998 Laura Henson:

Wings of Inspired Business Podcast EP998 – Host Melinda Wittstock Interviews Laura Henson

Melinda Wittstock:

Coming up on Wings of Inspired Business:

Laura Henson:

We treat it as optional, but it’s not optional. People who are visible get funding much more easily than people who don’t. Whether it’s just it’s driving or scaling your business or, or it is fundraising for your business, whatever it may be, visibility is a really, really useful tool and it should not be considered optional, and it shouldn’t come last either. It should be something that is part of your strategy from the beginning.

Melinda Wittstock:

In what I call the infobesity of our attention economy, it can be hard to stand out, let alone capture viral moments that can catapult you and your business to success. It can feel like a thankless grind, and for some entrepreneurs not worth the bother. Laura Henson is the Founder and CEO of HVM Communications, a boutique strategic communications agency focused on brand storytelling, media relations, and thought leadership for founders, women leaders, and mission-driven organizations, and today she shares the psychological barriers women face when it comes to stepping into the spotlight—everything from imposter syndrome to the challenges of being seen as authentic rather than performative in a noisy, ever-evolving digital space.

Melinda Wittstock:

Hi, I’m Melinda Wittstock and welcome to Wings of Inspired Business, where we share the inspiring entrepreneurial journeys, epiphanies, and practical advice from successful female founders … so you have everything you need at your fingertips to build the business and life of your dreams. I believe in paying it forward, so as a five-time serial entrepreneur, I started this podcast almost 10 years ago to catalyze an ecosystem where women entrepreneurs mentor, promote, buy from, and invest in each other. Because together we’re stronger, and we all soar higher when we fly together and lift as we climb. Please take a moment, hit subscribe so you never miss an episode, tell your friends and colleagues, and we appreciate it when you help this wisdom get discovered with a 5-star rating and review. 

Melinda Wittstock:

Today we meet an inspiring entrepreneur who is on a mission to help women founders step into the light and be truly seen and heard for authentic signal in all the noise out there. Laura Henson is the Founder and CEO of the boutique agency HVM Communications, and for 20 years, she’s been a trusted voice at the intersection of capital, visibility, and women’s leadership. Laura is also an active investor across venture capital, private equity, and early-stage companies, with a portfolio that reflects her conviction that capital and communications are equally powerful tools for lasting change.  A contributing editor at Inc.com, Laura also serves on the Executive Board of How Women Lead and the Goodnation Foundation. 

Melinda Wittstock:

In a world awash with performative content and skepticism, showing up authentically (not just “talking the talk” but “walking the walk”) helps you stand out and create a lasting impact. So, today we talk about the power of intentionality, and how to be strategic about gaining and using visibility as a lever to generate revenue, fundraise more effectively, and ultimately channel those resources back into initiatives that uplift other women. 

Melinda Wittstock:

And we get practical, with actionable advice and real-world stories about how to raise finance for a startup, plus what needs to change to encourage more women to invest in female-founded emerging growth companies, not just philanthropy. We also talk about the power of community building, and why it’s a necessity for women to genuinely support each other to mutual success.  

Melinda Wittstock:

Let’s put on our wings with the inspiring Laura Henson.

[INTERVIEW]

Melinda Wittstock:

Laura, welcome to Wings.

Laura Henson:

Thank you so much for having me.

Melinda Wittstock:

I’m excited to talk to you because when I began this podcast almost a decade ago, it was out of this idea that women were succeeding in silence as entrepreneurs. Nobody knew, and I thought, are there enough women entrepreneurs? And I’ve never had a problem getting a guest, so there’s so many women doing incredible things in business, and yet, does anyone really, really know that? So, you’ve been helping women step into the light, as it were.

Laura Henson:

Yes. My personal and professional mission is to create visibility for women who deserve it, of course, because I believe that visibility is a tool. You should use visibility as a tool to, you know, generate revenue, create money for yourself, and then use it for good. I know that women tend to use their money to help other women, and I think it’s absolutely necessary for us to see the change we want to see in the world. So, I kind of consider my job being the visibility part as simply a tool to something so much bigger.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yes. And so many women procrastinate on the visibility thing. It’s like, I’ll get those pictures taken when I’ve lost ten pounds. Or I can wait on that because I’ve got to get the algorithm done. Or like, I have, like, put all kinds of things in front of literally just claiming territory on social media or wherever it is getting that TED Talk done, whatever it’s going to be, what is it that holds us back? What’s the psychological thing?

Laura Henson:

Well, unfortunately, I hear a lot of women talk about imposter syndrome, so, you know, women tend to feel like they don’t deserve it or they’re not quite there yet. I don’t know why we do this, but unlike men, who, before they’re ready, they’ll go out and ask for something. It’s a proven fact, I think even in job interviews or job applications, for example, that men will apply if they, you know, know, check three out of 10 boxes, and women tend to want to check 10 out of 10 boxes, or they don’t apply because they don’t think they’re a candidate. It honestly doesn’t make sense to me, but I don’t have the answer to that. That’s probably a bit over my head, but I think it’s really critical that we move beyond this, this challenge and really try to get our heads around the idea that we deserve the visibility.

