Authentically Detroit
Authentically Detroit is the leading podcast in the city for candid conversations, exchanging progressive ideas, and centering resident perspectives on current events.
Hosted by Donna Givens Davidson and Orlando P. Bailey.
Produced by Sarah Johnson and Engineered by Griffin Hutchings.
Check us out on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @AuthenticallyDetroit!
Authentically Detroit
From City Hall To 98Forward: Legacy, Lessons, And The Future Of Detroit Communications with Georgella Muirhead and Antonice Strickland
On this episode Orlando sat down with legendary public relations executive, Georgella Muirhead and Vice President of 98Forward, Antonice Strickland to discuss how Georgella’s career shaped Detroit's communications landscape and paved the way for the next generation of leadership at 98Forward.
After nearly five decades of shaping Detroit’s civic, corporate, and community narratives, Georgella Muirhead, a trailblazer in public relations and communications, will retire at the end of 2025. Her retirement marks the culmination of an extraordinary career defined by leadership, integrity, and impact — and ushers in a bold chapter for 98Forward, one of Michigan’s most experienced and respected strategic PR and communications firms.
As 98Forward enters this next chapter, the firm remains anchored in the principles that have defined it for nearly 30 years: authenticity, strategy, and impact. With a Detroit soul and a national reach, the agency continues to lead with purpose — telling the stories that move communities, conversations, and the industry forward.
To learn more about 98Forward and their work, click here.
FOR HOT TAKES:
MICHIGAN QUICKLY DELETES GOVERNMENT CHATS, RAISING TRANSPARENCY QUESTIONS
Up next, Authentically Detroit welcomes the legendary public relations executive Georgella Muirhead and vice president of 98 Ford, Anthony Strickland, to discuss how Georgella's career shaped Detroit's communications landscape and paved the way for the next generation of leadership at 98 Ford. But first, this week has hot takes from the Motor City Contractor Fund and Bridge, Michigan. The Motor City Contractor Fund invites Detroit contractors to pursue the ultimate gift this holiday season: bigger, better business. And Michigan quickly deletes government chats, raising transparency questions. Keep it locked. Authentically, Detroit starts after these messages. Detroit 1 million is a journalism project started by Sam Robinson that centers a generation of Michiganders growing up in a state without a city with 1 million people. Support the only independent reporter covering the 2025 Detroit mayoral race through the lens of young people. Good journalism costs. Visit Detroit1Million.com to support black independent reporting. Hey y'all, it's Orlando. We just want to let you know that the views and opinions expressed during this podcast episode are those of the co-hosts and guests and not their sponsoring institutions. Now, let's start the show. We want you to like, rate, and subscribe to our podcast on all platforms. Donna is out on vacation, and I would say a much needed one, but I'm honored to wrap 2026 with the legendary Georgella Muirhead and Antonise Strickland, who are here to discuss Georgella's retirement and what that means for 98 Forward, moving forward. Georgella and Antonese, welcome back to Authentically Detroit.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you. Hey, thanks for having us.
Orlando Bailey:How has the day been for you both? Antonese, how are you doing? It's cold on the top. I told you when I it's ridiculous. And you would think we would be used to it because we live here. But every year we act so shocked like we didn't know winter was coming.
SPEAKER_00:Every time. I'm a winter baby, so I have zero excuses, but I I can't. I'm ready to get to the south ASAP. I know that's right.
Orlando Bailey:I know that's right. I'm going to the South. I just left the South. I was just in the South over the weekend. I was in Atlanta. Nice. And like Friday and Saturday, like 65 hours outside with Nokia. I don't know about no tank time. But it is nice. And I'm going back. I'll be in Florida first thing in January, like the first week out in January. I have to be in Florida.
SPEAKER_00:So night as well. I got some family down there. My birthday's at the top of the year.
Orlando Bailey:We'll hang out. We'll hang out, Georgiana. How's the day finding you? How you doing?
SPEAKER_01:Well, I'm doing pretty good. I just don't travel like you guys. I'm looking home.
Orlando Bailey:Well, you want to know what's funny is back when 98 Ford was formed, the two of you came on the podcast when we were recording at the WDET studios. And I happened to have been out of town working. And so Donna handled that interview. I think it was Anthony's, Marilyn, and Georgella. And I was so jealous that like I was missing in action. And so I'm going to do everything in my power today to make Donna jealous because I think Georgiella correct you.
SPEAKER_01:It wasn't when we were formed, it was when we rebrained. When you rebrained almost 30 years ago.
Orlando Bailey:Yes. Yes.
SPEAKER_00:She got to the first.
Orlando Bailey:I was that's right. If you're gonna message it, message it correctly.
SPEAKER_00:Come on, I sent the talking point. Right.
