Then they go home, close their laptops, and leave their own LinkedIn profiles untouched for four months.

That contradiction was at the center of a recent episode of Cracking the Comms Code, where Proven Media Solutions founder Dustin Siggins sat down with Brendan Watts, Director of PR and Communications at Storyblok; Jacqueline Martinez, President and Chief Communications Officer at Digital HQ; and Noah Greenberg, CEO of Stacker. 

The topic was how PR professionals can build their personal brands and the uncomfortable finding was that most aren’t doing it.

The skills transfer perfectly

Jacqueline said it directly: “You already know what to do. You’ve just always done it for everybody else.”

Think about what a strong LinkedIn presence actually requires. A clear point of view. Consistent messaging. An understanding of your audience and what they want to hear. The ability to turn an insight or an experience into something worth reading. The discipline to show up regularly. PR professionals develop all of these skills on behalf of clients. Why not apply the same skills to their own career?

Dustin made a similar point from his own experience. When he transitioned from political journalism to running his own company, he had no idea what to post about. His father’s advice was simple: write things down throughout the day as they come to you, then once a week, sit down and pull out the best ones. That’s a content strategy. It’s also exactly what communicators do when they’re building a messaging calendar for a client.

What “building your brand” actually means

One point the panel was quick to correct: personal branding on LinkedIn is not self-promotion. 

Brendan’s most-engaged posts have nothing to do with his employer. They’re about how he thinks about his work – the process behind a campaign, an observation about the industry, a lesson from something that went sideways. “People sense they don’t want you to sell them,” he said. “But if I talk about how we planned a campaign rather than promoting it, it pops off.” Noah’s top-performing post of all time was a breakdown of how he’d approach getting a product’s first hundred customers – actionable, generous, no pitch attached.

PR professionals constantly write thought leadership for clients. They ghostwrite op-eds, develop executive voices, and shape how a CEO comes across in an interview. The same instincts apply on LinkedIn – the only difference is whose name goes on it.

Jacqueline’s framing was useful here. A client of hers in the public sector had built a consistent LinkedIn presence around his work and his thinking. When he walked into the governor’s office to meet the chief of staff for the first time, that chief of staff pulled out a book the client had recommended on LinkedIn weeks earlier. The client came back to Jacqueline, saying he was walking into rooms where his reputation preceded him. “We are warming these rooms for our clients,” she said. “Why wouldn’t we be warming these rooms for ourselves?”

The mechanics are the same, too

The tactical elements of LinkedIn success map almost exactly onto what communications professionals already practice.

The hook – the first two or three lines before someone hits “read more” – is a lede. Noah said it deserves as much attention as the rest of the post combined, because it determines whether 100 people see the content or 1,000. Any PR professional who has written a pitch email or a press release knows how to write a lede.

Commenting on other people’s posts is relationship-building and source cultivation. Jacqueline makes 10 to 15 substantive comments a day, not to drive traffic back to her own profile, but to stay connected, add value, and keep relationships warm. That’s account management. Noah noted that a thoughtful comment shows up in connections’ feeds – it’s essentially a post with lower stakes, and it’s a natural starting point for anyone not yet comfortable publishing original content.

Content planning is already in the toolkit. Brendan keeps a running text document – currently over 560 items – of observations, one-liners, and passing thoughts that he draws from when it’s time to post. It’s a source list. PR professionals maintain those for clients all the time.

Even the question of what to post answers itself through a PR lens. Dustin described a lobbyist whose organization had just secured a White House meeting on a low-profile bill. The instinct was to announce it. The better post, as Dustin reframed it, was: “Here are five things we did to get a White House meeting that had nothing to do with Venezuela, immigration, or government shutdowns.” Don’t just report the win. Explain the strategy behind it. That’s the difference between a press release and a story – and PR professionals know how to tell stories.

Why it matters now

The stakes are real and getting higher. Brendan is about to hire two PR professionals. Before he opens a job description, he’s already on LinkedIn. What he’s finding is that 95% of candidates have profiles that are effectively empty – recycled company posts, a CV-style about section, nothing that shows how they think. He said: “You’re being hired to do this for your execs and your company and immediately I have a bad taste in my mouth.”

Noah told us that for every hiring manager doing this consciously, there are probably a hundred doing it without realizing it. People posting regularly have built familiarity and credibility before the first conversation happens. The people who aren’t posting start at a disadvantage that they may not even know exists.

