How do you communicate with your customers, employees, vendors? Do you have a cohesive strategy for unified communications? Our guest today is Joshua Altman, who shares with us what a chief communications officer is and why you might need one.
TODAY’S WIN-WIN:
Perception is making sure your name is out in a positive way and building trust is done through positive experiences.
LINKS FROM THE EPISODE:
- Schedule your free franchise consultation with Big Sky Franchise Team: https://bigskyfranchiseteam.com/.
- You can visit our guest’s website at: https://beltway.media/
- Attend our Franchise Sales Training Workshop:
- https://bigskyfranchiseteam.com/franchisesalestraining/
- Connect with our guests on social:
ABOUT OUR GUEST:
Joshua is an experienced storyteller and strategist with more than two decades of experience shaping how people see, hear and connect with big ideas. Today, he leads beltway.media, a D.C.-based communications firm that helps brands and organizations cut through the noise. Before founding the firm, Joshua was a multimedia journalist at The Hill, diving deep into federal policy and covering high-stakes election cycles right from the front lines. Now he works with everyone from startups to federal agencies, helping them refine their message, elevate their brand and truly connect with their audience, whether that’s customers, investors or the public at large. From reimagining agency websites to crafting magnetic stories, Joshua’s work has one goal: to make communications clear, compelling, and impossible to ignore.
ABOUT BIG SKY FRANCHISE TEAM:
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TRANSCRIPT
[00:00:01] Tom DuFore:
Welcome to the Multiply Your Success podcast, where each week, we help growth-minded entrepreneurs and franchise leaders take the next step in their expansion journey. I’m your host, Tom DuFore, CEO of Big Sky Franchise Team. As we open today, I’m wondering how you communicate with your customers, employees, vendors, and those connected to you and your business, and do you have a cohesive strategy for unified communications? Our guest today is Joshua Altman, and he shares with us what a chief communications officer is and why you might need one.
Now, Joshua is an experienced storyteller and strategist with more than two decades of experience shaping how people see, hear, and connect with big ideas. Today, he leads Beltway Media, a DC-based communications firm that helps brands and organizations cut through the noise. Before founding the firm, Joshua was a multimedia journalist at The Hill, diving deep into federal policy and covering high-stakes election cycles right from the front lines. Now he works from everyone from startups to federal agencies, helping them refine their message. You’re going to love this interview, so let’s go ahead and jump right into it.
Joshua, thank you so much for being a guest here. One of the things that I was looking forward to having you on to talk about is this idea of a chief communications officer. I’d love, just as a starting point, just to talk about what it is and what are things that this person might do or the responsibilities here.
[00:01:33] Joshua Altman:
It’s not a totally new role. It’s taking on a lot more prominence, especially in larger companies, and that’s, of course, now trickling down into smaller firms. What we do is different from a chief marketing officer, it’s different from a chief branding officer, which people are much more familiar with. The chief communications officer has two main focuses. We are shaping perception, and we build and maintain trust. Those are our two big things. We do that with taking an integrated, big picture view of how messaging impacts your reputation, your growth, and your stakeholder confidence.
We’re not just looking at your marketing. We are not just looking at branding or just at advertising. We are not just looking at investor relations or internal communications. It’s how all of those things are working together to impact your reputation, because they do. That’s one of the reasons you’re just seeing this become more prominent in larger companies, and why it’s trickling down is you are bringing a lot of these functions that might have been separate under one umbrella, under one leadership structure. It’s a very hands-on role. It is consistent storytelling across your internal and external channels. We’re really making sure that you do stay on your message and also figuring out what that message is.
[00:02:58] Tom DuFore:
Very well said. When I think of a chief communications officer and some of these chief fill-in-the-blank positions that might exist, oftentimes I think of mid to large-size organizations, lots of staff, and so on. Oftentimes, and most of our audience that will tune in, they are still founder-led organizations, maybe a small franchise system, or a growing small business. I’d love for you to talk about how you see small to mid-size businesses integrating with this type of role or position, or how you’ve seen, maybe in your own line of work, companies successfully implement this type of position.
