Maxim Behar's Blog, page 15

Maxim Behar on Online Forum of BBLF about Leadership

Maxim Behar participated in the BBLF online forum entitled "Leaders facing a crisis". Maxim has been part of the BBLF board for many years and is its former chairman. The discussion,�� led by Maxim Behar from the BBLF Board, was attended by owners, managers, and top managers of over 35 companies and partners of BBLF.

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A special guest at the discussion of the online forum was the TV producer Magardich Halvadjian, who commented on the current business situation in front of the management community of BBLF. "Leaders are individuals who are able to take responsibility for bold decisions in unforeseen circumstances" - said the renowned television producer and director Magardich Halvadjian. According to him, the only way to succeed is by experimenting with decisions, even if they are risky.

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All participants in the discussion reached the statement that leaders are responsible for their bold decisions, and the current crisis makes their responsibilities even bigger. Decisions must be quick and clear in order to have a beneficial effect and keep businesses safe, even in times of global crisis.

Maxim Behar Is a Guest of the Online Workshop "Stay Safe, Stay Smart" of BalkanSat

Maxim Behar was a guest-commentator on the online workshop "Stay safe, stay smart" of BalkanSat, which was attended by a number of startups, accelerators, and institutions such as the Bulgarian Investment Agency. The event was organized to discuss important issues related to the startup ecosystem and investment opportunities in Bulgaria.

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At the beginning of the discussion, BalkanSat CEO Vincent Stephanopoli commented on the key role of telecommunications during the recent coronavirus crisis: ���Appropriate telecommunication infrastructure provides many opportunities for economics and societies to deal with crises such as COVID-19. In addition, a well-developed 5G ecosystem and secure technologies favor decentralization, which is extremely important. My prediction for the near future is that information will continue to spread freely around the world, but production will be rather local and people will travel less frequently than now���.

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Stamen Yanev - the Executive Director of the Bulgarian Investment Agency participated in the online workshop "Stay safe, stay smart", presenting the new video with which Bulgaria will be promoted as a good investment destination, and he underlined that our country offers excellent conditions for the development of startups.

Maxim Behar at Online Forum "Modern PReading of Education" of M3 College

The team of M3 College organized the online forum "Modern PReading of Education", bringing together over 100 participants in the heated discussion, in which they commented on current topics related to education and what it means for young people. Special guests-commentators of the event were a number of famous people from the field of journalism, PR and education - Professor Lyubomir Stoykov, journalist Ani Tsolova, the host Niki Kanchev, the founder of SoftUni - Svetlin Nakov, Anka Kostova and Stefan Serezliev - lecturers from the college and Simona Medarova and Kristina Radkova, who are part of the team of M3 Communications Group.

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All participants-commentators were united under the thesis that in order to be successful young professionals, a balance needs to be done between education and practice. Contrary to this statement, most commentators initially expressed the view that the practice was fundamental for good career development. "Practice is the most important thing so that education is not so ossified. Practice develops thinking. There are successful models for implementing the practice in education around the world and I believe we can apply them." - said Svetlin Nakov.

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The end of the discussion put the words of the new Director of M3 College - Georgi Ivanov, who reminded us of the beginning of the college 15 years ago when the students of the college filled the halls of elite Bulgarian universities. Now he believes that the new online form of education will be even more successful because it is convenient for students to attend courses at a time convenient for them and foresees even greater success for the college.

Maxim Behar Participated in the Online Forum ���New Reality��� of Legal500

Maxim Behar took part in the online forum under the management of Legal500, dedicated to legal changes, reality, expectations, risks, and perspectives in the so-called "New Reality". The Legal500 is an organization that provides information and rankings of the world's best legal��practices over the years.

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The meeting was opened with the words of prominent James Wood from Legal500 and continued with the detailed and structured speech of lawyer Vladimir Penkov from the law firm "Penkov, Markov & Partners", followed by the speech of lawyer Nikolay Tsvetanov, who answered to the questions of over 110 forum participants.

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The main topic of the online forum was "The New Reality", which is a consequence of the latest events worldwide and has a strong impact on business and legal cases, which are discussed in recent months. The "New reality" is the one that changes the work process and in the future will transfer it to online communication platforms.

First-ever in History ICCO - The International Communications Consultancy Organization Online Board Meeting

Maxim Behar took an active part in the first online meeting of its kind "Get together" of the Board of The International Communications Consultancy Organization - ICCO. He is a former President of ICCO and has been a member of the organization for many years, contributing with innovative ideas, thanks to his over 25 years of experience in the field of PR communications.

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At the meeting was discussed the current topic related to the impact of the coronavirus on the PR business around the world. Emphasis was placed on several key points and key priorities for the future, which are the ICCO Speaker Series, the forthcoming ICCO 2020 Summit, the ICCO World Ethics Board, changes in the ICCO website, and ICCO training webinars.

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The next meeting of the Board of The International Communications Consultancy Organization - ICCO will be organized in November to discuss the next points of the work process, and for now, it is planned to happen again online.

Maxim Behar - CEO and Chairman of the Board of M3 Communications Group, Inc.: Ride the bike, whatever happens!

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Sources:��Sixth Almanach of Successful Business Cases in Bulgaria 2020

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The future must prevail over memories.

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My lesson from over than 25 years in the business in which I, and the company, have had our strong moments, peaks and downturns, huge victories and little ones, long-forgotten losses... Because the future is what we are now. How we think, how we predict, how we see ourselves in ten years. In the past, memories should only be in the lessons and nothing more.

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You should always be ready for a crisis.

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We stood by the pool at the spacious house in Beverly Hills with my good friend and client Alan Levy, who runs the mighty Tishman International, slowly taking a sip of a long and icy gin tonic, through a drought or two, he said to me, "Max, you always have to be ready for a crisis, always... For example, I've experienced a few already and always I come out stronger."

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Alan is much older than I am, but not just because of his age, he is much wiser and he has more experience. This incident happened in the summer of 2006 when Bulgaria was about to enter the European Union. There was a great real estate boom in our country which dragged the whole economy up, and I jumped out of my seat and protested: "Alan, you don't understand anything about Bulgaria, even though you leave tens of millions of dollars in your projects there, and you are doing well. This country can not endure more crisis, from now on we go only upwards - we have seen a lot of crises, we learned our lessons, we are entering the European economic system in few months, other people like you with millions are coming... Forget about a crisis, just forget." After a few months, not only Bulgaria, but the whole world has fallen in a difficult financial crisis, the first in decades, and while I was walking around the office and calculating who and how, to cut staff and where to cut as much as possible, I often remembered this conversation and an inevitable and involuntary one-word combination in English came up to my head - self-made! Or the closest translation in Bulgarian would be "self-directed".

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That word is one of the most valuable lessons of all these 25 years. Or the 9131 days when together with my team, sometimes teams were just doing miracles. We were studying ourselves, "we self-made ourselves", arguing with people like Alan Levy, with dozens, even hundreds like him, sometimes we succeeded, sometimes we looped, but we always knew and very well remembered that business was like riding a bike, you have to be constantly moving if you do not want to fall.

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Learn your lessons every day.

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We learn lessons every day and every hour. As a manager of a large company it is normal for me to make the most mistakes out of everyone, just because I make the most decisions in a day, hour or minute in the office, I always knew that I had to be the most persistent in learning my lessons every day. This is also the charm of doing business in a country like Bulgaria in which it is still relatively easy. Mostly because there are thousands of still vacant nishes and if you have the desire, the imagination and the energy, you can achieve miracles. People, on the other hand, are�� intelligent and dedicated, naturally when they have the right environment, of course.

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The Balance.

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The more time I spend in the business, the more I am convinced that management is a rather elementary job. However, you have to do it every day and every minute. Imagine a scale, usually a grocer, with one bowl on each side. On one hand, is what I generally call the "business environment" and this is where the working conditions, the quality of the clients, the team, the atmosphere in the office and whatever else comes to mind, and on the other hand are the salaries.

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The good balance in this fictitious and imaginative scale is the good management. Be assured that this is how things work, but there must be a good balance on both sides. Just for a moment imagine that you provide your team with excellent working conditions, but irrelevant to the market pay, or just the opposite - very good salaries and terrible relationships in the team, and the office is locked in a small old-fashioned apartment. It can be difficult to move forward and succeed without clearly defined principles. In M3 Communications Group, Inc.���s office we even call them laws.

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The laws of M3 Communications.

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The first, most important and above all other laws, is professionalism. The business I work in - Public Relations - is probably the most dynamic in the world, and if we do not read every day what is happening in big companies, if we do not try quickly, today, to bring it to the office with the precision of surgeons, tomorrow it may all be old.

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One of our laws is the transparency in everything

we do because that is what it guarantees

the ethics and morals in our business.

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Twenty years ago, as Chairman of the Bulgarian Business Leaders Forum (BBLF), I wrote the first Business Ethics Standard in Bulgaria (and to this day we are giving it to the Forum���s new members, without changing a single comma). At this point, I was touring Bulgaria to promote it and the most common question they asked me everywhere was: "What is business ethics?" To this day, I still have the brilliant answer: "To make profits transparent." Very short and very clear: we are in the business to make profits, but when they are transparent, then ethics, honesty and morality are fully guaranteed. Therefore, any other laws or values can continue, but if they have not stepped on professionalism and transparency, the risk of falling dominoes will always be there in crisis, even in successful years.

