Students “Ask Me Anything” – On Top of PR with Jason Mudd

On Top of PR with Jason Mudd podcast: students Ask Me Anything Q&A solocast

In this solocast, On Top of PR host Jason Mudd answers Fernandina Beach High School students’ questions and shares his PR career journey, experiences, and key insights.

Tune in to learn more!

Listen to the episode here:

5 things you’ll learn during the full episode:

How perseverance helped build Axia into the agency it is today
How integrity shaped Jason Mudd’s career, leadership, and long-term reputation
Why lifelong learning sets great communicators apart in PR and beyond
The value of genuine relationships in public relations, business, and everyday life
How setting long-term goals can guide you in owning and running your future business

Quotables

“One thing about the profession of public relations, you’re always getting exposure to new ideas and new information. No two days are the same.” — @jasonmudd
“My primary goal and aspiration for what I do is to have a great reputation of providing both valuable and helpful services that companies benefit from.” — @jasonmudd
“Growing my agency with integrity and having a reputation of giving back so that we can attract the best talent in the profession, as well as attract the best clients and do some of the best work.” — @jasonmudd
“In starting a small business, you've got to do what 99% of the people are unwilling to do themselves. And that's hard by itself.” — @jasonmudd
“Think about everything long-term. So, whatever you’re doing personally, professionally, think long term about it. Will your future self thank you for what you’re doing today?” — @jasonmudd
“Regardless of what profession you pursue, always be learning and improving. So improve your communication skills, both verbally and written. Because at the end of the day, that will apply to any profession you're in.” — @jasonmudd
“Your integrity and reputation are essential to your success in life, in business, but also in your personal life. People want to do business with people they like, know, and trust.” — @jasonmudd
“The greatest compliment for a small business is probably to get a referral. If you know a small business, don't hesitate to leave them an online review or give them a referral because that is the lifeblood of a small business.” — @jasonmudd

Watch the episode here:

About Jason Mudd, Axia Public Relations

Jason Mudd is a trusted adviser and dynamic strategist for some of America’s most admired brands. Since 1994, he’s worked with brands including American Airlines, Budweiser, Dave & Buster’s, H&R Block, Hilton, HP, Miller Lite, New York Life, Pizza Hut, Southern Comfort, and Verizon.

Jason founded Axia Public Relations in 2002. Forbes named Axia one of America’s Best PR Agencies. At Axia, Jason oversees strategic communications for national clients and leads top PR talent. Clients love his passion, innovation, candor, commitment, and award-winning team. He consults with leadership teams at billion-dollar global business-to-business and business-to-consumer brands, advising them on spokesperson training, crisis communications, analytics, social media, online reputation management, and more.

In an increasingly tech-forward world, Jason’s grasp of the technological demands companies face helps his multiple-sector clients reach their target audiences. After teaching himself HTML in 1994, Jason helped pioneer internet marketing strategies as an early adopter of e-commerce, search engine optimization, and social media, inspiring tech giants like Yahoo. He speaks to corporations and industry groups and writes about PR trends and best practices for American City Business Journals and other national outlets.

Resources

If you like this episode, you're going to love this:

Disclosure: One or more of the links we shared here might be affiliate links that offer us a referral reward when you buy from them.

Our On Top of PR sponsors:

Production sponsor: Axia Public Relations, one of America’s Best PR Agencies, according to Forbes Magazine

Presenting sponsor: ReviewMaxer, the platform for monitoring, improving, and promoting online customer reviews

Coffee Sponsor: Fans like you fuel our efforts using buy me a coffee.

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Transcript

00:00:00:09 - 00:00:09:22

Announcer

Welcome to On Top of PR with Jason Mudd.

00:00:10:00 - 00:00:31:00

Jason

Hello and welcome to On Top of PR. This is Jason Mudd with Axia Public Relations. Today's a solo cast where it's just you and me, and we are talking, about a different topic than we normally would today is Ask Me Anything students edition. So I received a series of questions from students. Shout out to Fernandina Beach High School, my alma mater.

00:00:31:02 - 00:00:55:21

Jason

In Florida, they sent me a bunch of questions from their journalism class, and, I'm here to answer those questions for them, as promised. I was able to do a live presentation to them recently, when I was, at the school, becoming the, newest class of, inductees into the Fernandina Beach High School Hall of Fame.

00:00:55:23 - 00:01:24:14

Jason

So while I, had a great opportunity to meet with students and make a presentation to their class, and, some of the questions that, they had for me, either after or, that we didn't get to during, that presentation. So I want to go through those here, for them and hopefully for you, because I would like to see this be helpful to everyone as we try to give back to and advance the profession of public relations, which has been so good to me.

00:01:24:16 - 00:01:45:11

Jason

And when I was, even in high school, I knew I was interested in journalism. I didn't know I was interested in public relations and corporate communication. But at the end of the day, because of people, giving back and helping me, including, the couple of newspapers that I got to work at in real life while I was still in high school.

00:01:45:13 - 00:02:05:17

Jason

And the Rotary Club for giving me a scholarship and for ultimately, directly or indirectly giving me my first PR opportunity, which I'll get to talk about here in just a minute. So with that, let me go through some of these questions and, thank you for tuning in. And if you found this episode helpful, please remember to share it with a friend or colleague that you think would benefit from it.

00:02:05:18 - 00:02:53:03

Jason

The first question I received is, what would you say was your most significant success? Well, today, actually, November 18th, 2025, is the anniversary of when I first started Axia Public Relations. So I think that was my most significant success in general, just starting this business out, in 2002 with literally just enough money, to get some business cards, order internet service and a couple of, business telephone numbers, at the den of the brand new house that we just moved into using, my employment, as a vice president of communication and marketing, as my, how do you say, my income verification?

00:02:53:05 - 00:03:13:06

Jason

And, then also, simultaneously, the day we were moving out of our old house into our new house, is when we found out we were expecting our first, child. So, had to very quickly make the business work in order to pay that mortgage and allow my wife to be able to stay at home with our child, which was our aspirations.

00:03:13:06 - 00:03:57:16

Jason

And so we were able to do that and starting a company from scratch, we survived, we started it during the dot bomb recession. We grew it very quickly into the Great Recession and, experienced many setbacks during the Great Recession because we had just invested about a quarter million dollars back into our small business for all new equipment, doubled our leasing space, and, and invested in training and adding new teammates, as well as, completely redoing our entire, network security and server, configuration to, make it ready for the next level and, have the necessary protections and precautions and backups in place.

00:03:57:17 - 00:04:17:23

Jason

We were also, at the time, expanding with new office locations. And, so that was kind of a big deal. So, anyway, I'm proud of the success we've had for Axia, probably most importantly, the success we've had for the clients we've worked with and for the people that we've, employed over the years, who some are still with us today and others have moved on to other opportunities.

00:04:17:23 - 00:04:37:11

Jason

But almost every one of them is grateful for the experience they had with us. And many of them stay in touch with us today, and we're just grateful for that opportunity. To be honest, when I first started Axia, I didn't aspire to become an agency. I just wanted to be kind of a solo practitioner. But we got very busy, very quick and, and started to grow.

00:04:37:13 - 00:05:09:19

Jason

Next question is, what was the funnest PR you got to do? We have had a lot of fun, doing public relations and helping companies along the way. We've had some, trying and difficult and perhaps even tearful moments, along the journey. But we've had some fun one as well. You know, it's not really hard when you get to work with, you know, fun brands and do some fun activations, and help companies through maybe difficult times and have them come out for the better, the other side of it.

00:05:09:21 - 00:05:33:01

Jason

But some of the highlights, I would say, you know, it's not hard to work for great companies like Dave and Busters, Miller Lite, Southern Comfort. And it's also really fun to work with the right entrepreneurial, entrepreneurial organizations. We had a lot of fun growing, bright way insurance from one location to hundreds of locations.

00:05:33:03 - 00:06:00:22

Jason

We really enjoyed and appreciated the deep trust and, long term relationship we had with a company called, NPS Group who, later became Adecco Group. Just good people there that we built lifelong, client relationships with and friendships with. And I'm sure I'm forgetting several other things. But, you know, certainly doing work with family entertainment centers, which is one of our specialties, is always fun as well.

00:06:01:00 - 00:06:25:04

Jason

I love trying out new products. And, so that's fun. To me, as well. Also, the traveling I've been able to go to, basically all 50 states, while working, for AXA, I've been able to go to other countries and, have really enjoyed that opportunity, for certain. One thing about the profession of public relations, especially in the agency world, is you're always learning.

00:06:25:06 - 00:06:43:21

Jason

You're always getting exposure to new ideas and new information. No. Two days are the same. And that's probably one of my favorite parts about this business. Also, I love and always have, and that's why I fell in love with journalism. Wisdom is being in the know before everyone else, knowing what's going on in the world. And kind of being on the inside.

00:06:43:21 - 00:07:04:17

Jason

That's something I also really enjoyed. Let's see. What is your primary goal and aspiration for what you do? I gotta be honest. It changes as I mature into this role and I gain more experience and insight, more wisdom. You know, at this stage in my life, I'm starting to think about legacy. Integrity continues to become more and more important to me.

00:07:04:19 - 00:07:25:22

Jason

I think when I first started this company, I started my career. I was extremely ambitious, and I was, task focused and, and very driven and not necessarily people focused, which is kind of weird to be in the public relations business and to not be people focus. But I know a lot of very successful people who work in PR who are not, people focused.

00:07:25:22 - 00:07:47:00

Jason

And so for me, I've discovered that my niche is a problem solver. I can solve problems. I'm very resourceful. I'm very creative. I'm a great connector and, you know, connecting people together and figuring out and leveraging those relationships. And that, in essence, is really what PR is. You know, PR is not customer service. Like maybe some people might perceive it as.

