Today we’d like to introduce you to Tamara Edwards

Hi Tamara, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.

My story starts in the Chicago Suburbs.

Like many young people with big ideas in a small-ish town, my “outside world” only began to align with my hopes and dreams when I earned an internship that would launch my career in our nation’s capital, Washington, D.C.

There, I was able to harness my creative ideas, sharpen my skills, and learn hour to influence real-life outcomes through coalition building, PR and Communications, interpersonal relations, and more.

I learned a lot about how the world works, business and bureaucracy, the news cycle, media, people, and how to effectively cut through the noise.

Today, as a PR, Communications, and Personal Branding consultant who serves in capacities from advisory roles to fractional CCO roles, it was important to me to orient what we are doing as people, businesses and brands, TOWARDS meaningful outcomes.

There is no one size fits all when it comes to this work and that flexible thinking was very much shaped by those early years of my career.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?

Ha! No way.

But that’s the fun of it.

I won’t go into the details, but there was a $85,000 mistake we made putting a major business function in the hands of someone who did not have our best interest in mind. Plenty of folks saw the opportunity for legal recourse, but for me it was a clear sign to learn and understand and mitigate (1) what went wrong, (2) why it happened, and (3) how to prevent it from happening again. The clean up was a long term process. It hurt. It still hurts.

This is how we learn.

This is how we become great.

On a personal note, it took several moments of pause to look inward and realize that some of my instinctual habits were not longer going to drive my behavior.

That’s the thing about life. It’ll pinch you in the side until you look at the pattern and go deeper to make changes.

If we zoom out a bit more, I truly believe that entrepreneurship is about learning to become resilient, learn from your mistakes, and fundamentally change parts of who you are (for the better) to who you have to become to realize your full vision.

If we zoom out even more, the problems won’t become smaller or suddenly go away. We as leaders have a chance to choose who we are and how we respond to the adversity.

Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about TE&Co. ?

Thanks for asking.

The mission of Tamara Edwards & Company and our sister companies Personal Brand in a Box (TM), and Broad Shoulders is to to equip businesses and brands with valuable insights, tools, and techniques that build timely and relevant awareness.

Fundamentally, we build integrated PR, Communications, and Branding strategies that enable visionary founders, entrepreneurs, executives, and businesses to strategically and intentionally raise their profile in a way that aligns with their business goals.

Simply put: we get people excited and in the know about your business or brand.

What this means for the readers who often fall in one of four categories — (1) Corporate Professional, (2) CEO, Founder, or Consultant, (3) Sales Professional, or (4) Creative Spirit — is that there are a sum of parts that, when align appropriately with the consideration of how YOU want to show up, can lead to tangible outcomes.

We all want more visibility.

That visibility may lead to a promotion, more clients, a stronger executive presence, and getting people excited about what you are doing.

I believe in the leveraging of PR, Communications, and Personal Branding tools, techniques, and strategies to help us get there with a bit more intention and a lot faster.

Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the Covid-19 Crisis?

COVID changed all of our lives.

I believe it accelerated the digital world we find ourselves in today.

I often say “first it was the telephone….”

These days, it’s difficult for many (not all) people to discern how they need to show up in real life v. online.

I’ve spoken at length to my clients, readers, students, and audiences around the concept of THE ALGORITHM OF YOU.

In essence, the idea is to reverse engineer how we interact with this very noisy time that we now live in. Our attention, and the attention of those around us — our clients and prospective clients, bosses, colleagues, and friends are being pulled in MANY directions. So, your value proposition — no matter how virtuous — needs to be communicated and you need to be the one to communicate it.

It’s up to you to decide who, how, when, where, and why.

On a personal note, COVID-19 taught me to smile more.

I was and still am a busy-body. My happiest places are in the company of others and/or on an airplane towards spending more time with my clients, colleagues, and friends.

Sitting still was brand new for me.

These days, I spend a lot more time sitting still, with myself, and smiling without any outside influence. As cheesy as it sounds, I think this is what women in their 30’s should practice.

The last thing I’ll say RE: Covid-19 is that it was a very difficult time for many. Particularly for those who lost loved ones, their careers, or their way of life. It was a massive shift in the way the world works, the way our government interacts with the public, and us as a body politic. So much more to say. Perhaps over coffee.

Pricing:

• Services, tools, and materials range from $0-$1000

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.tamaraedwards.co
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/itstamaraedwards/

Image Credits
Photo credits: Hannah Schweiss Photography; Lynn Yati; Andres Ortiz Photography; The Studio Chicago