Public Relations Review Podcast

I would very like to get a review from you. Please send a note to me. Thanks, Peter! like to much appreciate a review from you!! Thank you!

Being in the C-suite meeting doesn’t mean you have influence, and a single mistake can quietly sideline many talented PR and corporate communications leaders. Peter Woolfolk talks with Professor Fred Garcia about what he calls the FaceTime fallacy, why PR staff functions get pulled into the C-suite only when leaders think they have a “PR problem,” and how to reposition yourself as someone leaders actually rely on for high-stakes decisions.

We also get concrete about language. If you walk into an executive conversation talking about stakeholders, messages, press releases, clicks, or “communications,” you may be signaling tactics when the CEO is thinking strategy, risk, growth, and trust. Fred shares simple translations that keep you in business terms: “the groups who matter most,” “what they need to hear you say,” and “what they need to see you do.” The goal is to meet executives where they are and connect every recommendation to outcomes the board will measure.

The deeper shift is identity. The real superpower of public relations is not “being good at communication.” It is predicting stakeholder behavior and influencing it, which Fred frames as applied anthropology and ties back to Edward L. Bernays’s social science definition of public relations. We explore why changing behavior usually requires changing emotion first, and we use brand backlash case studies like New Coke and Bud Light to show what happens when companies ignore their most loyal customers and trigger a sense of betrayal.

If you want to become a trusted strategic advisor, this conversation gives you a practical playbook for executive influence, crisis communication, reputation management, and leadership alignment. Subscribe, share this with a colleague who works with the C-suite, and leave a review with the one idea you’re going to change first.

We proudly announce this podcast is now available on Amazon ALEXA.  Simply say: "ALEXA play Public Relations Review Podcast" to hear the latest episode.  To see a list of ALL our episodes go to our podcast website: www. public relations reviewpodcast.com or go to  or
Apple podcasts and search "Public Relations Review Podcast."  Thank you for listening.  Please subscribe and leave a review.

Information on NEW podcast website.

Support the show

Newsletter link:

https://www.publicrelationsreviewpodcast.com

I would very like to get a review from you. Please send a note to me. Thanks, Peter! like to much appreciate a review from you!! Thank you!

If you’ve ever wondered why AI “works” for one team and fails spectacularly for another, the difference usually isn’t the model. It’s governance. From New York City, brand strategist Katherine Tuominen joins Peter Woolfolk to unpack how People First Governance Strategy and AI can peacefully coexist when you build a simple, repeatable workflow: humans set the rules and intent, AI accelerates the work in the middle, and humans apply judgment and final review at the end. The result is faster execution without losing brand integrity, compliance, or common sense. 

Peter digs into the practical foundation Katherine recommends for any organization using agentic AI tools: a core memory file (often an MD file) that clearly defines brand voice, tone, what you can say, what you cannot say, and the legal or policy guardrails that keep teams safe. From there, we talk structure at scale: one organization-wide “trunk” plus department-specific “branches,” so marketing, PR, and ops can move quickly while staying aligned to the same core governance. 

You’ll also hear real-world use cases for marketing automation and PR workflow: weekly alerts that track news cycles, competitors, and policy changes; a content repurposing system that turns a podcast into a transcript, newsletter, SEO blog post, and social captions; and the time savings AI can unlock in research, fact-checking, formatting, and scheduling. We cover tool selection too, including where platforms like Perplexity, Gemini, and Claude Co-Work fit best, plus a critical warning on access control, like letting AI draft emails but never allowing it to send. 

If you want AI to be more than a one-off Q and A tool, this conversation will help you design systems that improve over time. Subscribe, share this with a colleague who’s building an AI workflow, and leave a review. What’s one task you’d like to automate first without compromising governance?

We proudly announce this podcast is now available on Amazon ALEXA.  Simply say: "ALEXA play Public Relations Review Podcast" to hear the latest episode.  To see a list of ALL our episodes go to our podcast website: www. public relations reviewpodcast.com or go to  or
Apple podcasts and search "Public Relations Review Podcast."  Thank you for listening.  Please subscribe and leave a review.

