Stories and Strategies for Public Relations and Marketing

Send us a note about this episode. We'll reply and thank you on a future episode

Your client is wrong. You know it. They know it, somewhere underneath the certainty. 

And you have two choices. You can tell them they're wrong, which will end the conversation and cost you the relationship. Or you can find the thing they want more than being right and take them there instead.

This is something most communications professionals learn the hard way and never quite put into words. Every difficult client, every resistant leader, every person digging into a position that will hurt them, they are not just wrong. They are running two competing motivations at the same time. 

The need to be right. And the need to succeed. 

And those two things are almost never the same thing. The PR professional who understands that distinction doesn't argue. They redirect. And the client ends up exactly where you needed them to go, convinced it was their idea all along.

Listen For

4:40 Can communicators actually motivate people to act?

7:17 Is PR returning to behavioral science, or losing its way?

8:55 What are system one, system two, and system three thinking?

11:17 How do you challenge a client without losing trust?

14:08 Will AI replace PR professionals or reveal who thinks strategically?

Guest: Roger Hurni, Founder & Chief Brand Strategist, Off Madison Ave

Website | Agency | LinkedIn 

Outthink. Outperform. Transform Your Organization Through Behavioral Marketing

Doug

Substack | Website | LinkedIn

Farzana

Substack | Website | LinkedIn

Are you a brand with a podcast that needs support? Book a meeting with Doug Downs to talk about it.

Apply to be a guest on the podcast

Connect with us

LinkedIn | X | Instagram | You Tube | Facebook | Threads | Bluesky | Pinterest

Stories and Strategies is the Official Podcast Sponsor of IABC World Conference in Toronto June 14-16, 2026

Click here to check it out https://wc.iabc.com 

Support the show

Send us a note about this episode. We'll reply and thank you on a future episode

50 percent. That's how much of the global population now trusts generative AI when searching for information about companies and brands. 

More than Instagram. More than Facebook. More than social media in general. 

And that number climbed 7 points in a single year. 

The data comes from the Page Society's annual Harris Poll study. 14 countries, more than 15,000 people surveyed in December 2025. Consumers aren't just using AI more. They're believing it more. And most of them aren't clicking through to the source. They're reading the AI answer and moving on. 

For communicators, this changes the job. It's no longer enough to optimize for search engines, you now need to optimize for the AI that sits on top of them. What does generative AI say when someone types in your brand name? Is it accurate? Is it current? Or is it surfacing something you said or did 20 years ago that no longer represents who you are? 

Listen For

3:26 How is declining consumer trust reshaping the role of communication leaders?
4:52 Why do consumers now trust generative AI more than social media for brand information?
12:28 What are the biggest risks of disinformation and AI hallucinations for brands?
15:45 Why can’t AI replace human experience and critical thinking in communications?
20:22 How should brands optimize for AI search while maintaining trust and accuracy?

Guest: Rochelle Ford, Ph.D., APR, CEO The Page Society

LinkedIn | Website 

Page-Harris Poll: Confidence in Business Index 2026

Doug

Substack | Website | LinkedIn

Farzana

Substack | Website | LinkedIn

Are you a brand with a podcast that needs support? Book a meeting with Doug Downs to talk about it.

Apply to be a guest on the podcast

Connect with us

LinkedIn | X | Instagram | You Tube | Facebook | Threads | Bluesky | Pinterest

Stories and Strategies is the Official Podcast Sponsor of IABC World Conference in Toronto June 14-16, 2026

Click here to check it out https://wc.iabc.com 

Support the show

Send us a note about this episode. We'll reply and thank you on a future episode

Your Organisation says it's aligned. It probably isn't.

And the problem starts at the top.

Zora Artis and Wayne Aspland have spent 7 years studying the gap between what leadership teams say they're doing and what's actually happening inside organizations. And their findings are uncomfortable. 

In their latest global study, drawing on interviews with 55 CEOs and senior executives across five continents, they found that leaders routinely leave strategy meetings carrying completely different understandings of the direction they just agreed on. 

Nobody admits it. And communications professionals get handed the impossible job of aligning everyone else around a strategy the leadership team hasn't genuinely aligned on themselves. 

In this episode, we break down why the gap has barely moved in seven years, what's actually driving it, and what communications professionals are uniquely positioned to do about it. 

The full findings are being presented IABC World Conference 2026 in Toronto this June.

Register 

https://wc.iabc.com/ 

Download the full Report and Infographic Summary here.

