"When united we are simply unstoppable as human beings."
Maria Papacosta Tweet
Maria Papacosta is a leading expert on Presence and Inspired Leadership. Her practical, high-energy talks and workshops provide tangible results that help people design a better version of themselves and excel in their work and life. Using her line & consulting experience Maria helps people develop their personal brand strategies and come one step closer to becoming inspiring leaders.
Working with the world’s leading speakers and thought leaders as a speaker manager and as a coach to numerous TED speakers, Maria brings her hands-on experience to help professionals communicate effectively, build their personal brands, stand out from the crowd and make an impact.
In 2021 Maria was named as one of the Top100 Global Inspirational Leaders by PeopleHum and was a finalist for the SheInspires Awards for the Global Women in Leadership category. Global Gurus has ranked the Fast Track Strategy Workshop that Maria facilitates in the top10 of the World’s Best Brand Development Programs for 2021.
Check out more interviews with entrepreneurs here.
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Table of Contents
We are thrilled to have you join us today, welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine’s exclusive interview! Let’s start off with a little introduction. Tell our readers a bit about yourself and your company.
Maria Papacosta: Since the beginning of my career I’ve been working with professional speakers, authors and consultants. In the beginning, as a marketing professional, I’d invite them to our company conferences, later, when I started my first business, I became a speaker agent (my first company represented one of the top speaker bureaus in more than 20 countries) and eventually I became a speaker manager and presence and inspired leadership coach.
One thing led to another naturally, as my interest has always been in helping others stand out. The turning point was when my business partner realized that in order to help others stand out it wasn’t just about their self-development. These people needed the practical tools as well, such as social media presence, website development and publicity to name a few. This led to the creation of M.S.C. Marketing Bureau where our mission is to help professionals stand out and make an impact by nurturing their authentic leadership and building their brand voice. And we help our clients achieve their goals by offering them the whole array of services and tools that they need in their journey.
2020 and 2021 threw a lot of curve balls into business on a global scale. Based on the experience gleaned in the past couple years, how can businesses thrive in 2022? What lessons have you learned?
Maria Papacosta: The main lesson I’ve learned over the past couple of years is that we are all incredibly resilient and creative. When united we are simply unstoppable as human beings.
I think that the businesses that will thrive in 2022 are the ones that will master three key areas.
Number one is having a clear vision. The ones with the greater focus on their purpose will be the ones with the greatest progress. A clear vision will allow them to have a straight forward strategy, avoid unnecessary deviations, implement better resource allocation and it will also allow them to build a tribe if their vision is communicated effectively.
Number two is diversity and by diversity I don’t mean just having a balanced number of people based on their gender. I mean diversity in the ways of thinking, backgrounds, experiences, social identities and so on. A more diverse workforce will start preventing biases not only within the relative organizations but also in the products and services they produce. Additionally, a diverse workforce reflects a wider variety of experiences and views, and as such doesn’t only benefit the organizations with greater innovations and creativity, but our society as a whole.
And the third one is a focus on human skills. The organizations that will focus on developing their people’s human skills, such as empathy, compassion and authenticity, are the ones that will build stronger corporate cultures and will be able to build their narrative and communicate with the world in a more direct, authentic and credible manner. They are the ones who will be able to create trust not only within their organizations, but with their customers as well.
The pandemic seems to keep on disrupting the economy, what should businesses focus on in 2022? What advice would you share?
Maria Papacosta: Following your previous question I would stress the importance of developing our human skills. The pandemic has disrupted the economy, but more importantly it has redefined and accelerated the future of work. We are now called to lead teams that work remotely, have different needs and wants and the notion of work-life balance has become more critical than ever before.
If organizations don’t invest in helping their people get what they need and build the necessary soft skills, progress will be thwarted and competition will easily take these organizations out of the picture. Having said that, companies should also reflect on their training practices. Offering soft skills trainings to their people just for the sake of it will not get them anywhere (as it hasn’t over the past numerous years).
