Sept. 21, 2026

How to Solve the Gap Between What Clients Say and What Audiences Believe with Kaitlin McCready

Kaitlin McCready has had many communication lives but the through line across all of those chapters is the same problem: the gap between what an organization says and what its audience actually believes, understands, or acts on.

Show Notes
Transcript

Episode Summary

Kaitlin McCready calls it 'many lives of communications', a career that has moved through corporate tech, the MTA in New York City, Jacobs Engineering, the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation inside the federal government, and now Communio Strategies, her solo practice that is about one year old. But the through line across all of those chapters is the same problem: the gap between what an organization says and what its audience actually believes, understands, or acts on.

Kaitlin joins Karen and Michelle to talk through how that through line became the foundation of her practice, the WEAVE framework she developed to bring change management discipline into communications work, the 90-day project-based consulting model that is working exceptionally well in the current market, how a relationship with her masseuse led to a county government client through a mayor introduction, and the Substack she started not primarily to grow an audience but to maintain a writing practice and own a topic she had genuinely earned. This is a rich episode for practitioners who want to think more rigorously about what communications is actually for, and for solos about a year in who need to hear that the path from interest to paying client is slower than it looks but more networked than it feels.

Episode Highlights

[01:52] The Through Line That Connects Many Lives of Communications: Karen asks Kaitlin to name the thread that connects a career that has moved through tech, government, engineering, federal agency work, and now solo practice. Kaitlin's answer is specific and immediate: it's the gap between what an organization says and what its audience is prepared to believe or act on. In tech, the problem was differentiation. How do we stand out when everyone claims to be different? At the MTA, the problem was the opposite, everyone was a customer, but trust was not assumed, and moving millions of people from one belief to a new one and then to action was the whole job. Those two poles of the same problem became the thing she kept working on, and the thing she now builds client engagements around at Communio Strategies.
[03:33] What the MTA Unlocked — and the First Thing Kaitlin Did When She Didn't Know the Answer: Michelle asks what the MTA experience unlocked for Kaitlin beyond the scale of the challenge. Kaitlin names a weakness she had to confront: asking for help. She came into the MTA as her first public sector role, hired in part because of her private sector background. But she didn't understand how to navigate city council relationships, how to work with public officials, or how to move a population of millions. Her first move: find people who had already solved a version of the same problem. She located practitioners in London, Sydney, and Los Angeles who had managed high-profile disruptive infrastructure projects, asked them what worked, what didn't, and what they wished they'd known. That body of external knowledge accelerated her onboarding by an order of magnitude and gave her a platform to prioritize immediately. The practical lesson: before you try to figure something out alone, find the person who has already done it.
[05:14] The WEAVE Framework: What It Is and Why Communications Without Change Is Just Information: Karen invites Kaitlin to explain WEAVE, the framework she built to integrate change management thinking into communications work. The origin: while leading internal change management at Jacobs Engineering during a major digital transformation, Kaitlin was trained on the Prosci change management philosophy and realized it described everything communicators already do — she just hadn't known it had a name or a structure. The framework runs five elements. W: Why — the organization's origin story and reason for doing the work. E: Edge — what uniquely equips them to do it. A: Attune — aligning the organization's message with the actual beliefs, worldviews, and wants of the audience. V: Viable — how you translate belief into action that is visible and creates momentum. E: Engage — the ongoing, durable relationship that sustains the change beyond the initial campaign. Kaitlin's line that has resonated strongly in recent pitches: communications without change is just information.
[10:43] One Year In: What Surprised Her About the Solo Journey: Michelle asks what has genuinely surprised Kaitlin in her first year. Her answer is honest: she thought it would be easier to move people from interest to action. The interest is there, people respond to what she says, they like talking with her, they engage with her thinking. But translating that engagement into paid engagements has been slower and more circuitous than she expected. She names a recent client win as the example that reframed this for her.
[11:46] The Masseuse, the Mayor, and the County Contract: Kaitlin traces the origin of a recently won county government contract, working backward through every step that led to it. It started with her masseuse, an entrepreneur who knows Kaitlin's transportation background and introduced her to a client of hers who turned out to be a local mayor. That conversation led to another introduction from the mayor, which led to the client who is now a paying county government account. The lesson she draws is not just the value of networking but the value of showing up consistently, being curious about other people's work, and letting relationships develop without a transactional frame. Karen's footnote: this is also proof that making time for self-care has a professional return.
[13:05] The 90-Day Project-Based Consulting Model: Karen asks Kaitlin about the 90-day consulting model she has built and why it works in the current market. Kaitln explains that clients almost always come in with a tactics request, such as get me into the New York Times, get me mentioned in a trade publication. The model starts by walking them back from the tactic to the actual business problem, which requires patience and a particular kind of coaching. From that clarity comes a very specific, focused 90-day plan. Ninety days is enough time to solve a defined problem, get real results, and test the client relationship from both sides, because as Kaitlin notes, solos should be evaluating fit too, not just demonstrating value. It's also short enough that the client doesn't feel they're committing to a large open-ended engagement. And within every organization, Kaitlin says, there is a whole network of partnerships and adjacent problems that 90 days of proximity reveals, creating a natural path to follow-on work and niche development.
[17:35] Turning the Practitioner Lens on Yourself: Michelle raises the question that trips up many solos: how do you apply to your own practice the same diagnostic and positioning rigor you apply to clients? Kaitlin was helped by an unusual circumstance — when she left the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation, her former colleagues (many of whom were also navigating unexpected career transitions) asked her to help them tell their own career stories. In building a framework to help them identify their unique differentiators, she essentially built the tool she then used on herself. The schema for helping others translated directly into clarity for her own positioning.
[21:06] The Substack as Thought Leadership Infrastructure — Not Audience Building: Karen highlights that Kaitlin has built a consistent Substack practice, posting every Tuesday on her newsletter called Trust Issues, which explores how and why ideas and people change, and the role trust plays in that. Kaitlin's framing of why she started it is the part worth listening to: she did not start it primarily to grow an audience. She started it as a forcing function for a weekly writing practice, as a home base for documenting what she knows, and as a way to own a topic she had genuinely earned through a range of experiences, corporate, public sector, federal government, and elected local official. The writing practice has surfaced things she had forgotten she knew and created a body of work that is now generating teaching opportunities with college students. Karen's observation: you picked a topic you were passionate about and had genuine experience in. That's the difference between a Substack that compounds and one that becomes a slog.
[24:17] The Alignment Brief — and the Role of Communications as Chief Alignment Officer: Kaitlin describes a tool she developed at Oracle and repurposed at the MTA: the alignment brief. It is essentially a structured questionnaire that gets all the teams working on a project onto the same page about what the product is, what the benefits are, what success looks like, and how it will be visible. She now gives it away for free because people ask for it constantly. She also names a framing she heard on another podcast that resonated: the communicator's role is often chief alignment officer. Getting everyone pointed in the same direction is not adjacent to the comms work. it is often the precondition for the comms work to do anything.

