How did your role within Outset PR change over the past year?
Honestly? Radically. A year ago, I was leading a small content team and writing copy alongside everyone else. Things were relatively straightforward: we handled client tasks as they came in and assigned them to whoever was available – no formal structure. But by spring 2024, it became clear that the “everyone does everything” model was no longer sustainable.
When we launched a traffic acquisition service that required more human resources, new team members joined, and we needed to define responsibilities – so that people could focus on what they actually specialized in, not just pick up whatever was left. As the founder, Mike had one-on-one conversations with “the old guard” to understand their aspirations: what they wanted to focus on and where they felt most effective. I was ready to take on team-building, scaling, and day-to-day management within the content department. I had the experience, and I genuinely wanted to build a system that would run like clockwork.
At first, I was still writing and filling in the gaps, pulling late nights with the team just to get things out the door. That dynamic continued until fall 2024, which ushered in a hype-driven Q4. Client demand surged, and some incoming projects were massive. We began scaling rapidly, expanding our freelancer network and implementing more structured processes. The more I tried to juggle strategic thinking with hands-on execution, the more I realized that if I didn’t shift toward building a proper hierarchy and delegating effectively, we’d never be able to manage the growing complexity.
By March 2025, each content stream had its own lead – people who had proven both ambitious and reliable: Danijela Tomić for the organic branch, Eugenia Nosova for content selling, Daniil Kolesnikov for blog and media messaging, and Alina Chepurchenko for data-driven reporting and Mike’s personal brand. That decision turned out to be one of the best I’ve made, as it gave me the space to fully step into a leadership role.
I shifted my focus to advising and optimizing workflows to ensure the team operated smoothly – both internally and in sync with other departments. As each manager began to take real ownership, they started contributing ideas and actively shaping how things ran. My role naturally evolved from control to support. Once the team became nearly autonomous, I knew we had built something solid. I’m incredibly proud of them, as none of this would’ve worked without their talent and dedication.
How would you describe your leadership style?
Foundational. I provide structure, then give people the freedom to create. I don’t want them to become extensions of me. I want them to develop their own ways of thinking, challenge the process, and discover smarter solutions. If they go beyond what I’ve taught them – that’s the goal.
Of course, I still keep an eye on things. When someone’s excited, it’s easy for that energy to become overwhelming. I try to make sure their momentum turns into real progress, not mess. But I never want to take away their sense of impact. Because in my world, there’s no such thing as “I’m always right.”
Why did brand positioning become your next focus?
Once I finally had some breathing room, I started thinking about where else my experience could create long-term impact. By that point, it was clear that Outset PR had outgrown its reliance on the founder’s network.
For a long time, most of our inbound leads came through Mike’s personal brand. It worked, but it wasn’t scalable or stable. One week we were at capacity; the next, it was crickets. That’s no way to build lasting momentum. The agency needed its own reputation – an identity people could connect with, regardless of how they discovered us. Brand positioning emerged as the solution: a framework for how we present ourselves, make decisions, and earn trust.
It wasn’t that we didn’t understand what made us different. The real problem was that our messaging was scattered. We had our blog, where we experimented with tone and explored what truly set us apart. We pitched agency stories to journalists and submitted to PR rankings. We described ourselves as goal-driven, fast, hands-on, multilingual, traffic-focused, you name it. Media platforms mentioned us, yet we were still getting lost in the sea of other agencies – because we were trying to “praise our baby” from every angle instead of helping the crypto world form a cohesive picture of who we really are.
So I took a step back. I went on vacation and immersed myself in studying brand architecture systems. When I returned, I suggested to Mike that I take ownership of Outset PR’s positioning – and turn it into a foundation for strategic growth.
And what helped you lock in the direction of the agency’s current positioning?
It came down to narrowing our focus and identifying a few key ideas that truly resonate with our market and target audience.
Clients have always appreciated our boutique-style mindset. At Outset PR, we build campaigns like modular systems: the same building blocks, but every structure is uniquely assembled. We don’t sell off-the-shelf solutions. Instead, we take your goals, your product-market fit, your available resources – and reverse-engineer the campaign around that.
This approach lets us align with client expectations from day one. If expectations are off, we won’t take the money and hope it works. In fact, clients often don’t realize there’s a better, higher-leverage, or more cost-effective way to reach their goals – until we show them. That’s when we propose a smarter route, and more often than not, the results exceed what clients initially came in expecting.
In parallel, we’d been quietly using various forms of data for years: traffic estimates, domain metrics, republication rates, indexation patterns. This allows us to lay the groundwork for long-term traction and show what PR actually delivers, whether in reach, impact, or ROI when performance-based elements are involved. We make this visible to clients before a campaign even launches, and that’s something most agencies in the crypto space don’t offer.
We were already building campaigns with transparent logic and tangible, verifiable outcomes. And when our team came back from TOKEN2049, that clarity clicked. Mike put it best:
“We’re sitting on a goldmine of data no one else is using. Everything we’ve been doing – tracking past performance, integrating live media insights, making deliverables show up through numbers – that’s exactly what everyone here is looking for.”
That moment became the pressure test for the second core tenet of who we are today: we’re a PR agency that makes data work for clients, so their growth never happens in a vacuum. In fact, we didn’t invent something new. We simply acknowledged what we were already doing differently.
What do you see as Outset PR’s long-term mission in the industry?
