Today, we are delighted to welcome Marjie Hadad as our guest.
Marjie is a PR expert who has spent the last 4 decades working in media and public relations in various countries. She currently assists private individuals and individual business owners.
Marjie joins us today to share her insights and experience. Tune in to find out how to become more successful in your business and at home.
Marjie’s Journey
Marjie has spent 40 years in media and public relations, working as a reporter, anchor, and producer, and she even won an Emmy Award. She later became an agent in the modeling industry before launching her PR career. For the past 25 years, she has run her own firm, working with clients globally and specializing in medical and venture capital.
Speaking and Training
Today, Marjie focuses on professional speaking and leadership training. Her work focuses on teaching individuals and companies to use communication and PR skills strategically to achieve their goals.
Internal and External PR
Marjie explains that PR applies internally and externally, and that success comes from clear, strategic communication on both levels. Internally, leaders must communicate a vision to inspire their teams. Externally, they should craft and share important messages with their target audience to build partnerships, launch products, or raise funds.
Winning Clients Through Communication
For small businesses, everything starts with the unmet needs of the client. Good communication begins with listening, then positioning your expertise as the solution. Your key messages should reflect how you want people to remember you after the conversation. Marjie recommends going beyond talk and showing your potential clients what you can deliver.
Handling Social Media and Cancel Culture
For adverse online reactions, Marjie advises people to remain positive and professional. She explains that every comment does not require a reply, and sometimes, the best move is to stay silent. If you do engage, keep it respectful and professional, addressing disrespect calmly, deleting toxic remarks, or inviting the person to continue the conversation privately. The key is to remain composed and protect your reputation while deciding which approach best fits the situation.
Building Company Culture
Constructive guidance, support, and recognition foster loyalty and performance. Leaders within organizations should rally their teams around a shared vision and show how their contributions matter. They should also view mistakes as learning opportunities rather than reasons to humiliate people.
Utilizing her PR Skills
Marjie has even applied PR strategies in her family life, which she detailed in her book, The Power of PR Parenting. She applied communication tools, such as crisis management, presentations, and constructive contracts, to raise her children into confident, resilient adults. Her mistakes became lessons, and she reinforced her expectations with agreements.
Communication Across Generations
When it comes to younger generations and technology, Marjie does not see texting as a threat but rather as another mode of communication with its own language. She stresses the importance of giving children real-life opportunities to practice social and communication skills so technology becomes an addition rather than a replacement for human interaction.
Bio: Marjie Hadad
Marjie Hadad has been in media and public relations for 40 years. She is a globally recognized public relations expert, a former television news journalist, an award-winning television producer, and an award-winning author. Specializing in medical and venture capital PR, she designs strategic programs to support the business, clinical, and personal objectives of her clients. A dynamic professional speaker and executive coach, Marjie empowers teams to use THEIR public relations skills to solve various problems and achieve organizational, professional, and personal goals. Her diverse career includes roles as an agent at Ford Model Management in Boston and a media liaison for the Consulate General of Israel to New England. She is the founder of Must Have Communications and Consulting.
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“You are the who for their how.”
Marjie Hadad
Full transcript of episode 286 of The Business of Meetings podcast, Eric Rozenberg with Marjie Hadad. Lightly edited for readability.
Eric Rozenberg: Hello and welcome to the Business of Meetings podcast. I’m your host, Eric Rozenberg.
Over the years, I’ve had the privilege of helping businesses in the meetings and event industry grow and succeed. And I’m excited to share that experience with you. If you feel alone and overwhelmed, and if you’re looking to take your business to the next level, improve your strategy and sales, and connect with like-minded professionals, you are in the right place. I invite you to visit eventbusinessformula.com and join our community of event business owners dedicated to exponential growth.
Now let’s dive into today’s episode.
Hello and welcome to new episode of the Business of Meetings podcast, and today I have the great pleasure speaking with Marjie Hadad. She had a global experience. She’s been working out on how many countries. She’s been working in medical field, in M&A. She’s an expert in PR, and she’s helping today individual business owners also on the private side. But how can you use everything that she learned during her career to be more successful, whether is it in business or at home? Marjie, thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me today.
Marjie Hadad: I’m so happy to be here. How you doing today?
Eric Rozenberg: Very well. Another beautiful day in South Florida.
Marjie Hadad: But I see a background with the sea. That’s beautiful.
Eric Rozenberg: Right. We have four seasons. Hot, very hot, extremely hot, and humid. So that’s great.
Marjie Hadad: I’ve been to Florida many times, actually, on a revolving door for the last 40 years. So I understand you.