Laura Henson:

I think also a lot of women think it’s ego driven or performative, and it’s not. 

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah, that’s, that’s a really good issue right there because everyone tells you you’ve got to show up and be authentic. And yet when you look at all the social media, so much of it is performative kind of self-promotion, and you feel like, how will I be seen or heard in the midst of all that? I call it infobesity. How can I even stand out in that noise? Or how will my authenticity even read as authenticity?

Laura Henson:

Right. Well, that’s the critical part. I mean, especially with AI and the direction we’re headed. I’m a big believer that that authenticity, although I think the word is a bit overused these days. It is, it’s critical and it’s going to be even more critical. And, and again, if you are an expert in what you’re doing, whatever your field may be, you should share your expertise. There is value there. There are other people who need and want to hear the information that you can share with them.

Laura Henson:

So, you stand out in a way that, again, suits the category or the niche. 

Melinda Wittstock:

Exactly. I think we just get very busy though, too, because we’re doing so many things in our companies and it seems like some sort of luxury, but it’s not.

Laura Henson:

We treat it as optional, but I think we need to look at it a different way. It’s not optional because if you look at, for example, fundraising, it’s people who are visible get funding much more easily than people who don’t. So, there’s a lot to be said for using visibility for whatever your goals are. Again, whether it’s just it’s driving or scaling your business or, or it is fundraising for your business, whatever it may be. Visibility is a really, really useful tool and it should not be considered optional, and it shouldn’t come last either. It should be something that is part of your strategy from the beginning.

Melinda Wittstock:

I couldn’t agree with you more. And at the same time as I say that I realize how lax I’ve been on that. I’ve had phases where I’ve been really visible and then not so much. It’s sort of like seasons of it, and it’s complicated. If you’re a serial entrepreneur who’s done businesses in all sorts of different areas or you have a lot of different types of expertise, it’s one thing. If you have one thing that you’re just really good at.

Melinda Wittstock:

If there’s a number of different sides to your personality or a number of different areas where you have expertise, it gets kind of overwhelming. This is a confessional.

Laura Henson:

Yeah.

Melinda Wittstock:

I love the idea of having someone in your corner. Like, I just think as a founder is like, oh, my God, can I have someone do this for me?

Laura Henson:

And I certainly understand that because that is one thing that we do for people. But I do think that it’s really important as that founder, as the person that you are to kind of, if, let’s just say, toot your own horn. Right. And we all have seasons of being crazy busy and life coming at us in different directions. And I’m not saying, you know, on social media, I think people need to post seven days a week or do these different things, but I think being intentional about how you’re visible and also taking control of your visibility. Right. Because the other thing is, especially for your personal branding, if you don’t control your narrative, someone else may control it for you, and they may not not be controlling it or defining it in the way that you want it defined.

Melinda Wittstock:

Right. So, yeah, I mean, just even for instance, you get into a very competitive situation, if there’s a vacuum, right? You’re seeding ground in that competitive context.

Laura Henson:

Yeah. I can’t give a specific example of something I’m dealing with right now, but I’m talking to a client about a very competitive landscape right now in health care, women’s health care. And there’s a lot going on around hormones, menopause, perimenopause, all of the above. And there’s a lot of, for example, marketing language that’s going on around hormones. And I think it’s creating a big gray area for certain brands.

Laura Henson:

Some it’s working very positively. For others, it’s not exactly doing the same thing. And again, I think that’s where the visibility comes in. You know, if you’re not somewhat maintaining your visibility and sharing your expertise when the competition comes in, sometimes their visibility may take over for a period of time.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah. I mean, the other thing too that’s really challenging in this environment is people have lost trust in just about everything, right? There’s such a degree of cynicism in our society, whether it’s a loss of trust in media or social media or all the self-promoters out there, or just our institutions. Like it’s a very cynical time. And so, when you’re entering into that and how do you really establish trust? What does it take to really shine that light? That again, it’s not just authenticity, but it’s just literally like truth. How do you stand out as being trusted? Because you can use the same. Often the same language means different things to different people, or different language means the same thing.

Melinda Wittstock:

It’s very confusing.

Laura Henson:

It is very confusing. And trust again is critical with again, AI and everything you’re talking about, with the world the way it is today, it is, it’s going to become more and more essential. And the people who are considered trustworthy are the ones who are going to come out on top, I think. And part of that, I think is again being truly authentic. And when I say the authentic, I mean, you know, it’s not talking the talk, it’s walking the walk. Right? You really have to do both. You also need to create and have your kind of communities, I think that’s incredibly important, that are alongside of you, especially as women. Right.

Laura Henson:

It does take a village and there are so many other women out there that are ready and willing to support each other. And so, raising your level of trust within these various communities that work for you as an individual is a really good way again to elevate that trust because then you have other credible people who are also kind of supporting you and saying this person is the real deal and you know, you should listen to them. And, and frankly, I think that’s going to become more and more important as well. So that’s another thing again, kind of showing up, walking the walk, having your village and, and everybody working together because we have to uplift each other to make this work.

