Founder and CEO of ARTÉMIA Communications Barbara Wichmann labored internationally as a guide earlier than founding ARTÉMIA as a ladies’s enterprise enterprise (WBE) in 1995. In each capacities, she developed and executed strategic communications and advertising in addition to VIP partnership growth campaigns for purchasers on a number of continents.
As well as, Wichmann serves on the board of a number of organizations and lectures frequently on sustainability and associated points. When she’s not working her firm, she dedicates time to Ladies Impacting Public Coverage Schooling Institute in addition to Ladies Enterprise Enterprise Nationwide Council (WBENC) and WBEC-Pacific.
Drawing inspiration from her adolescence within the Netherlands, Wichmann, embraces a world strategy that’s deeply ingrained in her values. Residing in a rustic recognized for its dedication to ecological practices, innovation-driven mindset, and multicultural society, the founder’s core rules of sustainability and variety have been formed. Her international perspective fuels her imaginative and prescient for ARTÉMIA and drives the corporate’s unwavering dedication to making a sustainable and inclusive future.
We caught up with Wichmann to get her tackle the way forward for the communications business.
What guide, podcast or different media do you suggest to different comms professionals?
I could also be a little bit biased as a result of I personally know Dr. Patricia Anderson, nonetheless, I might nonetheless suggest her guide “You Know Much less Than You Don’t Know” if I didn’t. It’s a nice learn for these searching for to grow to be more practical leaders. Dr. P, as she is thought, is an skilled in genuine transformational management and her guide does a superb job of breaking down the variations between change and transformation, and how you can lead in a method that drives the latter.
What’s your favourite instrument you utilize frequently for work?
Now we have all the time been early adopters of recent expertise; nonetheless, it wasn’t till the COVID-19 pandemic that we started actually leveraging Zoom. Earlier than, I spent fairly a little bit of time flying internationally to satisfy with purchasers face-to-face or dialing right into a convention name. When the whole lot shut down, including Zoom to the combination was important to proceed our operations. It’s nonetheless part of our day-to-day life as a result of it modified the best way our staff keep related with one another in addition to our purchasers and companions in a method I couldn’t have imagined.
We might have relied on convention calls, however I felt it was actually vital to have face time with the group, whether or not it was for a five-minute contact base or a full work session. Along with making us really feel much less remoted, it additionally made us extra environment friendly; it was simpler to ship a Zoom hyperlink to a number of folks for a brief briefing than it was to arrange a convention and display screen sharing made it simpler to remain on the identical web page.
Our purchasers had additionally moved to Zoom or Groups, and we have been in a position to “meet” folks we’d solely generally known as voices for years. I believed that was actually thrilling! I used to be in a position to get to know purchasers on a deeper degree because it was a extra casual one-on-one atmosphere that supplied all of us with perception into one another’s worlds.
Plus, the transfer to a digital house made it doable for me to attend extra conferences and occasions than I might earlier than whereas decreasing our carbon footprint. That’s an enormous deal to me, as sustainability has all the time been a core a part of our work. Though in-person occasions have resumed and I’m touring extra once more, Zoom has continued to maintain it to a minimal.
Furthermore, I’ve discovered Zoom to be an important equalizer. Everybody’s window is similar measurement, whether or not it’s a shopper, an intern, a senior author or me. I believe it made it much less intimidating for newer teammates which allowed us to attach on a extra private degree. It has unified us.
What excites you most about the way forward for communications?
Within the final 25+ years within the business, I’ve seen plenty of tendencies come and go. Nevertheless, the rise of expertise, together with social media, has completely redefined buyer expectations each within the B2B and B2C house. Corporations are anticipated to talk out and take a concrete place concerning social and environmental points. They have to be capable to show they reside the values they declare. Many firms are discovering it troublesome to speak with their goal audiences utilizing the methods they’ve relied on previously.
We’re experiencing a interval the place belief, authenticity and open dialogue are paramount. Folks need to join with actual tales and experiences now greater than ever; they should really feel seen and heard. At our core, we’re storytellers and messengers who’re able to serving to companies meet these wants. Corporations are realizing how worthwhile communication actually is and that creates plenty of thrilling alternatives for us.
What communications problem retains you up at evening?
I spend plenty of time enthusiastic about how we will push the boundaries of communication to make sure that no viewers is ever actually out of attain. It’s one thing that I care about deeply – DEIA has been one in every of our core values because the company’s infancy. I consider there may be immense energy in connecting with those that have been marginalized and missed – we uncover new concepts, problem present norms, construct stronger relationships, and foster innovation that advantages not solely these people however society as a complete.
Partaking with hard-to-reach audiences means breaking down boundaries and guaranteeing that everybody, no matter their background or circumstances, has entry to data, assets and alternatives. It’s about making a degree enjoying area and offering avenues for achievement and progress; it’s about constructing a society the place everybody’s voice issues, the place nobody is left behind, and the place we will all transfer ahead collectively.
What’s the most important problem you’ve overcome in your profession?
In our early days, we have been a product launch firm that primarily labored with tech startups. Our company started to broaden shortly in tandem with what would finally be dubbed the “dot com bubble.”
In fact, it burst as bubbles are likely to do and the telephones began ringing. Founders wanted to shut their accounts with us as a result of their funding was drying up. Consequently, we accelerated our diversification into different business segments.
Fortunately, we survived, and the expertise made the company extra resilient. It confirmed me the good thing about being much less specialised and I started to construct a extra “generalist” company backed by a group of specialists. This supplied a chance to broaden the companies we supplied in addition to the sorts of purchasers we served. Whereas we nonetheless like to work with startups right this moment, we additionally started aiding international companies.
The company was as robust as ever going into 2020. We had simply moved into a fantastic new workplace house and I used to be trying ahead to the work we’d do there, however then the world went into full lockdown mode. When the pandemic considerably impacted non-essential companies, it felt just like the dot com demise once more — besides this time, it wasn’t restricted to startups. I keep in mind trying round our workplace and enthusiastic about how empty it felt. All that was there was new furnishings and the burden of uncertainty hanging within the air.
Whereas issues slowed down, the industries deemed “important” had an elevated want for our help. We embraced the flexibleness that got here with the “new regular” to grow to be extra agile, which allowed us to construct and preserve stronger relationships with our purchasers. I’m grateful that we have been in a position to proceed doing significant work and in the end come out on the opposite facet. These two challenges have been each main crises and extremely worthwhile studying experiences.
What’s the greatest recommendation you’ve ever gotten?
One in all my vastly profitable friends who’s a thought chief within the logistics business informed me as soon as, “You possibly can’t take issues personally.” It was a reminder that purchasers function with their very own set of issues that might not be aligned with really helpful approaches or greatest practices.
Isis Simpson-Mersha is a convention producer/ reporter for Ragan. Comply with her on LinkedIn.
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