Founder & CEO of ZavoMedia PR Group, Liana Zavo, recounts how a college dropout and single mom made the jump from Russia to the US and from the style world to PR, gives a bit of advice for Blake Lively, reveals THE biggest PR mistake people make, how to come down from the ledge of panic in the moment, why authenticity and accountability equals authority, the difference between brand vs. reputation, and what it means to “B.E.P.I.C.”

Hello, Liana, how are you?

I'm doing great. Thank you so much for this

opportunity.

Hey, thank you for being here. So we have come

to talk about, which I think is going to be an incredibly

fascinating topic, especially this day and age, crisis

management, brand management, not wrong or right, but there

just definitely seems to be a lot of sensitivity in audiences.

Really wanted to start with, can you share a little bit about

your super interesting, unique journey to where you are now?

Absolutely, it all started when I was swayed from

my my goals and dreams and aspirations as a young girl in

high school, I wanted to be just like my grandmother, and she

want she was a journalist in Russia, and so it all started

when I heard her stories. She was leaving a legacy behind, and

the legacy was, tell your stories authentically. And she

taught me that, in itself, it's the art of storytelling. And I

was so blessed to have met her in my life and witnessed that.

And when I decided to get into PR, it all was because of her.

She taught me the art of communications. She taught me

that it is such a beautiful thing to tell other people's

stories, to elevate their presence, to inspire audiences.

There's so much you can do. And as a college dropout, I decided

to drop out of what I was pursuing at the time because I

couldn't pursue communications. My parents were not set on that

idea, because I had to travel a lot, and they wanted me to be

more conservative and stay back home and, you know, do what a

good little Jewish girl would should do.

How long have you been in the states?

Since I was nine.

Nine years old. Sorry, I just have to I bring

all this up because I think so much of it speaks to your story,

not just as a, you know, strong, powerful female, but also a

female with diversity. This isn't your original country.

This isn't your original language, even though I'm sure

you were taught English from a very young age. But I also think

that really speaks a lot to who you are and your story as well.

Well, I speak five languages.

Of course, you do.

I love languages. And of course, English is

something that I was taught from a young age. I think I was just

blessed to have that in my family. My parents spoke it, and

my mom used to read amazing books. She even named my sister,

Virginia, living in Russia. Think about that. My gosh, my

name is Virginia, like the state like, how?

Alright. So here you are. You are defying

your parents. You're dropping out of college. Single mom, odds

are against you in so many ways. What happens next?

I decide to go and pursue what I was really

passionate about, and that was styling. I love to style myself.

I styled my my mom, my dad, my dad would always ask, Well, what

tie goes with this shirt? My mom, I used to tell her, Mom, do

not dress like this. This is not the way you should be dressing

in America. She took my, you know, advice. I went shopping

with her from a young age. So that was just a hobby, and I

loved doing it. And so I said to myself, I dropped out of

college. I have a one year old in my arms, and I was about 20.

I got divorced at that time as well. So everything just

happened within the three year span, and I decided to go into

personal styling. Not only did I open up my own styling concierge

company at the age of 22 but I also did other things. On the

side, I said, You know what? Maybe I should also go into real

estate. Maybe I should also get my series six and 63 there was

so much that I did because I knew that the more I have under

my belt, because also I have this voice in back of my mind.

Did not graduate. You're a college dropout. Mind you, my

mother, former gynecologist, my father, they all have college

education, and I was such a great student in high school,

like, right? Tell you, I had all AP classes, and I was that

honorable student, and then I'm dropping out of college. That's

like, it doesn't even sit well with me, because I was such a

proud student. I loved learning, and I said to myself, I need to

self teach myself. I need to hone in on personal development.

