It’s Time to Reframe PR — Go Beyond the Messenger Role

If you’re a PR professional tired of being seen as just the company’s messenger service or the cleanup crew after a crisis, this episode is for you.

PR pros in numbers are crying out to be rightly recognized as strategic-management professionals — yet too often, we’re left out of the early conversations where our knowledge, experience and insights can make the biggest difference.

In this episode, we dive into a pivotal true story and share five crucial strategies from the PR Pro’s Reframe Playbook to change the conversation about what you do.

These are real, applicable approaches you can use in your job every day to transform the way your organization views and leverages you, your team and your public-relations expertise.

Listen today -- and start changing the conversation about what PR truly brings to the table.

BONUS RESOURCE: If you’re new to IT’S A PR THING or if you’re looking for a proven path to make your PR team more effective, check out the free resource: 10 Strategies to Transform Your PR Function. It’s a collection of deeper-dive episodes organized to help you rethink how you implement PR in your job everyday. Click the link above and download the free resource.

GOT TOPIC IDEAS? WE WANT TO HEAR THEM!

Send topic ideas and mailbag questions for a future episode to podcast@prthing.com We would love to hear from you!

HOST BIO https://www.audible.com/author/Stephanie-McFarland/B00YNFH16E

Welcome back to IT'S A PR THING, where we help you build relationships that build business.

Today’s episode is straight talk for PR pros who want to do the work better. We’ll cover 10 strategies that help retool your thought process, load you up with practical approaches and transform your PR function into a relationship-building machine!

This is a mini-course – building from the basics while escalating to the more expert skills that drive you and your team beyond the “stay-on-message” culture. Each strategy hits the highlights with cut-to-the-chase, real-world experience.

And we finish off with access to an audio book that takes a deeper dive into each strategy, and we provide recommendations on how to use the chapters to transform your PR function.

Whether you’re working as the one-man-band PR pro in your organization, or you’re managing a multi-division PR operation, this episode is for you!

HOST BIO https://www.audible.com/author/Stephanie-McFarland/B00YNFH16E

Welcome back to IT'S A PR THING, where we help you build relationships that build business.

In today's episode we challenge the idea that public relations is about telling your story. Instead, the stories that matter most come from the people you serve.

Today you’ll learn how to shift focus from pushing messages and content to creating experiences that develop and maintain relationships across your organization's stakeholder spectrum. We’ll walk through how to ask better questions, listen with purpose, and design interactions that reflect what your stakeholders actually need. You’ll also learn how to treat relationships as hard assets—the real proof of value that can stand up to crisis, change, and public scrutiny. Whether you’re leading a small business or a large organization, this episode gives you practical tools to help others tell the story of how your work made a difference. Because the most powerful PR isn’t authored—it’s cultivated through the stakeholder experience.

OUR CASE STUDY ORGANIZATION Plahaus Tourist Home

HOST BIO https://www.audible.com/author/Stephanie-McFarland/B00YNFH16E

NOTE: THIS RECORDING WAS PREVIOUSLY RELEASED ON OCT. 13, 2025.

THE ISRAEL / GAZA DEAL: A MASTER CLASS IN GLOBAL RELATIONSHIP CAPITAL

The peace deal between Israel and Gaza isn’t just a diplomatic headline—it’s a global master-class in relationship capital. As the remaining 20 living hostages are now released and reuniting with their families, we break down the five ways this moment proves that building relationships is not a soft skill. It’s power – power through people and connection.

Whether in the PR industry, politics, or any space where outcomes depend on people, the Israel/Gaza deal is a glaring reminder that developing, accessing and leveraging relationship capital can move mountains in geopolitical circles – and in our own communities and organizations.

HOST BIO https://www.audible.com/author/Stephanie-McFarland/B00YNFH16E

For those of us in public relations, Charlie Kirk’s death should ring our bell. Without freedom of speech, there is no PR profession. That’s a fact.

Today’s episode breaks down this point into four key areas where freedom of speech is vital to the existence of our profession – and in how PR is effectively practiced.

We’ll also cover insights from international students studying PR in the United States, and tackle the question about recent employee firings and what they signal for anyone representing an employer’s brand or responsibility to the community.

Finally, we'll wrap up with a relevant book recommendation that anyone in PR leadership should read.

There’s a lot to unpack in this episode, so get ready to take some notes.

So how much does it cost you when your logo flops? And is it the what or the how that brings on the flop? And did our reigning grand champion of logo flops – Cracker Barrel – miss a real opportunity to leverage a branding change?

Join me today as we learn what a logo flop can cost you in hard dollars and cents, the lessons from Cracker Barrel’s recent experience, and most importantly, an alternative approach that could have involved customers in the change – and let everyone own the new brand look together.

Let’s all dive into some PR learning love, and explore why this great Cracker Barrel controversy is a glaring demonstration of why we must seek first to understand, to know our stakeholders, and to strive to build that all-important relationship capital.

HOST BIO https://www.audible.com/author/Stephanie-McFarland/B00YNFH16E

Poor customer experience is driving poor mental health -- and that's a PR thing and a brand destroyer.

Join me today as we hear what studies and experts have to say, and how a U.S. culture of poor customer service and experiences is damaging the public's mental health in several ways.

As we wave our banners about being compassionate, empathetic, kind and caring -- we as a U.S. business culture across all industries are missing the opportunities to show these behaviors in our customer interactions every day.

Are you ready for this kind of truth?

Of course you are -- you're a PR pro! Let's dive in for some more PR learning love!

GILES CROUCH: "HOW TECHNOLOGY FAILED CUSTOMER SERVICE"

HOST BIO https://www.audible.com/author/Stephanie-McFarland/B00YNFH16E

My First PR Teacher -- Thank you, Mamma.

Today we celebrate the upcoming Mother's Day weekend with a tribute to Franny J, the OG relationship builder.

Franny J came from northern Alabama, knew no one of influence in Indianapolis, but her relationship-building skills earned her a client list that included some of the most prominent names in Central Indiana.

And she's my mom. The start-up queen before start ups were a thing!

She started two businesses, grew them exponentially, and never advertised. But she has some old-school relationship-building skills that our flash and splash today can't match.

In today's episode you'll learn the backstory about Franny J, and the Franny J four rules of relationship building.

Enjoy!

HOST BIO https://www.audible.com/author/Stephanie-McFarland/B00YNFH16E