Public Relations Stories and Strategies
- Episodes
- 286
- Released
- weekly
- Latest episode
- Nov 10, 2026
About the podcast
Every organization has a story people believe about it. Most leaders didn't choose that story. They inherited it, stumbled into it, or lost control of it somewhere along the way.
Stories and Strategies is the Public Relations podcast that changes that.
Host Doug Downs talks with the communicators, executives, and strategists who understand that strategic communications isn't a marketing function. It's a leadership one. Each episode unpacks what actually shapes reputation, trust, and public perception at the highest levels, drawing on behavioral science, media intelligence, and the ethics that keep persuasion honest.
This is public relations and strategic communications at the level serious leaders need it. Not tactics and press releases. The thinking behind why some stories win and others disappear. Ranked among the most listened-to public relations podcasts in the world, Stories and Strategies reaches leaders and communicators across six continents every week.
If you are responsible for strategic communications for your organization, you cannot afford to guess. Follow Stories and Strategies wherever you listen to your public relations content.
Contributors
- Doug Downs | Public Relations, Expert | Strategic Communications | Crisis Communications | MarketingCo-host
- Emily Page | Podcasting ExpertProduction
Episodes 286
Master the Rules of Public Relations, Then Find Your White Space
What makes you different can be your biggest risk or your biggest asset, and the order you do things in decides which. That’s the heart of the message Gaby Natale brought to the closing keynote at PRSA ICON …
Show notes
What makes you different can be your biggest risk or your biggest asset, and the order you do things in decides which. That’s the heart of the message Gaby Natale brought to the closing keynote at PRSA ICON: pioneer, embrace your uniqueness, break barriers, and redefine what’s possible.
Gaby doesn’t treat it as a slogan. She’s built a career on it, from a young girl in La Plata, Argentina, to entrepreneur, television, and publishing in the United States.
Her challenge to PR professionals is a pointed one: you spend your days making other people visible, so why does it feel selfish when it’s your turn?
Listen For
04:28 Why Is Your Uniqueness Your Greatest Competitive Advantage?
06:51 How Can You Stand Out in an AI-Driven Job Market?
09:52 What Are the Three Essential Ingredients for Career Growth?
14:03 How Can You Build a Personal Brand Without Feeling Like You're Bragging?
17:05 Why Should You Master the Rules Before You Break Them?
Guest: Gaby Natale, President of AGANAR Media
Website | Facebook | YouTube | Email
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Chapters (5)
AI is Making the Oldest Skill in Public Relations Worth More
Recorded Live at PRSA ICON in Orlando, October 2026. AI is changing the rules of public relations, but is it actually making media relations more valuable than ever? Jennifer Bisbee explores why earned media …
Show notes
Recorded Live at PRSA ICON in Orlando, October 2026.
AI is changing the rules of public relations, but is it actually making media relations more valuable than ever? Jennifer Bisbee explores why earned media, human relationships, and third-party credibility are becoming increasingly important in an AI-driven world.
Jennifer explains why journalism and an expanded idea of “media” is still a powerful currency of trust, how AI search engines are reshaping brand visibility, and why a well-placed story can carry more weight than anything a company says about itself.
Doug and Jennifer dig into AI-generated pitches, shrinking newsrooms, crisis communications, the advantages of boutique versus large PR agencies, and what happens when journalists get the story wrong. Along the way, Jennifer shares why AI can sharpen PR strategy but cannot replace human judgment, authentic storytelling, or the fundamentals of building relationships.
Listen For
04:52 Why Does Earned Media Matter More Than Ever in the Age of AI?
07:52 How Can Your Media Pitch Stand Out When AI Agents Are Gatekeepers?
09:37 How Can AI Improve Crisis Communications and Real-Time Reputation Monitoring?
10:56 Should You Hire a Boutique PR Firm or a Large International Agency?
14:28 What Should You Do When a Journalist Gets Your Story Wrong?
Guest: Jennifer Bisbee, APR, Fellow PRSA, Bisbee and Company
Website | Email | LinkedIn | PRConsultants Group
The PRSA article for Jennnifer’s talk
Link to Trailer for Jennifer’s Film “What Hugh Knew”
Doug
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Chapters (5)
In Public Relations, Different is Better than Better
Take Sally’s FREE Fascinate TestRecorded at PRSA ICON 2026 in Orlando, bestselling author Sally Hogshead explains why being different is more valuable than being better, why playing it safe may be the riskiest …
Show notes
Take Sally’s FREE Fascinate Test
Recorded at PRSA ICON 2026 in Orlando, bestselling author Sally Hogshead explains why being different is more valuable than being better, why playing it safe may be the riskiest strategy of all, and why authenticity alone won't make you memorable.
Sally shares what she shared in her keynote address at ICON. Surprising examples of brands that turned weaknesses into competitive advantages, along with practical advice for getting bold ideas past cautious decisionmakers. The question isn't whether you're good at what you do. It's whether anyone can tell you apart from everyone else.
