Women of Influence by SheSpeaks
Join us each week on the Women of Influence podcast, hosted by Aliza Freud and presented by SheSpeaks. Each week, Aliza sits down with trailblazing women from various fields—business leaders, social media influencers, authors, speakers, entrepreneurs, and thought leaders—who are using their platforms to create meaningful impact. Discover how these women harness their influence to inspire, motivate, and drive change, and gain actionable insights you can apply to your own life!
Women of Influence by SheSpeaks
The Coldplay Cam Effect: Reputation, Reaction & the New Rules of PR
Diane Schwartz, CEO of Ragan Communications, breaks down one of the year’s most viral PR moments—the Coldplay concert “Crisis Cam”—and shares what brands should do when leadership missteps play out in public.
She also reflects on becoming Ragan’s first female CEO, why internal communications is more important than ever, and how leaders can build trust, influence, and confidence at every level. From the value of in-person connection to what today’s employees want most, this episode delivers practical insights for communicators navigating a changing workplace.
Episode Highlights
- How Diane would’ve handled the “Crisis Cam” fallout.
- The enduring value of in-person community.
- Why flexibility, recognition, and transparency matter most to employees.
- Advice for speaking up, building influence, and bouncing back from failure.
- What leadership really looks like behind the scenes.
Links and Resources
Connect with Diane Schwartz on LinkedIn
Connect with Ragan Communications on LinkedIn
Learn more about Ragan Communications
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ICO is just what it is this week. A week later or so, it's not going to be as funny or relevant for a brand to latch on to this. I think it will be referenced and people will know what it is. I think this is good for Coldplay as well, getting on people's radar. So there are some benefits coming out of it, but it's also indicative of how maybe you can run, but you can't hide these days.
Speaker 2:Welcome back to the show. We have a terrific episode for you today and one that is super timely. My guest today is Diane Schwartz. She is the CEO of Reagan Communications and they run PR Daily. So Diane is an expert in PR, public relations and communications and she is the first female CEO in Reagan Communications' 57-year history. Once you hear Diane speak today about communications and how to think about how we present ourselves, what we're saying, how we're saying it, how body language comes into effect, you will understand why Diane has been so successful at really helping to build and accelerate the growth at Reagan Communications since she has been CEO growth at Reagan Communications since she has been CEO and because I had her on and we had some breaking news, as happens in the world around us these days.
Speaker 2:We talked about the incident last week that occurred at the Coldplay concert in Boston with a Kiss Cam. If you are not familiar with it, you can Google it and just Google Coldplay and Kiss Cam and you will see what I'm talking about. The video that emerged that has racked up over 126 million views and has been featured in Time CEO and the head of HR, head of human resources, from a company that most of us did not know the name of last week until last week, which is Astronomer were caught on the Kiss Cam and, based on their reaction, chris Martin, who is the lead singer of Coldplay, called them out, said something he just mentioned oh, these people are either having an affair or they're very shy. Well, it turns out that they were having an affair and what we talk about is how to think about it. How do you deal with it? Diane gives her perspective and what advice she would give to people who are going through a crisis. Communication of a communicator who started her career as a reporter, as an editor, and really built up her knowledge and expertise and now has taken over the helm of the company Reagan Communications, and I believe you will get so much great insight from this conversation.
Speaker 2:With that, I'm going to let you hear my conversation with Diane Schwartz. Here we go, diane. Welcome to the show. Hi, thanks for having me. Well, I'm excited to talk with you. I want to get into this quickly because it is so timely that we had last week the news that was on everybody's screens and this was everywhere. At first I thought, oh, maybe it's just in my feed, and then my kids were telling me it was in there, they were bringing it up to me and I thought, oh my God, this is everywhere. Of course, we're talking right now about the crazy debacle that was the Coldplay Spotlight Cam or the Kiss Cam. Is that what it's called the Crisis Cam? Maybe the Crisis Cam Well, right, exactly the Crisis Cam with the CEO of Astronomer and the Chief People Officer of Astronomer, kind of getting caught on camera. Kind of getting caught on camera. And because you are a communications guru, I want to get your take on how this would you would approach something like this.
