March 14, 2025 • 48 mins
We build category leaders with Public Relations for real business results.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to building the future hosted by Kevin
Horick. With millions oflisteners a month, building the
future has quickly become one ofthe fastest rising programs with
a focus on interviewingstartups, entrepreneurs,
investors, CEOs, and more. Theradio and TV show airs in 15
markets across the globe,including Silicon Valley. For
(00:22):
full showtimes, past episodes,or to sponsor the show, please
visit buildingthefutureshow.com.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Welcome back to the show. Today, have Donna
Laughlin. She's a storytellerand founder at LMGPR. Donna,
welcome to the show.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Thank you for having me, Kevin.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Yeah. I'm excited. We're finally doing this. We've
known each other, what, probablyfive, six, eight years or so.
I've had a number of yourclients on the show over the
years.
And you and I, I think, havetalked about doing an episode,
but we're finally doing it. I'mexcited to have you on the show.
So welcome.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Yeah. Thank you so much. Dozens of clients have
been on your show, and I thinkyour children were infants.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Yeah. Probably we probably even knew each other
before I had kids. So Well Verycool. Well, I'm excited to have
you on the show. Maybe before wedive into everything you're
doing, let's get to know you alittle bit better and start off
with where you grew up.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
I grew up in what I call the Cotswolds Of San Jose.
It's the pin drop of SiliconValley when when, San Jose was
actually rolling foothills ofnot ships and semiconductors,
but apricot, cherry, andvineyards.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Very nice. Beautiful area.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Yeah. It looks a lot like Tuscany, believe it or not.
And the land is probably as asexpensive and premium. But Sure.
When you know, at the time,defense companies, HP, Atari,
you know, Intel, you know, someof the the legacy companies now,
You know, we're absolutely thereamongst defense.
(02:03):
But my playground was actuallypublishing and, in the in
particularly communitynewspapers and printing because
that's the dynasty that myfamily actually that was their
gold rush.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
That's cool. Very cool. So you went to university.
What did you take and why?
Speaker 3 (02:20):
I took communications journalism K. And as an
undergraduate. And then once Igot my my thirst and and,
literally, I started recordingwhen I was eight years old with
the family papers. And
Speaker 2 (02:33):
then That's cool.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
By the time I got to college, I had ten years of
experience, which is kind offunny and precocious as I was.
And then that led to, you know,working, doing internships with
the Washington Post, and I didReuters. That's cool. So I had a
lot of a lot of, you know,professional experience that
took me a good seven years thatyou know, given my career, and
(02:56):
then I actually bounced back into California and went to UC
Berkeley and got my master's inthe Jace School, Jay.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Cool. Very cool. So walk us through your career up
until kind of founding your owncompany.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
Yeah. So I was a journalist first, and I was, you
know, business and economicsprimarily, which sometimes led
into innovation and technology.Before I I came back to United
States, I was actually with theBBC. I was a business and and
and tech reporter. So I workedin some major markets.
I worked in in DC, Chicago, NewYork, and then London, and then
(03:32):
I came back for school. And whenyou come back to Silicon Valley,
you're pretty much saturated by,innovation and technology or
pharma. And so I was draftedinto working for, a technology
book publishing company at firstand edited something like a 80
books my first year, and Ididn't find that terribly
(03:54):
challenging. It was great forbeefing up on your editor
editing skills and then andreally establishing the Chicago
Emanuel style, which is the themoniker for that. And then I was
recruited to a a tech company atthe time that was still fairly
small called Three ComCorporation.
The Palm Pilot was kinda, like,all the rage. So that was my
(04:15):
first introduction to workingfor a company. From there, I
went, from consumer electronicsto networking, cybersecurity,
infrastructure, bigger, youknow, data center enterprise
place. And then we had a thingcalled the .combubble followed
by a recession. And that's whenI actually decided maybe I
(04:38):
should come out on my own.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Okay. So what made you decide to do that kind of
during that period of time?Because a lot of people were
maybe getting out of tech.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
Yeah. Risk challenge or reward. Yeah. I had a moment,
which I actually call the $5 anda half a tank of gas moment,
where I was working for a verywell funded company that lost a
a big chunk of their funding,and they needed to downsize.
They also were asking forvolunteers, and that was my
(05:10):
moment where I had to say, youknow what?
Maybe I actually should be Ishould do take my napkin that I
had a business plan on on how tocreate a PR agency for emerging
tech companies, companies thatwere not in the the Apple, the
Googlesque, you know, size, butwere, angel funded and and
maybe, you know, friends andfamily funded, but needed to
(05:33):
have, you know, some nurturingand and just jump start them.
And so I thought about that, andso I decided I would take the
package. And the $5 and a halfto take a gas moment was
literally is when I I took thecheck, looked, opened up my
wallet to put the check. I had a$5 bill. Went to my car at a
(05:54):
half tank of gas, and I thought,wow.
Did I make the right decision?And I literally just drove
straight to the business officeand got my business license. And
when I walked in and I saw thisgiant roster of all the things
that I didn't do, such asbarbershop, nails, mechanic, you
know, just all types of jobs,and there was no category for
public relations. There wasthere was, specialty services,
(06:16):
and and, and so I was a littlepuzzled like, you know, what do
I do? And so I wrote down myname and and started a business
and $50.
And on my way from the businesslicense office, I still didn't
have a the plan in my head. Iwas just kinda going through the
velocity of, you know, change.And I called a venture
(06:37):
capitalist. I called a reporterthat I had been working with
very closely over the years, andI called my my former employer.
And by the time I got home, Ihad three prospects, three
opportunities.
And the next day, I haddeposited $20,000 of new
business in my bank account, andI never looked back. So I
(06:58):
realized that the, you know, thedashboard is bigger than the
rearview mirror, and that wasthe moment where it says, you
just can't look back.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Oh, that's that's really cool. So you've been
doing this for twenty plus yearsnow on your own. How has the the
kind of industry changed to whatit is today? And and then let's
maybe dive into kind of whatyou're doing now and and kind of
how it's evolved.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
Yeah. So when I started, I think the in the
Silicon Valley to San Francisco,which we're just gonna describe
the San Francisco Bay Area asone big, you know, valley. And,
you know, there was a lot moremeetups and just more energy and
and startup culture andaccelerators and and coming out
of the the, you know, the dotcom bubble and the recession,
(07:45):
there was just always, you know,the persona, the Silicon Valley
constantly reinventing. But Ialso had a lot of clients that
were coming from out of thecountry, South America and India
and Asia, Korea, different partsof the of the world. So it
wasn't always just SiliconValley.
It was the Silicon Valleymystique, which is you hire
experienced in the brightest incertain categories. So what's
(08:09):
changed is the not the processof PR, but it's changed is the
the, the types of companies. So,originally, I was working with,
like, cybersecurity andenterprise and storage and,
SaaS, you know, type companies.Then those technologies started
(08:29):
evolving and going into placescalled our smart home and then
our smart cars and then evensmart tractors and other, you
know, smart vehicles. And so theinnovation and and technology
that were siloed started, youknow, being emerged and and
developed into all the thingsthat we know and love, whether
they're in our pocket or our ourhome.
(08:51):
Right? As I always make a joke,we said, our home, our home, our
pocket, our house, or, you know,the rocket, whatever. Wherever
we are, I mean, we have this allthis access. In the past few
years, there's been more on, youknow, deep learning and, you
know, LLMs and then, thewunderkins of, you know, I think
(09:11):
I call it the bookends of AIbetween NVIDIA and and what's
happening with, you know, chat,GPT, and OpenAI. I've been in
that I've been working with withAI generated deep learning,
smart learning companies formore than ten years.
So to me, it's not new. And Ithink that's one of the things
(09:32):
that I pride myself in is beingable to work into really
advanced technologies beforethey become popular. So once
they become popular, it becomesreally saturated. And then what
happens is you have to actuallyyou determine how do you stay
relevant, how do you actually,you know, ensure that you saw
the skin in the game. And as Ithink that's what the biggest
changes in the past five yearsis the accelerators and the
(09:56):
think tanks and all the inertiacontinues to happen, but the VC
culture has changed as well.
So a lot of the silver hairpeople that I've been working
with over the years are nowretiring. You have more women in
venture capital. You haveyounger, you have entrepreneurs
that are going from havingworked in companies now going
(10:17):
into the VC arena. And so Ithink the the texture of of
entrepreneurial and venturecapitalists have changed quite a
bit since the .com.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Yeah. Interesting. Okay. So I think a lot of people
maybe don't fully understandwhat kind of PR is and and how
it can actually help theirbusiness. And I've said this a
million times before, and I'msure you agree, is the tech is
the easy part.
It's like the sales, marketing,PR is the the hard part of it.
(10:48):
So do you wanna walk us throughkind of what you do and how
you've worked with companies andhow you help them? Because
that's, I think, the realchallenge with a startup.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
Yeah. Well, taking a tech, you know, innovator's a
brilliant idea anddeconstructing it to actually
tell a story is typically whereI start. So oftentimes it's a
whiteboard or it's a napkin,right, conversation. And so I
call it the alphabet soup. Youknow?
It's like you put all theacronyms and you put all the
(11:18):
tech in in the science, butoftentimes, the the engineering
invent you know, inventor orcofounders of the company are so
close to the innovationtechnology that even if it's
purposely built to do somethingversus, you know, built and then
applied to something, they oftenlose sight of their authentic,
you know, what I call the thebig moment, the moment when they
(11:40):
actually decided to put alltheir chips on the table to
actually make that decision to,you know, create something and
take the market. So I kinda haveto go all the way back. And
sometimes I go all the way backto, like, well, did you play
with Legos? Did you play withLincoln Logs? Were you into
Tetris?
Were you you know what was thatmoment that you actually decided
to study engineering andelectrical? And why did you
(12:02):
wanna put you know, createsomething for aerospace, but you
actually, you know, spent thelast twenty years in automotive?
Or if you come from automotiveand now you wanna create robots.
Like, what Understood. So thebig problems out there solving
in the real world scenario isreally important.
So I kinda look for the threadthat I can pull all the way
(12:22):
through and then go back and andonce I deconstruct it, then go
back and and then construct thestory that's going to be
relevant, that is actually goingto be purposeful, and it's also
gonna allow them to be theauthority.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Yeah. Interesting.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
And being the leader in telling that story.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
Yeah. And I think even just some of the companies
you've passed me over the yearsto interview, they're doing
something that actually hasnever been done before. Right?
