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  • Episode show notes:

    Welcome to another episode of Just Checking In! Today our guest is Judy Shaw, the person in charge of corporate communications connected to listings and media relations at the New York Stock Exchange. She is also the host of "What's the Fund?" and one of our personal favorites, "NYSE Floor Talk," where she has conducted interviews with some of the most well-known CEOs, celebrities, athletes, Oscar winners, and VIPs of all time. This expert in comms with more than 25 years of experience, joins the conversation to talk how she achieved her big city dream, how to use media to showcase companies in creative ways, how the “NYSE Floor Talk” was born, plus some crazy stories from the trading floor.

    Join technology comms pros Becky Buckman and Keyana Corliss as they cut to the heart of today’s tech-news cycle and the general craziness that is high-tech corporate communications right now. With a short, not-too-serious take on the industry - with plenty of humor and irony thrown in - they’ll bring you the best in the biz, across comms and media together, for one-of-a-kind insights and perspectives you won’t hear anywhere else!

    Jump straight into:

    01:06 - Becky’s latest podcast obsession - “It’s called Bone Valley. Have you heard of it?” 

    02:52 - The power of storytelling in the comms industry - “You have to be a really good storyteller to do well in this role.” 

    04:21 - Introducing Judy Shaw -  “We have Judy Shaw on the show today. I think she's actually done an incredible job of turning what's supposed to be sort of like a financial transaction, right? Buy my stock. Sell my stock. It's the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. She's brought storytelling down to the New York Stock Exchange.”

    08:34 - Judy’s story, from law to media relations - “ I started working in the general counsel's office as an admin, and I was like ‘wow, I'm here, here I am’, and then I was like, ‘oh, general counsel, admin’, not all the fun and excitement, you know, of the New York Stock Exchange”

    13:58 - Creative ways to showcase companies - “ Through the years, you know, we've had many different things that have happened here on the floor, you name it, it's pretty much been done. Years and years ago where we had a horse on the floor.”

    17:35 - The birth of NYSE Floor Talk - “An interview series where we were gonna focus on all the amazing things that were happening here at the New York Stock Exchange. Talking to CEOs that are coming through the building, but not just limited to CEOs.”

    21:19 - How to work with other comms leads? -  “A lot of times, you know, we'll just see kind of a blend of everything we're working together, right? Because we're all chasing that common goal, right? We want to maximize on, on opportunities for the client.” 

    24:09 - Memories from NYSE Floor Talk - “ I took a picture with him and then just a few years ago when he won the Oscar with Lady Gaga, it was a whole big thing with Lady Gaga. So I then said ‘oh, let me post my picture with Bradley Cooper.’”

    28:05 - Judy’s 9/11 experience - “The markets are resilient and they're remaining open. And that's a very important day here at the NYSE, you know, for the trading floor. And we market every year. And it really means a lot to everyone that was here on the floor during that time. You know, that changed the world at that point.”

    Episode resources:

    Judy Shaw’s LinkedIn, Twitter and

  • Episode show notes:

    Welcome to another episode of Just Checking In! Today our guest is Jennie Blumenthal, bestselling author of Corporate Rehab, a book focused on a topic that is likely very relevant to many of our listeners: burnout and the “hustle culture” that is so pervasive in our industry today.  Jennie spent many years as a top executive working with Fortune 500 companies, traveling frequently, and being away from her family. But one day, she had the realization that maybe she wasn't as happy as she thought she was. This expert today joins us to talk about the toxic side of hustle culture, the definition of burnout, the behind-the-scenes of her book, and how she became a coach executive that helps companies to go through a corporate rehab and start thriving. 

    Join technology comms pros Becky Buckman and Keyana Corliss as they cut to the heart of today’s tech-news cycle and the general craziness that is high-tech corporate communications right now. With a short, not-too-serious take on the industry - with plenty of humor and irony thrown in - they’ll bring you the best in the biz, across comms and media together, for one-of-a-kind insights and perspectives you won’t hear anywhere else!

    Jump straight into:

    01:05 - Keyana’s connection to Jennie - “When I talked to Jenny for the first time, it was like she peered into my soul.”

    02:32 - Women in tech & burnout - “In light of some of the things we've seen in the news over the last, like six months, even week about really prominent women in our industry in tech, taking a step back.”