About Kaitlin McCready

Kaitlin McCready is the founder of Communio Strategies, a communications consultancy that helps organizations close the gap between what they say and what their audiences believe, understand, and act on. Her career has spanned corporate technology communications at Oracle, public affairs and stakeholder engagement at the MTA's New York City Transit, change management and corporate strategy at Jacobs Engineering, and federal agency work at the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation — where she led communications for EV infrastructure deployment across the US. She is also a local elected official in Northeast Ohio. Kaitlin developed the WEAVE framework to integrate change management discipline into communications planning, and she writes the weekly Substack newsletter Trust Issues, which explores how and why ideas and people change — and the role of trust at every stage. Communio Strategies is approaching its first anniversary.

Website: communiostrategies.com

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/kaitlinmccready

Substack: Trust Issues

Resources & Additional Information

Communio Strategies: communiostrategies.com
Trust Issues: Kaitlin's Substack on trust and change.
Prosci: Change Management Certification Program (referenced by Kaitlin)
Solo PR Pro membership community: soloprpro.com
That Solo Life podcast website: thatsololife.com

Host & Show Info

That Solo Life is a podcast created for public relations, communication, and marketing professionals who work as independent and small practitioners. Hosted by Karen Swim, APR, President of Solo PR Pro, and Michelle Kane, Principal of Voice Matters, the show delivers expert insights, encouragement, and practical advice for solo PR pros navigating today's dynamic professional landscape.

Listen to all episodes and catch up on previous conversations at thatsololife.com.

Did this episode inspire you? If you found value in this conversation, please take a moment to leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform. Your feedback helps us reach more solo pros just like you! Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode.

0:18 MICHELLE KANE: Hello and welcome back to another episode of That Solo Life, MICHELLE KANE: the podcast for PR pros, marketers, communicators, MICHELLE KANE: all of us making our small business way through life. MICHELLE KANE: I am here, as always, with my wonderful co-host Karen Swim of Solo MICHELLE KANE: PR Pro, and we always love guest days, MICHELLE KANE: don't we, Karen? KAREN SWIM, APR: We love guest days. MICHELLE KANE: Yes, days are the best days. MICHELLE KANE: We are here with Kaitlin McCready of Camino Strategies. MICHELLE KANE: Welcome, Caitlin. KAITLIN MCCREADY: Hi. Thanks so much for having me, Michelle and Karen. MICHELLE KANE: Oh, we're so excited. We're, we're so excited to have you. MICHELLE KANE: And, you know, especially because you're relatively You're not fresh to the MICHELLE KANE: communications world. Not by any means, but you're fresh to the solo world, MICHELLE KANE: relatively speaking. So we're going to dig in and talk about all the goodness you've been MICHELLE KANE: doing before solo and in your solo.

1:16 KAREN SWIM, APR: Yeah, definitely. Thank you so much, Caitlin. KAREN SWIM, APR: I always enjoy talking with you and learn so much, KAREN SWIM, APR: and you are so thoughtful and intentional. KAREN SWIM, APR: So I'm excited for our audience to get to know you a little bit better. KAREN SWIM, APR: So you have described your career as many lives of communications, KAREN SWIM, APR: and I know that many in our audience can relate to that, KAREN SWIM, APR: but what's the what's the through line that connects all of those mini chapters? KAREN SWIM, APR: And how do you tell that that story to a client that doesn't want a resume but wants KAREN SWIM, APR: to know, what can you do for me? KAITLIN MCCREADY: That's such a great question. KAITLIN MCCREADY: And the way I always describe it is that I started my career in technology sector, KAITLIN MCCREADY: where I was working in a space that there was lots of competition, KAITLIN MCCREADY: and my company had to really stand out and say, KAITLIN MCCREADY: you know, what do we do differently? And I know that's very common.