Orlando Bailey:Okay, my bad. All right, it's time for hot takes where we run down some of the week's top headlines in the city of Detroit. But first, here is something that we want you to know. The Motor City Contractor Fund invites Detroit contractors to pursue the ultimate gift this holiday season. Bigger and better business. With the January 30th deadline approaching, the Motor City Contractor Fund, along with its partners, the Gilbert Family Foundation, Invest Detroit, and Barton Mallow is urging Detroit-based contractors to apply now for a business growth opportunity that is helping contractors participate more fully in Detroit's$5 billion revitalization investments. A delivering over$2 million in capital support. B facilitating nearly$2.5 million in lending, and C distributing approximately$365,000 in grants, strengthening Detroit business operations and increasing readiness in the Detroit contractor ecosystem, allowing program participants to compete for larger development opportunities. Here's why it matters. This holiday season, the Motor City Contractor Fund is spotlighting an important story often overlooked in Detroit's economic landscape, the persistent barriers small contractors face when trying to access capital, formalize financial systems, and build sustainable capacity. With this upcoming fourth cohort, the contractor fund is creating opportunities for contractors to achieve business growth while providing them with capital, technical assistance, and a powerful network that positions them for long-term success. Here's the quote: This story matters because the success of Detroit contractors directly contributes to the strength and growth of Detroit's neighborhoods. Capacity building and access to capital aren't abstract ideas. They're directly determining whether a small business contractor can hire, acquire equipment, or take on their biggest project yet, said Sinee Jackson, the program manager at the contractor fund. Contractors accepted into the upcoming cohort have a chance at all of the game-changing access of previous cohorts and more. The program is designed for Detroit contractors who are ready to strengthen compliance, financial systems, operational structure, and competitive positioning. Detroit contractors can apply at www.motorcitycontractorfund.org. Again, all Detroit contractors can apply at www.motorcitycontractorfund.org. We'll be right back. The Authentically Detroit Podcast Network offers studio space and production staff to help get your idea off of the ground. Just visit authentically det.com and send a request through the contact page. Michigan quickly deletes government chats raising transparency concerns. This is by Simon Schuster at Bridge, Michigan. Want to know what the top Michigan economic development officials were chatting about online as their office was raided by Attorney General Dana Nessel in June amid an earmark embezzlement investigation? Or what state officials and employees were telling each other as President Donald Trump returned to office in January. Many of those communications may be permanently shielded from public view under a state government policy to automatically delete communications through Microsoft Teams, a communication and collaboration platform widely used in Lansing. State government agencies delete those chats after 30 days, meaning they generally are no longer available to the public through the Michigan Freedom of Information Act. Emails, by comparison, are retained for seven years and remain available through public records requests. A spokesperson for the Michigan Department of Technology, Management and Budget, which oversees most of the state's technology systems, said the quick deletions were for storage reasons, not hiding information from the public. Bridge Michigan discovered the issue earlier this year when the Department of Technology, Management, and Budget denied a reporter's FOIA request for Teams chats about Trump's return to office. An October request for online chats during the June raid of the MEDC offices was similarly denied because the information requested does not exist, according to a government response to a bridge Michigan request. Michigan's open records law does not mandate how long state and local governments must hold on to records, meaning the policy to automatically delete online chats after 30 days does not directly violate the statute. But it certainly violates the spirit of transparency intended under the law, said Dirk Wilcox, a senior attorney with the free market-oriented Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Here is what I would say about this, just as a journalist. I don't like public records being deleted at all. I want to be able to skim with a fine-toothed comb through public records that go back as long as we are able to get them back. Now, the other interesting thing is that Donna and I had a conversation about FOIA laws also not applying to the executive branch of government here in the state of Michigan. That means that we cannot FOIA Governor Whitmer's records, her emails, or anything like that, right? And right now, uh the Republicans in the state legislature are making a big stink about some of her ties to MEDC and some of her appointments there and its foundation and how some of those funds have been allocated from the budget, which is why we're seeing this large rescission package in Lansing right now. And so they're crying foul, right? But what I am coming to understand is that no administration, regardless of party, the Democratic Party or the Republican Party, wants to be subject to FOIA laws in the executive branch when they hold that executive seat. And so Republicans are crying amok right now. But when there was a push during the Snyder administration, there was, oh no, no, right? Same thing with the Whitmer administration. The Democrats do not want well, some do, uh, but the party at large and the governor at large, you know, does not want uh records to be foilable. And I find that highly problematic as we are supposed to be living in a democratic society where all of this stuff is supposed to be open. As a journalist, I see it my duty to hold to account the power structures that govern our everyday lives. And so without access to do that, without access to the records, without access to the emails, without access to the teams, it becomes that much harder. We're still able to do our job, right? But it becomes really, really hard. And then, you know, even at a local level, if we FOIA something from the mayor's office or the