She quit the company she had spent her whole career building to go work for its biggest rival, and got publicly slammed for it. Years later, that rival merged with the company she had left, and she ended up running the entire thing.

Michelle Hutton is Global Chief Client and Growth Officer at Burson, one of the world's largest public relations and communications agencies, where her clients include L'Oréal, Coca-Cola, Visa, Emirates, Spotify, and the International Olympic Committee. This year, Burson won its first Grand Prix at the Cannes Lions Festival, the top award in the industry, just three years after the agency was formed.

Michelle built her early career at Hill & Knowlton, rising to CEO of the Australian business, before a call from Edelman changed the direction of her career and put her at the center of an industry controversy.

In this episode, Michelle talks about the risk of jumping to a direct competitor, and the advice her father gave her before she'd even finished university. She also opens up about a mistake she says cost her more than one promotion: believing her work would speak for itself. Then there's what AI is doing to public relations, why she thinks earned media now carries more weight than paid advertising, and the speech she gave at Cannes Lions telling her own industry to take its craft back.

Mentioned in this episode:

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