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Finally, and maybe at the beginning as well, it's the positivism that has become the drive to do your job at all costs at 100 percent and without a single note. I call every exception to this rule the '90 percent syndrome' and at least so far, I have not seen it anywhere but in Bulgaria. I work incessantly for this never to happen in my office. I advise you to do the same so that it does not enter your offices. There are as many incidents as you want. For example, a colleague completes one task at 90 percent and already thinks it's done... Well, there is still something small left, but the important thing is that it is completed in time, some ten percent or even less are not so fatal. On the contrary, every, even a small fraction of the percentage is important for the client, for his clients or partners, but especially for ourselves, for the people in a wonderful and interesting business such as PR.

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The positivism of being able to do the job completely and perfectly is the most valuable part of the positive energy of an expert, employee or manager. I do not know a successful person, who is angry with himself in the morning, but in the afternoon angry with the others, someone who envies, scolds or hates... If there is - it will be accidental and just for a while.

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The power of the PR profession.

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Well, there have always been surprises in my business. One of my big surprises lately has been the speed at which the first edition in Bulgaria of my recent book, "The Global PR Revolution", was completely sold out in less than a month. Just a couple days before, the first US edition topped the world charts for Amazon's best-selling new book in the area of ������our business. This is the most accurate proof of the enormous interest in our business, which with the advent of social media is beginning to become more and more important and more crucial for the success of many other businesses.

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We, the PR experts, from
��"ordinary consultants" become being people
who are making decisions and are influencing huge
��groups of people. I would say quite naturally,
because our business and
preparation was suggesting that a long time ago.

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We already have (social) media in our hands, we know how to handle their content and we know how to create the messages that our customers want to send to their users. This already makes us influential people, and certainly, this is due to the huge success of the book, which has, among other things, the professional opinions of 100 PR leaders from 65 countries. This makes it a global tool for how this business is changing across the globe.

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But most importantly: there are and always will be difficulties in every business. Just ignore them. Go your own way, keep your values, be positive and confident, but most importantly, never stop riding the bike if you want to get at time to the right place. Never.

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*M3 Communications Group, Inc. is one of the first Bulgarian PR companies, founded in 1994 by the leading PR expert Maxim Behar. Since then, the company is a well-established leader and it is established as a benchmark for PR standards in the communication market in Eastern Europe. The company offers a wide range of communication services: PR, media relations, crisis management, social media services and more, and is an exclusive partner of the largest PR company in the world for Bulgaria - H + K Strategies, part of WPP Group PL. The agency can boast over 5,000 realized local and international projects and PR expertise in almost all business areas.

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*Maxim Behar is a world-renowned PR expert, businessman, journalist, diplomat and President of the World PR Organization (ICCO) until 2017. He is a graduate of some of the most prestigious universities in the world such as Harvard Kennedy School, University of London, The Seattle Pacific Institute, Yokohama Kenshu Center, and Prague University of Economics.

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Behar is the founder and CEO of Bulgaria's leading PR company M3 Communications Group, Inc., part of the worldwide Hill + Knowlton Strategies group. He has won dozens of international awards, including an audience vote in the prestigious "Manager of the Year". In 2017 he became the first Eastern European inducted into the World Hall of PR Fame in London. He is a member of the Board of the World PR Museum in New York. As a notable businessman, Maxim is also a member of the Board of the Bulgarian Business Leaders Forum, as well as the former Chairman for two terms. He teaches communications and leadership at dozens of universities around the world. Since 2019, he is the President of the World Communication Forum in Davos, Switzerland. He is the Honorary Consul General of the Republic of Seychelles in Bulgaria, as well as the honorary citizen of his hometown Shumen. His latest book, "The Global PR Revolution", published in the US at the end of 2019, became a worldwide bestseller, a month later it was published with great success in Bulgaria.

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Maxim believes that one should never stop learning, one should always set high goals and dream big. His basic motto is that if your dreams do not scare you, then they are not big enough.

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The Transparency of Social Media in the PR Business

Sources: Interview for The Holmes Report (PRovoke podcast) with host Maja Pawinska Sims

The Echo Chamber brought to you by the Holmes Report and produced by the international podcast specialist Markettiers. Sponsored by the Bulleit Group, putting you in tomorrow���s conversations today.

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Maja Pawinska Sims:

- Hello everyone and welcome to The Echo Chamber. I am joined here in London today with Maxim Behar, the boss of M3 Communications and probably Bulgaria���s most high professional certainly as well not just PR man. Max kindly popped up into the studio on reach of the 25th Anniversary party tonight to talk about his brand new book ���The Global PR Revolution���. Max, thank you for joining me.

Maxim Behar:

- Good afternoon Maja. Very nice to be here.

Maja Pawinska Sims:

- It is lovely to have you here. So, Max, I would like to get to know you a little better. Can you tell us a bit about your astonishing 25-year career in communications so far? Where did that all start?

Maxim Behar:

- We have just celebrated our 25th Anniversary in Sofia, Bulgaria. I was for many years a journalist and the editor in Chief of the largest private daily newspaper in Bulgaria - ���Standard��� daily. One day just remembering what Winston Churchill said - ���You can archive a lot of things with the journalism, but you must know when to quit���. I just decided to start my own business, of course, 25 years back in Bulgaria, I don���t think anybody knew what is PR, so we were calling this advertising. Started in a small kitchen, with a small corridor, and then the secretary was in the corridor, I was in the kitchen. Then the first clients started coming and that is how it started. Maybe 3 or 4 years later I received an email saying - ���Mr. Behar, I have heard about your operation in Bulgaria and we will be very happy if we can cooperate together ��� Sir Martin Sorrell���. So, I did not know who he was.

Maja Pawinska Sims:

- You did not know who he was?

Maxim Behar:

- I didn���t know, indeed. So, I called the lady who is the Young & Rubicam representative in Sofia. I said - ���Listen, who is this Sir Martin Sorrell?���. Then she was silent for about a minute and then said - ���Max, how come Sir Martin knows who are you and you do not know who is he?���. I said - ���You know, I do not know, but...���. So, that is how it happened and then I met late Howard Paster and then late Terrence Billing. This is how almost 20 years I am with Hill & Knowlton Strategies. I think we are largest partners operation having more than 60 people in the office and a lot of international clients very, very happy with the business. After 25 years driving in the morning, to the office from my house, and I am full of excitement and full of expectations and creative ideas in my head. I had also these two very productive years as a President of ICCO and a couple of years before that as Vice President and Treasurer. I loved to travel, to learn, to read. Every day I read at least two or three articles on Public Relations, social media, and modern marketing. I love Paul Holmes, who is not only one of my best friends, but also a mentor and guru in the Public Relations business. The way he behaves, the way he speaks, we have been with Paul thousands of different events from PRovoke and different summits, up to Davos and many other places.

Maja Pawinska Sims:

- Yes, we all love Paul. He is a great guy, he is a great boss as well.

Maxim Behar:

- He is a great personality, that is why I like him.

Maja Pawinska Sims:

- On the bases we grew up in the PR industry, the global industry together. You tell us a great story in your book about your slight and accidental evolution from an advertising agency to PR agency via your first account from an oil company. Can you tell us about that?

Maxim Behar:

- It was Amoko Petroleum. At that time Amoko was later bought by British Petroleum. At that time it was the largest retail oil company in the US. So, they wanted to invest in Poland, Bulgaria, and Russia and when they came to my office, it was the already mentioned kitchen, and I felt very depressed and I was absolutely sure that they would not work with me, but at the end of the day, they came back and said - ���We want to work with you.��� and I said - ���Why? How come? I have this small kitchen and nothing, no secretary, nobody.��� Then the guy ��� James Shields, who was the country manager at that time, said - ���Listen, we are looking for such a man who will not spend our money on luxury offices and luxury cars and will advise us properly and professionally��� That is how it started and then, of course, Hill & Knowlton cooperation and many other clients, Microsoft, Cisco. I made the soft landing of Microsoft for Bulgaria at that time - a country number one of pirate software. It was a big fight and a lot of crisis management steal. So, that was the logical development from doing Public Relations business in a country where nobody knew what is Public Relations.

Maja Pawinska Sims:

- Well, you involved PR in Bulgaria that is for sure and the rest is history. Your book is ���The Global PR Revolution���. What was the thinking behind this? What did you want to achieve?