Listen For
04:55 Can AI Really Make Your Brand Fascinating, or Is Something Human Missing?
05:48 Why Is Being Different More Valuable Than Being Better?
08:06 How Can PR Professionals Sell Bold Ideas to Risk-Averse Decision-Makers?
10:16 Why Isn't Being Authentic Enough to Make Your Brand Stand Out?
11:43 Can Introverts Be Just as Fascinating as Extroverts?
Guest: Sally Hogshead
Personal web site | How to Fascinate | About Sally | Email | LinkedIn | YouTube
Doug Downs
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REPLAY Accreditation vs Certification for Communications Pros
This replay comes from a conversation I had last week at PRSA ICON 26 in Orlando. Which is better accreditation? Or certification? This episode originally aired in October 2024.Sia Papageorgiou challenges the …
Show notes
This replay comes from a conversation I had last week at PRSA ICON 26 in Orlando. Which is better accreditation? Or certification? This episode originally aired in October 2024.
Sia Papageorgiou challenges the traditional idea of accreditation and argues that certification is the real game-changer for PR professionals. She shares insights on why the Global Communication Certification Council (GCCC) stands out with its internationally recognized standards, and why it’s crucial for communication professionals to continually update their skills to stay relevant in a rapidly changing field.
Listen For
2:43 Certification over Accreditation
6:02 Ongoing Education and Accountability
12:55 Mandatory Certification in Some Countries
17:00 Answer to Last Episode’s Question from Guest Vince NeroGuest: Sia Papageorgiou, FRSA, FCSCE, SCMP
Website | Email | X | LinkedIn
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The Knowing-Doing Gap: AI Ethics in Public Relations
There's a gap between knowing AI ethics and practicing them, and it's where reputations go to die. Research for PRSA's Board of Ethics and Professional Standards mapped it across 10 essential AI …
Show notes
There's a gap between knowing AI ethics and practicing them, and it's where reputations go to die. Research for PRSA's Board of Ethics and Professional Standards mapped it across 10 essential AI ethics competencies, from critical thinking and ethical judgment to privacy, accountability, and governance. The finding that stings most: critical thinking is both the most essential competency and one of the profession's biggest gaps. Communicators know the principles. They still fail to apply them when it counts.
Doug caught up with researcher Marlene Neill in Orlando at PRSA ICON 2026 to dig into what that gap looks like inside real organizations, the perfect storm of pressure for speed without the training or guardrails to match. They get into why communicators are weakest at judgment when judgment is the job, what value the practitioner still provides when AI can draft the release in seconds, and the one thing a solo practitioner or small team can do Monday morning to start closing it. If AI touches your comms work, this is the episode about the part no tool can do for you.
Listen For
:13 The Surgical Safety Checklist: What Atul Gawande Teaches PR Pros About the Knowing-Doing Gap
2:57 AI Ethics in Public Relations: Why Human Judgment Still Matters
4:13 AI Hallucinations in PR: Why You Must Verify Every Output
6:19 How AI Is Changing PR Agency Billing and Value-Based Pricing
12:01 How to Speak Up on Ethics at Work: Giving Voice to Values
Guest: Marlene Neill, Professor and Graduate Program Director at Baylor University (Journalism, Public Relations and New Media). Ph.D., APR, Fellow PRSA
Doug
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The Hidden Rules of Workplace Emojis: What Gen Z Wants You to Know
Three out of four office workers now feel like they need to use emojis at work, according to Statista's research on workplace communication. But almost nobody stops to ask what that emoji is actually doing …
Show notes
Three out of four office workers now feel like they need to use emojis at work, according to Statista's research on workplace communication. But almost nobody stops to ask what that emoji is actually doing once it lands in an inbox, a Slack thread, or a client email.
That's the gap Stacy Jo Dixon from Statista has been studying, and it's the gap this episode sits inside: not whether emojis belong in business, but what they're quietly signalling about generation, culture, gender, and judgment every time someone hits send.
In this episode we work through what the data actually shows, and where it gets complicated. Why older professionals default to the thumbs up, while younger ones have developed what Stacy calls emoji literacy. And why the same emoji that reads as friendly in one country can land as an insult in another culture, and what any of this means for a brand's voice once it starts showing up in pixels instead of words. It's a more surprising conversation than the stat sheet suggests.
Listen For
03:49 Which emojis should you never use in the workplace?
05:49 What is emoji literacy and why does it matter at work?
08:10 Can the thumbs-up emoji be offensive across cultures?
12:40 When should you use emojis with executives, bosses, or clients?
14:13 Should companies create workplace emoji policies?
Guest: Stacy Jo Dixon, Statista
LinkedIn |IG | Website | Emoji usage – statistics & facts |Off the Charts Podcast (hosted by Stacy): YouTube | Off the Charts Podcast (hosted by Stacy): Spotify
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A “Jolly” Rebranding Case Study
What do you do when the name that built your reputation suddenly makes you look stuck in the past? Jolly SEO was a company founded on solid SEO strategies and infrastructure. But “S E O?” Ugh that’s soooo …
Show notes
What do you do when the name that built your reputation suddenly makes you look stuck in the past?