00:07:47:02 - 00:08:14:04

Jason

So I would say that, that's what I'm really good at, and that's what I really enjoy doing, is helping people and helping companies. And I do that through connecting them and solving their problems and often helping them communicate about them. But ultimately, my primary goal and aspiration for what I do is to have a great reputation of providing both valuable and helpful services that, companies benefit from.

00:08:14:06 - 00:08:43:03

Jason

Also having a reputation of integrity and doing things the right way, having a reputation of giving back, to the community and to the profession through, my gifts and my blessings and my opportunities to serve. But, you know, right now, at the end of the day, what I'm looking at is, growing my agency with integrity and reputation so that we can attract the best talent and, and the profession, as well as attract the best clients and do some of the best work.

00:08:43:05 - 00:09:07:11

Jason

Next question is, tell me about someone who influenced you along your journey and what you learned from them. So man, I've learned from so many good people. I've had great bosses over the years that I've learned, you know from them how to be a great boss, how to be a great leader, how to build culture. I've had other bosses who I've learned what not to do, and, you know, and how to, ruin a company culture.

00:09:07:13 - 00:09:31:10

Jason

And so I try to look at every. When I was young, especially, I used to look at every day in every interaction and reflect upon what went well, what could have done better, what did I learn? What am I going to do differently in the future? What of those that I was around them? What was it that, you know, they did well and they did right, and that I want to learn from and what are the things they did not so well that I want to make sure that I don't do so.

00:09:31:10 - 00:09:54:00

Jason

Someone who influenced you along your journey? You know, I, I had mentors early on, and, I wish I would have leveraged more of that with them. But, you know, along the way, I've just really, you know, people have helped me. And so I'm trying to help others, which is part of the reason I do this podcast, a big reason I do this podcast and a big reason why I'm doing this episode today is to help others as well.

00:09:54:00 - 00:10:13:03

Jason

So, you know who's influenced me along the way? Different people at different times. Mostly through, reading, mostly through consuming videos, going to workshops and things like that. There's a lot of people that have helped me. It just depends on the topic. You know, I've learned from a lot of people. I've had to teach myself how to do business development or sales.

00:10:13:05 - 00:10:32:19

Jason

I've learned from a lot of other PR professionals about certain skill sets and traits and capabilities. So there's a lot of people that have been influential to me. I'm always recommending books or referring, people to people and influencers to other people that I connect with. So yeah, I, I just don't know that I've got a great answer for that.

00:10:32:21 - 00:10:49:15

Jason

I mean, I think when I was in journalism, I, you know, I read a lot or I read about, you know, Dan Rather and, Edward Murrow and other people like that, just trying to learn more about journalism. And through that experience, I got exposure to other things. So I've been helped by so many people along the way.

00:10:49:15 - 00:11:05:06

Jason

It's hard for me just to say one person, but if you gave me a specific topic you're looking for help with, I would probably, you know, be able to figure out who that best person would be. What are some of the hardest things you faced in your career? How did you overcome them? This is the next question.

00:11:05:08 - 00:11:27:18

Jason

I would clearly say that, you know, it was just starting a business from scratch, not really knowing how to run a PR firm, having been focused on, being on client side, getting frustrated with the poor quality of the agencies that I was working with who were overpromising and under-delivering and yet growing significantly and getting a lot of awards for the work.

00:11:27:18 - 00:11:55:14

Jason

And meanwhile, you know, our best work was stuff we were doing in-house and typically our in-house department was myself maybe, you know, 1 or 2 entry level or junior level people and or just an intern. And so when people start giving us compliments about the work that we were doing internally or I was doing on my own and wanting to know who our agency was so they could work with them, I got a lot of people saying, hey, if you ever start your own agency, I would love to be your first client.

00:11:55:16 - 00:12:11:21

Jason

So I started my own agency. Found out the day that we were officially doing, launching the agency, that we were expecting our first child, and I, my wife and I were committed to allowing her to be able to stay home. That was something we wanted to do, and she wanted to do. And so we were committed to that.

00:12:11:21 - 00:12:28:13

Jason

So I had about nine months to make this business turn into something that could replace both of our incomes. We had a brand new mortgage, a brand new baby on the way, and zero of those people who told me they wanted to be my first clients came through. So that was definitely hard, to get started from nothing.

00:12:28:13 - 00:12:46:06

Jason

And take that big risk and that big step. I was just telling a friend of mine who, starting a small business, and I said, look, you've got to do what 99% of the people are unwilling to do themselves. And that's hard by itself. The next hard things I had were, you know, figuring out how to run a profitable agency.

00:12:46:06 - 00:13:08:08

Jason

I didn't know much about agencies. I wasn't sure who my target audience was. I wasn't sure how to go about, introducing my services and getting new clients. And then I had to figure out how to run a business, start having employees and overhead and, you know, office space and expenses. It wasn't until the Great Recession hit that really I had to figure all that out pretty quickly.

00:13:08:08 - 00:13:25:16

Jason

You know, it started out we opened our doors and we kind of fumbled our way into success. And making money and growth. But then when the Great Recession hit, we I really had to start acting more like a CEO and a business owner, then a senior level public relations practitioner who had a team of people, kind of running it like a department, if you will.

00:13:25:21 - 00:14:10:05

Jason

I just start running it like a business. The Great Recession was very painful. I still have, you know, emotional scars from that experience. We were growing very quickly, reinvested about a quarter million dollars into our business for growth. And then that money kind of evaporated into overhead when, you know, growth slowed. So I believe it was November of 2007, when 40% of our clients, meaning 40% of our adjusted gross income, our, our, the the income at our agency that we we manage to provide our services to the clients, disappeared in 40 in in 30 days in that that month of November, 2007.

00:14:10:07 - 00:14:43:20

Jason

I'm sorry September 2007. And I will never forget it. I didn't know what to do. These companies just disappeared. And, you know, 40% of our income gone. And so I had to make some very hard decisions and pivot, you know, quickly, but honestly, not quickly enough. And I had to let go of some people that I really loved and people I really enjoyed working with and that, you know, were very talented and that I had worked hard to recruit, develop, train, promote and get them in the right spot culturally with our company, get them in the right spot for our clients.

00:14:43:22 - 00:14:57:23

Jason

And, and then just had to let them go. And I didn't do it quick enough, to be honest. I dragged it out. I was hoping it would only last a couple, you know, a couple months. And, you know, by the time I got around to doing it, it had to be deep cuts, and they had to be quick cuts.

00:14:58:01 - 00:15:23:04

Jason

And some of those people were candidly, very young families. They had, you know, newborns at home. But ultimately, you know, I've got a lot of advice from, friends and mentors. And I realized that if I didn't make quick actions, I was going to put everybody, including our, company, our our other employees and our clients at risk because we were not going to be able to sustain, the storm that was coming.

00:15:23:06 - 00:15:42:17

Jason

So that's kind of how the hardest things I faced in my career and how I overcame them. There's probably countless others. I would just say a small business is very difficult. It's way more work than you think. It's way more stress than you think. There's a lot more risk and liabilities, but there's also a lot of rewards when it works out and it goes right.

00:15:42:19 - 00:16:05:01

Jason

And I would just encourage you and everyone else to support your local small business. And, in small businesses, if you're really a friend with somebody who owns a business you would not ask for or accept any kind of discount, instead you would work with them to, you know, help them grow their business and refer people, leave them online reviews go out of your way to be their advocate in their support.

00:16:05:03 - 00:16:38:11

Jason

Because it is hard, owning your own business. And, you know, I admire those that do it. And I want to help them as much as I can. Tell me the coolest part of your job and why you think it would surprise people. Coolest part of my job, is probably going to be, just the insight and experience that you get, the exposure you get to so many companies, so many cultures, so many people, so many contacts, so many connections, so many ideas, products, services and learning about them.

00:16:38:11 - 00:17:03:13

Jason

I am I love learning, I'm a constant learner, constant student. I'm always, reading something, watching something, listening to a podcast, going to workshops. I get excited about learning more and becoming better and becoming more knowledgeable. The other cool part about working in PR is you. I hate to you almost know things that people don't know yet that are exciting and interesting and newsworthy.

00:17:03:15 - 00:17:21:01

Jason

I that's the one thing that attracted me for sure too. Journalism is I love knowing things before, but who else did? I love storytelling, and when you're in PR, you often know things before even the news do so does. So. That's probably one of the reasons I really like being in this business is I love being in journalism to know what was going on before anybody else did.

00:17:21:07 - 00:17:44:11

Jason

But when you work in PR, you actually have an even earlier preview to that. The other thing I love about this job is that all the people you meet, all the places you get to go, and, and that's always been something I've really enjoyed. I really enjoyed visiting new places, meeting new people, leveraging those relationships, helping people get connected and advancing what they're trying to do through the power of my network.

00:17:44:11 - 00:18:02:09

Jason

And, you know, not only knowing other people and becoming known among them. And then I would say, the other thing is that no two days or ever like I feel like at, at least at Axia, there's, you know, every day is a little bit different. You know, there's certainly highs and lows, but there's no two days feel the same to me.

00:18:02:11 - 00:18:22:06

Jason

Most days. And I've been owning this company for, you know, 20 something years. Today is our, anniversary. We started in 2002, so it's 2025 right now. So that tells you we've been around for 20 plus years. So, you know, and there are days that I just get out of bed and I can't wait to do the work.

00:18:22:06 - 00:18:38:14

Jason

And there are other days I wish I had a day off, but it just depends on what's going on. So I hope that's the coolest part of of my job. You know, there's great access and PR, there's great exposure, and all that good stuff. So what would surprise people is just think people are surprised by the people I know.