Which is a whole another levelof complexity because that's
really hard, like, to try toteach people about something new
that they didn't even knowexisted.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
Yeah. You can't copy. Yeah. So that's and that's
that's the fun of a science andand and technology to me is that
if you look at you know, let'suse Popular Science as an
example. I've had a number ofcompanies on the cover of
Popular Science.
And the reason, you know, thattheir Popular Science type
stories are a wire type story isbecause it's such a breakthrough
(13:21):
advancement in in, you know, ineither way, does it make a
difference? Is it medical orit's, automotive or what
category is being able toactually have something that's
not a me too product. So beingthe the I call it you know, you
go to Apple and you have theGenius Bar, I feel like I'm
always working at the Genius Barbecause I have access to so many
(13:43):
brilliant people. Yeah. And it'smy responsibility and a lot of
fun in the process of actuallyhelping that genius really
shine.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
No. Okay. That makes sense. So walk us through
somebody starts working withyou. You you do this initial
session.
Then how do you work with themkind of ongoing in the weeks,
months, years to come?
Speaker 3 (14:07):
Yeah. So one of my proprietary things I set up, was
really based on being ajournalist prior. Sure. There's
a lot of PR people that actuallykept roots in journalism. But
one of the things that I used todo every day in the newsroom is
I would actually look at whatwas the other industry news
that's happening, who's writingabout what, what are the trend
stories that are happening,being able to tune in to what's
(14:30):
relevant in the news versus whatis just kind of noise.
And every as digital digitalairways have gotten more
crowded, it's harder to do thatbecause we have access to so
many sources. I look at thethings. So I can't control the
industry news, the world news,or, some of the trends
necessary, but I could chime in.And then the product and
corporate news, company things,things I own, I can, you know,
(14:55):
create stories around those. Andthen there's another category,
which is basically either thechallenger or the disruptor kind
of stories.
So the first thing I do is istake the general thread story,
and then I actually depopulateit and turn it into other
stories. So what is the companyculture and story? Why you know,
who are the experts within thecompany? What are the trends
(15:16):
that are happening? So if youlook at AI, there's artificial
intelligence, you know, inbusiness.
There's AI for consumers.There's AI in medical. There's
AI in in lots of differentverticals. And consumers in
general don't know what, youknow, where to go. The
enterprise is trying to figureout, you know, what to do.
And so as a AI authority, onecan actually help, you know,
(15:39):
kinda tone down the the dial,tune in, and share wisdom. So
looking at all the stories thatcan be created, what I call the
narrative story engine, then Itake that content, and I I put
it up to to market. So first, Iusually start with the market
analyst. So, you know, so mostpeople are familiar with the
Gartner's and IDCs and the Frostand Souls, but there's a lot of
(16:00):
other smaller independents. Testdrive the message.
See how it sticks. Get feedback.Test it with your with your
partners. Test it with yourcustomers. Create a customer
advisory council or a feedbackloop.
Then we go to the media. And Isee. What I'll do with the
media, I'll go to my myfriendlies, I'll call them, and
test drive and give themadvanced, access, you know, to
(16:23):
if it's a new company. And thecycle typically is anywhere from
three months to six monthsdepending on the launch of the
type of product. If it'ssomething that's industrial
hardware, it's gonna be probablypretty further out.
If it's software or somethingthat's more app or service
driven, sometimes it's a quickerroad map. But my goal is to
start getting the company outwithin the first month talking
(16:46):
to media and curating storiesthat are gonna, you know, give
them articles that they need foreither funding or extract
partners or to track users. Soit's really tailored to what the
business goals are. Okay. It'snot just write a nice press
release with a pretty pictureand post it out of the wire.
It's really geared toward whatis the business impact that they
(17:07):
need to help make. So that's thegeneral, you know, premises of
being able to do that. Thenthere's product reviews. Then
there's, you know, trade shows.There's off sources.
No. Then it comes down tocontent. You know? So there's
earned, there's owned, andthere's sponsored content.
Earned content is what I get theI I still get the biggest
(17:29):
thrill, and and I squeal when Iget something that's in Wall
Street Journal or, you know,Wired, you know, Wired Magazine
or Today Show or CNN orsomething because that's not pay
for play.
There are lots of things thatyou can't own as a company,
newsletters, your website, youryou know, if you have a
corporate podcast or your blog,those are all own content
(17:50):
things. And then they ask theirsponsor. Sometimes it's
appropriate to do sponsoredthings. So that could be
anything from doing a satellite,you know, media tour, or it
could be, you know, taking an adout in the Wall Street Journal
that that has your manifestomanifesto, you know, challenging
the industry. But in general,publication like Wall Street
(18:11):
Journal doesn't do pay for play.
It pays anything sponsored otherthan advertising. So the other
key component is reallyunderstanding not just working
with the sales and marketingcomponent of the business, but
typically work directly with theC suite directly so I know
exactly what is happening andwhen be the pulse of PR for the
(18:32):
for the company. And always makesure that we're ready to adjust
and align and and be agilebecause the market changes,
dynamics change, productssometimes don't work as
advertised. You have newcompetitors. And so it's always,
as I say as a pilot, because Ifly, is your situational
awareness is so important in PR.
(18:53):
And just a couple years ago, Ifinally realized, I think, why I
became a pilot because I'vealways been situationally aware
of my surroundings when it comesto news and tuning in. And it's
like the RCA Victor dog with theYeah. Yeah. With the little
megaphone is always listeningin. That's why my logo is a is a
is a fox.
(19:15):
The ear is up because he's in intune listening, you know, to
what's happening.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
Interesting. No. I I % agree. I I think and and
that's like well, we're kind ofin a weird spot in tech and kind
of right now, I think everybodywould agree with that. So where
do you see where we're at?
How does AI play into that ornot play into that? Like, kinda
where are we at, and what shouldcompanies be doing right now?
Speaker 3 (19:43):
So for me as an individual, artificial
intelligence is, I'm gonna say,is a little bit of a muse,
almost like a court gesture.It's kind of fun to play with.
It's like first time I played,you know, FarmVille with Zynga.
I was very curious, like, how isthis gonna help me? And there
are some tools out there that,you know, generate AI tools and
(20:03):
some visual genotype tools thatare fun.
Are they replacing how I writemy content and how I create my
pitches and and, you know,papers and things for my client?
No. Or but I do think thatthey're actually helpful as when
you get stuck. There is suchthing as writer's block, and I
use it. I'm writing a book, a PRbook, and I get writer's block
(20:25):
sometimes.
And I and I'll ask all this Idon't Google's not gonna help
me, but the Muse can help me.Right? On the enterprise side of
things, I think that there are alot of tools that I'm seeing
that are that are AI generated.So in in terms of data and the
things that we're seeing with,you know, companies like Neural
(20:47):
Magic is actually company I'mworking with, which is actually
working with really deep contentand data and working with, you
know, partners like Akamai andCerebus and really big players
in their own right and helpingthem navigate the enterprise for
the the Forbes, you know, 5,000companies. Sure.
Artificial intelligence beingused for customer service and
(21:08):
customer care is something we'veactually had for a while. Maybe
it just wasn't called AI.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
Always I I look at AI as being you know, it's like we
always have to be alwaysintelligent. To me, AI is almost
like that responsibility. Whenyou get a driver's license, you
need to know. You have you havethe permission to drive, but you
always need to be aware. And tome, AI, it shouldn't be, you
know, the the the, the dragon,you know, that ate your lunch
(21:36):
type thing.
It should be something that thesame way cybersecurity and risk
and content. My biggest concernabout AI and the enterprise
personally is is and it goes forany innovation technology.
Innovation and technology in theright hands is a great thing.
Innovation and technology in thewrong hands can be detrimental.
So when AI is being used bycybercriminals or AI is being
(21:59):
used by any any any criminaltype of activity or impostering
or, anything that is, withinthat category of cybercrimes,
not a good thing.
And so I think that's an area inthe market that we're gonna see
more tools and and successes inin in deploying. But I think the
(22:21):
younger generation that grew up,you know, Gen z and then and
younger, the they've always beenconnected and always on.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
And the snaps Snapchat and, you know,
communities and worlds, I'mbeginning to just talk and hear
from parents that they're veryconcerned about, you know, AI,
you know, avatars and AI stuff.But it's very gamified and has
that you know, I'm gonna say Iwas almost gonna say Game of
Thrones, but I meant game youknow, that digital game avatar
(22:55):
that that that kids areattracted to.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (22:59):
So parental controls that we used to have to fight
for for Internet, on rampInternet and social media, I
think is gonna become a bigger,bigger problem, you know, with
AI. But I think AI in theenterprise is really where, you
know, businesses today shouldstart educating themselves and
(23:20):
determining, do I use certain AItools in sales department, like,
you know, a CRM, or do I use AIin micro service? How much of
how is it gonna help me with myCapEx and my OpEx versus I'm
just gonna replace everybody? Ithink there's so much FUD in it
that everyone's gonna bereplaced. And my joke is AI
(23:41):
can't do your PR, but I can.
And but I'm gonna use AR AI as ameans to just maybe challenge
and and help me create things.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
Yeah. I I I the thing that I struggle with with AI is
it's the same with, like, beingon the design side. Right? It's
like, are you worried about it?It's like, good luck getting a
client to tell a computer whatthey need when they can't even
communicate to a human beingwhat they need to replace you.
Right? And even if that's thecase, if everybody has that new
baseline, you're gonna be nodifferent, and you're just gonna
(24:15):
get lost because there's nocreativity in that. Right?
Speaker 3 (24:19):
Yeah. It's like drawing. Yeah. So if you give
two people, you know, Harold andPurple Crayon as an example, we
all get, you know, Purple Crayonto draw. I'm not a very I I
can't draw well at all, soyou're gonna get stick figures.
You might be a really greatdrawer, and you're the same
tool, and you can create, youknow, a fabulous, you know,
mural. And then another personcomes along, and and they say,
(24:41):
well, you know, I'm gonna takeit to the next level. I'm gonna
make it three d. Yeah. Andthat's a little bit like the AI,
you know, toolbox, you know, forthe everyday, you know, consumer
is that we might not all be ableto use tools.
And is that and and I thinkplaying with them, I played with
the number. I'm like, well, itdoes deliver what I ask for, but
(25:03):
not necessarily in the way thatI would. Know? So then I
realized a little I have to givea little more detail. I have to
be a little more direct.
