Mastering PR with Natalee Gibson: Lessons in Leadership, Crisis Management, and Career Growth

Join us for an enlightening conversation with Natalee Gibson, PR maven and co-founder of Songue PR. In this episode, Natalee unpacks the secrets to thriving in the fast-paced world of public relations, offering sage advice on everything from handling workplace challenges to building a successful agency.

Content Highlights:

1. The power of honesty in job interviews and career advancement

2. Techniques for diffusing tense situations with clients and media

3. How to build a PR agency that prioritizes partnership over vendorship

4. The career-changing advice that set Natalee apart in the business world

5. How to turn mistakes into powerful learning opportunities

6. Strategies for overcoming career stagnation and toxic work environments

Key Takeaways:

[00:02:39] - The importance of treating deadlines as sacrosanct in business

[00:06:50] - Why overselling yourself in job interviews can backfire

[00:10:15] - Why taking ownership of mistakes quickly can strengthen relationships

[00:12:01] - Strategies for managing high-stress situations in PR

[00:15:08] - The value of industry mentors in recognizing your true potential

[00:19:16] - The importance of aligning PR strategies with broader business goals

Guest Bio:

Natalee Gibson is an award-winning writer and PR strategist with over 20 years of experience. As the co-founder of Songue PR, she leverages her extensive background in journalism and agency work to deliver exceptional results for clients across various tech-related industries.

This insightful session was hosted by Jolie Downs with Paradigm. For more information around career evolution and growth you can connect with Jolie here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joliedowns/

To connect with Natalee Gibson, you can find her here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nataleegibson/

If you enjoy learning from others, please give us a like, subscribe, and share with a friend. If you are looking to add talent to your public relations, marketing, communications, sales, or business development team with the best talent, and quickly, check us out at paradigmstaffing.com.

What PR strategy from Natalee's playbook resonated most with you? Let us know in the comments!

Transcript

natalee-gibson-

[00:00:00] Jolie Downs: Welcome to the Career Wanderlust Podcast, your compass for new career horizons. Today, we are speaking with Natalee Gibson. Natalee is a seasoned Public Relations Strategist and professional writer with over 20 years of experience representing companies all over the world, ranging from Fortune 100s to small startups.

[00:00:19] Her experience includes both B2B and B2C companies across a wide variety of verticals and technologies. Natalee is an award winning writer with a strength around shaping a company's brand. She started her career as a broadcast journalist before moving into public relations and working her way up through the ranks as a Managing Director and VP within the PR Agency world.

[00:00:41] Natalee is now the Co-Founder of SongPR, a boutique technology and media centric PR Agency. And I'm really excited to learn more. Natalee, thank you so much for joining us on the Career Wanderlust Podcast. 

[00:00:56] Thank you, Jolie. Thanks so much for having me. 

[00:00:58] Oh, I'm excited to, to chat with you and get to learn some of your little pieces of wisdom that you're going to share with us.

[00:01:03] So please, I would love to know, especially with your experience being in journalism, going into PR, you've worked through all of the ranks in the agency now, you're co founder of your own agency. What's been some of your favorite career advice and why? What has really helped you along the way? 

[00:01:22] Natalee Gibson: I thought about this question, and I have two different answers.

[00:01:25] I have really great advice that was given to me early on in my career, and then I have advice that I love to share with others now. Initially, when I, you mentioned I started in broadcast journalism, and one of my first jobs was working as a news producer for a top 50 market. I loved the work, it was incredibly, it was everything that you might imagine a newsroom to be.

[00:01:43] Very fast paced, incredibly demanding really deadline driven, all of the things that you know news professionals are. And I loved it. I thrived off that kind of environment. And I got an opportunity to move over to work for a small startup in Silicon Valley in the Bay Area. This was at the height of the dot com bubble.

[00:02:02] And I thought it sounded exciting and I felt like I was young enough, to be crazy enough to decide to do it. And I thought I could always go back to news. And the day that I went in to give my notice, my News Director had called me into his office. I did not realize at the time, but he wanted to promote me and I instead was giving him notice.

