Extending from the very successful r/publicrelations group on Reddit, Pitch Perfect talks to top PR professionals from a variety of different roles, focus areas, geographies and approaches to gain insight into how to enter the field, do the work, manage the career, deal with the highs and lows, and everything else involved in being a communications professional. Topics include public affairs, investor relations, tech PR, internal communications and, hopefully, not too much celebrity PR.
Ep. 17 - Tim Coombs, Crisis Comms Consultant and Author: Crisis comms, state of academia in communications, and more
Timothy Coombs is editor-in-chief for the Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management and senior parter at the Center for Risk Communication. As an author, his works include the award-winning book Ongoing Crisis Communication. As a theorist and academician, his research and thinking has shaped modern crisis communications, winning multiple awards from professional organizations including the 2002 recipient of Jackson, Jackson & Wagner Behavioral Science Prize from the Public Relations ...
24 Jul 2026
Ep. 16 - Cynthia McCafferty, President, Hawthorne Strategy Group - Politics to PR, nonprofit work, state of journalism, career management
Cynthia McCafferty is President and CEO of Hawthorne Strategy Group, a Chicago-based PR agency with a wide range of clients and a particular focus on non-profit work for public and para-public agencies. Before joining Hawthorne in 2015, Cynthia spent nearly two decades at FleishmanHillard International Communications in St. Louis, where she served as a senior vice president and senior partner. Cynthia elevates communication programs for clients across sectors, applying her Solutions-foc...
10 Jul 2026
Ep. 15 - Hans Hack, Senior Managing Director, FTI Consulting: Brussels, Public Affairs, Europe
This is the second in a two-parter about public affairs. Hans Hack is a Senior Managing Director and the head of the Brussels office for the public affairs practice at FTI Consulting. Hans' background is in policy making and strategic advocacy and he supports clients facing challenges with governments, regulators and the wider stakeholder environment. Prior to joining FTI Consulting, Hans was the Dutch financial attaché to the EU. Previous to that role he was a coordinating policy officer at ...
5 Jun 2026
Ep. 14 - Stephen Aaron, Perspective Strategies: Washington, the political divide, getting into public affairs, Atticus Finch and Alabama sharecroppers
Stephen Aaron is the Founder and CEO of Perspective Strategies. He is a public affairs strategist and influence expert with almost twenty years of experience in Washington D.C. transforming the way his clients are understood by elected officials and the general public. With a career that has included stints at top DC public affairs firms, Stephen talked to me about how companies try to get heard in Washington, the real vs. the perceived influence of money in politics, and how to launch and ma...
26 Apr 2026
Ep. 13 - Samantha Flynn, Junipr Public Relations - Starting your own agency, differences between agency and in-house, being young in the business, phone pitching...
Samantha Flynn is president of Junipr Public Relations in Chicago, and has been featured in PR Week, Forbes, The Wrap and Authority Magazine, sharing expertise in best practices in public relations, reputation management, crisis communications, entrepreneurship and the continued advancement of women in the workplace. She and I talked about career progression, including her time as an in-house resource and the differences between in-house and agency work. We also talked a fair bit about what y...
3 Apr 2026
Ep. 12 - Ron Culp, DePaul University - Ageism, AI, career guidance, academia vs. professionalia, early days of corporate communications, Chicago...
Ron Culp is a Chicago PR legend. Currently the lead of DePaul University's brilliant PR program, he joined DePaul after a long and storied career in politics, corporate communications and agency leadership. Prior to joining DePaul, Ron held senior public relations positions at four Fortune 500 corporations and two major agencies, as partner and managing director of Ketchum’s Midwest offices and head of the agency’s North American Corporate Practice, and also as founder and managing director o...
20 Feb 2026
Ep. 11 - Anushka Seth, The British Council - Determination, imposter syndrome, working overseas, the role of comms, learning new things... the list goes on and on
Anushka Seth is the head of communications for the Asia-Pacific region for The British Council, the UK's international organization for cultural relations. Her career has seen her move from her native India to America to pursue education and then career opportunities, moving from the tech to the financial industry and then to crisis communications, then returning to India to work with a top agency and then go in-house. As impressive as her career trajectory and her capabilities is her incredi...