    07:58 -  For Fortune 500 execute to burnout -  “The longer I had to sit in the quiet of how exactly did I get here and how when I was building this life, that's everything we're taught to go after and women can be anything. How did I wind up in a place where I felt so empty? and I felt like. This wasn't what I wanted”

    10:04 - The toxic side of hustle culture - “We get caught in this, ‘I have to keep going’,  ‘I have to go even faster’, and then our relaxation time doesn't actually refuel us. It's just another way of overstimulation.”

    12:13 - What’s burnout? - “We're all part of. So it's not just you aren't doing it right and if you just run faster, you'll outrun your burnout. It's something that's increasing in the pace within our own culture.”

    15:00 - Women burnout stories - “And as I started talking to other women and they started contributing their stories, I was shocked at how much we'll tolerate before, we'll actually seek help or try to find a solution.”

     18:10 - Intro to hustle culture research - “ It really was this constant performance and productivity mentality, that I noticed across, and that was the first piece. The second really was really got what got me to this whole concept of going from survival into thriving, and that is survival mentality is really based on the scarcity mentality.” 

    23:11 - Corporate rehab -  “It's about, is understanding what are the patterns and the mindsets and the behaviors that you're wired for or that you've picked up over time, might have served you earlier in your career. That it's time to reevaluate and sit down so that you can actually thrive.”

    30:03 - Burnout in comms departments - “We are not surgeons, no one dies. But there is still a lot of pressure, I think, in terms of the fact that our job does really, influence people's lives in a respect and there's a lot to that.”

    34:30 - The hardest part of healing -  “So much of what I would have said I missed were things that I found through my own healing journey, we're actually unhealthy attachments.”

    Episode resources:

    Jennie Blumenthal’s...

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  • Welcome to another episode of Just Checking In. Today our guest is Joe Williams, a tech writer, formerly of Bloomberg, Business Insider, and, most recently, Protocol. But with Protocol’s shutdown, Joe had time for us at JCI and offered us an interesting perspective on the state of the media today, including insights about how he likes to cover complicated, B2B technology stories. . This expert in covering wonky tech issues joins the conversation in this episode to talk about the landscape of media business models, the do’s and don'ts of covering technology issues, and how to craft a great story. Plus, he’s got an interesting viewpoint on  Elon’s Twitter.  

    Join technology comms pros Becky Buckman and Keyana Corliss as they cut to the heart of today’s tech-news cycle and the general craziness that is high-tech corporate communications right now. With a short, not-too-serious take on the industry - with plenty of humor and irony thrown in - they’ll bring you the best in the biz, across comms and media together, for one-of-a-kind insights and perspectives you won’t hear anywhere else!

    Jump straight into:

    03:31 - Catching up with Protocol shutdown - “The media is not immune to everything going on, and particularly when you're in a niche industry, or maybe not niche, but when you're a beat publication and the industry you're covering is going through a tough time, it's pretty evident that that's gonna filter down to you.” 

    07:39 - The landscape going forward for the media business - “I think fear that consumers aren't going to want to pay, I think it's misguided because I think they don't want to pay for journalism that they don't want or that they don't find useful.”

    09:20 - The model of self-started journalism - “I worry about kind of tunnel vision or I worry about not having that second set of eyes or that, that newsroom to kind of, you know, bounce ideas off of.”

    13:52 - What makes a good story within the tech comms industry - “ I think to still talk about it like it's some futuristic like Star Trek concept is really disadvantageous. And frankly, I think kind of insulting to the reader”

    26:23 -  The biggest tech comms PR turnoffs - “Companies now I think, always fear that reporters are always digging for something, which is funny to me cuz that's our job and that's what we should be doing.”

     28:47 - Joe’s refreshing perspective regarding Twitter - “It's a self-fulfilling cycle. He says something, we write about it, and he says something else. We write about it.  There has to be a breaking point that it's, you know, but I don't know what happens,  besides him shutting down the website.” 

    Episode resources:

    Joe Williams’s Twitter and LinkedIn

    Thank you for listening to Just Checking In by Battery Ventures. Go follow Becky and Keyana on social media to know more about them. If you enjoyed this show leave a review and help us find new audiences! 

    This show is produced by StudioPod Media in SanFrancisco. Teresa Buchanan is the Show’s Producer. Nicole Genova is the Show...

  • Today it’s time to check in with tech-focused TV news–specifically, the senior field producer for CNBC in San Francisco, Laura Batchelor. In today’s episode, you’ll hear all about Laura’s career, including how she got to San Francisco and first became a television producer. Also, Laura shares what it was like to broadcast news during quarantine, how comms pros should think about pitching stories for TV, versus print, and what it's really like to manage live TV shots when things sometimes (often?) go awry.