Maxim Behar:

- When I spent 2 years as ICCO President I traveled every months and I think I visited more than 45 countries, almost 50 countries. I met a lot of people, interesting communities, PR experts, local associations, friends, very good friends. I spoke to maybe 50 or 60 different conferences, forums, and summits, including the one in Davos for many years. So, at the end of the day, I decided that it might be good if I can share all those experience, not only what I think about the changes in Public Relations business, but also what the guys from China, from Hong Kong, from Brazil, from Australia or Canada, Baltics, Scandinavia think about that. There are a lot of similarities because all we know that our business these days has nothing to do with the business 10 years ago even. It is a very, very dynamic change. Sometimes I feel like it is changing with the speed of light. Something which was valid and very interesting, very innovative a week ago, it is old already. This is because of the fast development of social media, the way of communication, changing the languages and different approaches as instruments which companies are using these days. So, that is why I called it revolution and some of the people who are interviewed in the book agree, some of them do not agree. Of course, the majority agree that it is a revolution. I think there is one basic very important point to call it revolution ��� this is the change of the ownership of the media. Because 10-15 years ago it was easy. The clients were coming and knocking at our door and saying - ���Mr. PR expert would you be so kind to help me to promote my products to the media? So, would you connect me to the media because you know the editors or you know how to approach them?��� These days, of course, we had at that time very simple instruments and we were saying - ���Of course, Mr. Client we are all yours." We organize a press conference, we have a product promotion, we do this and that. We have between 5 and 10 different instruments ��� media breakfast, media trip, visit the factory, interview with the CEO and that is it. These days the clients come and knock at the door and say - ���Mr. PR expert, I own media. Would you be so kind to help me to manage this media?��� It means that we should have completely different qualities, completely different knowledge, completely different preparation and a completely different approaches to achieve client���s needs. That is why I really believe that the PR experts these days are very complicated chemistry or mixtures between publishers, editors, and reporters. Publishers because we own a media or we operate a media on behalf of our clients. Editors because we care about the content - it is our strength. If we do not operate with the content with a good language we will be out of business.

Maja Pawinska Sims:

- I know about storytelling.

Maxim Behar:

- Reporters because of the storytelling. A reporter is someone who reports, someone who finds something interesting and reports it to the audience. That is the etymology of this word in English. This mixture between publishers, editors and reporters makes our business completely different and requires from us, from our teams, from our staff in the offices, even from our client's absolutely different qualities to have. So, that is why I think it is really revolution, the changes are revolutionary.

Maja Pawinska Sims:

- And how well do you think the industry globally is adapting to this revolution?

Maxim Behar:

- I do not think it is easy because, in some of the markets, I realize that changes are absolutely very slowly. I can point China, partly Russia, some of the markets do not even accept the changes and they do not realize how important are those changes and how important is the changes of the people who are the audience, they are targeting. Of course, the UK and the US, which are the mothers of the Public Relations business it is much easier and much more dynamic. One of the huge advantages of this book, I can not comment on the quality of the analysis or the speech, but without any doubt, the biggest advantage is that I managed together 100 top PR experts from 65 countries insights and from any research I made throughout the past one or two years I never ever found such publication even scientific, even in the university paper to have such a big amount ��� 100 people from all over the world with their expert's opinion, because these guys are really top leaders from Sir Martin Sorrell trough Paul Holmes, David Gallagher, Elise Mitchell, so many, Jack Martin from Hill & Knowlton, and many others. So many top-quality people. Also small countries like Albania, Tajikistan or Vietnam where people usually do not think that they may have a Public Relations business. This mixture can show to the readers what are the changes in different parts of the world.

Maja Pawinska Sims:

- Like you said you have got quotes from almost every big Chief in the global PR industry. They all responded differently and largely positively to your question about what social media constitutes a revolution in Public Relations or precise the revolution. Can you pick up some of your favorite quotes and responses to that? Are there any really that sprang to your mind?

Maxim Behar:

- I really do not have them. There are brilliant interesting people like John Saunders from Fleishman Hillard and Jack Martin from Hill & Knowlton, who are commenting at that time. Let say, Sir Martin Sorrell is emphasizing on the digital changes. He is more on the advertising side and we had a couple of discussions with Sir Martin on that. One of the most important changes in our business is that globally there is a very high-speed merge between the three main elements of Public communications which are Public Relations, Advertising and Digital. Sometimes we think they are separate businesses, but the merge is so fast that one day we will wake up, we will make our espresso coffee and then we will realize that we live in a different world and we work in a different business. There is a big dispute which one of the businesses will leave in the future this big merge in the business. Some people, Sir Martin is one of them, saying - ���Of course, it is the advertising, because the money is in the advertising, also the media buying, the graphic design, the creativity, the video buying, and the video creation���. So, all those things.

Maja Pawinska Sims:

- And that was because he paid in WPP, of course.

Maxim Behar:

- Exactly. That was what he did at WPP. I am the one that definitely say that it will be Public Relations. There are 2 main reasons which I think are beating all those messages about the media buying, about the influence on the media, whatever. You can have millions to buy a media, to buy space in the media, but Public Relations is the business responsible for the content and we are the masters of the content. We can buy thousands of minutes on the TV, you can buy thousands of hundreds of square centimetres in the media or you can buy places on Facebook without content. This is an empty space. In Public Relations we are the ones responsible for the content. Reason number 2 is that we deal with crisis management. This is crucial importance these days because a couple of years ago we had something like between 8 and 10 hours to solve a crisis. You wake up, you read the newspaper, a nasty article about one of your clients. Then you call the client and you have a coffee with him, then you have lunch with him and then you make a press release, then you invite journalists, you make a press conference. All those things, which usually took 6 to 8 hours. Today we do not have even 6 minutes.

Maja Pawinska Sims:

- You have got that 15 minutes.

Maxim Behar:

- Sometimes we have 6 seconds to react. So, from those 3 elements ��� Public Relations, Advertising, and Digital, I think Public Relations, having in mind the abilities to solve crises and to manage content, will be definitely the leading one, supported by the digital, supported by the media buying, maybe with the graphic design creativity. So, this trend I think is very loudly described in the book and the majority of the interviewed, the superstars in this business, agree with this.

Maja Pawinska Sims:

- Yes, it is easy to see that. There is a parallel revolution you talk about how the media has involved and the death, almost the death of the print newspaper. How has the revolution in the media landscape affected PR and how do you seen the relationships between the PR and journalism change in your time in industry?

Maxim Behar:

- If you mean the traditional media, as we know there is a strong division between the social and the traditional media, I think that this revolution devastated both ��� the traditional Public Relations and the traditional media in one at the same time. The end of the 90���s it was absolutely clear that the traditional media is dying, especially the printed media. I am a man coming from printed media. I was giving interviews, I was predicting that in 2020-2025 the last newspaper will disappear.

Maja Pawinska Sims:

- Gosh still this really scares me, the printed media. You still believe that?

Maxim Behar:

- That is reality! This is not because the newspapers are bad, but the newspapers will not survive with the lack of advertising. The daily newspaper will cost 20 pounds. Do you know why? Because they should pay salaries, they should pay the newsprint, the printing, the delivery, the distribution, everything. It was easy to predict because although we did not have social media 20 years ago, we had online media, we had the websites at that time, and forums and all those platforms to exchange opinions. At that time a lot of people called me and said - ���Max, you come from the printed media and how you predict that the traditional media will die?��� It is happening together with the change of our business. This is a process which is changing the journalism and they exist less and less like a real journalists. They are much more bloggers, writers on social media, people who are posting on their Facebook profiles or Twitter and something different in LinkedIn or Instagram. We became as Public Relations experts much closer to the journalists from the traditional media. It is a mixtures. I do not see any big difference between social media and what we do every day in our offices.

Maja Pawinska Sims:

- The things are really shifted have a knife and fur for journalists and PR people. The jobs are different as they were a decade ago, or certainly 2 or 5 years ago. When I started in this business.

Maxim Behar:

- Exactly. We are in two parts, I mean I do not whether, sometimes depends on the countries, in some of the countries we have a Chinese wall in between. In some of the countries, we cooperate. It was different. There were 2 different parallel developing professions, businesses. These days it is the same. It is part of the revolution I think.

Maja Pawinska Sims:

- You talk about a great phrase from your book which is total transparency. Tell me about that, because I would like to know about the rise of social media and the impact on brands.

Maxim Behar:

- I think that it will affect mainly the name of our business Public Relations, because the name of the business was created more than 120 years ago in the US, when maybe 5 percent of the relations of the business were public and 95 were nonpublic. So, the businessman or the industrial big bosses they were hiring journalists or former journalists to handle this 5 percent of Public Relations.

Maja Pawinska Sims:

- Just to talk to the media.

Maxim Behar:

- That is how the business came into Public Relations because the majority of the relations are public. These days 100 percent are public. The name of the business is kind of nonsense like you can say ���white water��� or ���transparent glass���. All the relations are public. I think that total transparency is absolutely crucial for our business, because it concerns the most important part of the business we are these days is business ethics. It is crucial because we are people who are writing news, writing stories, making storytelling. If we are wrong hundreds of thousands, sometimes millions and most probably billions of times, social media can be mislead, can write the wrong stories. So, we should be absolutely on the ethical and corporate social responsible side. We should understand this because 50 years ago the journalists were the ones responsible to inform the audience ��� right or wrong. Then we were approaching journalists. When anything happened with the wrong information or the wrong news and we were telling the clients - ���Sorry about that, but that is the media, that is the journalist���. But today is us. So, we should feel this responsibility and transparency. It is always leading to ethics. 20 years ago I wrote in Bulgaria the first ethic business-standard, ever in the country. I was running the ���Standart��� and I brought this to Prince Charles and he was absolutely surprised if not shocked that someone in Bulgaria wrote a business ethic standard. We had a long discussion with him and I started traveling all over the country to present the business standard to many businesses which did not have a clue what is business ethics at all. A lot of people asked me - ���What is business ethics?���. Then I said - ���It is so simple making process transparently.��� We are in business to make profits and to pay salaries, to invest in our business, to grow up. If we make it transparently that means that it is ethical. That is why I emphasize very much in my office, at ICCO when I was a President and still in the Executive Committee, in many other communities like The World Communications Forum in Davos in which I am President in these days. Ethics and transparency ��� this is the absolute base of our business.