Jolly SEO was a company founded on solid SEO strategies and infrastructure.
But “S E O?” Ugh that’s soooo 2021.
So cofounder Greg Heilers had a dilemma. Suddenly he had a name that kinda conveyed old thinking.
In this episode he explains the surprisingly complicated journey from Jolly SEO to a brand built for an AI-driven search world.
Greg also explains why “SEO” began sending the wrong signal, how the company preserved the valuable “Jolly” identity while embracing a broader definition of search, and why finding the perfect domain helped settle months of debate.
Listen For
03:12 Why did Jolly SEO need to change its name in the age of AI search?
05:41 How did Jolly SEO finally land on the name Jolly Search?
09:54 Does your company name affect whether AI and LLMs recommend your brand?
12:06 How do you know whether a rebrand has actually worked?
16:56 What should businesses know before rebranding an established company?
Guest: Greg Heilers, Co-Captain | Jolly Search
Doug Downs
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What it Takes to Sell Your Brand Across the Atlantic
Every brand that crosses the Atlantic faces the same unspoken question, and almost nobody asks it out loud before they've already spent the budget: should we act like ourselves, or should we act like we …
Show notes
Every brand that crosses the Atlantic faces the same unspoken question, and almost nobody asks it out loud before they've already spent the budget: should we act like ourselves, or should we act like we belong here?
Volkswagen bet on staying unmistakably German and won over American drivers. Other brands have made the opposite bet and won too. There's no universal answer, and that's exactly what makes it a hard call to get right.
Daisy Pack, managing director of HUNTER's London office, has spent more than two decades sitting inside that decision for American and British brands trying to win over each other's audiences. In this episode, she walks through how she actually makes the call, using a real campaign for Premier Protein that skipped the obvious American fitness playbook entirely, and explains why the right answer for a brand crossing the Atlantic in 2026 might be the opposite of what worked ten years ago.
Listen For
4:09 Should American brands emphasize or downplay their identity when entering the UK?
8:13 How did Premier Protein make an American brand culturally relevant in Britain?
14:05 Why do American and British audiences respond differently to brand storytelling?
15:49 When can leaning into Americana actually help a brand connect with British consumers?
19:28 What should an American brand do before launching or expanding in the UK?
Guest: Daisy Pack, Managing Director, Hunter PR London
IG | Website | Company LinkedIn | LinkedIn | Hunter UK LinkedIn | Email
Doug Downs
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World PR Forum Wants Your Say on Public Relations Rules
Take the Global Alliance Survey before October 2, 2026Who actually makes up the rules for public relations? Who decided what counts as good measurement, how you're supposed to structure a comms team, what …
Show notes
Take the Global Alliance Survey before October 2, 2026
Who actually makes up the rules for public relations? Who decided what counts as good measurement, how you're supposed to structure a comms team, what you tell an executive when they ask "why does this function even exist"? Your local or national association has a voice in that, but the actual standards, the ones you're governed by and quoted to and inspired by, came out of delegate rooms in Madrid, Melbourne, and Stockholm. The US sends delegates to those rooms.
You don't get a personal say in what they bring back.
Well, NOW you do. You… personally!!
The Global Alliance has opened 15 questions to the entire profession, not just the delegates, asking what society actually has the right to expect from a communication professional. This episode looks at what's being asked, why regions like Africa and Asia are answering in force while North America stays quiet, and what happens to the next set of rules if you skip your turn to answer.
Listen For
5:02 Why Should Communication Professionals Care About the Abuja Declaration?
7:30 Should Public Relations Professionals Be Licensed or Regulated?
9:44 What Should Society Expect From a Professional Communicator?
14:29 How Will the Abuja Research Prevent Regional Bias From Shaping the Results?
17:20 What Happens After the Abuja Declaration Is Created?
Guest: Adrian Cropley, Centre for Strategic Communications Excellence,
Website | LinkedIn | Adrian’s Podcast A View from the Top | CSCE Website
Doug Downs
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Cognitive Surrender and What it Means to Public Relations
For decades, PR professionals have tried to influence what people think or how they think it. AI may be changing something even more fundamental: whether people do much of that thinking themselves. Researchers …
Show notes
For decades, PR professionals have tried to influence what people think or how they think it.
AI may be changing something even more fundamental: whether people do much of that thinking themselves.
Researchers call it “Cognitive Surrender.” The tendency to accept an AI-generated answer without really scrutinizing it. And if AI increasingly sits between your message and your audience, or starts doing the thinking for communicators themselves, the implications for trust, persuasion and professional judgment could be enormous.
Listen For
4:30 What Is Cognitive Surrender and How Did Researchers Test It?