Speaker 1:Well, in this situation, act quickly and respond. I mean, it took off like a wildfire because of social media, of course, like any crisis. Well, these days and yeah I will say this is such a popular crisis because we're in a time of a whole other type of crisis in our, you know, in the world today, and this is kind of easy thing for people to glom on to have some fun with, even though it's not fun for the people involved or astronomer. It is a respite from the geopolitical issues and a lot of partisan chatter you know every day, every minute. So this is sort of a, in a weird way, a salve for people and relatable for people to sort of make fun of it or have fun with it, but it's not a fun thing for an astronomer or for the people involved, and it would be. I would have advised astronomer to come clean right away about the situation which was clearly on screen and that they were doing everything to both investigate it and take action, which in the end, they did take action and both executives I believe the CEO has resigned and the head of HR as well, but it's for other brands. It's a big opportunity to sort of newsjack the situation and get in the news with some clever, creative videos and other content, but from a crisis standpoint and from a leadership standpoint, I'm not sure who's leading HR right now. Who's leading HR right now? It's sort of the double the trouble, because it's an HR person who represents employee integrity and making sure morale is okay and information's being disseminated, and in this case, they have a void there. But I would advise them to take action immediately. I mean, everybody can see it on screen. So be honest and upfront, and it's not the brand's fault that this happened.
Speaker 1:I think you know an executive that is committing adultery in this case. You know this is a. This is. It's clearly something that I think, in terms of internal communications, employees want to see that this is our leader. What are you doing about this? Customers may be less so, depending on you know the business, but I think they had no choice but to allow him to resign. Yeah, In the end, the right thing took place, but it's not. The story has not ended yet. Yeah, In the end, the right thing took place, but it's not the story has not ended yet.
Speaker 2:No, and you know, I think you're it's so interesting because I think you're right. This is such a heavy time from a news perspective and what's going on in the world, you know, in the United States, outside of the United States. I think that weighs so heavily on people and this feels to those not directly involved. Obviously this feels like a lighter topic for people to kind of, you know, distract themselves. And I think what was really interesting, you know, there's sometimes, I find, that brands get involved in something that they shouldn't and in this case I found that there were some really clever ways that brands got involved in this and pushed out clever, either whether it was social media posts or even billboards. I think Chipotle did a billboard which played on this and it's everywhere. It was all over the weekend. Any sporting event you probably get involved in and, I think, by association, then I think that's why maybe brands are getting involved and maybe it is one of the easier things for them to jump into in the new cycle versus other things.
Speaker 1:Right, and the cycle is just what it is this week, a week later or so. It's not going to be funny or relevant for a brand to latch on to this. I think it'll be referenced and people will know what it is. I think this is good for Coldplay as well, getting on people's radar. So there are some benefits coming out of it, but it's also indicative of how maybe you can run, but you can't hide these days.
Speaker 1:Eventually you'll be caught. You know most people get caught, so it's yeah, I think people can relate to that.
Speaker 2:Well, and I think too, the other positive for it. So there is that element of it. But obviously you know it's funny because my initial reaction was did astronomer do this on purpose? Because it was a brilliant way for people to get you know, impressions and awareness for the brand that no one probably knew, and my understanding is that they were they're in the process of going public. Maybe they've got investors and and looking to potentially go public, which I guess obviously now this is probably not a positive thing that two key leaders in the company have, you know, have, have, or at least the CEO I know is no longer working there, but anyway, well, thank you for that take because I think it is so timely and also kind of goes into the work you get to do day to day. You are running and you have been running Reagan Communications and PR Daily. You are the CEO, but talk a little bit about what you do day to day.
Speaker 1:Reagan is a leading authority for communications professionals and worldwide, so we provide. The two main things that we provide are professional development and community, and these are for communications professionals at all stages of their career. And then, adjacently, we serve marketers and HR professionals, and we do that through we're sort of content agnostic, if you will so we do that through our conferences, through our websites. We have a membership community called the Communications Leadership Council. We do online training through our Reagan training platform. We have certificate programs on everything from AI to media relations to crisis, and so we're all about advancing the communicator within their organization, helping them to be more influential and impactful.
