About Oana Odobescu

Oana is the founder of Crafters and has 17 years of experience in communication, during which she has worked with both entrepreneurs and multinational companies, developing and coordinating a wide range of projects: from product launches to internal communication and corporate communication campaigns, for clients from various industries such as services, construction, retail, education, and tech.

Currently, Oana is responsible for the development of Crafters, where she oversees the creation and implementation of consulting and training programs and is also involved in developing PR and communication strategies for the agency’s clients.

Driven by the desire to contribute to a better understanding of communication among entrepreneurs, Oana writes and edits, together with her business partner, the first monthly newsletter in the industry dedicated to communication for entrepreneurs (#punctCOMM).

Since 2021, Oana has been part of the jury of Romanian PR Award, the most prestigious competition for the communication industry in Romania.

About Alexandra Enăchescu

With a background in content writing and more than 15 years of experience in marcom, Alexandra is a communication strategist and partner at Crafters. Her professional journey has taken her through all the essential roles within an agency, from execution to coordinating complex projects and teams with diverse expertise.

Today, at Crafters, Alexandra contributes to the development of agency services, the creation of communication strategies, and the delivery of training programs. Together with her partner, Oana Odobescu, she is the co-author of #punctCOMM, the monthly newsletter dedicated to communication for entrepreneurs.

About Crafters

Crafters is the communication agency for entrepreneurial brands. Since 2015, Crafters has partnered with entrepreneurs who want communication that is deeply connected to their businesses, through strategic communication and implementation services, as well as customized consulting and training programs.

The Crafters team’s portfolio includes clients from complex and diverse industries, among them Allied Engineers, DIPLOMA Show (The Institute), Civil Society Development Foundation (FDSC), Institute for the Study and Treatment of Trauma (ISTT), Romanian Design Week (The Institute), SBR Soletanche Bachy Foundations, Sixense Romania, SOLO, and The Power of Storytelling.

In 2021, Crafters was named Small Consultancy of the Year at Romanian PR Award. The agency also has two other awards in its portfolio from the same competition dedicated to the PR and communication industry: Silver PR Award, in the Internal Communication category (Romanian PR Award 2020), and the Excellence Diploma for Best Internal Newsletter (Romanian PR Award, 2021). Crafters is also the initiator of the first monthly newsletter dedicated to communication for entrepreneurs, #punctCOMM.

C&B: How would you describe yourselves in one sentence, in a way that captures the attention of someone who does not know you?

Oana: I am a mother, a friend, an entrepreneur, and a communication professional, in that order :). Although I work in communication and PR, I am an introverted person who lives rather quietly and tries not to contribute excessively to the noise around us. I have a soft spot for entrepreneurs who value more than just numbers and for people who understand how valuable it is to show ourselves in communication more as humans and less as personal brands. Since becoming a mother, my greatest joy has been losing track of time as often as possible with my daughters.

Alexandra: I am Alexandra, a communication professional and Partner at Crafters, where my passion for stories and art – the field I would have probably imagined myself working in as a child – meets the business world I navigate every day. When I was younger, I participated in several music competitions (no, there are no recordings of me online, why do you ask?), I only learned how to cook at 29 (I started directly with a cake), and I spent eight years of my life living in a dormitory (one of the most challenging, but also one of the most beautiful experiences for me).

C&B: Looking back, what is the “common thread” that has guided your professional journey?

Oana: Independence and the need for freedom. Since I was young, I had the instinct to stand on my own, to make decisions for myself and see where that would take me. At 24, I started Crafters, and that was also when I began the slowest and longest process of understanding who I am as a person and as a professional.

This experience helped me see more clearly that – regardless of the forms my professional life has taken – I need, in order to truly be myself, an absolute sense of freedom in what I think and what I do.

Alexandra: There are two things: writing and people. Writing – because it was actually what brought me into the communication industry and because I still see it first and foremost as a way of thinking, and only then as a sequence of words.

Then people – because what made me stay in the industry, after seeing its limitations as well, were the people I met along the way: the meaningful relationships with them, the possibility of learning from others, and the ability to laugh together with someone about the more difficult moments.

C&B: What was a difficult moment or failure that truly changed you?

Oana: The most difficult thing was combining motherhood with entrepreneurship. Whether we like it or not, motherhood is still (and unfortunately) a source of discomfort in the business world, which often operates according to a transactional logic that is many times incompatible with the life of a new parent.

Although the first years of raising young children while working were the hardest years I have experienced so far, they also generated the most creative and original life solutions. And the deepest change – as well as my greatest achievement recently – has been letting go of the need to be in control.

My daughters, Mara and Otilia, taught me that uncertainty is not the worst thing that can happen to me and that I can live without knowing exactly what tomorrow will look like. Maybe that is why today I feel I have resources of energy and hope that I never knew were possible.

Alexandra: Without trying to unnecessarily soften the reality of entrepreneurship, there have been many difficult moments following my decision to join Crafters and help develop an agency. That is because we jumped in with a lot of enthusiasm, without anticipating all the complications that can come from combining a personal relationship with a professional one, as business partners.