[00:02:20] Credit. He was so incredibly kind to me. And he was supportive of this new move and he gave me the best advice that I carried with me and I've continued to carry with me, which was, "Take what you learned in the news industry about deadlines and apply them to the business world. Because no one follows deadlines in the business world the way that you have to in the news world."

[00:02:39] And it was fantastic advice because it really helped to set me apart as I built my career. Because if I promised a certain timeline, I was bound to meet that promise. And usually exceed it and do it early. And I think that I was able to make a name for myself early because I was able to juggle a lot of balls thanks to my news experience, but also because I really treated those deadlines as set in stone.

[00:03:02] And if I was going to miss a deadline for some reason, I absolutely told the client or my colleague early. And I've kept that strategy ever since. And I think it served me really well. 

[00:03:13] Jolie Downs: Super smart. Your word became gold. By doing that, yes, and I readily, yeah, not everyone is doing. That is for sure.

[00:03:22] Is there anything that helps you stay on deadline because of that background? Is there any practices that you have that help you really keep those deadlines that other people aren't putting into practice by chance? 

[00:03:34] Natalee Gibson: It's funny because I think the world has shifted so much in the, we're coming up on 24 years I've been doing PR.

[00:03:40] It's a long time. With the advent of information and the onslaught of information, that has changed a lot in two decades. And so like anyone, I am besieged with the same measures of distractions and other things that take you away from the work. And so it's true to say that procrastination is its own motivator, right?

[00:04:00] But I just have really hard I always remind myself that I feel better when the task is done. There are certain tasks that are really gargantuan in nature or writing tasks sometimes that can just create a huge block in your mind and they seem to make everything else that you have to do harder.

[00:04:18] So I remind myself I always start with the hardest tasks first. I'm off my plate so that I can then feel a little more relief getting through the smaller things. And then I remind myself that, what is the core things today that I need to get done, that have to be done, and the other things that can be pushed.

[00:04:34] I know, or recognize and understand what those are, and then I try to move through those. You have to give yourself grace in a way, because in our industry, every day is different, and you never can anticipate that you can do exactly what's on your plate. However, if I can say I got those three major things done that had to be done today, and then I pushed it, that's a strategy that I found.

[00:04:54] Jolie Downs: Really smart. And I know that's studying the stories of the most successful that's a consistent thing that, that people, high achievers, they do the big things first. They do the really big things and the things that they really don't want to do, they knock those off first.

[00:05:11] Natalee Gibson: In home, in life, in everything. Do the things you are dreading the most first. 

[00:05:16] Jolie Downs: Yeah. 

[00:05:17] Natalee Gibson: Because they linger, and they loom, and they weigh on you in a way that, yeah. Get them done. 

[00:05:23] Jolie Downs: Yeah, it colors everything else, doesn't it? And then when you have it off, it just feels so much better, lighter, and you're able to move forward with everything else in a much easier way.

[00:05:30] And more clear and concise, I would imagine, too. So that's great advice. Now, you said that you had two pieces of advice that, what was 

[00:05:38] Natalee Gibson: the other one? The other advice is something I have learned from really being in management positions and then running a company. And that is through the process of having to hire individuals or choosing being part of that decision making process.

[00:05:50] My best advice to people is do not oversell yourself. I think it is so easy in the job searching world to promise, that, like fake it till you'll make it. I did it mentality and to think it's okay. I can say that I can do this and I'll figure it out. But what really is the problem with that mentality is that if you're not close enough or strong enough, you end up setting yourself back because the people that are hiring you are expecting you to do the work or end up being disappointed by your level of ability.

[00:06:18] If instead you're honest about what your capabilities are and then talk about your skill sets. For example, I may be a fast learner or I may be really good a researcher, so I can learn things quickly, whatever that is. Then we know as a hire, I can say, okay, I can train these things. This individual has the traits that I want.

[00:06:37] And the things that they don't know, I can train. Rather than assuming this individual knows how to do all these things, and then they come into the work environment and they can't. And I just think it sets everyone up for failure. That's always my advice to people, is just don't oversell yourself.

[00:06:50] You'll get the job that is meant for you, and you'll make the kind of relationships that you need to. 