[00:03:38] Joshua Altman:
We work with a lot of those founder-led businesses, or they have two to three core employees maybe at a headquarters, and then distributed teams, which is very common these days, but it’s still very much founder-led. What we’re going to do with them is work with those founders or that employee two, employee three, who’s taken on that marketing communications role and been leading it because they’re just the person there, but is taking 10 to 15 hours a week for them, but they’re actually the VP of technology. They are a chief revenue officer, but they just got it because they were there.
Now they have this core team, but a lot more staff somewhere else distributed. If they’re home services, they might be the people in the trucks who are doing the work of that business. If they’re food service, they might be that front of house serving the customers every day. Now, what do we do? These aren’t people who have time for this, obviously. They’re out there doing our work, serving our customers. We’re going to come in and be like, “What part of this don’t you want to be doing personally? That you see taking those 15 hours away from focusing on revenue or focusing on finance?”
Then we’ll start doing that for them because they might not have that need, especially if they’re in that growth stage, like you talked about, for a 40-hour week W-2 full-time with benefits communications leader role. That’s why they never brought someone in.
[00:05:15] Tom DuFore:
Thinking about this role and some of the various duties, you started going down some of these different tasks that might be– it sounds like the chief communications officer centralizes these tasks into one position, or one, it sounds like, in your case, organization, but what are some of the common tasks that maybe a person’s doing a handful here, someone else is doing some there, et cetera? What are some of these tasks you generally see?
[00:05:43] Joshua Altman:
Sometimes they have their email newsletters, especially things like food service, home service, things like that that are sending out reminder, because we’re getting cold here in the winter season in the northeast, at mid-central states, if they’re a plumbing business, it’s things like, “Check your pipes for the winter,” and they’re sending out these newsletters, maybe with discounts and coupons. One person’s doing that. Another person, totally separate, is managing their social media. Another person might be handling investor relations if they have external investors. You might have another person who’s just handling branding and making sure that things look the same.
They’re not reporting to or part of the organization that’s handling the email or the social media, but they’re using all their assets. Those assets are crossing between. You find a lot of that across a company, especially when they might say, at their stage, where they’re hitting that seven-figure, mid-seven-figure mark, “Well, now we need to start organizing. Now we need to start getting this stuff together.” The time to do that is when you’re first getting going, when you’re first getting your business up and running. You will not need a 40-hour-a-week communications expert in your leadership structure when you’re at that stage, which is why we do things fractionally, which is why we come in.
We could be five hours a month, which is roughly one hour a week, a little more, or 20 hours a week if you’re at a much later stage, and we can grow with you in that role. We know where you are, we know your business, just like if you had brought on someone fully in-house. We know you, and we are with you long term.
[00:07:28] Tom DuFore:
You talked about two important components that the chief communications officer does. They focus on shaping perception and building trust as two key items here. I’d love for you to talk a little bit about how you help shape that perception. You, meaning this role or this position, what are the things that this role is doing to make that happen?
[00:07:49] Joshua Altman:
When it comes to shaping perception, it’s going to be things like just making sure your name is out there in a positive way, that people know who you are and what you do, and they have positive associations with it as best as possible. If you are an exterminator company, people generally call you when they have a problem they are very, very angry about. The positive association with you is going to be pests, but it’s going to be cleaning, it’s going to be prevention, it’s going to be helping mitigate that situation. We’re going to take that and make sure people have a good association. Yes, people associate you with bugs and rodents, but it’s going to be associated with that in a good way that makes people happy.
When the other is they’re building and maintaining trust, especially for a home services business, they’re coming into your home. We’re going to make sure that they know you in a way that they are comfortable doing that. That could be things like videos showing you’re professional and showing how you do this, and that you are someone who they should feel very comfortable letting into their home, with, if you are an exterminator company, pesticides, poisons, traps, things like that around their kids and pets. That can be very important. It also just means doing it consistently over a long term.
