency. Because I can trust my team, I have more space to think strategically, and I can focus on the big picture without getting lost in the details.

Not only that, but we’re also able to leverage our collective experience and talent to deliver bigger and better solutions for our clients. And diversity of thought, experience, and perspective, enables us to deliver those solutions to a broader range of clients.

This is not to say we’ve got it all figured out; we are a work in progress. But I’m really proud of the progress we’ve made and excited to see where our path takes us next.

Lessons Learned:

We are better together.
Don’t let fear hold you back from making a bold move. (I’m still a work in progress here!)
Building a reliable support system is one key to being successful as a business owner.

2. We’re Getting Clearer About Who We Are

This change may be less visible from the outside, but it is crucial to finding ideal clients, honing our service offerings, and boosting our credibility – not to mention, strengthening our messaging. Getting clearer on our superpowers and how our values express themselves through the work we do has allowed us to back away from saying “yes” too often.

Over the years, we have zeroed in on what we do and how to position ourselves in the market. Living through pivotal moments in our business has helped us figure out how to help our clients through pivotal moments in theirs as well. We can confidently talk about how we work with organizations experiencing structural transitions including:

These types of transformations have internal and external ripple effects to be aware of from the beginning, but those effects can be invisible to teams on the inside. Our team comes in, gets the lay of the land, and develops a coherent communications strategy to carry you through the transition and beyond.

We provide much more than a coherent communications strategy, though. Developing such a strategy requires you and your team to think through crucial details about the transition and the fundamental changes on the horizon. In strategy sessions with Audacia, clients have breakthroughs that improve operational efficiency, usher in a new era of cultural transparency, and spark innovative ideas that lead to even bigger transformations.

Lessons Learned:

If you want prospects to understand what you do, you need to be clear about what you do.
Having a coherent communications strategy is about so much more than communicating well.
Teams that know their value deliver above and beyond their value.

3. We Answer Client Concerns Before They Have Them

Perhaps the most important change Audacia has made over the years has been the way we approach our clients’ needs. In the beginning, we were mostly reactive. When a prospect reached out to schedule a consultation, I listened to their concerns and devised a solution connecting all of the dots. There’s nothing wrong with this approach. It’s one that yields success for many, including Audacia in the early stages.

However, we’ve evolved beyond this reactive approach. Today we are more proactive, anticipating our clients’ needs even before they have them. When I sit down with a prospect, I listen. I want to hear not only the text, but also the subtext. Our advisory is unique to each client and their situation. We are constantly formulating and reformulating strategies to present solutions for clients in all different stages of transformation.

As a result, we’re adding more strategic value to our clients and we’re more engaged across their transformation journey. Our average client engagement has grown from three months to six months.

We’ve also seen more repeat business in recent years as clients come to value our strategic perspective, ability to “get *ish done,” and tangibly/actually move them forward. Because we have been around the block, we are well positioned to lead our clients through the shifting sands of transformation, and having access to that kind of reassurance in the midst of chaos or crisis can be absolutely priceless.

Lessons Learned:

Helping clients see around corners is the cornerstone of a true partnership. Often solving one problem leads to another and organizations need help recognizing when this is the case.
Small shifts in the way you think about client work can have outsized benefits.

Looking back on the early days of Audacia, I can’t help but feel gratitude for what we’ve built. Here’s to setting more goals and chasing them down, but also taking time to reflect and learning from the past.

Photo credit: Business Associates Sitting In Board Room Having A Meeting With Coffee And Tablets by Flamingo Images from NounProject.com

Meet the Team: Sarah Gershman, Executive Presence Partner

August 18, 2022/0 Comments/in About Us, Our Team /by audacia_editor

Building a strong business is all about building strong relationships and at Audacia Strategies, we love to say, “it’s not ‘just business.’ It’s about people working together toward a common goal.” That’s why partnering with the best is a top priority. I’ve known many of our partners for years. They’re not just business associates, they’re people I’d sit down with for a casual dinner (and probably an adult beverage or two). I’m proud to know, partner, and collaborate with each of them.

In a previous article, we introduced you to one of the Sarahs on Audacia’s team, our Manager of Business Operations, Sarah Deming. This time, we’re introducing Sarah Gershman who is our Executive Presence Partner.

