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The Dose of Inspiration Project

My story of love for books and writing began long ago. Currently, I'm a public relations professional working at Canvet Publications in Ottawa. My daily schedule is similar to most of yours. After the 8-hour workday, daily many tasks are competing for my time and attention. Reading and journaling are two things I never want to miss.

Creativity is not only fun, but it also makes a difference in our lives. Imagination can get us everywhere. Thanks to it we can think outside of the box, beyond. Reading and journaling help us stay focused, discover opportunities, and succeed. Therefore, feeding our creativity and giving it an outlet, is important. That's the reason why I launched recently the DOSE OF INSPIRATION project.

The Dose of Inspiration project on Kickstarter.com

The Dose of Inspiration is a subscription box that aims to spark your creativity. The Power option will always include selected books. Additionally, it could be filled with notebooks, DIY art & crafts, pens, pencils, magazines, tea, and even some chocolates. We will carry surprises to your doorsteps to boost your imagination.

Currently, we are offering services only in Canada. To learn more about the project, visit okeanea.ca. To make the project a reality, Canada, we need your support! Thank you all in advance!

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One quality all great leaders possess

Recently, one of my friends was curious about how to become an excellent leader. The subject is enormous and there are many follow up questions, yet she needed advice and the question kept my mind occupied. Indeed, what makes a good leader? I was thinking about the lessons I've learned while running my own business and leading creative teams. Also, there was plenty to learn from the leaders I have ever had. Personality traits can help, however, the leadership skills can be acquired as well:

Read books about leadership. Some of them are The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change, The Leadership Challenge, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable, Leadership Is an Art and No Bullsh*t Leadership: Why the World Needs More Everyday Leaders and Why That Leader Is You. Anything else you would add?

Create a list of things you liked and didn't like in your leaders. Now, think about your personality, general leadership styles and come up with a list of rules for you.

One thing that all great leaders do is that they make people feel good. Whatever you plan, make sure you pay attention to how you make all members of your team feel. It's not so easy. There are many considerations, conflicting interests and sometimes, you might even feel defensive, yet keep in mind that you are the leader and decision-maker. You can achieve whatever you want, just choose methods wisely: make people feel good!

Why and how do you think will this approach strengthen your company? Have you experienced it firsthand? Thinking about all these aspects will help you envision the leader you want to be. 

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Homeless puppy follows shoppers wherever they go

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(via What Is Branding? | Branding Explained - YouTube)

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Establishing your own PR agency

Two years ago I hoped to work at a PR agency and now I have my own one. Khatia Communication is the startup that delivers the Canadian experience right in Tbilisi. The agency's mission is to help national and international companies stand out, improve their reputation, manage better relations with stakeholders and as a result, achieve their business goals. 

The fact that we speak and know various languages and cultures - Canadian, Georgian, German and Russian - makes it easier for us to address or collaborate with different demographics. We know the issues that matter to them. With a strong team, we are ready for new projects and challenges. 

Have you any experience of working at a PR agency you can share? We love to hear from you!

Connect with us and let’s be friends!

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It’s an attractive idea as I am now looking for an office for my PR agency and they are not inexpensive. Any experiences you can share?

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In 2000, software developer Mark Jason Dominus realized most speakers were far from concise. They go on too long and rarely make their points clearly no matter how much time they have. His solution? Instead of giving them 60, 30 or even 20 minutes, just give them five.

The End Of Boring Presentations - Forbes

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First, it’s 5 min presentation, second, it’s about interesting topic, our perception. (via Steve Souders' Ignite presentation, "The Illusion of Speed", at Velocity 2013. - YouTube)

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Hierarchy of needs (via Abraham Maslow - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

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Edward Bernays, the father of PR (via Century of Self - YouTube)

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As a PR professional you might not need to build a business and write a business plan, but who knows. What if you’d like to create a PR agency? (via How to write a Business Plan - YouTube)

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(via SWOT Analysis vs PEST analysis and When to Use ThemCreately Blog | Diagramming Articles and Tips on How to Draw Diagrams)

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One year as a chief communications officer in Tbilisi

After completing ACPR program successfully, I moved to Georgia. Soon I started to work as a marketing manager. This first work experience in Tbilisi opened my eyes about my unique set of skills and abilities. I had a “Omg, I am a super PR professional” moment, when I realized I was way ahead.

I knew, I had to look for a leadership role, because I could be so useful to the companies that were looking for pros to advance their businesses. It was suppose to be difficult as in Georgia most companies hire their relatives or best friends, even if they are not qualified. I was able to find a job quite easily though without anyones help. In February of 2015 I started to work as a chief communications officer at Ipkli.

This is a large company that produces bread and pastry products for the whole city. The company was well known already, however, since its inception in 1993, it never had any communications team. So, there were lots of challenges. First of all, I had to establish a communications department. It was easy, because I knew I could complete many tasks with a help of a communications assistant only. We hired a young journalist, Mariam, who was willing to learn PR and grow professionally. 11 moth after, she is now doing masters in PR, that makes me proud.

Once I had a help with my daily routine, I was able to start working on branding. That’s where I always start, that’s my beginning point. I established branding rules and asked everyone not to break them. Because there was a company with a similar name on the market and we couldn’t do anything about it, I made sure that we have different colours and a unique slogan under our name. The company also changed product packaging.

Only after branding guidelines were complete, I moved to writing a strategy.

I had just started to work at Ipkli, as rising bread prices had sparked media’s attention and almost all channels wanted to interview me. Even a minister had mentioned us this regards and I had to respond to his comments. There was no time to think about it, I had to deliver public speaking abilities and ... I did. By the way, bread price is a sensitive issue, as some demographics in Georgia rely on bread mainly to feed their families.

This is how my personal relation with the media representatives has began, in a rush. As the situation regarding the prices calmed down, I continued to provide media with interesting stories about the company and the production line. We had more free and positive media coverage during last year than during the last 21 years combined.

Now, Ipkli’s website lists all the products and services. The company’s social media channels are active and besides bread and pastry products, on our blog we also post about healthy lifestyle.

Ipkli is not only a business, it’s member of the community. Therefore, whenever it’s needed and whenever the company has the ability, it provides help to people in order to fight poverty and promote healthy lifestyle.

Generally, any production process has many challenges. One of them is, that consumers are not aware how to make right choices. To overcome this problem, I launched an awareness campaign about a specific misconception. To talk about it, we were invited at “Maesto TV”.

... So many good memories of 2015! When you love your job and you have supportive colleagues to work with, work processes are enjoyable and the results make you happy.

This post meant to be a thank you note to my profs in Canada, my classmates, my family, my friends, my colleagues at Ipkli, to journalists, to my neighbours, to strangers doing kind things, to everyone, who ever supported me, to my cat Bodiala, who wakes me up every morning! :) 

Have a succesful and enjoyable 2016!

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Do you know where do your daily rituals come from? (via How Marketing Created Rituals - Home | Under The Influence with Terry O'Reilly | CBC Radio)

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(via CBC | Savvy kids: students get schooled on media messages - CBC Player)