00:18:38:14 - 00:19:00:07

Jason

And the places I've been, is one way to look at it. And the opportunities I've had to just travel the entire country and even, the globe to some extent, in pursuit of these, the profession of and the, advocacy of, helping people, with corporate communications and improving their thought leadership and their, their reputation and visibility.

00:19:00:13 - 00:19:20:08

Jason

the next question is tell me what advice you'd give to someone our age who is interested in public relations or owning their own business. One day? So I've answered some of that already. But ultimately, the advice I'd give someone your age is to, think about everything long term.

00:19:20:08 - 00:19:38:15

Jason

So, whatever you're doing personally, professionally, think long term about it. Will your future self, thank you for what you're doing today. Would your grandmother be proud of you for doing this, doing what you're doing? Will your children be proud of you for what you're doing? Because at the end of the day, your integrity is everything. Your reputation is everything.

00:19:38:17 - 00:20:00:22

Jason

And I think that's so important. And companies hire us to fix their reputation, improve their reputation, or share their reputation. And at the end of the day, I think that's really important. Regardless of what profession you pursue and regardless of what profession you pursue, always be learning and improving. So improve your communication skills, both verbally and written.

00:20:01:00 - 00:20:19:22

Jason

Because at the end of the day, that will apply to any profession you're in. When I spoke to the students, I told them that, everyone works in sales, whether you realize it or not. And the longer I'm in business, the more I realize it. So the engineers got to persuade you, and and I assure you that the bridge they're building is going to be safe.

00:20:20:00 - 00:20:38:16

Jason

The pilot has to assure you that they're going to have, you know, they're a safe pilot. The salesperson is, you know, persuading you that they've got the best product or service. The employee, that's applying for a job is trying to persuade you to hire them and justify why you should hire them, but nobody likes to be sold.

00:20:38:16 - 00:21:00:00

Jason

Of course, people like to be, you know, informed and educated, maybe even entertained, to make an informed decision. So they like someone who can be a helpful guide to them. Let's see, owning your own business. I, I said this earlier, it is way harder than you think. But it can also be, way more rewarding than you might think.

00:21:00:00 - 00:21:19:20

Jason

But there's definitely not instant gratification. You got to put the work in. You got to be willing to do, what, 99% of other people aren't willing to do. Most businesses fail within the first year, and only a small percent make it to year 3 to 5. And even smaller, like single digit percentage typically make it, to ten years.

00:21:19:22 - 00:21:45:04

Jason

And so it's really hard. And if you're going to do it, I would recommend don't do it alone. That doesn't necessarily mean to have partners, but maybe have some financial investors, maybe have a mentor. Maybe you have a support group. I would definitely join a peer group. I would find an industry association and get entrenched to it, especially an industry association that supports, business owners in that space.

00:21:45:06 - 00:22:03:03

Jason

But yeah, those would be my quick, high level hits of that. I would definitely find books and read a lot of books and learn as much as you can about business and about success and mindset and work ethic and all those things. Do you believe that public relations is essential not only in the business world, but also in everyday life?

00:22:03:03 - 00:22:29:02

Jason

Yeah. Of course. I mean, you know, there's a cliche in business that is it's not, it's not what, you know, it's who. You know, I would actually turn that around. It's not who you know, but who knows you. So, for example, I might know of, you know, Bill gates or, Steve Jobs or Warren Buffett or Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos, but that doesn't do me any good to know of them.

00:22:29:02 - 00:22:46:19

Jason

What what would be good is if they knew of me or they knew me. Right. Because people can only do business with people they they've heard of, that they know they like and they trust. Right. So if people don't know who I am, it doesn't matter that I know who they are. Although I would say you could probably try to leverage some of that to your advantage.

00:22:46:19 - 00:23:07:07

Jason

But at the end of the day, I'd be much better off if, you know, Mark Cuban knew who I was and thought highly of me and referred people to me than if I just knew who Mark Cuban was myself. Now, the way to turn that around is to get Mark's attention, and the way to get his attention is to refer people his way or, you know, promote him on social media or something like that.

00:23:07:09 - 00:23:28:16

Jason

And so there's ways that you can go about doing that. But I believe public relations is essential. And let me just be more clear. Your integrity and reputation is essential to your success in life, in business, but also in your personal life. People want to do business with people they like, know and trust. People don't want to spend time with people they don't like, know and trust.

00:23:28:18 - 00:23:52:12

Jason

And people want to certainly get married and start families and be around people that are enjoyable to be around with. So, the next question is, what was one of the easiest brands to do PR for? And that's a great question. Really good organizations that have a great culture want to do the right thing for others, want to give back to the communities, remember where they came from and support those, support them.

00:23:52:12 - 00:24:17:15

Jason

So, you know, I don't want to leave anybody out. But, you know, we really enjoyed working, with I mentioned earlier, group and Adecco, we enjoyed working with Bright Way Insurance. We enjoyed working with First Coast Community Bank. I remember when I first started my agency, I thought to myself, man, if if I'm working with First Coast Community Bank in about five years, I would really think that I was successful.

00:24:17:17 - 00:24:42:12

Jason

What I didn't know back then was I just set my bar and my my success expectations way too low. They became a client within like, I don't know, six months to a year of starting my company and we end up working with their parent company, within six months to a year or so after that. And, that was really, you know, a highlight for me to be able to set a goal and just crush it, that in that way.

00:24:42:12 - 00:24:57:15

Jason

And, you know, at the end of the day, going back to the last question, the reason I got them as a client was because of my reputation and my integrity. So I was doing good work for other organizations. They saw that good work, and they wanted to connect with me, and they gave me an opportunity to do some great work for them.

00:24:57:17 - 00:25:23:22

Jason

And then upon doing great work for them, there's a sister companies, or affiliate companies, I believe they called them. And their parent company expressed interest in working with us, and we got opportunities there. And, you know, the the greatest compliment for a small business is probably to get a referral. And, so if you know a small business, don't hesitate to leave them an online review or give them a referral, because that is the lifeblood of a small business.

00:25:24:00 - 00:25:55:07

Jason

Other than that, you know, is really easy to do great PR work for a company that's entering a new market and creating jobs. Definitely loved working with Foundation Financial Group. They were a great company to work with, and gave us a great opportunity. They gave us really challenging work. They were growing really fast. They had some opportunities and challenges along the way that we were able to be very supportive of, and just love working for fast growth, entrepreneurial type companies, that, you know, want to do the right thing, actively give back to the community.

00:25:55:07 - 00:26:02:21

Jason

And those are probably my favorite companies because the work is fun and it is enjoyable. And we get to do, a lot of great work for them.

00:26:02:23 - 00:26:11:00

Jason

And so, yeah, those are probably the easiest brands. What made you want to get into this field of work? Well, I started out in journalism. I wanted to be in journalism.

00:26:11:00 - 00:26:30:11

Jason

I mentioned that earlier. My passion was, you know, knowing what was going on and being able to tell other people about it, not in a gossip way, but like in an information delivery way. And, just being kind of early in the know and be able to help people understand what was happening around them. This started in early age, like a ridiculously early age.

00:26:30:13 - 00:26:56:13

Jason

Probably I think I was ballpark second grade when I started creating a little newsletter for, my neighborhood and more specifically like the street that I lived on and like the, you know, 8 or 10 houses on the block and just writing about what was going on. And I mean, very, very amateur. I mean, don't get me wrong, very amateur, but I knew that I was interested in this, and I can't really put a finger on why.

00:26:56:15 - 00:27:19:06

Jason

I just knew that I was and, that's how I got and that's how I started. And then I just, I literally, like, joined the newspaper staff and the yearbook staff. I remember, in sixth grade and middle school was a new thing. Everything was junior high, and now it became middle school. So it was six through eighth grade, and I wanted to be on the yearbook staff and the yearbook staff.

00:27:19:08 - 00:27:40:03

Jason

Teacher. Miss long, who, my wife and I now have a relationship with as adults, but, she just had a rule, you know, like, no, I'm not letting a sixth grader on the yearbook, but I was a little pest that wouldn't go away. And I just kept showing up and, you know, I. I think she saw what I could do, and she gave me an opportunity, and I loved every minute of it.

00:27:40:03 - 00:28:03:05

Jason

And and, as I advanced in my schooling, I stayed on the yearbook staff and the newspaper staff, and I just wrote and wrote and wrote. And then I had an opportunity to go work part time for the furniture in the beach News-Leader started out as a, a production assistant doing darkroom technician work, and then kind of worked my way, weaseled my way, or whatever you want to use to into the newsroom to start writing.

00:28:03:06 - 00:28:20:10

Jason

And so they give me writing and photography assignments. I was on call for photos and things like that, and did some sports things and started just bugging the newsroom for assignments. And as long as I was keeping my work up in the dark room as a technician there and a production assistant, and always just looking for more and more opportunities.

00:28:20:12 - 00:28:48:07

Jason

And as I shared with the students at the high school, you know, I was even cleaning toilets and taking out the trash. I mean, I wasn't too proud. I had a hustle. I needed the money, and, created turned into a great opportunity for me to get more exposure. And then what happened is, when I'm leading all this up, to say that at some point, I decided to go to the Missouri School of Journalism based on recommendations from colleagues at the Florida Times Union, who were kind of mentoring me and advising me and recommending that to me.

00:28:48:07 - 00:29:04:12

Jason

And they said, look, if you're serious about journalism, you should go to the University of Missouri School of Journalism. So I figured that out, and I, and I, and I got there and I graduated from there. And it's a tough program with a great reputation. And, you know, there's a lot of tears involved. But I worked my way through it.