city, um, sometimes we get slapped with like exorbitant fees, right? Right. The Detroit Free Press ended up suing the city uh before because uh they got a, you know, an invoice to receive records, you need to pay like over a hundred something thousand dollars to get these records because of the time, you know. And so uh, and you know, so there are ways around it. There are lawsuits, there are ways to do reporting uh around it. But, you know, and I know that this is a really, really popular administration. I know that we have a really, really popular governor, but that should not circumvent transparency concerns. And I think that Michiganders and journalists who are covering the state capitol, including the executive's office, should have reason for concern. And so that's gonna wrap up hot takes. If you have stories that you want discussed on authentically Detroit, you can email us at authenticetroit on gmail.com or you can hit us up on our socials at Authentically Detroit on Instagram, X, and uh Facebook. We'll be right back with Georgia and Antonese. Interested in renting space for corporate events, meetings, conferences, social events, or resource fairs, the MASH Detroit Small Business Hub is a 6,000 square feet space available for members, residents, and businesses and organizations. To learn more about rental options at MASH Detroit, contact Nicole Perry at nperry at ecnetroit.org or 313-331-3485. Welcome back to Authentically Detroit, everybody. After nearly five decades of shape, she don't look like she's been around for an over five decades. Good Black Don't Crack of Shaping Detroit's civic, corporate, and community narratives. Georgia Muirhead, a trailblazer in public relations and communications, will retire at the end of 2025. Her retirement marks the culmination of an extraordinary career defined by leadership, integrity, and impact, and ushers in a bold chapter for 98 Forward, one of Michigan's most experienced and respected strategic PR and communications firms. Muirhead began her career in public service as communications director for the cities of Ann Arbor, East Lansing, and Southfield. She later spent eight years leading the City of Detroit's communications department, where she managed a 32-member team and directed citywide messaging, media relations, and major events, including Pope John Paul II's visit to Detroit and the Detroit Pistons Championship celebrations. Under her leadership, the city launched influential campaigns such as No Crime Day and the award-winning Devil's Night Community Engagement Initiative. This extensive government experience shaped her inclusive, strategic and results-driven approach to public relations and community engagement. An approach she successfully carried into the private sector, managing high-profile projects such as the Detroit presidential debates. Following her impactful tenure at Detroit City Hall, where she served under Mayors Coleman A. Young and Dennis Archer, Muirhead co-founded Berg Muirhead and associates in 1998 with the late, great Bob Berg. Together they built one of Detroit's most respected communications firms, known for its deep community ties, trusted relationships, and unwavering commitment to telling authentic stories. As 98 Forward enters this next year, the firm remains anchored in the principles that have defined it for nearly 30 years authenticity, strategy, and impact. With the Detroit soul and national reach, the agency continues to lead with purpose, telling the stories that move communities, conversations, and the industry forward. I am on the other side of comms on the journalism side, but of course we all fawn over Georgia Muirhead. I am so excited to be able to be in conversation with you. Now I read a lot. I read a lot.
SPEAKER_01:Because I had a good PR team.
Orlando Bailey:You have a great PR team. You live more life than any of us can imagine living. Tell me what was missing from what I read.
SPEAKER_01:What other PR firm in the region do you know by name? Key PR practitioners? But you know Antonies, you know Brittany. Because we just don't bring practitioners in to just work for the agency. We bring people in to really make a career, to make an impact. It's not about me, it's not about Maryland, it's about who you leave behind, the impact. And I'm so proud of the practitioners that I've had a chance to interact with. Goodness, going all the way back. Going all the way.
Orlando Bailey:Yeah, going all the way back to Ann Arbor. You know, you're you're saying something that I'm also really, really passionate about, and that is building a bench, building a bench for succession. Has that always been important to you?
SPEAKER_01:Um, it became important because I needed that bench. Here I was out in Ann Arbor, and I thought about this too. You know, I'm working for a PR practitioner, but she never saw me as being a possible practitioner. She never guided me, she never showed me any anything to do, how you do this, what you might look for. So I had to come to Detroit to find, quite frankly, one of the only black practitioners that I've ever met at that time, Jerry Lundy, just to understand how this business worked. And um, you know, I was thinking about this, and I may have mentioned it to Antonise. I didn't know if the questions I were asking were just crazy questions, or I just didn't know the code. I didn't know. I didn't even know what I didn't know. And so not having somebody to ask really impacted me. So I decided right then and there, if I got a chance to be a person someone could ask, they could call me up, they could come work for me, but it shouldn't be that hard as a black girl to try to learn how to get into public relations.
Orlando Bailey:Yeah, talk about being a black girl trying to break into this sector way back when. What was that?
SPEAKER_01:I was lonely.
Orlando Bailey:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Uh again, people didn't see a black young girl as a possible PR practitioner. Like I was working for somebody that I realized was a PR practitioner. But she never said, you know, why don't you try to write this press release? So this is how this connects, or whatever. So um, but then she went on maternity leave and I went and told my boss, I can do her job because she's gone. I had to kind of find my own ways to to get noticed and to do things. And government's like that. Pretty much, if you're in government, uh they work you to death. If you were sort of going through what Coleman Young had me going through, that's probably three or four people now.
