The Power of Personal Branding: Ana Martins Of Ana Martins Communications On How Publicists Shape Influential Leaders
An Interview With Chad Silverstein
Be Professional. Your personal brand is the sum of your good works and reputation. If we learned anything from today’s hyper connected world, with its endless platforms, 24/7 news cycle, and the Me-Too era, it’s that ill-chosen words and bad deeds can and will come back to haunt you! This can include anything from corporate financial mismanagement and employee relations to your personal romantic relations, off-duty interactions with the public, and inflammatory social media posts. So — think before you act or speak, so you don’t let one bad day undermine all your good work!
In today’s digital-first world, personal branding has emerged as a cornerstone of professional success and influence. Behind many of the most recognized leaders and personalities stands a strategic partnership with skilled publicists who craft and convey their stories, values, and visions to the world. I had the pleasure of interviewing Ana Martins.
Ana is the head of publicity, promotion, and public relations at Ana Martins Communications — one of the luxury and fashion industries’ leading boutique communications agencies. Her career spans more than two decades, over which time, through her extensive network, deep client relationships, marketing innovations, and high-profile projects, Ana Martins has helped re-invent the perception of luxury public relations, branding, and communications with an unrivaled dedication to superior, results-driven customer service.
Ana’s respected professional alliances further expanded her client base to include some of the top domestic and international luxury watch and jewelry clients in the industry. Ana launched a public relations showroom in the heart of Manhattan with a mission of helping international designers establish their first footprint in the United States. Frequented by top editors and stylists, today, the Ana Martins Communications Showroom and Madison Avenue corporate offices house product samples and the latest collections from leading international brands. The showroom frequently plays host to events and open houses throughout the year.
Thank you for joining us. To start, could you share your “origin story” with our readers? How did you begin your journey, and what challenges did you face in the early days?
I began my PR journey overseeing PR and promotional campaigns for one of the most influential fashion designers in modern history — Gianni Versace. The biggest lesson I learned from Gianni is that the best PR is grounded in authenticity, and that you reputation precedes you. As a leader, your integrity and hard work speaks volumes. These are the most lasting PR moves you can make. When you are very good and do good, the PR comes easy– and others are quick to praise your name!
Following those formative early years, I went on to work as Director of Marketing and Public Relations for the designer fragrance distributor of Dolce & Gabbana and Moschino fragrances. Next, I assumed the Senior Account Executive role at Evins Communications in the fashion and accessories division, where I worked with major industry players including Tourneau, Ebel, and Charles Worthington.
When my friend Jason Binn, publisher of Hamptons Magazine and Ocean Drive, asked me to help publicize the launch of Gotham Magazine, it proved the perfect impetus to strike out on my own as a PR and communications consultant. In the next years, I worked with Luca Luca, Teenflo, Maxim Fashion, and Blender Magazines, before going on to found Ana Martins Communications, Inc. in 2001, and going on to service global luxury brands, fine watchmakers, fine jewelry houses, and fashion entities.
Since the early days, like many female entrepreneurs, I’ve had my share of , there setbacks as well as triumphs — and have been discounted, downplayed, and passed over, but I’ve taken delight in proven naysayers wrong — never backing down, always showing up, and letting my integrity, reputation, and proven results do all the talking.
I’ve seen some wildly challenging times over the course of my career. The agency has weathered the post 9/11 years, 2008 downturn, the challenging post-Covid era, and throughout it all, an ever-shifting media landscape. Painful though these times may have been in the short term, we took them as opportunities for evolution and growth.
I’m proud to say that my agency, Ana Martins Communications, has been going strong for over 20 years — and along the way, it’s been my honor to work with some incredible and inspiring leaders — many of whom I now call friends.
Can you share a transformative moment or campaign in your career where you significantly altered the personal brand of a leader, and what was the impact of that change?
Over the years, I’ve had the honor of helping many clients get started from scratch– launching and introducing a brand and the personalities behind it to the marketplace and broader public for the very first time.