[00:06:57] Jolie Downs: I think that's really interesting advice. It jives a lot with my experience as a recruiter and placing people. So many people throughout the years, I've really seen that people can set themselves up for success when they go in to a new company.

[00:07:12] At maybe similar position of where they are. So they come in, they learn the company and because it's a similar position, they're able to ramp up very quick. They're able to make a big impact. And then from there they start growing and expanding and really advancing their responsibilities where a lot of times if it's someone who hasn't had that experience, but they are getting the promotion.

[00:07:33] So they're going into new company, new product and a new promotion without that skillset. A lot of times they have a little bit more of a struggle coming in there and they're not set up for success as well, if you will. So I think this is really interesting advice that goes a long way.

[00:07:52] Exactly. Yeah. Cause when you set yourself up for success, you just, everyone feels, everyone feels so much better about you as well. When you're honest about your own experience and what you're able to do when you come in there, people are going to be impressed with you.

[00:08:04] Whereas if you, as you're saying, if you talk above and you come in and you don't perform, you're going to be judged much more harshly. So it does make a big difference. I love a story, Natalee. Could you share with us something that has happened to you that has had a big impact? Something that, that happened, had this impact, and you actually learned from it.

[00:08:25] And by sharing this, other people can learn from it as well. 

[00:08:28] Natalee Gibson: I think some of the most impactful moments in my career have been around mistakes. They linger and maybe it's my personality or maybe other people can relate but I hate to make mistakes and they impact me in a big way. 

[00:08:41] So the good news is I rarely make the same mistake twice I'll do but I rarely make the same mistake twice because I've learned from them and I know we serve two masters in public relations.

[00:08:55] We serve our clients and we serve the media. And both ends of that can be really upset about something. And often, what our clients want and what the media want aren't the same things. So we are straddling this line of trying to keep both entities hAppy.. And so inevitably there are times when you steer in the wrong direction.

[00:09:14] And I've been yelled at by many of journalist in the course of my career. And I've been yelled at by a client in the course of my career. And I've really learned a lot from those times when I feel like, okay, what can I learn from this? What mistake did I make? And how can I do better? And to me, those are really the most impactful things

[00:09:31] when I look back over the course of my career, it's just the things that kept you awake at night, the things that made your blood race, the things that you said, Oh my goodness, no one has, this is a hundred percent my fault. And what I've learned from that really is to take ownership quickly. And that made a big difference to quickly recognize where the mistake was made.

[00:09:51] It's really easy in PR. to obfuscate or to deny or to twist. We're known for being great spinners and there's a tendency to want to defend ourselves, right? Learn to just cut it and say, you know what, that was a mistake. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry I did that or whatever the thing was and I'm going to fix it and this is how I'm going to do it and then do my best to fix it.

[00:10:15] Recognizing that as humans, we all make mistakes, but as a, as the leader of a company now, I really am the buck stops with me, so I'm responsible not just for my mistakes, but any mistakes the team has made as well. And so learning that early on in my career has served me well because there are times when you have to throw your hands up, admit fault or defeat, but then fix it.

[00:10:35] And I find that when you do that, most reasonable people let you, give you the bandwidth to fix it and change it and you build a stronger relationship as a result. 

[00:10:44] Jolie Downs: Oh, I completely agree. There's so much gold in all of that right there. It's really powerful in looking at things from this perspective as well, because like you said, everyone, we all make mistakes.

[00:10:54] It's gonna happen. You're not gonna be human and not make a mistake. Let's just put that out there. And so when it does happen, the most important things are A. To take accountability for it and

[00:11:05] to B. To take the time to learn from it so that you don't make the same mistake twice.

[00:11:09] And I think that's that a lot of times will people will bang themselves up about it and make themselves feel bad about it. And like almost just this negative spiral within, but that doesn't help. That doesn't make the situation better. That doesn't make it better for your client and it doesn't make anything better.

[00:11:24] Just taking the time to learn from it. That's all we can do. And when you do that, then these mistakes actually become stepping stones for our success. They become our building blocks, if you will. So I think this is vital advice. Now I'm curious because we've all been in situations where we may have a situation where maybe we're being yelled at by someone, either it's personal or professional or happy, but it's uncomfortable.

