In brand and corporate messaging, where do executives fall short?

“It’s the core messages. Those seemingly simple, deceptively difficult questions they get flummoxed by,” said Tim Braun, the executive media trainer and presentation coach, and former producer at “Good Morning America” and CNN. “What’s your brand, and what makes it unique in this space? Who’s your customer? What are the four or five words you want associated with your brand.”

Braun spoke with WWD after a recent forum hosted in New York by Lividini & Co., the strategic communications firm, where Braun was the key speaker on executive positioning.

According to Braun, executives often get outside help from consultants and communications firms to develop internal and external messaging and presentations. As part of the exercise, these firms come up with bullet points, but executives often ignore them since they’re typically not in their own words, and feel inauthentic, Braun said.

“I work with executives to get the message from them in their own words, and I send it back to their communications teams which tweak it so it works for them and their executive,” so it becomes easier and more natural for the executive to articulate.

In his work, “My focus is always chiefly on the company and how we can look at it through the lens of the individual. So I want to understand you, your passion, your authority in this space. It may be something personal about you, something you’ve never shared. So I work with you to cherry-pick those stories which I work on so you can convey them in a way that’s comfortable.

“Everybody can benefit from media training,” Braun said. “It’s not just about appearing on a panel, or being interviewed, or being on a podcast. It’s about meeting with your team with conviction and confidence, and having a message and a headline to enter into the situation with clarity so they understand what you have to say. We’re not given these skills in life, in terms of both business and relationships.”

Braun credits public relations and communications people for contributing to the success of his business. “They’re kind of my bread and butter. They bring me in because they have clients, and their clients need to be able to express themselves.” He said he has coached, among other executives, Bloomingdale’s chief executive officer Olivier Braun; Marc Rosen, CEO of Catalyst Brands; Michelle Gass, CEO of Levi Strauss, as well top execs from Kendra Scott, Sperry, Design Within Reach, Swarovski, and influencers.

He said he’s known Jaqui Lividini, the CEO and founder of her eponymous firm, for many years, ever since he worked for “Good Morning America” and did fashion stories, which Lividini, a former senior vice president of fashion merchandising at Saks Fifth, enabled. “For union reasons or whatever, I couldn’t get into Macy’s. I couldn’t get into Bergdorf’s, but Jaqui would always say come over here to Saks and shoot.”

Lividini has expanded her firm’s services by forming “Profile by L&Co.,” which she characterized as a “strategic studio for executive identity helping influential leaders define and amplify their presence in the world.”

“I follow brands. I study them, and executives themselves have become brands, which means you have a ‘marquee’ name that people know, that your name is synonymous with something you’re known for. If you put parameters around that, everybody can build their own brand. Every executive has a defining quality that sets them apart. Our role is to help them identify that superpower, and build a personal brand that makes it unmistakeable.”

Profile by L&Co. has begun working primarily with C suite executives, or as Lividini said: “The CMO who wants to be the CEO. The CFO who wants to be the CEO. Even people who want to get on boards. We have a program, a process we put together, and it starts with telling your 10 truths. Once we have that, then we create unique messaging for you. Many executives are synonymous with the company they work for. Well, you want to be recognized for who you are, to carry you through to the next job. It’s about advancing your career.”