Orlando Bailey:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:It was me. And Bob. But you were expected to be able to connect all these dots. But um it was just hard because you didn't, people just didn't see you in that role. And so when I saw Jerry, I said, Oh, this is something that maybe I could do. This is something that um maybe might be a career, not just a job, but a career. And so I started. At building from there. But uh the best bench builder, um well actually I won't say that. I was very blessed to have a lot of bench builders. I've told Antonisa's story. When I was working for the city of Ann Arbor, in for the city of Ann Arbor, I uh had a chance to go work for the city of East Lansing because they were doing recruitment, and that was when you know uh affirmative action was a real thing. And so for any job they had, they just looked for people to be representative. So at least when they've selected someone, they could say, Oh, we checked that box. But I was lucky enough to get offered the job. So my boss then, who happened to be the first black city manager, uh, Cy Murray, black first black city manager, he was he was city manager for Ann Arbor. Ann Arbor, gotcha. And he was the blacks, the first black city uh administrator in Michigan. Wow. And so that was my boss, and he kind of was thinking, you know, well, you don't seem real excited about taking this job. And I was like, well, I don't know if I'm gonna, you know, I'm not sure, you know. I'm kind of in Ann Arbor, living in Ypsilanti. So he said, Well, okay, what if I held your job for you for six months? Would that give you the confidence to try this out? Now, who does that? No one. She told me that was a good idea. He told me he would hold my government job open for me for six months if I would go try it. And I did. You know, that gave me the confidence because I was a young mother, a young wife. You know, you just don't jump up and go someplace you don't know anything about. What if I lose my job? You know, I could stay in Ann Urban, retire. But he gave me the confidence, and I was I went on, and from there I just kept going. But a bench builder, he was a trailblazer and he saw potential in me and decided to get engaged.
Orlando Bailey:If he hadn't offered me that, I might still be in our public relations a part of uh universities and colleges, concentrations and majors? Like I went to Brittany, Brittany Brown is a really good friend of mine. We went to Eastern Michigan together, right? Um I spent some time at Eastern Michigan. We had there was a PR concentration within the media communications uh school, right? Same school that housed journalism. I'm like, was that always the case? No, not at all.
SPEAKER_01:So it wasn't that way.
Orlando Bailey:How did you learn this stuff?
SPEAKER_01:Because I just like doing things different. Yes. And so I was in school. I was taking, it wasn't even journalism there. It's probably, it was probably still called an English major. Oh, yeah. You know, when I was at Eastern. But I was taking classes and I had a writing course. And I it must have been a feature writing course or something. I was like, what am I gonna write about? And Ann Arbor was uh was bringing in the Briarwood Mall. First mall, right? That was one of my jobs. I mean, there were cornfields where Briarwood Mall was going in. And so it was a big deal. I thought, well, this could make a story. So I was very gutsy. I called up, you know, the manager, the general manager, whoever was at Briarwood, and I said, I'm the editor of the City of Ann Arbor's employee newsletter. You know, can I want to do a feature story? So he said, you know, sure, come on out. So I went out, I interviewed him, I took pictures. And so the one thing that I was the information clerk when I started. So I was at the front desk. You would see me when you came into City Hall. That's how I met Al Allen and Doris Biscoe. They were street recording. Oh my god, street reporters. So they were coming to Ann Arbor to do stories. And Al Allen loved the streets.
Orlando Bailey:He never wanted to be off the streets.
SPEAKER_01:And we got to be friends.
Orlando Bailey:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And so, uh, so but but there was an employee newsletter, and I would do the newsletter. And back then it was, you know, who got married, you know, who got a promotion. But I could do anything with the newsletter because nobody cared about it. It was the employee newsletter. So I decided I'm gonna do a feature story. So I did this feature story on Briarwood, you know, the whole big thing. Featured, you know, whole thing on Briarwood. And people loved it. And my boss, you know, he's well, this is different, you know. So uh that kind of got me some attention. So I started doing that on other things I cared about. I was very emotional. I would get very passionate about stuff. Good.
Orlando Bailey:So I, you know, but you know, one of the things that you said that I that I uh am holding on to and clinging to is that, you know, in the beginning you were figuring it out and you didn't know the code. But in the midst of you learning the code because you didn't know it, you were breaking down making it up? But yeah, while also breaking down norms that folks had gotten used to. It's like, no, why are we doing it like this? I'm doing it this way. Oh, this is the code. This is how you're supposed to do it. Well, I learned how to do it like this this way. Uh Antonies, I want to come to you because uh, as you can see, I can dote on George Ellen's.
SPEAKER_00:I can too.
Orlando Bailey:I've already interviewed her, so you know what I mean? But I want you to I want you to share more or share of your experience uh being Madam President. Okay, uh you know, newly elected, I'm sorry, we breaking news here. The newly elected president of PRSA for Detroit or the state for the city of Detroit. Congratulations. Thank you.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Orlando Bailey:But you know, you you've been trained, you've been mentored.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, absolutely. I think um a couple of things. I've I've I didn't get to start my career here. So like when I got here and I got to learn about Georgella, I'm like, why didn't I know about her beforehand? And to your point earlier, PR really wasn't a major. Um I think we only had like two PR classes when I was at state, and it was actually under the business school. They put it under like marketing and business. It wasn't even a part of communications, and I was a journalism kid, so it was weird. So that's the first thing. Um, the next part is I think I learned so much over the last four years because this was the time where I got thrust into leadership. Like this Georgella in Maryland trusted me. It's like, okay, you want to be vice president, all right. Do it. And and they allowed me to do that. But I think creating that kind of space that opportunities that maybe they didn't actually get, and they're providing it for this next generation to actually have leadership. We still are a very small percentage of leadership roles being a black person, but especially being a black woman. So them creating space like that and having that was critical. But also those tough lessons, too. Like it was hard. I still I still learn every day, actually.