Maja Pawinska Sims:

- How ethical do you think the PR industry is these days?

Maxim Behar:

- Much more ethical then decades before. I do not even want to mention the Bell Pottinger case.

Maja Pawinska Sims:

- That was a game-changer, right?

Maxim Behar:

- Yes, from a certain point it was a game-changer, but I should praise about my good friend Francis Ingham. These guys were fighting a lot. They did what they should do to make a case study. It is about 15 pages in my book about Bell Pottinger, about the whole case. They showed that we are in business in which you make a mistake then you can not be anymore in this business. It is no way in this modern world.

Maja Pawinska Sims:

- Well, about the transparency point you can get away with anything. So, what happens next? We are going through the revolution, we have been through quite a lot of revolution in terms of the impact of the social media in the past decade, particularly the last 2 or 3 years. How do you see this evolution of the industry now progressing? What is next on Public Relations?

Maxim Behar:

- On one hand, is artificial intelligence which will help a lot our business and is helping already. I think that first of all everything in the office is changing and we should realize if we want to develop this revolution into evolution then we should have a completely different positions, completely different people with completely different knowledge in the office. I think that from one hand people who understand artificial intelligence, on the other hand, full of people in our offices who have natural intelligence, who are reading a lot and have a huge amount of education. Most probably the business will change in a way that all of us will stay 24 hours in front of our mobile phones, tablets, monitors, smartwatches or whatever and we communicate with our clients and their clients in a way that we will be the decision-makers, it will not be the clients. I think the most important change will come very soon. The clients will not decide anything and we will not wait for the approval, because if we wait for a client to approve a campaign, reaction or a posting on Facebook, it will be totally lost. So, we should be ready to take over absolutely in a very professional manner the Public Communications on behalf of our client with all the responsibilities. We will be the solo decision-makers who have never been in this business before.

Maja Pawinska Sims:

- Becoming truly trusted not just counsel.

Maxim Behar:

- No, not counsel. We are decision-makers. We are not any more advisers. We should be ready to become final decision-makers with the whole responsibilities.

Maja Pawinska Sims:

- This is ambitious aim. Do you know how long this will take?

Maxim Behar:

- Absolutely! This will happen and it is happening now. It is very beginning and this is happening as a result of the global PR revolution, because it is a change on the base of changes of the social media, which are changing our role into the Public Relations business.

Maja Pawinska Sims:

- What advice would you give to someone with all your legacy and history in the industry to a young person who has just started a career in Public Relations? How are they going to succeed now?

Maxim Behar:

- The advice I can give is absolutely valid both to the young person and to the old ones, to the old lions, to the old animals in our business. This very simple. Do not neglect your education, read every day an article, learn something new. Because I know a lot of people and they say - ���Max, I am 20 years in this business I know everything.��� Not at all. Every single day you should learn something new. We should analyze this and change ourselves. Otherwise, the business is developing with the speed of light and you can miss 2 or 3 weeks, or month without learning anything new without reading an interesting article, without talking and disputing or quarreling even on social media with someone else. Every minute without learning education is a lost minute. I graduated a couple of months ago from Harvard and I am very happy.

Maja Pawinska Sims:

- Yes, I know you did. Congratulations!

Maxim Behar:

- Thank you! After 25 years it was a good case study for my team as well. After all those years in business, you should learn and you should change.

Maja Pawinska Sims:

- Well, stay learning and stay curious kids. It is a great read that ���The Global PR Revolution���, Max. Thank you so much for coming to talk about it! I totally recommend. It is full of great anecdotes. Thank you for joining me at The Echo Chamber! I see you at the party later.

Maxim Behar:

- Thank you, Maja! It was a big honor for me too.

��

Find the full podcast here.��

The New Ideas in Business Reflected in ���The Global PR Revolution���

Sources: Interview for the broadcast "Multimedia" with host Daniel Nenchev on Bulgaria ON AIR TV

��

Daniel Nenchev:

��

- Now we will discuss the new ideas of Public Relations with the PR expert, Mr. Maxim Behar. Hello, I am very pleased to meet you!

��

Maxim Behar:

��

- Likewise, good day!

��

Daniel Nenchev:

��

- You recently wrote a new book, ���The Global PR Revolution���. In fact, you have discussed with many experts like yourself in the PR world, a key question - How do smart leaders succeed in the transformed world of PR? Now we can try to answer it in this television interview for our viewers.

Those who want the complete story should read the book. First of all, let us begin with your personal history. You started in journalism, but you switched to PR.

��

Maxim Behar:

��

- Yes, I started in journalism, naturally, before that I worked for 5 years in a factory as a locksmith. I studied abroad - one higher education, then another one. Afterwards I started as a journalist. It was really interesting as a profession. I created, along with several other people, the ���Standard���

newspaper many years ago. The reason I parted ways with journalism was remembering one phrase from Winston Churchill - ���One can accomplish a great deal with journalism, but one must know when to give it up���. That was the actual cause that made me quit.

��

Daniel Nenchev:

��

- But why did you really leave?

��

Maxim Behar:

��

- Because I wanted to do something more interesting, something innovative, and I just decided to give it a try and see if I can handle with it. That was 25 years ago. The company I run - M3 Communications Group, turned 25 a few weeks ago. I���m pretty happy that we���ve always worked very hard and

I am going to answer your question right away - How smart leaders succeed in the transformed world of PR? Only with innovation, change and a fierce desire to leave your comfort zone and being able to do new and interesting things and providing them to your customers.

��

Daniel Nenchev:

��

- Yes, this is an easy answer, however, when we put the talk of PR in the context of a truly changing media, the changing communication environment which is extremely intense and, in fact, about 20 years ago, it changed radically with the innovation you are talking about. A disruptive innovation, one

would say. Something that radically changed the way we communicate at all - the emergence of the smart phone, of the social media. How did your profession change then?

��

Maxim Behar:

��

-This is not an easy answer. Being able to succeed in a super dynamic world where every day is already a closed page. Not yesterday, but at the end of the current day, all you have done is an old story. You expect to get something new or move into a completely new communication or media environment. It is not easy at all - you need a very good education and reading, reading, reading every day. You have to follow all new trends that are emerging not only in our business but also in the media, because the changes that I call a revolution in our business, have come from shifts in the media. The most important factor that turned the world upside down is the change in media ownership, because 10-12 years ago, the people who owned the media were called publishers. Publishers had televisions, they had newspapers, they had radios - they could control them. Now everyone is holding a media in their hands. Of course, this increases the responsibility of each of us to a great extent, because you need to know how to operate with this media. I would say the basis of this change is the sense of being ethical and moral in the media you govern. Following the ethical rules very strict will not allow you to think for a second about posting fake news. This is the truth of our business. Of course, it applies to anyone who has media in their hands. In business, this is really important. The publicity has also experienced a major revolution. Only 10 years ago, the public figures were politicians, TV hosts, show stars and athletes. Only these 4 categories were well-known, practically no one else was public. Now everyone can be popular.

��

Daniel Nenchev:

��

- Wait a minute, we mixed things up a bit. You talk about ethics in an environment where there is traditional media and new social media. For a journalist who follows certain kind of code of ethics in the Bulgarian media, a person who has integrity and is a professional, it is much easier to follow these rules. But how do we educate the people who, as you already said, everyone nowadays can operate with a media - to be ethical, to check the information, not to mislead the public, not to react emotionally. It is impossible���

��

Maxim Behar:

��

- It is possible but will probably take generations. 100 years ago Henry Ford introduced the car, then called ���The Ford Quadricycle���, and said, ���This will be our future���. Many people said, this is ridiculous, this is not possible. What if a tire cracks, or the gasoline runs out? Or maybe the engine fails, or it

hurts a person and causes an accident? It is the same with the media nowadays. Yes, there is a risk that many individual users would use these medias and even unintentionally creating fake news, although this is becoming less and less accidental. It will take generations, upbringing, attitude towards the media, attitude towards the written text, attitude towards publicity. No one was used to this publicity. Billions of people around the world were not used to this publicity and suddenly they have a personal profile, no matter in which media, and they start writing what they want and millions of others read them. This is a process that should make people free and responsible in this environment. On the other hand, it may be a bit extreme, but I mention it in the book - I think that creating fake news largely damages the image or creates problems for other people. I believe this should be criminalized in some way.

��

Daniel Nenchev:

��

- I agree.

��

Maxim Behar:

��

- When you write fake news, you damage the business and the people suffer. You should face court. It is the same as car accidents ��� the people who cause them, go to court and are held responsible for their actions.