7:44 Why Did People Accept Wrong AI Answers 80% of the Time?
9:53 Can Cognitive Surrender Weaken Critical Thinking Skills?
12:47 What Happens When AI Sits Between PR Pros and the Public?
15:14 Why Should Communicators Think First and Prompt Second?Guest: Dr Steven Shaw, PhD, King’s College London and Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
Website | LinkedIn | Google Scholar page
Doug
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Turn Small Talk Over Drinks into Your Best Public Relations Tool
Every PR person knows the moment: you're holding a coffee or a glass of wine at a networking event, the small talk has dried up, and the person standing next to you outranks you by a lot. Shawn Spitaleri …
Show notes
Every PR person knows the moment: you're holding a coffee or a glass of wine at a networking event, the small talk has dried up, and the person standing next to you outranks you by a lot. Shawn Spitaleri has spent years collecting the kind of beverage trivia that fixes exactly that problem, real, verifiable stories about why your coffee tastes the way it does, why tea sparked a geopolitical crisis, and why every champagne bottle opens with the same number of twists no matter who made it.
This episode is a toolkit, not a lecture. Shawn walks through coffee, tea, champagne, wine, and beer, pulling out the one fact from each that's actually worth repeating out loud, the kind that gets a genuine reaction instead of a polite nod. If you've ever needed something better than "so, how about this weather" to say to a stranger holding the same drink as you, this one's for you.
Listen For
4:17 Why Did Governments Try to Ban Coffee?
6:08 How Did Britain’s Love of Tea Fuel the Opium Trade and Corporate Espionage?
9:41 Did Dom Pérignon Really Invent Champagne?
12:16 What Does the World’s Oldest Beer Recipe Reveal About Ancient Drinking Culture?
17:29 How Did Franklin Roosevelt Help Popularize the Dirty Martini?
Guest: Shawn Spitaleri, The Architect, Obscura Meridian Co
Doug
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Public Relations in Egypt
Most people don’t experience a country… they experience its reputation. Long before a flight is booked or a business deal is considered, a story has already landed in your mind. A headline. A search result. A …
Show notes
Most people don’t experience a country… they experience its reputation.
Long before a flight is booked or a business deal is considered, a story has already landed in your mind. A headline. A search result. A clip that went viral. A warning someone repeated with total confidence. And once that story sticks, it starts to feel like the place itself.
So, let’s test it. When you picture Egypt, what shows up first? Pyramids. Pharaohs. Ancient tombs. Maybe a biblical story, or maybe a recent news headline? Egypt is one of the most famous places on earth, but that fame can flatten it into a single image, a single idea, a single shadow.
In this episode, nation branding and strategic communications leader Lamia Kamel unpacks how reputations are formed and how they can be changed, especially now that discovery runs through search, social, and AI. If you’ve ever realized you “knew” a place before you actually understood it, this conversation might rewire the way you think about perception.
Listen For:
04:28 What Misconceptions Do Travelers Have About Egypt?
05:37 What Is the Real Egypt Beyond Pyramids and Stereotypes?
08:10 How Should Egypt Use Digital Marketing to Attract Travelers?
11:43 Which Social Media Platforms Are Most Popular in Egypt?
17:49 How Is PR in Egypt Different From Western PR?
Guest: Lamia Kamel, Managing Director of CC Plus
Doug
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The Mentorship Myths Holding PR Professionals Back
Most of us are waiting for mentorship to look a certain way. A senior person who takes us under their wing. A scheduled coffee every two weeks. A defined relationship with a clear beginning and a clear end. And …
Show notes
Most of us are waiting for mentorship to look a certain way. A senior person who takes us under their wing. A scheduled coffee every two weeks. A defined relationship with a clear beginning and a clear end.
And while we are waiting for that version of mentorship to show up, the real thing is happening all around us and we’re missing it entirely. But the way mentorship actually works in the public relations profession is different to almost everything you would naturally believe.
Listen For
3:35 What Are the Five Biggest Myths About Mentorship?
5:35 Why Should Mentorship Work Both Ways?
7:36 Can ChatGPT or AI Replace a Human Mentor?
13:42 What Mentorship Advice Can Stay With You for Life?
16:36 How Do You Find the Right Mentor in Public Relations?
Guests:
Amy Thurlow
Colleen Killingsworth
Book Rethinking the Table on Amazon
Doug
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Can this AI Tool Spot Your Next PR Crisis Before You Do?
As a communications professional you’ve used ChatGPT, Claude, or Copilot in the last 30 days. Probably in the last week. Probably earlier today. And at some point you’ve had the same experience: you put in a …
Show notes
As a communications professional you’ve used ChatGPT, Claude, or Copilot in the last 30 days.
Probably in the last week.
Probably earlier today.
And at some point you’ve had the same experience: you put in a prompt, you get back something that’s technically competent and completely generic. You spend the next 20 minutes re-prompting, editing, wrestling it into something that actually sounds like your organization, your voice, your situation.
