1. Why did you get in to your current job?
After running my experiential gift business, I liked the PR side and had a lot of fun coordinating stunts such as abseiling Santa Claus off the Westin Hotel in Melbourne for the City of Melbourne’s Christmas celebrations or ‘throwing a mum to the sharks’ for Mothers Day. Once the business was gone, I followed the PR angle and ended up here.

2. Why should business owners consider hiring a PR consultant?
PR is all about communication. It should be a part of all marketing plans and be integrated in the business and align with overall goals. It is all about talking to the right people, in the right way to help get the right results.

3. What sort of clients do you work with?
I generally work with SME’s who realize that simply paying for advertising doesn’t get them more customers or build a reputation and they see the need to communicate and connect with customers in a more meaningful way.

4. What could a client expect after engaging the services of Darren Saffin?
They could expect a cutting edge strategy designed to help achieve their goals, implemented professionally and delivered on time and on budget.

5. Do you have any career mentors?
I strongly believe in having mentors and I have had a variety along the way, depending on what I wanted to learn or develop at different stages in my career.

6. You have been actively involved in the Melbourne Junior Chamber of Commerce for a long time. How has this benefited your career?
The MJCC has been great in letting me develop essential business skills from the soft skills such as communication and working with people, to allowing me to build hard skills such as the opportunity to sit on a real life board and learn corporate governance.

Alongside all of this is the like minded peer group I have developed and keep in touch with. I think this is the most important thing the MJCC offers young business professionals.

7. What advice would you give John Howard and Kevin Rudd about PR strategy throughout the upcoming election campaign?
Politics is always a PR challenge. I think these days people know ‘spin’ when they hear it and I would simply say be truthful. There are no secrets in this day and age and the truth will out, especially in an election year.

8. You have previously run an experiential gift business. Tell us a bit about it.
This was a load of fun. The business allowed people to give experiences such as driving a tank, flying a helicopter, a coffee connoisseur course or bicycle wine tour as gifts. We also managed events for the corporate hospitality market. Birthdays don’t have to be chocolates and flowers anymore!

9. What was it like traveling the globe in a yacht? Did the experience help you in your business ventures?
It was fantastic and meant I visited places I hadn’t even heard of when I started as well as lots of ones I had. I think it helped because it opened my mind to different ways of thinking and doing things. The world is pretty small and getting smaller so it is important not to be bogged down in one way of working.

10. Do you follow the AFL? If so, which team do you support?
I have a soft spot for both Melbourne and Hawthorn.

If you are interested in finding out more about Darren’s company DJS Communications, you can visit his website here.

1. Why did you get into your current job?

I found there was an urgent need from my clients to discover ways to promote themselves, to get noticed. They were all great at their core skills but lacked the “street smarts” to get their name known in the marketplace.

2. Why would someone need an image consultant?

We live in a highly competitive environment and this includes career, business and personal. To succeed today you need to differentiate yourself from your competition. With all the “noise” out there our coaching supports individuals and their organisations to stand out so they can maximise their career, business and/or personal objectives.

3. What sort of clients do you work with?

Senior management, professionals, entrepreneurs, politicians, media, elite sports people, celebrities and what I call “emergers”. People who want to do whatever it takes to become successful even if some of them don’t feel successful when they first contact us.

4. What could a client expect after engaging the services of Image Group International?

Discovering the power of “Personal Brand Management” and how to effectively use it to create, develop and maintain a personal brand for life.

5. You’ve written a book, Life Branding!™ How to Maximise Your Potential with the Abundance Lifestyle Coaching System™ What was the reason for this book? What was your inspiration?

The inspiration was to help maximise people’s potential and truly see people shine. Although if may sound cliché the power of this work is extraordinary and something most average folks have most likely not considered, due to many factors including societal conditioning to “keep us where we are and in our place”.

You can buy Jon’s book here.

6. Do you have any career mentors?

Yes, I also have mentors. One of my mentors is a very successful entrepreneur who is a household name and another is a mentor from the non-for-profit sector who I work with conducting workshops for young people in the Juvenile Justice System.

7. What advice would you give John Howard and Kevin Rudd about image management throughout the upcoming election campaign?

See accompanying recent article from Sunday Herald Sun.

8. Do you follow the AFL? If so, which team do you support?

Yes, I have supported Collingwood since I was a kid and I also have a soft spot for Melbourne.