Speaker 2:So you have run in your career many, many conferences been a part of that and I love that you described Reagan first and foremost as professional development and community, because in today's day and age, where so much is since COVID, so many things are not in person, they are done virtually. Can you talk just a little bit about in today's environment what is the value of getting people together and in community in person?
Speaker 1:Yeah, there is nothing better than being in a room with your peers and the informal conversations that you have with the people at your table, to be in real life with subject matter experts on the stage and getting to meet with them afterwards. You know it's important. There's nothing like body language. You know that what you get in communication from seeing the full person you know, versus what right now you know from the neck up. So there's, you know, the learning that can be had in informal ways at conferences. You can't really get that. You mostly don't get that virtually. We do offer like four. We have 40 to 50 programs online throughout the year. That's learning and development online throughout the year. That's learning and development. But you know we, our events, are time for also people to come together as a community and that's the other part of it. There's a learning and community. It's just like any when you go to a concert or where you go to a church or synagogue or a mosque. You know you're with your or any place where you're with your community and talking the same talk and learning from each other. There's nothing better than that.
Speaker 1:And I guess a big change after COVID people coming together was essential. People need to get out of their houses, you know, or out of their, you know. Out of their even offices, you know. Houses, you know, or out of their, you know. Out of their even offices, you know into the community and being together again. Yet, at the same time, there's a lot of innovation in online learning. We always have to answer the question well, why would somebody need to come to this event if they could just learn it online? Right, and so that has challenged us to get into more of the experiential component of conferences. So it's not just about sitting in a room looking at a PowerPoint, someone's PowerPoint deck. It's about interactive sessions. It's about the stuff you do outside of the ballroom or the classroom, things that you do together, fun things, networking, that sort of thing.
Speaker 2:I love that.
Speaker 2:I mean I think that also, as you're talking, I was thinking to myself that it is not a surprise that Reagan is really still and very much forging into the in-person.
Speaker 2:You have so many great events and they're well attended, because if you think about the nature of what communications professionals do, when you were talking about body language, I mean that's a big part right of understanding that if you're a communications professional, one of the things that you're probably taught when you're studying in school is to think about body language as part of what you're communicating. It's a big part of what you're communicating and in today's day and age we have so much online but there is this nuance that in-person gives you. That is a big part of what is communicated and it's interesting because I wonder how much that has affected the industry. There is so much that's communicated through how you move your body and what is happening when you are speaking. That happened from below your head, let's say, down right, and it's interesting to think about how that has impacted communications just generally, and I don't mean the industry, but just how we communicate.
Speaker 1:And one of the fastest growing areas of communications is the internal communications practice, which is more about employee communications versus PR and external comms. And so the need for employee, the struggle that companies have now to retain especially younger generations of employees and to have them feel engaged with the company that they work with. Some of that from a virtual environment and remote working, where it's harder to communicate and really take the pulse of employees when you're just like seeing them on screen and they don't feel as connected, you know that's a real struggle on the communications front. So that's, we can get more into that in a second. The other thing I was thinking about with our events and what we do for our community is on any given conference, we have like 50 speakers or so. A lot of them are communicators, and allowing them to get on stage and to do some storytelling and presenting really helps them. You know. Strengthen that communications muscle you know that storytelling muscle.
Speaker 1:So, we give them the stage. You know, a lot of times they're behind the scenes and so being able and mostly they're behind the scenes, but they should be at least so giving them that chance to be on stage and be better at, you know, learn how to convey messages more concisely, clearer, you know, is something I think we helped do as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, reagan's been around for 57 years and you are the first female CEO in the 57-year history of the company. Can you talk a little bit about how that came to be and what you feel like has maybe surprised you about that journey to CEO?