I have to be more instructional.Then I get a little worn out,
and then I'm like, okay. I'lljust do it myself.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
Yeah. Exactly. No. That's that's totally fair. So I
wanna dive a little bit deeperinto and you don't have to name
company names, but can you maybegive us some examples of things
that people can do, whetherthey're enterprise, just
starting out as a brand newstartup, or kinda somewhere in
the middle?
Because, like, it seems likepeople are seem to be cutting
(25:35):
back on sales and marketing, butI think you really need to be
spending all your time on kindasales marketing and PR right
now.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
Yeah. Well, I don't do vanity PR. And and so I think
that's the first thing is that Ireally focus on strategic, you
know, communications that helpbusinesses grow. And so we'll
just start there. So if you'rean early stage company and you
need to start come, you know,come out of stealth, then the
things that I help with areliterally the brand positioning,
the the story, your product, youknow, your your corporate
(26:07):
counsel, your customer counsel,things that might seem more
traditional marketing, but yetthey fall into PR because then I
can run with those.
If you're a more mature companyand you actually already have a
product to market, but maybe youhaven't gotten gotten the public
relations, the level of publicrelations, you know, that are
actually helping, you know,close sales. And that's always
(26:28):
my measure. If I can actuallycreate content that's gonna help
the sales department closesomething. Right. Knowing that a
PO came over, right, or apartner came through.
And so the a more a more maturecompany where public relations
should be doing is continues tohelp them to grow their
business. And the the name ofthe agency, LMG, stands for
(26:49):
leadership, momentum, andgrowth. So I typically work in
each one of those stages withsome companies I work with over
a seven to eight year period,which is a long tenure. Sure.
And it's actually helpingestablish, you know, their
leadership, their authoritativevoice, and as they get their
product to market or the serviceto market, and it's kinda
building momentum.
The growth phase is probably thelongest haul. That's typically
(27:11):
when you're you're going to,you're probably on on series b,
maybe even series c, and you'regearing up for an IPO or an
acquisition.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
Right.
Speaker 3 (27:20):
And I've worked with every stage. I think Nightscope
Robotics is an example. I thinkthey've been a guest on your
show as well. Is that they're acompany I started working with
as an accelerator and workedwith them all the way through
the IPO. Damon Motors in Canadais a company that I literally
launched in a in ten daysheading into CES twenty twenty,
(27:42):
and they gave me a call and saidwe're going to CES.
And I said 2021. They said no inten days. And I left. And I
said, okay. I'm there.
So the the pace, you know, of PRsometimes can be fast and
furious, and other times it canbe you know, I would say it it's
kind of like planting seeds andyou grow it over time. What not
(28:04):
to do is to not do PR. And I saythat is when companies
absolutely have no publicrelations and and so give me a
worst case scenario. You have alot of social media. You have a
lot of social chatter, but maybeit's the wrong chatter.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
And you
Speaker 3 (28:19):
have nobody monitoring the airways, and you
got disgruntled customers, oryou have a product that doesn't
work. Another key component ofpublic relations is actually
creating what I call crisisprevention plan or
communications prevention planso that you actually have a game
plan. What is the protocol? Whoactually what are what are the
corporate messages? Or themessages to the customers, to
(28:40):
the employees, to your partners?
What if it doesn't work asadvertised? Yeah. What if the
stock market goes down? What ifthe market collapses? Oh, and
what if something reallyhorrific happens such as there's
a war and you're and themajority of your team is is
working and functioning andengineering or building in one
of those war zones?
And that unfortunately hashappened to me back to back with
(29:02):
the two existing wars that aregoing on. So it's the agility in
which to be able to respond andact. And then there's the, you
know, other part of which iscorporate communications, which
oftentimes I work directly withthe, the people and culture or
human resources groups toestablish protocols there as
well and communications so thatthe company culture is one in
(29:26):
which everybody's on point.Everyone has the same you know,
who you are, what do you do, andhow do you do it depending on
the roles in the company. Butwhen it's an external
spokesperson, you know,typically, it's gonna be
somebody in the the top threethree in a C suite.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
Yeah. Okay. No. That makes that makes sense. So you
have a podcast.
You mentioned a book. What arethey about and kind of where can
when are you expecting topublish a book?
Speaker 3 (29:53):
Well, the book I shared with you my $5 and a half
a tank of gas story. So let'sjust start there. The book
basically is how to actually tofigure business with unlimited
stories for it's really forentrepreneurs and tech
innovators and, you know, geeks.And I classify myself in there
(30:14):
as a geeks as well to basicallythe the the playbook to
successfully launch yourcompany. And so a lot of lot of
small companies can't afford anagency.
So the the playbook is basicallydesigned to help them get a
start and focusing on earnedmedia content and all the
different components that Italked about. The currently, I
(30:36):
have a newsletter. While I'mwriting the book, I created a
newsletter that's on LinkedIncalled PR Pulse, which is
basically a weekly newsletter.And each week, I address a
different topic that that's thata company needs to understand
and learn in order to besuccessful and and build and
grow their business. So thisweek's topic was on how to
create a perfect review.
(30:57):
Last week's topic was, you know,on partners, and I touched, you
know, video and all thedifferent components. The
podcast, the Before It Happenedpodcast, my inspiration during
the pandemic was to create anarrative story podcast that
really the 10% were my clients,and the rest were just really
(31:18):
amazing people that I've met atconferences and different
places. But everything from theinventor of the super soaker to
the inventor of the sports brato the the the creator of of of
Pong, to food and and scienceengineers and agriculture space
(31:38):
and so many different marketmarket topics. But the whole
purpose of the of the series,and I have more coming out, is
really to take that back endstory going back in time the
same way I do with creatingnarrative. What was that moment
in which the visionary actuallydecided to put all cards on the
(31:59):
table, you know, mortgage theirhouse, sell their car, trade
down the dog for a cat, andbasically say, you know what?
Yeah. This is my before ithappened story. And and some of
them are really amazing stories.One one of my favorite ones is a
food scientist who was anaerospace engineer, and he
decided to leave his verycoveted job in aerospace at
(32:20):
Boeing to create vegan cheese.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
Okay. Interesting.
Speaker 3 (32:25):
And, you know, a couple of that, we know with,
you know, aerospace engineersand and that are actually, you
know, doing advanced things inin aerodynamics and and space,
robotics, and things. So I thinkmyself as always having the
front row seat to the nextscience fair and being able to
have these conversations. So Ilove science and tech. I was,
(32:48):
you know, always in sciencefairs, always competing. And I
think STEM education is, youknow, something that's always
been part of my life.
It wasn't called STEM. It wasjust called math and science.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
Mhmm.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
Yeah. And I was always a little dumbed down for
me. I, you know, it was it wasliterally I was told by a math
teacher when I think I was insixth grade, girls don't do
math. And that really struck achord with me. I was like, well,
why don't girls do math?
And and when my father taught meto fly, I was about 11, 12 years
old. I was beginning to fly veryfrequently with him, and I could
(33:23):
apply science and I can applymath and physics to flying. To
me, that was just the freedomof, like, STEM gives you the
freedom to actually look andthink differently. And then
apply that, you know, with musicand art, you get, you know,
STEAM Yeah. Which is great.
And so I'm a huge advocate ofthat for, you know, the for
(33:44):
kids. And and Totally.
Speaker 2 (33:46):
And What an odd thing to say to somebody, like and,
like, stupid. Right? Like
Speaker 3 (33:51):
Well, I went back I went back years later, and I
said I went back years later.The teacher was retiring. And I
said, oh, by the way, I'm a I Ido in a I do for a living, I do
public relations and innovationand tech.
Speaker 2 (34:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (34:09):
And it's like, math does matter.
Speaker 2 (34:11):
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (34:12):
You know?
Speaker 2 (34:13):
Yeah. Yeah. Like, yeah. Interesting. So I I'm
curious.
We're kind of texting a like Isaid and, you know, it's like
it's kind of in a weird space.Where do you think we're going
from here? Do you think we'rejust kinda leveling off from
COVID? Do you think people overhired to validate make their
companies more valid, andthey're just kinda bringing
things back down to a realisticlevel? Like, where are we at,
(34:36):
and where do you think we'rekind of going?
And
Speaker 3 (34:40):
Yeah. I think one of the the things that I've noticed
in the past few years is thatwe've kinda come back to basics.
Yeah. In a sense. So that we'renot it's not an all you can eat
buffet when it comes tomarketing budgets and all you
can eat when it comes to, youknow, big conferences and shows.
It's more more selective andmore focused. So it's think
(35:01):
about all the things that youcan do in house and the things
that you can't do, you know, inin house. So, typically, my
clients, I'm I'm, like, the inhouse agency. Right? They they
don't have they don't haveanyone that does strategic, you
know, communications PR.
And so I come in, and I'm likespecial services, special forces
to, you know, some degree. Soalthough budgets can be tighter
(35:23):
and smaller because they're notspending big, verbose amounts of
money, you can actually do alot. I mean, some people ask,
what is you know, if you had$20,000, would you rather blow
it on a, big jumbotron and, youknow, someplace at a show, or
would you actually rather get,you know, a few dozen articles
(35:45):
that actually can help yoursales organization or your
partner programs and things, youknow, fuel? And so when it comes
to building a voice or buildinga brand, I think this is really
about being hyper focused on howyou spend your money. You don't
need a hundred thousand dollarPR budget.
You don't need a $50,000 PRbudget. There are a lot of
things that you can do in in asmall scale that can, you know,
(36:08):
move the dial and make impact.But there are still a lot of
really big PR agencies. I'm aboutique, but there are a lot of
big agencies that operate verytraditional even after the
pandemic with seven layers of Iknow I'm getting in trouble
here, but, like, taco, you know,taco dip. And and so you have
junior people that are doing alot of the work, and you have
the senior people that go to themeeting.
(36:29):
My clients get me a % of thetime. I and I'm writing. I'm
pitching. I'm training. I'm, youknow, I'm I'm really involved.
And that's different, and that'sa different approach. Will that
work for a very large publiclytraded company? Probably not.
But it does work for emergingtech, you know, innovation
companies that are, you know,going from stealth to what I
(36:52):
call wealth, going going fromstealth to, like, their IPO
because I've been there, donethat 500 plus times. And so I I
know the the process and thesteps to get there faster unless
No.
That's so expensive. Gas.Remember?