Melinda Wittstock:

I completely agree. So, if you’re an entrepreneur at a various stage of a business and, and you’ve ignored the visibility thing, what’s the first thing you should really be doing? Like, I, I know a lot of listeners to this podcast should be thinking, okay, this all sounds great, but I don’t even know where to start.

Laura Henson:

Well, I think, depending upon the business you’re in, of course that LinkedIn is a really wonderful community for you to get into. I would suggest getting involved if you’re not really set up on LinkedIn doing that as well. Again, from a community point of view, find your people, show up, be there in person for certain things. I know we get caught up in our world of zooms and online and all of the above, but the human connection is also so important too. And that is really helpful because when you meet someone one face to face, for example, you know that relationship changes and it does get stronger. And that is again also how you’re going to build your reputation and your visibility and that’s an easy way to do it, right, is just to say I’m going to set, maybe it’s, you know, one day, maybe it’s a week, maybe it’s one day every two weeks. Again, I don’t know what someone’s schedule, schedule is like, but you know, and I’m going to show up at this event or show up here or have a meeting with someone I don’t know that well or, or even maybe it is a zoom, you know, but, but I think again like furthering your connections and your network and again enhancing that trust is really important 100%.

Melinda Wittstock:

So, this is where a lot of women get spread too thin, right, because they’re doing, you know, they’re doing sort of everything in their business, right? Often, often not necessarily delegating the best that women fall into that trap. They’re sort of doing everything. They have a partner, husband or wife, or they have children, dogs, all kinds of things, friends that are trying to maintain all these different things in a multiplicity of directions. And so, then when you say yeah, show up and like make sure you’re actually participating these communities, offering advice, helping other women, sometimes that part falls short. And that’s almost the thing that we should be prior prioritizing certainly more than we do.

Laura Henson:

I think so. I mean I’ve fallen into that trap of feeling like a chicken with my head cut off, you know, running around the coop or whatever so many times in my life. And I just, when I get to that place I have to take a step back and you know, remember that doing everything is not always doing anything right and being something to everyone kind of help, you can lose your point of view, for example. So, I, for example, prioritize taking calls with people I don’t know, I spend an hour and a half every week on calls with people I don’t know. That’s usually three 30-minute calls and I, I just set aside that time I make, I’m very intentional about it. And I think that’s, that’s just how we have to figure it out for ourselves again, how we find that time, how we make that work. But it’s the intentionality of knowing that this is something that I need to do. And again, what that is, it doesn’t mean someone needs to take three calls a week with somebody, but whatever that looks like for, for you, you know, you need to, to be very intentional about taking that time and using that time because it is, it’s your time, it’s time for you, and you need to do that for yourself.

Laura Henson:

It really, truly makes a difference. You know, again, I’ve been in PR and strategic communications for over 20 years, and this world has changed so much. Again, I used to think that, you know, just invisibility is great, but visibility without kind of intention and goals is, you know, that’s, that is kind of ego driven. Right. So, there’s no point in that. You need to, you need to really think about what it is you’re working towards and who you want to be and how you want to be perceived. And again, walk the walk, talk the talk and do the things and commit and be intentional.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah, that’s really the reason I started this podcast, I had this big intentionality that I wanted to invest $10 million in female founded businesses, but I wasn’t in a position to write those checks. So, I started the podcast so I could literally drive business and in this case non-dilutive investment to female founders. And I hit that goal a while ago. It is a little bit more than $10 million now by our estimates in terms of the amount.

Laura Henson:

Wow, amazing. Congratulations. That’s huge.

Melinda Wittstock:

And you know, and with no return on that investment other than like, hey, I feel good. And I do, I think it’s a great thing to do. I’ve always thought, well, you know, like, be the change you want to see in the world. So, if more women did that, so that’s like my contribution. But I wish that I had time or there were more of me to be involved in more kind of conversations or communities or whatnot. And I feel like I let myself down on that, honestly.

Laura Henson:

Well, I think we have to give ourselves grace. Right. Because as women, we, we, we are kind of running many ships, I feel like, and we have curveballs thrown at us and we tend to be caretakers. So, we’re not only dealing with our businesses; we’re dealing with our families and all the other things that you had kind of mentioned earlier. So, you know, I think it’s incredible that you want to do even more and even more and even more, but you’re, what you’re doing is so fantastic and, and game changing as is. I would say give yourself some grace there and you know, again, we do what we can, and you set your intention and you’ve, you’ve surpassed it, you’ve exceeded it. It’s amazing.

Melinda Wittstock:

It’s amazing what happens when you set an intention and then you, like, you said it and then you sort of like, forget about it. It started for me with parking karma, how I prove that I can like just roll up in front of any restaurant and like I literally, to the day, to this day, that just happens for me, right? 

Laura Henson:

Oh, well, that’s a good one.

