The Power of Personal Branding: Veronica Zanellato Kido & Kido Communications On How Publicists Shape Influential Leaders
An Interview With Chad Silverstein
Consistency is Key: How you look and what you say should be the same across all touchpoints and interactions — both online and in-person. That’s why I recommend using the same updated headshot for your online presence across your website, social media channels, for visual branding on podcasts and blogs, your author profile in magazines and even your email signature. Consistent, repeated messaging your audience can hear is equally important. When you start tiring of your message that’s typically when it’s starting to take hold in the market. Stay the course! Consistency helps reinforce your brand identity and builds trust and recognition over time.
In today’s digital-first world, personal branding has emerged as a cornerstone of professional success and influence. Behind many of the most recognized leaders and personalities stands a strategic partnership with skilled publicists who craft and convey their stories, values, and visions to the world. I had the pleasure of interviewing Veronica Zanellato Kido.
Veronica Zanellato Kido is an award-winning publicist and writer who began her career as a journalist. She’s President of Kido Communications, a boutique PR firm that gets leaders noticed and helps them realize PR results they never thought possible. Beyond any number of trade-specific journals, she has earned media coverage for her clients in the highest-impact channels including Harvard Business Review, CNBC, Forbes, Fortune, and Wall Street Journal.
Thank you for joining us. To start, could you share your “origin story” with our readers? How did you begin your journey, and what challenges did you face in the early days?
My career began as a news reporter of a small radio station where I researched and wrote copy for morning on-air newscasts and for a newspaper where I wrote political, profile, and feature stories. From there, I transitioned to working at a PR agency that served technology companies. It was a great career segway because I had firsthand experience as a reporter and understood what journalists need to write their stories — from the timely and relevant news hook to the types of experts they need to interview.
What I didn’t have any experience in was the technology industry, and I faced a steep learning curve. I spent many evenings and weekends reading technology dictionaries, books and industry magazines to get up to speed.
The biggest challenge I faced after graduation from the University of New Hampshire, where I studied communication and journalism, was finding a job due to lack of experience and the high unemployment from the 1990 recession. Competition for entry-level positions was fierce and required experience. The experience I garnered from internships at NH Public Television and in the news room at Manchester, NH-based TV 60 wasn’t quite enough. I was caught in a catch-22 of needing to gain more experience, which required having a job.
Communication is not like business, finance and accounting where the large consulting and tax firms come to campus offering paid internships and recruiting soon-to-be grads with full time employment opportunities. Networking at in-person social events and cold calling WCVB-TV Boston news anchor Natalie Jacobson (a UNH graduate) helped me land my first job and advance my career from journalism to public relations.
Can you share a transformative moment or campaign in your career where you significantly altered the personal brand of a leader, and what was the impact of that change?
One of the most transformative campaigns I’ve worked on was with the two co-founders of Limina, an 18-year-old user experience (UX) design and technical consultancy. Maria Taylor and Jon Fukuda — Limina’s co-founders — had built a base of loyal clients. But with just 9 employees, it played in an industry dominated by giant design brands like IDEO, Innosight, and Frog Design.
Maria and Jon sought to build national brand awareness, create preference for their brand, and attract new commercial business. To elevate Limina’s brand, we needed to shape and elevate Maria and Jon’s personal brands.
Through a strategic thought leadership campaign — called “The Design-Integration Campaign” — we focused on Maria and Jon’s core belief that delivering great design and engaging UX must be integrated throughout organizations — that it is just as much about customer-focused thinking as it is a process.
Backed by proprietary research, we produced a powerful story and point of view on Design Integration. Just as we were ready to publicize the story the COVID-19 pandemic lock down was in full force. We debated waiting to take the story to market, yet decided to move forward. We knew there would be a significant challenge to overcome (forget hosting and speaking at in-person events) and also a potential positive in that organizations were learning the power of great user-focused design in remaining engaged with house-bound customers and clients.
Maria and Jon graded our campaign as “exceeded expectations” both in reach and results. Now when they enter a new business situation, the Design-Integration report, earned media coverage, national and international speaking engagements and awards they won set the groundwork for a fruitful engagement — they’ve overcome the first hurdle of being a known entity and proving themselves.