I need to learn as much as I can get as many certificates as

possible, because, again, I don't want to sabotage myself

because thinking that someone will point a finger and say,

Well, what do you have? Under your belt, like, are you even

educated? But life taught me so much that I said I'm not going

to be afraid to take this on. And I think that even if I did

graduate college, maybe I wouldn't be as a go getter I am

today. You know, I became an animal, a beast in my own

respect. You know, I knew that I had to survive. And even though

I come from a great family. You know my my family comes to the

hospitality industry, but I knew that I don't want to fall back

on any of them. I wanted to leave my own legacy. I need to

do this on my terms, because my son is looking up to me. And I

just knew that I had to consume as much information as possible

and hire mentors along the way. And I have, I was very fortunate

to find amazing mentors that taught me storytelling, business

and leverage, right? I found the art of leveraging. How can I

leverage this relationship in order to get to the next level

in my career?

How do we get to a PR firm?

You know, when there is a will, there is a way, when

there is a desire, burning desire in you, and there's it's

always been the back of my mind. I've always wanted to pursue

journalism, communications. I grew up with a grandmother was a

journalist. Now think about that. It was always in back of

my mind, and I knew that this dream will have to come to

fruition one way or another. But how do I get there? I need to

meet the meet the right people. So every woman that I styled

when I was selling for like, high, top tier hotels in the

city, which is like, I would say, St Regis Hotel, I would go

to a plaza hotel. These women were high caliber, right? They

would come from all over the world, or even from New York

City. And when I used to get them dressed for charities and

galas, I would always ask them, like, so what do you do? Like,

it was a conversation, right? We always have to find a way to

talk about something that's, well, first of all, it's

therapeutic. You know, you wear this dress, you wear that, and

it's conversation starts, and that's storytelling. And so one

of them, she says, You know, I don't know what you're doing

really suits you. And I'm like, the light bulb went just off.

I'm like, Tell me more. She says, you know, I see you as a

visionary, and I think that you should definitely come and

consult from my skincare line. So I know that you know this.

Hopefully you know this is going to go viral. Her name is Marilla

Matan, and she's listening to this, and I know that she'll be

very proud of me. She encouraged me to step out of my comfort

zone. And mind you, I'm always finding ways. I told you to do

something new, to step out of my comfort zone, make myself feel

uncomfortable and and if it's scary, it's great. I'm on the

right path. She tells me, I want you to consult, and I want you

to take over the line at Berkeley Goodman, and I want you

to represent the line. And I'm like, okay, so how does this

work? I will introduce you to my PR agency, they will work with

you hand in hand. Don't you worry about it. And at that

time, my family was building out a restaurant in New York City on

the Upper East Side. So we had the restaurant on third and

60th, across street from Bloomingdale's Zabo. The name

still stands, by the way, if you guys want to pass by, but the

restaurant is being built out, and I'm trying to pivot now,

right? I'm not trying to say, You know what the restaurant is

going to be there, and I'm going to work for my family there was

never in my mind. I said that I will add value to my family's

restaurant, and that will be the branding. I will bring on a PR

team, because they will need a lot of that. We're in a city,

right? We need to compete with the with the big names. And so

she introduced me to the PR agency. And before she did that,

I went on five different interviews to actually inquire

about PR like I wanted to work as a whatever they would have

given me bringing them coffee. Hey, I'm there anything that

they would have offered. I would have taken that but nobody gave

me that opportunity. I was rejected from five PR agencies,

company like, nope. Do you have any college education? No, I

don't, but I can bring you a lot of leverage. Look, I know I have

a great network. Your network is your net worth, trust me, we can

find a way, like I thought of it differently. Education is great,

but it's not the answer to everything. You can be educated

and then not a go getter, lame, boring person, right? And so I

had this energy that I was bringing everywhere I went. And

so it happened to be that that PR agency that Morella

introduced me to, we ended up to work together. I The very first

client that I brought them was my restaurant, my family's

restaurant. They did that restaurant, and it was an

ultimatum. I gave them a look. I will bring you that very first

restaurant, which is my family's. They'll be that's your

first client for me. But I need to know everything about PR. I

gotta work with you guys, sit with you, be on every meeting

like that's my ultimatum. Do we have an agreement. That's how it

all started.

