January 15, 2026 • 27 mins
Kristi Piehl joins host Adam West on the iHeartMedia podcast CEOs You Should Know for a candid conversation about her journey from award‑winning journalist to successful entrepreneur. In this episode, Kristi shares how her background in television news shaped her understanding of storytelling, credibility, and media strategy—skills she later used to launch and grow her PR firm, Media Minefield. Adam and Kristi dive into the transition from newsroom to business ownership, discussing the lessons she learned along the way and how firsthand media experience gives her clients a competitive edge. They also explore real-world stories, crisis communication, and why understanding how journalists think is critical for today’s leaders. The episode offers practical insights for entrepreneurs, communications professionals, and anyone interested in how powerful storytelling drives business success.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, it's Adam West. This is the CEOs you should know,
and today we're thrilled to welcome Christy Peele, Founder and
CEO of Media Minefield. Christy's an Emmy Award winning former
TV reporter who turned her passion for storytelling into a
thriving business redefining public relations. Under her leadership, Media Minefield
has grown into a nationally recognized firm helping brands and
leaders share their stories in an authentic and impactful way.
(00:22):
Christy's journey from the newsroom to the boardroom is nothing
short of inspiring, and today will dive into how she
built her success and what's next for her and her company.
Welcome Christy, Thank you.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
It's wonderful to be here and I've.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Never had anything like that before. So get a taste
of kind of what you do right in that world
of PR. Tell me a little bit about what do
you do. What is your company? What does Media Mindfield do?
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Sure.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Media Minefield handles brands and storytelling for our clients. So
that's everything from getting our client's press, positive press, training
and teaching people how to get out of crisis planning
in advance. We also handle a lot of social media
for executives, specifically leaders and also brands as well, So
(01:06):
we do you know, PRS one of these giant umbrellas
we're Depending upon who you talk to, they think of it.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
As something different.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
We're a little bit unique and that we are very
specific to the services that we provide. But we're industry agnostic, ah,
which makes us unusual because we represent clients from large
billion dollar brands to some nonprofits, but primarily our clients
are national but have a touch point here in the
(01:36):
Twin Cities.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
I was thinking about this a little bit, like you said, crisis,
and I didn't know if I should ask you about that,
because yeah, probably some there's some crisis situations. Also, kind
of your job is to be out there but also
be invisible in a way, right one hundred percent.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
We are not spokespeople on behalf of our clients. We
believe deeply in authenticity, So when our client goes through
a crisis, we want to make sure that the appropriate
spokesperson within that company is out there handling it. We're
behind the scenes making sure that everything that is out
there publicly is authentic, it is true, and that we
are able to help our clients and their company navigate
(02:14):
to have the minimum amount of damage, But that's an
active crisis. We prefer to be working with companies proactively,
meaning that they have a crisis plan, that their train,
that they're ready to go, because in the land of
deep fake good thoughts AI, a crisis can happen and
spread faster than you can click refresh on your.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Computer without being specific. Is there anything you can talk
about where you've had to come in at the eleventh
hour and save whatever?
Speaker 3 (02:45):
It's happened a few times and I can't talk about
the ones that you may have known about. It is
fun for us to talk about.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Ones that we're not involved with.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
So, for example, the atmosphere crisis with the CEO and
the head of HR being busted at the Coldplay concert.
I did some national interviews about that, and we've talked
about what they should and shouldn't have done to get
through that crisis. But that I think is the most
high profile one that happened in twenty twenty five. That
showcased what can go wrong when there isn't a plan
(03:19):
in place, and when the leaders decide to get away
from social media instead of lean into the opportunity that
is social media.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Good example, that's great. You started your career as an
Emmy Award winning TV reporter and then you founded Media Minefield.
What was the moment where you said, this is what
I should do, this is why I'm here.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
Throughout my television news career, I felt so fortunate to
be able to have a front row seat for some
incredible national, global events and topics and to be in
the room when it happened. And a few times, however,
as I became a mother, there were times in the
back of my head where I was thinking, hmm.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Does this career still serve me?
Speaker 3 (04:00):
But to be frank with you, I was very nervous that, gosh,
what would I do then if I don't do this,
this thing that I've dreamt about and thought about and
moved across the country to do and made so many
seconds to kids, little kid, yeah for people who are
you know, been around the Twin Cities a bit.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
I was watching Cindy.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
Bricado at Channel five and I want to be just
like Cindy.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
And then when I at the.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Fair too, right, it was always my dream, right.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
Sign the you know, meet people and sign the autographs
and all of that, And then it happened but it
no longer was serving me. However, I wasn't brave enough
to step away. I was laid off in late two
thousand and eight. There were twenty of us, the whole
investigative unit and special special department. We all kind of
went away. And it was the best thing that could
(04:45):
have happened because it forced me, in my mid thirties
to think, hmm, what would be best for my skills,
my passion, my background, my gifts, and my family. At
this point in my life, and after about a year
and a half of soul searching and volunteering and doing
a lot of informational interviews, I was taking a class
at my church and the concept of the class was
(05:07):
how to help people with your background and your passion.
And they asked a question that I think has a
lot of value, which is what do you know so
well you could teach someone else? And for me it
was news. And I also still to this day fundamental,
fundamentally believe that public relations ended industry should be disrupted
and is oftentimes ineffective and expensive without a lot of
(05:31):
ROI and that was the place at which I started
the company.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
How could we do this better? How could I.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
Have a different kind of solution that could serve businesses
and people and integrate storytelling. And when it started in
twenty ten to now, you know, more than fifteen years later.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
In many ways, it's a.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
Renaissance of what was because of AI, earned media, press coverage,
authentic information, the kind of content that you can't buy,
all of those things that were really true how I
was coming up through journalism is back, and I'm thrilled
not just for my company and the people we work with,
(06:12):
but I'm thrilled for the industry, the economy because we're
back to what's true. Let's prove it, let's talk about it,
and let's get journalists involved, and let's make sure that
we have authentic storytelling. So I'm excited about the future
and where we're going with AI, specifically in my industry.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Interesting, how does the AI benefit you?