2:12 KAITLIN MCCREADY: And then fast forward to when I worked at the MTA in New York City, KAITLIN MCCREADY: where everyone was my customer. KAITLIN MCCREADY: It was kind of the flip side problem, where I needed to explain to people why they KAITLIN MCCREADY: should believe us and how that should work. KAITLIN MCCREADY: And so it was, it was kind of this through line that came to be where I realized I KAITLIN MCCREADY: needed to be able to tell a story, and I needed to tell a story in a way that KAITLIN MCCREADY: people would actually trust us. KAITLIN MCCREADY: There wasn't that assumed level of trust and belief that existed. KAITLIN MCCREADY: And that kind of became the thing that I really hitched on to as being the thing that KAITLIN MCCREADY: I work with and talk to clients about. KAITLIN MCCREADY: So when I talk about what I do at Camino Strategies, KAITLIN MCCREADY: I always talk about my job is really to help kind of close that gap between what an KAITLIN MCCREADY: organization or an executive is saying and what their audience wants to, KAITLIN MCCREADY: wants, believes, or what we want them to do about that belief.

3:05 MICHELLE KANE: Yeah, yeah. And as you've talked about your work with the MTA, MICHELLE KANE: it's certainly, you know, as we've discussed it, MICHELLE KANE: it's really changed something, you know, fundamental for you in your work, MICHELLE KANE: as you say, you had every citizen, every resident of New York City as a client. MICHELLE KANE: That's not nothing. But you said it also made you feel like, MICHELLE KANE: you know, you were starting anew and PR again, MICHELLE KANE: but in a good way. What did that whole experience unlock for you? KAITLIN MCCREADY: It made me think really hard about what I knew and what my capabilities were, KAITLIN MCCREADY: but also made me realize some of the weaknesses that I had. KAITLIN MCCREADY: One of my weaknesses is asking for help. KAITLIN MCCREADY: And I recognize when I started this role, it was my first public sector experience.

3:50 KAITLIN MCCREADY: I, they hired me in part because I was different. KAITLIN MCCREADY: I came with a bunch of private sector experience and they wanted that. KAITLIN MCCREADY: But at the same time, I recognized I didn't really understand, KAITLIN MCCREADY: you know, the dynamics between how do you talk to city council folks? KAITLIN MCCREADY: How do you work with the public officials, and how do you really move a large body, KAITLIN MCCREADY: as you said, Michel, a large body of of population from believing one thing to KAITLIN MCCREADY: believing and then acting on another. KAITLIN MCCREADY: And so one of the first things I did was I looked around and said, KAITLIN MCCREADY: okay, who has solved a similar problem that I'm dealing with right now? KAITLIN MCCREADY: And so obviously, the MTA is a little bit singular in a lot of ways with the subways KAITLIN MCCREADY: and bus system in New York. KAITLIN MCCREADY: But I found a person in London, a person in Sydney, KAITLIN MCCREADY: Australia, and someone in LA who had dealt with similar high profile, KAITLIN MCCREADY: large scale construction projects that were going to be super disruptive and ask them, KAITLIN MCCREADY: what did you do? What did work?

4:47 KAITLIN MCCREADY: What didn't work? What were the things you wish you would have known before you got KAITLIN MCCREADY: started here and using that body of knowledge. KAITLIN MCCREADY: I mean, it sped me up ten X from where I started that first day to really have a KAITLIN MCCREADY: platform to say, okay, I know at least the direction that I need to KAITLIN MCCREADY: go from, and I know now who should I talk to in my organization? KAITLIN MCCREADY: How should I spend my time and prioritize differently? KAITLIN MCCREADY: And that really helped me kind of overcome some of those hurdles when I was KAITLIN MCCREADY: getting started there. KAREN SWIM, APR: I love that, and I love the way that you think. KAREN SWIM, APR: And I'm excited about this next question because I am a frameworks girl. KAREN SWIM, APR: I love a good framework. KAREN SWIM, APR: And you created one that's really different and you call it weave.

5:31 KAREN SWIM, APR: What I found to be a key differentiator is it's not a framework for strategies and KAREN SWIM, APR: tactics, but goes beyond that to, you know, creating behavior and psychological KAREN SWIM, APR: change. So tell our audience about weave and you know, KAREN SWIM, APR: why you felt the need to create it. KAITLIN MCCREADY: It really was inspired by my time when I worked at Jacobs Engineering, KAITLIN MCCREADY: which, for those who don't know, is a large engineering and solutions firm KAITLIN MCCREADY: based out of Dallas. They hired me to work on the corporate strategy team. KAITLIN MCCREADY: They were going through as many large fortune 250 organizations do, KAITLIN MCCREADY: sort of a corporate strategic overhaul.

6:12 KAITLIN MCCREADY: They'd worked with one of the big consulting firms to identify what are the kind of the KAITLIN MCCREADY: pillars of our corporate strategy, but then you have to go into implementation. KAITLIN MCCREADY: And as we all know, a plan is great, but implementation is harder. KAITLIN MCCREADY: So how do you actually move and change? KAITLIN MCCREADY: Again, similar to the MTA, a large body of people to do something KAITLIN MCCREADY: differently. And in this case, one of the pillars, KAITLIN MCCREADY: the one that I got hired to lead change management for, KAITLIN MCCREADY: was on a digital transformation internally. KAITLIN MCCREADY: So project managers in the field, folks that don't sit at a desk every day, KAITLIN MCCREADY: but rather are working with clients out in the field, KAITLIN MCCREADY: use lots of different software tools to do their jobs. KAITLIN MCCREADY: And at a large place like Jacob's, not unlike any other large companies. KAITLIN MCCREADY: They have a whole bunch of software tools, and sometimes those kind of get unruly. They KAITLIN MCCREADY: need to rein them back in and figure out, okay, KAITLIN MCCREADY: what are we using for what and what actually makes sense for, KAITLIN MCCREADY: you know, how we want our, our company to be differentiated when we do KAITLIN MCCREADY: work with clients? So we're going through this massive digital transformation.