Awesome. Okay, so let's shift ever so slightly.

Very cool story, by the way. And I really love how you talk talk

about the art of leveraging. I think people are so afraid to

talk about that because it almost sounds like manipulation,

but if you're doing it right, it's absolutely not. But let's

shift gears slightly, and. Talk about this idea of crisis

management. So you get a call somebody's done or said

something that they probably shouldn't have. Where do we go?

Walk me through that?

That's the biggest part, and what I have to deal

with is in the way I mitigate the situation is, how can we

find your voice and authentically change what you

have said. The very first thing that comes to mind is make a

video and apologize for what you have said. Right? The very first

thing is you have to take accountability. In a crisis. You

can't just shove it under the rug and be like, hey, nobody's

gonna pay attention if you were called out and and you knew and

you know you messed up. You gotta be accountable like I

hope. I don't want to get in too much technicality with Blake

Lively and what's happening in Hollywood. Mm, hmm, she probably

gonna have to apologize for everything she has done. Okay,

so she's having a huge crisis right now, but you you'll have

to authentically state what has transpired, and that is the

number one thing is I say I always tell my client, don't try

to sound like someone else, because if you're going to try

to sound like someone else, you're going to get found out

and find your own voice right at the end of the day, if you want

to represent who you are, personal brand stems from your

authority, and if you cannot claim that authority, then

you're not going to be credible, right? How can you be a credible

source, a resource or an expert, a subject matter expert, if you

don't take accountability and responsibility for who you are

as a personal brand? And the way you should mitigate it is,

again, make the video, make a statement, a company, release,

announcement, press release, and start doing a lot of community

service. That's what I tell my clients. Community service is

key. Now it depends if it's a personal brand versus

organization, right? You will take a different approach,

because it's a professional brand, it's an organization. We

have to take different strategic approach to that, but it all has

to be all about accountability. Are you going to be accountable

for what you have said, and are you going to step up to the

plate? Because everyone makes mistakes, but if you're going to

step up to it, then you're going to mitigate it the right way.

When you share this message, what are the

biggest pushbacks you get, whether it's from individuals or

companies? Where do they exhibit heartburn on wanting to follow

this strategy?

Yeah. Too much information. It's too you know,

I signed an NDA. I can't release too much information. My

attorney said not to talk about it, so I have to then go in and

speak to the attorney and find a way to get that message across.

Because if they already signed an agreement with the other

company, for example, and they have an NDA in place, and they

can't release information like, you know what? We'll just have

to wait and have the attorney take care of it. Well, the

attorney will take as long as he can, sometimes prolonging it

even more than he has to or she has to. And so we can't afford

that at that time is so precious, we have to act now. So

I always tell them, it's going to be detrimental like for you

to step up and say your side of your story. You need to control

the narrative. If you're not going to control the narrative,

someone else will. Another journalist will come about, and

literally, they're going to change the whole story, and it's

not going to be in your favor. So who's going to do the work?

No one. But you start speaking the truth and tell your side of

the story.

Ok, a couple things I just want to repeat

back couple things I've heard again, accountability, super

important, timeliness, controlling the narrative. What

do you see people do that are mistakes when it comes to crisis

management?

The number one mistake is, wait. The biggest

thing is, I'm going to wait. I'm going to let this kind of air

through like they didn't want to just air this out on its own.

It's not going to happen on its own. So and kind of waiting for

their attorney again, for the that legal team to give them

approval. So you can't be a slave to the legal team, you

know, because your personal brand will suffer. So if you're

not going to again, step step it up, then the longer you wait,

the longer it's going to be a problem. That's the biggest

thing.

How do you talk folks off the ledge a little

bit? I mean, I would imagine, whether you've said something

that harms your personal brand or you're representing your

company, people must go into just a flurry of panic. How do

you get them to step away from panic and start getting back to

rational and thoughtful?