For us, these types of ongoing client relationships represent an exciting opportunity to build a brand from the ground up — from creating and optimizing corporate branding and channels to ultimately introducing its executives and products to the public eye.
We took on one particular client, and within a year went from almost no market recognition to landing brand coverage on CNN, Forbes, the New York Times, Robb Report, and other elite publications. For them, investing in building their personal brand has proven to be transformational, opening the door to ever larger audiences and business opportunities.
This was not an overnight process, but something that we worked together with the client to build over years — measuring the results and refining and evolving their messaging to further their evolving business goals. As a result of their trust and investment, today, the executives of this brand are recognized figures in their industry. Now, instead of pitching the media, journalists come to them as commentators. That is the power of personal branding.
What are the most common misconceptions leaders have about personal branding, and how do you address these in your work?
Many leaders think too narrowly. Personal branding is not limited solely to a headshot, a business card, a corporate bio, or a LinkedIn page.
Each of those elements are important, but they are only the starting line. A personal brand is an ecosystem you create that encompasses everything you do and say as a leader and a public personality — everything from podcast or broadcast interview quotes to the verbiage of your social profile bios, your personal style, and methods of engagement with the media, your team, and your customers.
I help clients define their corporate persona and identify better ways to leverage and expand their platforms to amplify their messaging and highlight their strengths and unique expertise. The goal is to raise their profile and define their personal brand by highlighting the authentic parts of themselves that set them apart as one of the leading voices of record in their field.
How do you navigate the balance between a leader’s authentic self and the public persona you craft for them in their branding strategy?
We encourage our clients to clearly envision how they want to be perceived in the media eye, with the end consumer, and in the public realm.
Everything you do or say in the public eye — whether a social media post, a corporate holiday card, a conference presentation, an introductory letter in a company catalog, an e-mail blast, or even your one-on-one encounters with people — these are the building blocks of your persona and tenure as a leader. Everything you do or say can either build you up or tear you down.
What are the most common misconceptions leaders have about personal branding, and how do you address these in your work?
I think it is important for clients to realize that building and protecting your personal brand is a 24/7 job.
In this hyper digital age, it is important to always be “on” — and realize that there’s no such thing as containing things behind closed doors anymore, either with consumers or your own employees and vendors.
Clients aren’t shy about giving real-time reviews of their experiences on Google Business, Yelp, Reddit, and their social feeds. By the same token, if you treat employees and service workers shabbily behind closed doors, leave a string of unpaid vendor bills, or run afoul of the law, you may find your name outed by a whistleblower and broadcast across the world in the blink of an eye.
At Ana Martins Communications, we offer damage control PR services to help protect against these mishaps, and in the event of a crisis, to address and counteract the prevailing narrative. Mistakes happen, and I believe that everyone deserves a second chance to set things right and tell their story. I’m proud to offer services to help get people out of a jam and back on the right track.
The best solution of all, of course, is to guard your reputation fiercely knowing that, as a high-profile leader, your words and actions reflect back on your company and career as a whole.
In a crisis situation, what steps do you take to protect or rehabilitate the personal brand of a leader?
We develop counter narratives and communications that help shore up a personal and/or corporate brand while burying bad press. One of my proudest jobs was a damage control project, in which our company helped build positive coverage after a leader’s personal setback.
The project was a resounding and transformational success that set the client on a trajectory for global expansion and growth that continues today.
Could you list and briefly explain “5 Things You Need to Know to Shape a Personal Brand” based on your experiences and insights? If you can, please share a story or example for each.
1 . Be Authentic. Authenticity is everything today. With more channels and more platforms than ever, it can be easy to mix messages. Don’t try to adopt a persona that rings false or can easily be undermined. When you’re being yourself, it’s easy to stay on message — because the message is authentically you!