Speaker 3 (06:32):
So whenever someone goes to chat, GPT or you name
your favorite name, your favorite search, Yeah, it's selecting what
is coming up in the results, and it likes trusted,
credible sources. Media that we've heard of, website content from
(06:53):
company's website, thought leadership articles, LinkedIn social media content, those
things that can't be purchas are trending and show up
really well. They also, these AI search engines really want
aligned messages and it is offering information from recent topics. So,
(07:15):
for example, there were a few years ago you could
put out a news interview or you could do a
podcast and it could sit there for six months and
Google would be fine with that. Well, that isn't how
these large language models are working. And generative AI is
looking for what have you done for me lately, which
means that the drum beat of messaging needs to be
(07:37):
regular and it needs to be accurate and that benefits
pr in a way that companies can no longer ignore.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Yeah. Interesting, So to take me back to when you
first started it started the medium minefield. What was one
of the biggest challenges.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
You faced myself? It was myself.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
I am an English major, I train journalist, good writer,
I bet good writer. I just wrote a book, so yeah,
I think I'm I'm a decent, decent writer. The book
Flip Your Script. It's all about how to use social
media for good. Okay, So for me it was gosh,
I do I know how to do a business?
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Run a business?
Speaker 3 (08:15):
I love learning and I love business. I always have
and I had to identify as an entrepreneur in my
brain before.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
I could show up in room.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
So for the first year it was me by myself
just figuring that out. And then we started to grow
and become and make a name for ourselves and become
more broadly known nationally.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
What specifically did you do though to sort of say
get over yourself, but I mean get out of your
own way, you know, put myself.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
In peer groups and other people who I trusted and
respected and were business leaders would say, hey, Christy, you're
onto something. Also the work our results speak for themselves.
And then I went back to school and I did
get a master's from Pepperdine and Management and leaders. I'm
passionate about digital leadership, which is what we've talked about
when it comes to executives and leaders showing up online
(09:07):
as leaders because the modern day executive needs to be
as comfortable digitally communicating as a nineteen eighty four executive
needed to be at a three martini lunch.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Media Mindfield takes a story driven strategic approach to be
a PR, blending earned media executive, thought leadership and social
media strategies. How did you develop that and what sets
it apart from sort of traditional PR.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
Sure when we started it was specifically earned media. It
was get our client's positive press and get them regular
ongoing press. Then I was walking around an airport. I
had just come from meeting some business leaders in Miami,
and I was listening to a podcast and I heard
a stat from Forbes that equated the CEO's online presence
(09:50):
to the valuation of the company, and this sort of
light bulb moment went on for me. We just talked
about the atmosphere situation, and that's the negative side of that.
A positive side of that. When CEOs and leader leadership
teams are positive, they're showing up, they're leading their with information.
They're vulnerable that can positively help a company. So when
(10:13):
that light bulb moment went on for me, I was like,
you know what, social media is an effective tool to
share a message and to increase reach of any kind
of message in any kind of leader. However, people who
don't have the comfort level with social media and don't
have the time and don't know where to begin. Their
(10:34):
CEOs their leadership teams, they're people that are working on
the business. So that was when we call it positive
online presence. Or pop the service that we trademarked probably
eight years ago when that started, so we were really.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Early to the game.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
So when we blend thought, leadership, news articles, interviews, all
of these strategies together, it is fantastic for business outcomes.
But AI results love it, and that all has kind
of come into this magical place for us.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
Some of the things you mentioned there specifically, like vulnerability,
thinking about relationships, like interpersonal relationships or when you're married
or whatever that's you know, it's kind of the same
in a way. People want to feel connected to.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
You, and the concept of building trust digitally is really
difficult for people to understand. I travel around the country
and speak about this specific thing, and when I'm talking
to CEOs older than me, oftentimes male, they get really
uncomfortable with the concept of vulnerability or letting their personal
(11:39):
side of their family out on social media and have
kind of a mindset of well, it's no one's business.
If I just put my head down and do my work,
we're going to do well. That's fine. But millennials and
Gen Z that's not good enough for them. And for
most businesses, that's who buyers are. That's who the next
group of leaders are. That's who the who the employees are.
(12:01):
So it's really important to be able to navigate through
the different digital platforms and the landscape. That is important
right now and for me personally, Adam. A year ago
in January, my son was diagnosed with cancer, my teenage son.
And my team said Christy, you need to share this
online and again I teach about it. I was about
(12:25):
done writing a book about it, and yet it was
so uncomfortable to do, and so it took me some
time to figure out how to do it. And I
realized that if you can show up online, which is
what I talk about all the time, with the purpose
of helping others, it doesn't feel too vulnerable, it doesn't
feel too much information, and it doesn't feel braggy, which
(12:47):
is a lot of people, especially in the Midwest, get
worried about it. Ye World Cancer Day in February, I
shared my son's diagnosis with the message of how to
help and even as simple as to give blood and
to donate to kids at Children's Hospital in Minneapolis who
are who we had seen who don't have the resources
(13:07):
and connections to get through it in a way that
doesn't completely bankrupt or disrupt their family. So we just
realized that we could help. He was diagnosed cancer free.
It's great, yep, it's about to start college. He's going
to play college football, and we couldn't be more thrilled,
not just for him, but also we have an opportunity
to help. All the proceeds from my book go to
(13:28):
Children's Hospital in Minnesota, and we're doing a lot to help.
