On Top of PR with Jason Mudd

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In this episode, Slava Balykov joins host Jason Mudd to discuss how you can assess your brand's public relations readiness before a crisis or AI tool exposes your gaps. Slava shares his five-step framework, explains how to respond when AI gets your brand wrong, and reveals what executives really want from PR reporting.
Tune in to learn more!

Five things you’ll learn from this episode:
How to assess your brand's PR readiness in the AI era
Five steps to PR readiness
Why you should understand your information environment before investing in AI optimization
How to check what AI says about your organization and what to do when it’s wrong
What executives want from PR reporting and why coverage volume rarely delivers it 
Quotables
"Before optimizing anything, organizations need to understand the information environment that already exists around them." — Slava Balykov
"Critical doesn't mean incorrect." — Slava Balykov
"Treat readiness as an ongoing diagnostic, not a one-off exercise." — Slava Balykov
"Quality is much more important than quantity." — Slava Balykov
"Measuring impressions or the number of appearances feels like what people call vanity metrics, as opposed to true business impact." — Jason Mudd
If you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to share it with a colleague or friend. You may also support us through Buy Me a Coffee or by leaving us a quick podcast review.

Guest’s contact info and resources:
Slava Balykov on LinkedIn
Slava's five steps to PR readiness in the AI era:Establish your baseline. 
Understand what information about your organization is currently discoverable and identify important gaps, contradictions, or outdated information.
Review owned information. 
Make sure your website, corporate pages, leadership profiles, and other controlled touchpoints clearly and accurately explain who you are and what you do.
Look beyond owned channels. 
Examine credible third-party sources, including media, industry publications, and other independent references, to understand the wider information environment around your organization.
Diagnose the gaps. 
Compare owned and external information. Investigate where they materially differ and determine whether the issue is outdated information, factual inconsistency, legitimate criticism, or a broader positioning gap.
Monitor over time. 
Information environments continually change. Regularly review important sources and AI-generated answers to identify new gaps and keep your communications foundation current.

Additional Resources:
Reputation management for AI search: Monitoring and response framework
Rethinking reputation management in public relations for the AI era
AI search is the new front page
How do you measure PR? A guide to meaningful metrics
Listen to more episodes of the On Top of PR with Jason Mudd podcast.
Find out more about Axia Public Relations.

If you like this episode, you're going to love this:
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How to prepare for any communication crisis with Tom Ciuba
Crisis lessons learned from Southwest Airlines

Recorded: September 2026
Support the show
On Top of PR is produced by Axia Public Relations, named by Forbes as one of America’s Best PR Agencies. Axia is an expert PR firm for national brands.
On Top of PR is sponsored by ReviewMaxer, the platform for monitoring, improving, and promoting online customer reviews.

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In this solocast, On Top of PR host Jason Mudd explains why brands should earn attention before they buy it and how generative AI makes leading with PR more important for marketing leaders.
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Five things you’ll learn from this episode:
1. Why the order of PR and advertising matters when you launch something new
2. How Starbucks, Tesla, and Pepperidge Farm earned attention before they bought it
3. Why launching advertising first can spend your news value
4. How earned media shapes what generative AI platforms say about your brand
5. Which three questions to ask before your next launch
 
Quotables
“They earned attention before they bought it.” — @jasonmudd9
“Lead with PR. Then use advertising to amplify what PR helped build.” — @jasonmudd9
“If you have something new, different, or disruptive, you have something advertising can’t buy. You have news value.” — @jasonmudd9
“PR helped other people do the talking.” — @jasonmudd9
“You don’t always have to buy attention first. Sometimes the better strategy is to earn it.” — @jasonmudd9

If you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to share it with a colleague or friend. You may also support us through Buy Me a Coffee or by leaving us a quick podcast review.

Guest’s contact info and resources:
Jason Mudd on X
Jason Mudd on LinkedIn
Prioritizing PR over advertising with Laura Ries | On Top of PR podcast
Muck Rack: What Is AI Reading? (May 2026)
PR Success Stories: From Struggling Startup to More Than $130 Million in Revenues

Additional Resources:
The power of PR
How do you measure PR?
7 ways to build credibility using public relations
PR is now the front door to AI discovery
Listen to more episodes of the On Top of PR with Jason Mudd podcast
Find out more about Axia Public Relations

If you like this episode, you're going to love this:
The best argument for PR? Surprisingly, it’s AI
How public relations changes business outcomes
95% of AI citations come from PR content

Recorded: September, 2026
Support the show
On Top of PR is produced by Axia Public Relations, named by Forbes as one of America’s Best PR Agencies. Axia is an expert PR firm for national brands.
On Top of PR is sponsored by ReviewMaxer, the platform for monitoring, improving, and promoting online customer reviews.

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In this episode, Ron Culp joins host Jason Mudd to discuss why business acumen now outweighs writing skills in PR hiring, the three stages of a corporate PR career, and five practical ways to build business acumen at any career stage.
Tune in to learn more!