Eric Rozenberg: You have such an amazing career, and we were introduced thanks to my good friend Pim van Wesel. Tell us a little bit about your journey.
Marjie Hadad: My journey. I started off an awful long time ago. Hopefully I don’t look it, but I’ve been around in the business and media and PR for 40 years. And I’ve been on air and behind the scenes as a reporter, an anchor, a producer. I am an Emmy Award winner. I worked as an agent in the modeling industry for a little while, where I was always the shortest person in the room. And then I went off and started my public relations career about 32 years ago.
And fast forward to today, I have been in the business commercially with a big agency, but running my own firm for the last 25 years, actually 25-plus years, with a specialty in medical and venture capital. And that’s actually how I met Pim, who you mentioned previously. Pim and I worked together. He was the CEO of a wonderful company, and I helped him out with his public relations. And to your point earlier, yes, I work globally in all continents.
Eric Rozenberg: That’s amazing. And you speak multiple languages, and you’re dealing with different culture. So what is today the focus of your business? Because you are more a full-time speaker now, right? And trainer.
Marjie Hadad: That is correct. I have transitioned into becoming a full-time professional speaker and interactive workshop and leadership training coach. And I work with companies of all sizes and people from all different backgrounds, because when it comes to public relations, here’s the thing, Eric. We all have PR skills, communication skills. The question is how effectively, efficiently, and strategically are we using them to solve whatever problem we might have at hand and to achieve whatever goal we’re interested in at the moment. How do we get what we want? How do we go to where we want to go? Using our communication skills. That’s what we’re talking about.
Eric Rozenberg: That’s a great program.
Marjie Hadad: Strategy, the whole thing. Because wherever we go, we can take these skills and use them to experience success.
Eric Rozenberg: You say everyone has PR skill. I agree with you. And I’m thinking about some people, and I wonder where they hide their PR skills sometimes, including myself when I have something that really bothers me. You can tell it on my face. But can you give us some example in a business setting first of how you can use those PR skills to get to what you want?
Marjie Hadad: Well, when we’re talking about a company, publicly traded or even privately held, there’s two versions of the public relations skill application. There’s internal PR and there’s external PR.
So internally, how do you share your vision with your team to inspire them to want to support the effort, to contribute their own special skills to achieve the overall success, and to problem solve along the way?
Externally, how do you figure out your key messages, the stories that go along with your key messages, to share with your target market, with whoever that is, to accept and receive the messages as you intend them to be received in order to achieve your goal? Whether it’s a partnership, it’s an IPO, it’s fundraising, it’s a new initiative you’re launching, it’s a new product you’re launching, all of this comes down to how are you communicating in your business internally and externally to create a harmonious situation of achievement and success.
Eric Rozenberg: So if I’m a small business in the meetings and event industry and I’m dealing with corporate client, for instance, where do you think I can use the skills, and what can I do to get betterly convincing my client to work with me?
Marjie Hadad: First of all, we always have to remember, and you already know this because you’re a pro, it’s always about the client. The reason why they’re going to hire you is because you know something or you have an expertise in something that they do not. You are the who for their how.
Eric Rozenberg: Right.
Marjie Hadad: I always say if you want to get something done properly, go to the expert. So there’s a whole lot of things that I’m not particularly good at, or frankly speaking, I don’t want to be good at. So I go find somebody to help me out with that.
When you are pitching a new client, what is the unmet need that you can fill? So first of all, part of good communication is listening, and then sharing with them how you can help them. So you communicate your value added through your key messages. Key messages: what is it that you want to share with them? When they think about you, how should they think about you? What do you want them to remember at the end of your conversation and a week later? So that they have a feeling that, yes, I respect this company. I respect Eric and his contributions and his specialties, and yes, he’s my guy when it comes to event planning, or whatever it is that the small business would have in mind, or a larger business, for that matter. This can happen on any kind of scale or level.
Eric Rozenberg: Right. Absolutely.
Marjie Hadad: Now, in terms of event planning, which I absolutely love that you do, the extra step would be to provide an experience for your client or your potential client, to not just tell them what you’re going to do, but show them what you’re going to do.
So perhaps you take them, and I often did this in public relations when I was planning a press junket or media breakfast or any kind of gala. I would go to the location, or a location, scouting out what would be the best place to do whatever it is that we want to do, and then I would literally close my eyes after I got a good look, and I would imagine what I want the end product to look like. In public relations, we always think: what’s the short, medium, and long-term goal? So what’s the net result? I would close my eyes, imagine the end product, and that is what I would create. And that experience is what I would introduce to my potential client, and hopefully we were on the same page.