��

Daniel Nenchev:

��

- Yes, let us give examples from your book. Here you tell a lot of interesting stories about big companies or institutions that made mistakes and suffered from accidents afterwards. This is a situation in which experts show professional reflex and create PR - the so called crisis PR. Would you mind telling us about some of these interesting examples you give in the book?

��

Maxim Behar:

��

- Of course, they can be seen in the book. I have dozens, dear God, hundreds of examples in my business, in my daily work, working for companies that are very sensitive to crisis management. I think this is one of the great advantages of PR field these days because one of the peculiarities of the change in our business is that on a global scale, there is a very rapid unification of the three components of public communications ��� advertising, digital media, and PR. This union in 10 years will be one single business. There will be no advertising agencies or PR companies, digital agencies. There will be one place where customers will receive service. Throughout this union, a battle is waging of who will run this new business. Of course, I also say mention many times in the book that we, the PR experts, will manage the future business for two reasons - we can handle crises - there are many valuable examples here in Bulgaria. Even though the PR is a global business, it also possesses a really strong local dimension. On the other hand, when clients have problems with their brand, their presence in the media, especially social, they do not go to the advertising business, they do not go to the digital business. They come to us because we have one key advantage - we are masters of content. Our business is content.

��

Daniel Nenchev:

��

- However, the content should come to us afterwards. So if there is a place to promote this, if there are reasonable people, it reaches the audience. I would like to discuss the important trends related to the future of PR. For example, according to the 2017 Global Communications Report of the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, digital storytelling comes first in the future of PR - social listening, social purpose and, of course, the big data - the analysis of big data goes in the loop after each of us in the digital environment, the online environment where we live.

��

Maxim Behar:

��

- This is the content I was talking about. We call it storytelling. It has evolved over the last 10 years in our business. Going back to the definition I gave to the term ���PR��� in my book, I listed all the definitions that went through my head and wrote them down. The last definition I have today is telling the truth so that people can understand it. The key words here are truth and understanding. When people perceive you, this is a good storytelling. Bottom line is that the news we create, the content we create, should be understood by everyone. Since the media is different, we should have completely different capabilities. For example in Twitter you have to present information with 140 characters that I have previously written in 2 pages in my times as a journalist. Now with 140 characters, you have to say the same thing. President Donald Trump, at the White House in Washington, has shown that he can do this, and this has, of course, attracted many other leaders over the past 4 years. Long before Donald Trump used Twitter, we all did our best to tell in these 140 characters the exact, clear, understandable truths our customers need to learn. By the way, one of the elements of this revolution is understanding the difference between languages. We use one language on LinkedIn, a completely different language on Facebook, we use a contrasting language on Twitter, we use different images on Instagram.

��

Daniel Nenchev:

��

- Youtube is already another territory.

��

Maxim Behar:

��

- Youtube, of course, with the videos. When we understand the different languages of various medias, I reckon that the business is becoming more accessible and easier to manage.

��

Daniel Nenchev:

��

- Alright. You have interviewed and communicated with many PR experts in the world. What did you learn from them? What is the most valuable thing they have shared in this book?

��

Maxim Behar:

��

- They are my friends. These are 100 people from 65 countries. As you already know, I was president of ICCO for 2 years and these are the people I have met in their countries or in various forums ��� Davos and many other interesting places where we talked about PR. I have studied in depth the whole history of publications on PR. Maybe I have 250-300 books on this subject in my Kindle. I have never seen such a global survey of 100 people from 65 countries. Practically, this is the whole world brought together in a book of opinions. About 80% of them agree that a revolution is happening in our business. The other 20% believe there are huge changes, but these are evolutionary changes. Of course, each country has peculiarities. In China they reflect in one way, but in a completely different method they comment in Korea or Botswana, Albania, Canada, Australia, everywhere. The great advantage of the book is that it makes an overview on a global level and when one wishes to see the changes in our business around the world, he can read the opinions of PR experts country by country.

��

Daniel Nenchev:

��

- Finally, I will allow myself to quote one of my favorite authors I have found over the last 10 years - Eric Weiner, The Geography of Bliss. Great writer, journalist, traveler.

��

Maxim Behar:

��

- It was an honor for me that my friend Eric wrote a recommendation for my book. He asked to see it before it was published. He called and asked me ��� ���Do you want me to write something about it? I am very impressed.���- That was one of the big surprises for me in the whole process of writing the book.

��

Daniel Nenchev:

��

- Here I am going to read it - ���The world is changing. Social media is gathering more people together and at the same time separating them. It is difficult to judge what to believe and who to trust, especially when it comes to PR. I tell you, trust Maxim Behar. He mutes the noise and amplifies the signal.��� Now, finally, let us broadcast such a message. How do we mute and how can we amplify the signal when we want to broadcast a valuable message?

��

Maxim Behar:

��

- It���s clear that from my meetings with Eric Weiner, I found out the truth about muting the noise, because there is a huge uproar on social media right now. You can read 1 million things that don���t interest you at all, but since you���re reading it on your Facebook wall or your subscriptions everyday, this cannot be avoided. In my opinion, one has to have a very clear and focused goal of what he or she wants to do in social media. For example, when you buy a newspaper you cannot read all of it. When you watch TV, you cannot watch television 24 hours a day. Similarly, time spent on social media, especially Facebook, which is the most popular social media in Bulgaria, has people pour out absolutely all kinds of feelings and experiences, things that do not interest us. That is why we must have a very precise choice of what to read, how to read it, and, of course, to eliminate the noise,

as Eric calls it, and most importantly not to be influenced by people we would never seek advice from.

��

Daniel Nenchev:

��

- Yes, one of the most enjoyable recipes for signal amplification and noise reduction is reading books. Thank you very much!

��

Maxim Behar:

��

- Yes, thank you! Good luck on the show! Reading books is a huge activity! I advise everyone to spend as much time as possible with books.

��

Daniel Nenchev:

��

- ���The Global PR Revolution���, Maxim Behar. Good luck with the book and to you!

��

Watch the full video here.��

From Journalism to PR with Maxim Behar

Sources: Interview for the podcast "Who is who" with host Petya Zungorlieva on BNR

��

Petya Zungorlieva:

- Hello, the "Who is who" program is starting. Today we will make an exciting walk through the life of one of the most successful PR experts, not only in our country but all over the world. Maxim Behar is a professional with huge experience and a strong presence in countries in all continents. He travels extensively and often speaks to a wide audience of world leaders, professionals, students and opinion leaders on topics related to modern PR and social media. These meetings are the basis of his new book, "The Global PR Revolution", which just for a week became the best-selling book not only in Bulgaria but also in America.

Maxim Behar:

- Good morning to radio "Sofia" and the Sofia citizens! I am very pleased to be here with you. My book is called "The Global PR Revolution" and it was published in October last year in America. I wrote it because the American publishing house "Allworth" and "Simon & Schuster", which is one of the largest publishers in America ordered the book. I was genuinely surprised when it came out in America in October and was for a few weeks a best-selling new book. Friends from all over the world wrote to me - from New Zealand to Canada, to Korea, Japan, Brazil, from everywhere. They told me they bought it and have started promoting the book to their colleagues. This is a book about what was our PR business years ago, what it is now, and an attempt for a brief vision of the future ahead. I think the biggest advantage of the book is that I was able to gather views from 100 people from 65 countries, and these are 100 very serious PR leaders in their countries. Some of them are chairmen or presidents of PR associations or they run large international companies. I asked them 3 questions - What do they think is changing in our business now?, - Do they think it is a revolution?, - And what is changing in their offices? From the practical point of view, if my colleagues, who are going to read the book or who are reading it, are having all these ideas of 100 leading PR professionals, leaders - what they do and how they change their offices, that will help them. Of course, it is full of interesting stories. Maybe one day I will write a book with stories only. I thought my book was specialized, but the other day one of my lawyers, Itso Trandev, texted me and told me - "I drinking my coffee and reading the book it seems it is very plausible". I was surprised that even for a lawyer this book is accessible. I am satisfied!

Petya Zungorlieva:

- You can write exceptionally well and I say this to refer you back in the time when you take the path of journalism. How did it happen? Did your profession choose you, or rather, did you choose the profession? How did it happen?