We started a fund there. We had a blood drive
for my fiftieth birthday.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
And so I just.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
Believe that social media specifically, the larger the audience, the
larger the impact, and leaders have a responsibility to make
a large impact, and social media gives us the opportunity
to do that in new and large ways.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
That is so awesome. Thank you for sharing that. Wow.
We talked about the CEOs maybe not embracing the vulnerability
or social media. What is some other mistakes that they make.
Speaker 3 (14:03):
They only show up when it benefits them, meaning marketing
came in and said, hey we're launching a new product
or hey we're starting a new location.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Can I use your social media? Sure?
Speaker 3 (14:13):
So they appear as sort of a vanilla version that
is soulless, that is just a mouthpiece for a company,
and not only is it a mistake, but they're missing
an opportunity because we've tested this out. And if you
put the same message from a leader of a company,
(14:33):
or you put the message out from the brand, most
of the time the leader, their message is going to
have bigger reach and more engagement. And most marketing departments
are focusing all of their energy on the brand.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
I mean you see it here with radio, like you
put something out or the company puts something out, like
you have followers, you have people who are interested in
what you're saying. And it's the same concept that applies
to leaders and CEOs.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Do you think they just don't have the confidence sometimes
to believe that what they say matters. I mean, I
think that's true for me or for a lot of
people I know. Anyway.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
I think the hardest story to tell is your own.
We live it, so it doesn't feel that interesting to
us and it doesn't feel that important. And yet someone
who wants to have your job, who's ten twenty years
younger than you, would love to have some insight about
your career, about how you got to where you are
and your network and the amount of people who can
(15:33):
benefit from what happens from your perspective here. Most people
don't get to sit in the seat and look at
you and walk through these hallways. And to give people
a little bit of insight into that is an excellent
way just to be authentic, to be yourself, but to
invite them in, and that is a way to build
trust digitally.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
A CEO, what's a leadership lesson that you learn the
hard way? How's it shaped what you're doing now?
Speaker 3 (15:59):
This perhaps applies to all genders. I think as a woman,
I have struggled, and I've talked with other women as
well who struggle with wanting to be liked. And when
you take the corner office using an old fashioned term,
people aren't going to like you. And making decisions for
dozens and dozens of people that may negatively impact one
(16:19):
or two is difficult. And it took me quite a
long time to understand how to navigate that well and
to understand that the best gift I can give the
company is to be healthy myself and to have a
healthy company and make decisions. Now, I think what has
helped me navigate that a bit is that I believe
in communication deeply and sharing messages, being honest.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
Those types of things I think can.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
Help all of that. But making difficult decisions is something
that emerging leaders should practice more often, and having the
difficult conversations and saying the words that need to be said.
You're actually helping people, You're not hurting them. So we
have to sort of get over ourselves and make sure
that we can communicate authentically, vulnerably and help other people,
(17:11):
which means sometimes delivering messages that other people don't want
to hear.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
How do you How do you lead a team? And
how many people work for you?
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Thirty five?
Speaker 1 (17:19):
Wow, that's pretty significant. How do you so? What's your
strategy for leadership? Do you think about it to you?
Is it all written out somewhere? Do you have a philosophy?
Speaker 2 (17:27):
I think about it all the time.
Speaker 3 (17:29):
I believe that I have a responsibility to everyone who
works at the company and their families. And I remember
the first time, many years ago, when I met the
baby of an employee and it hit me like a
ton of bricks, like, oh my gosh, I have to
do a good job, not just for me and not
just for this woman, but she's got a family that
(17:50):
depends on us us doing well, So for me. The
philosophy is to be myself. I think it's important that
I know myself really well, and I spent a lot
of time doing work, especially when I got my masters,
but also to be honest and to be innovative. My
leadership philosophy is if leaders could be themselves and know
themselves well and communicate and make decisions from that place,
(18:14):
meaning they know their weaknesses, they know their strengths, they
know when it's time to bring someone else in, they
know and to ask for help. Most companies would benefit greatly.
I think there's still so many people who lead from
a place of I should lead like this person. When
to read this book, and I will lead like this person,
and that's dangerous. All of us have these different stories
(18:34):
that have happened to us in context and experiences and
people we know that bring us to the point where
we can make great leaders from who we are and
what we believe.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
Yeah, because you can kind of feel that fakeness, right.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
Yeah, you for sure you can. And I think back
to social media. That's why most of us are frustrated
with social media feeds that feel so fake and disingenuine,
and we want to be around people who are who
they are, and we want to fill our.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
Feeds with people who are authentic. So it's the same concept.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
And how have you stuck to your core value? What
are your core values? I guess, and how have you
stuck to them? Over the time of Media Minefield.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
Sure, Media Minefield has had core values. I can go
through them. They're probably a little bit dull for people
that aren't in the industry, but they spell out minor.
So we have core values. We also have specific behaviors
that connect to the core values, and we talk about
our core values all the time. For example, we are
encouraging all of the miners, the people who work at
(19:36):
the company, to be looking for core value behavior in
their co workers and then they fill out a form
that highlights which specific behavior the other person highlighted. And
we recognize people every week every Monday morning, we have
a zoom call for thirty minutes we recognize, you know,
(19:56):
people who got core value nominations. And then at the
end of the year we give out an all expenses
paid trip for two and we also give one hundred
dollars bill to someone who made a nomination. So over
the course of the year we have hundreds and hundreds
of Core Value nominations and for me personally, I read
every single one. It's fun to see what's happening in
(20:18):
the company. And again, my philosophy you asked a bit
is to show up and look for the good. Yeah,
and that's what. Focusing people on what's going on well
around them and looking for the best in other people. Boy,
that will change a culture.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
That's awesome. It's funny. Before you said vacation, I thought, well,
what do they went like a vacation or a watch
or something that's pretty good? That's awesome. If you could
give one piece of advice to aspiring entrepreneurs, especially those
looking to disrupt an industry, what would you tell them?