PR professionals have spent careers making other people visible, credible, and worth listening to. The tools are the same. The platform is the same. The only thing that needs to change is realizing who the client is: themselves. 

Catch the full conversation in the video below.

But hourly-based billing also punishes the best performers, rewards the least productive, and incentivizes tension, wasted time, and dishonesty. It’s a system based on time, not value.

It’s always been a broken model. And on a recent Cracking the Comms Code panel, Proven Media Solutions founder Dustin Siggins, Gregory FCA founder Greg Matusky, and SKDK Managing Director Mark DeVito explained how AI may finally finish it off for good.

Why hourly billing is flawed

Hourly billing operates on a simple principle: time equals value. But what about the brilliant idea that arrives in the shower or on a bike ride? What about the one great email that lands a major placement, compared to the ten mediocre ones that go nowhere?

Under the hourly model, the person who sends more emails gets paid more, even if the results are worse. The efficient, knowledgeable practitioner — the one who knows what not to do — ends up being paid less.

It also drains management’s time. Project billing means sending a straightforward invoice for the agreed-upon scope of work. Hourly billing means tracking every minute, verifying every line, and building an algebraic equation just to justify the bill.

It’s exhausting and highly inefficient. And in the era of AI, that inefficiency is even harder to defend. Firms that invest in people, systems, and processes can now produce high-quality content not in days or weeks, but in minutes and hours.

Experience proves value matters more than time

Mark DeVito has lived both sides of the billing debate. Early in his career, agency life revolved around time tracking, budgets, and statements of work measured in six-minute increments. The system created discipline — but it also limited creativity.

Over time, he realized clients didn’t want hours. They wanted partnership. The best campaigns came from collaboration and flexibility, not rigid timekeeping. When agencies are free to focus on discovery — understanding a client’s goals, audiences, and risks — they build more effective strategies.

That discovery process doesn’t fit neatly into a timesheet. It depends on trust and senior judgment — exactly what hourly billing discourages. Value-based relationships, by contrast, let agencies spend their energy defining success rather than defending invoices.

AI makes that shift even more critical. While machines can generate drafts or surface insights, they can’t guide tone, weigh reputational risk, or make judgment calls under pressure. Clients still rely on the human side of communications — the experience and intuition that no algorithm can replicate.

Creating quality content faster

The same truth applies to content creation. At Proven Media Solutions, the team recently saw how AI magnifies value-based work when a client needed five authors secured — and op-eds written and placed for each one — under a tight deadline.

Before AI, that assignment would have taken several days and multiple team members working late nights. With AI integrated into the workflow, each first draft took about twenty minutes. The team then ran its standard editing, fact-checking, and approval process. The result: five polished op-eds delivered in half the time — and a client who saw the value of speed without sacrificing quality.

Under hourly billing, that efficiency would have reduced revenue. Under value-based pricing, it generated bonuses from the client.

Great AI outcomes require smart investments

Not all AI adoption looks the same. Many assume AI-generated content means generic outputs — the kind that read like someone simply pasted a prompt into ChatGPT and hit send. But firms that invest strategically in AI are already proving the opposite.

Gregory FCA, for instance, trained its entire team on AI tools and rebuilt internal workflows from the ground up. The payoff: a 13% increase in revenue per employee. The firm also invested $100,000 to develop Crisis Calm, a proprietary AI platform that produces full-scale crisis response plans in minutes.

The platform guides communicators through tone, stakeholders, risk levels, and messaging — delivering holding statements, talking points, and letters to regulators in a fraction of the time it once took.

That speed doesn’t cheapen the work — it enhances it. Hourly billing would punish producing weeks of crisis strategy in minutes. Under value-based billing, that innovation is rewarded.

The bottom line

AI has ended any illusion that time equals value. The old hourly billing model never made sense, and now its flaws are undeniable. AI has killed it, creating more value for everyone – clients and practitioners alike.

See the entire discussion about how AI is killing hourly billing below.

As technology and science editor for two of the United Kingdom’s largest media brands – The Sun and Metro – Hamill spearheaded global teams whose stories reached tens of millions of readers. His work has also appeared in Forbes, The New York Post, and other international publications. As a consultant, Hamill has created content for global consultancies such as McKinsey, Accenture, and EY, and contracted with British agencies like Eclat and Code Red.

At Proven Media Solutions, Hamill will lead all content and media operations – from crafting and editing op-eds and press releases to pitching journalists, securing interviews, and building long-term media relationships.