I have a lot of understanding for our past selves – after all, neither of us had been on this journey before, and it is natural that we encountered situations that tested us from many perspectives.

We went together through a pandemic, team growth and fluctuations, complex projects, conflicting needs, and a process that helped us rethink in a healthier way the direction we were heading.

What this entire journey taught me, and what changed me the most deeply, was understanding our differences better and learning how to use them as a source of enrichment for our thinking and mindset, rather than as a point of tension that needs to be solved or compared.

And, of course, I learned that a little optimism and hope can sometimes be the best antidote in difficult experiences, as long as you come to the table with the best intentions.

C&B: What is a courageous (or counterintuitive) decision that significantly influenced your trajectory?

Oana: In 2015, I resigned from the agency where I was working at the time, without having a backup plan. I started Crafters from the kitchen of the rented apartment where I was living, with money borrowed from a friend and without any by-the-book strategy.

The only thought I had back then was: “If I manage to stay on my own for five years, then we’ll see what happens.” It was a leap of faith and a moment I return to whenever I need to temper my need for control and remind myself that the richest experiences in my life came when I had no idea what was going to happen next, and that listening to my instinct to take a leap into the unknown was the best possible thing I could have done.

Alexandra: A counterintuitive decision – at least for me – was leaving my employee role after almost eight years of working in marcom and transitioning into becoming a business partner.

Maybe for many people this does not seem like a major change, or perhaps it has become increasingly common – which actually makes me happy – but for someone like me, who values security very much, it was a huge shift.

I still believe it was one of the best decisions I have made professionally, even though the year when I made this change was also the year the pandemic started and everything was turned upside down. And even though I faced situations for which I would have liked to have had different answers and solutions at the time.

This entire journey strengthened me, helped me grow, and taught me a lot about trust, boundaries, optimism, and challenges.

C&B: How have you changed over time as a leader / professional?

Oana: When I started Crafters, I had no idea what it truly meant to lead a team. The leadership models I had seen around me until then were rather the opposite of what would have helped me build healthy team relationships.

I believe the work I have done on myself in recent years is reflected especially in the fact that I have more patience with the pace and needs of the people I work with, as well as in my desire to create a work environment that encourages us to do our best work without that meaning physical and mental exhaustion.

Leadership, however, remains an open chapter, one where I still have a lot to learn.

Alexandra: The most valuable thing for me has been learning to stand up for myself more: to speak up when I disagree with something, to be firmer when someone crosses my boundaries, to stop believing that I need to be liked by everyone I sit at the table with, and to clearly express a different opinion without apologizing for it.

All of these things have proven liberating for me, influencing the way I make decisions, handle pressure, and collaborate with others.

C&B: What do you think the people who work directly with you say about you – beyond your public image?

Oana: Recently, a client told me they appreciate the fact that I am a thinking partner for them. Beyond that, I know I am not always an easy person to work with, and I believe the people on my team sometimes appreciate and sometimes resist the same things: that I always come up with ideas about how we can improve our work, that I care deeply about details, that I keep working until I find a solution, and that I ask (too) many questions.

Alexandra: I do not know what public image I have or what it says about me – I try not to focus on that beyond being a person with common sense and trying to do my job as well as possible.

I hope that what people say about me is aligned with who I really am, and if it is not, maybe that does not always depend on me or on something I should try to control.

I am more focused on making sure I appear neither more nor less than who I actually am. Based on what people have told me over time and on what I want to leave behind in my relationships with them, I hope it is visible that I am someone who values relationships, who knows when to take things seriously and when not to, who is involved, and who offers support whenever possible.

C&B: What truly differentiates you in the way you build or lead?

Oana: We describe ourselves as “crafters of in-depth communication,” and I feel this statement is just as relevant today as it was when we created it six years ago.

Concretely, depth is the signature we value in everything we do – from how we think about a communication strategy, to how we guide clients through consulting programs, to how we respond to emails.

Most often, this translates into the fact that we act as consultants for our clients, that we value thinking, rigor, and partnership, that we bring a builder’s mindset, and that we do not do things simply for the sake of sending another invoice at the end of the month.

C&B: How has the current context (technology, AI, economy) changed the way you work?

Alexandra: It is very clear that artificial intelligence represents a major paradigm shift for many industries, but also for the way we function as humans in general.

In our work, we are cautious about using AI when it comes to the creative and human side of communication, because we feel it is important to maintain a clear boundary there.

On the other hand, I cannot deny that it challenges us to find new ways to remain relevant and avoid falling into the “I don’t use fire” mindset, when it is clear that AI can help us become much more efficient, delegate tasks that consume too many resources for too little impact, or expand our ability to process new information in a short amount of time.

AI works for us as long as we maintain our critical thinking, judgment, ability to verify information, and ethical standards, no matter how old-fashioned that may sound – and that is exactly what we are working on while creating a common learning framework.