Speaker 1:Backgrounds in journalism and I was running a media group that had a competitor in it, a brand that was competing with Reagan Communications. So I got to know Mark Reagan, who's the owner of Reagan Communications now. I got to know him 20 some years ago, so over two decades. We built a relationship somewhat competitive, but it got to the point where about six years ago and he was obviously thinking about moving away from the bit, you know maybe semi-retiring handing over the baton. So he literally asked me the question what do you think about running Reagan? And I kind of laughed at office at first because of our casual conversations we've had about business, and then I had that aha moment or question like why not? So that was sort of that pinch me moment and we've had such a strong relationship and trusted relationship over the years. So it seemed natural, you know, to take this over and it gave me the chance to not only cover the communication space but to run a company, which I had never done before, and so I got to learn a lot of new things.
Speaker 2:For people listening who have an interest in, at some point, making the leap to CEO or running their own company. What do you think is the most important thing for someone to think about when they move into that role in terms of how they look at the business? I know there are probably a ton of things, but is there one piece of advice or important element that you think people should know?
Speaker 1:Well, first, in thinking about how I got here, I think one of the key things for me was I focused a lot on the work itself, the work that needed to be done. You know versus, you know putting a woman in place as a CEO or just sort of posturing in any way it was really about. I knew that I brought a lot of strength to the to this role because I knew the, I knew about communications, I did the work, I came in with knowledge and I also knew a lot about employee communications. You know, sort of like eat your own dog food kind of thing it's. You know we cover this space. So I knew that listening would be really important coming into this role.
Speaker 1:And even when I think back when my first year leading Reagan, I knew that listening would be really important coming into this role, and even when I think back on my first year leading Reagan, I probably should have listened even more carefully to some of the things that the existing employees were saying. You know, when I asked for their advice, what would you do in this case or that case, as I was getting to know everybody? In retrospect I'm like I think that person was right. I should have X, y, z, you know, but you kind of have to make a few, you have to make decisions, you have to show that you can make decisions.
Speaker 1:So when I knew some of them might've been the wrong decisions, but I've always prided myself on being able to fail fast, move on, learn from it. So that's the other part of it. The sky isn't falling, you know, if I do something wrong. I think that's a key thing to remember. Almost about you know everything, except for unless you're a doctor and you're saving people's lives or something like you know, you're saving people's lives In other communications. Nothing is sort of life lives In communications. Nothing is sort of life-threatening. I'm a generally calm person so I think that served me well and I was surrounded by really talented people and I needed all these great people around me to be successful in my role.
Speaker 2:I think that we grow up and go through a schooling system that that teaches us failure is bad, failure is bad. And then you get dumped into the working world and you are fearful of failing. But I think as you grow in life and in career, you realize that you're going to make mistakes, mistakes are going to happen. It's all about understanding how do I learn from that mistake and how do I move forward, and it's the recognition that you're going to make mistakes and that's okay. In thinking about this podcast, this podcast is called Women of Influence.
Speaker 1:I would love if you could talk about what influence means to you, to me it means positively impacting the community that I serve and the stakeholders around me so that they have also the courage and conviction to take action in meaningful ways. Influence is something you earn. You can't tell people you're influential. You have to. You know you earn it through merit and through trust and we try aside from how I see it for myself we try really hard at Reagan to help communicators gain more influence in the roles that they're in. You know, and a lot of that has to do with listening. A lot of that has to do with the courage to speak up. You know, because people can't read your mind. So you're not going to have a lot of influence if you're not speaking up and just spending all your time listening.
Speaker 2:I can remember sitting in meetings earlier in my career and a woman would say something and it would kind of be like, okay, and then a guy would raise his hand and say almost the same exact thing that the woman just said, but he'd say it differently. Say almost the same exact thing that the woman just said, but he'd say it differently, and the whole room would go, oh, oh, that's a great idea. But I say that, yes, I've definitely seen that happen between women and men, but I think it also happens within. Like you know, a woman will say something and another woman will pick it up and say it in a better way.