A Workday study found that 40% of the time saved by using generative AI tools is immediately lost reworking the outputs. You traded one kind of work for another.
The reason is simple and almost nobody is saying it out loud. Those tools were built for everyone. Which in communications terms means they were built for no one in particular. They don't think like a communicator. They don't have access to what a communicator needs. They don't know what’s being said about your organization right now across 4,000 TikTok videos, each with modest view counts, each repeating the same damaging narrative, each flying completely below the radar of your existing monitoring tools.
Stratum is the tool that needed to be built three years ago.
Watch the YouTube Video of this episode to see Stratum demonstration
Listen For
3:29 Why do communications teams need AI built around use cases instead of tools?
6:30 What is Stratum and how is it different from ChatGPT or Copilot?
12:18 What is the difference between an AI agent and an agentic workflow?
17:29 Can AI detect a reputation crisis before it goes viral?
19:45 How can AI identify the right influencers for a campaign?
Guest: Matt Collette, Sequencr.AI
Website | LinkedIn | Stratum Platform
Doug
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Two Thirds of the Room but Almost NONE of the Corner Offices
In Canada, women make up roughly two thirds of the public relations profession. They are the majority in the classrooms, the majority in the entry level roles, and the majority climbing through the middle …
Show notes
In Canada, women make up roughly two thirds of the public relations profession. They are the majority in the classrooms, the majority in the entry level roles, and the majority climbing through the middle ranks. And then somewhere around the senior level, the numbers flip. The leadership tables in PR firms and communications departments across the country look nothing like the profession they are supposed to represent. This is not a new observation. The data has been there for years.
Here’s what’s new. Two researchers decided to stop describing the problem and start asking a harder question. Not how do we get more women to the table? But why does the table keep failing the women who get there. Because what the data also shows, and what too many PR women know personally, is that the exit is often quiet and deliberate. Not a firing. Not a failure. A decision. A moment where a woman who is absolutely capable of leading looks at what it costs and says this is not worth it.
This episode is about what is driving that decision, and what it is going to take to change it.
Listen For
4:15 Why Do Women Hold Fewer Than 30% of Senior PR Leadership Roles?
7:11 What Does It Mean to Rethink the Leadership Table?
9:15 How Can PR Organizations Create Sustainable Leadership Careers?
15:06 What Can Women and Men Do to Change PR Leadership?
17:03 Why Won’t Teaching Women to Play Golf Solve Workplace Exclusion?
Guests:
Amy Thurlow
Colleen Killingsworth
Book Rethinking the Table on Amazon
Doug
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Good Girls Are Quiet
Most women don't lose their voice all at once. It happens slowly, quietly, and with the best of intentions. They soften their tone here. They hold back an opinion there. They make themselves a little …
Show notes
Most women don't lose their voice all at once. It happens slowly, quietly, and with the best of intentions. They soften their tone here. They hold back an opinion there. They make themselves a little smaller, a little easier, a little less. Until one day they can't quite remember what they actually sound like.
This episode is about that. Where the muting comes from, what it costs, and what it takes to find your voice at midlife.
Listen For
3:30 What Does It Really Mean to Find Your Voice at Midlife?
5:03 Why Do So Many Women Feel Ready to Explode in Midlife?
7:13 Why Are Assertive Women Judged Differently From Assertive Men?
12:19 How Can Women Process the Unspoken Grief of Not Having Children?
16:19 When Should You Speak Up, and When Should You Protect Your Peace?
Guest: Priya Sudarsanam, Speech Pathologist
LinkedIn | Website | Instagram | Podcast | Facebook | YouTube
Doug Downs
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The Paradox of Polarization… Division Makes PR More Valuable
There’s a booming business in divisiveness. And PR is caught right in the thick of it.Recorded at the June 2026 IABC conference in Toronto, Doug Downs speaks with Fred Cook about A Quiet Shift, a report …
Show notes
There’s a booming business in divisiveness. And PR is caught right in the thick of it.
Recorded at the June 2026 IABC conference in Toronto, Doug Downs speaks with Fred Cook about A Quiet Shift, a report exploring how polarization is reshaping public relations. Cook explains why division is damaging society, mental health, and business while making thoughtful communications counsel more valuable.
They examine echo chambers, outrage as a political and media strategy, the possibility that AI reinforces existing beliefs, and the disappearance of productive dialogue. Cook also outlines how PR education must evolve, emphasizing crisis management, finance, government relations, public affairs, ethics, and responsible technology use. Ultimately, the conversation challenges communicators to adapt without contributing to the very divisions that create demand for their expertise.
Listen For
2:33 How Is Polarization Changing Public Relations?
5:38 Why Can Polarization Make PR More Valuable—and More Vulnerable?
6:25 Is AI Reinforcing Bias and Deepening Polarization?
9:01 Which Skills Will Future PR Professionals Need Most?
