Communication is key when building a brand. Today, most organizations are working on their marketing strategies and public relations to improve the company reputation. Because when you build a brand, you need to make sure that you are sending the right messages to the right places and people. This helps to increase brand credibility, which ultimately plays a vital role in company growth.
Concrete Blonde Consulting is a full-service consulting and marketing firm in NYC that specializes in providing custom marketing solutions for profit and growth.
In this interview with Lindsey Myers, the Founder of Concrete Blonde Consulting, let’s look into what Concrete Blonde Consulting is all about!
Tell us about Concrete Blonde Consulting:
Concrete Blonde Consulting is a full-service consulting and marketing firm in NYC. We specialize in providing custom marketing solutions for profit and growth. By examining your business development pipeline, we are able to identify new areas for growth, while also creating strategies to amplify current opportunities. In addition, we provide a competitive media analysis, streamline marketing campaigns and build additional sources of revenue. We service various industries including consumer products and services, tech, lifestyle, hospitality and nonprofit companies
Communications is a rapidly changing field and our firm is continually transforming to harnesses the powers of both influence and interaction. We offer clients a variety of tools from third-party PR endorsements to social influencer campaigns to reach consumers and drive business.
We believe every client is unique. We partner with them to unearth their core business goals. Then we create bespoke strategic marketing plans with benchmarks to chart our progress and target our methods. We feel a sense of responsibility to our clients and we are responsive not only to their needs, but also to the ever changing world in which they operate.
- What were the initial challenges you faced?
Our initial challenges were fairly common — we had to build a brand and develop a portfolio from scratch while also conducting business development to gain new clients.
One of the things I love most about being an entrepreneur is how it forces you out of your comfort zone, requires you to face your fears in order to be successful and is the catalyst for personal growth.
Lindsey Myers, Concrete Blonde Consulting
- Which was that point that triggered the growth of Concrete Blonde Consulting?
We partnered with a firm in the UK and provided white label services to several technology companies to diversify our base areas of expertise and this partnership really helped trigger a new stage of growth.
- What is the reason behind your company’s long-standing success?
We genuinely care about our clients and their businesses and strive to provide the support they need to help them grow. Our client service and our willingness to be nimble and meet their changing needs is the reason behind our success. We would be nothing without the community of companies we partner with on a daily basis. Their success is paramount to our success.
- What are the products/services Concrete Blonde Consulting focuses on? How are your services different from those in the market?
We are first and foremost a public relations firm who focuses on media relations and crisis communications. Our services are very focused on the business development goals of our clients. We believe in more than placements for the sake of placements. We believe that communications should support the business goals.
- How do you decide to take Concrete Blonde Consulting a step further in terms of your products/services?
We believe that choosing a PR firm is a very personal business and it’s important that the corporate culture and values are a match. We look beyond fiscal capabilities and like to ensure that companies are a good fit before we take them a step further.
- Is there any new addition to the list of products/services? Anything exciting you would like to share?
During this unprecedented time we’ve been working with a lot of companies on corporate visionings. Typically, this is most useful for those businesses looking to make a significant pivot and restructure their companies.
- What do you think are the responsibilities of an entrepreneur?
I believe it’s the responsibility of an entrepreneur (or any leader really) to name reality and then provide hope. They need to set the vision for Concrete Blonde Consulting, provide direction and inspire the talent. It’s also important to manage day-to-day operations to make sure everyone stays on course and is moving towards the destination.
- Can you please brief us about your professional experience?
Lindsey Myers founded Concrete Blonde Consulting in November 2016 to pursue her passion for building reputations and revenues through business development marketing strategies. Concrete Blonde Consulting has since been named one of the “Top 15 PR Agencies in New York” by The Manifest and one of the “Top 10 Best PR Agencies” by Web Surf Media.
Myers provides profit and growth solutions and thrives as a consultant. A communications expert and entrepreneur, she has over twelve-years of experience serving various industries including consumer products and services, tech, lifestyle, hospitality and nonprofit companies in NYC and the Hamptons luxury market. And in 2018, Insights Success magazine named her one of the “30 Most Innovative CEOs” of the year.
She graduated from Boston University with a BS in Communications and concentration in PR. She began her career at WordHampton Public Relations , a firm headquartered in East Hampton, NY and ranked by Jack O’Dwyer’s as one of the country’s “Top 100 Independent PR firms”. In 2013, she made partner and was chosen to launch Concrete Blonde Consulting’s NYC division.
Recognized as a strategic leader, she has earned a track record for counseling clients, including Fortune 500 companies such as NAPCO Security, Inc., to increase profits, manage brand reputations and gain market share. She’s continually driven by her enterprising spirit and innate understanding of consumer influence. She takes ownership of the business she supports and partners with clients.
Professional, confident and well-respected by her peers, she has also been a guest lecturer at several universities including Hofstra University and Saint Joseph’s University, possessing a presence people often find unforgettable.
Her leadership and expertise have earned her numerous accolades throughout her career including; PRSA Big Apple award, PRSA Bronze Anvil award, eight MarCom awards, nine Fair Media Council Folio awards, Communicator award, SABRE award and an Excellence in Communications award.
- What are the key achievements of your entrepreneurial journey?
I feel as though my biggest achievements have been the personal ones brought on by my professional journey. One of the things I love most about being an entrepreneur is how it forces you out of your comfort zone, requires you to face your fears in order to be successful and is the catalyst for personal growth. The journey itself is the achievement!
- Can you tell us which your favorite book is? And your favorite part of the book (if any)?
It’s a tie between Atlas Shrugged and Shantaram.
My favorite part of Atlas Shrugged is when Dagny Taggart comes to the realization that “We never had to take any of it seriously, did we?”. I feel like all too often we take the world and ourselves too seriously and we miss a lot of the beauty and connectedness.
I’ll admit I haven’t finished Shantaram yet — but so far my favorite part is when the main character’s best friend dies. It sounds strange, but the book itself has some of my favorite quotes on love and fate and friendship that I’ve ever read anywhere. When his best friend dies, he describes that feeling in a way that I believe truly shows the way our friends impact our lives.
“at first, when we truly love someone, our greatest fear is that the loved one will stop loving us. what we should fear and dread, of course, is that we wont stop loving them, even after they are dead and gone. for i still love you with the whole of my heart. i still love you. and sometimes, my friend, the love that i have and cant give to you, crushed the breathe from my chest. sometimes, even now, my heart is drowning in a sorrow that has no stars without you, and no laughter, and no sleep.”
- Whose business story do you find the most inspiring?
Oprah!! I love her and her story and I find it amazing what someone who started where she started was able to accomplish, especially given the culture she was up against to make those achievements. I also love her mentality and values and believe both of those intangible characteristics were tantamount to her success.
- Which is the most inspiring quote you have read?
It changes everyday depending on the challenges I’m up against. But, the most universal one that helps me is — “What IF it all worked out?” I find it important to remember that sometimes the things that are happening to us are really happening for us and are all part of the journey.
- What is your take on the competition in the market? How do you cope with it?
I don’t think of people as “competition” — most of my best friends are other people who own PR firms and they are also my best teachers. I believe a rising tide raises all boats so to speak and there is enough business for everyone. I don’t play a zero sum game. I don’t believe one person has to lose for another person to win. We all specialize in different things and our unique genius varies. We can all profit greater by knowing and sharing with each other.