2 . Be Professional. Your personal brand is the sum of your good works and reputation. If we learned anything from today’s hyper connected world, with its endless platforms, 24/7 news cycle, and the Me-Too era, it’s that ill-chosen words and bad deeds can and will come back to haunt you! This can include anything from corporate financial mismanagement and employee relations to your personal romantic relations, off-duty interactions with the public, and inflammatory social media posts. So — think before you act or speak, so you don’t let one bad day undermine all your good work!
3 . Be Open. Too many leaders try to over-script things and hyper-control their brand messaging out of a fear of engaging directly with the public or the media. This can be a misstep. Being too remote or rigid and afraid to engage with more open forums, interviews, and Q&A sessions can actually rob you of the opportunity to open yourself up to conversation, questions, and invaluable feedback that can help you better understand the current market perception of both you and your company. You can leverage this intelligence to help shore up your communications and positioning to answer any lingering questions that arise from consumers or the media.
4 . Be Professional. On the opposite side of the spectrum, there’s something to be said about being very available, but for those clients who love public speaking and maintain active online social channels, it’s still important to maintain a balance and keep some things private. We advise clients to use their corporate channels wisely — and to leave anything more personal to their private social media accounts, which can be configured as private.
5 . Be Consistent. The #1 thing I tell all PR clients is that repetition is everything. We help clients define their values and voice and keep hammering those points home across all materials and channels. The key thing is not to expect huge results from a one-off press release.
Journalists want to know you have staying power and that you have a clear message, voice, and unique offerings. We always follow the initial volley of communications with a cadence of frequent related and evolving talking points that always reiterate the key messaging. This is the way to stay on the media’s radar and top of mind. Keep telling people who you are and what you care about and that repetition will resonate.
Looking forward, how do you see the role of technology and social media evolving in the way publicists shape and manage the personal brands of leaders?
Everything is visible, everything is interconnected, and all that content is easily searchable in seconds. Looking to the future, especially with the AI revolution well underway, leaders should understand this will only continue to escalate, with vast quantities of info at hand for public digestion and cross-reference. For PR purposes, the takeaway is that what you say online has a ripple effect on your workplace, industry, affiliated partners, community, family members, and broader network.
Viral positive coverage uplifts, while a media firestorm can quickly spiral, as we’ve all seen unfold in real time when a celebrity’s politically incorrect old Halloween costume or late-night tweet came back to haunt them. It’s absolutely worth the time to audit and edit your old social feeds to delete anything that might blow back on you and undermine your leadership profile today. Furthermore, I urge leaders to create a second “public” profile and keep their personal interactions and posts private on a separate channel.
That said — privacy these days is almost an illusion, and everyone should remember that screenshots live forever. Think carefully before posting a political joke or something more inflammatory on your private profile, email, or in a text exchange… so, don’t’ put anything in writing that you wouldn’t feel comfortable tracking back to you!
How can our readers follow your work?
Our agency is very active on our Instagram channel, and we also use our website anamartinscommunications.com as a digital newsroom, dedicated to sharing the latest luxury news to journalists and the broader public. It’s also a showcase of our work — which includes traditional public relations, as well as marketing, branding, and content building services.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anamartinspr/
Website: https://anamartinscommunications.com/
Thank you for offering such valuable insights into the power of personal branding. We wish you continued success in all of your work.
About the Interviewer: Chad Silverstein, a seasoned entrepreneur with over two decades of experience as the Founder and CEO of multiple companies. He launched Choice Recovery, Inc., a healthcare collection agency, while going to The Ohio State University, His team earned national recognition, twice being ranked as the #1 business to work for in Central Ohio. In 2018, Chad launched [re]start, a career development platform connecting thousands of individuals in collections with meaningful employment opportunities, He sold Choice Recovery on his 25th anniversary and in 2023, sold the majority interest in [re]start so he can focus his transition to Built to Lead as an Executive Leadership Coach. Learn more at www.chadsilverstein.com
The Power of Personal Branding: Ana Martins Of Ana Martins Communications On How Publicists Shape… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.