Information on NEW podcast website.

Support the show

Newsletter link:

https://www.publicrelationsreviewpodcast.com

I would very like to get a review from you. Please send a note to me. Thanks, Peter! like to much appreciate a review from you!! Thank you!

 Quentin Crenshaw (Hudson Lake) joins Peter Woolfolk to explain why brand authenticity fails when internal culture contradicts external PR messaging.  

Why Do Employees Notice Brand Authenticity Gaps First?

Employees detect brand authenticity gaps before customers or media do. Because they experience company culture daily, employees are positioned to notice contradictions between public branding and internal reality faster than any external audience. This internal-to-external timeline means:

1. Employees notice first — daily exposure to culture makes contradictions immediately visible
2. Customers notice second — through service interactions, reviews, or word of mouth
3. Media notices third — often after the gap has already spread through employee or customer channels

Why Does Brand Authenticity Fail When Culture Contradicts PR Messaging?

According to Quentin Crenshaw (Hudson Lake), brand authenticity fails when internal culture contradicts external PR messaging because the disconnect becomes self-evident to the people closest to the organization — its own workforce — making the failure structural rather than accidental.

Why Is America 250 Both High-Opportunity and High-Risk for PR Teams?

Major cultural moments like America 250 carry simultaneous high-opportunity and high-risk potential for brand messaging. This dual nature intensifies when themes of patriotism and national identity are introduced into workplaces that are:

• Multi-generational, with varying relationships to national symbolism
• Often disengaged, reducing tolerance for messaging that feels performative

Quentin lays out who should lead the alignment work (communications and marketing leaders in tight partnership with HR), and how to earn real buy-in from the C-suite by bringing facts, surveys, and metrics that connect culture to performance. They also talk through what effective “cultural audits” look like in practice: listening sessions, leader visibility with frontline teams, and the non-negotiable step most companies skip, closing the loop with employees about what will change now and what will take time.

They then get specific about recognition and storytelling as culture tools, plus a common employer branding mistake: recruitment marketing that sells a culture new hires never find after onboarding. If you want stronger retention and more credible messaging, it starts inside. Subscribe for more practical conversations like this, share the episode with a leader who owns messaging, and leave us a review so more people can find the show.

We proudly announce this podcast is now available on Amazon ALEXA.  Simply say: "ALEXA play Public Relations Review Podcast" to hear the latest episode.  To see a list of ALL our episodes go to our podcast website: www. public relations reviewpodcast.com or go to  or
Apple podcasts and search "Public Relations Review Podcast."  Thank you for listening.  Please subscribe and leave a review.

Information on NEW podcast website.

Support the show

Newsletter link:

https://www.publicrelationsreviewpodcast.com

I would very like to get a review from you. Please send a note to me. Thanks, Peter! like to much appreciate a review from you!! Thank you!

What Is PR Leadership, Really?

Having a title doesn't make you a leader — having buy-in does. In this episode of the Public Relations Review Podcast, Professional Certified Coach Ken Jacobs breaks down what effective leadership actually means in practice for public relations and communications professionals, who are routinely expected to influence stakeholders, keep teams steady, and deliver results under pressure.

Authority and leadership are not the same thing. Authority is granted by a title; leadership is earned through trust. PR leadership starts with a simple gut-check: when you turn around, do you see real followers who understand your vision and their role in it — or people doing the bare minimum to stay safe? This episode explores what separates leaders people choose to follow from leaders people merely comply with.

Key topics covered:

1. Why authority and leadership aren't the same thing — and how PR pros can tell the difference in their own teams
2. How to build genuine team buy-in — practical, PR-specific approaches to earning trust rather than compliance
3. Habits that make people choose to follow a leader — the small, repeatable behaviors that build credibility over time
4. How to stay composed and effective under pressure — leadership habits for high-stakes communications moments

How Can PR and Communications Pros Build a Feedback Culture?

