Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share Jon Amar: Need To Win In PR? Think Like An Owner
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
Jon Amar: Need To Win In PR? Think Like An Owner
What separates a vendor from an indispensable partner? The ability to think like an owner. In this episode of The Piar Podcast, host Tan Sukhera sits down with Jon Amar—strategic communications consultant, former startup founder, and celebrated for his no-nonsense hot takes on the PR industry—to explore what it actually means to win in public relations.
Jon brings a unique edge: he's taken a startup from zero to acquisition (Vetted, a PR technology platform acquired in 2022) and led communications across 20+ industries. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Bloomberg, CNBC, Fortune, and The Washington Post. But more importantly, he understands what founders and CEOs think about every day—and that changes everything.
What You'll Learn:
The Owner Mindset Shift – Stop being a line item in a marketing budget. Start getting invited into the boardroom. Jon explains how to switch from vendor to partner by understanding business goals, how clients make money, and where they need to show up to close deals. "You want to become so indispensable that you're basically the head communicator for all external and internal communications."
Why Big Agencies Struggle – Jon reveals the reality inside large agencies: quarterly profit chasing, constant turnover, and the "bait and switch" where senior people close deals then disappear. "Clients feel like they're not getting what they paid for because these agencies are so focused on quarterly growth and scale."
Building Business Acumen – Not everyone can be an entrepreneur, but anyone can develop an owner's perspective. Jon shares how reading business journals daily taught him to think in business terms and speak the language of executives.
The 7:1 Crisis – PR professionals now outnumber journalists roughly seven to one. Newsrooms are shrinking, reporters are underpaid and overworked, and earned media has become harder than ever to secure.
The Digital PR Collision – SEO experts are entering earned media without understanding PR fundamentals, creating confusion about what PR actually is. "They're making clients think PR is just link building. It's not. PR is trust building." Jon sees 2026 as the year traditional PR and SEO must unify.
The Corporate Newsroom Revolution – With AI services pulling more from company blogs, Jon predicts renewed investment in brand journalism. Big Tech is hiring head of content roles paying $200,000-$400,000. "Companies that will succeed in 2026 are treating their communications platform as if it were a newsroom." His advice? Hire journalists or former journalists.
Whether you're building a consultancy, leading in-house communications, or proving your strategic value to the C-suite, Jon's insights offer a blueprint for positioning yourself as the indispensable communications architect your organization can't live without.
View all episodes
By Tan SukheraWhat separates a vendor from an indispensable partner? The ability to think like an owner. In this episode of The Piar Podcast, host Tan Sukhera sits down with Jon Amar—strategic communications consultant, former startup founder, and celebrated for his no-nonsense hot takes on the PR industry—to explore what it actually means to win in public relations.
Jon brings a unique edge: he's taken a startup from zero to acquisition (Vetted, a PR technology platform acquired in 2022) and led communications across 20+ industries. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Bloomberg, CNBC, Fortune, and The Washington Post. But more importantly, he understands what founders and CEOs think about every day—and that changes everything.
What You'll Learn:
The Owner Mindset Shift – Stop being a line item in a marketing budget. Start getting invited into the boardroom. Jon explains how to switch from vendor to partner by understanding business goals, how clients make money, and where they need to show up to close deals. "You want to become so indispensable that you're basically the head communicator for all external and internal communications."
Why Big Agencies Struggle – Jon reveals the reality inside large agencies: quarterly profit chasing, constant turnover, and the "bait and switch" where senior people close deals then disappear. "Clients feel like they're not getting what they paid for because these agencies are so focused on quarterly growth and scale."
Building Business Acumen – Not everyone can be an entrepreneur, but anyone can develop an owner's perspective. Jon shares how reading business journals daily taught him to think in business terms and speak the language of executives.
The 7:1 Crisis – PR professionals now outnumber journalists roughly seven to one. Newsrooms are shrinking, reporters are underpaid and overworked, and earned media has become harder than ever to secure.
The Digital PR Collision – SEO experts are entering earned media without understanding PR fundamentals, creating confusion about what PR actually is. "They're making clients think PR is just link building. It's not. PR is trust building." Jon sees 2026 as the year traditional PR and SEO must unify.
The Corporate Newsroom Revolution – With AI services pulling more from company blogs, Jon predicts renewed investment in brand journalism. Big Tech is hiring head of content roles paying $200,000-$400,000. "Companies that will succeed in 2026 are treating their communications platform as if it were a newsroom." His advice? Hire journalists or former journalists.
Whether you're building a consultancy, leading in-house communications, or proving your strategic value to the C-suite, Jon's insights offer a blueprint for positioning yourself as the indispensable communications architect your organization can't live without.