If training continues to be treated as an event it will never produce any ROI. For organizations to thrive, they need to understand what each of their individual members want and need, give them the know-how, give them the necessary environment and support to practice these new skills and give them the time to reflect and self-improve.
How has the pandemic changed your industry and how have you adapted?
Maria Papacosta: The speaking business was one of the most affected industries by the pandemic. In a fortnight professional speakers lost all their bookings and their income went to basically zero, unless they had other sources of income such as books, consulting, academic careers etc. In our company we were very quick to guide the speakers we work with to the various online options and appropriate branding and communication and we devoted time and energy educating our corporate clients on the value and ease of use of such technologies.
Our team managed to find innovative ways for our speakers to present online while maintaining the interactivity with their audiences and as a result we managed to convert a crisis into a tremendous opportunity in just a few weeks’ time. Looking back, I can now say that what differentiated us, was that as the world stood still over the first months of the pandemic, we bonded stronger as a team and we worked harder than ever before to ensure our clients success.
What advice do you wish you received when the pandemic started and what do you intend on improving in 2022?
Maria Papacosta: I can’t really think of an advice, maybe because we were among the fortunate ones, but it would have been nice to know how long the pandemic would last and all the shifts it would bring to our ways of working and the society in general. One of the things we’d like to improve in 2022 is our focus. Due to the pandemic we broadened our services and we also devoted a lot of time for pro bono work in order to support as many professional speakers who were out of work as we could.
I think that although this was a great experience, that helped us grow our expertise even further, it is now time to sit back and re-evaluate where we stand and more importantly what we want to focus on as a team – what gets us excited to wake up every morning. It’s time to set new goals switching from survival to success mode again and achieve new milestones.
Online business surged higher than ever, B2B, B2C, online shopping, virtual meetings, remote work, Zoom medical consultations, what are your expectations for 2022?
Maria Papacosta: The ecommerce growth we saw in 2020 will not be sustainable. Over the past year everything decelerated and I guess this will continue in 2022. I strongly believe that the hybrid model in events and training is here to stay and that online businesses overall will be having a steady healthy growth which will continue to normalize within the year.
We are all now more acquainted with the online world and for many of us it has proven to be very convenient. It is so much easier and less time consuming to order groceries online. It’s easier to watch an online conference from home at our own pace without feeling guilty of being away from our family. We have so much more variety and lower costs in education. And it’s more time effective for freelancers to have their client meetings online rather than spend hours in traffic.
Of course this does not mean that everything will switch to online. We are social creatures and we need physical interaction. We can’t live a life in front of a screen, or at least I hope we can’t.
How many hours a day do you spend in front of a screen?
Maria Papacosta: You just made me laugh, especially following my previous statement. Unfortunately, I spent at least twelve hours in front of my screen since my work is remote. My clients are based all over the world and all my coaching sessions are online as well. Even when I’m not working I have a constant urge to check and reply to my emails. It’s a curse!
The majority of executives use stories to persuade and communicate in the workplace. Can you share with our readers examples of how you implement that in your business to communicate effectively with your team?
Maria Papacosta: Storytelling is a very important part of our business. It’s what we basically teach our clients how to master. Good storytelling creates a participatory and immersive experience that allows your listeners to connect with you and actually remember what you were saying.
One of the most common pitfalls in storytelling is the use of data. Most people feel secure behind the data and love to include a lot of data and analysis in their presentations and overall communication. As a result, their audience gets lost in the numbers and facts and almost always feels alienated. The moment you realize that your data tells a story, is the moment you start capturing your audience’s attention and making an impact. Another pitfall is sharing long personal stories in order to make a point. We all love a good story, but we also have a limited attention span. Crafting a story to persuade and to communicate effectively takes time, practice, energy and creativity.
Business is all about overcoming obstacles and creating opportunities for growth. What do you see as the real challenge right now?
Maria Papacosta: One of the biggest challenges right now, for most, is how to stand out in such a crowded world while maintaining their integrity. There is a struggle between quantity and quality, between doing things faster and doing things properly, between being authentic and imitating others and so on. The Internet and the social media have enabled greater and easier exposure for both organizations and professionals, but they have also enabled a new form of consumer to evolve.
