PR Pros: Evelina Lavrova of Decrypto PR On The 5 Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Career As A Public Relations Pro
A goal. You always need to have a goal in your life and work: to get a dream job, to find a contact of a well-known journalist, to get a publication in tier-1 media, to get speaking engagement at the top conference or prestigious awards. If you have a specific goal it’s much easier to move forward with it.
Have you seen the show Flack? Ever think of pursuing a real-life career in PR? What does it take to succeed in PR? What are the different forms of Public Relations? Do you have to have a college degree in PR? How can you create a highly lucrative career in PR? In this interview series, called “5 Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Career As A Public Relations Pro” we are talking to successful publicists and Public Relations pros, who can share stories and insights from their experiences.
As a part of this series I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Evelina Lavrova.
Evelina has about 15 years of experience in Business Development and Marketing. She has been doing PR for blockchain startups since 2016. Currently, Evelina is a Marketing & PR Consultant for Web3, DeFi & NFT startups, and a Mentor of Aves Lair, a seed-stage accelerator in NYC. Also, she used to write for Gokhshtein Media.
Thank you so much for your time! I know that you are a very busy person. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began at your company?
A lot of things have happened since I started to work as a PR Consultant for crypto/Web3 startups. I used to help Rarible, a multichain community-centric NFT marketplace, with PR so I got a chance to pitch a story about a comedian and host Steve Harvey’s NFT collection. He was raising money for his charity foundation. It was a nice story.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
Actually, it wasn’t a funny story. It was a big announcement. I shared the press release with one of the top international blockchain & crypto media outlets first then I sent a Russian version to another local media. The last one posted a publication earlier, the top media was still working on it, but when they found out the same news in Russian, they decided to delete the English version from the website because it wasn’t exclusive. So the lesson was always discuss with tier-1 media about the exclusivity of your content.
What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?
Currently, I’m working with several startups such as xToken, a decentralized fund management protocol, KIRA, a decentralized network that hosts, powers and secures DeFi applications with a value of real assets at stake, Backed, a digital asset platform for collateralized loans and low-risk investments, and others. Also, I’m helping top tech startups and VC funds from LatAm with PR in the US.
You are a successful leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
- First of all, I always had a goal and made small steps in this direction. For example, I wanted to work in an international company so I started to learn English, joined English class, started to practice: watched movies, listened to music, joined the conversation clubs, and talked to other people. Later I found an open vacancy and joined a fast-growing international startup.
- Persistence. I was rejected countless times, but it didn’t stop me. Many people didn’t believe in me and didn’t give me a chance but I found another way to do it. I used to work at a tech startup and I wanted to get experience in the US. I talked to the founder and suggested my help with promotion in the US, but he didn’t want to develop the business there. So I decided to quit the company, launched my Marketing & PR agency, moved to the US, and started to work as a Consultant.
- Contancy. I kept doing even when I didn’t get a result quickly. When I reached one goal I started to work on the next one and put even more effort into reaching a new level and so on. This character trait was really helped me when I worked on my talent visa in the US.
Ok super. Thank you for all that. Let’s now shift to the main focus of our interview. For the benefit of our readers, can you help articulate what the different forms of PR are?
The most popular forms:
- Any type of presence in media: interviews, commentaries, opinion columns, etc.
- Public speaking at events: keynotes, panel discussions, etc.
- Social media and community relations: photo & video content, Ask Me Anything (AMA), livestream, audio chats, etc.
Where should a young person considering a career in PR start their education? Should they get a degree in communications? A degree in journalism? Can you explain what you mean?
I have a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing but I wouldn’t say that I got much value from it. Practice is much more important. Probably, experience in journalism really helps to understand how media works and what’s the best way to present content to journalists but PR Professional needs to have different skills.
PR is like sales. You need to pitch many media outlets and many times you won’t get a response, to find journalists who are covering a specific topic and the right angle of your story so it can become interesting for them. It’s all about a good pitch, the right journalist, and a great story. I have experience in PR and journalism. I used to work as a Writer for a media outlet.
But nowadays you don’t need to get a degree in journalism, everybody can become a content creator. The creative economy is booming. There are many ways to publish your content: Medium for blogs, YouTube and TikTok for videos, Substack for the newsletter, Spotify for podcasts, etc. The key thing is building an audience (followers, subscribers) who likes your content and who is ready to pay for it.
You are known as a master networker. Can you share some tips on great networking?
I’m still learning 🙂 But these tips always work:
- A smile
- Good sense of humor
- Different experience and knowledge for a small talk
- To be a good listener
- To ask questions
- To understand the interests or needs of your interlocutor
- To be a helpful
- Sport or hobby
Lead generation is one of the most important aspects of any business. Can you share some of the strategies you use to generate good, qualified leads?
In crypto, the key skill is to build a community around the company. Good stories about the founders, a solution that the team is working on, uses cases and stories from the community could be interesting for journalists so you can get articles in media. Many people can read these publications and join the community.
Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. Based on your opinion and experience, what are your “5 Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Career As A Public Relations Pro” and why. (Please share a story or example for each.)
- Good communication skills. Communications is the key skill in the PR profession. It can change the situation radically or ruin it.
- A goal. You always need to have a goal in your life and work: to get a dream job, to find a contact of a well-known journalist, to get a publication in tier-1 media, to get speaking engagement at the top conference or prestigious awards. If you have a specific goal it’s much easier to move forward with it.
- Persistence. You will pitch many journalists, some of them won’t respond to you, some will reject to cover your announcement but you need to pitch new stories again and again.
- Constancy. PR is a routine job. It’s like a snowball. You need to get publication after publication. You can get a real effect from it only when you do it constantly. Especially if we are talking about a new unknown company. If you achieved a good result or milestone don’t stop it’s just one step to the big achievements.
- And the most important thing is to be a “chameleon”. You need to distinguish different cultures and to have an ability to work with different types of people, teams, companies, etc. If you do it well, you can achieve any heights!
Because of the role you play, you are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I would provide an education for kids from poor families all around the world. Just a laptop, smartphone and an access to the internet give an unlimited opportunities. Many people still do not have it.
This was really meaningful! Thank you so much for your time.
PR Pros: Evelina Lavrova of Decrypto PR On The 5 Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.