We were lucky to catch up with Michelle Kafka recently and have shared our conversation below.
Michelle , thank you so much for joining us. You are such a positive person and it’s something we really admire and so we wanted to start by asking you where you think your optimism comes from?
It’s much easier to be optimistic and happy in your career when you love what you do. I’ve found it helps so much to surround yourself with people who have positive uplifting attitudes. At Kafka Media Group (KMG), we work hard to foster a positive environment and build a team that always has each other’s backs. I’ve learned from my experience that no good decision comes from a place of negativity. Staying positive and forward-thinking has always worked out much better.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I am the Co-founder and Account Director of Kafka Media Group (KMG). KMG is a boutique integrated marketing firm, working across verticals ranging across health, technology and entertainment.
What I love about KMG is our creative way of talking about clients with media and our ability to combine our service to be tailor-made for a specific brand or campaign. From social media, advertising, content creation, and media outreach, to awards and speaking opportunities, these aspects of marketing can be combined in different ways to suit the needs and goals of a campaign.
In terms of what is upcoming in 2024 for KMG, we expect to work on a lot of projects that tie live events to a digital campaign. Live events and activations are a great way to drive meaningful engagement to a digital audience and campaign. Especially as Gen Z influencers become increasingly important thought leaders on social media, engaging events that lead to shareable short-form content drive overall interest in the full campaign story. A client’s message should be succinct enough to be understood in short form but interesting to make you want more.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
The three skills I think have aided me the most in my career journey are the ability to write, being collaborative, and being able to sell.
Especially in PR, the ability to write quickly, succinctly, and effectively will take you a long way. You will constantly be expected to communicate using different kinds of writing—pitches, press releases, contributed articles. You can’t do PR without being able to write.
Another skill that is so important to be successful in PR is collaboration. You can’t do anything great without the combined effort of a strong team. Everyone plays a role and has their strengths. If you can find that chemistry with a team, it makes it easier to go far, fast.
Lastly, a large part of what I do in PR is selling. That could be selling the value of our team, selling an idea to the media, or selling a campaign to a client. From convincing people to care about something they don’t understand—or know about—to demonstrating to other companies the value of a marketing campaign, selling is on both sides of the field. Ultimately, legitimacy is convincing the media that your client and their story is important. I’ve always been a people person, and the relationships I’ve developed with clients and the media are crucial to getting in on the right opportunities.
How would you describe your ideal client?
My ideal client is an organization or individual who is sincerely trying to make the world a better place. A great client is also someone who understands the importance of what they do enough to see the value in having someone KMG on their team. Someone who is dedicated to making the public see them the way they see themselves.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.kafkamediagroup.com/
- Instagram: @Kafkamediagroup
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KafkaMediaGroup/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/kafkamediagroup/?viewAsMember=true
- Twitter: @KafkaMediaGroup