7:07 KAITLIN MCCREADY: And I got trained on a change management philosophy through a program through Prosci. KAITLIN MCCREADY: And I realized this is one of those moments where I realized these are all the things KAITLIN MCCREADY: that we do in communications every day. KAITLIN MCCREADY: I just didn't know it had a name. KAITLIN MCCREADY: And I kind of, I love that moment. KAITLIN MCCREADY: Because I am a little bit analytical sometimes to my detriment in my work for, KAITLIN MCCREADY: you know, us being in such a creative field and realizing that it had a name and it had a KAITLIN MCCREADY: process, it made me really excited to think through, KAITLIN MCCREADY: okay, how can I take my previous work with, you know, KAITLIN MCCREADY: developing messaging frameworks and houses and doing all the analytics and customer KAITLIN MCCREADY: research and everything that we normally do, and we're making a good comms plan.

7:49 KAITLIN MCCREADY: And then in integrate that with sort of like what you said, KAITLIN MCCREADY: Karen, with the psychological side of it, of how do we actually move people toward KAITLIN MCCREADY: change, change that not just happens in the moment or a belief that's like behind the KAITLIN MCCREADY: scenes, but actually that we can see in real life. KAITLIN MCCREADY: And how does that change manifest? KAITLIN MCCREADY: And then, you know, create it in a way that's durable. KAITLIN MCCREADY: And so we've, what it does is it, like you said, KAITLIN MCCREADY: it kind of is more of a philosophy to say, okay, KAITLIN MCCREADY: how do we make a communications plan that actually thinks about communications, KAITLIN MCCREADY: not just as, you know, a thing that we do in a moment from this one KAITLIN MCCREADY: team in the company, but really to actually making it make change in a way that's KAITLIN MCCREADY: actually impacting the whole organization.

8:29 KAITLIN MCCREADY: One thing that I always say is communications without change is just information. KAITLIN MCCREADY: And I actually use that in a pitch recently, and it really resonated with the clients. KAITLIN MCCREADY: That made me really happy. So we've really starts with what I would consider to be, KAITLIN MCCREADY: you know, our standard communications things we always think about it's W is for Y. KAITLIN MCCREADY: It's like, why are you doing this work in the first place as an organization or an KAITLIN MCCREADY: individual? You know, what's your origin story? KAITLIN MCCREADY: Those kinds of things. KAITLIN MCCREADY: E is for edge. So it's Y you are uniquely equipped to do this work like Y you KAITLIN MCCREADY: essentially. And then A is for attune. KAITLIN MCCREADY: And attune really is where you kind of match up with what your customer's beliefs are. KAITLIN MCCREADY: So it's kind of that merging of you as an organization with what your customers and KAITLIN MCCREADY: your audience's beliefs wants worldviews are.

9:16 KAITLIN MCCREADY: And then the next one, V and E are really about that sustainable KAITLIN MCCREADY: change. So V is for viable. KAITLIN MCCREADY: And for me, that's really how do you actually take something that people believe and turn KAITLIN MCCREADY: it into something that they can do? KAITLIN MCCREADY: So in communications, I know a lot of times we, we're really good KAITLIN MCCREADY: at sort of like the media relations side of it and all that, KAITLIN MCCREADY: but how do you kind of close that loop and make sure people can act on it in a way that KAITLIN MCCREADY: is, again, visible and, you know, kind of creates more momentum. KAITLIN MCCREADY: And then the last one, E is for engage. KAITLIN MCCREADY: And that's really where we like to see this kind of like ongoing duration of work. KAITLIN MCCREADY: And all the things that I learned when I was working at Jacobs. KAITLIN MCCREADY: Again, it was an internal sort of like an internal change management internal comms KAITLIN MCCREADY: role. We work. We really did all of those things.

10:00 KAITLIN MCCREADY: And again, it was a comms thing, but we called it change management. KAITLIN MCCREADY: And it really changed how I see my world and our work. MICHELLE KANE: That's incredible. I love that so much. MICHELLE KANE: And I that so resonates with me of oh, the way what that thing we do. MICHELLE KANE: It has a name. Oh, okay. MICHELLE KANE: It's it's so incredible. MICHELLE KANE: Well, we wish you a happy first solo Versary. MICHELLE KANE: You're about one year into your solo practice and as you, MICHELLE KANE: you know, you're working through this newish way of working. MICHELLE KANE: What has genuinely surprised you? MICHELLE KANE: And it could be good or bad about what this life actually looks like, MICHELLE KANE: at least for you up until now, because change is constant.

10:43 KAITLIN MCCREADY: I thought that it would be easier to move people from interest to actually doing KAITLIN MCCREADY: something. A lot of people have a lot of interest, KAITLIN MCCREADY: which feels good. It means what I'm saying resonates. KAITLIN MCCREADY: It means that they genuinely like, generally like talking to me and hearing some KAITLIN MCCREADY: ideas and, you know, just talking about stuff that they're, KAITLIN MCCREADY: that they're struggling with, whether it's a business owner or it's, KAITLIN MCCREADY: you know, a fellow comms person in a larger organization. KAITLIN MCCREADY: And so to that note, I had an, I had something happen to me last week where KAITLIN MCCREADY: I, I won, I won a proposal. KAITLIN MCCREADY: And I didn't initially set out to focus on government public sector clients, KAITLIN MCCREADY: but this one particularly is.