Melinda Wittstock:

I’ve tried to escalate my intentions, right? So, like the ones that, you know, ultimately and they don’t necessarily work on your timeline. That’s the funny thing. So, Laura, you’re also an investor. You’re an angel. You’re involved in, you know, venture, private equity and whatnot. And, you know, and another goal of this podcast was to get women to invest in other women. And I know from raising money for some of my previous startups, I used to get incredibly frustrated because I’d go to high-net-worth women who had, you know, who’d made, made their own money, who had no problem writing checks to charity, but literally said to me, oh, investment decisions. My husband does the investment decisions.

Melinda Wittstock:

I’m like, what?

Laura Henson:

That, that makes me crazy.

Laura Henson:

And I find it shocking. I’ve never worked in an extremely corporate environment in house. And so, I always thought when I started my investing and kind of my financial or wealth journey, if you want to call it that, which I thought was late in life. I really didn’t, I didn’t know a lot about this until about eight years ago. But once I learned I was, you know, that changed the trajectory of my life for sure. But I kind of thought, oh, I worked in luxury PR.

Laura Henson:

There was my excuse, right? I didn’t know about this. And then I came to like, meet all these women in finance and a variety of different types of jobs. Let’s say that I just assumed they would do all this and know all this. And it surprises me daily the women that I speak to who do not know anything about their own finances and certainly not their investments. And I think that’s problematic.

Melinda Wittstock:

Well, we don’t talk about money with as much ease as men. Like, men have no problem saying, hey, I got this really cool deal, you want to come in on it? Or like, you know what I mean? Or they, they sort of help each other just more naturally or they just even are more at ease about like just talk about money.

Laura Henson:

Yeah.

Melinda Wittstock:

Whereas women feel sort of weirdly, sort of embarrassed or I don’t know what it is, but, but it’s hard to get women to really talk about money or investing or let alone investing specifically in other women as opposed to writing checks to charity. And this is while there are so many female founded businesses that tend to have social impact, like they tend to be addressing the issue that the charity is, is addressing better.

Laura Henson:

That’s true. You’re absolutely right. It’s funny. Well, first you reminded me of again, we, I think women, you know, we, we suffer from these kind of cultural and familial and societal kind of challenges that, that a lot of times are subconscious. Right. About money and money conversations and all of that. That reminds me of my client Marcia Dawood’s book, Unapologetic Wealth.

Melinda Wittstock:

Oh, I love that.

Laura Henson:

Right. Your, your money story. What is it? First you have to know what it is and to. And move beyond it. But, but it is interesting because another thing I think to your point is when you look at investing conferences and panels, a lot of times it’s always women on the philanthropy panel. Again, it kind of makes me crazy because philanthropy is amazing.

[PROMO CREDIT]

Wings of Inspired Business is brought to you by the podcast, Zero Limits Business Growth Secrets where Steve Little – serial entrepreneur, investor and mergers & acquisitions maestro – shares the little-known 24 value drivers that spell the difference between a $5m business, and a $50mm even $500 mm business. It always pays to understand what’s driving the underlying enterprise value of your business. So, check out Zero Limits Business Growth Secrets at zerolimitsradio.com – that’s zerolimitsradio.com and available wherever you get your podcasts. More information about valuation growth at Zero Limits Ventures.com.

Melinda Wittstock:

And we’re back with Laura Henson, Founder and CEO of the boutique agency HVM Communications

[INTERVIEW CONTINUES]

Laura Henson:

I mean, we all love to give back. But to your point, there’s so many for profit businesses that women are starting that are so beneficial to society in our world. I mean, between health care and social impact, again, all of these things, the way I started to look at it is, is if I invest in these for-profit businesses that women are starting and I make money from that, I have more money to give to charity too, right? So, it’s kind of a win-win. I don’t need to give all my money away. I certainly want to give some of my money to charity, to nonprofits. But I also think it’s really important that we invest again in other women and they’re running for profit businesses because their goal is to change the world and to do better things and create these amazing businesses.

Laura Henson:

And again, like, I’m just going to take women’s health, for example, which finally is kind of trending. You know, we’ve been behind the times for a long time and women have been getting the short end of the stick with our health care. And so, we really do need to invest in these businesses for our health wealth and our future.

Melinda Wittstock:

Well, exactly. And something I’ve always believed about venture. I mean, the companies that get chosen are the ones that, that create our future. So, women need a voice in choosing those companies, which companies get invested in. And I see women tend to. Not always, but tend to create companies that have much more of a positive social impact. Like they tend to be very mission driven. I mean, not always it’s generalization, but often are doing things.

Melinda Wittstock:

Like you mentioned women’s health, right, which gets ignored as some sort of niche.

Laura Henson:

That’s beyond me. 

Melinda Wittstock:

These massive markets, half the world’s population, you know, like huge markets, when women are the ones that control a lot of spending decisions and whatnot. And yet it’s somehow relegated into some sort of like, little, you know, niche thing. And, and, and, and it’s not. So not only do we need to have a voice, but just creating that virtuous circle. The more we invest, the more millionaires and billionaire women we create, the more women can invest in other women’s businesses and charities and philanthropy, right? So, it’s just sort of like, how can we be suns that light other suns, you know?