Speaker 2:A woman will say something and another woman will pick it up and say it in a better way. I just want to get your perspective as a communications professional and an expert on what can people do and how should they think about a core of how do they communicate. When they have an idea, then they raise their hands in that room, what is important for them to think about when they're communicating, whatever it is that they want to say.
Speaker 1:I would start with the idea I mentioned before, which is know your stuff right.
Speaker 1:If you understand the subject matter, whatever it may be, whether it's a recent current event or it's something you know, some intense topic that you need to study up on If you know what you're about to talk about, if you truly understand it and comprehend the subject matter, then you're going to have a lot more confidence to speak up.
Speaker 1:If you're faking it just to say something, or you're using AI to tell you what to say, for example which I think we might see happening more and more then it's going to show and you're going to not feel right.
Speaker 1:It's not going to feel right and the more confidence you have in this, in the work that you're doing, the easier it is and the more authentic it's going to be to speak up and you're going to get that positive reinforcement. And so it goes back to you know, like doing the work and there are a lot of shortcuts we can take and there are a lot of great tools now at our disposal to tell us how to think and what to do and how to say. But if you, you know you're still a human being with a brain and just like, use it, and that would be my best advice, cause I am. I can guarantee you that if you know what you're talking about and you raise your hand and you're able to share it in a way that proves you know you have knowledge, you're going to just it's a multiplier effect for you. You're going to continue to do that.
Speaker 2:I love that. It's great advice and I think certainly earlier you're growing your career, understanding what you're talking about, the subject matter and really being a sponge and absorbing as much as you possibly can. Can you just share a little bit, because I do think that this is such a hot topic in this day and age? One's thinking about getting people back to the offices and how jobs should work. Can you talk a little bit about what you think employees are expecting from their employers in this environment?
Speaker 1:I would say the number one and this bears out in our we just were coming out with our salary survey and culture report workplace culture report and the number one thing that employees say that they want more of is flexibility. It's almost like 60% said that that is what is most satisfying about their job, is the employer's flexibility, and that pertains to mostly, you know, working in the office or the work hours in the office remote and just being flexible. I think you could extend that to other types of flexibility and trusting the employee. We have at least five generations in the workplace right now, so what Gen X wants and what Gen Alpha wants are often going to be very different. So, obviously, understanding generational differences and meeting them where they're at to some extent, I also think that employers can be too flexible and people like, I think people like roles and some guardrails, you know, within an organization, so some companies can go too far, you know, on that front.
Speaker 1:But I would say flexibility, transparency from senior leadership. That has not changed. I mean. You asked me that question 20 years ago. It should be the same answer, right? Maybe flexibility would have been less of the top of the list, but I'd say transparency, diversity of opinion. I mean I the word diversity is now a very charged word, but I'm talking about different kinds of opinions and that means having different kinds of backgrounds in your organizations of all different. You know, I can, we can define that in a lot of different ways. And then the last thing is recognition. Employees want to be publicly recognized. They, you know, they, they, in some ways, you know, we say they say people leave their manager, you know if they leave a company. So recognition by their manager, recognition by their peers, by senior leadership.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Same thing 20 years ago, so a lot of the same best practices.
Speaker 2:I love that, and I'm glad that you said that about the recognition, because I would agree that, like transparency, it is the thing that is consistent over many years of work. I think it is so important to make sure that people are being told, hey, you did a good job here, and being told that in an environment that helps them feel good about it, and I love that. Well, my last question for you, diane, as we wrap up, is if you could go back and give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?
Speaker 1:Less second-guessing myself and overthinking how to be liked versus how to be heard, Going back to having a voice in the room. You know, I would wish I had cared less about what people thought of me and more about how to make a difference and make things happen.
Speaker 2:I love that. What great advice and what a great way to end this conversation. Thank you so much for spending this time with us today. If people want to follow you or the work that you are doing at Reagan, what is the best way for them to do that?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm on LinkedIn under Diane Schwartz. My email is dianes at reagancom. So I'm on all the most of the social networks, so I hope that you will connect with me and thank you so much for having me today, my pleasure. Thanks for doing this today.