Speaker 3 (20:51):
Be brave and surround yourself with people who make you
better and do stuff you're passionate about. I'm always frustrated
when I hear people going to college to get an
entrepreneurship degree and the goal is to make a lot
of money. That can't be the reason that you wake
up every day and do the work. It's hard your
(21:13):
own as an entrepreneur. Your livelihood is on the line,
your house often is on the line, your own kids'
futures are wrapped up in the business, and so it
better be more than just to make money. It better
be something that you really deeply believe in and are
willing to stay up late at night to work on
and think about and cancel a vacation. I mean, it's
(21:35):
the things that you would do because you love it
and you believe in it, not because you want to
get rich quick.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
I once in a while will because I have some
stuff that I do a lot of people don't know
about it. But I'll just need to take a break.
I'll watch videos or something. What's your productivity hack to
just stay on task, to get it done, to keep
everybody happy.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
Can't keep everybody happy.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
Well, but show them that you're working you And yeah,
I'm sure have a list of things you do every day.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
For me, I am a writer. I mean I'm a writer.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
So I have NOE pads everywhere and I write things
down and I'm always thinking about, Okay, I made this decision,
who does it impact And how can I tell them?
And is it a thing that I can tell them
next week? Do I tell them right now?
Speaker 2 (22:22):
Is it an email? Is it a slack? Is it
a text?
Speaker 3 (22:25):
So for me, it's not about waiting until a one
on one conversation with someone. It's if this impacts them,
I better get to it right away, which for me,
I always tease my team that I have like notebook,
like little sticky notes in my brain and yeah, it's
going to stick up there until I get rid of
it and pass it off. And then once it's off,
it's out of my brain. So I'm constantly writing stuff
down and then crossing it off and moving on to
(22:46):
the next thing.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
Good for you to be able to recognize it. I
think I had a lot of people have stuff and
they can't figure out how to organize it in their
mind right to be able to and find that right
time or to say, hey, I got to communicate this now.
You know, it's easy to wait on it right. If
you were running media minefield, what would you be doing.
Speaker 3 (23:04):
I would just sit in a room filled with plants
and read books, which is not a job, and that's
I could probably do it for a couple hours and
be sick and tired of it. I love what I do,
and I think about this, as I mentioned, I turned fifty,
and I think what else could I do?
Speaker 1 (23:22):
Man?
Speaker 3 (23:22):
I love what I'm doing and I love helping the
next generation. And I do quite a bit of work
with young you know, college age, high school kind of
women specifically, and at Bethel University specifically, we started a
program there to help young women and just give them
access to leaders of all genders and all races. Just
(23:43):
to understand. You know, you go to college for whatever
the thing you're going to college for. Man, you can
be an accountant in about a billion places. So who
do you want to be surrounded with and what do
you want your day to day to be like? So
for me, I love having a variety things to do,
or I would get bored.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
So what would I do? I don't know. I love
what I'm doing right now.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
Right. You mentioned books, what's a Is there a book
that you would recommend or a podcast if only.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
We had more time?
Speaker 3 (24:14):
Yeah, you know a couple of books that I think
everybody should read. The Alchemist is a book that I
give away all the time. I think it's a really
important book and one that I just read that I
can't believe I haven't read before. It's called Legacy by
James Kerr and it's about the All Blacks, the rugby
(24:34):
team in New Zealand, and I think It's maybe the
best book about business and leadership I've ever read. Why
it's relatable, it's also speaks to the challenge that is
leading people and being part of a team, and being
part of a healthy team is a we mindset, and
(24:55):
I think there's so many lessons that we can learn
from sports, and we can learn from really quality teams
and coaches who have to encourage people to do a
little bit more tomorrow. And I know we lost, but
we've got to get out there and got to get
after it, and we have to want what's best for
the team more than what's best for ourselves. And that
(25:15):
is a hard thing for a team to understand and
for a leader to coach and to know that. Gosh,
I want what's best for every single person on my team,
and sometimes that takes them elsewhere, and sometimes that takes
them on a really long career with us. But for
me reading that book, it sort of all came together.
(25:37):
And I've heard other people say that it's one of
the best books they've ever read. And also if you
listen to the audiobook. I have the actual book because
I'm little old school, and I listened to the audio
and they do quite a bit of it, like the
New Zealand, like the native language could do some of that,
which is just a very tribal cool thing that brings
(25:58):
out a little bit of something deeper.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
Oka, are you guys hiring right now? We're always hiring,
always hiring. If somebody's in college or about to go
to college, or somebody's listening, who had knows somebody who's
about to go to college or in college? What sort
of what sort of classes should they be pursuing for
a PR or to go into PR, or what skill
set do you do you look for? Or is what
(26:20):
skill set to people have in the industry.
Speaker 3 (26:22):
Writing is so critical and even in the realm of AI, boy,
if you can't write without the help of chat ept,
you might want to think about a different a different industry.
Writing is just critically important. Certainly the tools help, but
writing is important. Being able to clearly communicate what you're
thinking and your emotions and connect with someone else. That
(26:45):
is timeless and so important. Also, business, every PR company
out there operates as a business, and so it's really
important for folks to understand sort of even the basics
of how a business works and how a business runs,
and most of the clients are in some kind of
business atmosphere.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
So it's really important.
Speaker 3 (27:05):
However, there are PR teams operating inside of some of
the medtech huge companies in town. So if you're passionate
about science and PR, boy put them together in your
college education, get some informational interviews and go over to
one of these giant hospitals or medtech companies and make
(27:26):
a case for yourself and make a name for yourself
and tell the stories of the innovation happening in the
Twin Cities.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
Lastly, if I have a company or I don't know,
maybe myself need some PR for how do we get
ahold of.