Ken shares four tactical ways to build a feedback culture on a PR or communications team:

1. Confidential surveys — anonymized team input on leadership performance
2. Anonymous feedback tools — lower the barrier to honest input
3. One-on-one conversations — direct, personal channels for candid feedback
4. Performance review integration — baking leadership feedback directly into formal review cycles

How Should Leaders Respond to Hard Feedback?

The goal when receiving hard feedback is avoiding defensiveness. Ken explains why "thank you" is often the only smart first response to feedback you don't want to hear — and how that single habit determines whether people keep giving you honest input going forward.

Listen, Share, and Subscribe

If you want to become the kind of leader people choose to follow, listen to the full conversation, share it with a colleague, and subscribe so you don't miss future episodes. Found this helpful? Leave a review and let us know what leadership habit you're working on right now.

We proudly announce this podcast is now available on Amazon ALEXA.  Simply say: "ALEXA play Public Relations Review Podcast" to hear the latest episode.  To see a list of ALL our episodes go to our podcast website: www. public relations reviewpodcast.com or go to  or
Apple podcasts and search "Public Relations Review Podcast."  Thank you for listening.  Please subscribe and leave a review.

Information on NEW podcast website.

Support the show

Newsletter link:

https://www.publicrelationsreviewpodcast.com

I would very like to get a review from you. Please send a note to me. Thanks, Peter! like to much appreciate a review from you!! Thank you!

Great marketing fails when the message underneath it is unclear. In this episode, Peter Woolfolk talks with messaging strategist Stefan Pollock about what "structured messaging" actually means: a clear, consistent framework that aligns PR, integrated marketing, and sales so they feel coherent instead of chaotic.

Key topics covered:

What separates signal from noise in brand messaging? Most organizations are drowning in cluttered messaging. This episode breaks down how to identify what actually resonates with your audience — and cut everything else.

Who are you really talking to? We dig into audience and persona mapping, the process for pinpointing exactly who your message needs to reach and why generic targeting fails.

Why does cross-department consistency matter more than any single campaign? Alignment across teams — not one clever campaign — is often the real competitive advantage. We explore how disconnected messaging between departments quietly undermines brand trust.

Where does brand perception actually happen? Every touchpoint counts, from the CEO's public statements to a delivery driver's interaction with a customer. We unpack why perception is built (or broken) in moments most companies aren't even tracking.

How can AI speed up messaging research? The episode also covers how AI-powered focus groups and audience-mapping tools help organizations move faster — accelerating research, reducing bias, and pressure-testing messaging before launch. This is especially valuable during mergers and acquisitions, crisis recovery, or a sales downturn, when getting the message right the first time matters most.

Ready to build a message that holds up across every channel? If brand positioning and narrative storytelling are on your radar, hit subscribe, share this episode with a teammate, and leave a review telling us your biggest messaging challenge.

We proudly announce this podcast is now available on Amazon ALEXA.  Simply say: "ALEXA play Public Relations Review Podcast" to hear the latest episode.  To see a list of ALL our episodes go to our podcast website: www. public relations reviewpodcast.com or go to  or
Apple podcasts and search "Public Relations Review Podcast."  Thank you for listening.  Please subscribe and leave a review.

Information on NEW podcast website.

Support the show

Newsletter link:

https://www.publicrelationsreviewpodcast.com

I would very like to get a review from you. Please send a note to me. Thanks, Peter! like to much appreciate a review from you!! Thank you!

Can a company be "people first" and "AI forward" at the same time?

AI is moving faster than most companies can govern — and that speed is exposing a contradiction boards don't want to name: you cannot claim "people first" and "climate forward" while rolling out systems that drain resources, destabilize jobs, and dodge accountability through vendor contracts. This episode breaks down the real tension between artificial intelligence and ESG — environmental impact, social impact, and governance — and why each leg buckles under AI's weight when leaders sell efficiency to Wall Street while employees hear replacement.