    Join technology comms pros Becky Buckman and Keyana Corliss as they cut to the heart of today’s tech-news cycle and the general craziness that is high-tech corporate communications right now. With a short, not-too-serious take on the industry - with plenty of humor and irony thrown in - they’ll bring you the best in the biz, across comms and media together, for one-of-a-kind insights and perspectives you won’t hear anywhere else!

    Jump straight into:

    00:52 - Becoming a very senior film producer: Laura’s fascinating professional journey - “So I got to work with Corey Johnson and Emily Chang and kind of really learn about the companies that are here, like the big ones, you know. Google and Facebook and Amazon.” 

    3:56 - Covering tech - “I mean right now it is. It is wild. I mean, there are like huge events. You know, the future of free speech could be like changed forever with Elon Musk at the helm of Twitter.”

    7:23 - Broadcasting news during Covid times - “So Covid was wild because being in broadcast news, like you're all always here in the studio, in the, in the control room.”

    11:57 - The unforgettable experiences in Laura’s career - “You know, this whole collapse of FTX has been, wild to watch and trying to get a better understanding from other CEOs of crypto exchanges.”

    16:18 - A little news you can use: How to pitch a broadcast - “Keep it super short. TV is so quick and snappy. So like, I always think like Keyana, when you would pitch me, it would be. Three sentences max, maybe just like a few keywords. And it was so great because I was like, oooh, I'm intrigued.”

    21:23 - What working live TV is like - “They had Stewart Butterfield on a live interview happening on tv, and Jared Leto decided to walk up and interrupt our live interview just to say hi to Mr. Stewart Butterfield because he was an investor and wanted to say hi.”

    Episode resources:

    Laura Bachelor Twitter and Linkedin

  • Episode show notes:

    Given the current market volatility, all tech companies are, in some sense, in unchartered waters–and comms departments are no exception. To get a better understanding of the current landscape, we’ve invited comms pro Sean Garrett, the founder of Mixing Board and the first communications hire at Twitter, to share his perspective. In this episode, you’ll hear about the genesis of Mixing Board and its business model; his experience with a previous consultancy, the Pramana Collective; Garrett’s take on the current Twitter saga (of course!); and his thoughts on how comms professionals can, and should, have a seat at the corporate decision-making table.

    Join technology comms pros Becky Buckman and Keyana Corliss as they cut to the heart of today’s tech-news cycle and the general craziness that is high-tech corporate communications right now. With a short, not-too-serious take on the industry - with plenty of humor and irony thrown in - they’ll bring you the best in the biz, across comms and media together, for one-of-a-kind insights and perspectives you won’t hear anywhere else!

    Jump straight into:

    02:01 - Stripe in the news and turbulent markets - “We always like to just talk a little bit about comms and technology or market topics before we dive in. And this week, I was thinking about Stripe...” 

    09:29 - Sean Garrett and Mixing Board - “So mixing board was kind of a way to completely shake up,  and bring the community into top comms and marketing leaders.”  

    17:04 - Difficult  times for comms - “I'm not sure what I could say about that to make it better besides the fact that like, if you can make it through this, you can make it through anything.”

    21:53 - It’s the inside that matters: The importance of internal comms - “Nine times out of 10, like whatever the end tactical problem was, it was almost always tied to some internal discombobulation.”

    30:48 - Twitter’s case: What to do when a leadership team doesn’t respect comms - “Obviously this is a communications platform, that like lives and breathes communications and is all about transparency. It's about openness.”

    35:34 - The power of comms - “I think like, you know, Brian Chesky kind of did this with Airbnb right after the pandemic started. Everyone praised that. I think certainly the messaging has been good on those kinds of notes.”

    45:58 - The media landscape in the tech industry - “It's intentional to like create those divisions because you're able to separate the different tribes of this world and now there's like a media tribe and that's counterbalanced with like this tech tribe.”

    48:53 - New York vs. San Francisco - “There's something very specific about the media industry in New York and their feelings toward this disruptive industry that impacts them specifically.”

    Episode resources:

    Sean Garrett’s Twitter and Linkedin

    Mixing Board

    Thank you for listening to Just Checking In by Battery Ventures. Go follow Becky and Keyana on social media to know more...