Laura Henson:

Exactly, exactly. And that’s, I think that’s what’s that, that’s where like, I’ve kind of driven my business. And again, the idea that visibility is just a tool, it’s like infrastructure. Right. So that then we can help invest in other women. There’s economic advancement, you know, it impacts everything from your visibility does impact everything from fundraising and partnerships to speaking opportunities, board seats, influence revenue growth. And all of that is money and power. And that is required again to see the change we want to see in the world.

Laura Henson:

And we have to invest. We have to invest and invest more. That’s kind of my latest jag is that once we get women to invest, you know, we start a lot of these venture firms for women are, have very low thresholds to come in, which is great because it’s a great way to start. Right. If you, if you’ve never invested. But you know, we need to, we need to make sure that a lot of these companies that get Their seed rounds, you know, pre seed and seed rounds also then are able to get their series A, Series B. And that’s where a lot of these women’s companies unfortunately kind of start to fail because they can’t raise more money.

Melinda Wittstock:

Exactly. Well, the size of the checks that go to a lot of female venture firms tend to be smaller, just like checks that female founded startups get tend to be smaller. So, by the time you get out to that it’s, it’s a, it’s a real cliff there from seed to series A because those female venture don’t have the follow-on money. Like they just don’t have the wherewithal or even if you’re a really, if you’re thinking like if you’re a moonshot type founder, right. You’re saying I’m going to change an entire industry. I mean you need, or if you’re AI, you know, or you’re doing something huge, okay. That requires serious money. It’s very difficult because you can easily, this been my experience, you can easily fall between the cracks because you’re too big.

Melinda Wittstock:

It doesn’t really work for the, because the female VC firm doesn’t have enough money to really give you the runway that you need. But the traditional VC see, sees you as like niche or something or you, or you can’t quite, you know, fit in there either. So, I think a lot of women really struggle at that Series A place.

Laura Henson:

Yeah, it really is, it really is tough and it, you know, I, I always find it interesting and again I wish I understood the psychology behind all of it as to why, you know, men can meet over a scotch or a game of golf and talk about this, you know, idea they have for a company and you know, will you give me $10 million? And they’re like, oh, I’ll give you 25 million. How’s that? And then women are trying to get, you know, $10,000 and, and struggling to get it. And it’s, it’s, it really is, it’s crazy.

Melinda Wittstock:

You know, it’s funny, I had this experience with my, my son’s company. So, my son, he’s turning 20 and he has a great AI startup that connects people in real life, dog owners for in real life experiences. Patentable tech, a whole bunch of cool, cool stuff. It’s really exciting company actually. He’s recruited me to help him, you know, launch and grow this company.

Melinda Wittstock:

I’m excited because I’m a total dog freak. But it was hilarious; I take him to the chiropractor one day because he has a headache. And Jamie the chiropractor says, hey, so, what are you interested in? He said, oh, well, I’m creating this company, TailsTrails. And he, he gives like, I don’t know, like a two-minute sort of roundup of the company and Jamie literally says to him, oh, that’s great, how can I get in on the ground floor? And he like, he’s seriously, it’s idea stage. He raises money from his first investor in like two minutes from a two-minute elevator pitch at the chiro.

Laura Henson:

Right? Yeah.

Melinda Wittstock:

And I’m like, why? Like that’s never happened to me.

Laura Henson:

No, that doesn’t happen to women. 

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah.

Laura Henson:

Yeah. We’re hesitant, you know, and I also believe you have to, if you don’t ask, you don’t get. So, we need to be a little more forthcoming and bold in our, in our asks. I think in general, not just about investing. That, that applies to everything from, you know, jobs and, and raises and, and everything else in the world.

Melinda Wittstock:

Exactly. So right now, is a very difficult time to raise money because we’ve got not only global economic instability; we’ve got this war in Iran that’s basically meant that all the money that was coming from the Middle East is dried up. You have the impact of tariffs, you have all these other macroeconomic things, and you have people who haven’t really had exits. 

Melinda Wittstock:

You’ve got inflationary pressure; you’ve got all these things. So, it’s like not a great time to be raising money. So, what do you do in times like this? Are you just forced into just bootstrapping? Because like things like pre seed, a lot of pre seed investors that we’ve talked to say for tails trails are really looking for product market fit at precede. It’s like, wait, what? You know, it’s tricky.

Laura Henson:

Yeah. I’m hearing a lot about a lot of women who are, you know, in the early stages of their business. And again, everyone says we need, we need to see traction. We need to see traction. And again, it’s just, it’s, it’s just yet another reason I think to hold off because of everything you just mentioned. I think, you know, something else kind of interesting. We, another one of our clients is the association of Women’s Business Centers. We work with some private equity clients and, and venture and a variety of kind of organizations on the funding side, let’s say.

Laura Henson:

But one of the things that’s interesting about the Women’s Business Centers and I learned a lot from working with them actually because we talk so much about venture and getting investors and getting fundraising. But part of me says we also need to explore what these alternatives, ways of, you know, getting the cash, infusing the cash that we need at the moment are. So sometimes, you know, it could be as simple as a small business loan and things like that, which I think is really worth looking into because I know getting venture money has become really popular and. But you are giving away, you know, you’re kind of giving away part of your company. So based on what it is you need and what that runway period is, you know, maybe there are other alternatives.