Here are some concrete success markers by channel to show how Maria & Jon’s personal brands and their company brand were elevated:
Analyst briefings. Introduced Limina Co-Founders to prominent analysts from Gartner, Forrester (secured coverage in a report), IDC, HFS, and Customer Management Practice.
Influencer marketing. Key design and UX influencers of well-known brands (i.e. Google) with large followings helped us amplify their story.
Media relations. Secured earned media coverage in news outlets that matter to Limina’s target audience including, Fortune, CXPA (Customer Experience Professional Association), UX Booth, UX Matters, Talk CMO, CRM Xchange, Customer Think, Spotlight UX, Nearshore Americas, Facing Feedback, Software Development Times, and Startup.info.
Events. Hosted a “sneak peek” webinar exclusively for VIP friends of Limina, and sponsored and presented at a CXPA webinar attracting nearly 70 new prospective clients, a new target audience of customer experience professionals.
Speaking engagements. Secured 9 national and international speaking engagements at industry events and podcasts: DesignOps Summit produced by Rosenfeld Media, UX Bristol, TalkUX, Boulder UI/UX Virtual Meet Up, 24 Minutes of UX podcast, Listen by Jean Ginzberg podcast, Refresh DC, QRCA, and NOVA UX.
Social media. LinkedIn followers grew by 281% and Twitter followers expanded by 58%.
Awards. Limina ranked on the Inc. 5000, the Denver Business Journal Fast 50, Minority-owned business, Small Business, Inc. magazine, and BizWest Mercury 100. CEO Maria Taylor earned a Stevie Award for Women in Business.
Lead generation. Generated 350+ warm business leads from all these programs. The campaign produced results one year after its launch!
Since the Design-Integration Campaign, Limina is flourishing and Jon has started his own podcast, called The Limina Podcast. He’s also become a DesignOps Summit Curator
for Rosenfeld Media, helping curate the premier annual conference and also the monthly videoconference calls & newsletter for the growing DesignOps community, and he leads the local Denver-Boulder, CO chapter of the DesignOps Assembly.
What are the most common misconceptions leaders have about personal branding, and how do you address these in your work?
Three of the most common misconceptions related to personal branding are:
Personal Branding is for Extroverts: Personal branding only works for outgoing, charismatic leaders. Not true! Shy, quiet and introverted leaders can also cultivate strong personal brands by leveraging their deep expertise, thoughtful insights, and active listening skills. They can cut their teeth and gain confidence by posting to social media and writing blogs or contributed. When it’s time to take center stage for media interviews and keynote presentations, I advise my clients to prepare and rehearse to squelch their nervousness.
Personal Branding is Just About Social Media: While social media is a valuable tool to shape your personal brand, it’s not the only channel or strategy available. Elevating your brand involves a surround sound approach, including in-person interactions, networking events, awards, speaking engagements, thought leadership content, media interviews, influencer marketing and more.
Personal Branding is Instantaneous: Developing a strong personal brand doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time, energy and investment to craft a compelling narrative that resonates with your target audience, generate visibility, earn credibility, and build trust. And, once you’ve established your personal brand, you can’t set it and forget it. Leaders need to continuously nurture and refine their personal brand to stay relevant and responsive to changing circumstances over time.
How do you navigate the balance between a leader’s authentic self and the public persona you craft for them in their branding strategy?
It should be one in the same. Successful personal branding is rooted in authenticity, transparency, and consistency. It’s about showcasing one’s true self and expertise in a way that resonates with the audience to create meaningful connections.
What are the most common misconceptions leaders have about personal branding, and how do you address these in your work? (same question as above) In a crisis situation, what steps do you take to protect or rehabilitate the personal brand of a leader?
Honesty and transparency are the most important elements in protecting or rehabilitating the personal brand of a leader. Talk directly with the people who are impacted by the crisis before turning your attention to the media and social media.
Could you list and briefly explain “5 Things You Need to Know to Shape a Personal Brand” based on your experiences and insights?
1 . Define your goals. Are you trying to advance your career? Build your business and generate leads? Secure paid speaking engagements? Knowing what you want to achieve enables publicists like me to create the best over-arching strategy, tactics and budget to support your goals. If you have your sights set on lucrative paid speaking engagements, for example, you’ll need to be featured and quoted in high-impact news outlets to get noticed by event and conference planners.
2 . Know Your Audience: Having a target audience, compared to claiming that your audience is “everyone,” is important for relevance, effectiveness, and differentiation. Trying to target everyone results in diluted messaging, and limited success in reaching and connecting with potential customers.