Speaker 2 (37:09):
Yeah. No. That's that's good. So I I I wanna dive
a little deeper into I guess, Idon't know what the term would
be for it. Like, you're you workwith a company.
You're kind of inside them.You're basically, like, you you
kind of, like, are an employee,right, in in that sense. But
(37:29):
you're kind of just an outsidevoice as well, which I think can
really it's nice because you'rekind of brought in and you can
kind of almost be brutallyhonest with kind of that c
suite. Right? Where I think ifyou get hired into a company as
an employee, sometimes you can'tbe as brutally honest sometimes
and, like, you kind of almost,like, float under the radar a
(37:52):
little bit.
And but when you brought in askind of like a consultant or,
like, you're part of the team,but you're still kind of at arms
length, you can almost be like,no. That's dumb. I think we
really need to do this or that.Right? Where I think a lot of
companies don't think about itlike that.
Do you agree, or what are yourthoughts around that?
Speaker 3 (38:09):
Absolutely. I feel I'm responsible to tell my
clients what they need to hear,not what they wanna hear.
Exactly. And I do say no a lot,and I actually will, in in a
really healthy way. You know, myintegrity and my number one
priority is to actually helpthem be successful.
But if I see something is notready for prime time, something
is not ready for review, orthere is, you know, the a
(38:31):
customer, you know, councilmember is is not really a great
spokesperson, you know, for themedia, or somebody or one of the
company's spokesperson's notready, you know, to beat the
media or, you know, they need tobe retooled or retrained. But it
really comes down to beinghonest, forthright, and doing
what's best for the company. Iin in some like you said, I
(38:53):
actually take the the I canleave the corporate culture on
the table because I'm I'm I'mindependent. And and maybe some
of the things I have toldclients over the years, maybe I
would have gotten fired, butthey they didn't fire me. They
actually respected me even moreby challenging them and say, I
don't think we're ready.
I don't think we can go to thistrade show and demonstrate this
(39:15):
product. We can't ship it outfor product reviews. It's not
it's not prime time. There'snothing you know, it's harder to
say no than it is to say yes.
Speaker 2 (39:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (39:25):
But it's my job to actually tell my client no, but
find a better solution or a wayto get there.
Speaker 2 (39:33):
Yeah. No. I I think kind of because I think and we
talked about this before westarted recording is, like, my
biggest problem with AI rightnow is, like, it's so
overpromised on what it can do.And then when you actually get
your hands on it, it's garbage.And there's been a few products
over the last little while thatthat's been the case.
And I think somebody like youbeing like, we are not ready. We
(39:54):
are gonna get crushed if werelease this. Not like, I think
if some of those companies hadsomebody internally who was just
like, we can't do this. Theywould be in a way better shape.
They might not have evenlaunched yet, but they wouldn't
have got crushed immediately.
That's my opinion. You couldtell me what you think.
Speaker 3 (40:13):
Yeah. Absolutely. I I actually have been I had the
privilege to work, with Apple abit. And one of the things that
that was really true to theculture, at least when I worked
there, was that the honestfactor was, you you know, was
key. I mean, Steve Jobs cameback to Apple after an era where
there were there was a lot ofthe honesty and, you know, the
(40:36):
great you know, going back toits roots of creating great
product experiences.
But Yeah. I think there's justfar more respect in building a
relationship with the company,and it's a relationship is more
than a contract. It really is tome, and it's more than a
handshake. So as a consultant,you know, you're coming in for a
short period of time. It couldbe six months, a year.
(40:58):
And as I said, most of myclients are contracted for a
year. And sometimes, you know,they reconnect with me after
they raise more funding, theyboomerang to me, you know, after
they go through differentstages. I also have another set
of clients, which are, like,brand new emerging market
players, and they are youngerand leaner. And those companies
(41:19):
typically I'm in even getting myhands, you know, really even
more dirty. Yeah.
But in in terms of sometimes Iget involved in trade shows, and
I get involved, you know,creating content for trade shows
and channel programs and lots ofplaces that most PR PR teams or
professionals would be involvedin. And I think where the
(41:41):
industry is going, as I said, Ithink we're kind of going
scaling back to experts. Andwith the talent shortage and
people who have during thepandemic, a lot of agencies had
to resize and restructure,disparate employees, people
working remote, really focus,focus, focus. And I think where
(42:04):
AI can come into play isactually just be another tool
set, as I mentioned. It's justthe purple crayon.
It's not all the crayons. It'sjust a crayon that we can
actually use. And I think therewill probably be more tools, and
we also have to be responsiblein deciding what tools are best
for us to use. And Totally. Andwe I think that's our
(42:24):
responsibility as consumers isto know whether you're gonna
adopt or you're gonna adapt.
I personally rather get in andplay with all the tools. Like
any new technology. Get in andplay with it. I have a huge
vinyl collection as an example,but I also have Spotify. And I
have a vinyl collection becauseafter CDs came out, I decided
(42:45):
I'm gonna go back out and buyall the vinyl that I never had.
Speaker 2 (42:49):
Sure. Yeah. I'm
Speaker 3 (42:50):
very But I but I but I respect vinyl. And so it's
very similar to PR is I like theold school traditional
structural PR, but at the sametime, I'm really happy that we
are in the digital world that Icould actually issue and reach
more people, more editors, morecontent faster in the digital
era than I could, you know,twenty years ago.
Speaker 2 (43:13):
Yeah. That's actually really interesting because I
always say because sometimes,like, this show airs on f some
FM stations, and people arelike, why do you care? It's
like, well, why wouldn't I care?Like, I wanna be on everything,
new, old, and everything inbetween. Like and if something
new comes out, like, I'd wannahave my content on that.
Like, I don't care
Speaker 3 (43:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (43:30):
Like, if it's new or old. Like, I love vinyl. I think
it sounds actually better thanany of the streaming services.
But, like, if but it's alsoabout yeah. But it's also about
kind of, like, context too.
Like, sometimes, well,obviously, I'm not gonna bring a
record to listen in my car. But,like, you know, if you're at
home and you're trying to listento music, it's to me, it's like,
(43:51):
put it put it on the turntable.So I think shifting that mindset
of, like, we need to do this onething. It's like, no. No.
No. We need to do what makes themost sense across all whatever
mediums make sense to, like, getour companies out there. Right?
Speaker 3 (44:04):
Well, the cool thing is I mean, this show is called
Building the Future, and I helpbuild companies. We have to know
where we've been in order toknow where we're going. And
that's that's the part that somany people don't I was talking
to it was at the grocery store,and and this young kid had a
he's I overheard a conversation.He was talking to his friend
(44:26):
about, oh, he wanted a he wantedsuch and such a car, and, you
know, he didn't want a a gas hedidn't want a EV car. He wanted
a a fuel car because he wantedto know the mechanics of how it
worked.
And and and I and I thought thatwas actually really good that he
was interested in buyingupcycling, something that was
already available that you know?And he wanted to understand the
mechanics. But to be honest withyou, you really do need to
(44:48):
understand the mechanics offossil fuels and things in order
to understand EV and frictionand why it all matters. Right?
You need to understand themanufacturing, the
deconstruction of manufacturingto understand, like, why are we
building microfactories.
Microfactories. Right? Yeah. Andso I spend most of my time in
Silicon Valley and, you know, inthe, quote, in the
(45:10):
industrial4.o, but I also spendtime in the Northeast in New
York and Pennsylvania and Ohio,which is not you know, which is
where the industrial1.org wascreated. And to me, that's
fascinating because I, like I goto Carnegie Mellon, and I go to
their Robotics Pavilion, and Isee all the robots and things
I've been working on for, youknow, fifty plus years.
(45:32):
It's not a new thing.
Speaker 2 (45:34):
Sure. That's cool. Yeah. Very cool. But we're kinda
coming to the end of the show.
So how about we close withmentioning where people can get
more information about yourself,the podcast, and what's the book
called, and when can peoplemaybe potentially expect that? I
get that it sometimes is underout of your control.
Speaker 3 (45:50):
Yeah. Well, IEI's not writing it, so it's taking me a
little longer. You can find meon LinkedIn. It's Donna
Laughlin, l o u g h l I n. Theagency is LMGPR.
It stands for leadershipmomentum and growth. And I also
my newsletter is on LinkedIn aswell. The book, hope, is going
to come out before the holidayseason because I've already
(46:13):
started book two, which iscrazy. Book one is not done, but
I started book two.
Speaker 2 (46:17):
I get it. I get it.
Speaker 3 (46:18):
And it will take take you on a journey from, you know,
$5 and a half a tank of gas allthe way into the future of the
world of I call Barbarella, and,you know, kind of what the
places in you know, that thatwill go. Innovation and
technology is a foundation, youknow, because has been really
kind to me in my career, butit's also a foundation, I think,
(46:41):
for learning and andunderstanding. Sure. You know,
you read Ray Bradbury books oryou watch science fiction and
and movies, we are living. We'reactually in that now.
You know? It is the it is theliterally the jets in the world.
Speaker 2 (46:55):
Very cool. I'm I'm curious. What's book two about
then? Or do you wanna sharethat?
Speaker 3 (47:01):
Book two is is more of a it's it's a adjunct to the
the playbook. It actually breaksit down into more of the deep
narrative story, like how towrite your story. Got And the
principles, the fundamentalprinciples, and everybody has a
story. One of my favorite thingsto do is to go into a counter at
(47:22):
any given restaurant in theworld, and I've been to 81
countries, and sit next tosomebody who that they have a
story. And people I don't knowwhat if it's just I have a face
that people wanna tell mesomething, but I since I was a
kid, that was my number onething is, like, people's
stories.
I became a journalist because ofthat, and
Speaker 2 (47:39):
I Sure.
Speaker 3 (47:39):
And I stay in PR because of that.
Speaker 2 (47:42):
Very cool. Well, Donna, I appreciate you taking
the time out of your day to beon the show and sending me all
your clients over the lastnumber of years. And, you know,
I look forward to keep in touchwith you and have a good rest of
your day.
Speaker 3 (47:54):
Absolutely. Thank you so much, Kevin.
Speaker 2 (47:56):
Thank you. K. Bye.
Speaker 1 (48:00):
Thanks for listening. Please visit our website at
buildingthefutureshow.com tojoin the free community, sign up
for our newsletter, or tosponsor the show. The music is
done by Electric Mantra. You cancheck him out at
electricmantra.com, and keepbuilding the future.