00:29:04:13 - 00:29:24:03

Jason

But here's the trick. While I was there, I got a part time job and the part time job turned out to be, a student assistant was the job title, but they applied my work or my skills to work for them in a public relations capacity. And before I knew it, I was working in public relations and not even really knowing it or or figuring it out and just dealing with it.

00:29:24:03 - 00:29:41:04

Jason

It wasn't really what I wanted to do. But the more I started doing it, the more people started saying I was really good at it and I started to really enjoy it. What happened, though, is, the local Rotary Club asked me to go help a nonprofit tell their story. And I was a at the time thinking I was a hardcore journalist.

00:29:41:04 - 00:30:01:19

Jason

And I just said, no, thanks. I'm not really interested in that. Simultaneously, though, I am a college student. And they said, look, we'll pay you just to go out there and talk to them and tell us what you think. And the amount they offered me was $500. Well, $500. And, you know, 1994 ish was a lot of money, to me and also to a college student.

00:30:01:21 - 00:30:20:17

Jason

So I was like, sure, when do I need to be there? Right. My attitude changed from, I'm not interested in trying to distance myself, kind of playing, not playing, but being hard to get because I just wasn't interested to, you know, okay, I'll be there when you know how soon. And, $500 meant a lot to me back then and, you know, still a lot of money now, even.

00:30:20:19 - 00:30:43:11

Jason

And so but that was a great experience because I discovered the ability to advocate for an organization, and advance their message. And that's what really got me excited. And fast forward just a little bit, later in that same year, I believe, I know it was 1994, that this happened. And that was I was on assignment in a newsroom and the editor said, well, you should go research that on the internet.

00:30:43:11 - 00:31:02:18

Jason

And I said, okay, what's the internet? And he pointed me to either the newspaper librarian or research director. I'm not sure what her exact job title was. And literally this computer right here is connected to the internet. My. Okay. So what does that mean and what do I do? So she showed me what to do, and I sat down in what felt like five minutes was probably eight hours.

00:31:02:20 - 00:31:18:23

Jason

Eight hours later, I stood up and I decided, okay, everybody's leaving. I should probably get out of here. But I couldn't stop thinking about the internet and the power that it had and talking to other people about it who had no idea what I was talking about, and thought I'd lost my mind and didn't understand what I was so excited about.

00:31:19:00 - 00:31:46:04

Jason

But then in that moment, I realized there's a great opportunity. And that's when my career really started to pivot into PR, because that's the only way I knew how to tell stories. On the online was to be able to help companies tell their story. So that was 1994, and by 1995, complete strangers started recognizing me at, in a fast food drive through and in a restaurant, and people would call and leave messages on my answering machine saying, I want to hire you to build a website for me and my company.

00:31:46:06 - 00:32:13:00

Jason

And so literally, as a college student, I started a side hustle of building websites for people. I called it JM communication and you know, a huge company actually hired me to start managing their website for them. And it turned into a business. That business turned into me joining a, a web development company and literally, you know, joining it by leading it and turning it around for being a company that was losing money into a company that was making money.

00:32:13:04 - 00:32:39:11

Jason

The PR I was doing simultaneously for this company, ultimately attracted a company who acquired us, and I got promoted to basically running the entire company. When it got acquired. And, you know, I did that for a while and realized that I didn't want to really be. And, internet operations and in the capacity that they are promoting me into, in the direction they were promoting me into, so I eventually left, joined another company, and eventually left and started axiom.

00:32:39:13 - 00:33:02:06

Jason

So, that's how I got into this field. The next question is, how has public relations changed you as a person? Gosh, I've never really thought about that. I think it's all the things we talked about earlier. So it's given me an opportunity to travel to meet people, to help people, to connect people, to learn from other people.

00:33:02:08 - 00:33:20:16

Jason

And, you know, honestly, I mean, it's been a very rewarding profession to me. You know, certainly I probably could have made more money and, and, law or finance or something else. But, this has been a great profession for me, and I've really enjoyed it. And, I would encourage anybody who's interested in it to do it.

00:33:20:18 - 00:33:47:11

Jason

I'll tell you one of the most, irreplaceable things that I have experienced is my newsroom experience has proven to be extremely valuable. So many people go into PR right away, and they've never worked in journalism before, and they don't know how journalism works. And I think what you can learn from journalism is not only just being entrenched in a newsroom environment, which honestly doesn't really exist in the same way it used to because of cuts, because of remote work and other things.

00:33:47:13 - 00:34:14:11

Jason

But sitting in a newsroom and just seeing how vibrant it was to me and the, you know, early 90s, you know, created a expectation of how hard it is, to work in journalism, how demanding it is and how hard it is to get your story told when you're working in PR. And so I'd encourage anybody, at the student level and beyond, to just start writing for a newspaper of some sort, you know, if you've got to start your own.

00:34:14:11 - 00:34:34:15

Jason

But there's no nothing better than, I think, learning from somebody else. I mean, copywriters will kick your butt, but they'll teach you how to become a better writer. And you can apply those same skills to your oral communications, your verbal communications. And as time goes on, just improving your overall communication. So I hope that was a helpful answer.

00:34:34:17 - 00:35:02:03

Jason

The next question is what's the hardest milestone you had to surpass through throughout public relations? Hardest milestones you had to surpass throughout public relations? I think just PR tends to be invisible. It tends to be obscure to some people. I think really having to figure out how to explain it to people. I've had a lot of business leaders and chief executives kind of whisper to me, hey, I don't know what PR is, but I know we need it.

00:35:02:03 - 00:35:25:06

Jason

Whatever it is, people tell me we need it. I kind of understand, I think I understand, I think I understand how it works or the value of it, but I'm not sure how it works. And could you guide me? And I think once I adopted this idea of being a champion for our profession, advancing the profession by helping educate others, helping guide others along the way, I think that was a big milestone for me.

00:35:25:12 - 00:35:47:00

Jason

It's just realizing that if I can become the trusted expert advisor, I can help so many people in a much bigger way than just assuming that everybody understands PR because honestly, most people, including people in marketing, just they really don't understand it. They want to and they need somebody like me and others to be helpful and helpful, trusted advisors and guides to them.

00:35:47:02 - 00:35:54:03

Jason

So let's say otherwise. What's the hardest milestone you had to surpass throughout public relations?

00:35:54:05 - 00:36:04:09

Jason

Yeah, probably owning and operating an agency through, a lot of external forces and, and headwinds like economic changes and, and things like that.

00:36:04:11 - 00:36:20:04

Jason

Yeah. If I think of something else, I'll come back to that. So next question, tell me why you want to give back to the community. Because the community is who who helps us. The community is all we have. We've got each other and we need to lift each other up and help each other, succeed. And what's good for you is good for me.

00:36:20:06 - 00:36:42:12

Jason

And so, supportive community. A rising tide lifts all boats. And, you know, you give back to the community because studies show also that when you give back to others, you're the one who's actually helped. More so and, you know, I don't know the scientific term for it, but, you know, you're emotionally or otherwise recharged and energized and you feel good, about the giving back.

00:36:42:12 - 00:37:00:12

Jason

Not from a pride standpoint, but just that you helped others and you made a difference. And so, you know, I'm not a big believer in, you know, things that, you know, people say, well, I, you know, you know, I pay it forward. So it comes back to me and stuff like that. I just think it will come back to you, because you did something to help somebody else.

00:37:00:12 - 00:37:23:10

Jason

And that's all you need in life, is just to help somebody else and and just feel good about that and not do it out of expectation of anything else happening to you. But imagine if we were all kinder and more helpful to each other. What a better, society and culture we would have. And so I also think people gave back to me to help me, and when I was young in my career and have continued to help me even to this day.

00:37:23:10 - 00:37:39:22

Jason

I've got a great network of friends and colleagues and fellow professionals, and we're always trying to help each other, and I just think that's the way to be. I, I don't like people who are overly competitive and don't think that we can help each other out. I mean, I'd love to. I refer business people all the time and they're like, why would you refer business to me?

00:37:39:22 - 00:37:55:20

Jason

And so it's not a good fit for me, but it's what you do, I think. And if you don't, if you can't do it, maybe you know somebody else who can help them. Next question. Tell me about your job on a day to day basis. So my job on the day to day basis is no two jobs are the same, or two days are the same.

00:37:55:22 - 00:38:22:10

Jason

My role is to help, lead, and attract, recruit, retain, develop and lead, the most talented public relations corporate communications professionals I can find that goes beyond what people think of when they think of PR is getting media coverage, and maybe controlling media coverage in a crisis situation. And those are two very, very parts.

00:38:22:12 - 00:38:49:14

Jason

And roles of the public relations profession. Those are specific practices of media relations and crisis communication management. But there are other parts of this business like, you know, eye relations and, helping people become really good spokespersons and doing good media interviews, helping write content that, you know, people engage with and want to, you know, share, and want to, promote online.

00:38:49:14 - 00:39:13:02

Jason

So, there's content creation, there's reputation management and building reputations. There's also, you know, just so many other ways and so, like, we we have a great social media practice, we, redid, we rebuilt, we blew up our entire social media department and team, early this year and reinvested in new resources and additional resources.

00:39:13:02 - 00:39:29:12

Jason

And they've been crushing it ever since. And we've been doing some of our best social media work this year. And a lot of people think social media belongs to a digital marketing agency or something like that. But the problem is, I think digital marketing agencies are very focused on lead generation and conversion instead of storytelling and relationship building.