[00:11:46] I'm curious if you have any advice on how to deal with that. If you're in a situation where someone is actually very upset and yelling at you is there any advice you can, how to deal with that? 

[00:11:56] Natalee Gibson: I think that just comes down to communication skills, right? And that really is the ability to diffuse a situation.

[00:12:01] And I talk about this actually with my team members quite a bit because they're younger and some of them are younger in their careers and they can't take stuff like that very personally. And so there is the ability to separate yourself from the work, right? You are not the mistake. You are not someone else's anger or upset.

[00:12:19] You still have worth and value. You are still fantastic at so many things. And so to separate that from this moment in time of upset is key. And then also just, again, all you can do is do your best to diffuse the situation to take it. And then I like to put in boundaries too. Once I've apologized, once I've taken ownership, let's shift it to , productive conversations. Let's shift it to how we're going to fix it, how we're going to do better next time. There's no point in my opinion of berating someone and I feel really strongly about that with my own team. I would absolutely much rather have an environment where people feel safe to talk about mistakes that they make than to hide it or feel like they're going to just be lambasted.

[00:12:59] It's not productive, it's not helpful, it doesn't encourage team loyalty or respect. And if we can model that within our own organization, then it helps. I always tell my team, PR is a stressful enough environment. Serving clients, the last thing I want is an agency that's a stressful environment. So let's support each other.

[00:13:16] And I think that bleeds into the kind of clients that we work with. 

[00:13:19] Jolie Downs: Oh, absolutely. I think that's beautiful. And really and great advice too. Just to remind yourself, what's happening in this moment that is not all the things, and bring yourself above to see.

[00:13:29] I like that a lot. That's very helpful. 

[00:13:31] Natalee Gibson: Talk to a colleague, a friend, a family member that you can just vent. That's important. 

[00:13:38] Jolie Downs: Oh, isn't it? Venting is so powerful. Just letting it out. It's important to have that safe person, like separate too, from your work environment, what have you or separate from your personal environment, if you will, either, or, the safe person.

[00:13:55] They're not quite in the mix. But now what about a challenge? Because we all experience big challenges in our career. What has been one of your biggest challenges that you've faced in your career? How did you overcome it? 

[00:14:06] Natalee Gibson: One of mine was, it's very personal to me, but I think it, I think I see a lot of people that have something similar. And that is feeling stuck in a career. And you don't always recognize it when you're in it. And because I started my own company, I have a lot of friends and family members and different people in my life who've come to me for advice about starting a company.

[00:14:26] And when you're on the outside of it, I'm such a cheerleader for it for a lot of different reasons. But when you're the one making that decision and you're the one having to leave what may feel stable or may feel known, it's such a scary thing. And so for many years of my career I feel like I was stuck in situations that were really quite toxic from a work environment perspective, but I thought it was the best option that I had.

[00:14:50] I was raising children and I didn't want to disrupt my life and it really took me, while it's nice to have people on the outside, as we talked about friends and family and other people encouraging you and telling you how great you are, what's really impactful are people in your industry who know the business, who know the kind of work you do, giving you that feedback.

[00:15:08] And so I was fortunate enough to work with someone who became my co founder, who really took on that cheerleader role and helped me to see the value that I brought both for my clients, the experience that I had, the skills that I had and recognize that I can really write my ticket in the way that I want to. I don't need to be beholden to these environments that may not be serving me well. And I was so grateful for that advice and it took me some time to recognize that in myself and then branch out and build. But the sky's the limit, really, from that perspective, and it's given me a lot of courage to know that I do have a lot of impressive experience and skills that I can deliver to clients.

[00:15:45] I have things that are of value, and why not build our own brand instead of someone else's? Yes. 

[00:15:50] Jolie Downs: Yes. Building that brand without the toxicity, right? Hopefully. That's cool. Yeah. That's the beauty, is you can take all of the good from all of your previous positions and leave all the bad and just try to make it, yeah, as best as possible. That's what me and my partner did as well. It was like, let's take the good, leave the bad, and build something a little different. 

