A very honest celebrity reputation consultancy Q&A

We get questions daily about our celebrity reputation consulting/management offerings, we thought a Q&A of the most asked would be handy if you’re looking for consultation from us or anyone else.

Do you favour clients dependent on their fame?

Absolutely not, we’ve worked with a variety of celebrities and influencers. We work incredibly hard to make sure we fix your reputation or keep your reputation in a good place.

We don’t have a white board in our office with a hierarchy of clients listed (this is a common thing that happens). We don’t hire anyone on our team who are looking to work with celebrities, that’s a red flag. We treat you like anyone else, nice, friendly and honest.

Have you ever messed up?

Once. Small but we put our hands up and we should be honest, mistakes happen and we’re human.

We worked on a live Youtube video with a client and we organised everything. Hired the studio, speakers/guests, and the recording equipment.

It was during lockdown and we couldn’t be on set (like we usually would be) and we had to use Google Hangouts to prep everything before the live video begun. Usually, when we visit a recording set, we check everything to make sure nothing negative can come from it (you’ll be amazed of the silly things you need to remove, alcohol bottles are often used as decor in studios which can demonetise your Youtube video for example).

We believed we could see the full set but we missed one area (Our client was giving us a tour on her Macbook webcam, far from ideal but with Covid, we have to work with what we have got and in hindsight should have asked for photos).

A few negative comments began to come in during the live video and it turned out there was a piece of decor in the backdrop that offended a very small majority of the audience. We dealt with it and the damage wasn’t terrible, a simple explanation fixed it straight away and was forgotten within the day.

But yes, that was a mistake on our part for sure. Since this, we have asked our client’s to take photos of the complete studio so we can analyse like we would have if we were in person.

Do you turn potential clients away?

Yes. It’s important that we get on with our client just as much as it’s important for you to like us as well! We don’t suit everyone, we would be the first to say that.

We need a good relationship with our clients so we can find out the true you and give you the best possible results in the long run. Some ask this question wondering if we turn away those considered controversial and difficult, absolutely not, we love the challenge.

We’d be pretty crap at our job if we only take on those with squeaky clean reputations who hardly need consultation.

How much time does it take to repair reputation damage?

How long is a piece of string? It depends on the situation at hand. We can get most negative search results removed pretty quick, in most cases, but repairing a damaged reputation takes a decent amount of time in most cases.

We’ve had clients come to us who were “cancelled” and we cleared their name within a month and some that have taken over 6 months to plan a slow and delicate return to the internet to avoid as much backlash as possible.

The internet is a wild place that you can’t put a time frame on when it comes to personal opinions.

Currently (05/01/2021): People are at home more than ever, very bored and using their phones. It’s the easiest time to receive backlash if you’re a celebrity right now, you’re up against people/fans/haters who are tired of the situation and find drama fun.

You will be followed closely making sure you’re complying with Covid rules perfectly for example. People will be searching your old Tweets, looking for anything to stir the pot and give them entertainment.

Can you guarantee that my reputation will never go to shit if I work with Honest?

That would be nice but we have been in the industry for too long to say “never.” Please never go near anyone/an agency making that claim.

Celebrities often face negative publicity because of uncontrollable variables and even controllable variables... Out of our control. An example, we’ve had a client of ours slip up with a tweet which they didn’t feel needed to be checked with us first and it was trending for 24 hours and took over 2 weeks to fix this slip and cover the Google results and public opinion.

We have another client who is a singer and simply the nicest person, we even presumed there’s no way she’ll ever receive bad press. She was on a TV interview and rumours began flooding in saying she’s definitely high, she wasn’t… Just nervous. It made front page press and main media outlets.

We will always be there to help repair the damage if/when it happens. We will also take measures to avoid such instances from happening, to every extent possible. Please be rest assured that we will honestly tell you what can and cannot be done.

When we work with you, we have NDA’s in place and never share anything about our working relationship. This can allow our clients to (hopefully) feel confident to confess and share potential past problems/mistakes with us that could cause trouble if ‘outed’, we don’t judge.

This allows us to produce and have crisis plans in place for each 'confession’ and be ready if anything was to happen.

Can all negative content be removed from the respective websites?

We have a pretty good track record. This is how it works, there’s no weird special secret to it. We negotiate with the publishers of the negative content to have it removed.

While most publishers easily agree to this, some might make it difficult (expect money, shout outs or simply refuse). We’re in a fortunate position to have had press experience and we know many in the industry making our lives much easier.

In our experience, 90% of negative content can be easily removed within a few days.

It should be noted that negative Youtube videos are much trickier to be removed but again, we have a pretty good track record but it’s important to remember these are random people producing these hate videos rather than established journalists.

We’re building pretty strong relationships with many “tea” channels now which is proving to bring in much better results. We also have compiled a list of channels which we just simply know won’t consider any removals irregardless of the situation/negotiations. .

I have never faced any negative publicity, do I need reputation management/consultancy?

It’s an easy misconception that our celebrity reputation consulting services are only limited to damage repair. More importantly we include brand-building and online reputation management.

Being a celebrity, you are always under scrutiny and the media will spare no chance to start a controversy if they find anything at all. We can help you stay worry-free by suppressing any such negative publicity stunts.

As a reputation management agency, we also specialise in building celebrity images and personas that you would like to portray through your media mentions, interviews, social media posts, etc. We can help you create and build whatever personal image you want to portray publicly.

We study what people are saying about you and listening to what your audience wants to see from you, we take note and see how we can put their points into action if it suits.

We’re called Honest for a reason, we’ll always be honest with you. If we think you’re going to mess up with an idea, we’ll be here to tell you before your fanbase and media do.

How can we get in touch with you as a client? Do we book in meetings?

This is completely up to you, we’re very relaxed and flexible to suit your needs and schedule. We know you’re busy and don’t want to waste time on us.

We have clients who text day to day very casually and will send over Tweets/articles etc on how to approach or edit it and we have clients who book in bi-weekly meetings for an hour to cover everything and discuss next steps.

We charge a set fee monthly, we see it as you’ve paid for us for that month so use us as and when you wish whether that’s consultation, social media, PR or crisis.

Every agency/consultancy works different, we’re incredibly casual which is why we don’t suit everyone. Some consultants require a weeks notice for contact, some limit you to a certain amount of hours per month and will charge you extra if you go over the agreed time. There’s even consultants and agencies who charge you to speak to them before you’re even a client! We really don’t agree with this.

We are often asked for single one hour long consultancy meetings, which we can certainly offer - this would include us doing a huge amount of research before and a brief chat with you to hear your concerns/needs simply so we are in a position to help you to the best of our abilities. We charge £350+VAT for these meetings.

Do you cover full management, can you get me appearances?

We are 100% discreet with our Reputation Management offerings so we have created a solution.

As a client, you are free to use Request London, our Celebrity Booking Management where you can decide if you stay private or go public with images on the website. We have clients on Request London who are not associated with Honest, this means it won't blow your cover.

Have any more questions?

Get in touch with us and have a chat, no pushy sales or anything like that. It’s a big decision to choose someone to help with your reputation and you might not like us, you know.

We’re happy to explain anything, if you’re unsure what another agency or consultancy said to you, we’re happy to explain and share our honest opinion.