11:25 KAITLIN MCCREADY: So I want to proposal for a county project with my local county that's related to KAITLIN MCCREADY: transportation and educating the general public about a program they have. KAITLIN MCCREADY: And I was thinking about it and I was like, how did this start? KAITLIN MCCREADY: And I decided to walk back through my mind of all the things that I did to get through this KAITLIN MCCREADY: client, to get to this client rather. KAITLIN MCCREADY: And what I realized is that it actually started with my masseuse and that person who KAITLIN MCCREADY: I've built a great relationship with. She's an entrepreneur and a business owner in her KAITLIN MCCREADY: own right. We, you know, we talk about business stuff all the time. KAITLIN MCCREADY: And she knows that I have transportation background and a very high degree of passion KAITLIN MCCREADY: for transportation. And she said, you know what?

12:08 KAITLIN MCCREADY: I have someone he said, it's okay for me to tell you that he is, KAITLIN MCCREADY: you know, he's one of my clients and he wants to meet with you. He's also in the KAITLIN MCCREADY: transportation space here in our in Northeast Ohio. KAITLIN MCCREADY: And would you be interested in meeting with him? KAITLIN MCCREADY: And it turns out he was the mayor of one of our local municipalities. KAITLIN MCCREADY: So we met. And based on that conversation, he was, KAITLIN MCCREADY: you know, had a great conversation. KAITLIN MCCREADY: And he said, I really want to introduce you to someone else that I know. I think you'd KAITLIN MCCREADY: really hit it off and maybe you could add value for her too. KAITLIN MCCREADY: And that ended up being the person who is now going to be my client. KAITLIN MCCREADY: So it's one of those things where you need to continue to talk and show up and show your KAITLIN MCCREADY: value and be curious about what other people are going on have going on in their lives, KAITLIN MCCREADY: because you never know where it's going to lead.

12:49 MICHELLE KANE: Yeah. SPEAKER 4: Love that. KAREN SWIM, APR: And here is another payoff to making sure that you make time for self-care. KAREN SWIM, APR: Look at that. You know? KAREN SWIM, APR: Oh, I love it. SPEAKER 4: Exactly. MICHELLE KANE: You never know what's going to happen. SPEAKER 4: That's true. That is so true. KAREN SWIM, APR: One of the things that I really enjoy, you know, KAREN SWIM, APR: when we talk to people that are at the beginning end of their solo journey is, KAREN SWIM, APR: you know, you have a different lens coming in and it's a fresh perspective. KAREN SWIM, APR: So it gives all of us an opportunity to maybe dust off something that we used to do and KAREN SWIM, APR: have forgotten about or learn something new. KAREN SWIM, APR: So as you're looking at the models and the practices that work for you, KAREN SWIM, APR: you talked about developing this 90 day project based consulting model, KAREN SWIM, APR: and that is incredibly timely right now.

13:43 KAREN SWIM, APR: I also utilize that same model as well, given, KAREN SWIM, APR: you know, what's going on around us and how people are feeling about wanting to hire. KAREN SWIM, APR: So I'd love to hear how you came to that model and, KAREN SWIM, APR: and the problem that it's solving for you specifically. KAITLIN MCCREADY: What I keep finding, and this is the same thing that happened when, KAITLIN MCCREADY: when I worked at Edelman, I worked in the Edelman New York office in KAITLIN MCCREADY: the corporate and public affairs practice there. And it's nothing has changed. KAITLIN MCCREADY: Clients come to you with an idea of something they want to do, KAITLIN MCCREADY: and usually that's for a lot of the people that I've talked to. KAITLIN MCCREADY: It starts with something that sounds like I want to be in X trade publication, KAITLIN MCCREADY: or I want to be in the New York Times and it's, KAITLIN MCCREADY: you know, some version of that, and you kind of have to walk them off the KAITLIN MCCREADY: ledge and say, okay, well, what's actually happening in the organization KAITLIN MCCREADY: because I would like my job not to just be to get you this one thing, KAITLIN MCCREADY: but rather to change how people understand what you do and how they interact with you KAITLIN MCCREADY: for a long term. And that one thing is not going to do that.

14:47 KAITLIN MCCREADY: So it's a little bit of education, but the model is really intended to help KAITLIN MCCREADY: people walk through what problem that they're trying to solve and, KAITLIN MCCREADY: and really identify what's the thing that we can do together first. KAITLIN MCCREADY: And it sounds crazy, but that level of specificity and saying, KAITLIN MCCREADY: what are we trying to do together? KAITLIN MCCREADY: And truly getting at the business problem and not making it about a comms thing, KAITLIN MCCREADY: because I say this without saying it to them, KAITLIN MCCREADY: but I'm the comms expert. KAITLIN MCCREADY: You're supposed to be the expert in your business, KAITLIN MCCREADY: and I'm not the expert in your business. KAITLIN MCCREADY: We each have our own roles. KAITLIN MCCREADY: And how do we use this moment in time, and how we work together to own those two KAITLIN MCCREADY: roles and come together to create something new.

