101: Angela Betancourt (Strategic Communications)

Angela Betancourt on Innovation City

“What is your “Why?” Why did you start that company? That is your north star. If you deeply understand that…everything else starts to fall into place.” — Angela Betancourt

Welcome to Innovation City—powered by Venture Cafe—where Tyler Kelley and Michael Johnson, Co-Founders of SLAM! Agency, interview innovators, creators, and disruptors to discover how business is changing in the modern world.

Created and produced by SLAM! Agency in cooperation with Venture Cafe St. Louis and Venture Cafe Miami, Innovation City gives you an inside look at how rapidly business and culture are changing thanks to increasing diversity and inclusion, heightened creativity, and a stronger and better-connected business community. Venture Cafe is the largest combined gathering of entrepreneurs and innovators anywhere in the world. Events are held every Thursday in St. Louis, Miami, and other leading innovation cities around the globe.

Today’s guest is Angela Betancourt, Strategic Communications Consultant. Angela is global communications specialist with over 10 years of experience developing, managing, and executing integrated communication campaigns and strategies. Angela joins the team to discuss the ever-changing landscape of business communication, the importance of building relationships through an authentic approach, working in Sierra Leone after the Ebola crisis, taking a step back and remind yourself about your “Why,” and being a “recovering worrier.”

They discuss:

• Globalization in big business
• Everyone is their own publisher
  • You don’t have to wait on someone else to publish your story or message because you can do it yourself
• The variety of different platforms to get your story out
• The growth of the digital publishing space
• Building relationships with publications, influencers, journalists, etc
• The importance of building relationships through an authentic approach
• Angela’s background and how she got started PR/communications
• Her entrepreneurial ventures that she has had over the years
• Communication is important to any organizations bottom line
• The old presumption that marketing and communications people should be the first to go when lay-offs happen
• The importance of storytelling
• Working in Sierra Leone after the Ebola crisis in 2014
  • Angela helped small businesses and entrepreneurs get back on their feet
• The media landscape in Sierra Leone is a pay-to-play game
• Needing to know some business knowledge in order to go far in communications
• Advice for entrepreneurs:
  • Understand your ‘Why’
  • Understand your messaging
  • Allow the ‘Why’ and what you want your messaging to be to guide you
• Taking a step back and remind yourself about your “Why”
  • Many entrepreneurs want to rush ahead and skip to the sexy stuff (logo design, website, social media, etc)
• Being a “recovering worrier”
  • Worrying about how her content will be perceived, because it’s so deeply personal
  • She works on trying to get out of her own way and just going for it
• Connect with Angela on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and her website