Interview with Sarah Gershman, Executive Presence Partner

At Audacia, we are all about strategic communications and strong communication is all about getting the key players within an organization to stay on message. This starts with leaders and this is where Sarah Gershman shines.

Sarah is an executive speech coach and CEO of Green Room Speakers, a communications firm based in Washington, DC. She is also an adjunct professor of communications at the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University and the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, where she lectures to students from around the world.

As Audacia’s Executive Presence Partner, Sarah puts her specialization to work helping leaders deliver high-stakes and complex messages with clarity, authenticity, and conviction. Having coached executives at organizations including Microsoft, General Dynamics, Booz Allen, Lockheed Martin, Eli Lilly, the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the US Department of Commerce, the US Department of Justice, and the US Department of Labor, Sarah brings a wealth of experience to the table.

Below are highlights from Sarah about the valuable contributions she makes to our team.

Q | Can you describe your role at Audacia Strategies and how you fit into the team?

As an executive speech coach, I help leaders elevate their executive presence as they grow their businesses. In practice, one of my roles at Audacia is to get to the core of what a leader needs to communicate to their target audience. When one of Audacia’s executive clients needs to be prepped for an engagement like a critical speech, townhall, investor presentation, I come in to coach them on how best to communicate key messages. So I spend a lot of time helping leaders think through mission critical messaging.

I also coach leaders through communicating big changes within the company. This can be especially challenging because there is a need to tell a coherent story that bridges the gap between the firm’s past and its future. Often, finding that story takes stepping back to look at all the current messaging and making connections that might not be immediately obvious to leaders themselves. Together with others on Audacia’s team, I provide much needed perspective.

Q | What is your favorite part about working with Audacia?

There is something so exciting about working specifically with companies in transition. Audacia’s clients are taking bold risks, making big changes, and going through high stakes transformations. As the leader of an organization experiencing rapid change, communication skills are a top priority. If you can’t get the message across, you lose buy-in from stakeholders.

I love the excitement of helping organizations in these critical moments. It lends an added pressure – in a good way – to the coaching I do.

And I love the people! Katy has put together an incredible team that attracts incredible clients. It’s a privilege to work with everyone.

Q | Can you describe a win or highlight from your time working with Audacia?

The example that comes to mind is working with a CEO in transition as he stepped into his new role. Although he had been a leader within the company with a strong reputation, he had never been a CEO, so he understandably needed guidance around executive presence.

When we first met, the CEO had a harder time commanding the room. Part of the challenge was that he was replacing a beloved CEO who was a rockstar, literally. We needed to find a way for the new CEO to tell his own story.

In just a couple of sessions, we helped him find his message, own it, and connect much more deeply with his audience. It turns out that the new CEO loves chess, so we helped him tease out what that says about leadership and his personal leadership style. Once he connected those dots, he stepped more fully into his role, quickly earning the trust of his team and investors.

Q | Are there best practices associated with your role that you’d like to share?

One of the skills that makes me successful is listening. It may seem simple, but it actually requires a lot of practice. When I’m meeting with an executive, I listen deeply, and I ask a lot of questions.

Coaching an executive to have presence, charisma, and to communicate clearly requires not just hearing what is being said, but also the unspoken message underneath. I try to discover my client’s motivations on a deeper level. When I know what makes you tick, then I can figure out how to leverage that information to help you truly engage your audience. So I’ve trained myself to listen for those things.

My goal with every executive I coach is to get them to think through their story and their messaging themselves. It’s not good enough for me to tell you what your message should be. If you don’t feel it at your core, your words won’t feel authentic to your audience.

Sarah is one of a handful of experienced and talented strategic partners I’m proud to call part of Audacia’s team. Together, she and I have over 20 years of experience working with executives and investors.

We recently put our heads together to write an article for Harvard Business Review about the three big questions investors ask themselves when evaluating a CEO. Reading it will give you insight into why our executive clients always walk away from sessions with Sarah feeling more confident and ready to own their messages.

Is your firm going through a big transition? Are you a leader who needs support as you develop your communications strategy? Our team is here to help. Contact us to schedule an initial consultation.

Meet the Team: Sarah Deming, Manager of Business Operations

March 29, 2022/0 Comments/in About Us, Our Team /by audacia_editor

At Audacia Strategies, our biggest asset is our people. From the beginning, I’ve known that to build a firm that provides strategic communications for organizations going through big transformations, I needed to build my team intentionally. And I am really excited about how the team has come together.