“Jasper has worked on the front lines of journalism and content strategy for decades,” said Dustin Siggins, founder of Proven Media Solutions. “He knows how to turn ideas into stories that win coverage, change perceptions, and make real differences in the world. He’s the right person to elevate our entire media operation as we continue to serve clients across industries.”

Hamill added: “I’ve spent my career telling stories that matter for global media outlets and other companies shaping the future. Proven Media Solutions has built something special: a team that truly understands how to bridge the gap between what brands want to say and what their audiences need to hear. I’m excited to be part of that mission and looking forward to turning clients’ big ideas into impactful headlines.”

Proven Media Solutions is a public relations and public affairs firm that specializes in putting people in the press.

A former political director for then-New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez, Banegas brings more than a decade of experience running influence and multi-media campaigns, including leading Hispanic outreach initiatives in 33 states. 

“The intersection of politics and business is becoming more complex by the year,” said Dustin Siggins, founder of Proven Media Solutions. “Our clients need to be ready not when something happens, but weeks and months in advance. Jordan’s experience helping governors, businesses, and grassroots advocates win in the court of public opinion and in the halls of government will help our clients understand what’s coming and how to capitalize on opportunities presented.”

Banegas began his career as Regional Political Director for New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez, the nation’s first female Hispanic governor, where he oversaw operations in 18 counties. After relocating to Washington, D.C., he spent nearly eight years at Stand Together Communications and The Institute for Justice, directing multi-state campaigns that reduced regulatory burdens for small businesses, expanded educational opportunities for families, and advanced economic liberty across the country.

In addition to his political and policy work, Banegas co-founded an NIL collective at the Division I (FBS) level, where he and his team oversee relationships with hundreds of student-athletes. 

“I’m excited to bring my experience building coalitions and running campaigns to Proven Media Solutions’ clients,” said Banegas. “From small business owners to national nonprofits, the key to success is the same: creating a clear narrative that aligns stakeholders on a single objective. My job is to create that streamlined client communication no matter what vertical or outcome.”

Banegas will help lead account management at Proven Media Solutions, focusing on client strategy, content development, and operational efficiency.

Proven Media Solutions is a public relations and public affairs firm that specializes in putting people in the press.

That’s why it’s critical for communicators to demonstrate forward-looking capabilities and strategic insights long before they apply for a job. Executives are looking for people who can drive business value and fit well into company culture.

Proven Media Solutions recently hosted two panels that tie these issues together. The first featured ITR Economics’ Mike Feuz, KCPartners founder Brooke Kruger, and DHR Corporate Affairs Managing Partner Jessica Bayer, who laid out what job seekers must understand about today’s cautious but growing hiring market. The second panel — with Notably co-founder Carin Warner, executive coach Scott Monty, and Hitachi Industrial Equipment Systems Chief Communications Officer Stephanie Roberts — dug into how communicators prove their value once inside the organization, guiding leaders through brand building, crisis response, and major transitions.

The Macro Picture: Growth With Caution

At the macroeconomic level, Feuz pointed out that leading indicators remain strong. Revenue growth is accelerating across sectors, which historically leads to more hiring. Despite tariff-driven uncertainty and a sluggish 2024, the fundamentals are improving.

The mismatch comes from psychology. Professionals compare today’s steady growth to the “sugar rush” after the pandemic — when companies threw money into the economy and hiring exploded. Additionally, people tend to look at lagging indicators like job numbers, even though the long-term trajectory is positive.

Kruger and Bayer described a hiring market defined by caution. Employers know they need communications talent, but they are reluctant to make mistakes. Interviews are longer, reference checks are deeper, and roles often stay open too long as companies wait for the “perfect” candidate.

That caution translates into frustration for applicants. Qualified professionals may go six, twelve, or eighteen months without landing a full-time role, despite deep experience. Hiring managers are also turning to contract-to-hire arrangements to reduce risk. For job seekers, contract work may open the door to a permanent seat.

Four Takeaways for Job Seekers

1. Labor costs are rising. Employers are investing in the right senior staff because retaining employees is cheaper than replacing them. Internal communications is especially valued as companies work to keep teams engaged and loyal. Bring the data to the interview!

2. Comms and government affairs overlap. Political uncertainty and tariff battles have elevated the need for communicators who understand policy. Professionals who can bridge external messaging with public affairs have an edge.

3. Your network matters more than LinkedIn applications. Online postings often attract hundreds of applicants, and resumes vanish into applicant-tracking black holes. Referrals and personal outreach are far more effective. And remember that your network is probably a lot bigger and more impactful than you realize.