Speaker 3 (27:37):
You media minefields all over social media. Christypeel dot com
is the website where you can connect with me and
I'm all over the socials as well.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
Christy Peel, CEO Medium Minefield, thank you so much for
being here.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
Thank you for the opportunity
Hey, it's Adam West. This is the CEOs you should know,
and today we're thrilled to welcome Christy Peele, Founder and
CEO of Media Minefield. Christy's an Emmy Award winning former
TV reporter who turned her passion for storytelling into a
thriving business redefining public relations. Under her leadership, Media Minefield
has grown into a nationally recognized firm helping brands and
leaders share their stories in an authentic and impactful way.
(00:22):
Christy's journey from the newsroom to the boardroom is nothing
short of inspiring, and today will dive into how she
built her success and what's next for her and her company.
Welcome Christy, Thank you.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
It's wonderful to be here and I've.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Never had anything like that before. So get a taste
of kind of what you do right in that world
of PR. Tell me a little bit about what do
you do. What is your company? What does Media Mindfield do?
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Sure.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Media Minefield handles brands and storytelling for our clients. So
that's everything from getting our client's press, positive press, training
and teaching people how to get out of crisis planning
in advance. We also handle a lot of social media
for executives, specifically leaders and also brands as well, So
(01:06):
we do you know, PRS one of these giant umbrellas
we're Depending upon who you talk to, they think of it.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
As something different.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
We're a little bit unique and that we are very
specific to the services that we provide. But we're industry agnostic, ah,
which makes us unusual because we represent clients from large
billion dollar brands to some nonprofits, but primarily our clients
are national but have a touch point here in the
(01:36):
Twin Cities.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
I was thinking about this a little bit, like you said, crisis,
and I didn't know if I should ask you about that,
because yeah, probably some there's some crisis situations. Also, kind
of your job is to be out there but also
be invisible in a way, right one hundred percent.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
We are not spokespeople on behalf of our clients. We
believe deeply in authenticity, So when our client goes through
a crisis, we want to make sure that the appropriate
spokesperson within that company is out there handling it. We're
behind the scenes making sure that everything that is out
there publicly is authentic, it is true, and that we
are able to help our clients and their company navigate
(02:14):
to have the minimum amount of damage, But that's an
active crisis. We prefer to be working with companies proactively,
meaning that they have a crisis plan, that their train,
that they're ready to go, because in the land of
deep fake good thoughts AI, a crisis can happen and
spread faster than you can click refresh on your.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Computer without being specific. Is there anything you can talk
about where you've had to come in at the eleventh
hour and save whatever?
Speaker 3 (02:45):
It's happened a few times and I can't talk about
the ones that you may have known about. It is
fun for us to talk about.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Ones that we're not involved with.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
So, for example, the atmosphere crisis with the CEO and
the head of HR being busted at the Coldplay concert.
I did some national interviews about that, and we've talked
about what they should and shouldn't have done to get
through that crisis. But that I think is the most
high profile one that happened in twenty twenty five. That
showcased what can go wrong when there isn't a plan
(03:19):
in place, and when the leaders decide to get away
from social media instead of lean into the opportunity that
is social media.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Good example, that's great. You started your career as an
Emmy Award winning TV reporter and then you founded Media Minefield.
What was the moment where you said, this is what
I should do, this is why I'm here.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
Throughout my television news career, I felt so fortunate to
be able to have a front row seat for some
incredible national, global events and topics and to be in
the room when it happened. And a few times, however,
as I became a mother, there were times in the
back of my head where I was thinking, hmm.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Does this career still serve me?
Speaker 3 (04:00):
But to be frank with you, I was very nervous that, gosh,
what would I do then if I don't do this,
this thing that I've dreamt about and thought about and
moved across the country to do and made so many
seconds to kids, little kid, yeah for people who are
you know, been around the Twin Cities a bit.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
I was watching Cindy.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
Bricado at Channel five and I want to be just
like Cindy.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
And then when I at the.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Fair too, right, it was always my dream, right.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
Sign the you know, meet people and sign the autographs
and all of that, And then it happened but it
no longer was serving me. However, I wasn't brave enough
to step away. I was laid off in late two
thousand and eight. There were twenty of us, the whole
investigative unit and special special department. We all kind of
went away. And it was the best thing that could
(04:45):
have happened because it forced me, in my mid thirties
to think, hmm, what would be best for my skills,
my passion, my background, my gifts, and my family. At
this point in my life, and after about a year
and a half of soul searching and volunteering and doing
a lot of informational interviews, I was taking a class
at my church and the concept of the class was
(05:07):
how to help people with your background and your passion.
And they asked a question that I think has a
lot of value, which is what do you know so
well you could teach someone else? And for me it
was news. And I also still to this day fundamental,
fundamentally believe that public relations ended industry should be disrupted
and is oftentimes ineffective and expensive without a lot of
(05:31):
ROI and that was the place at which I started
the company.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
How could we do this better? How could I.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
Have a different kind of solution that could serve businesses
and people and integrate storytelling. And when it started in
twenty ten to now, you know, more than fifteen years later.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
In many ways, it's a.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
Renaissance of what was because of AI, earned media, press coverage,
authentic information, the kind of content that you can't buy,
all of those things that were really true how I
was coming up through journalism is back, and I'm thrilled
not just for my company and the people we work with,
(06:12):
but I'm thrilled for the industry, the economy because we're
back to what's true. Let's prove it, let's talk about it,
and let's get journalists involved, and let's make sure that
we have authentic storytelling. So I'm excited about the future
and where we're going with AI, specifically in my industry.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Interesting, how does the AI benefit you?