00:39:29:14 - 00:39:48:09

Jason

So we're thinking more of the long game and building that long term reputation. And so my job and I'm going to steal this, a guy named Tony Mix, who is a, was like a coach or consultant to agency owners. He told this story and I borrowed it and used it hundreds of times. And I really like it.

00:39:48:10 - 00:40:13:05

Jason

And the story he tells is about Walt Disney. And Walt Disney was personally, allegedly, personally giving a tour to, students who were touring Disney. And he was taking them through the studio and things like that. So he showed the accounting accountants, the animators, the sound, the Imagineers, the studio set, etc., etc. and allegedly, when the tour was over, some kid said, well, Mr. Disney, this is all interesting.

00:40:13:07 - 00:40:35:16

Jason

But what do you do exactly? What's your job? And I don't know how the story goes. Maybe Disney pause for a minute or so, but his quick response was, he said, well, I'll tell you what, what I do is I go around to each department like a bee and I pollinate it. I go into another department, I spend time there, and I try to make it better and and level it up.

00:40:35:21 - 00:40:52:15

Jason

And when I feel like I've been successful, then I move on to the next department, and I do a little bit of that and that's kind of when I heard that back in 2006 ish, I adopted that, and I started doing that in my own agency, in my own company, and I felt it was my job to help everybody get a little better.

00:40:52:15 - 00:41:08:18

Jason

And one of our core values we've since adopted is, improvement. And with the aspiration of getting 1% better every day. And I want to become a learning organization that that gives back. So that's a little bit about, my job on a day to day basis.

00:41:08:20 - 00:41:18:06

Jason

This episode is brought to you by Audible. Enjoy 30 days free of Audible Premium Plus by going to ontopofpr.com/audible.

00:41:18:07 - 00:41:42:12

Announcer

You're listening to On Top of PR with your host, Jason Mudd. Jason is a trusted advisor to some of America's most admired and fastest growing brands. He is the managing partner at Axia Public Relations, a PR agency that guides news, social and web strategies for national companies. And now, back to the show.

00:41:42:14 - 00:41:44:07

Jason

How was it working with these big companies and did you enjoy it?

00:41:44:07 - 00:42:16:21

Jason

So that's the next question. So, you know, big companies are interesting because, you know, the pressure is equally high as it is with smaller companies. They typically have deeper pocketbooks. Every company will tell you they're budget small. I don't care who it is. Walmart and Coca-Cola will tell you and Nike will tell you they have a small budget, but so will obviously the mom and pop drycleaners and the startup tech companies, and the midsize, you know, staffing firm, or Family Entertainment Center.

00:42:16:21 - 00:42:36:16

Jason

Everybody thinks they're budget small. But yeah, I enjoyed working with, with big companies. The interesting thing about big companies is they often move pretty darn slow. You know, they're making decisions now for six months or more ahead of time. You know, and, but but the work you're doing there is meaningful and important as well.

00:42:36:18 - 00:43:03:10

Jason

And the work they're doing there is meaningful and important, and it's certainly important to them. And so, you know, big companies, can help, you know, pay the bill, pay the bills, and big companies can be, you know, very demanding at times. Their demands are unique. Than, say, smaller companies who want something done, you know, good, fast and cheap, where big companies are typically looking for something to be done good and sometimes cheap.

00:43:03:15 - 00:43:24:09

Jason

But fast is not always the case. Now, there are exceptions, of course. But I've actually thrived pretty well working with big companies. Especially, at Axia, we've done a good job of recruiting big names to come work with us, and, yeah, I, I personally enjoy it just as much. Or almost as much as working with an entrepreneurial company.

00:43:24:11 - 00:43:44:06

Jason

Entrepreneurial companies are a little bit more difficult, and demanding. And they typically have smaller budgets and higher expectations. So big companies are wanting to make sure they're protecting their long term reputation and are always thinking long term, where small companies are not always thinking long term. But I would say find out what's best for you. It's not always the size of the company that matters.

00:43:44:06 - 00:44:01:03

Jason

It's also the industry, the niche and the profession that it's in, the profession you're in, the culture they build, your role there and how well you feel connected to the organization. I wouldn't be afraid to work with big companies. I think they give you a lot of opportunities to do things. I'll give you a story about a colleague of mine named Jonathan.

00:44:01:03 - 00:44:28:08

Jason

Jonathan worked for us for several years. He was, a web guy for us. He would build websites, manage websites, improve websites, optimize websites, and he left us. And we were very disappointed. And I asked him, where are you going and why? And he went to go join a retail company, a fashion company. And, you know, he might correct me on this, but the way I understood it, his job today, or at least at the time, was very narrow, extremely narrow.

00:44:28:10 - 00:44:54:20

Jason

His job was to create the afternoon email blast for a fashion retailer. Yep. That's it. All he did all day long was create or manage an afternoon email that went out. And there was a morning email. There was an afternoon email. There was an evening email, probably another overnight email, I don't know. But his job was to make sure that email went out and made sure it was improving and performing well.

00:44:54:22 - 00:45:18:01

Jason

And he had a team, of course, a designer and maybe some writers, and things like that. But I just couldn't I didn't understand why Jonathan wanted to go work at this company to have such a narrow focus all day long and not get bored. And that's the thing about working in an agency, you might specialize in a particular area, like newsletters or websites or whatever it might be, but you're often, depending on the agency doing it for multiple clients.

00:45:18:01 - 00:45:34:10

Jason

Now, some agencies have big clients, and so you're only working on one client. You could be that guy inside an agency only doing a afternoon newsletter for a particular company. And that's fine if that's what you want to do. I think figuring out what you want to do is probably the best thing you could always. You could do.

00:45:34:12 - 00:45:58:17

Jason

Tell me about your best experience with one of the companies. So these are great questions or requests, but you just have to keep in mind, you know, I've been doing this for 30 years and working with dozens of clients, maybe in a given year. And, you know, my job is really to lead and run and optimize PR firm, which means I'm not always doing, the client work or the client interactions.

00:45:58:17 - 00:46:19:14

Jason

But I get to hear about some of the cool stuff, and I've experienced some of the cool stuff. So, but probably the best experience. One of the companies I've named a handful of companies that are kind of highlights. As I look back over my years at Axia, in my career. And, you know, the best experiences are probably, you know, a conversation that I'll probably not ever forget.

00:46:19:14 - 00:46:42:10

Jason

And so we think of I mean, let me explain this. So we think of clients in three different personality buckets internally at Axia. So and we've given them kind of persona names. So the first persona is called Busy Blair. And a busy Blair to us is somebody who's focused on how many hours is are we getting per week, per month out of Axia.

00:46:42:12 - 00:47:01:04

Jason

And then how many deliverables is that producing? So they're kind of focused on the details, right. They're kind of micromanaging the agency role. They're they're very they're busybody and they're very worried about how busy we are, right. And how busy we're working for them. And that's honestly like our least favorite client, our least sophisticated type of clients. Right.

00:47:01:04 - 00:47:18:01

Jason

They want to see hours and and an activity report and we see hours, hourly reports. And then what hours did we spend and where did we spend them? How do we spend and what activities do we accomplish? How many media contacts do we reach out to? How many press releases do we send? How many social media post did we write?

00:47:18:01 - 00:47:37:11

Jason

You know, that kind of stuff. A very micro view. The next level up, a little bit more expansive is what we call results. Rory and results Rory is somebody who is not, doesn't really care about how much time we spend and how many, deliverables we produced. Instead, they want to know what results do we get you know, how did this impact the business?

00:47:37:11 - 00:47:54:10

Jason

So they don't care how many people picked up the news release. They don't care how many people viewed the social media posts. They don't care how much web traffic we drove to their website. And they're not wrong. Like they should be focused on results and so results. Rory just wants to know what's the bottom line impact this has on my organization.

00:47:54:11 - 00:48:13:06

Jason

And that's probably a very sweet spot client for us. But the next level up from that is trusting Terry and trusting Terry is the ideal client. And if you're a client or you're going to be a client, you aspire to be a client, or are you going to be in client service, you not only want to be the trusting Terry, but you want your client to be the trusting Terry.

00:48:13:08 - 00:48:48:02

Jason

And so my favorite clients, my best experiences are with companies who look at Axia as a strategic trusted partner in their in their relationship. And so what I love to hear, and I've heard this many times, is, you know, I'm not worried about the results because I know you're getting us the results. What it's important to me is that I have access to your team and their in their insights and intelligence that they understand who we are, what we do, what we value, and there's alignment in our values and that there's the integrity of telling us, hard things.

00:48:48:02 - 00:49:06:09

Jason

We need to hear hard things and telling us the right things to do. That was the ultimate compliment. And to be honest, I don't know. I deserve the compliment the first time I got that, because I'm not sure I had full alignment with the highest of integrity that, you know, they were perceiving that I had and I was giving them I had to mature into that because I was very ambitious.

00:49:06:09 - 00:49:28:02

Jason

When I started the company, I was always looking out for advancing, at, you know, not at any cost, but I wasn't thinking big picture long term. And I and that's just a maturity thing. And I've matured into that. But having an understanding that that's what people are looking for in their PR firm was very insightful and helpful to me early in my career.

00:49:28:08 - 00:49:46:02

Jason

And so as I've grown as a trusted advisor and I've grown in my commitment to integrity and my demand of high integrity and honesty and always telling the truth, even if it's hard to hear. I think my clients have valued that, that I have that expectation for me, for my team and for them. So, I hope that was helpful.

00:49:46:02 - 00:50:16:12

Jason

But yeah, I would say the best experiences with these companies are where we have the best relationship, the best culture alignment, a commitment to, mutually shared values and, and a mutually mutual respect for each other in the work that we were providing. I do believe that there's no, subordinate or inferior relationship. We are peers. Clients invest money in us for our expertise, and we count on our clients to, you know, give us the opportunity to help them so they're not better than us and we're not better than them.