Orlando Bailey:Tell me about a time when it was hard. Tell me when you had to get checked.
SPEAKER_00:Well, I think it's the part of becoming a leader in a space that isn't is already hard to navigate because of just who you are and how you're presented in that space. You have to be hyper-aware. And I think having that hyper awareness from someone that's navigated it already at an even more extreme level provides perspective. Where it's like, I might get a little like, well, no, this isn't what it is. And then I get a shift in perspective because now I have to listen to what it is that she's saying to me and the reason why she's saying it. And I think that's something that I I can't even fully explain. Like I just appreciate it so much. I haven't even told her this. It's very invaluable to kind of get those types of lessons that aren't harsh either. I think um Georgella has a way of leadership. It's it's coming from love. Georgella has a way of leadership from my perspective, because I'm like one of the last love the babies, if that makes sense. Um it's gonna be clear and direct. Um, and you're gonna you're gonna understand the perspective, but you gotta sit and talk about it and think through it. Like I take notes when I talk to Georgia, literally, to make sure I'm taking in what it is that she's saying, because there are so many of us that don't get that type of experience and opportunity to gain so much knowledge and wisdom and just lived experience that can be poured into now what my leadership and perspective and and growth, and now I have to go back and do the same thing as a leader too, which is a big part of my why is really lifting as I climb. So I'm feeding all, getting all of this this nurturing and this, you know, this food to give it up to the next. So I love that.
Orlando Bailey:You know, you know, for a long time, and I still think just as a country, we do this really horribly. But black folks also, we succession is not a part of our the way we do stuff. I mean, we stay in for for till we die.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
Orlando Bailey:No, like I come from no one will know what to do. No one will know what to do after. You know what I mean? Like, I come from uh the church world. That's my family. It's like my grandfather was like, retire. This is the calling. You don't retire. You don't retire. It's like, sir, yes, you do.
SPEAKER_00:No facts.
Orlando Bailey:And so congratulations, congratulations on retirement the second time.
SPEAKER_00:I was just about to say something because you're right, they don't retire.
Orlando Bailey:So you you tried this before.
SPEAKER_01:What made you come back? Um, two things. Yeah. Marilyn, which is one of my best friends uh and an adopted sister, literally, um called me up and said she needed me. And and I was pissed. That was the other thing. Uh Bob was the cool, calm, quiet, you know. I was the war concierge. So um I never had the pleasure of meeting Bob ever. Oh my goodness, yes. Uh, but um, but there was some turmoil, you know. Uh we had sold the company. We were prepared to walk away, and um uh there were some inner uh problems within the organization that took place, and quite honestly, I just didn't think it's fair.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Uh and um I thought it was calculated, and it didn't take a rock science to figure out what the ultimate goal was. And so um um Marilyn called me, we got into um crisis mode, and I think this was a Friday, and uh in Monday's cranes, it said that uh someone did not be named had left and I had returned. And we were moving forward from there uh because I think I remember that article. We had to stabilize. I mean I'm very crisis focused. I mean if there's something that has to happen, it has to happen. We had to stabilize. And uh we weren't going to let a hiccup um, you know, take take a company that I put a lot of blood swinging.
Orlando Bailey:Talk about scaling that mountain, right? From this the be this moment of being in crisis to stabilizing your baby.
SPEAKER_01:Well, you have to have a lot of faith in yourself and faith in the people that work around you. Uh, this was never about the ability to do the job. It was about the perception of the ability to do the job. And one thing that I often tell them that gray hair helps a lot is it's it helps people accept the fact that this is something that's been done before and you can do it again. And that gave the breathing space for the rest of the agency to stabilize. Um the code of public relations is a little bit like that, and that's why it's so so important that folks like Antonise and B are recognizable names. Yes, because that's the code of the industry. And I think we do that, and I couldn't think of, quite frankly, any agency of any hue that does it to the same degree we do. Yeah, because I understand how important that transition is going to be. Um perhaps you you talk about benches. Yeah, that was a big bench. I was gonna get to him.
Orlando Bailey:I was gonna get to him because you know everybody wants to hear about every first off, Detroiters love Coleman Young. Yes, and Detroiters love you and Bob Berg. Talk about when you first met Coleman Young, uh, Mayor Young.
SPEAKER_01:Um I first met him in Ann Arbor. Okay, with the craziness I would do in Ann Arbor. Uh, we started this group uh called Michigan Black Public Officials. But it was all children. It was me, my friends, assistant city managers, Robert Bob, who became uh emergency manager. He was an assistant city manager, I think he counted zoo at the town. Wow. I mean, at that time. But we were all children. So we formed this organization because we there weren't any people that looked like us, we thought. And so we said we're gonna have a conference. So we decided to invite Mir Young. And so, you know, when he got this letter, he had to know it was coming from children, because he knew every public official at the state of Michigan. But he accepted. And he came in to be our our public speaker, our our keynote speaker. And I was in charge of PR. So he came in. I remember this entourage, you know, he had security, his executive protection unit. He had staff people and stuff. I mean, he came in, you know. I was like, oh my God, it would be so great if one day I could work for the city of Detroit. And I met him and he was so gracious and everything. That was a long guss of gold, you know, way down the road. Well, maybe about, I guess it would have been maybe eight, ten years later, when I was in um in Southfield, uh, I got a call from this guy called Bob Berg. And he said he was the mayor's press secretary, and he wondered if I would have time to meet with him. And so he said, I can take you to lunch. And I said, shoot, free lunch?