4. LinkedIn is for storytelling. Don’t just post updates — use LinkedIn posts to demonstrate how you solve problems and engage thoughtfully on other people’s posts, Your voice, not just your resume, builds credibility.

From the Seat at the Table to Guiding the Table

The first panel showed that communicators are no longer just messengers. They have a seat at the table — influencing strategy, shaping narratives, and guiding leaders through uncertainty. But the real test of leadership comes when the strategy shifts: building the brand itself, navigating a crisis, or steering through executive transitions. That’s where the second panel comes in, showing how communicators translate credibility into influence once they’re inside the room.

Brand Strategy: The Story Behind the Logo

Building a company’s brand today is inseparable from the people who lead it. Roberts explained how guiding a new CEO through cultural and geographic transitions required weaving in personal experiences, not just company values. Monty’s Ford experience underscored the same point: even in a century-old brand, the CEO became the chief storyteller, humanizing Ford in 2008, when the company was facing enormous pressure from Congress. Warner highlighted that founders often struggle to answer a simple but essential question: What do you want to be known for?

Crisis: When Leadership Is the Message

Crises test whether leaders and brands are credible. Monty’s account of Ford’s response during the 2008 financial collapse showed how humanized leadership — from caravan road trips to congressional testimony — reframed the company’s story in the public eye. Roberts shared how in Japan, trust and relatability mattered as much as strategy when explaining tariff impacts. Warner pointed out that sometimes the CEO should not be the spokesperson — especially when their presence risks implying fault. Choosing the right messenger at the right moment can preserve credibility while still showing empathy and action.

Transitions: Balancing Legacy and Change

Perhaps the hardest challenge is guiding leaders through transitions — whether it’s a new CEO, a generational shift in leadership, or a brand refresh. Roberts described how Hitachi’s first non-Japanese CEO required careful storytelling to earn trust internally and externally. Monty emphasized consistency: repeating a clear and compelling vision until it cascades through every level of the organization. Warner pointed to Red Wing Shoes’ new fourth-generation CEO as a rare case where personal passion and company heritage align perfectly, making the leader herself the brand’s most powerful ambassador.

Conclusion: The Roadmap for Communicators in 2025 & 2026

Both panels bring a similar message: communications professionals have to guide long before the strategy is implemented. Bring the data, showcase your expertise, and speak C-Suite. Earn the seat at the table during the interview and even more so after you’ve arrived at it.

But credibility doesn’t happen on its own — it requires curiosity to uncover the story and empathy to make it resonate.

Here’s how two recent Proven Media Solutions panels provided the formula for the future of public relations – using curiosity and empathy to uncover stories that build trust and have long-term impact with AI algorithms.

Advertising’s Strengths, Earned Media’s Staying Power

While advertising can deliver speed and precision – as well as the certainty of paying for access – earned media delivers reputation, trust, and validation from third parties who cannot be bought. And Nicole Tidei of Pinkston, Sarah Groves of Sentir Consulting, and Jennifer Bowcock of RealPage all agreed that the validation is far more important for long-term brand credibility, especially when crises are waiting around every corner.

Advertising’s results are easy to quantify. Earned media’s value can feel harder to capture. That’s why panelists highlighted “talkability” — the cultural impact of being part of the conversation. Bowcock pointed out that Cracker Barrel’s controversial rebranding drove conversation that reignited consumer attention. That spark is hard to measure – and we don’t yet know if it lit a harmful or helpful fire – but being part of the conversation is important.

The rise of AI is blurring the distinction further. Earned placements fuel the datasets behind ChatGPT and Gemini. Paid opportunities increasingly resemble journalism, with sponsored Forbes and Insider “insights.” Inside corporations, communications and marketing roles are merging into single growth functions. The implication is clear: silos are outdated. Campaigns succeed when earned and paid work together.

Clarity is King

At their core, though, campaigns succeed or fail on clarity. What is the single main idea? What is the value proposition? If leaders can’t reduce a message to one sentence and define an audience in three traits, they aren’t ready to spend on the promise they’re making to the world.

And that promise is key. They’re built on uncovering the right words from the right people, and delivering them to target audiences the right way.

In other words: curiosity to pull out the story and empathy to deliver it. Which was the topic of another recent panel, featuring Lizzy Harris of The Colab and consultants Joshua Mansbach and Reid Wegley.