12:00 Why Does Calling the Other Side “Stupid” Destroy Dialogue?
Guest: Fred Cook, Director USC USC Annenberg Center for Public Relations
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Sticky Stories Start with the Itch Your Audience is Already Scratching
Generic messaging fails for a simple reason. It speaks to everyone, which means it actually speaks to no one. The messages that stick, the ones people repeat, forward, and act on, are never written for …
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Generic messaging fails for a simple reason. It speaks to everyone, which means it actually speaks to no one. The messages that stick, the ones people repeat, forward, and act on, are never written for "employees" or "stakeholders" or "our valued customers." They are written for one person, with one specific frustration, in one specific moment.
That’s not a nice idea about storytelling. It’s a framework, and once you see it, you can’t unsee it in every all-staff email that gets ignored and every campaign that gets remembered.
In this episode we get the five tip framework behind stories that actually stick, from a communicator who has spent her career studying why some messages disappear the moment they’re sent while others get repeated for years.
Listen for:
3:17 The Five-Step Framework for Sticky Stories
7:12 Finding the Frustration: Real Communication Examples
10:34 Break the Fourth Wall to Make Messages Memorable
13:54 The Recipe for Stories People Remember
Guest: Eduvie Martin, FCIPR, Past President of IABC UK and Ireland
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Reputation Management vs Reputation Architecture
Reputation isn’t your shadow anymore. It’s your operating system. It’s no longer something you manage. It has already been decided, by AI, based on patterns inside your organization you may not even know exist …
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Reputation isn’t your shadow anymore. It’s your operating system.
It’s no longer something you manage. It has already been decided, by AI, based on patterns inside your organization you may not even know exist. Most leaders still think about reputation the old way: crisis plans, issue management, damage control after the fact. But AI now reads every signal a company puts out and connects them across every location and every stakeholder, drawing its own conclusion about who you really are. A bad manager in one city used to stay local. Now it can become your global reputation by tomorrow morning.
There is a scale that runs from head in the sand to full reputation architect, and most organizations are stuck somewhere in the middle, reacting instead of designing. This episode gets into why reputation now functions like a credit score, why one recent report put a seven trillion dollar number on it globally, and why the real work ahead is not protecting your brand but architecting the patterns underneath it, before AI does that job for you.
Listen For
3:35 Why should organizations stop managing reputation and start architecting it?
5:13 How does reputation become operational currency across an organization?
7:48 Why is brand more than a logo or a “cowboy hat”?
10:45 How is AI becoming a stakeholder in your reputation?
16:35 How can leaders tell if they are reacting, managing, or architecting reputation?
Guest: Bonnie Caver, Reputation Lighthouse
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Why the Future of IABC May Be Less Stage and More Circle
What happens when a conference has no keynote, no formal agenda, and no single expert at the front of the room? The new IABC International Chair calls this an “unconference” model. And it’s one glimpse of how …
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What happens when a conference has no keynote, no formal agenda, and no single expert at the front of the room?
The new IABC International Chair calls this an “unconference” model. And it’s one glimpse of how professional associations can evolve: by creating space for communicators to learn directly from one another.
Also in this episode – why community, credibility, and connection matter more than ever in a profession being reshaped by AI, shrinking budgets, and rising expectation, the changing role of communicators in the age of AI, and why earned media, credible third-party sources, FAQs, and even the press release may be gaining new relevance in AI search.
Listen For
4:13 Why was the ABC Designation Considered Tougher than the SCMP?
5:34 How is AI Making Earned Media and Press Releases Valuable Again?
8:09 Why Should Communicators Bring FAQ Pages Back for AI Search?
9:56 Why are Chief Communications Officers Gaining a Stronger Seat at the C-Suite Table?
17:11 How Is IABC Rethinking Chapters With Community Models and Unconferences?
Guest: Richard Kies, Incoming IABC International Chair
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Communications Needs a New Compass
As a communications professional you’re operating in the most complex information environment in history. Misinformation. Disinformation. AI generated deepfakes of executives saying things they never said …
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As a communications professional you’re operating in the most complex information environment in history. Misinformation. Disinformation. AI generated deepfakes of executives saying things they never said. Audiences who have stopped trusting what organizations tell them. Employees who can't tell what's real. And somewhere in the middle of all of that noise you’re still expected to move people. To make them understand something, feel something, and do something. With the same frameworks you have always used.
Dianne Chase has written a book that argues the profession needs a North Star more than it needs another tactical playbook. She’s the past International Chair of IABC, past Chair of the IABC Southern Region, and current president of IABC Charlotte. Her book is called The Seven C's of the New Communications Compass. And the argument she makes is both simple and urgent: in an era of collapsing trust, the communicators who will matter most are not the ones with the best tools. They’re the ones who remembered to be human.
This episode was recorded on location in Toronto in June 2026 at IABC World Conference
Listen For
3:16 What Are the Seven Cs of the New Communications Compass?
6:16 Why Should Organizations Build Relationships Instead of Transactions?
