"Get out there like your life depends on it" with Melanie Marten

Photo Credit: Johan Hagen

Melanie Marten founded the boutique PR firm The Coup Public Relations in Berlin in 2010. In addition to serving a selected B2B and B2C clientele with global communications campaigns, she founded the DIY PR platform PRontheGO to support creative entrepreneurs on their journey of starting a business. Right now, Melanie is establishing a second hub for global Public Relations in Athens, Greece. 

What inspired you to start your business?

I was (only) 25 years old when I started my own public relations agency, The Coup, which I still run today, 12 years later. From the first 9-to-5 job I took after school, I knew I had to be my own boss. It was the idea that entrepreneurship would offer endless opportunities that I was obsessed with, and still am. I was rebellious, with an enormous amount of energy and drive, and still am.

On top of that, my supervisor at the time ran the business in an extremely old-fashioned way where being subordinate to the hierarchy was rewarded. The story unfolds with him handing me my notice. It was a blessing that we didn't get along at all, so he freed me from a career my family thought I should pursue at the time. I then started out as a freelancer, offering all different kinds of talents of mine to the creative scene in Berlin. I've promoted musicians and their performances, planned photoshoots for creative campaigns, and guest-managed events, to name a few of the gigs I've taken on. As my talents unfolded in the creative sector, I grew to become a PR consultant and was recommended as such. It wasn't until I was already running The Coup that I studied journalism on the side.

Where is your business based?

Today, I run The Coup and PRontheGO from the two creative hubs Berlin, Germany, and Athens, Greece. I extended to Athens from my desire for new creative input – and this city delivers. There is something liberating in the air, and creative energy is all around.

How did you start your business? What were the first steps you took?

I remember growing up as a child my granny would constantly say to me “Du kannst Baumstämme in Bewegung setzen!”, which means “You can set tree trunks in motion”. She would say this when she got mad that I would keep everyone active and on their toes lol. But this is also my entrepreneurship persona, where you would constantly hear from me “let’s do this”. So the first steps for setting up shop would also be me going out, being on the phone, and talk about what I have in mind, so people would advise me and mention my plans to their network as I create the framework for starting a business.

What has been the most effective way of raising awareness for your business?

Building brand equity takes time – whether it is your personal brand or about establishing your company, endurance is rewarded. I am doing public relations for so many years now that those years are the biggest advantage for me in terms of the growth of my network and experience. To be involved with The Coup and PRontheGO in exciting in-person events is a great way to create experiences to connect those brands to. With the pandemic, however, brand awareness comes mostly through thought leadership articles where we would advise entrepreneurs about trends in public relations.

What have been your biggest challenges and how did you overcome them?

It has always been a challenge to master the actual workload that comes with running a business. It was crucial to learn to prioritize, to delegate, and when to say no. It took years to learn not to get overwhelmed, and to find a balance.

Also, to come up with the discipline for the unloved things such as accounting and filing tax papers is a challenge for me and many other entrepreneurs. Who likes to sort papers? Not even my accountant likes that, and there is a lot of forms and filing I have to prepare regularly. Fortunately, future generations likely won’t have to deal with this, since accounting will be completely digitized and done by algorithms and artificial intelligence. A client of mine, Numarics, a fintech startup from Switzerland, does one hundred percent automated accounting. Unfortunately, it is only available for businesses based in Switzerland at the moment, so I am still sorting papers whilst knowing there is a top solution out there.

How do you stay focused?

That is a great question since the focus is everything to become successful. For me, it is essential to listen to my very own body rhythm. I am most focused for the first 3 to 4 hours right after I get up – so I try to accomplish the tasks that need a big focus as soon as possible after getting out of bed. I have a second phase of high focus in the early evening hours. So I try to have small breaks in the afternoon since my workday stretches out quite long.

Little breaks go a long way for me, and I swear by power naps, or simple calls with family and friends to relax in between. I had to learn that healthy living choices are key to focus, so I try to eat organic as much as possible, and I go for runs. Latter supports not only fitness but mental balance which is crucial to thriving. Focus is a precious good. If you are at peace with yourself, it is easier to achieve focus. Focus on something that you do because you are interested in it also leads to higher self-love. You take away the focus from things that may not work well in your life, and you put the focus into your venture. I believe there is an opportunity for healing in this.

How do you differentiate your business from the competition?

I believe in cooperation, or “coopetition” as it is called when you choose to collaborate with your competitors instead of starting a race. I am always interested in what other entrepreneurs with similar ideas or business models are up to, and I try to find ways to collaborate to promote both our businesses.

It is valuable to learn from your competitors which features and services work well and do not work so well for them to understand the needs of your common audience better. However, focus on your own original ideas and approaches is crucial to create an authentic product, service or feature.

What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your business?

For the DIY PR platform PRontheGO.com, to gain traction our partnerships with PR experts from all over world were crucial. Together, we advise creative entrepreneurs on how to start with PR. Thought leadership articles and newsletter cooperations with competitors led to more traffic and users. This proof-of-concept was needed so that we can now go into the next phase of developing the DIY PR app.

What's your best piece of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs?

Get out there like your life depends on it. Your business surely does. Put your head down and focus, then believe in yourself and spread the word about what you are doing. Use all resources available to you. The fewer resources you have, the more creative you need to become, and the more creative you become, the more opportunities will open up for you.

What's your favorite app, blog, and book? Why?

For getting in contact with journalists, I love and recommend Qwoted.com. I love The Daily Carnage newsletter for PR and marketing inspiration. My go-to book is The Art of Worldly Wisdom by Baltasar Gracián.

What's your favorite business tool or resource? Why?

A recent discovery of mine is the ideation directory for growing your business through content by Growth Content Planner. The experienced content marketer behind it put together all the channels which we can create content for, plus lists the channels for your output. I use it as a guide to unlock potential.

Who is your business role model? Why?

The entrepreneurs I choose to work with to develop their global PR campaigns also are a source of inspiration for me. Jazz Gill, Founder+CEO of the boxing fitness brand SPARBAR®, is one of them. Jazz grew the brand by building a thriving community around it, where the role of SPARBAR® as a brand is to be a platform for boxing enthusiasts.

How do you balance work and life?

I wouldn’t necessarily say that I balanced work and life completely. I am still known as a workaholic, to be honest, and live a life where clients and colleagues become friends, and we even go on trips together. However, I am protective of my very personal time that I spend with old friends and /or family and would not mix that with business.

What’s your favorite way to decompress?

There is nothing better than a summer in Greece to decompress. This lures even the most work-obsessed people like me away from the laptop to tour the islands and visit their ruins and temples, eat in tavernas, watch stray cats sunbathe and dance the night away at a full moon party. Thankfully, I put this down as “research” for my client Valef Yachts who offers once-in-a-lifetime yachting trips in Greece.

What do you have planned for the next six months?

Our daily business at The Coup is to open up new markets for our clients with global communications, and we continue to do so – hopefully with more business travels involved again once the pandemic calms down. For PRontheGO, we are developing an app with which every entrepreneur will be able to execute PR activities by themselves.

How can our readers connect with you?

Find out more about The Coup Public Relations at https://thecoup.de/. Subscribe to the newsletter of PRontheGO.com. And connect with me via LinkedIn.