  • Episode show notes:

    Welcome to another episode of Just Checking In. Today our guest is noted tech journalist and author Brad Stone. As senior executive editor for global technology at Bloomberg News and author of books including The Everything Store and Amazon Unbound, Brad has followed Amazon’s and Jeff Bezos’s personal evolution. In this episode, you’ll hear about the profound changes Amazon and Bezos have gone through over the last 10 years, many of them related to the company’s near-compulsive need to innovate across industries and maintain a mindset Amazon calls “Day 1.” Finally, we discuss Amazon’s notoriously tough corporate culture and Bezos’s surprisingly sharp PR skills, deployed when an extra-marital affair sparked a high-profile media scandal.

    Join technology comms pros Becky Buckman and Keyana Corliss as they cut to the heart of today’s tech-news cycle and the general craziness that is high-tech corporate communications right now. With a short, not-too-serious take on the industry - with plenty of humor and irony thrown in - they’ll bring you the best in the biz, across comms and media together, for one-of-a-kind insights and perspectives you won’t hear anywhere else!

    Jump straight into:

    00:33 - Welcome back to Season 2 of Just Checking In! 

    1:45 - The new environment of the tech comms industry - “If you're a tech comms person these days, right? The news cycle is different. You've got different internal dynamics, you're trying to make do with less. It may be a good opportunity for people to reset and really think about their priorities.”

    2:22 - Layoffs, layoffs, layoffs - “It's been a very interesting few weeks this past week. It's just been one layoff after another. Yeah, I mean, it was kind of like if you're not laying off people, are you even in tech? 

    3:18 - Season 2 guest lineup -  “Let's talk about who we're going to hear from this season, cause I think we have an amazing lineup.” 

    5:53 - Keyana’s life recovery run - “I took a couple of months off and then I took a role outside of Silicon Valley, still in tech. And, you know, I'll sort of ease my way back into the crazy.”

    7:05 - Intro to Brad Stone - “Excited about our guest today, Brad Stone, who I think many of you probably know, but he is the Senior Executive Editor for Global Technology at Bloomberg News. He's also the author of some really, really awesome books. Many of them about Jeff Bezos and Amazon. The most recent one, Amazon Unbound”.

    9:30 - The genesis of Brad’s books - “With that kind of sort of intuition based as with all things, uh, for all journalists in insecurity and the feeling like, I didn't know this, this story as well as I was pretending to, I thought, oh, maybe there's room for part two of the story.”  

    10:43 - Looking for Amazon’s cooperation - “I sent one to Jeff and I explained what I wanted, to do.  They got back to me and through a series of, I would say kind of negotiations. Over well, or discussions over what I wanted to do and how I would go about it.”

    14:15 - The real challenge in writing books about Amazon: The case of AWS - “While the chapters are kind of categories, I'm also trying to tell a story.”

    17:10 - Finding the common thread: Telling a time-coherent story in the ever-changing world of Amazon and Bezos - “The company almost needs to be inventive because, if you don't, you eventually slow down.”

    18:15 - The Day 1 mentality: Amazon’s working culture - “Day one is the...

  • Join technology comms pros Becky Buckman and Keyana Corliss as they cut to the heart of today’s tech-news cycle and the general craziness that is high-tech, corporate-communications right now. With a short, not-too-serious take on the industry—with plenty of humor and irony thrown in—they’ll bring you the best in the biz, across comms and media together, for one-of-a-kind insights and perspectives you won't hear anywhere else!

  • The first season of Just Checking In concludes with a can't miss interview focused on one of the biggest technology and comms stories of the year–Peloton. Jessica Kleiman, Peloton’s SVP of global communications, talks about her career arc, the challenges and opportunities she’s faced over the last year and the company’s much-heralded response to a Peloton-related storyline in the recent “Sex and the City” reboot. Jessica has plenty of lessons and takeaways for other corporate comms professionals, including some related to Peloton’s recent success leveraging its dedicated community of members to serve as the voice of the brand. Join in and ride with us to the end of this amazing first season!

    Join technology comms pros Becky Buckman and Keyana Corliss as they cut to the heart of today’s tech-news cycle and the general craziness that is high-tech corporate communications right now. With a short, not-too-serious take on the industry - with plenty of humor and irony thrown in - they’ll bring you the best in the biz, across comms and media together, for one-of-a-kind insights and perspectives you won’t hear anywhere else!

