Communications is the CENTER OF ALL THINGS. On the pod, Lee interviews interesting communications pros, CEOs, branding experts, and authors to bring key insights that can be used in the day to day to make your work, your PR, your marketing WORK. Occasionally, she goes it alone to share her thoughts and insights on key topics of the day in solo shows.

Today is a Solo Show with your host, Lee Caraher.

What you will learn in this episode:

• How small changes in your communications can have a monumental impact
• Why the word “but” is a barrier to collaboration
• How to replace the word “but” with “and” to have more productive conversations
• How to use the improv “yes, and” in your communications to collaborate better
• What you can do to identify “buts” in your own conversations and rectify the problem

Resources:

• Website: https://leecaraher.com/
• Website: www.double-forte.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leecaraher/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leecaraher
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LeeCaraher1/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/leecaraher

Communications is the CENTER OF ALL THINGS. On the pod, Lee interviews interesting communications pros, CEOs, branding experts, and authors to bring key insights that can be used in the day to day to make your work, your PR, your marketing WORK. Occasionally, she goes it alone to share her thoughts and insights on key topics of the day in solo shows.

Today is a Solo Show with your host, Lee Caraher.

What you will learn in this episode:

• How to drive clarity with shared definitions of key terms
• Why companies need a clear vision, mission, values, goals, and strategy
• Why acronyms are so detrimental to clear communication
• How to define vision, mission, and values to ensure clarity within your company

Resources:

• Website: https://leecaraher.com/
• Website: www.double-forte.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leecaraher/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leecaraher
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LeeCaraher1/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/leecaraher

Maggie Zeman is the REAL DEAL and brings her energy, expertise and optimism to the table every single day.

She is SVP at Double Forte, and GM of the New York practice and the wine and spirits group, a practice she built from the ground up. Prior to Double Forte, Maggie founded a digital marketing and communications agency, growing the business to profitability before merging with Double Forte in 2011. She continues to drive corporate and brand communications leadership strategies while advising wine and spirits executives on strategic industry thought leadership, crisis management and elevated storytelling designed to build awareness and momentum for their businesses and brands.

Maggie serves as Vice Chair on the Board of Directors for the Alzheimer’s Association New York Chapter serving also as chair of the annual Walk to End Alzheimer’s and contributing to a 30% fundraising growth YOY from 2021 to 2022. Maggie is a sought-after speaker on wine and spirit industry trends, media training, and digital marketing.

What you will learn in this episode:

• What a Chief Communications Officer does and how the role has changed over time
• How social media has changed the “public” in PR
• The difference between the CCO and the CMO
• How a company’s handling of layoffs can impact involuntary churn and productivity
• Why some companies choose to utilize a fractional CCO or CMO

Resources:

• Website: http://www.double-forte.com/
• LinkedIn Personal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maggiezeman/
• LinkedIn Business: https://www.linkedin.com/company/double-forte/

Maggie Zeman is the REAL DEAL and brings her energy, expertise and optimism to the table every single day.

She is SVP at Double Forte, and GM of the New York practice and the wine and spirits group, a practice she built from the ground up. Prior to Double Forte, Maggie founded a digital marketing and communications agency, growing the business to profitability before merging with Double Forte in 2011. She continues to drive corporate and brand communications leadership strategies while advising wine and spirits executives on strategic industry thought leadership, crisis management and elevated storytelling designed to build awareness and momentum for their businesses and brands.

Maggie serves as Vice Chair on the Board of Directors for the Alzheimer’s Association New York Chapter serving also as chair of the annual Walk to End Alzheimer’s and contributing to a 30% fundraising growth YOY from 2021 to 2022. Maggie is a sought-after speaker on wine and spirit industry trends, media training, and digital marketing.

What you will learn in this episode:

• What constitutes an effective press release
• What challenges communications professionals are facing today
• How to determine if something is newsworthy
• Why distribution is so important when running a press release
• How to use your press release to extend a conversation with your audience
• Why you should never use AI to write your press release

Resources:

• Website: http://www.double-forte.com/
• LinkedIn Personal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maggiezeman/
• LinkedIn Business: https://www.linkedin.com/company/double-forte/

Maggie Zeman is the REAL DEAL and brings her energy, expertise and optimism to the table every single day.

She is SVP at Double Forte and GM of the New York practice and the wine and spirits group, a practice she built from the ground up. Prior to joining Double Forte, Maggie founded a digital marketing and communications agency, before merging with Double Forte in 2011. She continues to drive corporate and brand communications leadership strategies while advising wine and spirits executives on strategic industry thought leadership, crisis management and elevated storytelling designed to build awareness and momentum for their businesses and brands.