Welcome to building the future hosted by Kevin
Horick. With millions oflisteners a month, building the
future has quickly become one ofthe fastest rising programs with
a focus on interviewingstartups, entrepreneurs,
investors, CEOs, and more. Theradio and TV show airs in 15
markets across the globe,including Silicon Valley. For
(00:22):
full showtimes, past episodes,or to sponsor the show, please
visit buildingthefutureshow.com.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Welcome back to the show. Today, have Donna
Laughlin. She's a storytellerand founder at LMGPR. Donna,
welcome to the show.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Thank you for having me, Kevin.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Yeah. I'm excited. We're finally doing this. We've
known each other, what, probablyfive, six, eight years or so.
I've had a number of yourclients on the show over the
years.
And you and I, I think, havetalked about doing an episode,
but we're finally doing it. I'mexcited to have you on the show.
So welcome.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Yeah. Thank you so much. Dozens of clients have
been on your show, and I thinkyour children were infants.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Yeah. Probably we probably even knew each other
before I had kids. So Well Verycool. Well, I'm excited to have
you on the show. Maybe before wedive into everything you're
doing, let's get to know you alittle bit better and start off
with where you grew up.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
I grew up in what I call the Cotswolds Of San Jose.
It's the pin drop of SiliconValley when when, San Jose was
actually rolling foothills ofnot ships and semiconductors,
but apricot, cherry, andvineyards.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Very nice. Beautiful area.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Yeah. It looks a lot like Tuscany, believe it or not.
And the land is probably as asexpensive and premium. But Sure.
When you know, at the time,defense companies, HP, Atari,
you know, Intel, you know, someof the the legacy companies now,
You know, we're absolutely thereamongst defense.
(02:03):
But my playground was actuallypublishing and, in the in
particularly communitynewspapers and printing because
that's the dynasty that myfamily actually that was their
gold rush.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
That's cool. Very cool. So you went to university.
What did you take and why?
Speaker 3 (02:20):
I took communications journalism K. And as an
undergraduate. And then once Igot my my thirst and and,
literally, I started recordingwhen I was eight years old with
the family papers. And
Speaker 2 (02:33):
then That's cool.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
By the time I got to college, I had ten years of
experience, which is kind offunny and precocious as I was.
And then that led to, you know,working, doing internships with
the Washington Post, and I didReuters. That's cool. So I had a
lot of a lot of, you know,professional experience that
took me a good seven years thatyou know, given my career, and
(02:56):
then I actually bounced back into California and went to UC
Berkeley and got my master's inthe Jace School, Jay.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Cool. Very cool. So walk us through your career up
until kind of founding your owncompany.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
Yeah. So I was a journalist first, and I was, you
know, business and economicsprimarily, which sometimes led
into innovation and technology.Before I I came back to United
States, I was actually with theBBC. I was a business and and
and tech reporter. So I workedin some major markets.
I worked in in DC, Chicago, NewYork, and then London, and then
(03:32):
I came back for school. And whenyou come back to Silicon Valley,
you're pretty much saturated by,innovation and technology or
pharma. And so I was draftedinto working for, a technology
book publishing company at firstand edited something like a 80
books my first year, and Ididn't find that terribly
(03:54):
challenging. It was great forbeefing up on your editor
editing skills and then andreally establishing the Chicago
Emanuel style, which is the themoniker for that. And then I was
recruited to a a tech company atthe time that was still fairly
small called Three ComCorporation.
The Palm Pilot was kinda, like,all the rage. So that was my
(04:15):
first introduction to workingfor a company. From there, I
went, from consumer electronicsto networking, cybersecurity,
infrastructure, bigger, youknow, data center enterprise
place. And then we had a thingcalled the .combubble followed
by a recession. And that's whenI actually decided maybe I
(04:38):
should come out on my own.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Okay. So what made you decide to do that kind of
during that period of time?Because a lot of people were
maybe getting out of tech.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
Yeah. Risk challenge or reward. Yeah. I had a moment,
which I actually call the $5 anda half a tank of gas moment,
where I was working for a verywell funded company that lost a
a big chunk of their funding,and they needed to downsize.
They also were asking forvolunteers, and that was my
(05:10):
moment where I had to say, youknow what?
Maybe I actually should be Ishould do take my napkin that I
had a business plan on on how tocreate a PR agency for emerging
tech companies, companies thatwere not in the the Apple, the
Googlesque, you know, size, butwere, angel funded and and
maybe, you know, friends andfamily funded, but needed to
(05:33):
have, you know, some nurturingand and just jump start them.
And so I thought about that, andso I decided I would take the
package. And the $5 and a halfto take a gas moment was
literally is when I I took thecheck, looked, opened up my
wallet to put the check. I had a$5 bill. Went to my car at a
(05:54):
half tank of gas, and I thought,wow.
Did I make the right decision?And I literally just drove
straight to the business officeand got my business license. And
when I walked in and I saw thisgiant roster of all the things
that I didn't do, such asbarbershop, nails, mechanic, you
know, just all types of jobs,and there was no category for
public relations. There wasthere was, specialty services,
(06:16):
and and, and so I was a littlepuzzled like, you know, what do
I do? And so I wrote down myname and and started a business
and $50.
And on my way from the businesslicense office, I still didn't
have a the plan in my head. Iwas just kinda going through the
velocity of, you know, change.And I called a venture
(06:37):
capitalist. I called a reporterthat I had been working with
very closely over the years, andI called my my former employer.
And by the time I got home, Ihad three prospects, three
opportunities.
And the next day, I haddeposited $20,000 of new
business in my bank account, andI never looked back. So I
(06:58):
realized that the, you know, thedashboard is bigger than the
rearview mirror, and that wasthe moment where it says, you
just can't look back.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Oh, that's that's really cool. So you've been
doing this for twenty plus yearsnow on your own. How has the the
kind of industry changed to whatit is today? And and then let's
maybe dive into kind of whatyou're doing now and and kind of
how it's evolved.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
Yeah. So when I started, I think the in the
Silicon Valley to San Francisco,which we're just gonna describe
the San Francisco Bay Area asone big, you know, valley. And,
you know, there was a lot moremeetups and just more energy and
and startup culture andaccelerators and and coming out
of the the, you know, the dotcom bubble and the recession,
(07:45):
there was just always, you know,the persona, the Silicon Valley
constantly reinventing. But Ialso had a lot of clients that
were coming from out of thecountry, South America and India
and Asia, Korea, different partsof the of the world. So it
wasn't always just SiliconValley.
It was the Silicon Valleymystique, which is you hire
experienced in the brightest incertain categories. So what's
(08:09):
changed is the not the processof PR, but it's changed is the
the, the types of companies. So,originally, I was working with,
like, cybersecurity andenterprise and storage and,
SaaS, you know, type companies.Then those technologies started
(08:29):
evolving and going into placescalled our smart home and then
our smart cars and then evensmart tractors and other, you
know, smart vehicles. And so theinnovation and and technology
that were siloed started, youknow, being emerged and and
developed into all the thingsthat we know and love, whether
they're in our pocket or our ourhome.
(08:51):
Right? As I always make a joke,we said, our home, our home, our
pocket, our house, or, you know,the rocket, whatever. Wherever
we are, I mean, we have this allthis access. In the past few
years, there's been more on, youknow, deep learning and, you
know, LLMs and then, thewunderkins of, you know, I think
(09:11):
I call it the bookends of AIbetween NVIDIA and and what's
happening with, you know, chat,GPT, and OpenAI. I've been in
that I've been working with withAI generated deep learning,
smart learning companies formore than ten years.
So to me, it's not new. And Ithink that's one of the things
(09:32):
that I pride myself in is beingable to work into really
advanced technologies beforethey become popular. So once
they become popular, it becomesreally saturated. And then what
happens is you have to actuallyyou determine how do you stay
relevant, how do you actually,you know, ensure that you saw
the skin in the game. And as Ithink that's what the biggest
changes in the past five yearsis the accelerators and the
(09:56):
think tanks and all the inertiacontinues to happen, but the VC
culture has changed as well.
So a lot of the silver hairpeople that I've been working
with over the years are nowretiring. You have more women in
venture capital. You haveyounger, you have entrepreneurs
that are going from havingworked in companies now going
(10:17):
into the VC arena. And so Ithink the the texture of of
entrepreneurial and venturecapitalists have changed quite a
bit since the .com.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Yeah. Interesting. Okay. So I think a lot of people
maybe don't fully understandwhat kind of PR is and and how
it can actually help theirbusiness. And I've said this a
million times before, and I'msure you agree, is the tech is
the easy part.
It's like the sales, marketing,PR is the the hard part of it.
(10:48):
So do you wanna walk us throughkind of what you do and how
you've worked with companies andhow you help them? Because
that's, I think, the realchallenge with a startup.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
Yeah. Well, taking a tech, you know, innovator's a
brilliant idea anddeconstructing it to actually
tell a story is typically whereI start. So oftentimes it's a
whiteboard or it's a napkin,right, conversation. And so I
call it the alphabet soup. Youknow?
It's like you put all theacronyms and you put all the
(11:18):
tech in in the science, butoftentimes, the the engineering
invent you know, inventor orcofounders of the company are so
close to the innovationtechnology that even if it's
purposely built to do somethingversus, you know, built and then
applied to something, they oftenlose sight of their authentic,
you know, what I call the thebig moment, the moment when they
(11:40):
actually decided to put alltheir chips on the table to
actually make that decision to,you know, create something and
take the market. So I kinda haveto go all the way back. And
sometimes I go all the way backto, like, well, did you play
with Legos? Did you play withLincoln Logs? Were you into
Tetris?
Were you you know what was thatmoment that you actually decided
to study engineering andelectrical? And why did you
(12:02):
wanna put you know, createsomething for aerospace, but you
actually, you know, spent thelast twenty years in automotive?
Or if you come from automotiveand now you wanna create robots.
Like, what Understood. So thebig problems out there solving
in the real world scenario isreally important.
So I kinda look for the threadthat I can pull all the way
(12:22):
through and then go back and andonce I deconstruct it, then go
back and and then construct thestory that's going to be
relevant, that is actually goingto be purposeful, and it's also
gonna allow them to be theauthority.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Yeah. Interesting.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
And being the leader in telling that story.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
Yeah. And I think even just some of the companies
you've passed me over the yearsto interview, they're doing
something that actually hasnever been done before. Right?