Now here’s the thing: the client is the final decision maker. So you can bring your expertise, you can make your most professional suggestions and recommendations, but ultimately it’s up to the client to decide what’s right for them. And so they might pick a little of this, a little of that, and then the net result, because you are a professional, will come out beautifully.
Eric Rozenberg: So you have said something about the way people are focusing on the client, and I love that. Be a good listener. Too often I see with the business owners I’m coaching, they go straight in their pitch into “this is what we can do, this is what we can do, and this is what we can do,” focusing on logistics instead of, first of all, asking the questions, which is a very important point.
Now, I was thinking, when you are, again, I’m focusing on small business owners, but today with social media, you have to be present. And we both know that sometimes the cancel culture, as my friend Evan Nierman would say, would come into place because you said something that somebody disagree with, or they have a different opinion, and immediately going to the extreme. How should you react in that case? What is your advice? I’m a business owner. I’ve posted something which might be a little controversial, and people are reacting, or some people are reacting extremely violently. What should be my reaction?
Marjie Hadad: Well, first of all, your reaction, if you have any reaction, because sometimes things are just better not react. Just don’t react. You always want to keep things positive. You always want to be respectful, and you always want to be a lady and a gentleman and professional.
And people who are argumentative, listen, they’re entitled to their opinion. As long as they’re respectful about how they share their own opinion, fair enough. Everyone gets to have one. If they are disrespectful, though, you have a choice. You can call them out and say, “I’m terribly sorry, but I find this disrespectful.” Period. And then that’s the end of the comment. Or you can always delete somebody’s comment on social media if you find that it does not belong there. It does not contribute. It is toxic, and you don’t want it there. So that’s another way to handle it. Or you just leave it there and don’t say anything. Or you can engage, but again, respectfully. Up to you.
Eric Rozenberg: That is something that in some situation, staying calm, being respect…
Marjie Hadad: People being respectful.
Eric Rozenberg: Yes. And I’ve burned some bridges sometimes. I know people would say you never should burn bridges, but sometimes it feels not only good, but the only way that people will accept, because you’ve tried to talk and you try to reason and you try to remain polite, and there’s no effect on it.
Marjie Hadad: I think, Eric, this is a real case-by-case kind of question, and it’s definitely not one-size-fits-all.
Eric Rozenberg: Right.
Marjie Hadad: I’ve shared different ways to approach an opinion that differs from your own, and depending on the level of antagonism, you can decide what’s best for you and what’s best for that post.
Eric Rozenberg: I think that’s the key, is to have two people that are, even if they disagree, they still want to talk. And if one of them doesn’t want to, well, you need to be two to tango. So…
Marjie Hadad: That is correct. And as long as there’s open communication. And sometimes you just need to agree to disagree. That’s okay, too. We’re not always going to agree on the same things. We all have different personalities. We have different backgrounds. We have different ways of seeing things, and that’s perfectly okay. The trouble really starts when the line of communication closes down.
So another way to reply would be, “If this is something that you would like to take offline and have a conversation, I’m inviting you to have a private conversation to deep dive a little bit and explore how we can maybe come to some common terms.”
I actually did this with somebody recently. Someone approached me privately through one of the social media channels, and she complained about something, and my first response to her was, “Well, why are you upset?” So she replied why she was upset, which told me how she saw things, and I completely disagree with her assessment based on what I know to be true. So I replied, “If you would like, I’ll be glad to have a conversation with you, and we can talk this through rather than in two sentences…”
Eric Rozenberg: Right.
Marjie Hadad: “…two sentences’ worth of social media text through a DM.” And her reply to me was, “I don’t want to have a conversation, but here’s how I see things.” And she sent me information. So I replied, “Okay, well, this is why I posted what I posted,” and gave her proof of what I was saying, and then sent her additional information contrary to the information that she was sending to me. And I said, “Look, I’ve known you for many, many years, so the door is always open if you want to talk.” No reply.
So the fact that this person doesn’t want to have a proper discussion tells me that this is a hit and run, and I’m probably not going to change their mind, because they don’t want their minds to be changed.
Eric Rozenberg: Absolutely.
Marjie Hadad: Sometimes people just kind of dig into how they see things, and if that’s the case, then that tells you who you’re dealing with.
Eric Rozenberg: Absolutely. But it’s very interesting, as you’re saying the sentence, “We agree to disagree.” I know a lot of people are using it. That triggers me. I’m just like, no, I disagree with you. I still like you, but I disagree. I’m not going to agree to disagree. And also the…
Marjie Hadad: Go ahead. Eric, it’s not just people are using it today. I’ve been using this since my kids were in elementary school…
Eric Rozenberg: Right.