Long time readers also know that we talk a lot about transparency and walking our talk. So in that spirit, we will be sharing some interviews with Audacia team members giving their take on our evolving culture. First up is our Manager of Business Operations, Sarah Deming.

Interview with Sarah Deming, Manager of Business Operations

Every successful firm needs people who can be the glue holding things together behind the scenes. For us, that’s Sarah Deming.

Sarah has a background in art management, small business, and operations administration. At Audacia Strategies, she assists with scheduling, email management, human resources, and marketing strategy. She’s eager to take the lead on projects and makes smart decisions for our clients.

As Audacia Strategies’ Manager of Business Operations, Sarah has a knack for creating and implementing processes that help businesses grow as efficiently as possible. She has an eye for detail and understands the importance of organization and effective communication. In her free time, you can find Sarah reading a good book, making art, or enjoying the great outdoors with her husband and two daughters.

To learn more about what makes working for Audacia a great fit for Sarah, continue reading.

Q | Can you describe your role at Audacia Strategies and how you fit into the team?

I’m a bit of a jack-of-all-trades behind the scenes. My role is part Operations, part Executive Administrator, part Marketing, and part Human Resources. It was really eye-opening recently to sit down with our CEO, Katy (Herr) Hew, and take a closer look at the tasks I perform on a daily basis. The most typical thing about my day is that it’s never typical – each day is a little different and that’s one of the things I love!

Although I work most closely with Katy and our COO, Natalie Homme, I also communicate with our partners, clients, and the rest of our team to schedule meetings. Additionally, I monitor social media, post content, update our website, organize documents, onboard new team members, and so much more.

Q | What is your favorite part about working with Audacia?

The people! We have the absolute best team. Everyone is supportive, open to new ideas, positive, kind, eager to solve problems, and always willing to help each other out. Working with Audacia has shown me that it is possible to find a workplace with a culture that genuinely encourages team members to find the work-life balance that works best for them.

While other places I’ve worked have paid lip service to creating a supportive environment, Katy makes it happen. She cares deeply about Audacia – our mission, clients, and the people who work for her. Trusting her team to enjoy their lives AND deliver results, Katy demonstrates strong leadership every day. She really makes me feel seen. I’m so grateful to be a part of Audacia Strategies and to have a professional woman leader like Katy as a role model.

Q | Can you describe a win or highlight from your time working with Audacia?

When I first began working with Audacia, we switched email marketing providers and I facilitated our migration to the new platform. During that process, I evaluated the current email drip sequence we had set up for new subscribers and saw some areas where it could be improved.

I pitched Katy a new nurture sequence with evergreen content about Audacia and what we can do for businesses going through transformative change, and she loved the idea! Four months later we launched our new and improved nurture sequence, and it’s still yielding amazing results.

By implementing projects like this, it shows me that there are opportunities to grow into a bigger role within the company. Because I’ve seen firsthand how eager Katy is to invest in her people and in our ideas, I’m motivated to actively look for ways to develop on a personal and professional level. It really feels like the sky’s the limit in terms of learning and growing at Audacia.

Q | What do you think makes you especially well suited for your role as Manager of Business Operations?

Being organized and efficient are essential to what I do. If I’m scheduling a meeting, my goal is always to get it on the calendar within 48 hours. Sometimes that’s just not possible, but having this in mind drives me to be responsive and on my toes. It’s like a game I play with myself!

Also, I take a lot of pride in responding to emails quickly, being friendly and warm, and generally being available to everyone on our team for any and all matters that may arise in the course of doing business. I’ve learned that with a little creativity, most problems have ready solutions.

Of course, I make sure to set healthy boundaries as well. Because our team is entirely remote, we have to stay committed to make sure working from home doesn’t mean working all the time.

It’s also important for me to use our project management tool to keep track of my tasks so nothing gets overlooked. I write down even the smallest tasks and even create tasks to remind me to follow up on other tasks.

Behind every successful firm, you will find someone like Sarah Deming holding things together and making sure everyone has what they need from an operational standpoint. But Sarah is truly one of a kind. Audacia Strategies wouldn’t be where we are today without Sarah.

To find out more about how our team has your back, contact us today. Sarah will get back to you to schedule your consultation.