Speaker 3 (06:32):
So whenever someone goes to chat, GPT or you name
your favorite name, your favorite search, Yeah, it's selecting what
is coming up in the results, and it likes trusted,
credible sources. Media that we've heard of, website content from
(06:53):
company's website, thought leadership articles, LinkedIn social media content, those
things that can't be purchas are trending and show up
really well. They also, these AI search engines really want
aligned messages and it is offering information from recent topics. So,
(07:15):
for example, there were a few years ago you could
put out a news interview or you could do a
podcast and it could sit there for six months and
Google would be fine with that. Well, that isn't how
these large language models are working. And generative AI is
looking for what have you done for me lately, which
means that the drum beat of messaging needs to be
(07:37):
regular and it needs to be accurate and that benefits
pr in a way that companies can no longer ignore.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Yeah. Interesting, So to take me back to when you
first started it started the medium minefield. What was one
of the biggest challenges.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
You faced myself? It was myself.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
I am an English major, I train journalist, good writer,
I bet good writer. I just wrote a book, so yeah,
I think I'm I'm a decent, decent writer. The book
Flip Your Script. It's all about how to use social
media for good. Okay, So for me it was gosh,
I do I know how to do a business?
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Run a business?
Speaker 3 (08:15):
I love learning and I love business. I always have
and I had to identify as an entrepreneur in my
brain before.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
I could show up in room.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
So for the first year it was me by myself
just figuring that out. And then we started to grow
and become and make a name for ourselves and become
more broadly known nationally.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
What specifically did you do though to sort of say
get over yourself, but I mean get out of your
own way, you know, put myself.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
In peer groups and other people who I trusted and
respected and were business leaders would say, hey, Christy, you're
onto something. Also the work our results speak for themselves.
And then I went back to school and I did
get a master's from Pepperdine and Management and leaders. I'm
passionate about digital leadership, which is what we've talked about
when it comes to executives and leaders showing up online
(09:07):
as leaders because the modern day executive needs to be
as comfortable digitally communicating as a nineteen eighty four executive
needed to be at a three martini lunch.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Media Mindfield takes a story driven strategic approach to be
a PR, blending earned media executive, thought leadership and social
media strategies. How did you develop that and what sets
it apart from sort of traditional PR.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
Sure when we started it was specifically earned media. It
was get our client's positive press and get them regular
ongoing press. Then I was walking around an airport. I
had just come from meeting some business leaders in Miami,
and I was listening to a podcast and I heard
a stat from Forbes that equated the CEO's online presence
(09:50):
to the valuation of the company, and this sort of
light bulb moment went on for me. We just talked
about the atmosphere situation, and that's the negative side of that.
A positive side of that. When CEOs and leader leadership
teams are positive, they're showing up, they're leading their with information.
They're vulnerable that can positively help a company. So when
(10:13):
that light bulb moment went on for me, I was like,
you know what, social media is an effective tool to
share a message and to increase reach of any kind
of message in any kind of leader. However, people who
don't have the comfort level with social media and don't
have the time and don't know where to begin. Their
(10:34):
CEOs their leadership teams, they're people that are working on
the business. So that was when we call it positive
online presence. Or pop the service that we trademarked probably
eight years ago when that started, so we were really.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Early to the game.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
So when we blend thought, leadership, news articles, interviews, all
of these strategies together, it is fantastic for business outcomes.
But AI results love it, and that all has kind
of come into this magical place for us.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
Some of the things you mentioned there specifically, like vulnerability,
thinking about relationships, like interpersonal relationships or when you're married
or whatever that's you know, it's kind of the same
in a way. People want to feel connected to.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
You, and the concept of building trust digitally is really
difficult for people to understand. I travel around the country
and speak about this specific thing, and when I'm talking
to CEOs older than me, oftentimes male, they get really
uncomfortable with the concept of vulnerability or letting their personal
(11:39):
side of their family out on social media and have
kind of a mindset of well, it's no one's business.
If I just put my head down and do my work,
we're going to do well. That's fine. But millennials and
Gen Z that's not good enough for them. And for
most businesses, that's who buyers are. That's who the next
group of leaders are. That's who the who the employees are.
(12:01):
So it's really important to be able to navigate through
the different digital platforms and the landscape. That is important
right now and for me personally, Adam. A year ago
in January, my son was diagnosed with cancer, my teenage son.
And my team said Christy, you need to share this
online and again I teach about it. I was about
(12:25):
done writing a book about it, and yet it was
so uncomfortable to do, and so it took me some
time to figure out how to do it. And I
realized that if you can show up online, which is
what I talk about all the time, with the purpose
of helping others, it doesn't feel too vulnerable, it doesn't
feel too much information, and it doesn't feel braggy, which
(12:47):
is a lot of people, especially in the Midwest, get
worried about it. Ye World Cancer Day in February, I
shared my son's diagnosis with the message of how to
help and even as simple as to give blood and
to donate to kids at Children's Hospital in Minneapolis who
are who we had seen who don't have the resources
(13:07):
and connections to get through it in a way that
doesn't completely bankrupt or disrupt their family. So we just
realized that we could help. He was diagnosed cancer free.
It's great, yep, it's about to start college. He's going
to play college football, and we couldn't be more thrilled,
not just for him, but also we have an opportunity
to help. All the proceeds from my book go to
(13:28):
Children's Hospital in Minnesota, and we're doing a lot to help.
We started a fund there. We had a blood drive
for my fiftieth birthday.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
And so I just.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
Believe that social media specifically, the larger the audience, the
larger the impact, and leaders have a responsibility to make
a large impact, and social media gives us the opportunity
to do that in new and large ways.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
That is so awesome. Thank you for sharing that. Wow.
We talked about the CEOs maybe not embracing the vulnerability
or social media. What is some other mistakes that they make.