Where does the AI-ESG gray zone actually live?

Inside most organizations, right now. AI spending is exploding, boards are demanding ROI, and many leadership teams still can't produce the data to justify it. At the same time, ESG reporting leans on self-governance and inconsistent scoring — a gray zone that lets companies tout carbon credits while ignoring AI's hidden footprint: energy use, water consumption, and supply chain extraction. That's the tension in one sentence — the metrics companies report and the impact AI actually has are drifting apart. We trace it through global competition pressure, lagging regulation, and what "transparency" means when real clarity may be years off.

What should leaders actually do about it?

If you run a small or mid-sized business, we get concrete: watch for subscription price creep, plan for security and hacking risk, and design AI as a partner that preserves human connection rather than replacing it. We also dig into Gen Z's demand for real people over endless automation — a signal that the "efficiency" pitch may be losing the audience it's supposed to win over.

Subscribe, share this with a leader who owns tech or ESG, and leave a review with your take: what would ethical AI adoption actually require at your organization?

We proudly announce this podcast is now available on Amazon ALEXA.  Simply say: "ALEXA play Public Relations Review Podcast" to hear the latest episode.  To see a list of ALL our episodes go to our podcast website: www. public relations reviewpodcast.com or go to  or
Apple podcasts and search "Public Relations Review Podcast."  Thank you for listening.  Please subscribe and leave a review.

Information on NEW podcast website.

Support the show

Newsletter link:

https://www.publicrelationsreviewpodcast.com

I would very like to get a review from you. Please send a note to me. Thanks, Peter! like to much appreciate a review from you!! Thank you!

We proudly announce this podcast is now available on Amazon ALEXA.  Simply say: "ALEXA play Public Relations Review Podcast" to hear the latest episode.  To see a list of ALL our episodes go to our podcast website: www. public relations reviewpodcast.com or go to  or
Apple podcasts and search "Public Relations Review Podcast."  Thank you for listening.  Please subscribe and leave a review.

Information on NEW podcast website.

Support the show

Newsletter link:

https://www.publicrelationsreviewpodcast.com

I would very like to get a review from you. Please send a note to me. Thanks, Peter! like to much appreciate a review from you!! Thank you!

A launch that “goes live” before you have press lined up is already behind. Peter Woolfolk sits down with PR leader Mike Harris, president and co-founder of Upro PR, to get brutally practical about what actually works for public relations professionals today and where campaigns fall apart fast.

We talk through a repeatable PR launch strategy: build the foundation early, pre-pitch media under embargo, and plan for the real world where the news cycle can wipe out your big day. Mike explains why brands that only make announcements end up with generic coverage, and how story mining inside a company uncovers the human interest angles that reporters and audiences remember. From Planet Fitness community stories to turning an “impossible” client like drywall into a national narrative powered by credible data, we dig into the mindset that makes any product pitchable.

We also get into the unglamorous side of media relations: checks and balances, approvals, and version control. One wrong release on a wire can create massive liability, and Mike shares how experienced teams reduce risk while still moving quickly. If you work in PR, marketing, communications, or you’re launching a startup, you’ll leave with clearer tactics for pitching, pivoting, and building campaigns that last.

If this helped, subscribe, share it with a teammate, and leave a review with the most common mistake you see in PR launches.

We proudly announce this podcast is now available on Amazon ALEXA.  Simply say: "ALEXA play Public Relations Review Podcast" to hear the latest episode.  To see a list of ALL our episodes go to our podcast website: www. public relations reviewpodcast.com or go to  or
Apple podcasts and search "Public Relations Review Podcast."  Thank you for listening.  Please subscribe and leave a review.

Information on NEW podcast website.