Melinda Wittstock:

Right, right, exactly. And, but you have all these very real costs at the early stage. Like, you know, so use my son’s company as example. He’s got, you know, three patentable technologies, but just to even file the provisional patents and all the trademarks and whatnot. Like it takes money. And not to mention just even if you’re doing really like bootstrappy type marketing, right? Like handing out flyers at dog parks, like he’s got to print the flyers, right. Like there’s just a whole bunch of stuff. So, like I’ve watched him, he’s built everything in AI, which is amazing.

Melinda Wittstock:

Really low cost, low entry. But there are other costs, so he’s managed to get, for a pre seed, pre revenue company, managed to get like a $10,000 credit card. Right. So that’s something.

Laura Henson:

Yeah, it is really hard. And, and I have to say I, you know, I’m, while I’m a founder, I start, it’s a service business. So, we didn’t have a lot of overhead to start. Right. But I give, I give every single startup entrepreneur, entrepreneur so much credit when you have to just bootstrap and like figure it out that way with, with all these costs on the front end, it certainly shows creativity Resilience and frankly, I mean that really makes for, I would say probably the right kind of founder to invest in if they can push through those challenges.

Melinda Wittstock:

Exactly. I mean it’s just what you have to do. The good news is, okay, so from your perspective of running HVM and the role of AI in marketing, so there’s all kinds of cool things that we’ve discovered like where you can automate all your social media posts. You can do a whole bunch, bunch of different things with that, right. There’s lots of ways that you can do more with less. Tell me how you and your firm and also your clients are using AI while still being authentic.

Laura Henson:

Yeah, and that, that’s a very interesting question because I, I, it’s a bit of a battle in my, in ongoing battle for me in my head. A lot of the time we use, use AI as a tool to help us with all of that. It can certainly speed up the time that we spend writing and creating assets and all of the above. Most definitely. But one thing that we still do is we rely on the human element to ensure that all of the information that we’re putting forth of course is, is, is accurate. And also, you know, in, in our clients voice in the right way. And that does take the human, you know, it requires human oversight. So, we never automate to the extent of just trusting, trusting AI to, to for example, create social media posts.

Laura Henson:

I’m not quite there in my trust with AI yet. I’ve seen too many hallucinations and too many incorrect direct facts coming out. But, but again it’s been game changing as far as time saving goes. So that’s essentially what we utilize it for. And again, for brainstorming, it’s great for all sorts of ideas and then pulling information together and again just really helping us with, with time.

Melinda Wittstock:

Exactly. Like it works really well as a human companion. But you’ve got to be a good critical thinker to begin with. Like you have to know what you’re doing to begin with to be able to partner with it effectively. Because if you’re going to harness it right, that’s great. But for say a lot of young kids and, and folks who I don’t know to the extent to which they’re good critical thinkers yet, I mean, you know, they don’t necessarily have those skills or that expertise. And so, then it becomes kind of recursive because the AI starts training on AI and like just becomes even less reliable. And, and the critical thinking part is, is, is vital.

Laura Henson:

It is it’s, it’s absolutely vital. And, and you know, again, I have there, you know, this can go, this can go multiple ways. You know, there’s, there’s so much good around AI and then there’s, there’s, you know, the fear that some people have. But again, as long as they think that we have the human oversight and that we, the critical thinking and all of that, if we can control it, then it has such huge advantages. Again, I’m just still cautionary. It’s kind of funny because I get asked to be on AI podcast and how are you using AI? And I always say, I don’t think I’m the person that you want on your podcast to talk about it, because I’m not the one using all these crazy AI tools to do, you know, again, we’re, we’re automating and, and we’re taking advantage of it to, to the extent that I’m comfortable with, but we are not, you know, jumping on the bandwagon of we don’t have to do anything and it’s just taken care of because AI is doing it. Yeah, it concerns me way too much with the types of clients we have. Like, you can’t have a private equity firm trusting AI to shoot out all of their social media.

Laura Henson:

I mean, in, in health care too, there’s compliance, you know, God knows what, what kind of trouble you might get into.

Melinda Wittstock:

So, there’s things like that you can do, but the only way you can really understand these things or master them is by, like doing it. Right. Yeah.

Laura Henson:

Right. It’s saving you so much time. It’s doing all the kind of like deep admin that is also maybe not that enjoyable too. 

Melinda Wittstock:

Exactly.

Laura Henson:

And then it’s handing you kind of the final, you know, the final picture to say yay or nay or, you know, this needs some edits or whatever that may be. But again, to that extent, oh my God, it’s, it’s, it’s so helpful. I mean, you know, we probably spend 50% of our time, 50% of the time we used to spend on kind of writing and, and organizing that we, that we did previously. Because AI is so helpful. It’s great. We get it, we get a lot more done. We can be a lot more impactful.