00:50:16:12 - 00:50:31:05

Jason

We are equals, in this strategic partnership. And if anybody feels differently about it, it generally doesn't work out. So we try to put all egos aside and get entrenched and help each other and not worry about power plays or anything like that.

00:50:31:07 - 00:50:52:09

Jason

what made you decide to go into public relations, and did you have any role models when you were starting out? So I answered many of those questions. You know, Prsa would love to tell you about Edward Bernays as being a role model, for PR and one of the founding fathers of PR, but I would honestly argue that, you know, he would get canceled in today's culture.

00:50:52:11 - 00:51:11:16

Jason

And, you know, some of the things he really advocated for, you know, were not necessarily, ethical in the way that I think they should be. But, you know, that was a different time in a different season. And, you know, every generation, you know, has kind of black eyes or things that are there they cringe over now.

00:51:11:17 - 00:51:27:17

Jason

But yeah, I mean, as I said earlier, I've had a lot of role models along the way, you know, and I think I've outgrown many of them or learned as much as I could from some of them and kind of moved on. But I've had great people who have mentored and guided me. One to 1 or 1 to many.

00:51:27:17 - 00:51:45:03

Jason

So a lot of authors have written great books that have had a big influence on my life, and they may never know it. I've had the opportunity to interview people on my podcast who have been very influential in my life in that way. And so, yeah, that's and I, those are definitely people who have helped me.

00:51:45:05 - 00:52:08:12

Jason

What made you want to do standup comedy in your spare time? Okay, somebody doing a deep dive. That's awesome. So, yeah, I did standup comedy for a brief time. It was one of the more rewarding experiences in my life or career, because it takes a lot of courage to get up, on a stage and try to make people laugh, who, generally speaking, are there to have a good time, but they're not going to just give it to you.

00:52:08:14 - 00:52:22:07

Jason

And so, you know, unless you're a cute kid or somebody, they're already a fan of their, their, their suspicions are up a little bit. But what made me want to do stand up comedy in your spare time? Well, first of all, I didn't have a lot of spare time, and, that's kind of why I stopped doing it.

00:52:22:07 - 00:52:45:07

Jason

Was the criteria of the comedy club, was a certain amount of performances that they wanted you to be on hand for. You know, every week. And at the time, I had young kids and I lived, an hour each way without traffic, from the comedy club. And so to appease their interest, you had to be there to get to three, ideally four times a week.

00:52:45:09 - 00:53:05:01

Jason

And of course, as you know, comedy clubs don't meet during business hours. So it was night time. It was weekends, and things like that. And I just my family, I felt like needed me, more than the stage did. My comedy was a little interesting, meaning that I felt like, you know, people gave me, I think a great compliment was your comedies like Dennis Miller.

00:53:05:01 - 00:53:21:05

Jason

And most of you don't know who that is, but, you know, a little bit of intellectual. I had a lot of business comedy. You know, I had a lot of, deeper thinking kind of comedy and honestly, something that one day I would really like to flex a little bit more of my muscles in and get better at.

00:53:21:07 - 00:53:42:16

Jason

But standup comedy helped me as a, speaker. It helped me as a storyteller. And there were great workshops that I was able to attend along that journey. And I met some really great friends and people, that are also comedians. It's also a little bit about, you know, they say, and, and food manufacturing that you don't want to see how the sausage is made.

00:53:42:20 - 00:54:03:01

Jason

And I will tell you that there were some things about standup comedy. I wouldn't say that I disliked, but there was a lot of things that made me, you know, disillusioned. Not quite the right word, but ultimately I'd see people, in comedy. And you. It's not a bad thing. You just assume they're one way, but they're really another.

00:54:03:04 - 00:54:28:21

Jason

Not a bad way. But they have a stage persona that is not really who they authentically are off stage. And so you think you really know them based on their on stage behavior, but then off stage you start to find out that, you know, some of their stuff isn't true. So I'll give you an example. And I won't name names, but, you know, believe it or not, like there's comedians that make a living talking about, you know, different topics.

00:54:28:23 - 00:54:46:14

Jason

And so an example might be, you know, a comedian might be well known for telling, jokes about family life and being a dad and being, you know, a husband or being married or whatever. And then as you get to know them, you find out they're not married at all. But yet their stage persona would make you think that they're married.

00:54:46:16 - 00:55:00:18

Jason

I don't know how somebody gets in that spot, but I've seen people in that spot. I've seen the opposite where somebody, you know, just talks about being a single guy and what's that like? And then you find out actually they are married to somebody and have been for several years, and that's just their stick and they just stick with it.

00:55:00:18 - 00:55:21:16

Jason

So there's a little disenfranchisement that happened there when you kind of see, you know, how the sausage is made and what really goes on in stand up comedy. But it's, the best way I to describe, as they say, don't meet your don't ever meet your heroes. And so that might be a good example. Tell me about a struggle that PR work has that you've overcome.

00:55:21:18 - 00:55:48:03

Jason

So PR is a tough profession. I didn't say this already, but it is considered to be one of the top, ten most stressful, professions in the United States. And I'll tell you what, we definitely, feel that. And we have that. I'd say one of the biggest struggles about PR is people don't really understand it, and they often think it's instant overnight and that you know, just because they want to be in the Wall Street Journal means that it's going to happen.

00:55:48:05 - 00:56:02:04

Jason

It doesn't mean it's not going to happen, but it's all about the approach and how you have to approach it. And again, you think of it as a long game. You have to go to them with the right messaging and value. It's just like anything else in life is what's in it for me is not just about you, but what's in it for them.

00:56:02:04 - 00:56:16:20

Jason

And more importantly, what's in it for their audience. So I think that's a big struggle is people don't really understand what PR is and constantly having to educate them and reeducate them about it. Next question. What made you want to start and host a podcast?

00:56:16:22 - 00:56:34:22

Jason

First of all, I freaking love this podcast. It is so much fun to do this. I love getting connected to new people, interviewing people, learning from them, sharing those learnings with others. If I could just do this full time, I would love it. And I'm hoping to build an audience so we can keep doing that.

00:56:35:00 - 00:56:57:07

Jason

But what made me start, hosting a podcast? Well, first of all, most of you don't know, we start a podcast around 2005 or 6. We are one of the first companies I know to start doing it. And that was called the 62nd impact. And so it was like a very short, podcast. I don't think, I don't think we called it 62nd.

00:56:57:09 - 00:57:19:05

Jason

But it was based on our written, newsletter that we had called 62nd impact, which, by the way, we already we have that still going, and it's very much worth subscribing, but we would just take the topics from that, that, that newsletter and we would turn it into a podcast. And eventually, you know, candidly, we just kind of lost the internal resources to pull that off.

00:57:19:05 - 00:57:42:10

Jason

So we kind of put it on pause, and then we brought it back. And the reason I brought it back is because I wanted to advance and get back to the profession. I wanted to share what I, what what things I know to help others be more successful with PR. I wanted to meet other people and interview other people, and I knew that would differentiate us from other PR firms, by us just proactively sharing our smarts and sharing our insights and a global platform.

00:57:42:12 - 00:58:06:07

Jason

I'm pleased to say that our podcast, I believe, is in the top, 2.5%, maybe 3%, but I think we're now at 2.5% of the most popular podcasts. And, you know, we're very proud of that and very glad to, to be doing this. So, you know, really it was the nudging of others who said, man, a podcast is a great way to build an audience and a following and and, yes, attract clients, attract talent.

00:58:06:09 - 00:58:22:06

Jason

And, differentiate ourselves. And it's been all those things and more and frankly, with, almost a minimal effort, I feel like we could make a lot more effort, you know, like shoemaker's kids and spend more time on ourselves to even improve what we're doing. And I'm looking forward to doing some of that in 2026.

00:58:22:08 - 00:58:23:13

Jason

Tell me how you got in the PR.

00:58:23:13 - 00:58:43:23

Jason

We've already covered that. Did you always know you wanted to be a public speaker? Tell me about it. You know what? I don't know the answer to that, but I can tell you, when I was a kid, I was involved in for H. And I was winning all kinds of red ribbons, which is, I believe it's like a first place designation, for public speaking.

00:58:44:01 - 00:59:05:09

Jason

And I even spoke up, as a kid, I was a skateboarder, and I was just tired of getting run off by, you know, police and business owners and landlords and whoever it might be. And there's just nowhere for us to, you know, you know, kind of, enjoy skateboarding without, you know, getting, bothered by other people who thought we were bothering them.

00:59:05:11 - 00:59:30:12

Jason

And so I remember I spoke to the city commission where I lived, and I was just pleading with them to give us a designated place to be able to go skateboard and anywhere interesting to skateboard. Had signs of that said, no skateboarding. And, you know, looking for a way to not break the law or break the rules, but also have the ability to, participate in a sport that was very rewarding to me, both as a way to express myself artistically as well as a physical outlet.

00:59:30:13 - 01:00:08:15

Jason

And, so, you know, and since then, you know, I've also advocated and actually ended up helping raise the money to build a community skate park, which then produced, an Olympian who ended up competing in the Olympics for skateboarding. And who says it's because of that skate park that they were one attracted to skateboarding, and two, they had the ability to practice and get good enough that they were able to compete at the international level and actually was, placed the highest of any, female, athlete, or competitor from the United States in that particular Olympics.

01:00:08:15 - 01:00:27:01

Jason

So that makes me really proud. So, yeah, public speaking, you know, has has helped me do a lot of things in life. I just love helping others. And the way to do that is through public speaking. So I don't get as much opportunity to do that in my busy schedule and in my, various travels. But it's always something I'm looking to do more of.

