Today's post is a departure from my regularly scheduled AI & Comms industry content. No Beta Lab. No prompts. Just me, a wild story, and some things I know for sure after 25+ years working in communications.
Back in April 2025, Emily Ley (yes, the same one who writes the #1 parenting substack, The Landing, who is also the Founder of Simplified® and author of multiple bestselling books) and I had just landed in Orlando for her Mom 2.0 keynote when both of our phones exploded simultaneously.
Her lawsuit had been officially filed: Emily Ley Paper, Inc. v. President Donald J. Trump—marking the first civil lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the Trump administration’s worldwide tariffs. Overnight, Emily went from lifestyle guru to international news icon, and we were immediately thrust onto a wild roller coaster together. Her name was everywhere. CNN wanted her. MSNBC. BBC. ABC. CBS News. CBS Mornings. The Washington Post. Fast Company. Reuters. Bloomberg. The requests just kept coming.
There we were, holed up in a hotel room. She had forgotten her laptop, and mine didn’t have a camera that met broadcast quality standards. So, naturally, we DoorDashed one. 🤡
And, in a beautifully chaotic way, this story illustrates a career in communications: you plan, you prepare, you pitch, and then something completely unexpected happens and you figure it out with whatever you have … even if that means a DoorDashed webcam.
But, let me back up.
At the start of 2025, Emily—whom I’d worked with ten years prior and remained great friends with—reached out with a simple, semi-desperate ask: Did I still do book publicity? Technically, not recently. My first job out of college was working as a publicist for a small book publisher in Atlanta. From there, I moved to New York, spending many years working in publicity at Doubleday and then Hyperion Books. And, while my career has taken plenty of turns since, I’ve never really left publishing behind. It will always have my heart.
So when Emily called, I said yes. She needed immediate PR support for The Simplified Cookbook. We had very little runway, so I quickly went to work—pitching lifestyle and food media, lining up her book tour, and generally sprinting to catch up. Then, Emily shared a candid, factual social media post about the devastating financial impact tariffs were having on her small business, and a Washington, D.C.-based civil rights organization saw it and came calling asking her to take a very public, legal stand against it all. The rest was, well … history.
I held a front-row seat to something genuinely historic. And watching it unfold—watching Emily absorb the scrutiny, stand in her conviction, do interviews from a hotel room with a camera that arrived in a little orange bag—it was deeply meaningful.
This week, the experience came full-circle (more on that below), and it’s gotten me thinking about everything I know about this work … the things I’ve learned slowly, sometimes the hard way, and across two-plus decades.
So here’s what I know for sure:
You can’t sell a person or product that isn’t good. Sure, you can put a lot of resources behind something mediocre and get some initial noise. But the public is smart and word-of-mouth is undefeated. Eventually the campaign runs out of steam and the thing just sits there.
The “big” placement isn’t always the right one. Everyone wants The Today Show, The New York Times, or The Wall Street Journal. And yes, those matter. But more often than not, a niche podcast interview or a targeted industry speaking engagement can move the needle for a client far more than a legacy media holy grail (not to mention what it can do for AI visibility).
Relatability is the whole game. You can have the most exciting media opportunity in the world and completely waste it if you can’t succinctly convey your point of view and make the audience feel an immediate connection. Trust me, this is much harder than it sounds. Authentic presence can’t be faked—you can practice and you can train, but true on-camera authenticity is a gift.
Glamour is a cover story. When I started working at OWN:The Oprah Winfrey Network as a member of the launch team, we worked out of a dilapidated office building allllllll the way out near Bob Hope Airport in the heart of Burbank (IYKYK). Think greige walls, makeshift cubicles, and one shared printer. We were building, from scratch, one of the most anticipated cable television launches in years, and the physical reality was ... not Oprah glam. Every “exciting” industry involves hard work, long hours, and, oftentimes, very unglamorous settings.
Your clients are trusting you with their baby. Whatever someone is putting out into the world — a book, a lawsuit, a brand, an opinion — it’s theirs. They are (carefully and vulnerably) handing it to you. Treat it accordingly. Today’s media environment is loud, fast, and not forgiving. They are counting on you to shepherd them through it with care, not just competence.
Your media relationships are a two-way street. The journalists, producers, and hosts you work with are counting on you, too. They need you to prepare your client, deliver a clean experience, and not waste their time. Relationships and basic human decency go a long way in this industry.
Campaigns go sideways. That’s the job. Even the most carefully crafted plan can fall apart, take a hard left turn, or completely explode. Sometimes it’s your fault. Sometimes it’s just the news cycle. The job is to figure it out — to pivot, to fan the flames, to take accountability. Emily didn’t plan to become an international news story in the middle of a cookbook tour. But, that’s what happened, and we figured it out.
You have to keep evolving, or you become a cautionary tale. A long time ago, a (very short-sighted) boss told a room full of publicists not to worry about bloggers, because “that trend won’t last.” 😳 Now with AI disrupting every part of our industry, the people who thrive are the ones who stay curious and keep learning — which is, not coincidentally, the entire reason I write this newsletter.
Yesterday, Emily invited me to Washington, D.C., where she accepted an award at the Library of Congress for the courage it took to stand up and speak out publicly on behalf of small business owners when it would have been much easier to stay quiet.
As I stood there in Madison Hall—surrounded by the poignant inscriptions of James Madison’s speeches and a striking marble statue of our fourth U.S. President—I felt something I never take for granted: a deep gratitude for the small part I played. That the camera we DoorDashed in haste to a hotel room in Orlando had turned into something that truly mattered. After 25 years, there is still no better feeling.
⭐ My final thoughts: If you’re putting yourself out there — with your book, your company, your opinion, your newsletter — don’t ever let fear or vanity get in the way of your mission.
What’s a moment in your career where something went sideways and you had to figure it out on the fly?
You Beta Believe It is a newsletter for communications professionals mastering AI and integrating new technologies. Enjoyed this issue or learned something new? Please pass it along!
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