    Jump straight into:

    (03:59) - From Instagram to Peloton: Introducing Jessica Kleiman - “As communications professionals, I think we're naturally networkers and connectors.”

    (08:36) - Writing a book while being on maternity leave - “We split up the chapters and while my daughter Emma was napping, I wrote.”

    (10:26) - This is how Peloton is relying on their community of users to tell their story - “It feels authentic because it is authentic, because if we did anything that didn't feel authentic, we would hear about it from our members immediately.”

    (16:49) - How is Peloton dealing with the brand being continuously relevant? - “I almost feel like we have lovers and we have haters and there's not a whole lot in between. That makes for a great headline because the lovers are going to click on it and the haters are going to click on it.”

    (19:47) - Lessons and takeaways for corp comms professionals - “People think that it's a less sexy area of communications, and the fact is that is not only super critical, but it really helps you develop the voice of the company internally and create and foster culture.”

    (25:41) - Discussing the greatest PR response of all time and how Ryan Reynolds jumped in - “Just as background, I have to clarify, as I'm sure you've read, that the And Just Like That scene was not a product placement.”

    Episode resources:

    Follow Jessica Kleiman on Twitter, Instagram and Linkedin

    Peloton

    Thank you for listening to Just Checking In by Battery Ventures. Go follow Becky and Keyana on social media to know more about them. If you enjoyed this show leave a review and help us find new audiences! 

    This show is produced by StudioPod Media in SanFrancisco.

  • Unicorns and dragons? A criminal trial? Eluding death? It sounds like we might be talking about Game Of Thrones in this episode, but actually we’re discussing a recent event that shook Silicon Valley to its core. Rachel Lerman was one of the people on the front lines covering the landmark Theranos/Elizabeth Holmes trial over the past few months. Rachel is a tech reporter at the Washington Post and previously worked for other publications including the AP and the Seattle Times. Listen in and discover what it was like to be in the hallways of federal court in San Jose during this trial–and, separately, how The Washington Post continues to grow its technology team and focus on “accountability journalism.”

    Join technology comms pros Becky Buckman and Keyana Corliss as they cut to the heart of today’s tech-news cycle and the general craziness that is high-tech corporate communications right now. With a short, not-too-serious take on the industry - with plenty of humor and irony thrown in - they’ll bring you the best in the biz, across comms and media together, for one-of-a-kind insights and perspectives you won’t hear anywhere else!

    Jump straight into:

    (04:48) - Rachel’s 3AM trip to have a place in the San Jose Federal Courthouse - “It wasn't just me and other reporters, but also spectators because people have heard so much about her, seen the documentary or read the book, so they wanted to come and see it for themselves.

    (08:34) - Rachel's pre-trial research and involvement in the Theranos case - “It makes it almost easier to see the case through fresh eyes because you're seeing the evidence that they're presenting to the jury as new evidence.”

    (10:59) - The moment that Elizabeth Holmes was called to the stand - “It's the only voice I've ever heard her talk in, including in the hallways of the courtroom house, because it was a very, very small, tight courtroom. So truly I have no idea if it's her real voice.”

    (16:29) - Rachel's internal debate to decide what questions to ask - “The only time I really tried to ask her questions was when she was entering or leaving the courthouse on big days, like on the verdict day, we tried to call out questions to her, which she didn't answer.”

    (18:31) - Will this be a major highlight in Rachel’s reporting career? - “This is probably one of the more high profile people that I've covered. Of course I've covered tech CEOs and things like that, but she is a very controversial and battled figure.”

    (19:35) - Were Elizabeth Holmes' allegations against “Sunny” Balwani an effective move for her defense? - “I expected since they brought it up, maybe they would bring on the psychologist or psychiatrist to kind of back that up or maybe they would bring it up in their closing arguments. They didn't do that.”

    (21:17) - The Washington Post: How is it doing? How is it stacking up against the competition? - “They're putting a real focus on accountability journalism, so they want to hold companies accountable. They want to investigate what's going on and shed light on these historically very opaque institutions.”

    Episode resources:

    Rachel Lerman’s Twitter and Linkedin

    Rachel Lerman - The Washington Post

  • Just about every communications professional has dealt with a PR crisis–and when they happen in today’s fast-past media world, the response needs to be faster and more well thought-out than ever. In this episode of Just Checking In, crisis-comms expert Amanda Duckworth, now an SVP focused on corporate reputation at Outcast Communications, talks about the “perfect storm” that has developed in the technology world that is leading to many PR crises, especially for the tech giants–and how many supposed PR crises are, at their heart, business problems that can’t be solved by PR alone. Amanda discusses the difference between a PR issue and a crisis; how emerging technology companies should plan for public blowups; and the importance of CEOs getting counsel from those outside their immediate orbit so they respond to crises, and protect their companies’ reputations, in the right way. Join us for a high-level and actionable conversation with concrete tips for how PR pros can manage crises better and more proactively.