8:19 How Does Compassion Become Empathy in Action?
13:09 Why Does Community Matter to Purpose-Driven Brands?
17:10 How Should Communicators Measure What Really Matters?
Guest: Dianne Chase, President IABC Charlotte, past International Chair IABC, past Chair IABC Southern Region
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The “Transmission” Problem in Public Relations
Communications has always been built around a sender mentality. We decide what people need to know, we package it, we push it out. That model came from journalism and broadcasting, three networks, eleven …
Show notes
Communications has always been built around a sender mentality. We decide what people need to know, we package it, we push it out. That model came from journalism and broadcasting, three networks, eleven o'clock news, one message for everyone. It made sense then.
The infrastructure has changed completely since. Audiences have become producers. People choose what they consume, when they consume it, and they unsubscribe from what no longer serves them.
That transformation happened entirely in the outside world. Inside organizations, almost nothing changed. And the question this episode keeps coming back to is a simple and uncomfortable one: why are we still broadcasting when everything outside us has already moved on?
This episode was recorded ON LOCATION at IABC World Conference in Toronto in June 2026.
Listen For
4:34 How did audiences become producers of their own news and information?
6:16 Why does internal communication need to become recipient-driven?
9:33 How can communicators create identity moments that cut through white noise?
11:28 How did opening in Spanish create a powerful diversity and inclusion moment?
16:51 How is AI changing the communicator’s role from creator to prompt strategist?
Guest: Brad Whitworth
The IABC Handbook of Organizational Communication
The IABC Guide for Practical Business Communication: A Global Standard Primer
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Choice Architecture: The Framework You're Already Using
Every communications campaign you have ever built had a choice architecture inside it. The order you sequenced your calls to action. The option you listed first in a petition. The default you set in an employee …
Show notes
Every communications campaign you have ever built had a choice architecture inside it. The order you sequenced your calls to action. The option you listed first in a petition. The default you set in an employee survey. The way you structured a crisis response.
You made all of those decisions. Some of them deliberately. Most of them by instinct, habit, or convention. And the difference between those two things, between deliberate design and accidental design, is the difference between a campaign that moves people and one that wonders why nobody moved.
This episode was recorded live on stage at the IABC World Conference in Toronto on June 14th, 2026, in front of an audience of communications professionals from around the world.
Listen For
4:20 What Choice Architecture Means
5:52 The Default Effect
6:50 Printer Defaults Example
8:15 Removing Friction from Sign-Ups
9:31 The EAST Framework
Guest: Ann-Marie Blake
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Stories and Strategies Trailer
Recognized as the most listened-to PR podcast in the World by Podchaser, Goodpods, and data from Rephonic.Also recognized as one of best Independent Interview podcasts by the Ear Worthy …
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Recognized as the most listened-to PR podcast in the World by Podchaser, Goodpods, and data from Rephonic.
Also recognized as one of best Independent Interview podcasts by the Ear Worthy Newsletter
https://storiesandstrategies.ca/podcast/
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The Case for Good Journalism in Today’s World
“Journalism is dead.” You've heard it. You've probably said it. And honestly, the evidence seems pretty hard to argue with. Newsrooms gutted, trust in tatters, cable news turned into a gladiator …
Show notes
“Journalism is dead.”
You've heard it. You've probably said it.
And honestly, the evidence seems pretty hard to argue with.
Newsrooms gutted, trust in tatters, cable news turned into a gladiator sport.
But what if that story, the one we keep telling about journalism, is itself bad journalism?
Neil Brown thinks so. He’s a 40-year editor and president of the Poynter Institute, and he is, by his own admission, an optimist about the media. When he tells you why, it might genuinely change how you think about where good information comes from.
Listen For:
04:09 What Makes Someone a Journalist Instead of Just a Publisher?
06:22 Why Does Democracy Need Real Journalism?
12:24 Can Local Journalism Rebuild Public Trust?
13:03 How Did the Baltimore Banner Turn Bus Data Into Accountability?
17:30 What Responsibility Does the Audience Have in Fighting Misinformation?
Guest: Neil Brown, Chairman of the Board and President at Poynter Institute for Media Studies
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Why Public Relations May Be the Secret Weapon in AI Search
Every PR professional has sat in a meeting where leaders ask you to “show up in AI”Here’s the problem. The AEO/GEO industry has built an entire measurement apparatus around citations… the moment an AI visibly …
Show notes
Every PR professional has sat in a meeting where leaders ask you to “show up in AI”
Here’s the problem. The AEO/GEO industry has built an entire measurement apparatus around citations… the moment an AI visibly names your brand. But the research shows that moment is essentially an echo of a decision that was already made, upstream, in conversations that left no trace.
Brands have been optimizing for the receipt, when the purchase decision happened days ago.