Reading, Listening, Watching — Brain Candy for the Hottest Part of Hot Vaccination Summer

July 15, 2021/0 Comments/in About Us, Weekend Reading /by audacia_editor

As we enter the hottest part of the summer in the D.C. area, it might be a good idea to retreat to the air-conditioned comfort and catch up on some high-quality media (reading, listening, and watching). I know this will be my plan for the next couple of weeks.

Rather than slowing down (though I have made some time to travel and spend time with family), I’m spending this summer thinking through strategy and gearing up for the end of the year.

Here’s what has been on my reading, listening, and watching lists lately.

Reading

You won’t find any beach reads here. But so often real life supplies all the drama and details we need to keep us glued to a story. For me, the most interesting stories have been about the recent leadership changes at Teneo and IBM.

Teneo

Outsized executive egos, abhorrent leader behavior, and million-dollar monthly retainers (!) aside, this is an incredible story of hubris and fear. What most fascinates me is the way Declan Kelly built Teneo and the messaging that played into the fear — and possibly imposter syndrome — even in leaders at the top of the largest companies where Teneo was hired as a consultancy.

Will Teneo survive CEO and co-founder Declan Kelly’s resignation? Will Teneo survive this PR crisis? Have we seen the end of the largest companies distancing themselves from Kelly and Teneo? This story is still playing out. I’ll be watching closely.

IBM

I’m the daughter of a retired IBMer (30+ years!) and have always been fascinated by the company, its turnarounds, its commitment to research, and its willingness to invest and bet big (i.e., the Red Hat acquisition). IBM’s recent leadership announcement — including the news that former Red Hat CEO, Jim Whitehurst, is stepping down less than two years after his appointment as president of IBM — may infer quite a bit about culture, leadership style, and acquisition integration.

I’m thinking a lot about the value (*cough* intangible assets and goodwill) that is wrapped up in culture, brand, reputation, and employee engagement as Audacia Strategies prepares to launch our non-financial due diligence offering (coming soon!). Every successful M&A process comes down to pre-acquisition due diligence and clear-eyed integration… whether we’re focusing on the financial or non-financial aspects.

The IBM case offers us a cautionary tale about the challenges of integration:

“Red Hat’s agility stems from a modern, ready-to-adapt approach while IBM is rooted in its age-old bureaucracy-esque practices. For instance, decisions in Red Hat are taken by the teams themselves — a hallmark of the bottom-up approach — as opposed to IBM’s top-down approach for decision-making.”

IBM is always one to watch and I’m looking forward to seeing their strategy emerge.

New Rules for the Future of Work

I’m also here for all the discussions about the future of work. This pandemic reset has shifted our thinking and every time I read a piece offering innovative ideas for how to get work done, I feel a twinge of optimism. This is my contribution to the conversation.

I also endorse this — all of it!

Here’s a little taste: “To get more leads, the B2B salesforce needs to meet their potential customers where they are: online, primarily on LinkedIn and Twitter. As part of this effort, your salesforce must become recognized thought leaders in their fields and contribute to digital conversations in new and provocative ways — a role previously reserved for those in the product, customer success, or professional service arms of the company. And they must use client specific and industry-focused solution selling, which is more relevant than ever in a digital environment.”

Hat tip to Krystle, CEO of Revmade for the share.

And, as we return to offices and rethink our ways of work, Gen Z seems to be speaking for more than their generation. Khalil Greene, senior at Yale University, offers his future employers some sage advice in this open letter to CEOs:

If you’re still making the business case for diversity, your company isn’t the place for us.
We want companies to take a stand.
We are works-in-progress.
We want to be ourselves.
We want to make an impact.

CEOs are you listening?

SPACs

Special purpose acquisition companies — better known as SPACs — have been all over market news this summer. Are they cooling? Are they hot? Who knows but there is a LOT of money tied up right now that will have to be placed… a few pieces of my reading to stay on top of things:

This is an informative piece about what it all means.
And this is a fascinating and deep look into the cult of personality behind movements like the SPAC trend (in true New Yorker style, it’s a long read, so settle in!)