01:00:27:03 - 01:01:02:02

Jason

And, but I didn't always know I want to be in public speaking, but it just kind of naturally felt, fit into my life and equation. Tell me about your biggest inspiration. I mean, hands down, it's going to be family. It's going to be, you know, my wife and children, my parents, my, nephews and nieces, my cousins, my brothers and sisters, both in laws and, and not, but, you know, definitely my wife and kids, you know, my Christian faith is very important to me as well.

01:01:02:04 - 01:01:25:22

Jason

So is my personal health and wellness. And, and I also get very inspired by the great work that I get to do for great clients and with great colleagues. So I have a lot to be thankful for, a lot to say Grace over. And, just looking forward to seeing, what's next as well. If you could offer advice to our generation on how to achieve success, what would you say?

01:01:26:00 - 01:01:44:02

Jason

I would say you're gonna have to work a lot harder than you think. I say that jokingly, you know, no hate, intended there just kind of a joke. But honestly, if I could offer advice to your generation to achieve success, I'd say work hard and even work harder than. Than when you're done working hard.

01:01:44:04 - 01:02:03:17

Jason

You've got your whole life to relax your whole life to chillax. But right now is the time for you to start making strides and making good first impressions and differentiating yourself from everyone else by putting in the work that other people aren't willing to do. That will set you apart from everybody else and set you up for success long term.

01:02:03:19 - 01:02:23:18

Jason

So even though it might be hard now, now would be the time, I think, to put in the effort. Because once you start having a spouse and children and a mortgage and and a desire to have a life outside of work, you know, be harder to, to kind of rebuild that from later. How do you get people who are reluctant to talk to you to open up?

01:02:23:19 - 01:02:32:12

Jason

That's a good question. I think just asking them, questions about themselves, at a slow pace, not trying to make them feel pressured,

01:02:32:16 - 01:02:54:22

Jason

I think being vulnerable, being real, being authentic, asking them questions about themselves, just trying to get to know them better and make them feel more comfortable. Probably revealing maybe things about yourself that might be embarrassing without, you know, being obnoxiously, an overshare. I think those are all good ways to get started. But go slow, you know, start slow.

01:02:55:00 - 01:03:11:23

Jason

You know, in your approach, it's kind of like, deer, right? Deer get scared off very easily, so you don't want to rush up to them. You just want to build trust with them. Maybe put out some food, maybe let them come closer to you slowly, but you don't approach them. And as they start to feel comfortable, then they'll start coming up close to you.

01:03:11:23 - 01:03:18:21

Jason

I'm not saying that's what you should do in real life, but that's a really good example that I've heard people say.

01:03:18:23 - 01:03:37:01

Jason

Tell us what makes us a special place. So, it's been a long time, since I was in high school. And, you know, I think high school is hard for everybody. Whether your, you know, what we call it back then, and I'm sure it's not appropriate now, but, you know, jocks and geeks and things like that.

01:03:37:01 - 01:03:55:16

Jason

But at the end of the day, what makes for any beach high school a special place? I'd say the community that we're in, are, you know, that, that it's in, and, you know, the unique opportunities that that, that I had there? You know, at the end of the day, it's still a small town.

01:03:55:18 - 01:04:22:11

Jason

And there's a lot of, synergy and centralization and support around, Fernandina Beach High School. So, you know, I think that's, that's what makes it a special place. Of course, you know, having, the right, culture and lifestyle that we enjoy here in Fernandina Beach and having the right teachers, who want to see you succeed and having great school system, a great public school system.

01:04:22:13 - 01:04:39:20

Jason

I think that all, you know, all fits the bill. My son, you know, went to that high school, and when I went to open house, you know, I found myself sitting in the same seats, the the same seat he was sitting in were the same seats that I sat in, so many years before.

01:04:39:22 - 01:05:06:07

Jason

And, and so that was, that was very, memorable for me. The last question of the 27 questions that I received from these students. And I just want to say thank you for listening and thank you to the students for submitting their questions. And I also want to say that it is really important that you know, that you can go to Axia Pre-comp AMA as an ask me anything and you can ask us questions any time there that you would like to ask.

01:05:06:09 - 01:05:28:16

Jason

And we will make an effort to answer your question either here on on top of PR, in our PR hack of the week and our different videos we produce, I do some various social media videos. We also do a lot of blogging. And, and so there's many ways we might answer it. But we would definitely love, love if you would submit questions.

01:05:28:18 - 01:05:53:10

Jason

We're happy to answer them. And again, give back in advance to profession. That's actually a pre-comp AMA. And, you might even be able to get there from on top of Pre-comp AMA. I'm honestly not super positive about that. All right. Last question. What was the best classes you took in college? Good question. The best classes I took in college were probably the ones that I was challenged the most and learned the most.

01:05:53:10 - 01:06:15:06

Jason

So off the top of my head, I think it was called J 105 journalism 105. That number doesn't exist anymore, but I'm sure the class does. We had a professor. His name was Ken Eick. I don't believe he's with us anymore. He was tough, tough, tough, tough. He was very robotic. And his personality, he had very high standards and expectations.

01:06:15:12 - 01:06:35:06

Jason

He did everything with intention. He's very strict, very serious, very high expectations. And, I'm just going to be very transparent with you. One of the first assignments I did for, Ken, Ike's class, this was an entry level journalism class. I don't know if it was a weed out class, but he sure treated it like it was.

01:06:35:06 - 01:07:05:07

Jason

And, So I'm in his class. I turn in my first assignment, he gave me a D, and the reason he gave me a D is he was reading through an article that I had written, for the class and kind of the rule of thumb back then with some professors is I will start reviewing your work until something happens in your work to disqualify you, and then you'll only get the points that you earned, for that assignment that you've earned up to that moment when I stop reviewing the work.

01:07:05:07 - 01:07:26:07

Jason

So something had to happen to disqualify the work, right? Maybe it was plagiarism, maybe it was a typo, whatever. It was a factual error, and they would just stop reviewing the work and whatever points you earned that to that moment is what you got. In this case, I had a typo and a company name, so I spelled Walmart.

01:07:26:07 - 01:07:48:23

Jason

And for the record, Walmart spelled their name different today than they did back then. But that back then it was wal mart and I believe it was a capital W and a capital M, but I lowercase the m. And so it was Walmart with a capital W, a dash between the L and the M. And the M, I believe was supposed to be capitalized and I lowercase it.

01:07:49:01 - 01:08:08:10

Jason

And he gave me a D and did not get very far into my assignment at all. I don't even remember what the topic or the the news story that I wrote was for for the class. But boy, that fired me up. I, I mean, I didn't know what to do with a D in a field that I had more experience than any of my colleagues had.

01:08:08:12 - 01:08:26:14

Jason

And so I said to myself, challenge accepted. And I decided I was going to turn this thing around. I knew exactly his standard. You know, message received what he was looking for. And I went at it full force, hard core. And I was not going to get another D in that class again. There's a lot of pride there.

01:08:26:20 - 01:08:45:12

Jason

At the end of the day, I came into this to the journalism school. It was my portfolio that got me in, not my grades. In fact, it probably required a little bit of persuasion to get a, you know, a C student, maybe a C plus student into the Missouri University of Missouri, first of all, second of all, to get into the school of journalism.

01:08:45:14 - 01:09:06:10

Jason

But I had a clip book, that nobody else had. I had a portfolio that nobody else had at 18 years old, having written for a, a, for the oldest weekly newspaper and working, also working for a daily newspaper in a major metropolitan area and having a lot of clips to show for one of my editors there, the Florida Times Union.

01:09:06:12 - 01:09:29:05

Jason

Roger bull, he told me that I definitely wasn't his best writer, but I would write more articles, you know, per week than anybody else that wrote for him. And for that he was grateful because I could help him fill a lot of content. That was somewhat of a compliment. But, you know, I think that kind of speaks to me and my style, highly productive, highly efficient.

01:09:29:07 - 01:09:45:02

Jason

And I do my best to do first class work, but I may not be in that particular stage in life. I might not have been the best writer, but I was willing to to work hard and put in the work and get the reps in to build my reputation and my career and my experience and my portfolio.

01:09:45:04 - 01:10:04:23

Jason

So can I. Class was tough. I got a D on that first, one of the first assignments. I worked really hard, played his game, understood it, appreciated it. I could turn on the perfectionist mode with the best of them. And and I did. And my point in telling you this, probably way too long story, is this.

01:10:05:01 - 01:10:26:00

Jason

That it's almost like a movie. I walk out of class one day and there's two, maybe three, students waiting for me in the hallway. And they said, are you Jason Mudd? And I said, yes, you know, and I'm wondering what's going on, thinking they're there to beat me up or something for some reason. And they were they were mad.

01:10:26:05 - 01:10:43:06

Jason

They wouldn't know who I was and what I was doing. Well, come to find out, apparently they had heard. And I didn't even know this, that I was getting an A in the class. And they said, we hear you're getting an A, and can I x, you know, J 105 class. And I said, yeah, I hope so. I expect that but I don't know that for sure.

01:10:43:06 - 01:10:59:04

Jason

And they're like, well we heard you are I don't know how they heard. I don't know why they cared. But literally they like, were ganging up on me and they wanted to know how I was getting an A in his class, and that no one gets an A in his class and that they want to know what my secret is.

01:10:59:06 - 01:11:27:03

Jason

And that was a moment of joy for me and, you know, excitement that my hard work was paying off. And so I just explained to them what I already explained to you. I'm not going to repeat it. But, you know, they just weren't up for the task. I think these were students who didn't know what it was like to not get an A, but didn't understand that it was more than just academics and studies that you had to be application and the ability to, you know, write with perfectionism in mind and write with journalism in mind.

