We recently connected with Evan Nierman and have shared our conversation below.

Evan, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How did you scale up? What were the strategies, tactics, meaningful moments, twists/turns, obstacles, mistakes along the way? The world needs to hear more realistic, actionable stories about this critical part of the business building journey. Tell us your scaling up story – bring us along so we can understand what it was like making the decisions you had, implementing the strategies/tactics etc.

Since 2011, my team and I have transformed Red Banyan from a one-man operation into an international communications organization that delivers results. We deal with challenging and impactful issues for clients across the United States and all around the world. Today the company has nearly 30 full-time employees spread across every time zone with millions of dollars in annual revenue that continues to grow.

For nearly a decade, we had declined to do marketing on our behalf since we wanted to focus our time and effort on clients. To facilitate this, we upgraded to a robust customer relationship management and marketing software, built up our internal marketing team by hiring A-players, enlisted an external digital marketing firm and turbo-charged our internal marketing processes to generate profound growth. Red Banyan’s reputation has been enhanced by super-servicing clients and building a unique company culture that attracts the best talent.

Evan, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I began my career at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), one of the country’s leading advocacy groups, before working for a boutique agency handling high-stakes communication work. Immediately prior to forming Red Banyan, I served as Director of Communications for a fast-growing, highly scrutinized start-up where I represented the company and steered the CEO through interviews with top-tier media, including dozens of international, national and local print, TV and online outlets.

I created Red Banyan because I was tired of tying my fate to others, and wanted to directly control my destiny and relying on myself to succeed or fail. Everyone I asked prior to starting out told me it was lunacy to start a strategic communications firm in South Florida; but that only made me want to do it more and prove them wrong. I opened Red Banyan in 2011 with zero clients and a desire to form a strategic communications firm that would eventually serve a global clientele.

My company is unique in the that we approach complex communications issues strategically, examining them from multiple standpoints simultaneously, and mapping out the best possible solutions. The secret ingredient is our culture of excellence.

Have you ever had to pivot?

COVID-19 catalyzed a paradigm shift within Red Banyan. We dramatically narrowed our focus to the high-stakes and crisis management work that is our specialty. After warning people for years crises were inevitable and organizations needed to mitigate their risk exposure, the confluence of the pandemic, cancel culture, the #metoo movement and other cultural shifts drove home the importance of our work and the huge value add we can provide to companies.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

I am frequently called upon by top print and TV media outlets to provide analysis of current events and day’s hottest news stories and I always make myself available. When opportunity knocks you must be ready to answer.

I have also spoken at top industry and educational events, such as the International Crisis and Risk Communications Conference and at meetings of the Public Relations Society of America. Also, I have given a pair of TEDx talks called How We Risk Our Lives Online and Never Tell the Truth.

In addition, I released my inaugural book, Crisis Averted: PR Strategies to Protect Your Reputation and the Bottom Line. It achieved bestseller status on Amazon. My second book, The Cancel Culture Curse, is available now for pre-order and will be on shelves early next year.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://evannierman.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/redbanyanpr/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RedBanyan
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/evan-nierman
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/RedBanyan
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9qcXcEZAV3uSv3uQdleO0Q
• Other: https://www.pinterest.com/redbanyan/