The deeper irony is that the work which does move the needle in those invisible conversations looks exactly like what PR teams have always done. Original research. Expert voice. Earned credibility. Third-party validation. The toolkit that has historically been the hardest to attribute is, it turns out, the one doing the most work in the AI era. The people who were always right about what good looks like just never had the data to prove it… until now.
Listen For
3:35 Why Does AI Influence Start Before the Conversion Stage?
7:41 Is AEO Really Just Earned Media Strategy in Disguise?
10:09 What Are the Three Levers That Shape AI’s View of a Brand?
13:13 Are “Hey AI” Pages and Schema Tricks Ethical or Effective?
15:49 How Can PR Teams Prove Earned Media Builds AI Influence?
Guest: Tom Rudnai, Founder and CEO Demand-Genius
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The Human Blind Spot in Crisis Communications
There is a prayer that crisis communicators have been quoting for decades. “Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the …
Show notes
There is a prayer that crisis communicators have been quoting for decades.
“Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”
It sounds right. It feels grounding.
But maybe it’s been pointing us in the wrong direction the whole time.
The problem is the concept of CONTROL. Because control, in a crisis, is a myth. And every strategy built on the assumption that you can control the outcome of a crisis is a strategy built on sand.
Let’s replace that idea with INFLUENCE. Doing that replaces an entire philosophy.
Alongside that shift comes something more uncomfortable… the suggestion that when a crisis hits, the quality of your advice has almost nothing to do with your frameworks, your playbook, or your years of experience. It has to do with who you are as a human being. As a parent. As a citizen. As a person who is also living through the same world your client is trying to navigate.
The professional and the person are not separate. And pretending they are, may be the most dangerous crisis communication strategy of all.
Listen For
3:41 Why Are Global Risks Becoming More Connected and Harder to Manage?
6:09 Is Employee Mental Health a Bigger Business Risk Than AI?
9:32 Why Do Companies Know the Risks but Still Fail to Prepare?
11:20 What Is “Agency” in Crisis Communications and Why Does It Matter?
14:29 How Can Leaders Use Empathy and Understanding to Respond to a Crisis?
Guest: Rod Cartwright, Principal, Rod Cartwright Consulting
2026 Reputation, Risk, and Resilience Report
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Stories and Strategies is the Official Podcast Sponsor of IABC World Conference in Toronto June 14-16, 2026
Click here to check it out https://wc.iabc.com
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The History of Color
This episode first published in April, 2021We haven't always seen color the same way.Pink used to be for men. Blue for women.People HATED colorful outfits when they first emerged. One aristocrat complained …
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This episode first published in April, 2021
We haven't always seen color the same way.
Pink used to be for men. Blue for women.
People HATED colorful outfits when they first emerged. One aristocrat complained of "loud, swearing colors," because the new bright fabrics distracted him from his reading.
In this episode Carolyn Purnell takes us on a magical journey through the history of color.
Guest Carolyn Purnell, Ph.D.
https://www.carolynpurnell.com/contact
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Networking: Effective Communication at Those Big Events
This episode first published in July 2024.Those big networking events. Many of us enjoy those but the repetitive small talk can be exhausting and challenging especially when conversations are frequently …
Show notes
This episode first published in July 2024.
Those big networking events. Many of us enjoy those but the repetitive small talk can be exhausting and challenging especially when conversations are frequently interrupted. In this episode we look at strategies for engaging storytelling in brief interactions, making meaningful connections, and ensuring your conversations stand out.
Listen For
5:06 The Power of Listening
9:13 When You’re an Introvert
13:30 Finding Your Wedge into Group Conversations
20:14 Tailoring Your StoriesGuest: Robert Kennedy III
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Stories and Strategies is the Official Podcast Sponsor of IABC World Conference in Toronto June 14-16, 2026
Click here to check it out https://wc.iabc.com
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Why Communication is a Navy Seal's Greatest Asset
This episode first published in January 2025.Communication is the most important weapon a Navy SEAL can carry. More vital than physical strength, endurance, or even firepower.I was in Salt Lake City recently at …
Show notes
This episode first published in January 2025.
Communication is the most important weapon a Navy SEAL can carry. More vital than physical strength, endurance, or even firepower.
I was in Salt Lake City recently at a conference and saw former Navy SEAL William Branum speak. He served for 26 years with the US Navy and 23 of those years was a Navy SEAL. In his presentation he talked about how clear, concise, and often nonverbal communication plays a critical role in high-stress, life-or-death situations—whether underwater, in a firefight, or clearing a house. He broke down the lessons SEALs learn on the battlefield that can be applied to leadership, teamwork, and personal growth.
So, when I had a chance to sit down with him in the lobby, I grabbed my mobile phone, and we recorded an episode together. This is a conversation about the power of communication and how simplifying your message can lead to greater impact.
Listen For
4:26 The Power of Nonverbal Communication
6:36 Simplicity is Key in High-Stress Environments
10:33 Self-Communication Shapes Success
12:24 Adaptability in Crisis Situations
Guest: William Branum, former Navy SEAL
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