    Join technology comms pros Becky Buckman and Keyana Corliss as they cut to the heart of today’s tech-news cycle and the general craziness that is high-tech corporate communications right now. With a short, not-too-serious take on the industry - with plenty of humor and irony thrown in - they’ll bring you the best in the biz, across comms and media together, for one-of-a-kind insights and perspectives you won’t hear anywhere else!

    Jump straight into:

    (01:04) - Teasing Rachel Lerman on Just Checking In - “So we’re going to have Rachel Lerman of The Washington Post, who is amazing.” 

    (01:39) - Introducing Amanada Duckworth - “We’re talking about Amanda Duckworth who is a longtime crisis and reputation management counselor.” 

    (02:52) - A brief tease to the topics covered in this interview - “We talk a lot about reputation management at large companies, you know, the big five tech companies, which are under the microscope in a lot of ways in Washington these days.”  

    (05:22) - Amanda’s philosophy on crisis comms: How should companies be approaching it? - “Reputation management is really a sort of holistic wheel in which a crisis is sandwiched.”

    (07:37) - Unraveling the common belief that all press is good press through an interesting Airbnb case - “This all happened in the July of 2011 and in August, the following month, they had the best month ever in terms of bookings.”

    (13:55) - Having a seat at the table: The need for PR strategy understanding among high-level executives - “Increasingly boards understand one of the key functions of a CEO is to be chief messenger, particularly in a crisis.”

    (20:54) - The limits of ‘fake it til you make it’ and why the current environment of tech is always on the edge of crisis - “I was talking to someone the other day who described boards for private companies as sort of board meetings is performance art. Well, it shouldn't be performance art.”

    (23:30) - What can big tech companies do to improve their message around the social issues they’re involved in? - “Do something proactively that's really meaningful or legislation is coming your way and you probably won't like it.”

    (25:08) - Crisis management advice for startups and growing tech companies - “I can’t tell you, typically in early stage companies, the number of times I've been involved where no one knows actually who should be at the table making decisions.”

    (33:17) - On political issues becoming corporate issues and what you shouldn’t do in a Therano’s type crisis - “That feels to me like a classic case...

  • Despite what many may think, the field of public relations isn’t always straightforward.. Rather it’s an art that demands strategic thinking, a deep sense of empathy, and good relationships built over time. And when it comes to PR in the tech industry, things get even more complicated–and some professionals today, anxious to secure coverage in an increasingly crowded and competitive market, are making blunders that are hurting their companies’ reputations. In this episode, our guest Nairi Hourdajian, VP Communications, Content and Community Marketing at Figma shares insights on what it takes for a company to build an effective strategy in the PR world, delving into the best and the worst practices she’s seeing and the current state of media covering tech startups. Don’t miss this episode if you’re curious about public (and human) relationships in this new era of information!

    Join technology comms pros Becky Buckman and Keyana Corliss as they cut to the heart of today’s tech-news cycle and the general craziness that is high-tech corporate communications right now. With a short, not-too-serious take on the industry - with plenty of humor and irony thrown in - they’ll bring you the best in the biz, across comms and media together, for one-of-a-kind insights and perspectives you won’t hear anywhere else!

    Jump straight into:

    (01:42) - Introducing Nairi Hourdajian - “We have a great interview today with Nairi Hourdajian, who is a longtime friend of mine. She’s now running comms at Figma, which is a super hot design startup.” 

    (04:02) - Elizabeth Holmes news - “One other thing we have to talk about before we jump into it is Elizabeth Holmes fake it till you make it culture.” 

    (06:27) - Becky’s tech comms branding predictions for 2022 - “ I do think storytelling is going to become more important.” 

    (10:42) - PR malpractices: Why should communications professionals care about them? - “People don't realize there's actually expertise, real nuance, and detail to doing this work well.”

    (13:03) - Understanding PR as human relations: Best and worst practices when building trust with executives and reporters. - “If you think about almost any other practice or field, you would never go in cold to make strategic asks like ‘Hey Amazon, I'm ready to sell my company, are you interested?’ Would you ever do that cold?”.