[00:16:10] Natalee Gibson: Exactly. And each of those experiences taught me so much and introduced me to amazing people. I learned so much from each of them.

[00:16:17] So yeah, such good in all of it, right? But you're right. And also growth, it's good to just not sit in the same space. It's important, I think, to expand and grow. So I was, it's just nice to move through that, even if they were great experiences, it's nice to move through to the next thing.

[00:16:32] Jolie Downs: It's important to hear as well, because people, a lot of us get stuck. We do. And a lot of times, like you said, you don't always fully realize it when it's happening. And we make excuses, for staying in that stuck because of the kids or because of this or because of that.

[00:16:46] And there's always lots of reasons for staying in the stuck. But the fact is there is a lot of opportunity, a lot of beauty out there, and there are opportunities that are not going to be toxic. And there is, there's really, there's just not enough time in our life to stay anywhere that's toxic.

[00:17:00] I just want to put that out there. And I say that because I've been in a toxic place before and found myself stuck and had to get out of that situation. I've talked to so many people who have been there and a lot of times we think this is just how it is. And I just want to say that, no, that's not just how it is.

[00:17:16] It's just how it is in certain places. We don't have to choose that. There are other places that are better. 

[00:17:21] Natalee Gibson: And what's toxic to you might not be toxic to someone else, right? Absolutely. Recognizing this place may just not be the best fit for me right now appreciating that. And it definitely is a privilege to be able to have choices.

[00:17:32] I get it, not everyone does. And there are real situations where you don't have just any opportunity. But I think more so than we realize we do, we always have a decision to make about how we handle something. 

[00:17:45] Jolie Downs: And absolutely. I'm not saying it's easy. But it's worth looking, always.

[00:17:50] Yeah. Tell us about SonguePR, what do you guys do well? What do you look for in your talent? Give us a little information about this company that you've been building. 

[00:17:58] Natalee Gibson: Yeah. So you talked a little bit about the top at the top about what we do, but we are a full service tech PR agency.

[00:18:03] So that means that we do everything from media and analyst relations to thought leadership, content creation, to events, speaker and award programs. We do social media support. Everything related to PR we do. And when we say tech, again, that's evolved so much, everything is tech these days.

[00:18:22] That really has widened the opportunities for the kind of industries that we work with. We have worked in food, we've worked in climate, we've worked in finance, security We work a lot with VCs and investors. There's just a wide range of things that we do, which I love. It's one of the number one things I love about my career is that every day it's different. I love what I did in the news business for the same reason. Every day is different. And every new client is an opportunity to learn something new, even if it's a space you're familiar with it for what they do is different. It's new relationships form. So it's really exciting.

[00:18:57] And like I said, every day is different. And so we're a small agency and we're small by design. It's really important to us to stay small. My Co-Founder, Lizzie and I, we work across every client that we do, because it's important to us to represent our brand ethos and our work ethic across every client.

[00:19:16] One of the motto or our motto for our company is that we take your business personally. And that means something really important to us. It means that we think about the money that you're spending and the value that you're getting for that. We think about what is best for your company, what your bigger, broader goals are, and how we can map a communication strategy to those goals.

[00:19:34] We want our clients to think of us as a partner. We are not a vendor. We don't want to be, we don't want a situation where you're telling us what to do and then we're going and executing. We just don't see the value in that. Instead, we'd like to come to you with ideas and opportunities.

[00:19:48] We met in that same vein we like to tell you when things aren't working so that we can curve the table and think about that so we really call ourselves a partner. And so for that reason we look for a team that is smart and capable and driven. We look for people who are team players and that really understand the nature of PR. If you don't understand what it is to work in a really high, intense environment, very fast paced, pretty demanding, then you're going to struggle in this environment.

[00:20:19] So it's really important that you understand that you can work across. different industries and different clients all in a day's time. And that you can ebb and flow with the demands of the day. But when we meet people like that, they shine, they do fantastic. And we have amazing team members who we have, who have just done phenomenal work for our clients.

[00:20:38] And the results show we are so incredibly proud of the results we achieve for our clients. And I like to say we are small, but we are mighty and I would put us against any PR team or agency out there in terms of the results we deliver. 