Yeah, I love that question, even though I think

they should seek a therapist, and I'm not a therapist, you

know, but I have to do a lot as a publicist and a strategist. I

have to take a lot under it. There's a lot of undertaken. So

I have to make sure that they're common collected. And the way to

do it is to have them write it out. Can you just write out what

in the hypothetical world? What is the ideal world you want to

be living in? Right? So. If they write it down, it's a journaling

right now, journaling is the best way to calm yourself down,

right? So journaling getting their action steps and

implemented strategically. What to say, what not to say. You

know, what is your unique value proposition? So journaling has

helped scripting. Script it out. Tell me exactly how you want to

be positioned, and just get it out. That's the best way. It's

very therapeutic. You know, I think that when they're in a

frenzy and they're very like kind of panicking, they need to

collect their thoughts, right? Breathing exercises, meditate to

something, but the very first thing is get it on paper. Let me

know what your what your thoughts are.

Shifting gears ever so slightly. Talk a little

bit about branding and reputation. First of all, how

would you distinguish the two, brand versus reputation, or are

they the same? Walk me through that.

You know, they definitely go hand in hand, not

the same, but they go hand in hand. What people say about you

when you leave the room is your brand. Which is your reputation.

Your Brand creates your reputation. If you don't have

that brand, the brand should be speaking before you even knock

on the door, right? If you have an amazing brand, then it should

speak volumes, and that will help you get in the door. That's

why I always tell my clients, let me Google you before we

start working. Let me see what shows up. Let let's take a look

at your online reputation. What shows up when I google you, oh,

I have amazing I'm all over social media, but social media

does not give you the reputation. It gives you some

sort of visibility, which is great, but it doesn't give you

that credibility. Source. The credibility adds to your

reputation. The credibility adds to your branding. Where is that

credibility coming from? Is there a third party that

validated your story? Are you featured in an exclusive

interview? Have you spoken to a journalist, and perhaps you know

as a thought leader? Did you give any insights? Those are the

things that create a very strong brand, a personal brand,

professional brand, that creates your reputation. If you've never

spoken anywhere, if people are not eager to hear from you as a

thought leader, do you really have a reputation? But if you

always ask hey, I want you to speak on my stage, come to my

panel, do a keynote, because they looked you up. They know

that you have credibility. Your reputation is there, and you

will again, it's leverage, right? If you have that, you

bring leverage to their company. How should you be positioned as

a thought leader? The positioning is so crucial,

right? If you are not positioned in a certain way, people don't

look at you in a credible way, you don't have the reputation.

So that adds to the credibility of their organization.

So meaty. You just said so many really, really

cool things. I want to highlight a couple, because I think a

common thing that we hear is when people are trying to create

a brand. You know, it's all about social media, social

media, social media, but what you just said there is so next

level thought, and that social media is visibility, but not

credibility. So you have to have it. People want to know that

you're there, but it doesn't do anything just by simply

existing. So you've gotta take it one step further to have the

visibility, then the credibility, then the brand and

the reputation follow.

100% Stephanie, you got it. Yes, exactly.

So let's say I'm a business owner or a leader in

a larger organization. Just educate me a smidge on you know,

how could an a PR firm really impact my business?

In so many ways. I'll give you an example. So I'm

working with this nonprofit organization. First of all,

before they even hired me, they never thought about PR. PR. They

think, oh, PR is for celebrities, but corporate, PR

is very important. So when they hired me, they knew that, first

of all, they understood the concept of what I can do for

them. It brings them that elevated presence. Now they're

looking for investors. They're looking for donors. Nonprofit

organization needs all of that donors. Is what they thrive on,

sponsorships. How did they get those donors and sponsors to

trust them? Now this is a huge trust factor that PR creates for

them. So in order for them to be trusted, they're going to be

they will be Googled, right? And so I create that trust factor

with press releases, exclusive articles that adds to their

portfolio, as to why these donors should even have anything

to do with them. Another thing is strategic partnerships. What

partnerships can a PR team create for this organization, a

nonprofit? Who do we know that we can align you with so that

you can get the leverage you need that you can get the best

outcome, right? You need the strategic partnership so events,

right? PR creates events. So you can't just be an organization

and not have events. There has to be a buzz. What is that buzz

around your organization, around your company? Is say that you're

a medical facility, a med spa. How do people find out more

about you? Well, you know what? You should create different tier

events that will take place with these amazing panelists that

come and speak about the benefits you know, in that

space, right? So doctors, whoever is a medical facility,

has their own events. Legal industry has their own events.