Regarding economic changes, we have also felt, like many others, the market’s cautious approach, especially at the beginning of the year.

What helps us is the fact that we remain agile because we are a small team, because we have worked extensively on a system that allows the right people to find us, easily understand whether we are the right fit for them, and continue coming toward us even when the market contracts.

Another advantage is the balanced mix we offer, combining classic agency services with customized consulting and training services. During periods when it is more difficult to make long-term commitments, this can be extremely valuable support, allowing companies not to completely abandon communication, skill development, or a strategic perspective on what they are already building internally.

C&B: Is there a habit or routine that has significantly influenced your performance?

Alexandra: Within the team, we have introduced several tools that I believe help us a lot: from things that may seem simple – such as team updates and contexts that help maintain good communication between us – to tools that give us a better perspective on our workload (such as project management tools).

In addition, I believe what helps us significantly is that we know each other’s needs, pace, and energy very well – and we have the maturity to decide whether it is a day for three hours of deep work without being interrupted by notifications, whether we have the energy for meetings, calls, and brainstorming sessions, or whether we need to block time in our calendars to think about more strategic matters.

What I appreciate the most is that we do not fall into the trap of “this call should have been an email” and that we understand when an emergency is truly an emergency, rather than simply someone else’s priority imposed on us.

For us, performance means knowing at the end of the day that we have done everything that depended on us and that we care enough to go the extra mile when necessary, but without exhausting our resources through conflicts, unnecessary debates, or relationships that simply do not work.

C&B: What principles guide you when making important decisions?

Oana: I pay attention to two things.

First of all, I try not to make decisions out of fear. I do not always succeed, but I have seen firsthand that decisions made from fear always, without exception, come with hidden costs that are much greater than we might imagine in the moment.

This is one of the reasons why – regardless of how challenging the agency’s cash flow might be, for example – we do not move forward with projects that are incompatible with the way we work.

It may seem anti-business to refuse projects when the agency is not operating at full capacity – and perhaps it is – but for us, it makes much more sense to remain in the discomfort of unpredictable cash flow than in the discomfort of knowing we have compromised values that matter to us.

And secondly, when I make more difficult decisions, I try to protect first the things that would be the hardest to repair later if the decision turned out to be wrong – the trust between us, our relationship with clients, the emotional well-being of the team, time with our children, and so on.

C&B: How do you see the evolution of your field over the next 3–5 years?

Alexandra: I would look at several directions. I see all of them equally as hopes rather than exact predictions of the future:

Defining clear AI working processes in communication.
As an industry, we need direction and standards regarding how exactly we integrate – and how far we integrate – AI into what we do. Especially for the new generations entering agencies and communication teams, I believe much better guidance is needed, so they do not start their careers believing they understand the profession simply because they have Claude by their side, without understanding what a truly good result actually looks like.

A return to human communication and the basics: defining and positioning a brand correctly.
The audience’s saturation with the thoughtless use of AI will hopefully bring us back to the foundations of communication: how we say something that is not available after the first prompt, how we stop all brands and people from sounding the same, how we move away from formulas such as “it is not about X, it is about Y,” how we preserve humanity in communication so that we still have a chance to be noticed and trusted.

Ultimately: who is this brand for and why does this brand exist in the first place?

The growing strategic role of senior communication professionals.
More and more companies are accessing experienced professionals as partners – a kind of Fractional Communicators with above-average critical thinking skills, able to provide perspective when confusion reaches its highest levels.

C&B: What role do you want to play in this evolution?

Oana: I would like us to always remain on the good side of communication.

To stay alert to industry pitfalls and contribute to the broader conversation in our field with nuance, critical thinking, and best practices about how communication is not about who speaks louder or more often, or about “looking good” externally, but about creating value for businesses, people, and communities alike.

C&B: What real advice would you give someone who wants to build something relevant today?

Oana: Look beyond KPIs, sales plans, and growth strategies.

I believe it is important for each of us – entrepreneurs and communication professionals alike – to be aware of the responsibilities we have through our work and to reflect more often on what we leave behind: for future generations, in the lives of our clients, in the industries we are part of, in the lives of the people we work with, in the communities we belong to, and, ultimately, in the society we live in.

C&B: What is an uncomfortable truth about your field that few people talk about?

Alexandra: Communication does not solve everything.

It does not solve poor business decisions that have not been addressed; it does not solve the absence of a development plan; it does not solve inconsistencies that brand leaders have not first managed internally, within their teams and within themselves; it does not solve the lack of values or the lack of clear ownership of those values.

Communication cannot be used as a bandage for a flawed reality.

Oana Odobescu and Alexandra Enăchescu show that success in communication is not only about visibility, but also about depth, strategy and the ability to build meaningful relationships between brands, people and communities.

The post Oana Odobescu and Alexandra Enăchescu, Crafters Founders, about srategic communication, entrepreneurship and the future of PR appeared first on careers-business.com.