Caliber Company Advisers President Grace Keith Rodriguez has over 10 years of experience in fintech and monetary companies.
Rodriguez’s insights have been featured in respected publications like The Wall Avenue Journal. Moreover, she performed a significant function in facilitating Caliber’s acquisition of Leverage PR, primarily based in Austin, in 2017, effectively coordinating efforts between groups in Austin and New York.
The president of the communications and advertising company is keen about working with shoppers who’re making a optimistic impression every single day, addressing points like racial bias in housing valuations and modernizing monetary infrastructure. The satisfaction of collaborating with clever and gifted people drives Rodriguez’s dedication to the job.
We caught up with Rodriguez to get her tackle the way forward for the communications trade.
What ebook, podcast or different media do you advocate to different comms professionals?
My path to PR has not been a conventional one as I studied economics in undergrad and located a love of PR in my first job. This was a chance to be taught the artwork of PR on the job and right here we’re a few years later (I gained’t date myself!). Due to this non-traditional path, I are likely to learn and hearken to a fairly various checklist of publications. Harvard Enterprise Evaluation is at all times high on my studying checklist because it helps me join the dots between information and folks on plenty of fronts, from constructing a group to new methods to take a look at hiring and consumer relationships. On the comms entrance particularly, I’m an enormous fan of the Axios Communicators publication. It’s an amazing, pleasurable learn and offers me little bit of intel into challenges and alternatives different PR professionals are tackling throughout different industries.
What’s your favourite device you utilize commonly for work?
As a communications professional, it’s in all probability not a shock that any form of communication device is my go-to – whether or not that’s a fast Google chat message to speak in regards to the media win of the day or considered one of our digital ‘LunchBunches’ the place I get to sit down down with a smaller group of Caliber of us to talk over lunch about what we did over the weekend or their subsequent huge journey. Any device that enables simpler communication with my teammates and shoppers is one thing I’ll proceed to make use of every single day! We additionally do plenty of work at Caliber to help and information our shoppers’ presence at fintech & monetary trade occasions. We developed a device known as Occasion Analyzer that helps our group and shoppers make data-driven selections with regards to talking at, sponsoring or attending fintech and monetary companies occasions. This analytical method provides shoppers much more confidence when investing their biggest property – money and time.
What excites you most about the way forward for communications?
I’ve been excited to look at the function of the communicator proceed to rise in significance to actually have a seat on the decision-making desk, significantly in the previous couple of years as we’ve seen how crucial comms is to the success of any enterprise – regardless of sector or dimension. The communicator’s seat on the desk is one thing that I see as crucial to the long run success for an organization, whether or not it’s to emphasize take a look at new messaging or to make sure a tough message is conveyed to all the suitable events in the suitable method or to assist navigate a possible disaster state of affairs.
What communications problem retains you up at evening?
Because the mother of a toddler and a five-month-old, I’m unsure I’d blame a comms problem for holding me up at evening lately! However since I’m often up at evening anyway, I commonly fear about how we proceed to indicate the true artwork of comms frequently. Whereas I feel know-how actually has a job in supporting analysis and different administrative features of the day-to-day job of a PR professional, the wonder and artwork of that one pitch that will get that one journalist that brings the consumer that highlight they deserve is more durable to outline and quantify. The standard of the media will at all times be necessary and it’s necessary to proceed to search for methods to outline the worth of that high quality as success must be measured on each amount and high quality.
What’s the largest problem you’ve overcome in your profession?
Being a mother to 2 younger youngsters whereas additionally managing the expansion of our company from a expertise and consumer perspective has been a problem. I’ve now had two parental leaves in my time as President at Caliber and with each I’ve not solely pressured myself to give attention to my rising household and their wants, however I’ve additionally been actually floored by the help I’ve gotten from my teammates in my absence. I’m lucky to have a really supportive husband and household that’s proper there with us within the throes of toddler and toddler chaos. With a number of different Caliber group members in numerous phases of parenthood, I can say it’s immensely useful to simply share what’s actually happening in our lives exterior of the digital partitions of the workplace. Having a help system at work and at house is one thing I’ll by no means take with no consideration!
What’s the finest recommendation you’ve ever gotten?
My mother and father at all times inspired me to simply be myself – which in fact as a teen you by no means need to hear, however as an grownup I can say it’s the most effective recommendation I’ve ever gotten. Within the early days of my profession, I centered plenty of time and power on what it meant to sound, look and act like a quintessential PR skilled. As soon as I centered extra on being curious and embraced the advantages of my non-traditional path right here, I loved what I did much more, and I discovered my conversations with different group members and shoppers felt extra real and genuine. I should have to lookup some PR nuances they train in comms college lately, however I can soar in to assist translate an financial report or information in a spreadsheet to a gaggle of journalists in a heartbeat.
Isis Simpson-Mersha is a convention producer/ reporter for Ragan. Observe her on LinkedIn.
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