SPEAKER_04:Oh, Rob could have been lunch.
SPEAKER_01:I want to go to Merryweathers, because that was my favorite. Oh yeah, the fancy.
Orlando Bailey:It's the bread for me, Georgia. It's not bread. It's the bread.
SPEAKER_01:He knows the team. Oh, I know. So Bob and I met at um Merryweathers, and we really hit it off. I mean, we just we just clicked. Clicked. And uh literally we started becoming best friends from that moment on. And the way it worked in the city at that time is Bob was the mayor's press secretary. So he controlled the message. He can, you know, he worked with the mayor. I mean, he was and everyone knew him. He was public. He was very public, too. I had the bodies because I directed the Department of Public Information. And then it was a centralized department. That's how you get 32 people. Yeah. Because you had the photographers, you had the writers, you had the videographers, we had graphic designers. They were all on my immediate staff. Then I had a union print shop on the east side of Detroit, and I had like a Kinko's, my own Kinko system in the in the basement of City Hall. So it was all a crazy operation. So literally, when they decided they wanted to do something, it was my team that pretty much executed it. Executed. And Bob and I strategized it together. So he uh recommended to the mayor that I come um, that uh he interview me, and the mayor and I hit it off. Um, the mayor's pastor was my pastor. Who was his pastor? Charles Butler. Oh. Who was a prominent pastor at the time. And uh, and then he told my pastor gave me this advice that uh probably at the time wasn't that funny. He says, you know, if you go to work for the mayor, they're gonna think he's you're his girlfriend. Uh-huh. That was a real thing. Uh there was so much speculation.
Orlando Bailey:Yes.
SPEAKER_01:However, it's called How Do You Working? You weren't the only one. But go ahead. But I was never considered a girlfriend. Yeah. Maybe a goddaughter, but never. Uh, but again, it was he was just uh working with Bob was was an experience that we took on to create the organization. But getting back to the mayor's role, he was so confident in himself that he didn't mind pushing others out. A lot of people now don't do that. They're so afraid that they're gonna turn their glory. But he wasn't like that. So you could be standing there and, you know, just listening to the announcement, you know, that he's making. And the cardinal, for example, was there talking to the mayor, and he's saying, Well, who's gonna coordinate this visit for the Pope? And uh the mayor was also, he likes jokes. And so he would always tease me about my name. So he would never call me by my name the first time. It would start off Georgiana, Georgina, Georgia. Then he finally would get to George Ella. He says, George Ella will I'm still in the crowd, will do what?
Orlando Bailey:Pope John Paul is coming.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, yeah. What I loved also about the mayor is you never wanted to disappoint him.
Orlando Bailey:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So if this is the role I'm gonna have, then I'm gonna go to the city.
Orlando Bailey:The folks who work for him don't want to be disappointing to my good.
SPEAKER_01:Why would you I mean, yeah, this this this when I first came to Detroit, I was legendary because I have no idea where I am. I have the worst sense of direction in the world. And um somehow the mere heard about my poor sense of direction. So I was trying to get over to the east side to the print shop. And he called and he asked where I was, and they said, Well, she's going to the print shop. And he wanted to know how long I've been gone, probably a couple hours. Oh, okay. So when I came out of the print shop, there was mere security there. So I'm like, Well, where's the mayor? The mayor's coming to the print shop. They were laughing. They said, No, he knew you're probably lost. So he sent us to make sure we got back out of the city. Who wouldn't go? Who wouldn't spend day and night working for a boss like that? Yeah. That you know, would sit you out front, but also would care about the little things. The little things. Like whether or not you were wandering around the east side of Detroit. I might still be wandering around.
Orlando Bailey:We love the east side. Come and wander. You're welcome on the east side. Listen, we're gonna take uh our last break for the show, and when we come back, I want to ask Georgella about her perspective around how the communications landscape has changed and how important the invocation of story is in how we proliferate in our society. We'll be right back. Detroit 1 Million is a journalism project started by Sam Robinson that centers a generation of Michiganders growing up in a state without a city with one million people. Support the only independent reporter covering the 2025 Detroit mayoral race through the lens of young people. Good journalism costs. Visit Detroit1 Million.com to support black independent reporting. I want to ask you because you've been around for a long time. You're The bot the uh the press release at 50 years, and I just want to re-emphasize that you don't look like you've been around long enough to do 50 years of anything. But I want to get your hot take on how you feel uh Detroit's communications landscape has evolved over the course of your career. Um what what's what is this current condition, and are you satisfied with where it is and where it's going?