Marjie Hadad: …with other mothers who saw things very differently than I did, and it wasn’t worth the argument. So, you see it one way, I see it another way. Let’s just agree to disagree, because we’re not going to get anywhere arguing each side, and we all need to get along. So let’s just leave it and put it to the side.
Eric Rozenberg: Yes. Pick your fight. Now, the other reaction I get sometimes as well when arguing, especially about the geopolitics, which I’m not going to go into today, but I give facts, and then “Yes, but,” and I give additional facts, which are basically explaining to the person that they’re wrong on this very topic. And then I get very often this “I don’t want to talk about it,” after having tried to say something and discounting the fact.
So, but anyway, going back to your expertise and your experience, and as a business owner how to use that. What I think is very important, and I coach people on developing their whole culture, their values in the company. Do you have any example or recommendation on how a small business owner can use what you teach to actually convince their team on a regular basis? Not even more convince, but rally their team so that they live and breathe the values. And what happen if someone doesn’t?
Marjie Hadad: I would say that this is multistep. First of all, you need to get your team excited about the vision of the company and the net result of achieving this vision, not just for the company, but for them, what they’re contributing to, and also for the world. Because whatever companies are doing, and they’re solving an unmet need or they’re providing something that makes people’s lives easier or helps them with their health, or I’ll just use an example in my own home. I have this machine, I call it Rosie, like from The Jetsons, because it cleans my floor and I don’t have to do it anymore. I love it. It solved a huge unmet need for me.
Now, when your team is exercising the strategy, they’re implementing the strategy that you have set forth, and they’re contributing with the skill sets that they have that you’ve hired them for. What if they mess up? How do you deal with that? Do you say, “That’s awful. How could you do that? You’re horrible. That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen. Go home and think about that again.” Or do you say, “Well, that’s one way to do it. Let’s think about how we can do this a different way so that we can have greater success together.” And then tell them what you want them to do and guide them rather than criticizing. Because I can promise you this: if somebody messes up, they’re already beating themselves up way more than you’re ever going to beat them up.
Eric Rozenberg: That’s true.
Marjie Hadad: Unless, of course, it’s intentional. If it’s intentional sabotage, that’s something else. But if somebody makes an honest mistake, rather than humiliating them publicly or privately, use it as a learning experience. Explain to them exactly what needs to be done so they know what to do the next time. Dwelling on the negative and the mistakes do not help. Don’t tell me what I did wrong. I already know what I did wrong. I’m trying to figure out what I need to do to do it right.
Guide rather than criticize, and put your team and everyone on your team back on track to help you get you and your company to where you want to go. That’s good public relations. That’s good internal public relations: vision, and then support your team. And if they do do well, tell them they did well, because we always hear and know when we mess up. We also need to hear when we are succeeding. Cheerleading is extremely important.
Eric Rozenberg: Absolutely. What you just said makes me think of the difference I experience in coming from Belgium and Europe and here in the US, in the education system. In Belgium, I answer out of 10 question, I have nine good answer and one bad answer. Many of the teacher would say, “Eric, this answer is very bad. How can you even answer that? This is crazy. You’re stupid.” I mean, they didn’t say “you’re stupid,” but really criticize and focusing only on the bad. And here, you have 10 questions, you answer one well and nine very bad. Many of the teacher will focus on the good answer and say, “Now for the rest, you have to make an effort,” which is also, I think, much, much better. But in terms of culture and the way you are supporting people, that is absolutely great.
Now, you talked about using your experience in a business setting, and you also say in a personal setting you can be using that. Do you have example in a personal setting? That can be in a family setting.
Marjie Hadad: Oh, sure. I have a whole book on that. That’s how this whole thing started. It’s called The Power of PR Parenting, and it was published a couple years ago. And ultimately, it’s about bringing your professional skills home to benefit your kids and your family. And in my case, I brought my public relations skills home to raise my children to be more confident, resilient, to help them to achieve more success along the way.
And spoiler alert, they’re all grown now. My son is 28, my older daughter’s 25, and my youngest is 20. And they’re all doing quite well and contributing to society, and they’re all nice people. So I would have to say PR parenting and a little bit of luck, or maybe a lot of bit of luck, and things have worked out pretty well.
But we go through crisis management and presentation and media skills and learning the value of things. And we also talk about violence and diversity and trying to respect differences and celebrate commonalities. We go through all sorts of different things about how our communication skills and the tools and strategies and practices and tactics in the public relations industry can be used and applied at home.