Listen For

4:11 What does true organizational alignment actually mean beyond agreement?
7:44 Why do leaders think they’re aligned but act differently after meetings?
9:09 How do fear and ego silently destroy alignment in executive teams?
12:18 What is “glass head syndrome” and why does it derail strategy execution?
17:18 Is AI making organizational alignment better or worse?

Guests:

Zora Artis

Website Artis Advisory | Website Clear Leaders | Email | LinkedIn

Wayne Aspland

Website Clear Leaders | Email | LinkedIn 

Doug

Substack | Website | LinkedIn

Are you a brand with a podcast that needs support? Book a meeting with Doug Downs to talk about it.

Apply to be a guest on the podcast

Connect with us

LinkedIn | X | Instagram | You Tube | Facebook | Threads | Bluesky | Pinterest

Stories and Strategies is the Official Podcast Sponsor of IABC World Conference in Toronto June 14-16, 2026

Click here to check it out https://wc.iabc.com 

Support the show

Send us a note about this episode. We'll reply and thank you on a future episode

Every comms professional knows the playbook. A crisis hits, you move fast. Holding statement, talking points, media plan, stakeholder map. You do it well because you've trained for it. You bring the plan to the CEO expecting alignment and instead you get a polite nod and silence. Not pushback. Not disagreement. Just silence. 

And that silence is worse than any argument because it means the CEO has already stopped listening. Not because your plan was bad, but because it was solving a problem they weren't thinking about.

This is the gap that quietly erodes the comms function's credibility in organizations everywhere. Communicators are passionate people. That passion is their greatest asset, until it becomes a bias that pulls them toward issues that feel urgent but aren't connected to the core business. 

And when that happens enough times, the CEO doesn't fire you. They just stop inviting you into the room. 

Listen For

3:09 How Do CEOs vs. Comms Leaders Actually Respond to Global Crises?
4:26 When Should You Speak—and When Are You Giving an Issue Oxygen?
6:28 Do PR Professionals Need Financial and Data Literacy to Be Strategic?
11:44 Why Is Reporting Not Enough? And What Does Real Analysis Look Like?
15:13 Can AI Truly Make Your Communications Strategy More Effective?

Guest: Johna Burke, CEO and Global Managing Director, AMEC (International Association for the Measurement and Evaluation of Communication)

Email | Website | LinkedIn

Doug

Substack | Website | LinkedIn

Farzana

Substack | Website | LinkedIn

Are you a brand with a podcast that needs support? Book a meeting with Doug Downs to talk about it.

Apply to be a guest on the podcast

Connect with us

LinkedIn | X | Instagram | You Tube | Facebook | Threads | Bluesky | Pinterest

Stories and Strategies is the Official Podcast Sponsor of IABC World Conference in Toronto June 14-16, 2026

Click here to check it out https://wc.iabc.com 

Support the show

Send us a note about this episode. We'll reply and thank you on a future episode

Every PR firm knows the drill. Client says here's my budget. Firm divides by twelve. Monthly retainer, same amount, January through December, whether the work demands it or not. 

Need a press release? Flat rate. Need ten? Multiply. 

Need an editor or a videographer? That's by the hour, and one minute is one hour. 

The pricing isn't creative. It isn't strategic. It's arithmetic dressed up as a business model.

And it worked fine, until AI started doing the arithmetic faster. Suddenly teams are twice as productive in half the time, and if you're still selling hours, you're punishing yourself for getting better. Meanwhile, the client's procurement department is happy to keep paying by the hour, because now those hours cost less. So, who's really winning? 

The firms who don't rethink how they price will be replaced. Not by AI, but by hungrier competitors who already have.

Listen For

3:42 Why Are PR Firms the Least Creative in Pricing?
6:34 Are You Losing Money by Defaulting to Retainers?
9:08 How Should Agencies Identify Where They Create the Most Value?
12:19 How Do You Avoid the “Bait and Switch” With Senior Talent?
15:27 Is AI Killing Hourly Pricing Models for Good?

Guest: Blair Enns, Win Without Pitching

Website | LinkedIn | Podcast 2Bobs

David’s books including Pricing Creativity

Doug

Substack | Website | LinkedIn

Farzana

Substack | Website | LinkedIn

Are you a brand with a podcast that needs support? Book a meeting with Doug Downs to talk about it.

Apply to be a guest on the podcast

Connect with us

LinkedIn | X | Instagram | You Tube | Facebook | Threads | Bluesky | Pinterest

Stories and Strategies is the Official Podcast Sponsor of IABC World Conference in Toronto June 14-16, 2026

Click here to check it out https://wc.iabc.com 

Support the show