Speaker 3 (14:03):
They only show up when it benefits them, meaning marketing
came in and said, hey we're launching a new product
or hey we're starting a new location.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Can I use your social media? Sure?
Speaker 3 (14:13):
So they appear as sort of a vanilla version that
is soulless, that is just a mouthpiece for a company,
and not only is it a mistake, but they're missing
an opportunity because we've tested this out. And if you
put the same message from a leader of a company,
(14:33):
or you put the message out from the brand, most
of the time the leader, their message is going to
have bigger reach and more engagement. And most marketing departments
are focusing all of their energy on the brand.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
I mean you see it here with radio, like you
put something out or the company puts something out, like
you have followers, you have people who are interested in
what you're saying. And it's the same concept that applies
to leaders and CEOs.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Do you think they just don't have the confidence sometimes
to believe that what they say matters. I mean, I
think that's true for me or for a lot of
people I know. Anyway.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
I think the hardest story to tell is your own.
We live it, so it doesn't feel that interesting to
us and it doesn't feel that important. And yet someone
who wants to have your job, who's ten twenty years
younger than you, would love to have some insight about
your career, about how you got to where you are
and your network and the amount of people who can
(15:33):
benefit from what happens from your perspective here. Most people
don't get to sit in the seat and look at
you and walk through these hallways. And to give people
a little bit of insight into that is an excellent
way just to be authentic, to be yourself, but to
invite them in, and that is a way to build
trust digitally.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
A CEO, what's a leadership lesson that you learn the
hard way? How's it shaped what you're doing now?
Speaker 3 (15:59):
This perhaps applies to all genders. I think as a woman,
I have struggled, and I've talked with other women as
well who struggle with wanting to be liked. And when
you take the corner office using an old fashioned term,
people aren't going to like you. And making decisions for
dozens and dozens of people that may negatively impact one
(16:19):
or two is difficult. And it took me quite a
long time to understand how to navigate that well and
to understand that the best gift I can give the
company is to be healthy myself and to have a
healthy company and make decisions. Now, I think what has
helped me navigate that a bit is that I believe
in communication deeply and sharing messages, being honest.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
Those types of things I think can.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
Help all of that. But making difficult decisions is something
that emerging leaders should practice more often, and having the
difficult conversations and saying the words that need to be said.
You're actually helping people, You're not hurting them. So we
have to sort of get over ourselves and make sure
that we can communicate authentically, vulnerably and help other people,
(17:11):
which means sometimes delivering messages that other people don't want
to hear.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
How do you How do you lead a team? And
how many people work for you?
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Thirty five?
Speaker 1 (17:19):
Wow, that's pretty significant. How do you so? What's your
strategy for leadership? Do you think about it to you?
Is it all written out somewhere? Do you have a philosophy?
Speaker 2 (17:27):
I think about it all the time.
Speaker 3 (17:29):
I believe that I have a responsibility to everyone who
works at the company and their families. And I remember
the first time, many years ago, when I met the
baby of an employee and it hit me like a
ton of bricks, like, oh my gosh, I have to
do a good job, not just for me and not
just for this woman, but she's got a family that
(17:50):
depends on us us doing well, So for me. The
philosophy is to be myself. I think it's important that
I know myself really well, and I spent a lot
of time doing work, especially when I got my masters,
but also to be honest and to be innovative. My
leadership philosophy is if leaders could be themselves and know
themselves well and communicate and make decisions from that place,
(18:14):
meaning they know their weaknesses, they know their strengths, they
know when it's time to bring someone else in, they
know and to ask for help. Most companies would benefit greatly.
I think there's still so many people who lead from
a place of I should lead like this person. When
to read this book, and I will lead like this person,
and that's dangerous. All of us have these different stories
(18:34):
that have happened to us in context and experiences and
people we know that bring us to the point where
we can make great leaders from who we are and
what we believe.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
Yeah, because you can kind of feel that fakeness, right.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
Yeah, you for sure you can. And I think back
to social media. That's why most of us are frustrated
with social media feeds that feel so fake and disingenuine,
and we want to be around people who are who
they are, and we want to fill our.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
Feeds with people who are authentic. So it's the same concept.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
And how have you stuck to your core value? What
are your core values? I guess, and how have you
stuck to them? Over the time of Media Minefield.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
Sure, Media Minefield has had core values. I can go
through them. They're probably a little bit dull for people
that aren't in the industry, but they spell out minor.
So we have core values. We also have specific behaviors
that connect to the core values, and we talk about
our core values all the time. For example, we are
encouraging all of the miners, the people who work at
(19:36):
the company, to be looking for core value behavior in
their co workers and then they fill out a form
that highlights which specific behavior the other person highlighted. And
we recognize people every week every Monday morning, we have
a zoom call for thirty minutes we recognize, you know,
(19:56):
people who got core value nominations. And then at the
end of the year we give out an all expenses
paid trip for two and we also give one hundred
dollars bill to someone who made a nomination. So over
the course of the year we have hundreds and hundreds
of Core Value nominations and for me personally, I read
every single one. It's fun to see what's happening in
(20:18):
the company. And again, my philosophy you asked a bit
is to show up and look for the good. Yeah,
and that's what. Focusing people on what's going on well
around them and looking for the best in other people. Boy,
that will change a culture.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
That's awesome. It's funny. Before you said vacation, I thought, well,
what do they went like a vacation or a watch
or something that's pretty good? That's awesome. If you could
give one piece of advice to aspiring entrepreneurs, especially those
looking to disrupt an industry, what would you tell them?