Which is a whole another levelof complexity because that's
really hard, like, to try toteach people about something new
that they didn't even knowexisted.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
Yeah. You can't copy. Yeah. So that's and that's
that's the fun of a science andand and technology to me is that
if you look at you know, let'suse Popular Science as an
example. I've had a number ofcompanies on the cover of
Popular Science.
And the reason, you know, thattheir Popular Science type
stories are a wire type story isbecause it's such a breakthrough
(13:21):
advancement in in, you know, ineither way, does it make a
difference? Is it medical orit's, automotive or what
category is being able toactually have something that's
not a me too product. So beingthe the I call it you know, you
go to Apple and you have theGenius Bar, I feel like I'm
always working at the Genius Barbecause I have access to so many
(13:43):
brilliant people. Yeah. And it'smy responsibility and a lot of
fun in the process of actuallyhelping that genius really
shine.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
No. Okay. That makes sense. So walk us through
somebody starts working withyou. You you do this initial
session.
Then how do you work with themkind of ongoing in the weeks,
months, years to come?
Speaker 3 (14:07):
Yeah. So one of my proprietary things I set up, was
really based on being ajournalist prior. Sure. There's
a lot of PR people that actuallykept roots in journalism. But
one of the things that I used todo every day in the newsroom is
I would actually look at whatwas the other industry news
that's happening, who's writingabout what, what are the trend
stories that are happening,being able to tune in to what's
(14:30):
relevant in the news versus whatis just kind of noise.
And every as digital digitalairways have gotten more
crowded, it's harder to do thatbecause we have access to so
many sources. I look at thethings. So I can't control the
industry news, the world news,or, some of the trends
necessary, but I could chime in.And then the product and
corporate news, company things,things I own, I can, you know,
(14:55):
create stories around those. Andthen there's another category,
which is basically either thechallenger or the disruptor kind
of stories.
So the first thing I do is istake the general thread story,
and then I actually depopulateit and turn it into other
stories. So what is the companyculture and story? Why you know,
who are the experts within thecompany? What are the trends
(15:16):
that are happening? So if youlook at AI, there's artificial
intelligence, you know, inbusiness.
There's AI for consumers.There's AI in medical. There's
AI in in lots of differentverticals. And consumers in
general don't know what, youknow, where to go. The
enterprise is trying to figureout, you know, what to do.
And so as a AI authority, onecan actually help, you know,
(15:39):
kinda tone down the the dial,tune in, and share wisdom. So
looking at all the stories thatcan be created, what I call the
narrative story engine, then Itake that content, and I I put
it up to to market. So first, Iusually start with the market
analyst. So, you know, so mostpeople are familiar with the
Gartner's and IDCs and the Frostand Souls, but there's a lot of
(16:00):
other smaller independents. Testdrive the message.
See how it sticks. Get feedback.Test it with your with your
partners. Test it with yourcustomers. Create a customer
advisory council or a feedbackloop.
Then we go to the media. And Isee. What I'll do with the
media, I'll go to my myfriendlies, I'll call them, and
test drive and give themadvanced, access, you know, to
(16:23):
if it's a new company. And thecycle typically is anywhere from
three months to six monthsdepending on the launch of the
type of product. If it'ssomething that's industrial
hardware, it's gonna be probablypretty further out.
If it's software or somethingthat's more app or service
driven, sometimes it's a quickerroad map. But my goal is to
start getting the company outwithin the first month talking
(16:46):
to media and curating storiesthat are gonna, you know, give
them articles that they need foreither funding or extract
partners or to track users. Soit's really tailored to what the
business goals are. Okay. It'snot just write a nice press
release with a pretty pictureand post it out of the wire.
It's really geared toward whatis the business impact that they
(17:07):
need to help make. So that's thegeneral, you know, premises of
being able to do that. Thenthere's product reviews. Then
there's, you know, trade shows.There's off sources.
No. Then it comes down tocontent. You know? So there's
earned, there's owned, andthere's sponsored content.
Earned content is what I get theI I still get the biggest
(17:29):
thrill, and and I squeal when Iget something that's in Wall
Street Journal or, you know,Wired, you know, Wired Magazine
or Today Show or CNN orsomething because that's not pay
for play.
There are lots of things thatyou can't own as a company,
newsletters, your website, youryou know, if you have a
corporate podcast or your blog,those are all own content
(17:50):
things. And then they ask theirsponsor. Sometimes it's
appropriate to do sponsoredthings. So that could be
anything from doing a satellite,you know, media tour, or it
could be, you know, taking an adout in the Wall Street Journal
that that has your manifestomanifesto, you know, challenging
the industry. But in general,publication like Wall Street
(18:11):
Journal doesn't do pay for play.
It pays anything sponsored otherthan advertising. So the other
key component is reallyunderstanding not just working
with the sales and marketingcomponent of the business, but
typically work directly with theC suite directly so I know
exactly what is happening andwhen be the pulse of PR for the
(18:32):
for the company. And always makesure that we're ready to adjust
and align and and be agilebecause the market changes,
dynamics change, productssometimes don't work as
advertised. You have newcompetitors. And so it's always,
as I say as a pilot, because Ifly, is your situational
awareness is so important in PR.
(18:53):
And just a couple years ago, Ifinally realized, I think, why I
became a pilot because I'vealways been situationally aware
of my surroundings when it comesto news and tuning in. And it's
like the RCA Victor dog with theYeah. Yeah. With the little
megaphone is always listeningin. That's why my logo is a is a
is a fox.
(19:15):
The ear is up because he's in intune listening, you know, to
what's happening.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
Interesting. No. I I % agree. I I think and and
that's like well, we're kind ofin a weird spot in tech and kind
of right now, I think everybodywould agree with that. So where
do you see where we're at?
How does AI play into that ornot play into that? Like, kinda
where are we at, and what shouldcompanies be doing right now?
Speaker 3 (19:43):
So for me as an individual, artificial
intelligence is, I'm gonna say,is a little bit of a muse,
almost like a court gesture.It's kind of fun to play with.
It's like first time I played,you know, FarmVille with Zynga.
I was very curious, like, how isthis gonna help me? And there
are some tools out there that,you know, generate AI tools and
(20:03):
some visual genotype tools thatare fun.
Are they replacing how I writemy content and how I create my
pitches and and, you know,papers and things for my client?
No. Or but I do think thatthey're actually helpful as when
you get stuck. There is suchthing as writer's block, and I
use it. I'm writing a book, a PRbook, and I get writer's block
(20:25):
sometimes.
And I and I'll ask all this Idon't Google's not gonna help
me, but the Muse can help me.Right? On the enterprise side of
things, I think that there are alot of tools that I'm seeing
that are that are AI generated.So in in terms of data and the
things that we're seeing with,you know, companies like Neural
(20:47):
Magic is actually company I'mworking with, which is actually
working with really deep contentand data and working with, you
know, partners like Akamai andCerebus and really big players
in their own right and helpingthem navigate the enterprise for
the the Forbes, you know, 5,000companies. Sure.
Artificial intelligence beingused for customer service and
(21:08):
customer care is something we'veactually had for a while. Maybe
it just wasn't called AI.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
Always I I look at AI as being you know, it's like we
always have to be alwaysintelligent. To me, AI is almost
like that responsibility. Whenyou get a driver's license, you
need to know. You have you havethe permission to drive, but you
always need to be aware. And tome, AI, it shouldn't be, you
know, the the the, the dragon,you know, that ate your lunch
(21:36):
type thing.
It should be something that thesame way cybersecurity and risk
and content. My biggest concernabout AI and the enterprise
personally is is and it goes forany innovation technology.
Innovation and technology in theright hands is a great thing.
Innovation and technology in thewrong hands can be detrimental.
So when AI is being used bycybercriminals or AI is being
(21:59):
used by any any any criminaltype of activity or impostering
or, anything that is, withinthat category of cybercrimes,
not a good thing.
And so I think that's an area inthe market that we're gonna see
more tools and and successes inin in deploying. But I think the
(22:21):
younger generation that grew up,you know, Gen z and then and
younger, the they've always beenconnected and always on.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
And the snaps Snapchat and, you know,
communities and worlds, I'mbeginning to just talk and hear
from parents that they're veryconcerned about, you know, AI,
you know, avatars and AI stuff.But it's very gamified and has
that you know, I'm gonna say Iwas almost gonna say Game of
Thrones, but I meant game youknow, that digital game avatar
(22:55):
that that that kids areattracted to.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (22:59):
So parental controls that we used to have to fight
for for Internet, on rampInternet and social media, I
think is gonna become a bigger,bigger problem, you know, with
AI. But I think AI in theenterprise is really where, you
know, businesses today shouldstart educating themselves and
(23:20):
determining, do I use certain AItools in sales department, like,
you know, a CRM, or do I use AIin micro service? How much of
how is it gonna help me with myCapEx and my OpEx versus I'm
just gonna replace everybody? Ithink there's so much FUD in it
that everyone's gonna bereplaced. And my joke is AI
(23:41):
can't do your PR, but I can.
And but I'm gonna use AR AI as ameans to just maybe challenge
and and help me create things.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
Yeah. I I I the thing that I struggle with with AI is
it's the same with, like, beingon the design side. Right? It's
like, are you worried about it?It's like, good luck getting a
client to tell a computer whatthey need when they can't even
communicate to a human beingwhat they need to replace you.
Right? And even if that's thecase, if everybody has that new
baseline, you're gonna be nodifferent, and you're just gonna
(24:15):
get lost because there's nocreativity in that. Right?
Speaker 3 (24:19):
Yeah. It's like drawing. Yeah. So if you give
two people, you know, Harold andPurple Crayon as an example, we
all get, you know, Purple Crayonto draw. I'm not a very I I
can't draw well at all, soyou're gonna get stick figures.
You might be a really greatdrawer, and you're the same
tool, and you can create, youknow, a fabulous, you know,
mural. And then another personcomes along, and and they say,
(24:41):
well, you know, I'm gonna takeit to the next level. I'm gonna
make it three d. Yeah. Andthat's a little bit like the AI,
you know, toolbox, you know, forthe everyday, you know, consumer
is that we might not all be ableto use tools.
And is that and and I thinkplaying with them, I played with
the number. I'm like, well, itdoes deliver what I ask for, but
(25:03):
not necessarily in the way thatI would. Know? So then I
realized a little I have to givea little more detail. I have to
be a little more direct.