Maxim Behar:

- It seems to me that I chose the profession. I have always wanted to be able to express what I think and, if possible, make it more public. I was 13 and a half year-old when my father sent me to work, with the permission of the government of that time, for a half-hour's working day. I forged crates in the carpentry shop when I was 13 and a half year-old. The director hired me to help him with the coffee, and there was a free typewriter on which I started typing a quarterly newspaper whose editions I have, my friends brought them to me 10 years ago. Who knows why "Daily News" is called, it is from 1969. Since then, I have always wanted to be able to express myself. I had no idea if I would write, use a microphone or a camera. That is how I got into journalism. When I graduated from high school, I had a 5-year stint as a locksmith in a machine-building plant, in those wonderful years, which I remember not every day, but every minute, because of my vice, if you even know what vice is. This is one tool to which are attached the work pieces, which you worked with. The man who bought this machine-building plant - a businessman, owner of the Development Fund, Alexander Alexandrov - gave it to me my favorite vice because he had searched it for me. It turned out that there was a man who had worked with me there in the youth crew of the engineering plant. He had shown him my vice and then gave it to me. Now the vice is in my small room, in my office, there is my vice. These ��were wonderful years. After then I started to study and from the first day, I started to write as a journalist. I think I still do that. Several people influenced me a lot - my cousin Yosif Davidov, a wonderful journalist who works in Madrid as a BTA correspondent. For many years he was the head of the international department of newspaper "Trud" and an international editor. Vesela Tabakova - a wonderful journalist-analyzer, unfortunately no longer alive. These were the people I contacted. Konstantin Ivanov, he is still alive, a wonderful journalist and many other people, people from whom I studied and somehow I became involved in journalism. Of course, I was a correspondent in my hometown of Shumen, I was a correspondent in Poland in the most interesting years in which communism fell and I could see such super intellectuals as Lech Walesa. Not only to see them but also to be with them all the time. Adam Michnik, Kiyatse Kuron, Adeus Nozawietski, Bronis��aw Keramiki - a lot of people I can list with whom I interacted with or interviewed them every day, I was super fascinated by what they wrote and when I returned to Bulgaria in 1991, back from Poland, I was already fully prepared and I knew how, I knew what was going to happen in Bulgaria, the thing that happened.

Petya Zungorlieva:

- In "Who is who" today we meet the PR expert Maxim Behar. He holds a degree in International Economic Relations from the University of Economics in Prague. In 1981, as a student, he began his career as a journalist in Bulgaria. He practiced in the Czech Republic and Poland. There he was witness of events that changed the world history.

Maxim Behar:

- When I arrived in Poland, from the very rich and well-stocked city of Shumen in those years - it was 1988. I was in Warsaw where we used coupons for everything - for milk, for meat, for chocolate. I was there with my son, who was a year and a half or two-year-old then, and we came across a super tortured, nervous, at the end of communism, and it was already evident everywhere the centralized economy. Even I don't want to stress so much the political system that underpinned the situation in the Eastern European countries and the communist system, I would say one-party system. I just saw the end of a centralized economy and the beginning of ��the market economy. The so-called shock therapy with all the adversaries and all the remarks was introduced from January 1, 1990. I saw how suddenly everything turned and the market started to work. Many people could not swing towards. When that happened in 1992, 1993, 1994 there were these kinds of people in Bulgaria too. However, it was the only way to move from a centralized to a market economy, something that no one has ever done in the whole history. I was a huge fan of everything that was going on because I saw how things were changing. In fact, under tougher laws, other people who understanded more than economics wanted to earn more money honestly. Such a transition always brings good and bad sides. The important thing is what happened. The most important is that happened in Bulgaria after that. It was a great chance for me to write about all this. Later I published it in my first book, which was called "Secondary Instinct". I published all these interviews I had with super intellectuals from Poland, from the Czech Republic, these were Vaclav Hubel, many others - Felipe Gonzalez, the Prime Minister of Spain in those years, Avramovich, who was the director of the National Bank of Yugoslavia - a great economist. These things came out in one book, all the reports, and interviews I had done. I have only one copy of it, probably nowhere could be found, but it seems that is a good picture of what happened in Poland, in the Czech Republic, in Hungary, as viewed through our Bulgarian reality.

Petya Zungorlieva:

- You have mentioned big names. What was the most important thing when you communicated with them? What did you get to know about meeting these people, which was surely a great challenge and a test for one's personality, for the behavior of a young man who was still facing a lot of new things in life?

Maxim Behar:

- The atmosphere of talking to these people was different because they have responsible positions and the names I mentioned were proven intellectuals. Throughout all these years and afterward, in the PR business, I have continued to see and interact with prime ministers and presidents, kings and queens, all kinds of people. For me, this is something regularly and quite ordinary. There are remaining things from these meetings and probably they are reflecting on my character in the way I work and the way I look at the world. One of my biggest lessons was my first meeting with King Simeon in 1992 in Madrid, at his house. At the time, I was the director of the international department of the newspaper "Duma". No one in the entire editorial board agreed with me to go to talk to the King. The newspaper "Duma" as you know is very left-wing in those red-blue years, in those years of total division of society. It was very difficult to convince the editorial team that because the King is Bulgarian and we, as journalists, would be very pleased to hear his opinion on all that was happening in Bulgaria. It was 4 years before he returned for the first time - it happened in 1996. It was super exciting. I wrote him a letter by regular mail. In those times there were no emails, no faxes, no such things. He answered me by ordinary mail and one day when I was going to the newsroom, Stoyan the doorman, who is no longer among the living - an elderly man, told me - "Behar, you have a letter." I opened it, it was a letter from the King inviting me to lunch at his house, and it was a great emotion for me because he was an extremely educated and erudite man, very intelligent. This was the first large and extensive interview that appeared in the Bulgarian press. In 1989, Yosif Davidov, who I already mentioned, had briefly interviewed him for the "Patriotic Front" newspaper. Miko Petrov, a radio journalist who co-founded "Sunday 150", interviewed him and Kevork Kevorkian had a television interview. This was the first long interview, I stayed at his house in Madrid almost all day, it was great excitement for me. My meetings with Prince Charles were quite exciting, especially we had a long lunch at his Saint James Palace in December 2002. It was also a great excitement because we stayed for a few hours and talked about all sorts of things, including the King, and Bulgaria and what was going on, but each of these people probably leave something and they are interesting. They are also interesting for readers or for the people to whom I have subsequently told stories because anyone can learn something.

Petya Zungorlieva:

- Maxim Behar's journalistic journey is extremely exciting. In 1994, however, he closed the page of this profession and opened a new one - the page of advertising. Many influential figures, not only in Bulgaria, have called him an institution and guru in communications. Undoubtedly, he is one of the leaders of public opinion in the country. In 1994, Maxim Behar made the transition from journalism to advertising and, for just over 25 years, successfully has ran a communications agency.

Maxim Behar:

- I left journalism because of all these years when together with my very good friend Valery Zapryanov we created the "Standard" newspaper in 1992. There is still one, though a weekly edition. Lovely newspaper, I love it very much. It will be almost 30 years since we did it. We made the "Standard" newspaper on that blue paper with extremely abstract and analytical opinions in it. It was a wonderful newspaper, I loved it a lot. All the time, I kept repeating Winston Churchill's words: "One can accomplish a great deal with journalism, but he must know when to give it up." In 1994 I wanted to have a try in the business. I didn't know what we were "self-made" in. There was no one to teach us, no one to tell us, no one to leave us business, as will be the case with my children and their children. We have done something already, big or small, in life anyway. The tips or lessons we will give them are not a small thing. Back then, I went a little blind, it was kind of logical to do an advertising agency. Everyone asked me, "what do you want to do?", I said, "what to do, an advertising agency." By the way, then the whole team left the "Standard" - Valery Zapryanov, Orlin Filev, Pencho Kovachev, me. The whole management team left. We just could not get along within those years and decided to go. All my colleagues stayed in journalism, and I decided to do what, in big quotes, I say an advertising agency. However, what was advertising then? We made souvenirs, pens, calendars, lighters, notebooks. We inscribed them on top with the name of the companies we did them for. At one point, after a few months, I decided that this was not the job I wanted to do, and an American company appeared - a very large investor. They said - "we need PR service". I didn't even know what PR was. I went to the library of the US Embassy on "Dencoglu" Street. I got some books for marketing, for advertising, for PR. Only a few sentences were mentioned. I read all night. I got into this business slowly. That business seemed interesting because it was very creative. I found it very interesting instead of making ads and got paid for them, being able to get to the media, so without paying them, without exerting any influence on them, you would be interested in them on a single topic, and that seemed to be a super creative process that came very close to what I was doing in journalism. I have been in this business for 25 years.

Petya Zungorlieva:

- How has it changed over the years? We know that competition is furious, and the world is changing very fast. How are the things going?

Maxim Behar:

- This is the most dynamically changing business due to the fact that social media has played a huge role in changing and developing it. 10 years ago we were one unit between our clients and the media and our clients came to our office and said - "please, we have a wonderful product" - or a service, or whatever they wanted to promote - "make it so interesting so the media would be interested in it��� and we did it in that way. Nowadays, we all have the media, we have the media in our hands and our clients, in general, come and say - "we have the media, Mr. PR expert, Mr. Behar or calling one of my colleagues, tell us, advise us what to do with these media." This means that our profession is changing and is beginning to move more and closer to what journalism was years ago. I often repeat to my colleagues, I also say it in different world forums, in which I go around non-stop, that the profession of a PR expert now is something medium, chemistry, an amalgam, between the profession of the publisher, editor, and reporter. A publisher because we have media, and this is, in fact, the hallmark of a publisher - owning a media. But whether you own one Facebook profile or 5 Instagram accounts or 12 Twitter accounts, it does not matter, or even one profile. You have the media. With this medium, you can potentially reach billions of people, something that neither radio nor television can do. Not to mention the newspapers, which unfortunately go out of their way, all over the world. Having this media, this profile brings us closer to the role of publishers. Editors, because it is needed to put content and that content has to be editorially written, written in an interesting way, readable, enjoyable and at the same time is appropriate to the media - Twitter, 140 characters. Well, 140 characters, we have to say what I said in my journalistic life on two whole newspaper pages and that is possible. The third ingredient in this chemistry is that you have to be a reporter. Why? Because you have news in your content. The world has turned upside down, thanks to social media, thanks to this communication we have, the fast connection, the quick decision making. 10 years ago, I published a little book with these rules, "111 Rules on Facebook," which I first wrote on Facebook and then they were printed by the Ciela Publishing House. The first rule is "The worst decision is better than no decision". This motivates me because we have to make decisions non-stop, always, every minute, every second. Yes, we may be wrong, but again, this wrong decision will be better than saying - "tomorrow or next week I'll see it, I'll think about it." The essence of our business is making decisions and making good content.

