Communication Strategy Defined: Insights on Messaging, Culture, and Reputation Management
Join Molly Baker, Founder of Indie Consulting and Julia Drabick, Vice President of Corporate Communications at a major financial institution, as they discuss the journey from the agency side of the marketing industry, to being in house at a corporation, and all of the intricacies that make both sides different. In this episode, Julia recalls the beginning stages of her career, and how she feels that each connection and position was a building block to help her achieve her goals. Listeners also get an inside scoop on what agency life is like fresh out of college.
MB (Molly Baker): How are you feeling?
JD (Julia Drabick): Feeling good. Feeling ready ready to take on the week. Ready to rock and roll into September, new month.
MB: Amazing. What are you thinking about professionally these days?
JD: Good question. I am thinking about my transition recently from working more so on branded communications to corporate communications and really kind of honing in on what makes that a little bit more difficult in some ways and what makes that a little bit more fun in some ways.
MB: What do corporate communications entail?
JD: I think corporate comms is such a large umbrella. It really encompasses any internal communication. Those internal emails are a piece of it, but also just ensuring that the reputation of a corporation, a brand, a company as a whole is protected and is enhanced. So working with media, on larger corporate issues versus in previous roles, you're working specifically on a brand and making sure that that brand is getting media attention and that the brand is protected from a reputational perspective. Corporate communications is looking at it from a 10,000 foot view.
MB: So today, you probably work with a lot of different types of people.
JD: Lots of different types of people. It really runs the gamut of stakeholders top to bottom, from left to right, from one side of the spectrum to the other side of the spectrum.
MB: So Interesting. So brag about yourself. What are you really good at?
JD: One of my biggest strengths and something that has helped me throughout my career is the ability to connect people and to bring the right people in at the right time. In a new role like this, where there are so many players, that's something important, but it's definitely being tested a lot, because the scale is just so much bigger.
MB: That's amazing. When you're thinking about creating a communication strategy, whether it be for a brand or now on the corporate side, how do you live? What are your key pillars?
JD: I think there's a ton that goes into it, but I think the two things that kind of bubble up to the top for me are, 1, what's your audience? Who are you speaking to, and are you speaking to them on the right channel? And then secondly, is now the time? Do you really need to say something or are you just wanting to say something because everyone else is? Do you really have, you know, a strong POV or something to add to the conversation, or are you just saying something to say something to shout in order to avoid? Those are the 2 things that I think come up to the top of mind, knowing your audience and timing. Like, is it necessary?
MB: Exactly. How do you think that people go about finding and really understanding their audiences?
JD: Absolutely. I think this is how we've done it in the past, but in reality, technology has changed a ton. The makeup of our country, of our globe has changed a ton, both from an age perspective to an ethnic makeup perspective. Everything is different than it was 20 years ago. All of that needs to be taken into consideration, and I think there are ways to understand the audience from a data perspective that didn't used to exist. There are a ton of tools that allow you to understand where people are consuming their news, where people are spending their time on their phones, on their computers. I think really leaning into that is key to understanding your audience versus “I anecdotally heard that Molly loves Instagram.”
MB: So talk a little bit about how you think about cultural sensitivities? Even looking at this year with a major election, how does that factor into your communication plans?
JD: In the past few years, we've seen that rise to the top of conversation for really every brand, every organization. The biggest thing is making sure that you have the right people at the table making decisions with you, not making decisions in a vacuum, but making sure you have diverse voices, making sure that you're listening to feedback from your consumers, from your stakeholders, and bringing that all together. People wanna hear that brands are listening to them and that their voice is being heard. Things are evolving, and it's okay to evolve your strategies or to try or to swing and miss with something new. A lot of folks are afraid to do that.
MB: So do you ever source for different opinions, diverse opinions, or do you bring other people into the room?
JD: That's a great question. I try to. I've luckily worked at pretty large organizations in the past that have a lot of inclusion networks and a lot of groups that are specific to certain issues or certain demographics. Tapping into those is one key way that you can bring a second opinion into the room.
MB:How do you balance taking a risk and reputation?
JD: I tend to lean more on the risk averse side because I've worked in quite regulated industries pretty much my whole career. I've worked within health care for a very long time, dealing with regulatory agencies. I tend to give the advice, or have the opinion that if you have a question, ask it. You'll never regret doing that, but you'll regret it the other way.
MB: What do you think about just the volume of channels and platforms that we have when it comes to pushing out communications today? And how is that different from the brand world to the corporate world?
JD: It goes back to the audience. Who are you trying to reach? Are you trying to reach a super niche population of professionals on LinkedIn, or are you looking to reach the general population on Instagram? And knowing that it's okay to alter your communications based on that channel and the audience is something that I don't think everyone is really understanding. They're just copying and pasting the exact same thing and not getting results. Fine tuning that is is where you're gonna see success, given that those channels are so diverse, and that they do reach a different audience. There are certain types of media that do better on one versus the other. Take the time to diversify and fine tune amongst them.
MB: What relationship has been most impactful on you professionally?
JD: I would definitely say my first manager at my very first agency. He just treated me with so much kindness. As a very recent grad coming into the professional world for the first time, having someone that took the time to actually teach made all the difference in the world. We no longer work together, but he's still such a great mentor, and I can bounce ideas off of him, and vice versa.
MB: So tell us who you are.
JD: My name is Julia Drabick, and I'm a VP of communications at a major financial institution.