    (19:06) - Discussing the value of earned media and backlash against big tech companies - “There is a credibility that earned media brings that owned content never will. But owned content also is important. Yes. It's important to tell your own story.”

    (24:28) - What does it mean to do a good job and have a smart strategy in the PR world? - “Forming these relationships, and educating executives and investors is key, because I think they especially understand that this market is pretty special and probably won't last forever.”

    (25:55) - Nairi’s collaboration with All Raise to improve the number of female founders and leaders - “A group of women got together and started formulating an operational plan to launch initiatives that could help move the ball forward for female founders and funders and through a stroke of luck that included the GP at my firm.”

    Episode resources:

    Find Nairi Houdajian’s on Twitter and Linkedin

  • Corporate communications are often the most human side of a company. For groundbreaking organizations, building a communications team means enhancing new narratives aligned to a common goal. In this episode, Gina Sheibley, CCO at Qualtrics joins the conversation to talk about growing and leading a comms team, her experience working with agencies, and what it means to lay the groundwork for a corporate culture in which mental health and work-life balance within team members are managed as a top priority.

    Join technology comms pros Becky Buckman and Keyana Corliss as they cut to the heart of today’s tech-news cycle and the general craziness that is high-tech corporate communications right now. With a short, not-too-serious take on the industry - with plenty of humor and irony thrown in - they’ll bring you the best in the biz, across comms and media together, for one-of-a-kind insights and perspectives you won’t hear anywhere else!

    Jump straight into:

    (00:58) - Peloton and the ‘Sex And The City’ Reboot - “They have the greatest response to a crisis communications situation ever.” 

    (04:41) - Introduction of Gina Sheibley - “So excited to have Gina Sheibley on our podcast. Gina’s the Cheif Communications Officer of a super, super hot tech company called Qualtrics.” 

    (09:04) - Culture first: How does Gina Sheibley grow a team? In-house teams vs. working with an agency - “If you have a small team and you're not able to grow it to the size that you need, you need the scalability of people being able to dial-up and dial down.”

    (12:28) - How to manage good relationships with partner agencies - “You got to bring them in.

    You have to have those conversations. You have to get people ready because if you are constantly just dropping bombs on them you're not going to get the most out of it at all.”

    (16:04) - Assuming the CCO role in a B2B company - “Being a member of the executive team is being able to bring back the conversations that are happening at the strategic level for the business and really helping my team understand that, so we can align what we're doing to business priorities.”

    (20:51) - Discussing burnout, work-life balance, motherhood, and mental health in the communications field - “You have to protect your space to ensure that you can perform at your best, that can mean taking 30 minutes in the middle of the day and taking care of yourself.”

    (30:26) - Gina’s takeaways on Qualtrics current environment - “I think of a journalist as someone else who has a job to do and where perfection is when we can meet in the middle.”

    Episode resources:

    Gina Sheibley on Linkedin

    Qualtrics

    Thank you for listening to Just Checking In by Battery Ventures. Go follow Becky and Keyana on social media to know more about them. If you enjoyed this show leave a review and help us find new audiences! 

    This show is produced by StudioPod Media in SanFrancisco. Editing and music is provided by Teresa...

  • What happens when a real-estate company is valued like a technology company–and is led by a larger-than-life CEO who has aspirations to be the “president of the world”? That’s the story of WeWork, a rise and fall–and rise again–story that’s even turning into an Apple TV series starring Jared Leto and Anne Hathaway. In this episode of Just Checking In, we’re speaking with Eliot Brown, the WSJ journalist who covered this whole story and has co-authored a riveting business book called The Cult of We, which recounts all the testimonies, anecdotes, and events that changed the course of the company. Join us while we discuss WeWork’s recent SPAC, the eccentric behavior of its former CEO, and Eliot’s writing journey.

    Join technology comms pros Becky Buckman and Keyana Corliss as they cut to the heart of today’s tech-news cycle and the general craziness that is high-tech corporate communications right now. With a short, not-too-serious take on the industry - with plenty of humor and irony thrown in - they’ll bring you the best in the biz, across comms and media together, for one-of-a-kind insights and perspectives you won’t hear anywhere else!

    Jump straight into:

    (00:00) - Introducing Eliot Brown and his latest book “The Cult of We”.

