Meet Dana Publicover, founder and MD of Publicover & Co
Dana Publicover is Managing Director of Publicover & Co., a sales communications agency. She has worked with NASA, Google, McKinsey and the Metropolitan Museum of Art and is the author of Empathy at Scale. She is a mother to twin toddlers, a former skydiving instructor and absolutely plans her next meal while eating the current one.
What was the lightbulb moment for you before starting this business?
I was running a very different business at the time and running into these really tricky sales challenges. I was part of a network of other people in the same industry and they were having the same problems. Seeing it from the inside and the outside, I had this idea to use the very methods we were selling clients—empathy, validation, research—to change the way we sold. I helped my own competitors and it worked so well, that some of them made their first $1M. And I realised I had unlocked this entirely new business model that worked. The only problem—was I had just joined one of those teams full time and moved to a new country and was entering what would be a 9-month COVID lockdown.
What are some of the biggest lessons you have learnt along the way as an entrepreneur?
Don't let a win go to your head or a loss go to your heart: Because you're going to win and lose almost every day and entrepreneurship is a crazy roller coaster where it's never a safe ride. If you keep feeling all of these things fully as individual days—versus looking at the bigger picture and the averages—you’ll lose your mind.
There is more security in being self-employed because you can always find a way to make some kind of money, and you can’t fire yourself. I was laid off 6 times back to back in the wake of 2008. I stopped bringing things to put on my desk at new jobs because it would be too much to carry out in a banker’s box. I couldn’t live like that anymore so I decided to make my own certainty.
People who say “spend the money because you'll manifest it”- Do not do that. That is terrible advice. Don't do it till you have the money. Figure out how much you need and set a goal. Get a client or two and please, please, please: don’t quit until the contract is locked in and legal.
What would make you walk away from a sale?
If someone questions my methods, abilities or experience too much—I’m talking more than a healthy skepticism here—and it’s looking like a relationship of me needing to prove myself. If I don’t have their trust and can’t build it in the first meetings, I probably won’t ever have it.
More importantly - ethics is an integral part of the business; when I'm helping people design their services if they start trying to push them to be more predatory, or create a value ladder that ushers you into the next tier and encourages you to spend money you don't have because this thing will solve your problem, then I'm not going to work with you. If what you’re selling doesn’t actually help your customers, you’re in it for the wrong reasons and my approach won’t work anyway.
How do you set yourself apart from other businesses in your industry?
I get hired by my own competitors. I'm so happy to help them because they're doing it a different way. The whole point of what I do is to try to find what your unique positioning is. So if I didn't do that for my own competitor, that would mean I'm not good at what I do. My methods aren't particularly unique, but it is uniquely executed.
What movie do you find inspiring?
Halloween. Jamie Lee Curtis just keeps on going after all those hits. Inspiring.
Describe your business to me in three words.
Easy to sell.
Whats’ the most common problem your customers approach you with?
The top 3 issues would be: How do I get more leads? How do I get more customers? How do I sell better
What plans do you have for Publicover & Co over the next two years?
I want to continue to add DIY tools to our resource library based on where I spot the holes and challenges with business owners trying to sell, so that even if they can’t budget for our services, they can still make progress using our methods.
I’d also love to help a few more of our clients hit the 1million milestone with our help and naturally grow my own team to hit that milestone too.
What would be your top marketing tip, to grow a business that is niche?
Research your customer, understand your customer and then deliver a customised experience based on what you've learned.
How important is company culture and what is your top tip to get it right?
Very. My first role was as a personal assistant to a female agency CEO - think Devil Wears Prada - She was awful to me and I never thought I’d have her job. She always sent me to get Starbucks or lunch for the team but never gave me enough cash to get myself one too and I just couldn’t afford it myself. She also treated me like my ideas were bad because I was young. Now, I really think about making sure every member of the team feels valued. I make sure they all feel involved in the process and because of my own experience I always send little surprises to my team; meal delivery, little treats, etc. But I also want to make sure that if they have an issue or a challenge, I’ve built the trust it takes for them to come to me with it. I give my team a lot of behind-the-scenes info. I’m super transparent about rates, profit, costs and clients. Trust and transparency go two ways.
How did you fund the launch of your business and what creative strategies did you use to execute a minimal cash flow?
Just before setting up my business, I moved with my husband and my twins to join my dream job from US to Germany. We arrived, didn’t speak the language, didn’t have friends and the dream job - turns out it was a nightmare. Then we went into a 9-month lockdown.
I had 30 days to get clients, quietly re-relaunch my business and apply for a freelance visa without raising any flags with my new team—I couldn’t risk losing my job or work visa while I was still in the evaluation period. We’d sold our house. We’d sold everything we owned. We had nothing left in the US. We had to make this work. I called everyone I know. I said “hey, you know what kind of work I do, do you know anyone who needs it? I’ll do anything, doesn’t matter.” I stayed up all night and built a mini sales course. I got 1 client—then 2 more. I quit my job. I got my visa. Since there’s a delay between when client work pays and when it’s sold, I launched a course and paid two months of rent. We didn’t dip into our emergency fund.
In July of 2021, I had more business than I could handle myself. I started delegating and expanding the team. I started calling myself an agency.