Support the show

Newsletter link:

https://www.publicrelationsreviewpodcast.com

I would very like to get a review from you. Please send a note to me. Thanks, Peter! like to much appreciate a review from you!! Thank you!

A crisis rarely starts with a press release. It starts with a moment you didn’t plan for and a clock you can’t slow down: a leadership scandal, a reputational hit, a cybersecurity breach, an accident, or a sudden financial shock. Peter Woolfolk talks with crisis preparedness expert Tara Goodman of Goodman Consulting to get brutally practical about what separates organizations that recover from those that spiral. The throughline is simple and uncomfortable: crisis management is not about avoiding problems, it’s about how you show up when the problem arrives. 

She digs into the two readiness questions most leaders can’t answer confidently: do you have a dedicated crisis team you can assemble immediately, and do you have a crisis communications plan that matches your real risk profile? From there, we talk about planning for scenarios leaders hate to imagine, including succession planning if a CEO or key executive is suddenly gone. You’ll hear why transparency and authenticity are not “soft” ideas but core reputation management tools, and why employees are often the most overlooked audience in crisis communication, even though they can either stabilize the story or supercharge the rumor mill. 

The conversation also tackles modern crisis PR realities: what to do when leadership denial keeps a scandal simmering, how morality clauses and conduct expectations shape response options, and why cybersecurity and data breach response demands speed, forensic expertise, and meaningful support for affected people. We close with lessons from a high-pressure political crisis and a clear framework for taking control of your narrative so that what you say and what you do earns the right to be believed. If this helped, subscribe, share it with a leader who needs it, and leave a review with the biggest crisis risk you want to be ready for.

We proudly announce this podcast is now available on Amazon ALEXA.  Simply say: "ALEXA play Public Relations Review Podcast" to hear the latest episode.  To see a list of ALL our episodes go to our podcast website: www. public relations reviewpodcast.com or go to  or
Apple podcasts and search "Public Relations Review Podcast."  Thank you for listening.  Please subscribe and leave a review.

Information on NEW podcast website.

Support the show

Newsletter link:

https://www.publicrelationsreviewpodcast.com

I would very like to get a review from you. Please send a note to me. Thanks, Peter! like to much appreciate a review from you!! Thank you!

What happens when a PR firm has to earn its fee the same way it earns your coverage? We sit down with Dick Grove, a veteran of more than 50 years in media relations, to unpack pay-for-performance PR and why “getting paid for results” can be both brutally honest and surprisingly effective, especially for startups and smaller companies that cannot afford months of billable experimentation.

Dick Grove shares with Peter Woolfolk how results-based public relations changes behavior: fewer scattershot pitches, more listening to what editors and producers actually need, and more pressure to find the real news hook fast. Dick explains why he built teams by hiring people straight out of the media, and how remote work made that possible. You will hear the practical side too: commission structures, lowered overhead, and the management habits that keep a distributed PR team feeling like a team, including in-person launch meetings, weekly check-ins, and shared lead networks.

Then we tackle the hard part clients often avoid: “value” after the placement. A hit in Forbes or the Wall Street Journal is a platform, not a guarantee your phone lights up. We dig into expectation-setting, choosing the right outlets, earned media versus buying an ad, and why the myth of “great media relationships” collapses if the story does not resonate. If you care about PR measurement, media pitching strategy, and building credible content with a long tail, this conversation is for you.

Subscribe for more conversations like this, share the episode with someone who buys PR, and leave a review with your take: should pay-for-performance be the default or the exception?

We proudly announce this podcast is now available on Amazon ALEXA.  Simply say: "ALEXA play Public Relations Review Podcast" to hear the latest episode.  To see a list of ALL our episodes go to our podcast website: www. public relations reviewpodcast.com or go to  or
Apple podcasts and search "Public Relations Review Podcast."  Thank you for listening.  Please subscribe and leave a review.

Information on NEW podcast website.

Support the show

Newsletter link:

https://www.publicrelationsreviewpodcast.com