I have to be more instructional.Then I get a little worn out,
and then I'm like, okay. I'lljust do it myself.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
Yeah. Exactly. No. That's that's totally fair. So I
wanna dive a little bit deeperinto and you don't have to name
company names, but can you maybegive us some examples of things
that people can do, whetherthey're enterprise, just
starting out as a brand newstartup, or kinda somewhere in
the middle?
Because, like, it seems likepeople are seem to be cutting
(25:35):
back on sales and marketing, butI think you really need to be
spending all your time on kindasales marketing and PR right
now.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
Yeah. Well, I don't do vanity PR. And and so I think
that's the first thing is that Ireally focus on strategic, you
know, communications that helpbusinesses grow. And so we'll
just start there. So if you'rean early stage company and you
need to start come, you know,come out of stealth, then the
things that I help with areliterally the brand positioning,
the the story, your product, youknow, your your corporate
(26:07):
counsel, your customer counsel,things that might seem more
traditional marketing, but yetthey fall into PR because then I
can run with those.
If you're a more mature companyand you actually already have a
product to market, but maybe youhaven't gotten gotten the public
relations, the level of publicrelations, you know, that are
actually helping, you know,close sales. And that's always
(26:28):
my measure. If I can actuallycreate content that's gonna help
the sales department closesomething. Right. Knowing that a
PO came over, right, or apartner came through.
And so the a more a more maturecompany where public relations
should be doing is continues tohelp them to grow their
business. And the the name ofthe agency, LMG, stands for
(26:49):
leadership, momentum, andgrowth. So I typically work in
each one of those stages withsome companies I work with over
a seven to eight year period,which is a long tenure. Sure.
And it's actually helpingestablish, you know, their
leadership, their authoritativevoice, and as they get their
product to market or the serviceto market, and it's kinda
building momentum.
The growth phase is probably thelongest haul. That's typically
(27:11):
when you're you're going to,you're probably on on series b,
maybe even series c, and you'regearing up for an IPO or an
acquisition.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
Right.
Speaker 3 (27:20):
And I've worked with every stage. I think Nightscope
Robotics is an example. I thinkthey've been a guest on your
show as well. Is that they're acompany I started working with
as an accelerator and workedwith them all the way through
the IPO. Damon Motors in Canadais a company that I literally
launched in a in ten daysheading into CES twenty twenty,
(27:42):
and they gave me a call and saidwe're going to CES.
And I said 2021. They said no inten days. And I left. And I
said, okay. I'm there.
So the the pace, you know, of PRsometimes can be fast and
furious, and other times it canbe you know, I would say it it's
kind of like planting seeds andyou grow it over time. What not
(28:04):
to do is to not do PR. And I saythat is when companies
absolutely have no publicrelations and and so give me a
worst case scenario. You have alot of social media. You have a
lot of social chatter, but maybeit's the wrong chatter.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
And you
Speaker 3 (28:19):
have nobody monitoring the airways, and you
got disgruntled customers, oryou have a product that doesn't
work. Another key component ofpublic relations is actually
creating what I call crisisprevention plan or
communications prevention planso that you actually have a game
plan. What is the protocol? Whoactually what are what are the
corporate messages? Or themessages to the customers, to
(28:40):
the employees, to your partners?
What if it doesn't work asadvertised? Yeah. What if the
stock market goes down? What ifthe market collapses? Oh, and
what if something reallyhorrific happens such as there's
a war and you're and themajority of your team is is
working and functioning andengineering or building in one
of those war zones?
And that unfortunately hashappened to me back to back with
(29:02):
the two existing wars that aregoing on. So it's the agility in
which to be able to respond andact. And then there's the, you
know, other part of which iscorporate communications, which
oftentimes I work directly withthe, the people and culture or
human resources groups toestablish protocols there as
well and communications so thatthe company culture is one in
(29:26):
which everybody's on point.Everyone has the same you know,
who you are, what do you do, andhow do you do it depending on
the roles in the company. Butwhen it's an external
spokesperson, you know,typically, it's gonna be
somebody in the the top threethree in a C suite.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
Yeah. Okay. No. That makes that makes sense. So you
have a podcast.
You mentioned a book. What arethey about and kind of where can
when are you expecting topublish a book?
Speaker 3 (29:53):
Well, the book I shared with you my $5 and a half
a tank of gas story. So let'sjust start there. The book
basically is how to actually tofigure business with unlimited
stories for it's really forentrepreneurs and tech
innovators and, you know, geeks.And I classify myself in there
(30:14):
as a geeks as well to basicallythe the the playbook to
successfully launch yourcompany. And so a lot of lot of
small companies can't afford anagency.
So the the playbook is basicallydesigned to help them get a
start and focusing on earnedmedia content and all the
different components that Italked about. The currently, I
(30:36):
have a newsletter. While I'mwriting the book, I created a
newsletter that's on LinkedIncalled PR Pulse, which is
basically a weekly newsletter.And each week, I address a
different topic that that's thata company needs to understand
and learn in order to besuccessful and and build and
grow their business. So thisweek's topic was on how to
create a perfect review.
(30:57):
Last week's topic was, you know,on partners, and I touched, you
know, video and all thedifferent components. The
podcast, the Before It Happenedpodcast, my inspiration during
the pandemic was to create anarrative story podcast that
really the 10% were my clients,and the rest were just really
(31:18):
amazing people that I've met atconferences and different
places. But everything from theinventor of the super soaker to
the inventor of the sports brato the the the creator of of of
Pong, to food and and scienceengineers and agriculture space
(31:38):
and so many different marketmarket topics. But the whole
purpose of the of the series,and I have more coming out, is
really to take that back endstory going back in time the
same way I do with creatingnarrative. What was that moment
in which the visionary actuallydecided to put all cards on the
(31:59):
table, you know, mortgage theirhouse, sell their car, trade
down the dog for a cat, andbasically say, you know what?
Yeah. This is my before ithappened story. And and some of
them are really amazing stories.One one of my favorite ones is a
food scientist who was anaerospace engineer, and he
decided to leave his verycoveted job in aerospace at
(32:20):
Boeing to create vegan cheese.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
Okay. Interesting.
Speaker 3 (32:25):
And, you know, a couple of that, we know with,
you know, aerospace engineersand and that are actually, you
know, doing advanced things inin aerodynamics and and space,
robotics, and things. So I thinkmyself as always having the
front row seat to the nextscience fair and being able to
have these conversations. So Ilove science and tech. I was,
(32:48):
you know, always in sciencefairs, always competing. And I
think STEM education is, youknow, something that's always
been part of my life.
It wasn't called STEM. It wasjust called math and science.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
Mhmm.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
Yeah. And I was always a little dumbed down for
me. I, you know, it was it wasliterally I was told by a math
teacher when I think I was insixth grade, girls don't do
math. And that really struck achord with me. I was like, well,
why don't girls do math?
And and when my father taught meto fly, I was about 11, 12 years
old. I was beginning to fly veryfrequently with him, and I could
(33:23):
apply science and I can applymath and physics to flying. To
me, that was just the freedomof, like, STEM gives you the
freedom to actually look andthink differently. And then
apply that, you know, with musicand art, you get, you know,
STEAM Yeah. Which is great.
And so I'm a huge advocate ofthat for, you know, the for
(33:44):
kids. And and Totally.
Speaker 2 (33:46):
And What an odd thing to say to somebody, like and,
like, stupid. Right? Like
Speaker 3 (33:51):
Well, I went back I went back years later, and I
said I went back years later.The teacher was retiring. And I
said, oh, by the way, I'm a I Ido in a I do for a living, I do
public relations and innovationand tech.
Speaker 2 (34:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (34:09):
And it's like, math does matter.
Speaker 2 (34:11):
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (34:12):
You know?
Speaker 2 (34:13):
Yeah. Yeah. Like, yeah. Interesting. So I I'm
curious.
We're kind of texting a like Isaid and, you know, it's like
it's kind of in a weird space.Where do you think we're going
from here? Do you think we'rejust kinda leveling off from
COVID? Do you think people overhired to validate make their
companies more valid, andthey're just kinda bringing
things back down to a realisticlevel? Like, where are we at,
(34:36):
and where do you think we'rekind of going?
And
Speaker 3 (34:40):
Yeah. I think one of the the things that I've noticed
in the past few years is thatwe've kinda come back to basics.
Yeah. In a sense. So that we'renot it's not an all you can eat
buffet when it comes tomarketing budgets and all you
can eat when it comes to, youknow, big conferences and shows.
It's more more selective andmore focused. So it's think
(35:01):
about all the things that youcan do in house and the things
that you can't do, you know, inin house. So, typically, my
clients, I'm I'm, like, the inhouse agency. Right? They they
don't have they don't haveanyone that does strategic, you
know, communications PR.
And so I come in, and I'm likespecial services, special forces
to, you know, some degree. Soalthough budgets can be tighter
(35:23):
and smaller because they're notspending big, verbose amounts of
money, you can actually do alot. I mean, some people ask,
what is you know, if you had$20,000, would you rather blow
it on a, big jumbotron and, youknow, someplace at a show, or
would you actually rather get,you know, a few dozen articles
(35:45):
that actually can help yoursales organization or your
partner programs and things, youknow, fuel? And so when it comes
to building a voice or buildinga brand, I think this is really
about being hyper focused on howyou spend your money. You don't
need a hundred thousand dollarPR budget.
You don't need a $50,000 PRbudget. There are a lot of
things that you can do in in asmall scale that can, you know,
(36:08):
move the dial and make impact.But there are still a lot of
really big PR agencies. I'm aboutique, but there are a lot of
big agencies that operate verytraditional even after the
pandemic with seven layers of Iknow I'm getting in trouble
here, but, like, taco, you know,taco dip. And and so you have
junior people that are doing alot of the work, and you have
the senior people that go to themeeting.
(36:29):
My clients get me a % of thetime. I and I'm writing. I'm
pitching. I'm training. I'm, youknow, I'm I'm really involved.
And that's different, and that'sa different approach. Will that
work for a very large publiclytraded company? Probably not.
But it does work for emergingtech, you know, innovation
companies that are, you know,going from stealth to what I
(36:52):
call wealth, going going fromstealth to, like, their IPO
because I've been there, donethat 500 plus times. And so I I
know the the process and thesteps to get there faster unless
No.
That's so expensive. Gas.Remember?