Listening

Besides all the reading, I’ve also been listening to a couple of podcasts religiously:

Pivot is worth the listen every week. Scott Galloway and Kara Swisher are individually incredible minds on all things tech and innovation. Listening to them riff together on the latest issues of the day (and always calling out the Tesla Board to rein in Elon) is great brain candy.
The Bakari Sellers Podcast is another great listen. Bakari Sellers gets the most interesting people to open up and talk about important topics. I’m relistening to his interview with Ursula Burns in light of her appointment as Chairwoman of Teneo (see above).

Watching

So very little to share on this front — probably more Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood than is healthy for an adult. Sadly, my brain won’t let me focus enough to binge lately and most movies seem too much like the news.

Yes, I know I need to climb back on the meditation train. In the meantime, I’m slowly working my way through Schitt’s Creek and tagging into Bravo reality shows (I’m looking at you Million Dollar Listing). Send help… and recommendations.

What’s on your lists? I’d love to know. The air-conditioning is calling.

Photo credit: https://thenounproject.com/flamingoimages/

Audacious Transparency: Reaffirming the Core of Our Business

March 1, 2021/1 Comment/in About Us, Business Values /by audacia_editor

At the end of 2020, Audacia Strategies passed a big milestone for a small business. We celebrated five years in business. As the CEO, I’m simultaneously thrilled and anxious to see what the future holds.

As we grow, I’m doing all I can to make sure Audacia remains true to our guiding purpose: helping companies achieve their boldest initiatives and transformational vision. Here are a few of our steadfast guardrails:

Vision, conviction, and clarity have been the core of our business since day one.
We hold the line when it comes to our business values and we walk our talk.
We start with clarity about who we are — we support organizations taking the biggest steps and we enable our clients’ bold visions.

After all, if you’re going to start a business and turn down a regular salary and steady hours, there had better be a bigger purpose — a bigger prize — on the horizon. This remains my philosophy of business ownership.

All that being said, we faced our first real test of our mission and values in 2021. So in the spirit of audacious transparency, I wanted to share what we learned.

Growth! Scaling! Excitement!

In a previous blog article, we discussed keeping tabs on our underlying messages. While it’s easy to get caught up in the big, surface level messages we want to share with our audiences, if those messages aren’t grounded in our core values, it’s easy to get off course.

Not only does this happen with corporate messaging, it also happens with the way we run our businesses. And I think one of the biggest reasons businesses fail is because they lose sight of their core values or make too many compromises in the name of scaling.

Now here we are, five years in and Audacia Strategies has served a variety of clients in industries from specialty chemicals to cyber security to government IT. We are growing quickly, but the “Founder fear” is always there. Could it all disappear? (Hint: It won’t. But fear isn’t rational.)

And this brings us to the story of our biggest test yet. We were approached by a politically-motivated, third-party to support a coal-based chemical firm in need of crisis communications support and management.

My gut reaction: This is not in our lane. It’s not where we want to be and it’s not who we want to work with. Just as quickly, though, the fear sneaks in: “What if it all goes away? What about growth, scaling, excitement? We should at least take the call. So we took the call and started putting together a team. Then, a team member with many years of experience in this industry came back to us and said, “I just can’t do this.” She was right. We stepped back and referred the work to a large firm with deep resources, deep pockets, and a very broad client set.

Today, I’m confident that decision was for the best. I’m relieved not to have pursued the business or expended the energy. When making the decision, though, I was flooded with so many emotions (fear, panic, relief, shame, disappointment). Brene Brown would have a field day here! I’m still working through the experience.

Positive Outcomes

Even while I continue dealing with the emotional fallout from this near miss, as a team, we’re seeing many positive outcomes.

Since stepping away from that opportunity, we have moved planned new offering(s) forward significantly (coming soon!). We’ve been able to expand our support to current clients and their transformations are taking flight.

Also, we’ve had some really fun, fulfilling, and meaningful new opportunities walk through the door (although nothing simply walks through the door in entrepreneurial life — it’s all based on the work you put in and forgot about or wrote off days, weeks, and years earlier)

In addition, saying “no” to the opportunity that wasn’t right for us, means we can direct our energy toward what feels right. And this experience reminds me that focusing on our missions and values yields work that doesn’t feel “purely transactional,” but that feels purposeful. It almost seems like the universe is rewarding us for making a good decision.

And it’s a good reminder that taking work solely to chase the goal of scaling and growth comes with an opportunity cost. Clearly, we saved ourselves from going down the wrong path. It scares me, though, to think about how close we came. I don’t think we are alone in this challenge. In fact, I see it with our clients all the time and that’s why I want to share our experience.

