How to survive a personal brand PR crisis

The Odd Muse being called out by Plzdontbuythat has been all over my FYP this week and it's got people questioning should I actually be building my personal brand as a founder? Because if Aimee Smale could get cancelled then so could I. And I'm here to tell you as a PR expert that literally manages founder and brand reputations for a living that brands getting called out happens all the time and having a personal brand could actually save you if you're ever in this position. Pepsi took years to financially recover from their ad with Kendall Jenner, rightly so because that was shocking and Jaguar are still facing the financial impacts of that rebrand from six months ago. But brands with founders at the helm who have loyal audiences consistently recover quicker. Think about when Molly Mae launched Maebe and loads of the key pieces were bobbling. It was a PR nightmare but she recovered so fast through being honest, sharing her journey online and in the next few weeks she had people queuing for miles for the Molly Mae Maebe coffee cart. And Aimee Smale of Odd Muse has even been called out before for allegedly having bad practices in her factories to which she responded by showing herself in the factories talking to her supplier and her next launch was still a huge success. So having that loyal audience can actually save you in these situations. If you're still worried about starting a personal brand let me share a little behind the scenes of how PR experts actually advise founders to tackle these situations. So first of all you need to define if you're just getting hate or if there is something you actually need to take accountability for. There is a big difference between someone leaving a hate comment and people questioning your business ethics and values. If it's the latter and it's becoming a snowball effect and it's all of a similar vein then it's time to address it and the first thing you should be doing is taking accountability for what you can. Chelsea Brown the founder of Curio Boulevard did a fantastic job at this. She was recently called out by please don't buy this for mislabeling a product as 100% bamboo. Chelsea addressed the problem head on and took accountability and shared what she was gonna do to rectify the mistake and she even thanked people for calling her out. Now as well as this or instead of this you can also take an educational informative approach. Grace Beverley of TALA is a masterclass at this. She has been called out for allegedly greenwashing in the past and she's openly addressed this on podcast and in interviews saying that they are not sustainable but they are a better option than fast fashion and explaining why, taking that perfectly balanced informative and educational approach. And lastly the key piece of advice that I always share and so many founders miss this is that you always need to swallow your pride, treat people that are calling you out with respect. It might be that they're not hating on you, they're just really upset with what you're doing or what they think you're doing or you might just have mismatched values. Take on board what people are saying if it's a consistent message. Ultimately you're representing your business so approaching this with confidence and empathy is really important. If you wanna know more about how to build your personal brand with values that align to you I have a personal brand growth guide in my bio and you can follow along here for more PR and personal branding tips.