Speaker 2 (37:09):
Yeah. No. That's that's good. So I I I wanna dive
a little deeper into I guess, Idon't know what the term would
be for it. Like, you're you workwith a company.
You're kind of inside them.You're basically, like, you you
kind of, like, are an employee,right, in in that sense. But
(37:29):
you're kind of just an outsidevoice as well, which I think can
really it's nice because you'rekind of brought in and you can
kind of almost be brutallyhonest with kind of that c
suite. Right? Where I think ifyou get hired into a company as
an employee, sometimes you can'tbe as brutally honest sometimes
and, like, you kind of almost,like, float under the radar a
(37:52):
little bit.
And but when you brought in askind of like a consultant or,
like, you're part of the team,but you're still kind of at arms
length, you can almost be like,no. That's dumb. I think we
really need to do this or that.Right? Where I think a lot of
companies don't think about itlike that.
Do you agree, or what are yourthoughts around that?
Speaker 3 (38:09):
Absolutely. I feel I'm responsible to tell my
clients what they need to hear,not what they wanna hear.
Exactly. And I do say no a lot,and I actually will, in in a
really healthy way. You know, myintegrity and my number one
priority is to actually helpthem be successful.
But if I see something is notready for prime time, something
is not ready for review, orthere is, you know, the a
(38:31):
customer, you know, councilmember is is not really a great
spokesperson, you know, for themedia, or somebody or one of the
company's spokesperson's notready, you know, to beat the
media or, you know, they need tobe retooled or retrained. But it
really comes down to beinghonest, forthright, and doing
what's best for the company. Iin in some like you said, I
(38:53):
actually take the the I canleave the corporate culture on
the table because I'm I'm I'mindependent. And and maybe some
of the things I have toldclients over the years, maybe I
would have gotten fired, butthey they didn't fire me. They
actually respected me even moreby challenging them and say, I
don't think we're ready.
I don't think we can go to thistrade show and demonstrate this
(39:15):
product. We can't ship it outfor product reviews. It's not
it's not prime time. There'snothing you know, it's harder to
say no than it is to say yes.
Speaker 2 (39:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (39:25):
But it's my job to actually tell my client no, but
find a better solution or a wayto get there.
Speaker 2 (39:33):
Yeah. No. I I think kind of because I think and we
talked about this before westarted recording is, like, my
biggest problem with AI rightnow is, like, it's so
overpromised on what it can do.And then when you actually get
your hands on it, it's garbage.And there's been a few products
over the last little while thatthat's been the case.
And I think somebody like youbeing like, we are not ready. We
(39:54):
are gonna get crushed if werelease this. Not like, I think
if some of those companies hadsomebody internally who was just
like, we can't do this. Theywould be in a way better shape.
They might not have evenlaunched yet, but they wouldn't
have got crushed immediately.
That's my opinion. You couldtell me what you think.
Speaker 3 (40:13):
Yeah. Absolutely. I I actually have been I had the
privilege to work, with Apple abit. And one of the things that
that was really true to theculture, at least when I worked
there, was that the honestfactor was, you you know, was
key. I mean, Steve Jobs cameback to Apple after an era where
there were there was a lot ofthe honesty and, you know, the
(40:36):
great you know, going back toits roots of creating great
product experiences.
But Yeah. I think there's justfar more respect in building a
relationship with the company,and it's a relationship is more
than a contract. It really is tome, and it's more than a
handshake. So as a consultant,you know, you're coming in for a
short period of time. It couldbe six months, a year.
(40:58):
And as I said, most of myclients are contracted for a
year. And sometimes, you know,they reconnect with me after
they raise more funding, theyboomerang to me, you know, after
they go through differentstages. I also have another set
of clients, which are, like,brand new emerging market
players, and they are youngerand leaner. And those companies
(41:19):
typically I'm in even getting myhands, you know, really even
more dirty. Yeah.
But in in terms of sometimes Iget involved in trade shows, and
I get involved, you know,creating content for trade shows
and channel programs and lots ofplaces that most PR PR teams or
professionals would be involvedin. And I think where the
(41:41):
industry is going, as I said, Ithink we're kind of going
scaling back to experts. Andwith the talent shortage and
people who have during thepandemic, a lot of agencies had
to resize and restructure,disparate employees, people
working remote, really focus,focus, focus. And I think where
(42:04):
AI can come into play isactually just be another tool
set, as I mentioned. It's justthe purple crayon.
It's not all the crayons. It'sjust a crayon that we can
actually use. And I think therewill probably be more tools, and
we also have to be responsiblein deciding what tools are best
for us to use. And Totally. Andwe I think that's our
(42:24):
responsibility as consumers isto know whether you're gonna
adopt or you're gonna adapt.
I personally rather get in andplay with all the tools. Like
any new technology. Get in andplay with it. I have a huge
vinyl collection as an example,but I also have Spotify. And I
have a vinyl collection becauseafter CDs came out, I decided
(42:45):
I'm gonna go back out and buyall the vinyl that I never had.
Speaker 2 (42:49):
Sure. Yeah. I'm
Speaker 3 (42:50):
very But I but I but I respect vinyl. And so it's
very similar to PR is I like theold school traditional
structural PR, but at the sametime, I'm really happy that we
are in the digital world that Icould actually issue and reach
more people, more editors, morecontent faster in the digital
era than I could, you know,twenty years ago.
Speaker 2 (43:13):
Yeah. That's actually really interesting because I
always say because sometimes,like, this show airs on f some
FM stations, and people arelike, why do you care? It's
like, well, why wouldn't I care?Like, I wanna be on everything,
new, old, and everything inbetween. Like and if something
new comes out, like, I'd wannahave my content on that.
Like, I don't care
Speaker 3 (43:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (43:30):
Like, if it's new or old. Like, I love vinyl. I think
it sounds actually better thanany of the streaming services.
But, like, if but it's alsoabout yeah. But it's also about
kind of, like, context too.
Like, sometimes, well,obviously, I'm not gonna bring a
record to listen in my car. But,like, you know, if you're at
home and you're trying to listento music, it's to me, it's like,
(43:51):
put it put it on the turntable.So I think shifting that mindset
of, like, we need to do this onething. It's like, no. No.
No. We need to do what makes themost sense across all whatever
mediums make sense to, like, getour companies out there. Right?
Speaker 3 (44:04):
Well, the cool thing is I mean, this show is called
Building the Future, and I helpbuild companies. We have to know
where we've been in order toknow where we're going. And
that's that's the part that somany people don't I was talking
to it was at the grocery store,and and this young kid had a
he's I overheard a conversation.He was talking to his friend
(44:26):
about, oh, he wanted a he wantedsuch and such a car, and, you
know, he didn't want a a gas hedidn't want a EV car. He wanted
a a fuel car because he wantedto know the mechanics of how it
worked.
And and and I and I thought thatwas actually really good that he
was interested in buyingupcycling, something that was
already available that you know?And he wanted to understand the
mechanics. But to be honest withyou, you really do need to
(44:48):
understand the mechanics offossil fuels and things in order
to understand EV and frictionand why it all matters. Right?
You need to understand themanufacturing, the
deconstruction of manufacturingto understand, like, why are we
building microfactories.
Microfactories. Right? Yeah. Andso I spend most of my time in
Silicon Valley and, you know, inthe, quote, in the
(45:10):
industrial4.o, but I also spendtime in the Northeast in New
York and Pennsylvania and Ohio,which is not you know, which is
where the industrial1.org wascreated. And to me, that's
fascinating because I, like I goto Carnegie Mellon, and I go to
their Robotics Pavilion, and Isee all the robots and things
I've been working on for, youknow, fifty plus years.
(45:32):
It's not a new thing.
Speaker 2 (45:34):
Sure. That's cool. Yeah. Very cool. But we're kinda
coming to the end of the show.
So how about we close withmentioning where people can get
more information about yourself,the podcast, and what's the book
called, and when can peoplemaybe potentially expect that? I
get that it sometimes is underout of your control.
Speaker 3 (45:50):
Yeah. Well, IEI's not writing it, so it's taking me a
little longer. You can find meon LinkedIn. It's Donna
Laughlin, l o u g h l I n. Theagency is LMGPR.
It stands for leadershipmomentum and growth. And I also
my newsletter is on LinkedIn aswell. The book, hope, is going
to come out before the holidayseason because I've already
(46:13):
started book two, which iscrazy. Book one is not done, but
I started book two.
Speaker 2 (46:17):
I get it. I get it.
Speaker 3 (46:18):
And it will take take you on a journey from, you know,
$5 and a half a tank of gas allthe way into the future of the
world of I call Barbarella, and,you know, kind of what the
places in you know, that thatwill go. Innovation and
technology is a foundation, youknow, because has been really
kind to me in my career, butit's also a foundation, I think,
(46:41):
for learning and andunderstanding. Sure. You know,
you read Ray Bradbury books oryou watch science fiction and
and movies, we are living. We'reactually in that now.
You know? It is the it is theliterally the jets in the world.
Speaker 2 (46:55):
Very cool. I'm I'm curious. What's book two about
then? Or do you wanna sharethat?
Speaker 3 (47:01):
Book two is is more of a it's it's a adjunct to the
the playbook. It actually breaksit down into more of the deep
narrative story, like how towrite your story. Got And the
principles, the fundamentalprinciples, and everybody has a
story. One of my favorite thingsto do is to go into a counter at
(47:22):
any given restaurant in theworld, and I've been to 81
countries, and sit next tosomebody who that they have a
story. And people I don't knowwhat if it's just I have a face
that people wanna tell mesomething, but I since I was a
kid, that was my number onething is, like, people's
stories.
I became a journalist because ofthat, and
Speaker 2 (47:39):
I Sure.
Speaker 3 (47:39):
And I stay in PR because of that.
Speaker 2 (47:42):
Very cool. Well, Donna, I appreciate you taking
the time out of your day to beon the show and sending me all
your clients over the lastnumber of years. And, you know,
I look forward to keep in touchwith you and have a good rest of
your day.
Speaker 3 (47:54):
Absolutely. Thank you so much, Kevin.
Speaker 2 (47:56):
Thank you. K. Bye.
Speaker 1 (48:00):
Thanks for listening. Please visit our website at
buildingthefutureshow.com tojoin the free community, sign up
for our newsletter, or tosponsor the show. The music is
done by Electric Mantra. You cancheck him out at
electricmantra.com, and keepbuilding the future.
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