15:32 KAITLIN MCCREADY: And that's where, again, you have to be careful with how you coach KAITLIN MCCREADY: people in that moment. KAITLIN MCCREADY: But just bringing that together and really using that kind of that common ground of KAITLIN MCCREADY: like, let's work together to find this problem that you're trying to solve instead KAITLIN MCCREADY: of starting with the tactics and getting that level of specificity and focus really helps KAITLIN MCCREADY: to create that groundwork for a 90 day plan. KAITLIN MCCREADY: And what I find is that 90 days is a really good amount of time to solve a very specific KAITLIN MCCREADY: problem and get some results and test on things. KAITLIN MCCREADY: And obviously, you're not just testing the results and the plan, KAITLIN MCCREADY: you're also testing the relationship and seeing that and seeing if that works for you. KAITLIN MCCREADY: And if you want to keep working with that client and seeing what other opportunities KAITLIN MCCREADY: there could be. I mean, within and as you both know, KAITLIN MCCREADY: within every organization, there's a whole network of their partnerships KAITLIN MCCREADY: and their clients and customers.

16:22 KAITLIN MCCREADY: And so you kind of get to know a landscape. KAITLIN MCCREADY: And that really also gives you as a, as a consultant, KAITLIN MCCREADY: an opportunity to see like, is this a space I want to further niche into. KAITLIN MCCREADY: So I think it's a it's a good amount of time for both sides to get educated about. KAITLIN MCCREADY: Is this a way that we want to work together going forward? KAREN SWIM, APR: Yeah, I love that. And I, I love that you focused in on not just them KAREN SWIM, APR: testing you because 90 days is something that people feel is, KAREN SWIM, APR: you know, it's a good enough chunk of time from the client side where they don't feel KAREN SWIM, APR: like they are committing to this huge, long time period with a lot of budget. KAREN SWIM, APR: So it can be an on ramp that's a lot easier. KAREN SWIM, APR: But that you mentioned, and this is something that I think we can KAREN SWIM, APR: sometimes fail to do, is understand that we also should be testing KAREN SWIM, APR: and making sure that this is the right fit for us.

17:13 KAREN SWIM, APR: But then you brought up another benefit of this is an opportunity to search out other KAREN SWIM, APR: opportunities. So you're doing the work, but you're looking holistically to see what KAREN SWIM, APR: other problems can be solved. KAREN SWIM, APR: And how can I shape this into, you know, a different engagement, KAREN SWIM, APR: a longer engagement? What are the follow on things that I can recommend as a strategic KAREN SWIM, APR: counselor? So I love that. MICHELLE KANE: Yeah, that is incredible. MICHELLE KANE: And you know, as, as you continue to work on your business, MICHELLE KANE: you know, it's finding out from them. MICHELLE KANE: Yeah. What is your differentiator? MICHELLE KANE: What is, what is the problem we're solving for? MICHELLE KANE: But, you know, all too often, turning that around on ourselves and our own MICHELLE KANE: practice falls by the wayside, either because you who wants to do that for MICHELLE KANE: ourselves, but we need to.

18:01 MICHELLE KANE: How did you turn that practitioner lens on yourself? MICHELLE KANE: And how do you how do you work that into your, MICHELLE KANE: you know, workflow that we can all too easily get caught up in? KAITLIN MCCREADY: It is hard to really nail down. KAITLIN MCCREADY: At least it was for me. I shouldn't speak for everyone, but it was hard for me to really KAITLIN MCCREADY: reflect on and taking all those pieces of, you know, KAITLIN MCCREADY: I have done corporate communications, public relations, KAITLIN MCCREADY: industry analyst relations in multiple different sectors. KAITLIN MCCREADY: Stakeholder engagement, public affairs. KAITLIN MCCREADY: How do I weave those things together in a way that resonates with people and says, KAITLIN MCCREADY: I can help you solve your problem? KAITLIN MCCREADY: And also, you should pick me. KAITLIN MCCREADY: Yeah. And sometimes that is you need to meet with someone to resonate and say like, KAITLIN MCCREADY: okay, I do like this person.

18:41 KAITLIN MCCREADY: I would like to spend, you know, 90 minutes every other week with KAITLIN MCCREADY: this person for three months. KAITLIN MCCREADY: But sometimes it is that matter of like, how do I stand out and really specify like, KAITLIN MCCREADY: I've done it, I've done it all. KAITLIN MCCREADY: Now here's how I can help you. KAITLIN MCCREADY: And so it was difficult for me at first. KAITLIN MCCREADY: I had a benefit of I, when I started, I was coming out of the KAITLIN MCCREADY: federal government. I worked at this incredibly cool startup is what we called it KAITLIN MCCREADY: between the Department of Energy and the Department of Transportation. KAITLIN MCCREADY: So we were the EV team is what we call ourselves. KAITLIN MCCREADY: We're the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation coming together to really KAITLIN MCCREADY: catalyze EV infrastructure across the US. KAITLIN MCCREADY: And unfortunately, a lot of my team made decisions to leave you know, KAITLIN MCCREADY: through some pressure from the government. And the interesting thing was we were all in KAITLIN MCCREADY: this space of like every everything felt like it got thrown up in the air.

19:32 KAITLIN MCCREADY: And so we were all thinking through, who are we? KAITLIN MCCREADY: What are we? What are we good at? KAITLIN MCCREADY: What have we done in our careers and what impact have we made? KAITLIN MCCREADY: And a lot of people that I was working with, they, KAITLIN MCCREADY: you know, they obviously had worked with me for a little bit and they knew kind of what KAITLIN MCCREADY: my background was. And they said, hey, do you think you could help me figure KAITLIN MCCREADY: out how to tell my own story? KAITLIN MCCREADY: Because I've done these things on paper, but I don't really know. KAITLIN MCCREADY: They don't sound that interesting. I don't know how to pitch this to a company to say I KAITLIN MCCREADY: can help them. And so one of the first things I did do was I came up with a little bit of a KAITLIN MCCREADY: framework to help people tell their career story. KAITLIN MCCREADY: And so I was really thinking hard about helping other people to do that. KAITLIN MCCREADY: And so when it came time for me, it was a little bit easier to be able to KAITLIN MCCREADY: answer the own questions that I created for my former colleagues to ask them.