We now have a huge shift in the way consumers interact with brands. They are not a passive audience anymore. Instead, customers are actively engaging not only with each other, but with the various brands as well. They are looking for authentic and meaningful engagement and communication. They also form their own communities based on shared interests and they start building tribes which grow fast and have tremendous influence. In an effort to communicate more with their audiences, brands increase their advertising budgets on social media turning them into even more crowded advertising platforms. So brands as well as personal brands now not only have to deal with meeting their customer expectations for more authentic content and meaningful communication, but they also have to find new ways to stand out from the crowd and be heard in such crowded environments.
And here comes the tricky part. Many brands lose their identity, their integrity, in an effort to be heard louder than the rest. However, those who have strong foundations, a clear purpose and focus, a constant commitment to quality, and can build trust with their audiences, are the ones who can build tribes just by whispering.
In 2022, what are you most interested in learning about? Crypto, NFTs, online marketing, or any other skill sets? Please share your motivations.
Maria Papacosta: I’d like to learn more about Crypto and NFTs as they’re both growing and my knowledge in these areas is limited. However, since I tend to focus my learning on areas relevant to my work, online marketing, branding and communication skills will always be on the top of my list.
A record 4.4 million Americans left their jobs in September in 2021, accelerating a trend that has become known as the Great Resignation. 47% of people plan to leave their job during 2022. Most are leaving because of their boss or their company culture. 82% of people feel unheard, undervalued and misunderstood in the workplace. Do you think leaders see the data and think “that’s not me – I’m not that boss they don’t want to work for? What changes do you think need to happen?
Maria Papacosta: I’ve worked with many leaders who see that data and think “that’s not me” and with many who fear that “this might be me”. In any case, I don’t think that the Great Resignation is the result of bad leadership (with various exceptions of course).
I think that the traditional work frameworks are the ones to blame. For the past years we’ve been reading so many articles about the need to build better leaders and the shortage of leaders. As a result, coaching services and leadership skills training budgets have risen exponentially, however with no major results. I don’t think that we have a shortage of leaders. I think that the majority of our leaders are very capable and I dare say highly emotionally intelligent. But, we do have a shift in our needs and expectations as employees and the current work structures are not designed to support these no matter how good our boss is. With the younger generations entering the workforce, employees want to be heard more than ever before, work-life balance has become a prerequisite and the need to feel valued and understood has become mandatory.
We now have a great mix of people within each organization. Some want flexibility and variety while others want consistency and normality. Some want to work from home while others prefer working in the office. What I’m trying to say is that we have a varied workforce with different needs and wants (that requires great levels of personalization) working in old-fashioned, inflexible organizations (and it’s not just the organizations fault as in many cases the legislation doesn’t allow for greater flexibility anyway). No matter how good the leader is, this situation will continue to exist, unless organizations are restructured so as to facilitate these different needs, wants and aspirations, and employees are treated as individuals.
On a lighter note, if you had the ability to pick any business superpower, what would it be and how would you put it into practice?
Maria Papacosta: I’d love our business superpower to be continuous improvement. Improvement is in the center of everything that we do. When we produce great quality work we feel uplifted, inspired and motivated to go one step further. We constantly think “what could I have done better?” I think that continuous improvement is a superpower because organizations that can actually continually improve themselves are the ones that not only ensure their survival, but ensure their growth and adaptation to challenging environments. Organizations that have the ability to perpetually and consistently improve themselves have the highest possibilities of disrupting their industries rather than get disrupted.
What does “success” in 2022 mean to you? It could be on a personal or business level, please share your vision.
Maria Papacosta: Success in 2022 would mean to maintain our leading positioning as trusted advisors by helping our clients achieve their goals and growing our business without jeopardizing our current corporate culture and focus.
Jerome Knyszewski, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Maria Papacosta for taking the time to do this interview and share her knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Maria Papacosta or her company, you can do it through her – Linkedin Page
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