Still Learning and Listening

It’s too soon to claim that we’ve learned any transformational lessons from this experience. We’re still integrating, but I want to share my initial thoughts while they are fresh.

1. I’m grateful to work with folks who are willing to say, “I can’t do this” and lend a hand to help reframe and refocus priorities.

2. We’re learning Tony Robbins’ lesson first-hand: “where energy goes, focus flows.” It has been amazing to see what has appeared once we refocused on our vision.

3. We’ve recommitted to the work. We have our eyes on our page. This is our journey and it just doesn’t matter what others are doing as long as we are true to our vision/values and our clients are achieving their vision(s).

4. This is why I started Audacia Strategies. I’m reminded of the beauty of building a business with shared team values at the core. If we “have” to take on work that is outside our values, then why do this hard work at all? It’s like working for someone else and building their dream.

Audacia Strategies has emerged from this experience stronger and more committed to our mission, vision, and values than ever before. We appreciate the nudge to recommit to walking our talk and this conviction is something we are proud to bring to our clients. After all, every business faces similar challenges. And every business needs to recommit to their priorities on a daily basis.

As always, we’re grateful for the chance to learn, listen, and yes…make a mistake. We’re even more grateful for the near miss and the lessons learned.

Ready to let your your vision, conviction, and clarity guide your next business transformation? Contact us to schedule time to chat!

Photo credit: Jacob Lund from the Noun Project

More Than Words: What Underlying Messages Are You Sending?

February 23, 2021/0 Comments/in Business Values, Corporate Communications, Corporate Culture, Strategic Narrative /by audacia_editor

It’s 2021. And I, for one, cannot remember a time when our words — all of our words — carried more weight or were more carefully scrutinized. It’s no longer an overstatement to say that the Internet has the power to make or break your brand. Welcome to the communications pressure chamber where anything you say has the potential to be found and amplified.

As leaders and communicators, our job is to shape conversations. But with the speed of information dissemination, the time to strategize is before — not after — a narrative is trending online. Anticipating all the facets of how your narrative might be perceived, however, can feel like an impossible task.

It’s no wonder we are hearing from many, if not all, of our executive clients asking how they can be more aware in their communications (look for a post about humanizing communications coming soon!). So let’s talk about strategies for making sure our underlying messages are consistent with how we want to represent our brands to the world.

The Challenge

If you’re a leader worried about the underlying messages you’re sending with your content, you are likely facing one of the following challenges:

The fear of saying the wrong thing is paralyzing, so you put out watered-down, over-wrought messages that end up effectively saying…nothing.
The fear of saying the wrong thing is paralyzing, so your communications have stopped altogether. But saying nothing at all says so much more.
You’re ready to walk the talk and you want to communicate directly, but you fear reputational harm if you “don’t get it 100% right.”

These fears are understandable, but the answer is not to get defensive or hide behind jargon. Former President Barack Obama, speaking at the Obama Foundation summit in 2019, told his audience:

“The cancel culture is predicated on this idea of purity; the illusion that you’re never compromised and you’re always politically ‘woke’ and all that stuff…You should get over that quickly. The world is messy, there are ambiguities. People who do really good stuff have flaws. People who you are fighting may love their kids. And share certain things with you.”

Rather than tip-toeing around your communications, maybe it’s time to embrace the messiness and welcome conversations around what our underlying messages are saying both to those within our circles and to those on the outside looking in.

Embracing the Messiness

Cancel culture aside, this heightened state of awareness creates challenges for leaders and communicators, but we can also choose to see these challenges as opportunities for change.

I’m in a heightened state of awareness too. Not only am I hyper aware of the words organizations use (including Audacia Strategies!), but also I’m aware of their actions. This past summer, for instance, I received a message from an M&A consultancy announcing its recent merger and its partnership with several large universities to bring on new team members.

I heard the surface-level message loud and clear: Growth! Scaling! Excitement!

The problem was with the underlying message. The email included their full new leadership team — with photos. All 9 were white, male, and all appeared to be over the age of 50. And this was the message they chose to use as a recruitment tool directed at new graduates. I was stunned. It felt completely tone-deaf.