[00:20:51] Jolie Downs: I love it. And I love all the variety too. I completely agree with you with that.

[00:20:55] Just having that variety. And like you said before, it's finding the right people for the right environment. And when you describe the type of environment, that's some, that's something that my personality would thrive in. I love that kind of stuff.

[00:21:06] So that's fantastic. Now, something that I like to ask in all of my conversations, because I'm very passionate about the fact that we are constantly being fed information without our permission. And so I like to find out how people proactively feed their minds. What do you read, watch, or listen to that benefited your life in a positive way and that others might find as well.

[00:21:31] Is there something that you would share? 

[00:21:32] Natalee Gibson: I would say that as for my industry. I have to be aware of the news. So I read a lot of news, I read news for personal reasons so just your main news websites that are going to give you the download of the day I also read all kind of niche publications that focus on things that my clients are interested in or the spaces that I play in or the reporters I follow. So for work, I have to read a lot.

[00:21:57] For fun purposes, it's a little harder. Like I always, hang my head in shame that I don't read books as much as I would love to read them because I'm just, it's just not a time in my life. It's not a 

[00:22:06] Jolie Downs: season. No, it's all about what, what works for you. This is why, listen, watch, it's what works for our lifestyle and what's going on in our lives.

[00:22:14] I'm a deeply 

[00:22:14] Natalee Gibson: faith based person. So I really do look for things that uplift me and I spend time in that. I love to meditate. I love to spend a little bit of time in my day reading, uplifting content that will just set me in the right path for the day and put me in a mental place that's a strong place.

[00:22:29] Yeah, I do for personal reasons and then because of my job, I interviewed CEOs and leaders all the time. And that is so inspiring to me. I'm not technically reading the information because I'm writing it for them, but in a way I'm getting this just download a fantastic leadership advice. And career growth and trajectory and how to run a company.

[00:22:52] And I really take a lot of advantage of that opportunity because not everyone gets to have, that kind of download from people who have been quite successful in their careers. 

[00:23:00] Jolie Downs: It's amazing. Talking to people learning from them, just talking about their stories or their past or the different challenges, there's so much you can learn from other people.

[00:23:10] I completely agree. I love interviewing people and just writing about it. And I find that I gain so much value and learning myself when I do that. So I completely agree. I'm also curious, just for anyone listening, because since you do read so much news, that isn't a must in your job. So I know that you read all the different things because you have to get opinions from all the different aspects.

[00:23:32] What do you think is the most streamlined, middle of the road, factual without, as without the influence of one side or the other, where do you go for that middle of the road, factual information? 

[00:23:45] Natalee Gibson: So this is a, I think about this all the time. I am incredibly passionate about this.

[00:23:49] And because I started in journalism. I actually wanted to be a journalist from the time I was five years old. So I have loved that industry my whole life. And I've seen a lot of change just with the news, like with the 24 hour news cycle, what that did with the advent of social media, with the advent of citizen journalism.

[00:24:08] So much has changed, right? With pundits that opinions have overshadowed news and just unbiased news. So I look very carefully, I read all the things that talk about what's not biased. I think there's a couple things I would say that you have to read both sides. You have to go to the extremes of both.

[00:24:25] To figure out what it is you believe because there is truth and error on both and so if you force yourself. I also love foreign news I think sometimes going to foreign news outlets that are writing about topics for your region can be very interesting It's just an outsider perspective Often without so much bias.

[00:24:47] And then in terms of like specifics, I would call out things like, I'm a big fan of David Leonhardt at New York Times. He writes the daily morning newsletter and there's lots of individuals who substitute on that newsletter, but he's the main guy. And I just think he's done a really good job, he writes about all different various topics in that morning newsletter.

[00:25:06] But I think he does a really good job at trying to present both sides. So he's someone I like. Finding those individual journalists who you can trust to tell those sides. And then niche news, like I think local news can also be a fantastic source for a more unbiased opinion when they're talking about national topics.

[00:25:24] So it really is just a matter of I think the worst thing that you can do is feed your algorithm and one news outlet in order to expand your mind, you've got to be open and you've got to be a critical thinker. 