To fundamentally reshape how people perceive PR, especially in crypto, blockchain, and AI. In these sectors, founders often harbor deep skepticism toward PR, and I get it. They’re focused on existential challenges: finding product-market fit, timing the market, and navigating complex regulatory terrain. When sentiment can swing wildly, and a single misstep can mean missing the cycle entirely, PR might feel like a luxury.
But here’s the reality: in Web3 industries, PR isn’t just nice-to-have; it’s a necessity. Crypto, for example, still strikes many as a risky, confusing experiment. One major reason is the lack of clear, credible communication around its real-world utility. Most people don’t fully understand the underlying technology, and mass adoption hasn’t happened yet. And when people don’t understand something, they don’t trust it.
This is where PR becomes another existential lever. The way a single project communicates can shape perceptions of the entire ecosystem. Yet too many founders don’t see how PR connects directly to business outcomes – and choose to ignore it. That’s what we’re working to change: not just proving that PR matters, but showing exactly how it drives results.
What needs to change in how the agency communicates to make this vision a reality?
First, brand positioning can’t live in a Notion doc. It has to be present in how we speak to each other internally, how we design our processes, and how we present ourselves externally. Every communication channel – from corporate resources to contributor accounts and public mentions – should carry the same throughline.
Second, we need to establish a steady rhythm of reinforcement. Some clients love that we operate as an extension of their own team. Others are drawn to our data-first campaigns. Many value our flexibility and responsiveness. All of these are valid, but what matters most is aligning with how our audience makes decisions. Our communication should regularly reflect those triggers – without overwhelming or contradicting itself.
Over time, we want to build a community around what we do: PR professionals, journalists, founders, and C-level execs who either rethink public relations because of us, or improve their own work thanks to what we share. And once our message is consistent, perception will start to change. People will stop seeing us as just another agency and start recognizing us as a team carving out a brand new category in crypto PR.
The point is: persuasion is a process. It doesn’t happen with a single tweet or a redesigned website. If we expect instant results, we’ll burn out before the real shift happens.
You’re still the one leading brand positioning. What kind of person would you want to bring into that space?
Right now, it’s not about building a big team. It’s about finding one person who deeply understands the agency, genuinely cares, and can help others internalize and live out those values in their day-to-day work.
However, that emotional investment – real, active non-indifference – is the most important soft skill for anyone willing to work with brand positioning. You need someone eager to dive in processes, stay curious, ask uncomfortable questions, and maintain open, steady communication across departments. Without that, nothing sticks.
The second skill is technical: knowing how to work with PR content. That means translating what makes a brand unique into something people can actually feel and want to try. You need to distill the core, organize ideas, make them concrete, and choose the right triggers to create lasting emotional resonance. That only works if you understand your audience deeply: what they care about, how they decide, and what language moves them.
A strong copywriter isn’t just good with words – they’re part strategist, part psychologist, someone who can read the room instinctively. But if you have empathy and initiative, everything else can be learned.
Do you look up to anyone – agencies, thought leaders?
At this stage, I’m more focused on what’s happening inside Outset PR than outside. I’m asking: What’s the feedback loop from our current clients? What patterns are emerging in real use? What’s actually working? That’s where the most valuable insights come from.
Of course, I keep an eye on how competitors position themselves, but it’s less about replicating someone else’s success and more about sharpening our own differentiation. I don’t benchmark us against other agencies – we’re not here to compete within a predefined niche. We’re here to flip the model. And honestly, I think we’re already doing it better than most of what’s out there.
When I need a dose of inspiration, I take an eclectic approach. I’m a bit of a “music collector”: I listen to podcasts and interviews, read thematic books and trusted industry blogs, and watch video lessons. I pull anything that might be useful and try to apply it right away. Because let’s be honest: most things that sit in your backlog tend to die there.
What motivates you to stay in this role?
For me, it’s about self-expression. I’ve always been someone who takes initiative – if I see a gap, I want to fill it. If I have an idea, I pitch it. Taking on a new role became a way to test how far I could go by pushing beyond who I was yesterday. What I love about Outset PR is that I have the freedom to do exactly that.
At some point, pure content execution stopped being fulfilling – not because I lost interest, but because I began craving a bigger challenge. I started thinking more about the agency’s long-term identity: how we could keep raising the quality and appeal of what we deliver, make things more straightforward for clients, and refine the tools the team uses every day.
Overseeing brand positioning gives me the space to channel that energy. There’s a deep sense of ownership here, as I’ve been part of the agency since the early days. I’ve watched it grow. I’ve bled for it, both literally and metaphorically. So when something good or bad happens, it feels personal.
And finally – if you had to describe Outset PR in three words, what would they be?
Care. Clarity. Break-the-mold.
We care deeply – about our clients, our work, and our people. We don’t default to “that’s impossible” because we know every effort matters. We’re clear about what we do, what we don’t, and what we recommend. Because good PR isn’t just about professional skill. It’s about translating that skill into tangible business outcomes, both in metrics and meaning.
Even the data-driven side of our approach is rooted in empathy. We don’t break templates just to stand out. We do it to deliver a real wow to our clients. Our “Outset Data Pulse” reporting reflects this ethos: internally, we analyze things like market trends, media traffic patterns, crypto-native user engagement, cross-channel overlaps, and more to build smarter strategies across everything from organic PR to market dominance. Externally, we share those insights with the broader community, because we believe informed PR planning should benefit the entire ecosystem.
This is who we are. And we always aim to give more than what’s expected.