01:11:27:09 - 01:11:47:22

Jason

And they just haven't, I my guess is they hadn't learned how to do that. So I was thrilled that I was able to take, one of the hardest classes, one of the hardest instructors class and turn that around, from a first grade as a D to getting an A in that class. So that is definitely one of the best classes I took in college.

01:11:48:04 - 01:12:11:10

Jason

The other class that I took in college, that was pretty darn good. Was, and I don't remember the name, but I think it was something, you know, the title of the class was about graphics and graphic design. And so, my instructor was, Birgit was Muth. She was German. She had a reputation, and she was not an easy class to pass.

01:12:11:12 - 01:12:31:12

Jason

Many people, did not get their degree in journalism and pivoted into another career or even dropped out. Brad Pitt included, because this class was so difficult, Brad Pitt and others were, you know, he was about to fail it. The story goes for the second time and decided that he just couldn't put up with it anymore.

01:12:31:16 - 01:12:50:16

Jason

So he packed his stuff and moved to Los Angeles, which worked out great for him. But knowing that story, when I got there, because he was a recent, student of that class, I knew I needed to prepare. Now, the good news is, being a production assistant at the firm news News-Leader prepared me for that moment.

01:12:50:17 - 01:13:14:15

Jason

I'd already learned how to use what was the premier, desktop publishing software at the time. QuarkXPress. I believe InDesign is the one that's current now. But at the time, Cork Express was the first class version. I knew how to use that already, almost inside and out, but I decided that I would spend the summer, preparing for that class that I was going to take in the fall to get even sharper at it.

01:13:14:15 - 01:13:31:07

Jason

So I worked, I did workshops, and I, I bought a, you know, back then you bought these. They're called visual quickstart guides that taught you how to use software. So I just kept working and improving my skills that I already had at a basic level, because I could not afford to pass to fail that class. I was paying my way through school.

01:13:31:10 - 01:14:03:11

Jason

It's very expensive and I knew the reputation of this class. So I worked really hard and and the first, the first lab we had. So we had, I think it was like an hour and a half or so. Maybe I was hour and a half twice a week, Tuesdays, Thursdays. We had a lecture, and she would go through the elements of Design and teach you about graphic design and specifically graphic design for journalism, including advertising and, and a little bit of, mostly advertising, but a little bit of, newspaper magazine layouts.

01:14:03:13 - 01:14:23:15

Jason

So I go to my first lab, had great to Jennifer. And in that way they gave out an assignment. And the people in the class are really getting heartbroken because they're realizing how hard it is to learn how to do this for the very first time. I'm sure now it's easier, a little bit more, intuitive, in a better user experience and user design interface.

01:14:23:15 - 01:14:38:02

Jason

But back then it was, you know, you had to learn it. You had to do the work, had to put in the reps, had to do the work. So I go to the first lab and they hand the assignment, and you know, I don't know how long it took, but the lab was at least an hour, maybe an hour and a half, as I recall.

01:14:38:04 - 01:14:54:11

Jason

That was in addition to the lecture. And so I go in there, I set up, I get the assignment, I can I complete the assignment probably way faster than most people did because they were just learning how to do it. Showed it to the to Jennifer. She said, look great. And I walked out and you could hear people grumbling and like, oh, it's unfair.

01:14:54:11 - 01:15:12:09

Jason

Why is he done already or whatever? And then they later they said, oh, it's unfair that he, you know, already knows how to use this. And what they didn't understand is again, like I the advice I gave earlier put in the reps, do the work, work hard now and you'll be able to build a stronger foundation and a quicker, fast track of your career.

01:15:12:13 - 01:15:36:16

Jason

And that's what I did. And it worked out as a happy accident for me. But it wasn't all roses. There was a point in that class, I'll just tell the story that, Professor Wadsworth gave out an assignment before spring break. It was a doozy. It was a complicated assignment, and I looked at it, and I said, I'm not going to have time to do this next week with my other requirements of working.

01:15:36:16 - 01:15:52:18

Jason

I worked my way through school, had other assignments and other obligations, other exams, other projects do for other classes. So I just kind of looked at my board where I had all of my projects listed and, and on a calendar, and I saw, okay, I'm going to have to work on this on spring break. Did I want to do that?

01:15:52:18 - 01:16:13:01

Jason

Absolutely not. But I had to do it. So I took the assignment she gave us before spring break. That was due, I think the Friday after the Friday after spring break or something like that. And I worked on it. I worked on in QuarkXPress. I built it out to the specifications. We had a three page brief, as I recall, and did all the work and everything.

01:16:13:01 - 01:16:35:18

Jason

Had it done before spring break was over. We come to class on that Monday after spring break. She hands out the assignment again to everybody. It's due by Friday. Everybody's, you know, not freaking out, but they're kind of dreading how hard this assignment was. And I was feeling pretty good. You know, a little pat on the back, feeling accomplished that my work was already done, and I had it done already, and I didn't have to worry about it.

01:16:35:20 - 01:16:52:23

Jason

So Friday comes, I turn it in, and, you know, a week or so later, we get back our grade. And just like the other example I gave, she gave me, I think, an F. And so as she went through the project along the spec sheet, you know, I had earned a certain number of points out of the 100 possible points.

01:16:53:01 - 01:17:11:08

Jason

I think it was, as I remember, and I can't believe I still remember this so many years later. I think I got to 60. Might have been a 50, but I'm pretty sure I got 60, so I had earned 60 points, according to the, checklist that she gave and how she was grading the assignment. But once she saw a mistake, she stopped grading.

01:17:11:13 - 01:17:33:22

Jason

And the mistake was that my margins, that I set for the assignment, were off by, you know, just a fraction of of an inch or whatever, but it was wrong. And, you know what? If it was wrong, then that's the grade I deserved. But I was I mean, this was like a, kind of like a midterm project or a significant project.

01:17:33:22 - 01:17:56:04

Jason

One of three projects, maybe 1 to 5, that our grades were extremely dependent upon. So I told her, I said, look, there's no way this is wrong. I followed the instructions to a T. You know, I'm always getting good grades on your projects. What did we do here? What happened? So, she and I went through, I think I caught her in office hours.

01:17:56:04 - 01:18:11:10

Jason

And by the way, office hours are a great way to build a relationship with your professor and show up and show out that you're interested and build a relationship with them, especially when you're in a class with 100 people. It'll help you in the long run. Have that relationship. That relationship would be beneficial for you in the long haul.

01:18:11:12 - 01:18:33:18

Jason

And so I went to office hours and I was not taking no for an answer. And I wanted to find out why. What happened, what went wrong. Here's what went wrong. She somehow, unintentionally or not, I'm not sure what happened. The specs, the brief that she gave us before spring break was different than the one she gave us after spring break.

01:18:33:20 - 01:18:50:21

Jason

So the case I made was. You did not tell us that the brief changed. You passed it out as if it was the same brief. And if you compare it to the brief I have right here, it's 100% accurate. Now, she's not one to concede, and I don't remember all the details, but I got my way with her eventually.

01:18:50:22 - 01:19:06:14

Jason

But it took a lot of, you know, gumption and a lot of stubbornness right back at her stubbornness. And, you know, meanwhile, other people in the hallway in tears, people who were trying to get her fired, people who were very upset. And, you know, she had a reputation for being hard. So everybody knew that going into it.

01:19:06:14 - 01:19:32:17

Jason

But she was the only professor that taught that class. And depending on the sequence or, track, you were on, you had to take that class. So anyway, long story short, I got a lot of respect from her for the work, the ethic, work ethic. I had the willingness to stand up for myself and be persuasive. So much so that when she stopped teaching at the University of Missouri, she contacted me when she was at the University of Florida and asked me to come speak to her class.

01:19:32:19 - 01:20:03:19

Jason

I was literally months. If not, I maybe a year after graduating from the Missouri School of Journalism, and here I am being asked to come speak to students, which just kind of blew me away and might go back to the question somebody asked earlier, which is, you know, how do I end up in public speaking? So just getting asked to speak and you just start doing it and you realize that people like what you have to say, and you can say interesting things, or maybe things that people don't know about and share them in a way that, hopefully is memorable.

01:20:03:21 - 01:20:29:02

Jason

So anyway, that was my experience. You know, those are probably the two of the best classes I took in college because they kicked my butt and made me grow up a lot and make me a better journalist. A better technician. And, you know, understanding, expectations and what quality means when you're doing work. So, anyway, look, this was a great episode.

01:20:29:04 - 01:20:54:05

Jason

Thank you for the opportunity to share so much about me in my journey and experience. I hope this was helpful to you. I hope I've helped you stay on top of PR, and I hope that you will either leave us a, five star review on the platform of your choice where you watch this. Or better yet, just refer a friend to this episode who you think would benefit from watching it. And with that, this is Jason Mudd signing off from Axia Public Relations. I hope some great happens to you today.

01:20:54:07 - 01:21:06:15

Announcer

This has been On Top of PR with Jason Mudd presented by ReviewMaxer. Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss an episode, and check out past episodes at ontopofpr.com.

About your host Jason Mudd

On Top of PR host, Jason Mudd, is a trusted adviser and dynamic strategist for some of America’s most admired brands and fastest-growing companies. Since 1994, he’s worked with American Airlines, Budweiser, Dave & Buster’s, H&R Block, Hilton, HP, Miller Lite, New York Life, Pizza Hut, Southern Comfort, and Verizon. He founded Axia Public Relations in July 2002. Forbes named Axia as one of America’s Best PR Agencies.

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