MB: What does an average day in the life look like?
JD: It definitely varies, because I am now in this corporate communications world. Like I said before, it's everything from internal comms to external media to making sure that we have coordination with HR and with all of our inclusion network groups. It really varies from day to day.
MB: You were on the agency side before this, Right?
JD: Agency side before this for an entire decade. So it's definitely been a learning curve.
MB: Do you miss the agency world at all?
JD: In some ways, yes. What I miss about the agency world is you're more so this one team doing everything together. In an in-house role, it is a bit more of an individual contribution. Which isn't necessarily a good thing or a bad thing, just very different. Also, you have a lot more stakeholders that are at a higher value that you need to impress. On the agency side, you're really shielded from that.
MB: What has been the most surprising part?
JD: The scale of the organization has been very surprising to me. I was at a large agency previously, one of the biggest globally. But even the shift from that to this has been a world of difference. I'm a couple months in and still learning people's names. It's the scale that shocked me the most.
MB: What has been the most rewarding aspect of your work?
JD: I think I get the most energy from work that really impacts the community. Previous work in my agency roles when I was doing patient communications, and really seeing campaigns that were impacting patients' lives firsthand was meaningful work for me. In this new role, I'm doing some work within the community that is impacting people living here in New York and seeing how what we do really can benefit them.
MB: How has PR changed from the beginning of your career to today?
JD: I mean, what a shift. It's changed a ton. I was in the journalism school, but my track was public relations. So I think that's also rare nowadays that people go to school for something and stick with that for their career. But it's changed along with the world changing digitally. We have so many more channels than we once did. I remember a big part of my first jobs were literally clipping newspaper clippings of media hits out and putting them in a physical clip book. Thinking about that now is crazy. Obviously, it's now done in that way digitally, but that's a really tangible example of how it's changed. I also think PR at one time was purely or communications was purely just pitching the media. Now PR or communication agencies are the lines are really blurred as to what they can do. People are doing really everything within comms agencies now from digital media to internal comms.
MB: Do you enjoy pitching media?
JD: I will say in my previous roles, I always had a separate media team. I was always account side and worked closely with them, but they did the actual reaching out to the media. It's not my favorite. It can just be a wild goose chase sometimes. But when it's worth it, it's really amazing to get that really great hit. It's a lot of relationship building. And because I didn't necessarily have that hands-on experience before, maybe that's why I feel this way.
MB: What has been one of the biggest challenges in your career?
JD: Currently, it is navigating all of the various stakeholders in this organization and understanding processes, understanding who needs to see what and where it needs to go next. And like I said before, when you make that switch from an agency to working in house, your relationships with stakeholders is that much more high stakes.
MB: Where do you see your future going?
JD: Ultimately, I don't know if I will ever go back to the agency side. I think I did my time. I learned all the skills. I did my time. I would want to be doing communications for some type of nonprofit. That is the ultimate goal that I gravitate a lot toward. That’s the dream scenario.
MB: Are you glad you started an agency?
JD: I am very glad I started an agency. It gives you the building blocks. It teaches you how to work quickly and under pressure, and how to manage your time in a way that I think a lot of other jobs you do not have to. I also think from almost like a camaraderie team building perspective, especially when you're very young right out of school or just starting your career, it's fun. You have a whole group of people who are going through the same thing, and you can tap them for advice. You can commiserate. That aspect of it was definitely a great part of the journey for it as well.
MB: At 21, did you think you'd be doing what you're doing today?
JD: Working at a financial institution, definitely not. Working in communications, I would say yes because I'm typically someone who stays the course and I knew that I wanted to do that with my career, coming out of college. I’m not necessarily surprised that I'm in the field that I'm in. 21 year old me would be surprised that I'm in house at a financial institution of all things, but I also think I've evolved a ton as a person in the past decade. In college, I knew that I wanted to be a teacher or to do something related to writing. Those have always been my strengths in terms of even thinking back to SAT scores. My writing was always top of the charts in comparison to the rest of my stuff. I had an amazing college adviser. Speaking of people who have absolutely changed the course of my career, or have been influential in my career, he would also be another one. Jay Eubank. I'll shout him out. He's amazing. I think he still works at UNC. He connected me with a lot of alumni that worked at agencies and said, “I think you should speak to them,” and understand what the role kind of is like because I knew what teaching would be like. My sister was a teacher. Him connecting me to those people made the decision for me.
Trendy or Tragic
JD: Tragic. Immediately tragic. She is such a try hard. She's screaming. I'll give it another try because you're giving the recommendation, but tragic.
Tragic. I mean, that goes to show. It's tragic. You fell for something that was so “of the moment.” I will say I do actually have a vintage NFL sweatshirt that was my great grandfather's, and it's one of my prized possessions. I'm not necessarily against the idea of a vintage sweatshirt, but it sounds like they were buying fake vintage ones anyways. Tragic.
Cheap. Tragic. I mean, they got caught red handed. Right? I remember specifically seeing a TikTok where it was receipts of something from Quince that they were replicating so they could copy the design of it. Not cool. I guess I'm tragic for all of these. Maybe I'm just a pessimist in general.
Find Julia on instagram @julesdrabs or on LinkedIn @Julia Drabick.
As for us, follow @namedrop.pod on Instagram & LinkedIn and @molbakes on Instagram for all future episodes and insights.
