Comms Confidential: The Podcast

Be a Learn-It-All: The AI Readiness Mindset Every Next-Gen Comms Pro Needs with Susan Oguche

Susan Oguche spent 20 years climbing the comms ladder, from P&G to Nike to CCO of the Cleveland Cavaliers and now the founder of Brilliance Communications. In this episode she breaks down: •  The three-stage journey from doer to strategist to trusted advisor and why you can’t skip the rungs. •  Why adaptability is the one superpower that scales across every company culture. •  How her lean Cavs team became early AI adopters when the tools were barely ready. •  What she’s building now for mid-market clients navigating GEO and content infrastructure. •  The AI ethics question she can’t stop thinking about and why trust erosion is the biggest risk for all of us. Closing principle: “Be a learn-it-all, not a know-it-all.” Find Susan at linkedin.com/in/susanoguche [http://linkedin.com/in/susanoguche] and brilliancecomms.com [http://brilliancecomms.com] Communications, rebuilt from the middle out.

Internal Comms is The Central Nervous System w/Regine Nelson & Keith Berman

What does it actually take to prove the value of internal communications? Regine Nelson and Keith Berman have the answer—and they don’t agree on everything. Regine Nelson went from travel PR in 2003 to PayPal and a string of in-house tech roles, taking a six-year break to raise three children before returning as sharp as she left. Keith Berman started as an FM rock radio DJ, became a journalist for a decade, and transferred every skill he had into corporate communications—a career arc he'd tell you at a party whether you asked or not. In this episode, we discuss how to measure IC impact without hard metrics, the push/pull distribution framework that drove a 625% increase in open rates, why every M&A playbook fails on execution, using AI for listening and workflow automation, the career path from external to internal, and much more. Find Keith Berman at https://www.linkedin.com/in/keithberman1/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/keithberman1/] Find Regine Nelson at https://www.linkedin.com/in/reginenelson/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/reginenelson/] and https://www.reginenelson.com/ [https://www.reginenelson.com/]

The Relationship Is Still the Resume: Brooke Kruger of KC Partners on the Comms Hiring Market

Brooke Kruger founded KC Partners in 2009 out of the financial crisis, built the business by treating candidate relationships the same way she ran media relations on the agency side, and has spent 16 years placing senior communications professionals at high-growth tech companies, VC firms, agencies, and corporations. This episode is a practitioner briefing on the current state of comms hiring: what AI fluency actually means in an interview room, why references now need to be ready within an hour, how companies are ghosting candidates and what that costs their brand, and what a clean hiring process actually looks like from both sides of the table. Connect with Brooke at https://www.linkedin.com/in/brookechilenkruger/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/brookechilenkruger/] and KC Partners at https://kc-partners.com/ [https://kc-partners.com/]

Joy as a Comms Strategy: Non-Verbal Communications with The Dancing Umpire Vincent Chapman

What does it take to build a crowd of thousands—not with a product or a pitch, but with pure joy? Vincent Chapman has the answer. From Little League fields in Northeast Texas to sold-out Savannah Bananas stadium tours watched by millions, Vincent built a career and a personal brand by treating joy as a deliberate, repeatable strategy rather than a mood. His viral 2015 video caught the Bananas' attention. Six years later, they came calling. Now he dances in front of 100,000 people and speaks to corporations about what they get wrong about connection. In this episode, we discuss the two rules of Vincent's Joy Movement, what corporate America misses by measuring people as numbers, how 95% of what he does on the field is completely improvised, why trust unlocks performance better than control, how to build a personal brand that outlasts any single platform, and much more. Learn more about Vincent at https://www.thedancingumpire.com/ [https://www.thedancingumpire.com/]

Fans are Our Brand: Sam Bauman on How to Keep The Audience at the Center of Everything

What does it take to build PR for a brand that doesn't believe in red tape? Sam Bauman has the answer. From local TV news anchor in Michigan to media relations lead at one of the most creative sports entertainment brands in the world, Sam spent ten years reporting the news before the Savannah Bananas called him to help make it. He built their media relations function from the ground up — navigating live game chaos, a zero-red-tape philosophy, and Jesse Cole's core belief that attention beats marketing every time. In this episode, we discuss knowing your brand goes deeper than a logo or colors, the bar-with-no-sound test for live content, building brand identity across six teams in the Banana Ball Championship League, scenario planning for live sports sideline storytelling, what a mic'd-up home run interview taught Sam about preparation meeting improvisation and much more. Takeaways * Transition from News to PR * Embracing Creativity and Freedom * Putting Fans First Expanding the fan base through diverse entertainment * Intentional brand building for different teams Chapters * 00:00 Origin Story and Transition * 06:15 Embracing Creativity and Freedom * 19:07 Brand and Fan-Centric Approach * 25:13 Expanding the Fan Base * 32:27 Intentional Brand Building