SPEAKER_01:Uh you know, it's interesting. Um they're both advantages and changes that I like, and in many ways it makes things more difficult. When I started, there were traditional forms of media. There was only two, four, seven, and maybe sixty-two. There's the news, the freep, and the Michigan Chronicle. But you knew your landscape. You knew your people. You knew your people, and you knew how you would get your message out. And there was a competitiveness, so that you didn't have one publication doing a story and not the other publication holding them in check. Or the same thing with the news agencies. At that time, um, on the 11th floor, there was a whole section just for media. They were always in the building. So they put us in the basement. Yeah. But they were there. There were it there were city beat reporters. You knew the city beat reporters. And so, and and of course, we would have arguments and disagreements and sometimes flat out wars with the media. And uh Homie Young, especially, yes. You know, you need a warrior sometimes. You know, it was we were Wagonda, you know.
SPEAKER_00:Literally, she said Black Panther.
SPEAKER_01:And people were coming to get it. The water department. Everybody I mean, everybody was coming to Christ. Bell. I mean, nothing was safe. But you, but so, but he would he would pick his moments, but we knew what we had to deal with. But because we would have these wars, is why we got into um public engagement, why we really got into engagement. Because I had to figure out a way of how I could talk to city residents if I couldn't talk through the media. So that's and that's where you start learning about okay, what can you do? One of those things, again, just like the employee newsletter, I had a print shop. And my print shop had full-time employees that got paid no matter what they did. We had stocks of paper and ink because over the years we had been doing projects and you'd have leftover stock. So literally, I could print anything. I didn't have to go to council for budget. It was it was something I controlled. So we started doing direct newsletters and flyers and posters uh with Devil's Night. Remember the posters with the air with the eyes, you know, because we were able to- I'll never forget.
SPEAKER_03:I'll never forget.
SPEAKER_01:Hey, everybody got that message, won me a silver amble. But it was but talking directly to residents, getting that message out, getting everyone on the same page, to some degree it was easier because we were only dealing with certain specific media.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Now, everybody's a journalist.
SPEAKER_00:Everyone is a journalist.
SPEAKER_01:You know, I'm and they're not though.
Orlando Bailey:I want to I want to state for the record that they ain't though.
SPEAKER_01:They're not but they have access.
SPEAKER_03:Yes.
SPEAKER_01:They have they have the ability to get their message out. That makes it a lot more difficult. In some ways, it makes it easier, but it makes it more difficult. It it um it's harder to get your um to get your your clients and and be whether they're elected or not, to really focus on talking to direct journalists when they know they can go on a podcast or they can go on social media and make their own announcements. I mean, just look at nationally the landscape. How many people announce they're running for something on social media?
Orlando Bailey:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Themselves. Right. Yeah, not through any. You know, so in some ways you can get your message out, but it also means that the message is is more splintered.
Orlando Bailey:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:It's a lot harder to get everybody on the same page. Right now, everybody don't even agree with what the facts are anymore. I mean, it used to, at least when we were fighting with you guys, we all agreed on what we were fighting about. Yeah. Now it would say, you know, we would say with the mirror, say, Well, I think it's on the West side. And then Free Press might say, No, it's the East Side. Got somebody on your channel two saying, no, it's downtown. You know, I mean, that's kind of crazy that you can't even agree on the facts. On facts. So it is, um, in some ways, it's it's nice to have those avenues, but in other ways, it's more difficult.
Orlando Bailey:Can you talk about the the invocation of story in this country and how it affects the way we proliferate throughout life? If we are believ, you know, like we've we've been taught to believe this story of America. You know, this revolutionary story that's coming out from the British thumb without the truth being told around indigenous massacre, without the truth being told around this, what happened in 1619, bringing enslaved Africans here, right? And right now, what we are experiencing on part of the federal administration is a story being told that hopefully he hopes that society will buy because it's being told to us over and over again. It's why I'm a journalist because I understand how powerful story is and how it is the writing down of a thing that proliferates, right? And lives beyond you. It's gonna live beyond you, it's going to live beyond me. Talk about being in the driver's seat of shaping Detroit's story for so many years. The city that we love, the city that we care about, the city that we are in relationship with.
SPEAKER_01:You know, what I loved most about working directly for the city, and what I still try to do as we work a lot about the city, is I always wanted Detroit to have a win. So things like Devil's Night to me wasn't about just changing the story. It was really about changing it through a movement that would provide a better result for Detroit. I I told you I'm always gonna get emotional about things, I get very charged up about them. Um but one of the things that drove me was when I first came to work for the city, back then, uh everybody had to do every appointee, every employee was a part of Devil's Night. So we patrolled like everybody else. We were in the cars going up and down the street, and we and I was just driving up and down the street with my patrol area. And then when I was going home, one of the buildings I had been protecting, it was a factory, was on fire off the freeway. I saw it, and I just burst into tears. You know, I spent all this time and now it's in fire. And then you had we would have journalists that would come from Japan and all around the world.
Orlando Bailey:All around and the nation.