Melinda Wittstock:

So, figuring out where AI can be most useful in allowing you the time saving to actually create the relationships that we were talking about earlier on the podcast. If you can get rid of a lot of the busy work, I suppose it gives you more time to be involved in community, to actually be meeting people. Like more time with your customers and your clients directly, like more experiential marketing, like more things like that. So, can AI be used to actually bring us together in real life?

Laura Henson:

Well, and that’s, I mean, I would see the way you’re, the way you’ve said it makes a lot of sense to me. And that again, it’s saving you so much time on so many other admin types of, of things that you do that you are freeing time up so that you can in fact do some of these other things. Right. And, and, and again, I just, just, I’m still a big believer in the, the human connection. I do think that doing these other in person, or at least you know, one to one communication, even being on a podcast together right now.

Melinda Wittstock:

Right?

Laura Henson:

You’re not automated. You’re, you’re the real person. I just think it’s really important to, to really hear and talk to people kind of IRL in real life. Right?

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah I also have a podcast platform, Podopolo, and about a year ago everybody was like, oh, AI is going to take over podcasting and all these digital twin voices and all that. But, but those podcasts don’t really succeed. Like, you, you can kind of tell it’s a canned voice.

Laura Henson:

Yeah, well, it’s like, it’s like the writing. I mean, you know, there’s always a tell with AI and so that’s why we always kind of have to go back through and, and take out the M dashes or, you know, whatever those, those kind of, those kind of real tells. But, but again, I think, you know, it, it’s so helpful. And again, even, you know, again, visibility and thought leadership is so important. It can help you so much with all of your writing. You can, you can, you can whip out, you know, content so much faster because it’s doing, it’s doing kind of again the, the doing the dirty work for you, like the beginnings of it all. And then you can go back in and just kind of edit through and revise it. But it saved you 50 to 70% of the time you would have spent otherwise.

Melinda Wittstock:

Exactly. It’s funny because when you do do a lot of AI stuff, like if you ask it to generate, say, a social media post and it’s coming back with all the time, here’s a nit that I have. It will say things like, “be honest”. So now I see loads of social media posts by other people that have the “be honest”. And I like, I know immediate immediately. That’s an AI tell.

Laura Henson:

Yeah, it’s like, right, yeah, it’s the this, not that. And you know, made me sit and think or stop me in my tracks.

Melinda Wittstock:

There’s a whole bunch of these things and they’re everywhere. As a former writer, media correspondent at the Times of London, I hate AI writing. 

Laura Henson:

It’s great for a first draft. And it, yeah, it just, again, it just requires that you go back in and, and, and you know, move things around, change somewhere. You know. Again, it’s a human oversight, but, but, but again, it’s the, the time it saves is, has been incredible certainly again in the work that we do because we do so much writing and I personally love to write, so I, I really enjoy it. But at the same time, it’s, you know, it is nice to kind of save that little. Like the time that it would take to start that, whether it’s a press release or whatever it is we may be writing, you know, to give us the bones for it is a really, is a really big perk.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah, it, it is 100 percent. So, tell me a little bit about your clients. Who are your ideal clients and what are some of the ‘befores’ and ‘afters’?

Laura Henson:

Well, the media landscape has changed so much, of course, in the last, last, you know, 10 years, five years. It keeps changing. And you know, I, I used to have my business, and I loved what I did. I started out in luxury fashion many, many, many moons ago at Hermes and Halston and Escada, places like that. And then I moved into just lifestyle in general. And then we started kind of working more in beauty, health and wellness. And I’ve always had women clients along the way. But it was probably, probably eight years ago that we really focused our business on women, women founders and, and women led businesses.

Laura Henson:

And alongside of that, that’s when I realized again that, you know, kind of PR and press coverage for the sake of press coverage is, is really pointless. Like I, I, I started to understand why it was the line item that would get cut first when budgets got cut, because it was like, what, what’s the ROI? We can’t necessarily prove the ROI. And so, I rethought how we do our business and our business is now specifically goal oriented towards again, we want you to know that you are making money from our work. So, our, our work is so intentional and we kind of hit it from two sides, which is the credibility side, which is the larger national media outlets in larger stages. If we were, we kind of do two or three things, which is putting women on stages and getting them editorial coverage and introductions. And then we go really, we go really niche with that too. So, we’re going direct to, whether it’s consumer direct to investor, whatever that may be. So, we really target it heavily on where are their customers, and where are they going to again like generate clients or generate investors.

Laura Henson:

And it’s going to be clear that it came from our work. So that’s kind of the direction we’ve moved in, which has been really helpful because again, it’s more visibility as a tool versus visibility for the sake of visibility. And as far as clients go, we, I just, you know, women doing interesting, substantive things is, is kind of our category. We’re not really focused specifically in health care climate tech. We have clients across all categories. As long as, they’re doing something that, that is, is improving the world in some way or another. Doesn’t mean they’re saving the world. 

Laura Henson:

So, yeah, we work with, we work with a wide variety of clients. Again, private equity funds, venture capital funds, health tech, healthcare climate tech, authors, leadership. Again, just everything really. And I just, I love what I do.