Petya Zungorlieva:

- Maxim Behar has made important decisions. With most of them he has managed to reach leadership positions in a large number of world organizations. Maxim Behar is a globally recognized PR expert with 25 years of experience. From 2015 to 2017 he was the President of the largest and most influential PR organization in the world - ICCO. He is the only Bulgarian in the World Hall of Fame of this organization. Maxim Behar is the Chairman of the Davos World Communication Forum, a member of a number of prestigious organizations in Bulgaria and around the world and the author of several best-selling books on PR.

Maxim Behar:

- As you know things are super simple. There is one thing that everyone needs to own in order to deal with the things with which they want to deal with. People come to interviews and I don't listen to them at all, I don't read CVs, I don't pay attention to what they tell me. I look at only one condition that I have always tried to have and it is called glitter. What more to want, things are super simple. Having a gleam in your eyes it means motivation, desire, ambition, to succeed, to cope, to always find time for everything. Being elected President of ICCO in 2015 was a huge recognition that even in my dreams I never expected that a Bulgarian could become President of the organization. We had a million and a half members of this organization. I stayed no more than a day, two, three per month in Bulgaria. However, the Bulgarian PR Association BAPRA and I also left a good impression on this global PR movement. I still have friends in many countries. The fruit of all these trips was my book because I would not be able to get the impression from so many countries with so much experience in PR. I do not have a formula by which I succeed. It's just something I'm interested in, catching and doing, and when I think I can't do it, I just say it right away and leave it. I almost can't remember the case. Sometimes, when someone thinks, for example, they can do a better job than I do, I say, "do it," I get up and leave. It is important for me to go out through the main entrance, always and everywhere.

Petya Zungorlieva:

- Do you find time for rest? How do you rest? In Bulgaria, in Seychelles, where?

Maxim Behar:

- I always find time for resting. As I said, it doesn't matter how you work, it matters how you rest. This creates preconditions of working efficiently. I don't rest in Seychelles, because I've been Honorary Consul General for many years. Seychelles, without exaggeration, is my second homeland. I go there very often, but I can't rest there because I have many friends, I work on many media projects there. Each one of them for free, so far I have not earned a single rupee for nearly 20 years. This is the local currency, the local unit. Not a single rupee I earned. Exactly the opposite. I have invested a great deal of effort. I have made several world investment forums related to Seychelles. Thanks to one of them, we were able to dig a cable between South Africa and Seychelles at the bottom of the ocean. We found an investor to do it for having faster internet. When I came to Seychelles in 2002, there was no internet. It was just satellite and the internet was super slow and very expensive. We made a big investment forum in which I invested effort and resources. Investors came to Brussels. We presented them half of the Seychelles government and the Central Bank project, and we found funding. Then I set up a Seychelles news agency that they didn't have it 10 years ago. I developed it, I created it, I put it in a team. There were representatives at the World Summit of National News Agencies, which BTA organized last year. When I get there, I can't just rest. There is a beach and a local restaurant, called The Boat House, near the house, I am renting to live. They know there is one table on the corner where wifi is the strongest and I put my laptop on that table. From morning till evening people come there, we talk, we work. However, I like to spend my time in Sofia playing sports, climbing Cherni Vrah, playing some golf, playing some tennis, walking the dogs, going to the spa, going to some nice mineral baths, traveling somewhere. Last year, I didn't go anywhere on vacation except for the 2 weeks I went to concerts in Europe. However, I went to see Fleetwood Mac, Billy Joel, Eagles, Rod Stewart, King Crimson, bands I like and after every concert, I went to the hotel powered with many emotions and motivation. When I returned to Bulgaria after 2 weeks, for example, I felt much more loaded and much more relaxed than any sea or beach to go to.

Petya Zungorlieva:

- If your dreams do not scare you, then they are not big enough. This is one of the most important guiding rules of Maxim Behar. If a person has no dreams, then what to live for.

Maxim Behar:

- There are always big dreams. Last year, I had one that was accidentally born. I graduated from Harvard Kennedy School last year. It was a great pleasure to be among great people, great teachers, I was part of an amazing group. Especially in this class was relevant to learn how to make leadership decisions. I was the only European. We were at Harvard for a month. There were two Secretary of State and two Deputy Ministers of Defense, generals. That is people mainly from the military and political business who have to make decisions. I think if I'm not lying, that I was the only businessman. However, leadership and decision-making are very exciting to me because now there are fewer and fewer leaders in society, there are no leaders in politics, there are not as many prominent leaders in business, especially in Bulgaria, for many reasons. This Harvard adventure was one of my dreams. 6 or 7 years ago in Davos, during one of the forums, I was interviewed by a Russian television station and they asked me a question similar to this one. The host of the First program on Russian television had read a lot and told me - ���you have achieved a lot of things. Is there anything else you want to achieve? Then, may be out of nowhere, I said, "maybe finish Harvard. Here's what I did. Now I want to see my company even more successful, even more professional, much more dynamic, and that is, after 25 years, want to see my company even better and successful. This is a good challenge. I'm not scared by this challenge. I'm not scared of this dream. However, it is a big dream for me and I know it will come true.

Petya Zungorlieva:

- I wish all the secret dreams that you did not tell us to come true. Most of all, be healthy and with much energy. Thank you for introducing us to a part of your world that is endlessly rich. It sounds like an encyclopedia. Thank you for the talk.

Maxim Behar:

- I just want to wish the listeners on Sofia Radio, Sofia citizens, Bulgarians to be optimistic. Not to be from these people, we meet them on Facebook, who are angry with themselves in the morning and the rest in the afternoon. There are good things in life. We need to see them, they may be small, but we must see them and want them to become more. If they are optimistic, they will be happy too. A good country is made only by happy people. Thank you!

Petya Zungorlieva:

- Thank you again!

Find the full podcast here.��

To Win the Award "Best PR Professional in Europe���

Sources: Interview for the broadcast "Europe in the Morning" with host Neda Vasileva on Television Europe

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Neda Vasileva:

9 minutes past 9 on Saturday, May 23, "Europe in the Morning" continues. My next guest is well known to all our viewers. He is a PR specialist with many years of experience. He is the author of one of the best books on PR at the moment - "The Global PR Revolution". The only Bulgarian inscribed in the wall of fame of the World PR organization. Chief Executive Officer of the leading PR company - M3 Communications Group, as well as President of the World Communication Forum in Davos, Switzerland. He has recently won another award for his work. He was named "Best PR Professional in Europe" by the American magazine PR Week. Maxim Behar is in the studio of "Europe in the Morning". I have the pleasure to meet him again. Hello and welcome!

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Maxim Behar:

Good morning! I'm glad we're live in the studio again.

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Neda Vasileva:

Again, congratulations on the award, Mr. Behar. Another high rating for your work. How is it different from all previous awards? What does it bring you?

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Maxim Behar:

It is very difficult for me to rank the awards we have had over the years, both of the company and my personal ones. It seems to me, however, that this is one of the highest awards because I have never been in the field of view of PR Week, which is the best media for our business worldwide. There are many publications around the world. There are editions in China, in Japan, of course, Great Britain. That's why I'm a little surprised. Moreover, the jury is really precise and at a very high level. However, I know that this is a great success for my company, and for Bulgaria after all, to be in the spotlight, to be in this ranking, and for me too, of course. I have been in business for many years, I have been in business for 26 years. It is normal to have more and more experience every year.

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Neda Vasileva:

In fact, what are the merits? How was this recognition won? You say an authoritative jury. I guess not all the people involved in the jury are known to us, but you can tell us.

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Maxim Behar:

I don't know any of them, although I'm still quite recognizable in the world and I've travelled, maybe, to 60 countries, I know the PR associations, all the big world chains. Especially when I watched the jury members at this year's PR Week awards - I didn't know anyone. They are all marketing directors of large companies. The chairman of the jury is the Chief Marketing Officer of Allianz - the world's insurance company, a financial institution. People who are in business.

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Neda Vasileva:

People who are in business and somehow you say you are in their field of vision. How did Bulgaria come into their field of vision?

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Maxim Behar:

I think they select people who they think have done good things in the world that year and then discuss them. They specifically asked me for a little more information. Also, the things we did last year, both in the company and me. I was elected President of the World Communication Forum in Davos. We had a lot of projects. I sent them to the jury anyway.

