 According to Alvin Adams, public relations are a key component of any operation in this day of instant communications and rightly inquisitive citizens. They need to know you and watch your offering, but do you have what it takes to package and present your image in the right way? Well, Mere Gitarimutanu is not just a communications expert, but a talent with a soul to help, serve, and empower businesses and individuals for a successful community. We met Mere three or four years ago when we just came into Sunbox together as young PR experts. I was a digital expert and we wanted to start collaborating because we were very close with the agenda in marketing and helping businesses. And I've known her through 30 years working together and growing together our businesses, growing other businesses as we're collaborating. Mere is a very good visionary, somebody who has a very good passion to see other people come up with businesses and even the founders themselves and their teams. So we've been working with Mere ever since and there's no one there whether we're having an amazing day or a fight or a day where we're fighting that we've had a challenge working with her. She's been fantastic to help us. Also in our business, visualise, grow, collaborate and help our clients get even further impact. We've done a few projects together and always Mere is the one thinking outside the box. Very tiny thing that nobody has thought of and that brings a bold moment she brings a bold moment in the room every time. Mere will think of something like I had to deal with sort of everything but you've added some spice into it that we've seen. We couldn't seem to find but it seemed like if she didn't have that thing she wouldn't have been asked to. It's like the whole project. I've been to maybe 4 to 5 years ago she's my boss, she's our lead director at Brandt Papier and I've worked with her since several projects, several clients, personally and work with professional. So I keep telling people, this is a funny thing, I keep telling people that Mere is the kindest person that I've ever met and we're just like, no, it's not possible. Then I got to my laboratory and Mere gave me a job when I really needed one. I didn't study peer, I'm not even from a communication background but she took me up and trained me and showed me the ropes and basically what I do every day. She even fed me at some point in my life. Yeah, so Mere literally is the kindest person. My name is Mere Mutanu. I'm a communication practitioner. I specifically work in the PR sector which is Public Relations and I run a business called Brandt Papier. We're now operating maybe over the last 10 years so I currently call myself the founder, CEO and all those other titles that are associated with running your own business. Mere narrates to me how she discovered her passion in public relations and communications guided by her core values in community service. Brandt Papier is a communications agency that helps SMEs and other businesses to be seen, to be known and to be hired. We believe that it's very important for businesses and especially businesses in Africa to tell their story so that people can get to understand what they do. And a lot of times I've found that many people don't want to tell their story. Either they're afraid that they'll tell it wrong or that they will make a mistake somehow by bringing themselves that visibility. But the truth is for any business to run people must know you exist and the only way that people can know you exist is if you tell them about yourself, what you do, why you do it, how you do it and I've been doing that now for like I said the last almost now 20, going to 2 decades. They say a long journey will always begin with one step and this step leads to another all the way to a point of no return and that is what makes a hero. I've been employed previously I have begun my career as an intern then I progressed and went on to different organizations within the communications PR field until I was encouraged to start my own business. I grew up in Nairobi but my parents originate from Bukambami both of them from Kittui and I think I had an interesting upbringing I can say the first few years of my life I lived with my extended family they all made a big impact on my life I even lived with my grandmother for the first couple of years of my life as well and so now there I went to Kambami I learnt all my kikamba properly and I had it, my goods I saw, sent to the market and I loved it, it was really really nice and then I came back to Nairobi to continue with my education and lived in Langata started off there went to currency primary school and stayed there until I finished my KCPE went on to Statehouse Girls High School was very involved in sporting activities actually a hockey player I did a little bit of music I wasn't in the common club I wasn't in drama club or music singing so I was more into sports actually which I really enjoyed growing up in Langata as it was called LA was interesting I think I formed a lot of friendships there we moved on to South B and then to Atriba so I did a lot of moving I would say but not after every year or anything like that there was a little bit of stability a lot of that of my formative years were really spent growing my friendships and understanding what it means because my siblings came much later so I have large age gaps the beauty of this jewel is not only physical but deep within her lies a golden heart that goes out of her way to reach out to the needy one of the things that Brandspark PR does is we take up Rabono project every year and one of the ones that we start with is called Kilele Health and Kilele Health is a Kilele Health association was started by a lady called Benda Kitaka and she's coming from years of working with cancer survivors and patients and she was a client at one point where she was the marketing manager at Toyota but due to a personal issue she then decided to be an advocate and a voice for this cancer especially cervical cancer patients and survivors and caregivers actually so we've now been working with Benda for the last 2-3 years and what that has done for us is to keep us perspective on how much some of these individuals like Benda need support of organizations like us who have communication skills to be able to tell the stories of what they're doing to help them in their pokasi journey and also to