Now, I’ll give you an example with my kids. Whenever there was a rite of passage of any kind and entertainment was required, I recruited my children to be the entertainment at whatever function it was. My daughter sang, my son did break dancing, the little one did hip-hop, and they were the center of attention. And they learned to present to an audience of over a hundred people, and they had a great time doing whatever it is their talent lent for that particular experience.
Now, if we take this to another realm, we were talking before about making mistakes. We had a policy at home that we didn’t get angry if there were mistakes. If you did something intentionally and you knew the difference, then there was a consequence. And from that consequence ultimately came a contract, like we have at work. What do contracts serve? We know what the expectations are, and we know what will happen within those expectations. If you do the job, you get paid, right? At work. If you don’t do the job, you get fired, right? At home, if you do the job, great. If you don’t do the job, there are consequences. What are those consequences?
So on occasion, when the kids would not do something that they were expected to do, we would set a contract for the next time, and I would have the kids set their consequences so they understood that we meant business, and we would both sign on it. And that seemed to work.
And we also, how do we measure success? Did you do better on your test than you did the last time? In my case, success is if I don’t burn something on the stove. But that’s a whole another bag of potatoes of stories, because I’m the world’s worst cook. If I don’t burn the toast, it’s been a very successful day.
Outside of the home, a very recent example is I was out to lunch with a friend of mine, and at the end of the lunch, my friend asked the waitress for the bill twice, and the waitress was basically ignoring us. So I said, “Let me try this.” So I called the waitress over. I said, “Come here, please.” She comes over, and I said to her, “I will understand that if I don’t have the bill in the next five minutes, that our meals are free.” [Laughter] And this is the expression I had on my face, and smiled. I didn’t attack her. I didn’t complain. I gave her a very, very strong I-message. That concept is not something that I created, but I use regularly. Eric, I had that bill in 30 seconds.
Eric Rozenberg: Yeah, sure. I’m sure.
Marjie, I’m looking at people in general in different generation working in the companies, and to do what you’ve been talking about today, and I want to end this conversation with that, you need to have a minimum of skills, of social skills, being able to interact with people. Do you see any difference today, when I see a lot of people that are basically looking at their phone since a young age now? I mean, one of my daughter was on her phone the other day. I said, “Oh, what are you doing?” And she said, “I’m talking with my friends.” “No, you’re not. You’re texting.” She said, “Well, no, I’m talking.” “No, you’re texting.” And obviously we’re very outgoing and training them to be around adults and everything, but in general, I’m concerned that those type of skills are being lost because of the machine. Do you see any of that, or is it something that I shouldn’t fear?
Marjie Hadad: I think it’s another mode of communication that has its own language. As long as we create opportunities or leverage existing opportunities that teach our children communication skills, then the texting is fine. And it’s just a shorthand, ultimately. Kind of like I have my robot, my shorthand for washing the floors.
Eric Rozenberg: Right.
Marjie Hadad: If we embrace technology for its benefits, but only use it as yet another vehicle to communicate, then that’s fine. As long as it’s not the only way we communicate.
Eric Rozenberg: Great point. Absolutely. Well, that’s a wonderful point. Thank you so much. How do people get in touch with you?
Marjie Hadad: People can reach out to me on LinkedIn, and they can also find me on my website, which is really easy: marjiehadad.com. Marjie Hadad, and Marjie, M-A-R-J-I-E. Yes. If you’re looking at this screen, for anyone who’s watching this, look on the, I’m going to say, bottom left. I’m not sure if that’s how you’re going to see it, but that’s where my name is spelled. And my email is actually marjie@marjiehadad.com. Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious easy.
Eric Rozenberg: Wow. I don’t know. I know, I’m not going to do that. Marjie, my last question for today. When we meet in a year time, a year from today, with a bottle of champagne, what are we going to celebrate?
Marjie Hadad: We are going to celebrate a full speaking tour in all continents around the world.
Eric Rozenberg: Wonderful. That’s the best I wish you. Thank you so much for coming on the podcast today, and I look forward to seeing your tour when you come to America.
Marjie Hadad: I can’t wait to come to Miami. Peace, love, and light to everyone. And my parting statement is: eye on the donut, not on the hole.
Eric Rozenberg: Thank you for tuning in to the Business of Meetings podcast. I hope you found today’s episode valuable. If you enjoyed the show, the most important thing you can do is leave a review and share it with your colleagues. It really helps spread the word. I truly appreciate your support. And if you’re ready to take your business to the next level, don’t forget to visit eventbusinessformula.com to learn more about how we are helping event business owners like you. Thanks again for listening, and I’ll see you next time.