20:21 KAITLIN MCCREADY: And the schema that I made to help them kind of, KAITLIN MCCREADY: you know, figure out what their unique differentiators were. MICHELLE KANE: That's incredible. SPEAKER 4: Yeah. It is. KAREN SWIM, APR: You're also doing something that a lot of solo struggle KAREN SWIM, APR: with. You have. SPEAKER 4: A Substack and you're really. KAREN SWIM, APR: Consistent with it. And I know some people start Substack, KAREN SWIM, APR: you know, a lot of journalists, a lot of writers as a way to monetize their KAREN SWIM, APR: writing. But you took the tactic of starting a Substack to help you think and as a thought KAREN SWIM, APR: leadership strategy. So tell, you know, talk to the people in the audience KAREN SWIM, APR: about, you know, your approach, those people that have still been on the KAREN SWIM, APR: fence and are not sure like what to do for their own thought leadership.

21:06 KAITLIN MCCREADY: I see it as a way, as kind of my home base for documenting and also the writing KAITLIN MCCREADY: practice, like you said. KAITLIN MCCREADY: So it's the, it's the consistency that it keeps me to and the commitment that I made to KAITLIN MCCREADY: myself that I'm going to write and post every Tuesday. KAITLIN MCCREADY: It's called trust issues. KAITLIN MCCREADY: So the topic is that I write about how and why ideas and people change or don't, KAITLIN MCCREADY: and the role of trust. KAITLIN MCCREADY: And it really started again from, you know, seeing this kind of convalescence KAITLIN MCCREADY: between the corporate comms work that I did and the MTA side of things and that kind of KAITLIN MCCREADY: underlying undergirding of trust as this like common denominator of how things move and KAITLIN MCCREADY: change. And I, I'm not saying I necessarily like, KAITLIN MCCREADY: obviously people talk about trust all the time, sort of flippantly, but I felt like I KAITLIN MCCREADY: had this sort of very deep experience in some respects to speak about it and own that KAITLIN MCCREADY: topic. And I wanted to show people how I'm thinking about it beyond just like the KAITLIN MCCREADY: corporate business side of trust, because being in the federal government, KAITLIN MCCREADY: I lived it from a different angle doing work in my community.

22:10 KAITLIN MCCREADY: Now I'm actually a local elected official. KAITLIN MCCREADY: So I see kind of another side of, of how you build trust with people. KAITLIN MCCREADY: And I'm really passionate about it. KAITLIN MCCREADY: And I really wanted to be able to at least share some of my experiences and learning, KAITLIN MCCREADY: so maybe other people could think and learn differently who don't have the level of like KAITLIN MCCREADY: community side of the experience of trust. KAITLIN MCCREADY: So that folks on the more corporate side could maybe think a little bit differently KAITLIN MCCREADY: and on a more human level about what trust means in our work. KAITLIN MCCREADY: So that's, that was kind of the, the, the space that I came to the idea of KAITLIN MCCREADY: doing it again, part forcing a forcing function for me to just do it every week. KAITLIN MCCREADY: And another way to really start documenting what I know so that I can share it with other KAITLIN MCCREADY: folks. And it has resonated.

22:56 KAITLIN MCCREADY: I've got actually, I have a few opportunities coming up for teaching locally to college KAITLIN MCCREADY: students because of the, the way that I frame the topic and come at KAITLIN MCCREADY: it, not just from like, here's how you do messaging, KAITLIN MCCREADY: but really how you actually, you know, influence and change KAITLIN MCCREADY: people's minds. SPEAKER 4: Yeah. KAREN SWIM, APR: You know, you're very analytical, but I applaud you for not overthinking KAREN SWIM, APR: starting a Substack and a topic to focus on. KAREN SWIM, APR: And I think that that a lot of us can benefit from the way that you approached it. KAREN SWIM, APR: You picked a topic that you had experience in and that you were passionate about. KAREN SWIM, APR: That's key because I think if you really feel it, KAREN SWIM, APR: then you can commit to it. KAREN SWIM, APR: If you're doing something because you think it's different than anybody else, KAREN SWIM, APR: or you're doing it because you want the result, KAREN SWIM, APR: you're not, it's going to feel like a slog.

23:46 KAREN SWIM, APR: So I think that that was very smart. KAREN SWIM, APR: And, and you proved like, yes, we do hear about trust, KAREN SWIM, APR: but you have your own experience and your own lens. KAREN SWIM, APR: And that always makes a topic, even if it's a topic that you feel has been KAREN SWIM, APR: done to death. If you haven't entered the conversation, KAREN SWIM, APR: then there's a new angle to it. KAREN SWIM, APR: So congratulations on that. KAREN SWIM, APR: We will make sure to link to your Substack in our show notes as well, KAREN SWIM, APR: so that our audience can find that and share it with other practitioners. MICHELLE KANE: Definitely. KAITLIN MCCREADY: And one other benefit too, that I found it's not it's not dissimilar to KAITLIN MCCREADY: how people talk about journaling, where you, KAITLIN MCCREADY: you know, you make a practice of doing it, and then you start remembering and processing KAITLIN MCCREADY: information that's in your brain.