Just because you put out one video doesn’t mean it’s done. It takes 7 to 14 touchpoints is the often quoted statistic of how long it takes people to take an action based off of seeing marketing materials. To take trust, it usually takes more than that. It takes positive experiences. Building on positive experiences people have is crucial.
[00:09:38] Tom DuFore:
That’s really, really good. As I think of some of the things you just mentioned, these 7 to 14 or more touchpoints, plus, not to mention, all of the marketing trends, social media trends, technology things that come along the way, how do you see this position helping bring all that together, and maybe even just forward thinking in this, I guess, part two of the question, where do you see some of these trends heading?
[00:10:10] Joshua Altman:
A lot of people think you can beat the algorithm with technology, or you are just totally opposed to it, and it doesn’t work for your business. Neither of those are true. You cannot beat it because it constantly changes. Even if you figured out what works today, that might not be what works tomorrow, because those algorithms can change. Just because you’ve mastered TikTok doesn’t mean it will translate to whatever platform comes next. There will be something after TikTok. There will be something that comes next because we all remember, or some of us remember, Friendster and Myspace. When was the last time you checked your Friendster?
[00:10:47] Tom DuFore:
Never. My Myspace has not been checked in probably decades at this point.
[00:10:52] Joshua Altman:
Yes. Something will come next. That’s important. Remember, just because you figured out this one doesn’t mean you’re going to get the next one. Also, it means certain core things will matter more than mastering TikTok or mastering Instagram, because that won’t be the thing forever. If you have the basics of the storytelling, the basics of how you use the technology, the recording, the video, the audio, those sorts of things, lighting, that makes it look good, and that people can watch. If you understand what connects with people, that’s much more critical long-term than just understanding a particular platform.
With that said, understand the particular platforms. They are what is live now, and you need to use them in a way that benefits your business, but also, that not every platform will be great for every business. Pinterest is great in home decorating and some home services. It has its area and people it dominates. Outside of that, it’s not going to be the best for you. Don’t necessarily rely on it. Instagram might be great for you, but not TikTok. You just got to know where you are.
[00:12:16] Tom DuFore:
Joshua, I’d be remiss if I didn’t at least ask this question. Someone who tunes into this maybe has thought this throughout the interview and said, “Well, Joshua, can’t I just use ChatGPT or Grok or one of these AI tools out there to be my chief communications officer?
[00:12:34] Joshua Altman:
I get that all the time. You know what, we come in with people who are doing this themselves, and it takes hours a week from them. Guess what? If you’re using Grok or ChatGPT or Claude or whatever that is for you, guess what? You’re still the one doing it. Maybe you’ve cut down from 10 hours a week to 5 hours a week doing it yourself, but you’re still doing it yourself, which is what you don’t want to be doing. We use AI. We love AI. It’s great. AI does not replace a human because you’ve read AI stuff.
I’m sure your listeners have seen AI stuff. We can tell when it’s AI stuff. When you have seven different bullet points that are all emojis, that was written by AI. A human does not do that. We all know what that looks like, and we fix that. We come in, and yes, we’ll use AI. It makes a great outline. It can do a reasonable first draft for some things. It’s great for research, if we want to know what’s trending today, but it doesn’t post live, and it also doesn’t just solve it. It’s a tool, like everything else is a tool.
[00:13:44] Tom DuFore:
What’s the best way to get in touch with you, learn more about what you’re doing, and connect with you?
[00:13:49] Joshua Altman:
The best way to reach me is by email, ja*****@*****ay.media, no .com. You can also find me on LinkedIn, linkedin.com/in/joshuaialtman. I check my email. I love email. It’s probably the best way to reach me. We love hearing from people. Even if you just want a consultation, see where you are, reach out.
[00:14:13] Tom DuFore:
Perfect. This is a great time in the show, Joshua. We make a transition. We ask every guest the same four questions before they go. The first question we ask is have you had a miss or two on your journey, and something you learned from it?
