Stories and Strategies for Public Relations and Marketing

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Selling our Value – Not our Time

What if everything you’ve been taught about pricing your work—tracking time, logging hours, justifying effort—was wrong? What if the real value of what you do isn't how long it takes, but what impact it has?

In a world where generative AI can draft press releases in seconds and churn out strategy decks before your coffee cools, PR professionals face a crossroads: race to the bottom by charging less for faster work—or redefine what clients are actually paying for.

In this episode, Graham Goodkind, founder and chairman of Frank, one of the UK’s most creatively disruptive PR agencies challenges how we think about pricing, pitching, and protecting our creative value—because if you’re still selling time, you’re selling yourself short.

Listen For

3:25 Why Time Is Not Your Currency in PR

4:49 Building Frank PR on Selling Ideas Not Hours

7:57 Frank PR Revenue and Profitability Stats

10:37 AI’s Role in Creativity and Workflow

17:42 Answer to Last Episode’s Question from Lauren Passell

21:17 Graham’s Best Advice for Starting in PR

Guest: Graham Goodkind, Frank PR

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Authenticity Isn’t a Buzzword, It’s a Business Model

What if the smartest pitch you ever sent didn’t sound smart at all—but sounded real?

In a world where inboxes are flooded with AI-polished messages, Lauren Passell makes a strong case for going the other way: writing like a human, listening like a fan, and leading with a story—not a sales hook. This episode unpacks how to stand out by showing up differently, not louder.

Listen For

6:44 Authenticity: Real or Just a Buzzword?
9:43 The Empathy Wake-Up Call for PR Pros”
10:59 Pitching as Love Letters, Not Spam
12:00 Tink’s Radical No-AI Policy
18:34 Why PR Has a Reputation Problem
21:53 Answer to Last Episode’s Question From Guest Bradley Davis

Guest: Lauren Passell, Tink Media

Podcast the Newsletter

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Name, Blame, and Damage Control

Your reputation is your most valuable asset — but also the most fragile.

In today’s world, a single tweet, leaked email, or bad headline can trigger a crisis faster than you can hit "refresh." But reputation isn’t just about avoiding scandal — it’s about building trust, culture, and resilience before anything goes wrong.

In this episode, we speak with Emma Woollcott, one of the UK’s top legal experts in reputation protection, about what organizations need to know now to prepare for the headlines they hope they never make.

Listen For

4:42 Reputation Redefined: It's About Feeling, Not Thinking

7:54 Avoidable Crises: Most Disasters Don’t Come Out of Nowhere

9:38 Simulate the Storm: Why Crisis Drills Are Gamechangers

12:56 Crisis Command: Cutting Through Chaos and Ego

17:19 Rise of the Newsfluencers: The New Media Landscape

20:23 Answer to Last Episode’s Question From Guest Mark Burey

Guest: Emma Woollcott

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Media Literacy in the Age of Misinformation

Is your media diet making you smarter? Or just more stubborn?

In this episode, we sit down with senior communicator and former journalist Mark Burey to explore how the collapse of shared truth is reshaping public relations. From the erosion of local journalism to the rise of AI-generated content. What does media literacy really looks like today? And what role do PR professionals play in rebuilding trust?

Listen For

7:33 What media literacy means in 2025

10:13 The decline of local journalism and its ripple effects

11:08 How PR has absorbed the watchdog role

13:39 What to do when misinformation feels like fact

15:43 Appreciative inquiry: changing minds without confrontation

21:23 Answer to Last Episode’s Question From Guest Bradley Davis

Guest: Mark Burey

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Public Relations: Independent Function or Marketing Tool?

Are public relations and marketing two distinct disciplines—or is PR simply one piece of the broader marketing puzzle? It’s a question that stirs up strong opinions in boardrooms, agencies, and comms teams alike.

Some argue PR is strategic storytelling aimed at building relationships, while marketing is focused on driving sales. Others say that in today’s world of integrated messaging, the separation is outdated.

In this episode, we take on the debate head-on, exploring how the roles overlap, where they diverge, and whether the modern media landscape has blurred the lines beyond repair. Is PR still its own function—or has it become just another lane on marketing’s highway?

Listen For:

:10 Fyre Festival The Luxury Mirage
4:02 Influence vs Image Showdown
6:25 PR Is the Pie
10:14 The Sad Fate of Local Media
13:02 Metrics KPIs and the Dashboard Wars
18:54 Who Owns the Message
25:10 The Final Prediction Marketers Report to PR

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The Missing Channel in Your PR Strategy

Most PR strategies still focus on the big three: social, legacy media, and search. But while everyone’s watching the headlines, the real conversations—the ones shaping trust, behavior, and brand reputation—are happening in people’s ears. Podcasts aren’t just a trend or another content format. They’re a strategic intelligence channel, and if you’re not monitoring them, you’re missing critical signals.

In this episode of Stories and Strategies, we talk to Bradley Davis, co-founder and CEO of Podchaser, the platform often called the “IMDb of podcasts.” From how global brands like Starbucks and Amazon use podcast data to shape campaigns, to why the most valuable audience insights aren’t public-facing at all, PR pros need to know what they can no longer afford to ignore.

Listen For

1:29 The Crackle That Started It All

3:33 Podchaser: IMDb for Podcasts

5:25 Podcasting as a Third Dimension of Analytics

8:20 Guest Pitching vs. Starting a Podcast

10:32 How Rogan, Newsom & Trump Changed the Game

13:05 Key Messages Out. Vibe Is In.

21:09 Answer to Last Episode’s Question from Guest Irene Lungu

Guest: Bradley Davis, Co-Founder & CEO, Podchaser

Podchaser | LinkedIn | Instagram | X | About Bradley

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LinkedIn | Global Alliance Board Profile

Zambia’s Public Relations Revolution

What does public relations look like in a country where radio is still growing, social media still exploding, and communication reaches from rural villages to global platforms?

In this episode, we take a closer look at Zambia — a nation with a vibrant, evolving PR landscape shaped by both tradition and innovation.

Irene Lungu is one of Zambia’s leading voices in public relations and a board member of the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management. She joins us to talk about ethics, communication trends, and the responsibilities that come with influence in today’s media environment.

We explore how Zambian practitioners are navigating rapid change, and what global conversations they're helping to shape.

Listen For

3:50 Why Zambia Regulated Its PR Industry

6:14 Resistance and Discomfort: Who Pushed Back

8:00 Is PR Regulation a Threat to Free Speech?

14:36 Global Standards, Local Contexts

16:14 The World’s #1 Risk: Misinformation

18:52. Answer to Last Episode’s Question from Guest Olivia Fajardo

Guest: Irene Lungu

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Employee Engagement Inside PR: What the Research Reveals

Employee engagement is evolving — and the old assumptions no longer hold. Today, workers want more than a paycheck. They want growth, flexibility, and to feel like their voices matter. In this episode, we unpack surprising new research on what really drives engagement, retention, and belonging inside organizations. Olivia Fajardo joins us to explain why internal communications has become mission critical — and how companies can move from simply talking to truly connecting. If you care about building teams that stay and thrive, this conversation is for you.

Listen For

4:14 PR: As Stressful as Firefighting

5:05 Why Communicators Feel More Purpose

6:34 Career Stagnation: The Hidden Threat

9:27 The Hybrid Challenge for Internal Comms

12:05 The Listening-Action Gap

12:10 Olivia’s Strategies to Build Trust and Accountability

20:05 Answer to Last Episode’s Question from Guest Helena Humphrey

Guest: Oliva Fajardo, Director of Research, Institute for Public Relations

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Link to IPR Study Employee Engagement in the Communications Industry

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