Why Curiosity and Empathy Matter

Empathy begins with people. Every relationship — from hiring to media pitching — depends on understanding motivations, pressures, and goals. A campaign isn’t about what a company wants to say; it’s about what audiences need to hear. That also includes empathy for the journalist. Don’t flood inboxes; carefully select who to contact and why. Help them do their job better in an era when media outlets are slashing budgets and closing doors.

Curiosity is the “data” of communications. Asking “why” and “how” uncovers the insights that shape strategy. It creates deep dives into a story to find the nugget…and the ability to deliver the nugget to the right people the right way. Even when a product or mission isn’t inherently exciting, curiosity uncovers compelling angles. Siggins highlighted a past client whose VP described its product as “boring.” But curiosity revealed that company was providing lifelines to struggling small businesses that wait months for government payments. That reframing, paired with empathy for those clients, created a campaign.

Can They Be Learned?

One major discussion was whether curiosity and empathy are innate or can be developed. Empathy requires vulnerability, something many professionals resist. Yet skills like listening, reflection, and perspective-taking can be taught and refined.

The distinction matters because communications without empathy risks becoming transactional. Listening with intent, making others feel important, and asking questions that show genuine interest turns tactics into trust.

It’s up to communications leaders to train team members on how curiosity and empathy are part of their success. Everyone learns differently, so leaders must apply these principles to the training. The passionate political activist making a professional transition to B2B public relations may not feel excited about lending, but will they be excited to achieve the client’s goal, or the challenge of breaking through the media noise?

And whether it’s with team members, the media, or clients – doing homework, listening, and coming prepared signal respect. And as Albert Einstein put it: “I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.”

From advertising to earned media, from strategy to storytelling, the throughline is unmistakable: PR is people-first. Budgets, campaigns, and AI tools may shift the landscape, but credibility, trust, and influence rest on human connection. Advertising accelerates awareness. Earned validates trust. Curiosity uncovers the story. Empathy ensures it resonates.

The answer is…it depends. On a lot. So, Proven Media Solutions founder Dustin Siggins hosted a wide-ranging discussion about it with Evan Boyer, founder & CEO of Leaders PR who was until this summer a Senior VP at FleishmanHillard; and Dave Dziok, managing director at Narrative Strategies with prior experience at Edelman.

Together, they broke down what clients, leaders, and staff really gain — and lose — depending on agency size.

From the Client’s Seat

Big agencies impress at first glance. They attract seasoned pros, sometimes with decades of experience, and they have the analytics arms, global media lists, and heavyweight closers clients crave in high-stakes situations. When a multinational CEO needs crisis counsel, the big firms have lots of people who have been there before.

But clients also often discover that those senior names in the pitch aren’t the ones handling their daily calls. Work gets delegated to junior staff while retainers soar. That’s where boutiques thrive. A smaller shop may lack the flash — no 60-slide decks or armies of junior staff — but they move faster, pivot easier, and put principals directly on the case.

Yet many small agencies try to match the “flash” of the bigger ones. All the panelists agreed that it was the wrong move. As Siggins, who runs a seven-person company, put it, “You’re not going to waste time with us. We set clear goals before the first meeting and then go straight to execution.”

The Agency Leader’s Lens

For agency leaders, the trade-offs are stark.

At Narrative Strategies, Dziok has watched headcount quadruple in four years. Growth brings opportunity — new verticals, new specialties, new credibility — but it also forces structure that the company didn’t have in prior years.

For Boyer, leaving a global giant to launch his own shop meant trading vast resources for control and freedom. He’s back to building media lists himself, pitching reporters directly, and enjoying the scrappy side of PR he hadn’t touched in years. Meetings took him away from what he loved.

The upside is agility; the downside is that he’s figuring out exactly what is the best use of his time with so many needs handled by just one person.

And for Siggins, growth has been about resisting the urge to look bigger than reality. “Specialization,” he said, “is the small agency’s superpower. You can’t do everything, but you can do one thing better than anyone else.”

Life for the Staff

The strengths and weaknesses of small and big agencies are also acutely experienced at the staff level.

At a big firm, the path is often siloed. Young hires enter through healthcare, energy, or tech teams — and quickly become subject-matter experts. But that expertise can also be a cage. Many find themselves in “meeting hell,” managing instead of executing, and rarely touching work outside their niche.

At smaller firms, staff wear every hat at once. One week it’s pitching reporters, the next it’s drafting op-eds, the next it’s analyzing coverage reports. That variety accelerates growth, but there’s a ceiling — only so many titles exist in a shop of five or six.