[00:25:36] Jolie Downs: I agree. It's important to understand how other people are thinking too. So I subscribe to newsletters on both sides, extreme sides too, just to understand what's going on, what people are thinking.

[00:25:48] And then I try to, yeah. Yeah. Have the mid range, actual. 

[00:25:54] Natalee Gibson: You have to figure out each person figures that out for themselves. I think the worst thing that we can do is to decide that the other side, whatever that side is on anything is grossly ignorant or whatever, because the truth is everyone has an opinion and they come by that opinion on oftentimes honestly.

[00:26:14] So I think that most of us are fairly middle of the road. It's the shouters on either end that get all of the print and publicity and we admit people feel that way. But I think most of us are pretty even keeled in the middle of the road and want to find the truth and the compromise in 

[00:26:29] any situation.

[00:26:29] I agree. I completely agree. Yeah. So this has been great. But before you go, Natalee, my last question, I just because I'm always curious what people have to answer this. I love thinking about superpowers. I feel like we're all born with certain superpowers that are just a part of our psyche.

[00:26:47] And then also throughout the years that we grow certain superpowers, through time. So I'm curious, what would you say is one of your personal superpowers and how has it served you? 

[00:26:59] I think I will tell you one that I think I came to this earth with and one that I think I've brought. I am a really strong writer and what I've learned about myself over time now, certainly that had to be, I had to learn and grow in that capacity.

[00:27:11] I didn't come being able to write. I had to develop that skill, but it's a natural ability for me. And one of the things that I've been told by many people is that I write in a way that makes it really understandable and easy to read. Relatable and people can connect emotionally with the writing.

[00:27:25] So I think that's just a gift that I've been given and I think I do my best to facilitate that. And be able to, do it obviously for my work, but for other things as well. And then the other thing I think that I've learned over time is how to be calm in a crisis. And part of that has done with some personal situations.

[00:27:43] I had a daughter who came down with a very rare illness that almost killed her and dealt with that for the last eight years. And there's been a significant personal crisis around. And then in work, there are so many crisis communications that I've helped with and supported and worked on.

[00:28:00] And I've been told by others that I don't even recognize, I did not recognize it myself, but I think I have an ability to pause, assess the situation, take a breath, think about it, and respond in a way that isn't overly emotionally related or emotionally driven. And so that has served me well, especially as crisis comms ramps up, which is something I love to do.

[00:28:21] I love crisis comms. It really keeps you on your toes, but that ability to be calm in a crisis has really served me and something that helped me. 

[00:28:29] Jolie Downs: Fantastic. Incredible superpower, to be honest with you, because that's when you really need a superpower is in those moments. Now, a lot of people do not deal with crisis very well.

[00:28:39] I'm curious, before I let you go, are there any little pieces of wisdom or advice that you would give people in how to deal with a crisis moment when it comes at you out of nowhere? 

[00:28:49] Natalee Gibson: Yeah, there's so much. In fact, I'm planning a blog on this for our own. There's so much to share, but I'll just say that the most important thing is to rally the troops that are involved in the company situation, figure out who the stakeholders are that are going to have a say.

[00:29:03] Usually that's company leadership. It's usually a legal representative. It's got to be someone on a comms team. And then always tell the truth. Always tell the truth. You might need to determine how and when and in what format, but never lie and never hide. It always comes back to bite you, especially in the world we live in today.

[00:29:23] So lead with the truth and that usually will serve you over time. 

[00:29:27] Jolie Downs: Fantastic. Thank you so much. This has been wonderful, Natalee. I really appreciate you joining us on the Career Wanderlust Podcast. 

[00:29:35] Natalee Gibson: Thank you so much, Jolie.

[00:29:39] Jolie Downs: Thank you for joining us on the Career Wanderlust Podcast. If you find value in learning from others, give us a like and subscribe. If you're looking to grow your communications, marketing, public relations, or sales and biz dev team with the best talent and quickly, check us out at ParadigmStaffing. com and submit a request.

[00:30:04] We are wishing you a most successful and fulfilling career. Until next time.