I’ve always thought of myself as more of a “thought follower” TBH ;-) thank you, my friend, too kind 🙏🏻

Awww thanks for sharing mate, much appreciated, and thanks for the kind words too

And he even made an appearance towards the end… or was that Jared Leto..?

It’s a common trope, and misunderstanding of his appeal and success as a communicator, to criticise Trump’s vocabulary. Average reading age of a US voter is 12 years old. The reading age of a typical Trump speech is 8 years old. Trump reaches voters other politicians (with richer lexicons) don’t.

Mate, that Pullman lunch looks incredible. I’m going to HAVE to do that next Christmas. Hard Numbers x Magic Digits management lunch sorted ;-)

Awesome to see mate. Well done 👏🏻

Whenever the tell anyone outside of the PR industry that I am a certified professional they are impressed, and it elevates me in their mind. Inside the industry you often get (those who don’t take CPD seriously) carping saying “you don’t need / have to be accredited”. Hope that is helpful?

I’d expect other responsible employers to do the same. I don’t think I’m *actually* advocating for “only verified people should be allowed to practice” but what I AM advocating for is a great promotion of, respect of and encouragement of CPD and certification in our space….

I admittedly haven’t seen the data on this (in terms of socioeconomic etc data) but in other professions the employer will often take the cost of certification for the employee (with certain criteria) At H/N we pay for all our staff to be CIPR, PRCA and AMEC members, and pay for their accreditation

Thanks for the very thoughtful contribution, mate - and good to hear from you, it’s been a while.

You know me well enough to know that I’m all for reducing or removing barriers to entry to the PR sector for people, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds….

This is VERY good. I would suggest separating two things: who would the spokesperson /people be, and what topic areas will they cover, and who would sign the contract for this service, perhaps, rather than “decision maker”?

Because, obvs… youtu.be/Cx8sl2uC46A?...

Hero Quest?

A great edition, as always. Have a well earned Christmas break, my friend

I reflected this year that the whole point of Dickens’ Christmas Carol was that Scrooge would change how he was known and remembered to be a generous, warm-hearted man, who “kept Christmas well”. But “Scrooge” is still world-renowned as a term for a penny-pincher… So, it didn’t work…

Would not be giving that a good review for “value for money” on TripAdvisor…

Yeah, did mean to say it was only in jest! Much love for Rick, in spite of his football allegiances ;-)

Yeah, still not got the critical mass to drive more real-time conversation and trending topics. But it’s a much nicer and more civilised place than the hellsite and (other than @rick-smokinggun.bsky.social) no-one’s called me a d!ckhead, yet….