24:29 KAITLIN MCCREADY: I've had a few experiences where I recalled a career thing that happened where I thought it KAITLIN MCCREADY: was really important and I realized I had completely forgotten that I did something KAITLIN MCCREADY: that really moved the needle. KAITLIN MCCREADY: And I'll give you an example. So, you know, as we do over our careers, KAITLIN MCCREADY: we develop kind of like these documents that we pull out every so often that seem really KAITLIN MCCREADY: useful. And then you pull it out in a new context. KAITLIN MCCREADY: And again, it's still useful. KAITLIN MCCREADY: And you're like, oh my gosh, I can't believe five years later, this thing KAITLIN MCCREADY: is still people still haven't figured out how to solve this problem. KAITLIN MCCREADY: And I'm the one, you know, flagging how to do that. And that's cool. But KAITLIN MCCREADY: this one time I, I think it was when I was at Oracle, KAITLIN MCCREADY: I developed a little bit of a framework for really talking through like, KAITLIN MCCREADY: what's the story at Oracle?

25:13 KAITLIN MCCREADY: It was really trying to get from the business and product side. KAITLIN MCCREADY: What's the what's the product that we're trying to sell? KAITLIN MCCREADY: Like what's our unique differentiator? KAITLIN MCCREADY: But what I realized is when I went to the public sector, KAITLIN MCCREADY: I took that same document out and I realized the problem was a little different, KAITLIN MCCREADY: but the solution was similar. KAITLIN MCCREADY: The problem was that there were so many different pieces of the organization comms, KAITLIN MCCREADY: marketing, public affairs, media side, the operations planning team that KAITLIN MCCREADY: actually makes the subway and bus routes, which again, KAITLIN MCCREADY: you could consider that like a product side coming together and talking about something, KAITLIN MCCREADY: but they never really wrote down what the thing was. KAITLIN MCCREADY: And it seems almost obvious, like in public sector, KAITLIN MCCREADY: you think, okay, well, our, our product is service to our KAITLIN MCCREADY: constituents, our taxpayers.

25:58 KAITLIN MCCREADY: But your product is specific in some ways. KAITLIN MCCREADY: Like you have responsibility and the MTA, obviously that I work for New York City New KAITLIN MCCREADY: York City Transit, which is the part of MTA that runs the subways and buses. KAITLIN MCCREADY: Our product was the subways and buses, but it's also the customer experience that's KAITLIN MCCREADY: wrapped around that. And we would we would say we're doing this massive, KAITLIN MCCREADY: cool project, but we never really defined what we would normally do. KAITLIN MCCREADY: And, you know, the private sector where you define what are the benefits, KAITLIN MCCREADY: what are people going to see at the end of this? KAITLIN MCCREADY: The typical like, how will we know this is successful? KAITLIN MCCREADY: Like what will change? KAITLIN MCCREADY: And documenting all those things in one place wasn't happening. KAITLIN MCCREADY: And so I kind of took a sort of like a route where I brought out this framework where I KAITLIN MCCREADY: just, it's just a questionnaire essentially, but it helped get all the teams on the same KAITLIN MCCREADY: place. And I call it an alignment brief.

26:46 KAITLIN MCCREADY: Now, I actually, I wrote a whole trust issues post about like the value of alignment when KAITLIN MCCREADY: you're talking at and across people and that level of just like inefficiency, KAITLIN MCCREADY: right? You're just wasting time because you just got to get on the same page and that KAITLIN MCCREADY: level of alignment. I know we think about a lot with our clients, KAITLIN MCCREADY: but that brief has served me so well. KAITLIN MCCREADY: And I, it's something I give away free. KAITLIN MCCREADY: Now because I find that people just ask for it. KAITLIN MCCREADY: They think it's so useful just to when they feel like they have no other way to kind of KAITLIN MCCREADY: get on the same page with people they work with internally. MICHELLE KANE: Oh my goodness. Absolutely. MICHELLE KANE: And how often do we see this happening within organizations? MICHELLE KANE: You know, just again, people get pulled into their day to day. MICHELLE KANE: And, and next thing you know, an organization is not on the same MICHELLE KANE: page about things.

27:30 SPEAKER 4: Yeah. MICHELLE KANE: You know, it, it matters in small ways and large ways. MICHELLE KANE: So that is incredible. KAITLIN MCCREADY: Yeah. It's another reminder too, of just the different jobs we have as KAITLIN MCCREADY: communicators. I heard on a different podcast, KAITLIN MCCREADY: someone said that sometimes they say that their role is chief alignment officer. KAITLIN MCCREADY: And I think that that feels very accurate. KAITLIN MCCREADY: A lot of times it's not just that we're trying to get attention, KAITLIN MCCREADY: awareness, behavior change. KAITLIN MCCREADY: It's that we're also trying to like really get that alignment so that the KAITLIN MCCREADY: change can happen. MICHELLE KANE: Yeah. So true, so true. MICHELLE KANE: Oh my goodness. Wow. Caitlin, we're definitely going to have to have you MICHELLE KANE: back because this has been an incredible time together. MICHELLE KANE: In addition to subscribing to your Substack trust issues, MICHELLE KANE: where else can our listeners connect with you?

28:17 KAITLIN MCCREADY: I'm on LinkedIn and I use blue Sky sparingly, KAITLIN MCCREADY: so I would use let's go with LinkedIn and Substack. MICHELLE KANE: Okay. Very good, very good. MICHELLE KANE: Well, listeners, we know our fellow solos have found this time valuable. MICHELLE KANE: So please do share this around when you get this episode and hit us up at that solo MICHELLE KANE: life.com to hear other episodes to, you know, MICHELLE KANE: contact us, tell us what resonated with you today. MICHELLE KANE: And until next time, thanks for listening to that solo life.