For ambitious professionals, this creates a real tension. At a boutique, the broad exposure can sharpen judgment and build resilience faster than at a big agency. But the lack of clear ladders can be frustrating, pushing talented staff to jump ship after a few years. Conversely, large firms offer structured career paths and world-class training — yet those benefits can come at the cost of creativity, autonomy, and the simple joy of executing the craft.

Dave Dziok pointed out that this is the tightrope leaders must manage. Narrative Strategies launched an “accelerator program” to give staff mentorship and growth opportunities outside their silos. “We want people to touch many different issues,” he said, “but as we grow, we also have to bring in subject-matter experts who can go deep. It’s a balance between keeping people versatile and giving them a clear path forward.”

Both paths demand trade-offs that are as personal as they are professional. Some thrive in the predictability of scale; others want the messier but more flexible environment of a smaller shop. In the end, the “right” agency for staff isn’t about prestige or size, but about whether the culture matches their appetite for risk, responsibility, and growth.

The Takeaway

Big agencies bring stability, resources, and credibility. Small agencies bring agility, intimacy, and focus. Mid-size firms straddle the line, offering scale without losing every ounce of speed.

There is no single “winner” in this debate. The right choice depends on whether a client values reach or responsiveness, breadth or depth.

Because in PR, agility and a deep bench aren’t opposites. They’re trade-offs — and agencies help clients determine which ones clients need most.

Watch the full discussion below:

What’s left are fragmented messaging, internal friction, and missed opportunities – chaos that impacts the organization’s bottom line at a time when trust is fragile and reputations are easily damaged.

There’s no silver bullet to overcoming the chaos. But on a recent panel hosted by Proven Media Solutions founder Dustin Siggins, three corporate strategists showed how to create alignment so that the entire communications team is hitting on all cylinders.

Building the scaffolding of success

Success doesn’t happen by having an ego or guessing at what’s happening among stakeholders. Nifares Group founder Wendy Serafin said that her most effective corporate communications roles start with a listening tour, crafting a message map based on how stakeholders talk about the brand to truly understand what the brand should be – and what is required to get there so consistent narratives are represented by everyone in their own voice.

Next, it’s time to make sure that everyone in the communications department sees where they add the most value, from the drumbeat to specific campaigns. TAG – The Aspen Group Senior Vice President of Communications Jennifer George said her team uses dashboards that align internal teams around reputation metrics, blending qualitative and quantitative data to drive home value to each other and to the C-Suite.

And since it’s rare that large organizations rely solely on internal teams, Reputation Partners Executive Vice President Andrew Moyer said agencies should act as partners instead of vendors – asking key questions and providing insights that can be gleaned as the outside team members.

Once the structure’s in place, it’s time to show the value of comms throughout the entire organization – from the front line to the C-Suite. That requires seeing around corners, aligning other departments before they cause friction, and creating narratives that are customized to every level of every function.

Finally, comms must move externally. Tools like ChatGPT and Claude are reshaping what audiences learn. They don’t pull from the best story—they pull from the most structured one. That means FAQs, earned media, and high-authority pages carry disproportionate weight, so AI-friendly strategies must be balanced with user-friendly content.

Seamless communications to impact the bottom line

In 2025, trust is fragile and reputations can crash in a moment. Marketing’s data is hollow without public relations’ storytelling – and PR’s traditionally soft value is quantitatively proven through marketing’s tools and capabilities.

Read our short blog post about how PR and marketing can create surround-sound marketing and branding outcomes, and watch the entire dynamic panel conversation below.

“Mary Beth is a home run hire,” said founder Dustin Siggins. “She has spent 15 years developing a mastery of fundamental storytelling critical to helping our clients make an impact. And our clients will appreciate the breadth of her experience across the news, public relations, and book publishing industries.”

“I’m looking forward to helping industry experts turn their expertise into genuine thought leadership,” said Giltner. “Writing isn’t just putting words on a screen – it’s about going beneath the surface to help people understand what they want to say and then turning it into content that will resonate with the right audiences.”

Giltner has spent over 15 years in writing and editing. She was Managing Editor for Regnery Publishing, America’s largest conservative book publisher, before turning to op-eds as an Associate Editor for The Washington Times and as a staff writer for the public relations firm Pinkston. At Our Sunday Visitor, she spent nine years overseeing the entire book publishing process, from recruiting authors to ensuring book launch campaign success.

Proven Media Solutions is a public relations and public affairs firm that specializes in putting people in the press.