SPEAKER_01:To come to Detroit to cover Devil's Night's Night. And to me, that just was so unfair. I'm I'm a big proponent of what's fair about Detroit residents. That to me was just an unfair portrayal. So changing that narrative became what was very passionate-driven. And I try to think about if I don't believe it, how are you gonna believe it? What things would make me believe we could change this? What messages, how do we have to get these messages out? And so the year we finally were able to break it, um, you may recall, we really got the message out to everyone. That was, you know, when kids had the curfew and we had, we uh we would always patrol, but we figured out a way to get people who were home to participate too. So that was the idea that you put the signs on the buildings so that ladies, you know, or neighbors could sit on their porch and watch the vacant building across the street. They'd have to go up and down. They could participate just that way. Children, I was so proud when one of the TV stations was doing a story on, you know, how's this devil's night gonna look? And what are you supposed to do? And they stopped a group of kids and they said, What are you supposed to do? They said, We have to be home by six o'clock. I was like, Yes, yes, you got it. You know what the curfew is. But when you get everybody in the same direction, and that year we did, and you can change things. And we started really um putting a handle on these on these fires. And to me, it's all about Detroit getting a win. Same thing with the Pistons parade. I mean, I love the Pistons, and Isaiah ended up being a good friend and whatever. But when we decided to do a parade, it was scary because the message about parades in Detroit was chaos because of the Tigers thing. So, Lord, how are we gonna get through a parade and not get, you know, slammed on it? And that's where the idea of having the athletes up on floats, you know, came from. So that people could see them. They didn't have to push to see their, because all they wanted to do was see their heroes. The heroes felt confident interacting with the audience because they felt safe. And we ended up sending a national um, it was a new way to do sports parades. People responded to it. We got great coverage, but Detroit got a win. It's always about Detroit getting a win, not a black eye. That's the driving force. And to do that, you just have to be creative.
Orlando Bailey:And you want to know what has slowly began to happen over the years, and there there are many progenitors of Detroit story, you included, is when I go out of town and I say I'm from Detroit, the reaction, the reaction has changed. The reaction is different, and I love that. We gotta close out. But Antonis, I actually want to give you the last word because you know, I don't know why, but I sense in my spirit there's some there's something that you haven't said to Georgella yet that you probably need to say. Oh my, is this therapy? What are we doing? No, yeah, that you probably need to say as she makes her exit. So I'm gonna I'm gonna allow space for you to talk, talk to your mentor.
SPEAKER_00:Hmm. Uh on top of the things I just mentioned, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, I don't I want to say something to Antony. Okay.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_01:So that was- You don't know how proud I am that the first experience I had with public relations in Detroit was attending a Public Relations Society of America meeting to see Jerry Lundy as the only other black practitioner I was aware of. And now my colleague is the incoming president for PRSA. I am just so proud. And then we have another board. Yes, the foreshadowing. Yes. Yeah, crazy. I mean, it's just full circle. Full circle.
unknown:Oh.
SPEAKER_00:I think I'll I'll kind of reiterate some things I mentioned during our our annual holiday party, which actually turned into a full Georgiella love fest. Literally. She had a museum. It was beautiful. Great.
SPEAKER_01:It was crazy. And she looked fabulous.
SPEAKER_00:Um but I think I I definitely would like to just reiterate this thank you. I think you hear it a lot, and I know a lot of us are so thankful. We did a whole thing for her at our PRSA annual meeting this year as well, too, which she was so surprised. That was a win for sure. Standing ovation. Standing ovation. We did all the things. Um, but I just want to say thank you. Thank you for always being you. Thank you for um being, I don't know, just kind of always being so creative, teaching us to think outside the box. And if we're not, she makes sure we know. Like, you should go back and think about this. Or like, you didn't think about it like this, though. What if we tried to do that? Like, those are things that stick with us that anytime we're developing a plan or how she says she had a PRT behind this, like, these are things I've just learned over the last few years from Georgella. Like, I've been doing PR, but kind of those little nuances of how to think about it, what to include, how to make it stick, how to make sure that we put her on a press tour, that people did need to hear about who Georgella was. Um, and that took thinking outside of the and is. And I think I just, I'm just thankful. I'm grateful. I can't wait to continue to tell the the next generation about Georgella Mirrorhead. And, you know, yeah, this is a legacy, continuation. And I'm just grateful that I get to be in your atmosphere and kind of continue that journey.
Orlando Bailey:Anthony's what's next for 98 Ford?
SPEAKER_00:I mean, we're just gonna keep on going. It's it's it's up from here. I mean, we're gonna continue to obviously, like I mentioned, um, foundationally, the standards that were set by Georgella and Bob, um, she always would relay to us like they never wanted to be in agency that just had an office in Detroit. They always wanted to be in Detroit, a part of Detroit. So that's never gonna change. We're always gonna make sure things that we do throughout the city um is intentional and that we get that done. Even if we begin to expand, which we hope to grow, you know, our client base and continue to diversify who we work with. Um, but Detroit will always be home. Detroit will always be that foundational space. Um, but yeah, we're just gonna continue to grow, build, um, do some amazing projects, campaigns, and yeah, continue to come and sit down and meet with you and Donna when she's here. Um but yeah, just continue to do that great work that um was, you know, set foundationally from Georgella and Bob.
Orlando Bailey:Congratulations. Congratulations to you, Georgella. Congratulations to 98 Forward. If you have topics or guests that you want discussed on the show or on the show, you can hit us up on our socials at Authentically Detroit on Facebook, Instagram, and X, or you can email us at authentically Detroit at gmail.com. We want to thank you all so much for listening. And until next time, remember to love on your neighbor. Happy holidays.
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