[00:14:25] Joshua Altman:
Two, three, four, more than that sometimes, it feels like. We didn’t get a client, a project didn’t work out, people weren’t happy. I could go down and list things that didn’t meet the metrics that we wanted to. I won’t disclose those clients because it didn’t meet the metrics that we wanted to, but you got to get up. At the beginning, I got really hung up on when things just didn’t work. I would really just focus on how to fix it. Sometimes, you can’t. Some things just– It’s live. It happened. It’s published. You could fix some things, send out a corrected link, email a correction, do whatever, but sometimes you got to get up, take those lessons, and apply it to the next thing.
That’s the best you can do. Knowing when that is really just made a big difference.
[00:15:15] Tom DuFore:
Let’s talk about a make or a highlight. Let’s look at the other end of the spectrum there.
[00:15:20] Joshua Altman:
Like those a lot more. Every time we put ourselves out of a job because the company grew enough that it needs that full-time in-house W-2 person. If you want us to get you to that point and help you find that person and transition to that person, we’re here for that. We will put ourselves out of the client. That means success for us.
[00:15:45] Tom DuFore:
Have you used a multiplier to multiply yourself professionally, personally, or any organizations you’ve run?
[00:15:52] Joshua Altman:
Diverse experiences. We were talking before the show. My background was in video production, going back a long time. I was a tech, I was a news producer, doing the shooting, doing the editing, running the wires, setting the microphones, knowing the content and knowing content principles, knowing tech, but more importantly, knowing the tech principles and how things can work, or alternatively, don’t work. Sometimes that’s important. Also, account management, applying those, those things are great separately, but with us, knowing them together, they are a lot more powerful when you can use them together to amplify each other.
[00:16:32] Tom DuFore:
The final question we ask every guest is what does success mean to you?
[00:16:37] Joshua Altman:
Doing good work.
[00:16:39] Tom DuFore:
As we bring this to a close, is there anything you were hoping to share or get across that you haven’t had a chance to yet?
[00:16:46] Joshua Altman:
Yes. When it comes to communications, a lot of people think you’ve got to respond to everything. For some of the businesses, I’m sure the owners listening to this, they really rely on Yelp reviews and Google reviews. Responding to bad reviews, they’re very important because that does affect how you rank, but you do not have to respond on everything. We say all the time, you want to communicate strategically, not voluminously.
[music]
[00:17:13] Tom DuFore:
Joshua, thank you so much for a fantastic interview. Let’s go ahead and jump into today’s three key takeaways. Takeaway number one is when he talked about what a chief communications officer is and how it’s different from a chief marketing officer or a chief branding officer. He said the chief communications officer has two main purposes. Purpose one is shaping perception, and purpose two is building and maintaining trust. I thought those were great. Takeaway number two is when he talked about mastering technology, and to avoid falling into that trap is essentially what he was saying.
Technology is always changing, there’s always something new on the way, it’s always evolving, and we just never know exactly how it’s going to work. Do our best, but don’t ever think that you know all of there is to know on that. Takeaway number three is when he said right at the tail end of the episode, I really liked how he summarizes, and he said when it comes to communication, some people think they need to respond to everything, but you don’t need to do that. He said it’s better for you to communicate strategically, not voluminously. I thought that was a nice little nugget.
Now it’s time for today’s win-win. Today’s win-win comes from defining and describing perception and trust. I really liked how he talked about that. He said, perception is when you’re making sure your name is out there in a positive way and positive associations with your brand. He said that can take 7 to 14 or more touchpoints, and then to build trust takes positive experiences. Building trust takes positive experiences with your brand. I thought that was just a fantastic, fantastic nugget.
It’s a great way to close a show with a win-win because if you are creating these touchpoints with your customers and creating these positive experiences with your customers, I’m certain that they are going to have a better experience and likely become a referrer or a referral person or promote quality word of mouth, which as a business, we’re always looking to do that. Ultimately, this is helping create goodwill.
That’s the episode today, folks. Please make sure you subscribe to the podcast and give us a review. Remember, if you or anyone you know might be ready to franchise their business or take their franchise company to the next level, please connect with us at bigskyfranchiseteam.com, where you can schedule your free, no-obligation consultation with myself or someone on our team. Thanks for tuning in, and we look forward to having you back next week.
