Dear BAMf Podcast: Episode 23 with Nicole Canulla

Dear BAMf // Episode 23: Nicole Canulla of DUST Identity gives counsel on internal communication strategies while working from home during COVID.

In this week's episode of the Dear BAMf podcast, we speak with Nicole Canulla, Head of Marketing & Communications at DUST Identity. Nicole leads DUST’s marketing strategy, utilizing her extensive expertise in sales enablement, content creation, media relations, corporate communications, and investor relations. Nicole is also the founder of Canulla Communications, where she provided strategic communications counsel to her clients. In this episode, Nicole gives counsel on some tough marketing and PR questions for our listeners, including this one about team communication while working from home:

Dear BAMf,

Now that we're all working from home, I'm rethinking our internal comm strategy. I work at a company with 500 employees and in early Q1, we got feedback that employees didn't feel communication was as frequent as it should be. How do you assess frequency and pace of internal comms for a company at our size?

Listen now to hear how Nicole advises this writer to move forward.

Dear BAMf: Episode 23

Episode 23 highlights:

• (01:00) How do you encourage your CEO to speak up during crisis comms? Determine how crisis comms should be handled both internally and externally. Create key principles and practices to follow for each specific crisis comms situation. A good way to initiate this issue is to get buy in from members of your leadership team who share similar concerns. Do this for internal and/or external crisis comms. For external crisis comms, remind your CEO about the values of your company. Integrity to your brand and values is ALWAYS integral to your business. If a crisis is not addressed in a timely manner it can be detrimental for your company. 
• (06:32) How to get buy in for a budget audit on your budget? Expectation-setting and budget approval are the key words here. Ask your CMO and CEO to unpack the WHY of the current campaign and point out any holes. Use third party data and information to solidify your perspective while campaigning to a new budget that speaks to solutions. Be transparent about any internal pressures and assure the culture is commutative at your company. 
• (12:33) How do you manage internal communication while working from home? There is no way to read anyone's brain. Get data directly from your employees and create a plan of action from there. The safest practice is to ask your team routinely and keep track of employee wellness like you would do any other information.

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