Brett Weiner

Steering a company through an IPO is a high-stakes endeavor that puts communications at the heart of success. I recently had a candid conversation with long-time client Michela Stribling, Chief Communications Officer of Tenable, reflecting on the critical role comms plays leading up to, during, and after going public. Michela's acumen, honed at the helm of communications giants like Google and IBM before Tenable, reminds us that the key to a successful IPO transcends the trading floor. It lies in authentic, strategic communication that aligns and energizes every team member towards a shared vision. Here are some distilled insights from our chat: 🎯 Team alignment is everything: An invested, informed, and inspired team is the cornerstone of IPO success. 🔄 Cultural shifts are required: Transitioning to a public company requires a strategic shift in internal communication and culture. 💬 Internal comms can't be an afterthought: Employee communication should be as deliberate and strategic as external PR. 📅Prepare, prepare, prepare: Start IPO prep early, with a detailed plan that includes crisis management and executive involvement. 🏃‍♂️ Endurance is required beyond IPO day: The work intensifies after the IPO, with the first quarter of results setting the tone. During our time working side-by-side as Tenable approached its IPO, Michela's perspective was instrumental in shaping our strategy. For a deeper dive into our conversation and more key takeaways, check out the full blog post. https://lnkd.in/gav-UXpf #IPO #PublicRelations #MissionNorth #CorporateCommunications

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Over the past 20 years, Mission North has supported companies through critical milestones and communications opportunities – such as launching out of stealth, creating a category, entering the public markets, or driving catalyzing industry movements. Many of our clients come to us for support during “champagne moments,” and stick with us to differentiate as they evolve, which often requires educating skeptics and confronting challengers. Our goal: to provide clients with a guide to what’s most impactful to their business — reputation management, thought leadership, content marketing, digital marketing, and beyond — to help them navigate and operate from a position of strength. We’ve codified our approach with Brand Navigator (unveiled today on our updated website!), which crystallizes our approach to support clients through critical moments: ⚒️ Build: Rally people around an audacious vision and category-defining opportunity. 🚀 Scale: Grow from idea to IPO with an undeniable performance narrative. 🗽Lead: Own the category and become the industry standard for your peers. 🔒Protect: Defend your license to operate while managing increased risk and stakeholder complexity. 🌱 Renew: Reclaim the lead and offer new reasons to believe your best days are still ahead. This framework helps us adapt to companies’ changing comms needs over time and partner with them for the long haul. When we all have so much flying at us at once, it can be hard to prioritize where to begin. It can be grounding to lean on Brand Navigator as a framework to guide clients, and reassure them that while their situation is unique and often decisions need to be made quickly, there are tried and true approaches we can lean on to craft a communications strategy that we are confident will work. Check out our blog on Brand Navigator and try to plot your business on the map. Where does your company fit? #communications #corporatecomms #PRstrategy #brandstrategy https://lnkd.in/eZkpTqzN

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As a communications consultant who mentors others getting into consulting, my biggest piece of advice is: don’t overthink yourself out of acting. PR people have the tendency to be perfectionists (it’s me, hi).  ✏ Iteration is your friend. Your business will need to (and is allowed to!) constantly shift and change as you gain experience in the market. It’s not going to be a perfect flip-a-switch and go! ☠ Perfectionism = death when it comes to getting started. Whether it’s a website, social page, services/offerings, or researching tech tools, I see so many people miss out on great opportunities (or fail to launch altogether) because of the hesitation that perfectionism creates. #communications #PR #consulting #publicrelations

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