Hard for a CEO to Lead an Organization Without the Soft Skill of Communication
11.05.2025 – To succeed in leading a business, soft skills matter. A LOT. Especially the soft skill of being an effective communicator. You can have a Harvard MBA, a Wharton pedigree, technical chops that would make an engineer weep with envy — but if you can’t communicate with clarity, impact and authenticity, you’re going to struggle as a CEO.
5 Creepily Brilliant Halloween PR Lessons
10.30.2025 – Elphaba and Glinda from Wicked. Superman. The Addams Family. HUNTR/X from KPop Demon Hunters. Lilo & Stitch. Sabrina Carpenter and Olivia Rodrigo. According to a Sept. 30 Good Housekeeping magazine story, “We’re Calling It: These 10 Halloween Costumes Will Be Everywhere in 2025,” those will be among the Halloween costumes this year.
Despite this newsletter’s commitment to “being your authentic self,” we’re going to step into the make-believe world in this issue and take a look at five creepily brilliant public relations lessons Halloween teaches us.
The Sound (and Price) of PR Silence
10.22.2025 – “Why do we need to invest in public relations?” a tech company asked me recently. Well, you DON’T need to. You can let your competition invest in PR. And let them get ALL the attention.
The Day AI Gave My Client Stupid PR Advice
10.15.2025 – One day (it could have been a month ago, it could have been years ago — I’m not telling) the COO of one of my clients asked AI a question: “Should we be putting legal symbols like ® and ™ and © symbols in our press releases?” The COO wanted to protect the company’s trademarks. The CEO echoed the concern. And to be fair, they had a point — trademark law is serious business.
Magazine Cover Story of Your CEO? Think Again…
10.08.2025 – Landing a magazine cover story for your CEO sounds awesome, right?
Well, how about on TWO magazines?
And how about feature stories in three other publications? And then you’re told all these articles would appear within seven days and you’d have about 100,000 views. Whew. Why wouldn’t you jump at this opportunity? Because like the saying goes, “If it sounds too good to be true…”
There’s NO WAY in the World Kohl’s Will Publish this Product Review
10.01.2025 – After two posts telling the story about the 102 pairs of socks I didn’t order, you probably thought I was done. Well, I thought I was done too. It’s not a fun experience to have your credit card number stolen and then have someone spend over $400 to place an online order on Kohl’s website for 102 pairs of “Men’s Nike 6-pack Everyday Plus Cushion Crew Training Socks” — and then have them shipped to a local Holiday Inn.
A Kohl-Hearted Online Order – Part 2
09.24.2025 – In Part 1 of this saga, I shared how someone stole my credit card number and ordered $412 worth of Nike socks shipped to a local Holiday Inn. If you haven’t read that portion of the story, you should read it now. In Part 2, I share how I sprang into action after learning this package had been delivered to the Holiday Inn, the unbelievable decision made by the hotel employee I visited, and how a $15.9 billion company thanked me for rescuing some $400 worth of their inventory. Enjoy…
A Kohl-Hearted Online Order – Part 1
09.17.2025 – Interesting PR lessons can be learned when someone steals your credit card number. Besides myself, the primary stakeholders in this event are the credit card company, two vendors, two hotel chains, a local police department, and those who tried to scam me. Here’s the timeline of this story and the role each of these stakeholders played…