Speaker 3 (20:51):
Be brave and surround yourself with people who make you
better and do stuff you're passionate about. I'm always frustrated
when I hear people going to college to get an
entrepreneurship degree and the goal is to make a lot
of money. That can't be the reason that you wake
up every day and do the work. It's hard your
(21:13):
own as an entrepreneur. Your livelihood is on the line,
your house often is on the line, your own kids'
futures are wrapped up in the business, and so it
better be more than just to make money. It better
be something that you really deeply believe in and are
willing to stay up late at night to work on
and think about and cancel a vacation. I mean, it's
(21:35):
the things that you would do because you love it
and you believe in it, not because you want to
get rich quick.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
I once in a while will because I have some
stuff that I do a lot of people don't know
about it. But I'll just need to take a break.
I'll watch videos or something. What's your productivity hack to
just stay on task, to get it done, to keep
everybody happy.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
Can't keep everybody happy.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
Well, but show them that you're working you And yeah,
I'm sure have a list of things you do every day.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
For me, I am a writer. I mean I'm a writer.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
So I have NOE pads everywhere and I write things
down and I'm always thinking about, Okay, I made this decision,
who does it impact And how can I tell them?
And is it a thing that I can tell them
next week? Do I tell them right now?
Speaker 2 (22:22):
Is it an email? Is it a slack? Is it
a text?
Speaker 3 (22:25):
So for me, it's not about waiting until a one
on one conversation with someone. It's if this impacts them,
I better get to it right away, which for me,
I always tease my team that I have like notebook,
like little sticky notes in my brain and yeah, it's
going to stick up there until I get rid of
it and pass it off. And then once it's off,
it's out of my brain. So I'm constantly writing stuff
down and then crossing it off and moving on to
(22:46):
the next thing.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
Good for you to be able to recognize it. I
think I had a lot of people have stuff and
they can't figure out how to organize it in their
mind right to be able to and find that right
time or to say, hey, I got to communicate this now.
You know, it's easy to wait on it right. If
you were running media minefield, what would you be doing.
Speaker 3 (23:04):
I would just sit in a room filled with plants
and read books, which is not a job, and that's
I could probably do it for a couple hours and
be sick and tired of it. I love what I do,
and I think about this, as I mentioned, I turned fifty,
and I think what else could I do?
Speaker 1 (23:22):
Man?
Speaker 3 (23:22):
I love what I'm doing and I love helping the
next generation. And I do quite a bit of work
with young you know, college age, high school kind of
women specifically, and at Bethel University specifically, we started a
program there to help young women and just give them
access to leaders of all genders and all races. Just
(23:43):
to understand. You know, you go to college for whatever
the thing you're going to college for. Man, you can
be an accountant in about a billion places. So who
do you want to be surrounded with and what do
you want your day to day to be like? So
for me, I love having a variety things to do,
or I would get bored.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
So what would I do? I don't know. I love
what I'm doing right now.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
Right. You mentioned books, what's a Is there a book
that you would recommend or a podcast if only.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
We had more time?
Speaker 3 (24:14):
Yeah, you know a couple of books that I think
everybody should read. The Alchemist is a book that I
give away all the time. I think it's a really
important book and one that I just read that I
can't believe I haven't read before. It's called Legacy by
James Kerr and it's about the All Blacks, the rugby
(24:34):
team in New Zealand, and I think It's maybe the
best book about business and leadership I've ever read. Why
it's relatable, it's also speaks to the challenge that is
leading people and being part of a team, and being
part of a healthy team is a we mindset, and
(24:55):
I think there's so many lessons that we can learn
from sports, and we can learn from really quality teams
and coaches who have to encourage people to do a
little bit more tomorrow. And I know we lost, but
we've got to get out there and got to get
after it, and we have to want what's best for
the team more than what's best for ourselves. And that
(25:15):
is a hard thing for a team to understand and
for a leader to coach and to know that. Gosh,
I want what's best for every single person on my team,
and sometimes that takes them elsewhere, and sometimes that takes
them on a really long career with us. But for
me reading that book, it sort of all came together.
(25:37):
And I've heard other people say that it's one of
the best books they've ever read. And also if you
listen to the audiobook. I have the actual book because
I'm little old school, and I listened to the audio
and they do quite a bit of it, like the
New Zealand, like the native language could do some of that,
which is just a very tribal cool thing that brings
(25:58):
out a little bit of something deeper.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
Oka, are you guys hiring right now? We're always hiring,
always hiring. If somebody's in college or about to go
to college, or somebody's listening, who had knows somebody who's
about to go to college or in college? What sort
of what sort of classes should they be pursuing for
a PR or to go into PR, or what skill
set do you do you look for? Or is what
(26:20):
skill set to people have in the industry.
Speaker 3 (26:22):
Writing is so critical and even in the realm of AI, boy,
if you can't write without the help of chat ept,
you might want to think about a different a different industry.
Writing is just critically important. Certainly the tools help, but
writing is important. Being able to clearly communicate what you're
thinking and your emotions and connect with someone else. That
(26:45):
is timeless and so important. Also, business, every PR company
out there operates as a business, and so it's really
important for folks to understand sort of even the basics
of how a business works and how a business runs,
and most of the clients are in some kind of
business atmosphere.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
So it's really important.
Speaker 3 (27:05):
However, there are PR teams operating inside of some of
the medtech huge companies in town. So if you're passionate
about science and PR, boy put them together in your
college education, get some informational interviews and go over to
one of these giant hospitals or medtech companies and make
(27:26):
a case for yourself and make a name for yourself
and tell the stories of the innovation happening in the
Twin Cities.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
Lastly, if I have a company or I don't know,
maybe myself need some PR for how do we get
ahold of.
Speaker 3 (27:37):
You media minefields all over social media. Christypeel dot com
is the website where you can connect with me and
I'm all over the socials as well.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
Christy Peel, CEO Medium Minefield, thank you so much for
being here.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
Thank you for the opportunity
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