Maggie serves as Vice Chair on the Board of Directors for the Alzheimer’s Association New York Chapter, serving also as chair of the annual Walk to End Alzheimer’s and contributing to a 30% fundraising growth YOY from 2021 to 2022. Maggie is a sought-after speaker on wine and spirit industry trends, media training, and digital marketing.

What you will learn in this episode:

• Why you must assume the person you are speaking to does not understand your acronyms and lingo
• How to use more inclusive language to make everyone feel welcomed and included
• How complex language makes consumers feel like outsiders and loses business
• Why inclusive language should start from the inside of your company
• How to identify and eliminate exclusive language in your communications

Resources:

• Website: http://www.double-forte.com/
• LinkedIn Personal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maggiezeman/
• LinkedIn Business: https://www.linkedin.com/company/double-forte/
• 3 Simple Things That Could Save the Wine Industry in 2024, with Maggie Zeman

Communications is the CENTER OF ALL THINGS. On the pod, Lee interviews interesting communications pros, CEOs, branding experts, and authors to bring key insights that can be used in the day to day to make your work, your PR, your marketing WORK. Occasionally, she goes it alone to share her thoughts and insights on key topics of the day in solo shows.

Today is a Solo Show with your host, Lee Caraher.

What you will learn in this episode:

• Why PR takes so long
• The role of Public Relations
• How PR is different from advertising and marketing
• What the timeline looks like to see results with PR and media relations
• How PR and strategic communications can create lasting results for your business if done correctly

Resources:

• Website: https://leecaraher.com/
• Website: www.double-forte.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leecaraher/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leecaraher
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LeeCaraher1/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/leecaraher

Maggie Zeman is the REAL DEAL and brings her energy, expertise and optimism to the table every single day.

She is SVP at Double Forte, and GM of the New York practice and the wine and spirits group, a practice she built from the ground up. Prior to Double Forte, Maggie founded a digital marketing and communications agency, growing the business to profitability before merging with Double Forte in 2011. She continues to drive corporate and brand communications leadership strategies while advising wine and spirits executives on strategic industry thought leadership, crisis management and elevated storytelling designed to build awareness and momentum for their businesses and brands.

Maggie serves as Vice Chair on the Board of Directors for the Alzheimer’s Association New York Chapter serving also as chair of the annual Walk to End Alzheimer’s and contributing to a 30% fundraising growth YOY from 2021 to 2022. Maggie is a sought-after speaker on wine and spirit industry trends, media training, and digital marketing.

What you will learn in this episode:

• What makes wine PR different from PR work in other industries
• How to get a job in wine PR
• Why education is absolutely crucial for working in the wine industry
• How wines are scored and what that means for distribution
• Why you need to be deeply interested in wine if you want to get into the industry

Resources:

• Website: http://www.double-forte.com/
• LinkedIn Personal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maggiezeman/
• LinkedIn Business: https://www.linkedin.com/company/double-forte/
• WSET Resources: https://www.wsetglobal.com/

Maggie Zeman is the REAL DEAL and brings her energy, expertise and optimism to the table every single day.

She is SVP at Double Forte, and GM of the New York practice and the wine and spirits group, a practice she built from the ground up. Prior to Double Forte, Maggie founded a digital marketing and communications agency, growing the business to profitability before merging with Double Forte in 2011. She continues to drive corporate and brand communications leadership strategies while advising wine and spirits executives on strategic industry thought leadership, crisis management and elevated storytelling designed to build awareness and momentum for their businesses and brands.

Maggie serves as Vice Chair on the Board of Directors for the Alzheimer’s Association New York Chapter serving also as chair of the annual Walk to End Alzheimer’s and contributing to a 30% fundraising growth YOY from 2021 to 2022. Maggie is a sought-after speaker on wine and spirit industry trends, media training, and digital marketing.

What you will learn in this episode:

• Why the State of the US Wine Industry Report from SVB is a wakeup call to wine businesses and the industry as a whole
• Where opportunities exist for wine companies to gain traction and turn around a stagnant market
• Why education, communication, and innovation should be at the forefront of the wine industry to shift demand
• How shifting demographics are impacting the wine industry, and Maggie’s expertise on how businesses can attract younger audiences to improve the current 0% growth the industry is facing
• Why internal communication should be at the forefront of all business plans before taking the message public

Resources:

• Website: http://www.double-forte.com/
• LinkedIn Personal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maggiezeman/
• LinkedIn Business: https://www.linkedin.com/company/double-forte/

Alex McKinnon is a visionary leader in inspiring teams to build brand value through strategic innovation in design and marketing across products and services globally at start-ups to billion-dollar companies.