Instead, concentrate your efforts on reaching and engaging with the individuals, groups or organizations most likely to be interested in what you have to offer. With a defined target audience, you can tailor your messaging to resonate with their specific needs and motivations. Identifying a target audience helps differentiate your personal brand from competitors, too. By catering to a specific niche or segment of the market, you can carve out a unique position and build stronger connections with your audience. All of this increases the likelihood of elevating your personal brand.
While working with MIT Center for Information Systems Research (CISR) leaders to launch their book, Future Ready: The Four Pathways to Capturing Digital Value, we identified Chief Executive Officers, Chief Information Officers and Boards & Directors as key target audiences. This allowed us to craft messaging and secure earned media coverage to get the authors noticed in Harvard Business Review, Fortune, Forbes, CIO Magazine, CIO Dive, MIT Sloan Ideas That Matter, Inside America’s Boardrooms (a Diligent podcast), Better Boards Podcast, Directors & Boards and many more.
3 . Have a Claim to Fame: What do you want to be known for and how are you going to cut through the clutter? It could be putting a new metric in place or developing a new framework. Put your own spin on it and give it a name. It’s a great way to rise above the noise and stand out from the crowd. It also makes for a killer media interview.
The ValueSelling Framework®, a simple, powerful sales methodology that delivers real value to buyers and accelerate sales results, was the star of the show when promoting Author Julie Thomas’ award-winning book, The Power of Value Selling: The Gold Standard to Drive Revenue and Create Customers for Life.
The HX TrustID™, a groundbreaking measurement tool poised to become the gold standard for evaluating organizational performance, made its debut with the launch of Ashely Reichheld and Amelia Dunlop’s WSJ bestseller, The 4 Factors of Trust: How Organizations Can Earn Lifelong Loyalty.
4 . Consistency is Key: How you look and what you say should be the same across all touchpoints and interactions — both online and in-person. That’s why I recommend using the same updated headshot for your online presence across your website, social media channels, for visual branding on podcasts and blogs, your author profile in magazines and even your email signature. Consistent, repeated messaging your audience can hear is equally important. When you start tiring of your message that’s typically when it’s starting to take hold in the market. Stay the course! Consistency helps reinforce your brand identity and builds trust and recognition over time.
5 . Research Grabs Attention: Beyond having an intriguing topic and a compelling point of view, proprietary research is critical to capture interest from media and your audiences — and validate your messaging. If your research produces counterintuitive findings, that’s all the better.
When publicizing Reichheld and Dunlop’s The 4 Factors of Trust, sharing proprietary research from their book opened many doors for the authors to be interviewed by and contribute bylined articles to high-impact business news organizations and podcasts such as Harvard Business Review and the podcast ReThinking with Adam Grant.
Here’s some of the key research findings that initiated many great conversations:
Did you know that trusted companies outperform their peers by up to 400%? That customers who trust a brand are 88% more likely to buy again? And that 79% of employees who trust their employer are more motivated to work (and less likely to leave)?
Looking forward, how do you see the role of technology and social media evolving in the way publicists shape and manage the personal brands of leaders?
Technology and social media will continue to evolve and offer new opportunities for publicists to help their clients achieve their branding objectives through engagement, storytelling, and influence. What’s most important is using the social media platforms that reach your specific target audience. No matter how popular a social media platform may be, if your audience isn’t there you shouldn’t be wasting precious time and money there.
How can our readers follow your work?
Thank you for offering such valuable insights into the power of personal branding. We wish you continued success in all of your work.
About the Interviewer: Chad Silverstein, a seasoned entrepreneur with over two decades of experience as the Founder and CEO of multiple companies. He launched Choice Recovery, Inc., a healthcare collection agency, while going to The Ohio State University, His team earned national recognition, twice being ranked as the #1 business to work for in Central Ohio. In 2018, Chad launched [re]start, a career development platform connecting thousands of individuals in collections with meaningful employment opportunities, He sold Choice Recovery on his 25th anniversary and in 2023, sold the majority interest in [re]start so he can focus his transition to Built to Lead as an Executive Leadership Coach. Learn more at www.chadsilverstein.com
The Power of Personal Branding: Veronica Zanellato Kido & Kido Communications On How Publicists… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.