create forums where they can bring people together to continue sensitizing them from things such as they call them non-communicable diseases something called cancer and specifically this year Benda and a few of the other survivors decided to go to Climb Mount Kenya and that was so amazing because before that a lot of the survivors didn't know how to tell their stories they didn't know how to even tell their family members some of the needs that they have and so we helped them through a program where they learned how to share their stories on Instagram, on Facebook, on Twitter and give them that perspective of this is what I'm doing join me and help me to tell the stories now this particular year they have a target of raising support for women to access especially needy women to access free some we call cancer medication which is a vaccine and we are looking to raise almost $500,000 so that at least $252,000 of these women can access this vaccine for free we are then working with some of the brand ambassadors like Limo, Kipke Moe who is going to climb up Mount Kenya ten times not just once but ten times to create awareness about this need and we've been so privileged to be part of this solution and to help them then team think through what are some of the options that we have how do we package this information so that we can reach more people so beyond that we work with the band association of Kenya again same thing so much need happening in formal settlements people, young children getting banned because there's no awareness whatsoever on the impact of having 80 degree bans on your body and we did a campaign with one of our clients team Fay through Bio Oil to just create that decision in the informal settlements and we work together with stakeholders like the band society of Kenya like the say John's and Red Cross and the county government to help share that to package and share that information so you find like the doctors they know exactly what to say but they need it to be visualized like how does this poster look how does they do a walk every year how do we make sure that everybody gets to understand why they are doing it and helping them also with media coverage because that's not something very many people actually know how to do they don't know how to package their story so that the media are interested so working with this project on pro bono helps us to have an impact in community but also gives us the opportunity to see once somebody knows how their lives change we love to see how we can plug into the different corporates we work with and ask them what is your CSR how can we help you to embed it in the community and she reveals to me the secrets behind her successful smile my motivation is to to tell stories that have impact I've always been the person who people feel like I understand what they are saying and I'm able to articulate it better so think of an interpreter so I feel like I'm that person for businesses and for individuals a lot of times somebody will just a good example somebody asked me for their business name what should it be called they gave me their tagline and told me what they are doing and in a really short time I was able to put the words together and give it meaning I'm convinced actually that 80% of anything think of a business now at this level think of a business 80% of any business will rely on proper communication to make that one sale if people by just looking at the logo looking at the tagline looking at your quick introduction are not able to see what it is that you're doing they will not buy from you I saw that companies in the west brands in the west they kind of understand that in Europe and in America they understand that for you to be able to sell they have this machinery where you immediately come up with your name there's a logo there's business cards there's merchandise there's a website they have they know the power of visualisation whereas here in our market because it's again like they say first second generation businesses a lot of people will be trading for a long time without having registered their company without having a name for it without having an identity without all these things because they think it's too much and then we also our culture tells us kizuri charge user which means if something is good people will buy if it's not nobody is going to buy so they find that telling the story of being visible is a waste of time a rather focus of the sell not knowing the way the mind works is that I first have to see something then I like it and then I think whether I'm going to buy it so we are in this space of helping brands to tell their stories in a way that is simple and also helps them to be seen like I said for you to be bought somebody has to have seen you somewhere then they know about you by knowledge it means do they really understand what you do and then be heard they look now with the internet then say let me see whether this company called Brandspark PR exists so whatever then is there or if I ask someone to see have you ever heard of this company no it begins to impact your trust so all this visibility plus trust is what builds your pipeline for sales so I've seen this for many companies in the last almost two decades as I've said the companies that are focused on telling their stories the companies that are focused on even just being visible they are the ones who customers have come to the ones that have remained invisible it's harder for them to make that one sale so I want to make it easy for people to sell their products as I've seen and that's what motivates me I want to encourage that young woman who's who's currently feeling hopeless she needs to finish her university and she's not getting an internship what can she do I think one way to look at it is position yourself to volunteer and not to be discouraged be optimistic and also look at all this virtual work that's available right now there's a lot of people who are saying you don't have to come into my space but I could give you some projects to handle and then when you're given those opportunities you do them well I'd like to encourage that person to pass you knowledge and collaboration as much as possible don't try to do things in isolation and feel like I must crack this you and give yourself grace if something doesn't work out just join a community Sandbox has a lot of learning opportunities every month