Over the past 30+ years Alex has leveraged his innovation expertise to solve increasingly complex problems. His BA at Duke and MBA from Northwestern’s Kellogg School were a solid foundation.

His formative years in Design and Marketing in Spain were at Sara Lee and then Braun. Ten more years at Braun included roles of increasing global responsibility in Germany, Scandinavia, and USA, achieving record growth in the health and oral care businesses.

Running Gillette’s toiletries business broadened his consumable products expertise. His subsequent leadership roles at Bell Sports, Sylvan Learning, and Hampton Products gave him invaluable middle market and private equity exposure and success. The last ten years have been exceptionally rewarding as Alex conceived, founded, and launched the award winning Kinn brand of pet care products across B2B and B2C channels.

What you will learn in this episode:

• What alarming research results led to the design and creation of the Kleanbowl from Alex’s company, Kinn Inc.
• How the Kinn Kleanbowl offers a quadruple bottom line value proposition for pets, people, planet, and profit
• What inspired Alex to write the article for Private Directors Association
• The Five Cs for Storytelling as a Communications Strategy
• Building brand value through strategic innovation
• Why great storytelling can become a cornerstone of company culture

Resources:

• Website: https://kinninc.com/
• LinkedIn Personal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amckinnon/
• LinkedIn Business: https://www.linkedin.com/company/kinn-inc-/
• Private Directors Association: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/private-directors-association%C2%AE-charlotte-chapter_shareyourstory-privatedirectorsassociation-activity-7147994980546969600-0JXX?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

Lisen Stromberg is CEO of PrismWork, a culture innovation and leadership transformation consultancy providing C-suite executives, start-up entrepreneurs, and leaders across the globe with the data-driven insights and tools they need to achieve breakthrough success and impact.

Lisen is also a best-selling author, award-winning writer, and in-demand speaker who has been on stage at numerous high-profile conferences around the globe including SXSW, Cannes Lions, and at companies including Microsoft, Twitter, and many others. Her latest best-selling book, Intentional Power: The 6 Essential Leadership Skills for Triple Bottom Line Impact, provides leaders at every level with the tools and insights they need to drive better business results for the benefit of all stakeholders.

Lisen has served on numerous non-profit and start-up boards. When she isn't working with clients or speaking on stage, Lisen co-teaches a class at Stanford University on leadership in the new world of work. She earned her BA at Dartmouth College, has an MBA from UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business, and an MFA from Mills College.

What you will learn in this episode:

• The conflict between what people think leadership is vs. what it actually needs to be
• What attributes are at the core essence of modern leadership
• Why communication is not just the words you use, and other components of communicating intentionally
• Why the idea of transparency in communication is challenging for some employers
• How you can uplevel your power skills

Resources:

• Website: https://www.lisenstromberg.com/
• Website: https://www.prismwork.com/
• LinkedIn Personal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisenstromberg/
• LinkedIn Business: https://www.linkedin.com/company/prismwork/
• Intentional Power:The 6 Essential Skills for Triple Bottom Line Impact

Sharon Toerek is Founder of Toerek Law, where she leads her national law practice on helping advertising, marketing and creative services professionals protect and monetize their intellectual capital and manage the legal implications of their marketing and advertising work. Sharon provides proactive, strategic counsel to communications, marketing, advertising and creative agencies on legal and business issues they face continually in their work, including:

-agency-client relationships, including agency service contracts -agency-freelancer relationship management -trademark and brand protection matters -influence marketing, social media and content marketing legal compliance -copyright protection, licensing and transfer of creative content -advertising law

Sharon is an approved participant on the 4A’s Legal Consultants Panel, and a Past President of the American Ad Federation (AAF) Cleveland.

Sharon is also the Publisher of the marketing industry legal blog Legal + Creative. Sharon created the Legal + Creative Agency Protection System, a comprehensive legal education resource and toolkit for marketing, ad and creative services agencies. She is also the creator and host of The Innovative Agency, a podcast about innovation and trends in the marketing agency world.

What you will learn in this episode:

• Why you need professional legal (and accounting) support so you can put your full focus on running a good service business
• What you can learn about a potential client during the negotiation process
• The 3Ds – creating a strong statement of work around your Dollars, Deadlines, and Deliverables
• How to approach the topic of AI in your contracts and discussions
• Why clarity at the beginning of a relationship is so vital to success

Resources:

• Website: legalandcreative.com
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharontoerek/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/SharonToerek
• The Innovative Agency Podcast
• www.agencylegalprotection.com
• [email protected]
• [email protected]