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.

When Communications Can’t Close the Values Gap – with Emil Hill

You can’t communicate your way out of a values problem. Yet every day, communications leaders are expected to do precisely that. In this episode of The Trending Communicator, host Dan Nestle sits down with ⁠Emil Hill⁠, principal of The Creshiem Group and a public affairs strategist with 25+ years navigating the intersection of business, government,…

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How AI Changes Your Customers and Why You Must Change Too – with Mark Schaefer

Your customers are changing because of AI. But so are you—whether you realize it or not. Host Dan Nestle welcomes back Mark Schaefer, whose new book How AI Changes Your Customers reveals a transformation most people aren’t prepared for. As one of 300 futurists who contributed to Elon University’s Being Human in 2035 study, Mark…

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Expertise is Not Authority: Authority is the Expertise People Seek You Out For – with Amanda Russell

You can be the smartest person in the room, but if no one knows you or your point of view, you don’t have authority. This “authority gap” is why most professionals struggle to earn attention, build trust, and gain influence. In this episode, host Dan Nestle sits down with Amanda Russell, author of The Influencer…

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Beyond the Seat at the Table: Leading Corporate Affairs at Scale – with Megan Noel

What happens when the communications function stops being about messaging and starts being about business transformation? When your stakeholders include 10,000 employees, 94,000 students, 350,000 alumni, plus investors, policymakers, and healthcare partners? In this episode of The Trending Communicator, host Dan Nestle reconnects with Megan Noel, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer at Adtalem Global Education, to…

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Playstorm: Why Your CEO Needs to Get Dirty with AI – with Sandy Carter

MIT just dropped a bomb: 95% of corporate AI initiatives are failing. Not struggling. Failing. And Sandy Carter knows exactly why. In this episode of The Trending Communicator, I sit down with Sandy, currently Chief Business Officer at Unstoppable Domains, former VP at Amazon Web Services, and the person who turned IBM’s “social business” concept…

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Why This Former CCO Became Your Comms BFF Instead – with Gab Ferree

Gab Ferree led global communications at Slack, Bumble, and OneTrust, reaching every traditional summit in our profession. Then she walked away to build Off The Record, where communications professionals can finally admit they don’t have all the answers. Even the VPs who are supposed to. In this conversation, we explore why 100% of comms professionals…

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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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