    (06:35) - Discussing WeWork going public through a SPAC merger - “WeWork always has this magical way of finding the easy money out there or the most overflowing chunk of the finance system. So that's what SPACs are today.”  

    (8:01) - The moment things started to fall for WeWork - “What they were doing was portraying themselves to the market as something like a tech company when, in reality, they were a real estate company and the reason they were doing that was to get a bigger value.”

    (10:00) - Implications on tech reporting since WeWork’s big boom - “I actually think it was really problematic that you had this organ of the press taking the stories that companies were telling about what they wanted to see in the future.”

    (13:51) - The making of the book and Eliot’s turbulent relationship with Adam and WeWork - “It was right before Adam was pushed out of CEO that we started talking too seriously to a publisher. And then the day he resigned, an offer came in from the editor.”

    (18:39) - On Hulu documentary and an upcoming Apple TV show with Eliot as a character - “Now anytime there's a big story, it seems that a zillion documentarians try to do a documentary. You also have this rush of people trying to do a Hollywood streaming series based on a true-life story.”

    (21:50) - What’s next for Eliot Brown? His interest in covering how SPACs work - “In an IPO traditionally, you're talking about what you've done. You weren't allowed to talk about the future or else you'll get sued, but the rules are different for a SPAC.”

    (23:40) - Eliot’s read on SoftBank funding WeWork’s vision - “Some people think it was all SoftBank's fault, but WeWork was buying a wave pool company and rented private jets before SoftBank came in.”

    Episode resources:

    Eliot Brown’s Twitter and Linkedin

    Eliot’s book The Cult of We

    Thank you for listening to

  • Welcome to the very first episode of Just Checking In! There's no better way to start this journey than by sharing this space with a Twitter personality. Alex Willhelm, AKA @alex is a Journalist and Senior Editor for TechCrunch, and an official source of information for the current state of the tech industry. In this episode we cover everything about the cloud services shift that the pandemic has triggered and its implications for both companies and consumers in this remote-working era. Plus, the best and the worst parts of being an independent voice with a big audience on Twitter.

    Join technology comms pros Becky Buckman and Keyana Corliss as they cut to the heart of today’s tech-news cycle and the general craziness that is high-tech corporate communications right now. With a short, not-too-serious take on the industry - with plenty of humor and irony thrown in - they’ll bring you the best in the biz, across comms and media together, for one-of-a-kind insights and perspectives you won’t hear anywhere else!

    Jump straight into:

    (00:33) - The launch of “Just Checking In” - “I can not believe that we are here and launching “Just Checking In.” We should probably start by explaining to people why did we call this podcast “Just Checking In?”  

    (3:43) - Tee’ing up our first guest, Alex Whilhelm of Tech Crunch - “We kind of skipped ahead and talked to him about some market-related issues and his views on the big themes he’s covering.”

    (5:16) - Are we in a new tech bubble? Diggin' into the Cloud IT accelerated growth due to the pandemic - “Software revenue is one of the most valuable substances in the world. It has a recurring high margin and it expands. It has it all.”

    (9:08) - Facing new environments: How will online consumers’ habits change in the post-pandemic era? - “Enterprise software is the absolute sinew that holds American and global business together. It wasn't something you could decrease spending on it.”

    (11:32) - Media industry geographic focus: Remote working before it was cool - “I think once you decide you can hire anywhere and that the global talent market is your talent market versus people who live within a 20-mile radius of your office or will move there, it's hard to go back.”

    (17:56) - Everything is turning digital: On the growing value of content and the future of media’s business models - “One thing that I'm concerned about is constraining the access to correct information only to people who can afford it because then the truth is expensive and lies are free.”

    (20:28) - The freedom to talk about anything: Finding balance in having a personal brand on Twitter as a journalist - “I couldn't imagine going to work for a big name newspaper publication where I would have to wear their jersey all the time.”

    Episode resources:

    Alex Willhelm’s Twitter and Linkedin

    TechCrunch

    Thank you for listening to Just Checking In by Battery Ventures. Go follow Becky and Keyana on social media to know more about them. If you enjoyed this show leave a review and help us find new audiences! 

    This show

  • Join technology comms pros Becky Buckman and Keyana Corliss as they cut to the heart of today’s tech-news cycle and the general craziness that is high-tech, corporate-communications right now. With a short, not-too-serious take on the industry—with plenty of humor and irony thrown in—they’ll bring you the best in the biz, across comms and media together, for one-of-a-kind insights and perspectives you won't hear anywhere else!