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Neda Vasileva:

Do we all need PR?

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Maxim Behar:

We all need success like the one in Bulgaria because I think that everyone��� about 7 million of us who are in Bulgaria and another 2 or 3 million abroad��� everyone in their business is a good ambassador of Bulgaria. We need a better image, we need greater recognition of Bulgaria around the world. A taxi driver, a hairdresser somewhere in Paris, or a taxi driver in New York, or a financier in London, or a waiter somewhere in Brussels. We all have to represent Bulgaria so that people say - "Ah, Bulgaria, well done, well done. These are the Bulgarians.��� Each of us is in some way an ambassador of Bulgaria. We all need PR in the sense that this is also part of this global PR revolution that I talk about in my book. Today I have seen again that it is in fourth place among the best-selling books in Bulgaria. We are all public figures now. We all have access to the media. Once we have access to the media, once we have an account on Facebook, on Instagram, and everywhere else, on LinkedIn, on Twitter. This means that somehow we have to be careful what we write, what we say, how we express ourselves. To arrange our sentences well, to have no aggression, to have a very good understanding. This, in fact, is part of what we call PR.

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Neda Vasileva:

You say that your book for another week is one of the most bought in Bulgaria. Does this mean that people are trying to navigate the sea of information and communication? How to build their image in the best possible way? How to do PR to themselves?

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Maxim Behar:

This is happening more and more. When we first came across social media 15 years ago and let���s say started expressing ourselves. Some people who in no way had access to any publicity and suddenly it turned out that they could be read, understood, recognized by a lot of people around the world. Then, it seemed, there was not so much understanding that what we say, what we see, what we photograph can have a great meaning for ourselves. Because a person who is more and more recognizable tomorrow will go somewhere -�� to Vitosha Boulevard, or somewhere else, or to some restaurant, and if he posts fake news or posts nonsense in general, then everyone will look at him as a man who is a fool who does not belong��to their company. That is why each of us must pay more and more attention to what he says, what he writes, how he says it. You don't just have to write a few sentences to insult someone and make them feel bad, just to stand out on social media and be liked and read. In my opinion, every message must have its meaning. Every message, every sentence you write on social media must be understood by the people who read it and it must influence them in some way.

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Neda Vasileva:

Isn���t this related to our growing desire for approval? And is it only typical for young people who are on social media networks?

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Maxim Behar:

Young people, in my opinion, do not even seek so much approval. In general, by definition, young people are slightly rebellious, and the more disapproval they have, the more convinced they are that they are right and that they would like to be in that position. It is normal for all of us to seek approval, but we need to understand very well the people who read us. This is very, very rare and not only in Bulgaria but worldwide. I often tell my office colleagues that when you write something and look at the monitor, you should not look at the text, but look at your readers there. When writing a text, you need to know who will read it. You have to be careful about who you write to, who you write about, how you write it, whether it will be understood. These skills, more and more, are beginning to dominate the people who are on social media, and they are probably 90 percent of the world. This is a new business. This is truly a revolution. Everyone has media, everyone can be able to communicate immediately and in a flash. Let everyone be able to express their opinion and be able to influence. This is a great revolution. Only 15 years ago it was unthinkable.

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Neda Vasileva:

It is not a coincidence that I am directing you there, because, on Monday, May 25, the first online college in our country in PR with entirely online training started. Is it just the coronavirus, this pandemic, that makes it online? And how will the training go?

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Maxim Behar:

No, maybe for 6 months, at least, I wanted to bring M3 College online and this was a project that we started before the quarantine and before this whole circus that has been happening for the last 2, 3 months in the world. First, we are the only ones licensed by the Ministry of Education who have the right to issue diplomas and teach on the topic of marketing, PR, social media, all that. Secondly, I believe that the future of education is online. We had a wonderful hall in Sofia, with many seats, with many halls and all this is now online. Not only because it is cheaper and more pragmatic, but because students can navigate much easier, they will save time. They can have lectures, so if you're busy on Tuesday, you can read or see them on Wednesday, can take the exam not on Saturday, but next Thursday, for example. We have to look for pragmatism in all this and I think that M3 College will be a great success. This is a product that has been around for 15 years. At least I remember that at least 6,000 people graduated from M3 College, which is a huge number. I'm not sure that Sofia University has had so many graduates in these 15 years, but I don't want to compare at all, because these are incomparable things. We are a college. The university is a great institution. I remember that we rented the big hall of Sofia University at least 10 times so that we could do the classes or the lectures or the presentations there. That is, we had 400, 500 people and there was nowhere to collocate them. That means that there is a great need, there is a hunger for this education in Bulgaria. People, more and more, want, especially young people, to learn something interesting, to orient themselves mainly in practice because I have observations at many universities in Bulgaria where they teach PR and nowhere I am impressed by what is happening. This is all over the world, not only in Bulgaria. Mainly due to the fact that education is moving at 20 kilometers per hour and practice is moving at 100 kilometers per hour. In these movements, a widening gap is formed every day, between theory and practice. What we want to do at M3 College is just practice, practice, practice. Our business is changing every day.

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Neda Vasileva:

Isn���t non-verbal communication also important? Isn't it part of the way you create an image? Even something important for your students.

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Maxim Behar:

We will have master classes at the end of each module. Besides, I'm a person so approachable and so easy to find, so I don't believe there is a student who wants to meet me in the office, meet my colleagues, asks questions, and be refused. This will never happen. It is important to meet, it is important to communicate as we are now with you in the studio, not in Skype or Zoom, or any other platform. However, it is far more important for the knowledge to arrive at the moment and to be super up-to-date, because some books or textbooks that were published 10 years ago in America, translated 5 years ago in Bulgaria, I don't know maybe well, maybe not, are no longer relevant at all. You can see for yourself, this applies to both the media and the television business, how things are changing, and how people's needs are becoming more and more different. They want what happened yesterday. Not to mention that what happened yesterday is old today.

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Neda Vasileva:

Speaking of which, you just called what is happening worldwide a circus. Was the communication, if we have to talk about Bulgaria, between the media, the Government, and the society successful? Did we find out early enough what was going on? Was there fear?

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Maxim Behar:

Of these 7 million Bulgarians, when I follow social media, I read that there are at least 20 million different opinions. There are a lot of big emotions. Everyone wants their opinion to be correct. One says we need restrictions and stay home. After 3 minutes you read that someone else says that this is complete nonsense, that there is no need, that this is not a virus, but a fictional thing, they just push us and so and so. However, I think that the communication of the Bulgarian government was good. There was a lot of information. There were different opinions. Everyone from left to right, from the most reassuring to the most frightening, had the opportunity to express their opinion. The question is that people who watch TV and listen to the radio, read newspapers and especially those who are on the Internet can form their own opinions. There is no way, of course, we experienced this in communism, there is no way to have a communication channel and to say something through it that everyone knows is true. Not so.

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Neda Vasileva:

Did we learn to filter opinions then?

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Maxim Behar:

We are getting better at it because it is something that is learned over the years and are habits that have been nurtured for generations. I think that what the media did in Bulgaria, including Television Europe, was that they managed to give the opportunity to each of the experts, great experts in big quotes, to express their opinion and readers, viewers, listeners could draw their conclusions. But there was information, which is super important, which is the most important thing. There was a lot of information. Sometimes it was even much more than we could take and dare to assimilate. Sometimes I think it was superfluous to make long briefings with the Prime Minister and people from the Government at night or when people watched their series to talk to them about the coronavirus and unemployment.

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Neda Vasileva:

That���s why we asked you, did you observe unnecessary fear?

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Maxim Behar:

No. Let in such a situation in which no one has lived before, the last one similar was 100 years ago, it is better to have a little more fear, in my opinion than neglect it and do what we want. The point is not that we are responsible for our health, but we are also responsible for the health of the people we communicate with, with whom we talk, with whom we are together. This is a gigantic responsibility. Given that all over the world, all health services, all specialists, experts, virologists, politicians, all said - "Strictly, strictly, strictly adhere to the restrictions." There was no way we could not have more fear and I really prefer such cases��� "Fear guards the vineyard". There is even a Bulgarian proverb.

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Neda Vasileva:

You brought me a book - "Small book for the big PR". Tell me at the end of the conversation - what is the key to successful PR?

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Maxim Behar:

There is one keyword and that is the truth. With all this wave of fake news, with all this ocean of people who use the media and don't always use it with the best feelings, thoughts, and intentions, I think PR experts, the experts, have to tell the truth and tell it that way that others understand it. And this is my latest definition from 2020 of what PR is - "To tell the truth so that others can understand it." They may like it, they may not like it, but they need to understand it, because in this flow of information and I go back to the whole coronavirus story, you can't always figure out what exactly is true, what exactly is really said that to express any opinions or to be collected from many opinions. The truth must be told clearly and precisely and for me, this is the most important thing in the PR business.

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Neda Vasileva:

Thank you for this participation. I wish you good luck! Certainly until new meetings.

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Maxim Behar:

Thank you too!

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Neda Vasileva:

Maxim Behar was a guest, we continue until 10, stay with us.

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Watch the full video��here.