"Success lies in envisioning your future, then creating it with passion."
Welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine’s exclusive interview with Tiffany Guarnaccia, the visionary CEO and founder of Kite Hill PR, an award-winning tech PR and B2B communications agency.
As we delve into a decade of innovation, achievement, and inspiration, we invite you to join us on an insightful journey through the mind of a true entrepreneur and industry leader.
Over the past ten years, Tiffany has steered the ship of Kite Hill PR with unwavering commitment, transforming it into a prominent force in the dynamic tech PR landscape. Her story is a testament to the power of entrepreneurial spirit, innovation, and a relentless pursuit of excellence.
In this exclusive conversation, Tiffany reflects on her early aspirations, which laid the foundation for her remarkable career. She shares the driving force behind Kite Hill PR, a company firmly rooted in teamwork and meaningful collaboration. With an emphasis on core values such as collaboration, balance, candor, passion, and agility, she highlights the essence of what has made Kite Hill PR truly exceptional.
Join us as we celebrate Kite Hill PR’s ten-year milestone, explore Tiffany’s views on modern mentorship, and gain valuable insights into the ever-evolving world of tech PR and the role of AI in shaping its future. This interview is a window into the wisdom and vision of an entrepreneur who has truly made an impact.
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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.
Tiffany Guarnaccia: Thank you for the opportunity! My name is Tiffany Guarnaccia and I am the CEO and founder of Kite Hill PR. I founded Kite Hill PR in 2013: an award-winning, agile tech PR and B2B communications agency.
I have always been inspired by entrepreneurship and knew from the start of my career I would be a business owner. I remember in one of my first interviews for my professional career, I was asked, “where do you see yourself in 10 years?” and I answered, “I am going to found and run a leading PR agency that focuses on tech startups.”
I wanted to create a work environment built on the foundation of true teamwork and meaningful collaboration. These are key to how we operate and how we are successful. At Kite Hill, we have five core values that guide us in everything we do: collaboration, balance, candor, passion, and agility. These values were created based on reflection from my own work experience, including what I liked, didn’t like and wished to see in past workplaces.
In the past year, what is the greatest business achievement you’d like to celebrate with your team? Please share the details of that success.
Tiffany Guarnaccia: This year, Kite Hill PR is celebrating its ten year anniversary. To honor the success, we launched “Modern Mentorship”, a campaign highlighting advice from top female leaders on innovation, agility and collaboration.
We met with women who lead nonprofits, financial tech organizations, climate tech companies and more. Mentorship plays a huge role in my life and in our agency. In the spirit of collaboration, we marked our anniversary by celebrating modern mentorship.
Quiet quitting, The Great Resignation, are an ongoing trend causing many businesses to struggle to keep talent engaged and motivated. Most are leaving because of their boss or their company culture. 82% of people feel unheard, undervalued, and misunderstood in the workplace. In your experience, what keeps employees happy? And how are you adapting to the current shift we see?
Tiffany Guarnaccia: As a mother and entrepreneur, one of my priorities when starting my business was to cultivate an inclusive environment that makes work-life balance a priority.
I wanted a workplace where every employee could feel excited to go to work every day and share the passion of PR with each other. At Kite Hill, we have created a dynamic environment that centers around work but also takes into account that our employees have other things going on.
Teamwork is the foundation of our agency culture. Being able to rely on your team is essential to creating a healthy working culture. We achieve this through virtual and in-person team building activities. We pivoted to a fully virtual workforce at the start of the pandemic which has enabled us to grow our talent base across the country.
We host retreats and when we’re together in person, it makes the experience that much more purposeful and appreciated; providing team members with an opportunity to bond outside of the virtual landscape. This is how you create a happy, healthy working environment that makes employees feel valued.
Online business keeps on surging higher than ever, B2B, B2C, online shopping, virtual meetings, remote work, Zoom medical consultations, what are your expectations for the year to come and how are you capitalizing on the tidal wave?
Tiffany Guarnaccia: I hope that businesses are taking the necessary steps to adapt. In the coming year, I see more and more conversations on the implementation of AI in tech stacks. While still in the early stages of development, it is clear that it is here to stay. Those who do not embrace it will be left behind.
We are currently looking into how AI can be used for the background research stages and administrative tasks. In our industry, it’s important to have a holistic view of a client’s industry and where its competitors are being featured. AI can help to create reports on clients and aid in the initial aspects of strategic planning.
Business is all about overcoming obstacles and creating opportunities for growth. What do you see as THE real challenge right now?
Tiffany Guarnaccia: Despite the excitement around AI, there are limitations and potential pitfalls it can bring to any industry if not used responsibly. For example, content creation. AI is still in its development stage and needs to be heavily reviewed by humans before its content can be brought to the public.
The AI boom is reminiscent of the early 2000’s and the sudden rise in contextual advertising. While the newest innovation drew excitement, there were mistakes made that demonstrated the need for a human touch. The system generated an ad for luggage next to a New York Post article about a murder involving a suitcase.
The technology was programmed to run ads to match the content it would run alongside. While there is an opportunity to streamline content creation, we need to remember that humans and AI need to work hand-in-hand for the content to be applicable.
2020, 2021, and 2022 threw a lot of curve balls into businesses on a global scale. Based on the experience gleaned in the past years, how can businesses thrive in 2023? What lessons have you learned and what advice would you share?
Tiffany Guarnaccia: The pandemic completely changed every aspect of our lives and the way that we now conduct business. Personally, I learned the importance of taking a second to reflect on the things that matter to you most. This is extremely important for your own development.
I also learned how flexibility and adapting to the changes that life throws at you is key. This influenced the positive changes we made at Kite Hill PR. Like many companies, we went from in-office to working remotely via Zoom calls and Google Meets.
While we always offered unlimited PTO, we embraced a fully “work from anywhere” policy and flexible hours allowing our employees time to disconnect and recharge. We also added balance as a core company value to reflect our commitment. This has enabled team growth across the country and overall employee satisfaction.
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?
Tiffany Guarnaccia: I’ve been told that my business superpower is to help people feel that anything is possible. I hope to harness that further as my job as a leader is to empower others. I focus on listening to others and sharing my knowledge to help my team constantly level up and aim for the stars.
Jed Morley, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Tiffany Guarnaccia 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 Tiffany Guarnaccia or her company, you can do it through her – Linkedin Page
Disclaimer: The ValiantCEO Community welcomes voices from many spheres on our open platform. We publish pieces as written by outside contributors with a wide range of opinions, which don’t necessarily reflect our own. Community stories are not commissioned by our editorial team and must meet our guidelines prior to being published.