Melinda Wittstock:

Amazing. I can tell that you do like it. It’s, you know, life is relatively short, so why not do the thing that you love to do and that brings you joy and helps other people? I mean, it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s very exciting. I love how you combine, you know, the investing with your company and, and, and what you do. So, the other question really is advice for female founders out there fundraising right now and like, specifically from the lens of, like, what you’d be looking for as an investor. Laura, what are the kinds of things they, they need to show you?

Laura Henson:

Well, first of all, I need to know that they exist. Right. So, I’ll just go back to visibility. Visibility is, is critical. And, and there, there are different ways, of course, that I may know that they exist. That could either be, that could be through being introduced to them through someone in my network. Right. And, or again, those are really the two ways I would probably hear about a company that we would consider investing in.

Laura Henson:

And so again, it just kind of goes back to the things that I think are really important, which is that creating that community and awareness among the right types of networks and groups that can help support you and get the word out that you’re fundraising, if that’s what you’re doing. And then also, while media coverage is really hard and not something I can say, oh, just go get, you know, go get media coverage, because it’s not that easy. It is, it is really helpful because, you know, I learn about a lot of companies by reading about them and seeing that they just, you know, closed a raise maybe, and so then they’re on my radar for the next round or that they’re, you know, in, in fundraising mode or whatever that may be. And, and that’s how I learn about a lot of business. That’s how I learned about all of my investments.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah, exactly. So, this is, this is a conversation go on for hours and hours and hours. But what do women need to improve on in terms of being able to just ask for the money? Right.

Melinda Wittstock:

Dream big enough, be confident in their numbers, and just go for it. Because I’ve seen as some of the angel investments I’ve made, or just being a venture partner in a new fund that’s focused on women, Zero Limits Capital, that women don’t necessarily ask for enough or they don’t present a big enough opportunity. And I found myself saying, well, what could make this bigger? What could you do bigger? Rather than the kind of typical question you get, which is, how can you mitigate risk?

Laura Henson:

Right.

Melinda Wittstock:

And just trying to get women just a little more confident about that or just really knowing their numbers. Is that one of the big things or are there other things where we’re letting ourselves down?

Laura Henson:

I think the confidence factor is huge. Again, if you don’t ask, you don’t get. And if you ask for less, you’re probably going to get that number, right? 

Melinda Wittstock:

Right. Yeah.

Laura Henson:

You’re not going to ask for a million and they’re going to say, oh, I want to give you 10. Right? If you ask for 10, maybe they say, oh, I’m only going to give you five. I kind of feel like that might be about, you know, obviously, within reason, of course. Course. But I think the confidence factor is huge. And I think another thing again, is, is really thinking about your networks long before you think you’re going to be fundraising and starting to really work on that village and those networks and, and getting that trust and getting the people who are going to be able to help get you in front of the investors, if they’re not the investors themselves.

Laura Henson:

I think that’s really important because, again, I feel like a lot of women start really late and think they’re gonna start around and close it in six months. And in the environment we’re in today, that’s just not happening. Right. It’s really difficult. And the other thing I think is important to remember, at least most of the women investors I know, especially if you’re angel investing, it does take a little time. You want to know the founder, you want to know that you trust them, That they’re a winner and that they have what it takes to, to make the company work. And that is a little bit of a time, type of time intensive effort as well. And I don’t mean you’re spending one on one time with investors. I just mean the relationship starts and you may not get the money, you know, in two weeks. You need to start working on this as soon as, as soon as you like get the idea or whatever it is you’re, you’re starting, I would say start to like just feel around and, and get to know people and start to grow your network.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah, exactly. So how can people find you and work with you, Laura? Like whether they’re the ideal client for HVM or they’re raising money or they want to invest and they want to figure out how to get started as a female investor.

Laura Henson:

Yeah, so I am, I’m very active on LinkedIn at Laura Henson and it’s HVM Communications, so I get a lot of DMs, and I do respond to those. I’m not an Instagrammer, I’m a LinkedIn. Er, so you can reach me that way. I can also be reached@pressh-vm.com and again, I do respond to emails. They’re not automated, they’re me. And so, and I’m always, always interested in talking to people about, you know, their personal branding, investing. And again, I’m, I’m not going to claim to be an invest investment expert but I am very interested in it and have been doing a lot of it and really dedicate a lot of my time to, to learning more and also just being able to possibly put people in touch with the right people who can truly help them.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah, 100%. That’s, that’s so great. So, Laura, we’ll make sure that we have your LinkedIn and all the ways that people can find you and talk with you and, and, and get your inspiration or become a client or whatever. We’ll have all of that in the show notes. Don’t drive off the road, just, you know, grab those. Thank you so much for putting on your wings and flying with us today.

Laura Henson:

Thank you for having me. It’s been a pleasure.

[INTERVIEW ENDS]

Melinda Wittstock:

Laura Henson is the Founder and CEO of HVM Communications, a boutique strategic communications agency focused on brand storytelling, media relations, and thought leadership for founders, women leaders, and mission-driven organizations.

Melinda Wittstock:

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