The Trending Communicator

In today’s hyper-accelerated communications world, keeping up means juggling reputation, brand building, crisis management, storytelling, and more while adapting to new technologies like generative AI. The Trending Communicator, hosted by Dan Nestle, is your guide through this chaotic landscape. This podcast dives into the challenges of PR, communications, and marketing today, with experts sharing real stories and strategies for overcoming those challenges and more. It’s the perfect resource for professionals looking to innovate, take risks, and stay ahead. Join us to make sense of today’s communications chaos, one insightful conversation at a time.

PR is Juggling Knives on Fire While Riding a Unicycle – with Abenaa Hayes

Can you juggle? If you’re a communications pro today, you’d better learn how. Just when you think you’ve got a good rhythm going, someone tosses you another responsibility. Maybe it’s a new social platform. Maybe it’s a cultural shift that changes how your audience thinks. Maybe it’s AI lighting everything on fire. But you can…

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PR is a Leadership Strategy – with Kristel Valaydon

How many of us are stuck playing media relations hits-and-misses while the real opportunities to drive business transformation seem to be just out of reach? In this episode of The Trending Communicator, host Dan Nestle sits down with Kristel Valaydon, founder of KV Communications, to explore her revolutionary Five Spheres of Connection framework and our…

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The Cobbler’s Children Have No Shoes But AI Can Help – with Natalie Moran

We can navigate a crisis, position a CEO, and craft messaging for millions of people. So why do so many brilliant communications professionals struggle when it comes to talking about themselves? In this episode of The Trending Communicator, Dan sits down with Natalie Moran, founder of Comms Futurist, who’s built her practice around this exact…

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Why Communicators Need to Think Like Operations Experts – with Lizabeth Wesely-Casella

What if empathy isn’t just about being nice, but your secret weapon for building systems that actually work? Lizabeth Wesely-Casella, CEO of L12 Services, spent her early career in construction wearing hard hats and reading blueprints in the 90s. She learned that communication wasn’t just a nice-to-have—it was survival. That foundation led her to combine…

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Your Storytelling Genie is in an AI Bottle – with Park Howell

Here they are again—marketers and communicators worried that AI is about to eliminate storytelling altogether. But what if the exact opposite is happening? What if AI is actually making authentic human storytelling the ultimate competitive advantage? In this episode of The Trending Communicator, host Dan Nestle reconnects with Park Howell, the brain behind the Business…

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Harmonizing AI and Human-Centric Approaches in Business Transformation – with Kate Bullinger

Humans are in a tough spot right now. But one thing remains certain: business transformation will fail without a human-centric approach.

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Beyond DEI: Redefining Cultural Communications – with Alicia Gibson Wright

If you’re thinking “cultural communications” is another way to say “DEI,” you may want to broaden your perspective. Culture comms might just be the key to building trust when the stakes are high – especially in healthcare. In this episode of The Trending Communicator, host Dan Nestle connects with award-winning healthcare communicator Alicia Gibson Wright,…

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Disrupting Yourself Before AI Does – with Steve Rubel

AI is forcing a real moment of decision for communicators. Make it count.

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Chaos, AI, and the Future of Work – with Emanuel Rose

Is AI a miracle, heralding an age of invention, or the harbinger of a dystopian civilizational collapse? The rise of short-form video on social platforms – empowering creators, or undermining society? The only certainty these days is uncertainty. But for curious minds, that’s precisely what makes it exciting. In this episode of The Trending Communicator,…

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From Clinton’s Wrath to AI’s Rise: Navigating through the Perma-crisis – with Elie Jacobs

Are we going in the right direction as communicators? In an era of dramatic policy shifts, cultural upheaval, and a fractured media landscape, how do we trudge onward through the muck without losing our way? Weighty questions indeed. In this episode…

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