Welcome to another episode of the Spin Sucks Fireside Chat!
I am very excited to introduce you to Heidi Sullivan, someone I’ve known for many years because we both live in Chicago and we’re both active in the PR industry.
Heidi, for many years, was a female on the leadership team at Cision and it’s been fun to watch her grow personally and professionally.
By the time she left there, she was running Cision Canada (yes, from Chicago), as well as digital and social media for the entire organization.
One of the things we talked about at great lengths back in the day was the support she received from Cision, in terms of equality and the way men and women can work together.
She’s always been, for me, a grounding beacon in that conversation.
Heidi was at Cision for nearly 15 years and remembers the big green Bacon’s books that I often talk about.
Today, she has added mom, podcast host, and business owner to her resume and I am thrilled to have her join us.
You are going to love this discussion about women in leadership, PR tools, and the future of the PR industry.
The Fireside Chat: The Future of the PR Industry with Heidi Sullivan
Here is an outline of our discussion, and how we went from #MeToo to PR and trends.
- Well, it’s been quite a couple of weeks with the Harvey Weinstein news, the #metoo campaign, and now news about Robert Scoble sexually harassing women. How does all of this bode for women in the larger equality conversation?
- Let’s discuss PR tools. What are some of your favorites and why?
- I believe artificial intelligence is gaining ground in communications. What are your thoughts on how that affects the work we do?
- What other trends do you see in the next year? Three years? I won’t go to 10 years because things change so quickly, it’s impossible to predict. But you can try.
- The speed round (which she did very well because she followed the rules!).
- What’s next for Heidi?
My Favorite Parts of the Conversation
The conversation flowed so well, it was hard to keep up on my note-taking.
But there are quite a few things I was able to jot down so I could share some highlights.
First, my favorite quote of the entire 27 minute video is:
Vocus doesn’t have horns!
We also discussed:
- How great Cision, and particularly Peter Granat, was at promoting women.
- Where and how women can gain a voice, particularly within the PR industry.
- The article she wrote about how women in leadership isn’t a bad word.
- Which tools we need to include in a communications stack.
- How to look at earned and owned media together.
- The Campbell’s soup videos, which are genius.
- PR trends for next year.
- PR trends for the next three years.
- Where she thinks the PR industry is going in the next 10 years.
- Frozen Twizzlers.
There are a few tools she mentioned that I’d like to call out, simply because they’re hard to spell and I don’t want you miss out on them.
They are: Ceralytics and Vazoola. The others you will recognize.
Without Further Ado…The Fireside Chat
Enjoy the conversation…and let us know what you think!
(If you can’t view the video below, click here and you’ll be magically transported to YouTube to watch it.)
Next Month’s Fireside Chat
Next month, I am going to have a surprise guest.
Because I have been on the road and failed to ask, and secure, an interview before this published.
So it’s going to be a Thanksgiving surprise!
(A U.S. Thanksgiving…I know you Canadians have already had yours).
Stay tuned for that on…oh…the last Friday of the month is Black Friday. That won’t work.
Let’s do it on November 17 at 1 p.m. EST.
(Gini, make a note in your task list so you don’t forget.)