25 Jan 2026
Ep. 10 - Dale Curtis, Public Affairs, DC, and Truth and Facts
Dale Curtis is the founder and head of Dale Curtis Communications in Washington D.C, one of the very best boutique communications, public relations and public affairs firms in the city. He's a voice of normalcy and moderation in a city that is, certainly increasingly, anything but. A former journalist and White House communications staffer, we discussed his work, the post-facts world we live in, how he got his start in the business, and a variety of other topics. Apologies for the canine inte...
23 Oct 2025
Ep. 9 - Katie Pierini, Mindset Agency - Loving your job, integrated programs, women in PR
Katie Pierini is the founder of Mindset Agency in greater Los Angeles, a boutique agency at the leading edge of understanding how integrated communications is done today. Katie herself is a powerhouse, there's no other word to describe her: from her start in tech PR in Chicago to helping build and run a major agency office in San Diego to launching her own operation, she is an amazing combination of tougher-than-steel and relentlessly upbeat and optimistic. We discussed a number of things, in...
21 Sept 2025
Ep. 8 - Noah Dye, Spoken Voice PR - Overwork and the challenges of the agency model, managing career crises, state of comms, business development
Noah Dye is the principal at Spoken Voice PR, a tech-focused communications boutique, after having been EVP of LEWIS PR, one the top mid-sized agencies worldwide. Noah is a battler, and a competitor, and someone who is relentless about his work, his clients and his career. We spoke about the challenges of the agency model both in terms of what it delivers to clients and what it demands of its people, about his career progression overcoming multiple crises including the implosion of the dot-co...
2 Sept 2025
Ep. 7 - Jackson Wightman - Proper Propaganda - Tech PR in an age of AI search and optimization
Jackson Wightman is the head of Montreal agency Proper Propaganda, which specializes in consumer tech PR and marketing. A prolific contributor to LinkedIn and author, Jackson is especially informative on the topic of conducting PR campaigns with the specific aim of optimizing search results on AI platforms (GEO). We talked about fragmentation of media and reevaluating which platforms matter, AI and how it processes information and how that affects communications and marketing campaigns, and h...
11 Aug 2025
Ep. 6 - Morgan McLintic, Firebrand Communications
Morgan McLintic is CEO of Firebrand Communications in San Francisco and one of the most experienced technology marketers and PR people, after having run US operations for a global agency before striking out on his own. As a brit who crossed over to working in the United States, he also brings a unique perspective. He and I discussed his career path, what works (and doesn't) in PR today, dealing with CEOs and especially tech entrepreneurs, what young PR practitioners can do to be successful, a...
15 Jul 2025
Ep. 5: Chris Kettman, DGA Group
Chris Kettman is a partner at DGA Group, a global communications and public affairs consultancy, where he helps lead the Investor Relations and Financial Communications practice areas. He and I discussed how to get into IR, what the qualifications are and what the mindset needs to be, some trends in investor communications, and the state of affairs for areas like ESG (environmental, social and governance) policies, among other things.
2 Jul 2025
Ep. 4 - Kelly Capizzi
Kelly Capizzi Herring, Vice President at Lincoln Financial, discusses how students can choose a career path and gain experience to secure their first job in this interview.
24 Jun 2025
Ep. 3 - Paul Nolan
Paul Nolan, co-Managing Director, discusses his entrepreneurial journey building a PR agency and managing neurodivergence, specifically ADHD, in his career in this interview.
18 Jun 2025
Ep. 2 - Alexandra Priola
Alexandra Priola, Managing Director at FTI Consulting, discusses employee communications trends and how PR professionals can leverage their skills to transition into consulting roles in an interview.
9 Jun 2025
Ep. 1 - Harlan Teller
Harlan Teller shares his extensive experience in corporate communications and marketing across various industries, offering insights into effective strategies and leadership in this interview.
Who has been a guest on Pitch Perfect: the PR Podcast
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Kelly Capizzi Herring
Paul Nolan
Alexandra Priola
Harlan Teller
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