there's always a networking forum that's been asking people to come in and join us and learn at only a thousand women that's for snacks really you come in and you can sharpen your skills on different things so there are numerous programs going on how can you as a young business plug in to some of these and even begin to grow your business how is the thought of mentorship how do you get a mentor who can help you move from point A to point B by keeping you accountable so that's something that also really worked for me and then for the couples running businesses I really recommend doing this class because of Doa so just for marriage it's for like I said how to have shared vocabulary so that when I say fighting fair you understand what fighting fair means both of us understand so the more common values you have the easier it is to work towards success so many associations at least the key associations that support families in business so that's another place to plug in maybe some buildings in career and looking to start their own business even if it's at a late juncture maybe you've pursued your career and now you feel I don't know I need to start preparing for retirement we only have like a couple of years before all the wind is spent on the current employees that we have it's to encourage you to come there's a program at Turnbox called Kisima for professionals who are hoping to start businesses after having been employed for quite a bit of time so there is a solution within the Sandbox if you go to sandbox.ke www.sndbx.ke you're able to gain access to all these programs that are running and there is one for each and every kind of person who wants to start a business talk to someone after you make the decision consult somebody before beyond your family circle who's actually been running business and who can give you that kind of support that you need it doesn't come easy but there are several challenges that come with the calling a lot of times women CEOs are seen as though they are running their businesses as a hobby because and especially if they are married they have a perception still I know it's going down but a lot of times we might walk into the same room offering the same product I mean the same solution a man's invoice will be one million chillings mine will be one million chillings his check will be signed I'll be told this one million to be negotiated because you're just going to buy shoes and your handbag so it's looked as if the man's income is going to do a lot and he could be single living with his mother but people don't have a problem for women there is always that you already have a cover I don't need to really go deep into my pocket to pay for this service the same amount that I would pay a gentleman when there is a negotiation we just feel like how do I know he will deliver I can't trust the testimony of one woman I need another man to come in and give his input I've been really grateful that there are so many women associations there are so many women who are working together now to break down those inequalities and at the sandbox we do have a platform that brings the women of sandbox together to address some of those unfair business practices but I think people always underestimate how old I am my experience, they underestimate my ability to deliver because they perceive that I don't fit in the normal category it's very important to bring out what your positive skills are what is it that you are good at as opposed to focusing on the negative I focus on my positive the skills that I shared earlier the values that I have the ability to make friends with anybody and just being committed to do whatever you say that I do has helped me to gain credibility over the years and I'm grateful for those people who have given me a chance my business a chance and I want to encourage everybody if you focus on the positive you can overcome the challenges and every limitation has an opportunity for you to overcome so always think how can I overcome I think friendship is very important and also respect I also believe that the kind of person that you go into business with must also be a great supporter I really value that my husband allows me to take the title, CEO, founder if he doesn't feel certain by that and that has been a great canvas for me to progress and I mean I did go into the business first then he joined so he's not very interested in the titles he's interested in what I'm doing he's very focused on how do we make whatever we're doing work and progress so I find that that attitude he has the right attitude and that has allowed me to be able to still progress and to grow Wisemen said that you are defined by the community you belong to the public relations expert has chosen not to just be defined but also to create one and empower it to become one beautiful community ready to impact the world I'd like to tell you very now that finally I've been asked I think her gifts are limitless and it's so fantastic she's very talented and I think her impact can go on if I'm not an entrepreneur sometimes I don't know if you know what you're doing it's power I don't know if I should give up I don't watch Netflix it's sometimes so tired but it felt very her gifts would be missed in any room that she was going to be in so many people she's had to impact and even in our lives I feel like if I don't see a Mary here then I'd be so confused so confused with myself whether to be also continue if Mary has given up I should give up so I know she's gonna she has many things to do and bright future ahead and she keeps motivating inspiring us so may you continue I'd like to thank my parents for encouraging me definitely to be the person that I am today I'd like to also thank my husband who has been instrumental in the growth of our business it's impossible to grow if you don't have the right support systems at their home and obviously my children is Jeremy, Kristia and Jordan Pan obviously the sandbox community my church community that has given me everything my customers doesn't have so many things to say about all those communities obviously all that has been made possible through God and giving me this opportunity so I'm really grateful that I feel I can confidently say I've been living out my papa's and I'm grateful that I have an opportunity to see how much God loves me and how many doors he's open for me to become the person that I am today