When I opened that email so many questions flooded my mind:

What does this say about the priorities of this firm?
What does this say about the structures of higher education?
What does this say about those completing business valuations? About opportunities to acquire, sell, or engage in M&A processes? And about the finance and banking industry more broadly?

The underlying message being sent—not only by emails like this, but by the lack of equity, inclusivity, and diversity across corporate America—to women and BIPOC is “you are not welcome here.” So what can we as leaders of the business community do to bring about change? Here are some ideas to get you thinking.

1. Take a stand as anti-racist

Now, there’s no doubt that the M&A consultancy was unaware of the underlying message their email was sending. They were firmly focused on the “Growth! Scaling! Excitement!”

And this is precisely why it’s important for organizations to take an anti-racist stand. It’s not enough to say you’re non-racist or inclusive. The public needs to hear your personal and professional commitment to anti-racist action. Why not make this a regular focus of your content?

Too often when the national narrative gets uncomfortable, corporate leaders go silent, at least until they’ve completed their focus group testing and run it by Legal. As a leader in this moment when the country is engaged in discussions about institutional injustice, it’s essential to state your anti-racism clearly and announce the actions you’re taking to support those words.

Communicate this in official statements, through updated company policies, and in your daily workplace interactions. Beyond these direct statements, partnering with a communications expert who specializes in diversity, equity, and inclusion can help you become more aware of the subtle non-inclusive messages you may be inadvertently sending.

2. Examine and address systemic racism in your organization.

If your response to my description of the email I received made you bristle, that’s because of systemic racism. Remember, and this is crucial, systemic racism harms all of us. Systemic racism makes members of “dominant groups” blind to their own racism and bias. Being blind to racism and bias makes us write company policies and procedures that are also biased.

The only way to fight systemic racism is to face it head on:

Examine all company policies and procedures
Create a committee to examine and weed out or flag problem areas
Ask: Are paths to advancement within your organization structured to disenfranchise people of color?
Consider what efforts you are making to hire people of color as well as how you’re ensuring these employees thrive
Make visible changes to support a truly diverse, inclusive, and anti-racist culture

3. Use your power to change corporate norms.

Leaders have the power to use their resources and privilege to drive change. Perhaps the most important thing you can do is to look beyond what you mean to say and consider how others might interpret your content. Then get to work improving corporate culture.

As leaders, we are uniquely positioned to move the needle on changing social norms. We need to recognize the position we’re in and commit to taking meaningful action. There’s much to be done. There’s much you can do to infuse your company with anti-racist values and create an anti-racist culture.

In this spirit, here’s what we’re doing:

We’re actively examining our recruiting, partnering, and networking processes to engage a diverse network of partners.
We’re committed to bringing a broader set of values and bigger, more audacious, thinking to clients and to our community.
We’re listening, learning, trying and failing, trying and advancing, and pushing ourselves to learn more, get uncomfortable and bring more awareness to our communications and our actions.

Becoming more aware of our communications is about more than rooting out racism, though. We’ve been seeing increasing calls for companies to take a clear stand on environmental issues, for example. So another change you can consider is to make sure you have a clear set of values and that you stick by them.

Ask yourself and your team:

Do our messages amplify our company values?
What messages do the images we use in advertising send?
What social change movement would you like your brand to lead? What are you doing to move the needle?

All of this can feel overwhelming, which is why it’s so important to have a diverse team. Considering perspectives and voices that are different from your own will make you more aware of the underlying messages you’re sending.

I’m not suggesting that I have all the answers or that we at Audacia Strategies have it all figured out. Audacia has a long way to go. I have a long way to go. We aren’t going to get this right the first time and we will make mistakes.

As CEO, though, I’m committed to taking action to increase true diversity and inclusivity. With this focus, the underlying messages will fall into place. We have to start, fail, learn, and improve.

So, what are you doing?

Photo credit: Jacob Lund from the Noun Project

Businesswoman sitting on bed using digital tablet by Jacob Lund from Noun Project

Reading, Listening, and Watching—Closing Out 2020

December 22, 2020/0 Comments/in About Us, Weekend Reading /by audacia_editor

We’ve packed so much into this final quarter of 2020 that sometimes it doesn’t feel real. But before I head off to rest and enjoy the holidays, I wanted to close out the year with some of what has been massaging my brain and a lot of what I’m planning to catch up on in the coming weeks.