Events is another part. Is a crucial, part of PR.

Are there any industries that you specifically

tailor to?

Corporate industry. So I work with finance, legal,

medical professionals, real estate developer.

You also have another book, B.E.P.I.C

I do, B.E.P.I.C.

Tell me about that.

Well, the BEPIC came out in '21. I'm actually working

on my second book right now. So the be epic method is a one word

acronym. So when I created this concept, I knew that in order

for you to step out of your comfort zone, to really hone in,

into your storytelling, into creating a strong personal

brand, you need to conquer your mindset. That mindset is so

important because, again, I'm afraid to I can't speak in front

of the camera. I'm afraid to be judged. Liana, I can't do this

there. My message is not going to come across. I mean, everyone

else is talking about the same thing. You think my message

matters, but then I teach them, look, you're the messenger,

right? And eat the messenger delivers the message in a

different way, so you it's that mindset I teach them. So it's

the B stands for belief, the belief you can do it, right? And

it all helped. When I started this book, I actually was

already on my third round of reading, Think and Grow Rich by

Napoleon Hill. I love that book like I was so fascinated by his

story that I made my son read it, and my family members read

it. And then I read his second book, which was Outwitting the

Devil, the immense knowledge that I got from that book. And I

say, know what I'm ready. I'm ready to help them conquer that

mindset in order for them to come get out of the comfort

zone, not to sabotage themselves, how to get media

opportunities. How can you do it on your own? If you don't want

to hire a publicist, but it's going to take much longer,

obviously, right? A publicist helps expedite. A publicist

helps you, but I also teach them how you can do it on your own.

So that be epic. Book teaches you how to gain authority, find

your voice, how to be seen, how to become an executive, how to

take the stage, how not to be afraid, to take the stage. I

travel to all over the world. I'm in 12 countries. So not only

am I in American market, but what I love to do is I bridge

the gap for founders internationally who want to be

featured in American market. I think it's so important to give

them that credibility and visit credibility and visibility. A

lot of them want that. You know, I spoke to a strategic partner.

He was actually he wanted to work with me, and I Googled him.

He's based in Greece. I'm like, you know, you don't have a

Google presence. He's like, You know what? Why is everybody in

America? Why do they care about the Google presence? I'm like,

because that's your authority, buddy, if you want to work with

me, you gotta create, we need to work on your online reputation.

Otherwise, I can't work with you, because this is what I

preach and this and if I'm working with you, and it's just

not going to work, it's not aligned with me. So if you want

me to work with you, I gotta first create that amazing online

reputation for you.

Oh that's awesome. Okay, you have been

super generous with your time. Is there anything else that you

want to make sure we talk about or address?

You know, I would say, just make sure you are

surrounded by amazing people. What I attribute my success to

is being in proximity with successful people, people that

have done greater than me. I think that really propels me

forward in everything that I do, and I I'm just like a sponge. I

learn because I'm I know that everything is just evolving so

fast with AI, with so many new technologies coming on board. If

you're not being in proximity with people that know about the

subject, then you're going to fall behind, right? You don't

want to be that, that statistic, that, Oh, you didn't get on

trend with everything else that's happening. So you need to

be if you want to be successful, you have to learn the logistics.

You need to develop that within you. And if you can then hire

someone who can teach you.

I love it. Thank you so much. It has been such a

delight to meet you.

Yeah, amazing. It was great. Thank you, Stephanie.