What does it actually take to prove the value of internal communications? Regine Nelson and Keith Berman have the answer—and they don’t agree on everything.

Regine Nelson went from travel PR in 2003 to PayPal and a string of in-house tech roles, taking a six-year break to raise three children before returning as sharp as she left. Keith Berman started as an FM rock radio DJ, became a journalist for a decade, and transferred every skill he had into corporate communications—a career arc he'd tell you at a party whether you asked or not.

In this episode, we discuss how to measure IC impact without hard metrics, the push/pull distribution framework that drove a 625% increase in open rates, why every M&A playbook fails on execution, using AI for listening and workflow automation, the career path from external to internal, and much more.

Find Keith Berman at https://www.linkedin.com/in/keithberman1/

Find Regine Nelson at https://www.linkedin.com/in/reginenelson/ and https://www.reginenelson.com/

Susan Oguche spent 20 years climbing the comms ladder, from P&G to Nike to CCO of the Cleveland Cavaliers and now the founder of Brilliance Communications.

In this episode she breaks down:

• The three-stage journey from doer to strategist to trusted advisor and why you can’t skip the rungs.

• Why adaptability is the one superpower that scales across every company culture.

• How her lean Cavs team became early AI adopters when the tools were barely ready.

• What she’s building now for mid-market clients navigating GEO and content infrastructure.

• The AI ethics question she can’t stop thinking about and why trust erosion is the biggest risk for all of us.

Closing principle: “Be a learn-it-all, not a know-it-all.”

Find Susan at linkedin.com/in/susanoguche and brilliancecomms.com

Communications, rebuilt from the middle out.

Brooke Kruger founded KC Partners in 2009 out of the financial crisis, built the business by treating candidate relationships the same way she ran media relations on the agency side, and has spent 16 years placing senior communications professionals at high-growth tech companies, VC firms, agencies, and corporations. This episode is a practitioner briefing on the current state of comms hiring: what AI fluency actually means in an interview room, why references now need to be ready within an hour, how companies are ghosting candidates and what that costs their brand, and what a clean hiring process actually looks like from both sides of the table.

Connect with Brooke at https://www.linkedin.com/in/brookechilenkruger/ and KC Partners at https://kc-partners.com/

What does it take to build a crowd of thousands—not with a product or a pitch, but with pure joy? Vincent Chapman has the answer.

From Little League fields in Northeast Texas to sold-out Savannah Bananas stadium tours watched by millions, Vincent built a career and a personal brand by treating joy as a deliberate, repeatable strategy rather than a mood. His viral 2015 video caught the Bananas' attention. Six years later, they came calling. Now he dances in front of 100,000 people and speaks to corporations about what they get wrong about connection.

In this episode, we discuss the two rules of Vincent's Joy Movement, what corporate America misses by measuring people as numbers, how 95% of what he does on the field is completely improvised, why trust unlocks performance better than control, how to build a personal brand that outlasts any single platform, and much more.

Learn more about Vincent at https://www.thedancingumpire.com/

What does it take to build PR for a brand that doesn't believe in red tape? Sam Bauman has the answer.

From local TV news anchor in Michigan to media relations lead at one of the most creative sports entertainment brands in the world, Sam spent ten years reporting the news before the Savannah Bananas called him to help make it. He built their media relations function from the ground up — navigating live game chaos, a zero-red-tape philosophy, and Jesse Cole's core belief that attention beats marketing every time.

In this episode, we discuss knowing your brand goes deeper than a logo or colors, the bar-with-no-sound test for live content, building brand identity across six teams in the Banana Ball Championship League, scenario planning for live sports sideline storytelling, what a mic'd-up home run interview taught Sam about preparation meeting improvisation and much more.

Takeaways

• Transition from News to PR
• Embracing Creativity and Freedom
• Putting Fans First Expanding the fan base through diverse entertainment
• Intentional brand building for different teams

Chapters

• 00:00 Origin Story and Transition
• 06:15 Embracing Creativity and Freedom
• 19:07 Brand and Fan-Centric Approach
• 25:13 Expanding the Fan Base
• 32:27 Intentional Brand Building

What does it take to build a B2B brand that journalists actually want to cover and does that change when the journalists no longer need a masthead?

Aaron Berger, Principal and Co-Founder of A/M Partners, has the answer. From a Washington DC cab to Ketchum, Mastercard, IBM and now his own firm, Aaron has seen the industry evolve rapidly.

In this episode, we discuss why prestige media validates rather than drives B2B sales, the need for a hybrid top-down and bottom-up media strategy, why independent journalists now matter as much as major mastheads, getting comfortable with uncertainty and with clients leaving and much more.

Connect with Aaron Berger on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaron-berger-0934101a/

Check out A/M Partners at https://am.partners/

Chapters

• 00:00 The Origin Story
• 06:06 The Rise of Independent Journalism
• 11:36 Measurement in B2B PR
• 19:30 The Shift to Fractional Work
• 25:18 The Evolution of Fractional Work
• 31:06 Learning from Business Operations

Adrianna G. Bevilaqua started college as a pre-med student. She ended up as Chief Creative Officer of M Booth and the path in between tells you everything about how great creative instincts actually develop.

In this episode of Comms Confidential, Adrianna unpacks the frameworks behind her creative process: her small data vs. big data approach, the Culture Mark tool M Booth built to map brand archetypes in culture, and why diverse media consumption is non-negotiable for anyone trying to forecast what's next.

They also cover the cultural trends reshaping communications in 2026: cognitive revivals, the monoculture era, the rise of GEO, and what AI's growing influence means for the future of PR. An added bonus: how Adrianna convinced a client to put a chronic insomniac comedian to sleep in a Macy's window, and why that campaign is still a masterclass in organic storytelling.

Takeaways

• Evolution of creativity in PR
• Impact of cultural trends and shifts in 2026 PR's role in culture and the need for retraining
• The significance of cultural insights and diverse media consumption

Chapters

• 00:00 Journey to Chief Creative Officer
• 08:51 Pushing Boundaries and Abandoning Safe Ideas
• 13:50 Trends and Cultural Shifts in 2026
• 21:08 The Monoculture Era and Chronically Offline Trend
• 26:22 The Future of PR and Culture
• 36:08 Cultural Insights and Predictive Analysis
• 43:06 The Role of PR in Culture and Media Consumption

Ashley Jacobson shares her unconventional journey to PR, highlighting the transferable skills acquired from a background in theater and corporate sponsorship. She discusses the challenges of transitioning from theater to PR, overcoming imposter syndrome, and balancing creativity with reality. Additionally, she provides insights into working with celebrity talent and the transition to ad tech. The conversation covers Ashley Jacobson's transition to the ad tech industry, her role in corporate marketing, and the adoption of AI and automation in marketing. It provides insights into the ad tech ecosystem and the strategic role of corporate marketing in building the company's brand. Additionally, it explores the differentiation between AI and automation and their impact on marketing initiatives.

Takeaways

• Unconventional Path to PR
• Transferable Skills Transition to Ad Tech
• Understanding Ad Tech Ecosystem

Chapters

• 00:00 Journey to PR
• 09:43 Overcoming Imposter Syndrome
• 16:29 Working with Celebrity Talent
• 30:42 Corporate Marketing and Initiatives