Meet Our Guest:
Our guest is Ron Culp, a professional-in-residence at DePaul University and a former corporate chief communications officer. He brings decades of experience across government, corporate communications, public relations agencies, and higher education, where he helps prepare the next generation of PR professionals.

Five things you’ll learn from this episode:
 1. Three stages of corporate public relations
2. Why business acumen has taken over writing skills as the top thing employers want
3. Five practical ways students and young professionals can build business acumen
4. Why understanding how your company makes money changes the decisions you make
5. Why business acumen matters
 
Quotables
"When what you're doing isn't having any impact on the business, you really have to question it. If you don't, you're gonna start being questioned." – Ron Culp
"You just make better decisions if you have a sense of what the business is all about." – Ron Culp
"Good writers are good thinkers, always has been the case, and good writers can be trained." – Ron Culp
"If we can't figure out how they make money, then I'm not sure we can be the trusted strategic partner that we need to be." – Jason Mudd

If you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to share it with a colleague or friend. You may also support us through Buy Me a Coffee or by leaving us a quick podcast review.

Guest’s contact info and resources:
Ron Culp on LinkedIn
Ron Culp's blog: culpwrit.com
Ageism in the workplace: Hiring bias, careers, and the future of work
How trusted strategic advisors influence leaders

Additional Resources:
Marketing leaders are reframing reputation management as a revenue strategy
Traditional PR doesn’t work anymore
How to turn social and reputation management into a revenue operating system
Listen to more episodes of the On Top of PR with Jason Mudd podcast
Find out more about Axia Public Relations

If you like this episode, you're going to love this:
How public relations changes business outcomes
How communications professionals shape business success
Maximizing Agency Partnerships with Mark Riggs

Recorded: August, 2026
Support the show
On Top of PR is produced by Axia Public Relations, named by Forbes as one of America’s Best PR Agencies. Axia is an expert PR firm for national brands.
On Top of PR is sponsored by ReviewMaxer, the platform for monitoring, improving, and promoting online customer reviews.

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In this episode, Jessica Barber Scott joins host Jason Mudd to discuss how public relations professionals can move beyond impressions and advertising value equivalency to measure outcomes and impact, build measurement frameworks around business objectives, and use AI without losing the human judgment a CFO relationship requires.
Tune in to learn more!

 
Meet our guest:
Our guest is Jessica Barber Scott, a senior communication professional with 15 years of experience across regulated financial services, state government, and higher education. She is a PRSA Silver Anvil Award winner for crisis communication and has advised C-suite leaders at organizations including TIAA, Corebridge Financial, and EverBank.

Five things you’ll learn from this episode:
1. Why AVE still shows up in reporting and what it costs you
2. How to climb the three tiers of PR measurement (outputs, outcomes, and impact)
3. Why your measurement framework should start with the business objective, not the data
4. Four moves that change the dynamic of any CFO budget meeting
5. What AI can do for measurement and what it can’t replace

 
Quotables
“The numbers are getting smaller as the work gets credible.” — Jessica Scott
“Come in with the data. Not with an apology, with data.” — Jessica Scott
“AI can pull faster. It can synthesize more broadly. It can find patterns across data at a scale that really no human team can match. But what it can't do is tell you whether you're measuring the right thing in the first place.” — Jessica Scott
“Getting media coverage is not a result. It's an output of the work and the effort that you made.” — Jason Mudd

If you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to share it with a colleague or friend. You may also support us through Buy Me a Coffee or by leaving us a quick podcast review.

Guest’s contact info and resources:
Jessica Scott on LinkedIn
AMEC

Additional Resources:
How do you measure PR?
Yes, PR is measurable. How to measure and report public relations and strategic corporate communications
The 3 biggest PR measurement mistakes
5 metrics you should measure in PR
Listen to more episodes of the On Top of PR with Jason Mudd podcast.
Find out more about Axia Public Relations.

If you like this episode, you're going to love this:
What you should be measuring in your PR campaigns with Johna Burke
Barcelona Principles 4.0: How to measure PR effectively with AMEC CEO Johna Burke
The power of PR measurement with Katie Delahaye Paine 

Recorded: August, 2026
Support the show
On Top of PR is produced by Axia Public Relations, named by Forbes as one of America’s Best PR Agencies. Axia is an expert PR firm for national brands.
On Top of PR is sponsored by ReviewMaxer, the platform for monitoring, improving, and promoting online customer reviews.

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In this episode, Ken Jacobs, principal of Jacobs Consulting & Executive Coaching, joins host Jason Mudd to discuss how communications leaders can apply proven leadership principles to AI adoption.
Tune in to learn more!

Meet our guest:
Our guest is Ken Jacobs, principal of Jacobs Consulting & Executive Coaching. Ken helps public relations, communications, and marketing leaders become more effective and inspiring leaders through executive coaching and consulting. Before launching his consulting practice, he spent 25 years in leadership roles at leading PR agencies. He also hosts Taking the Lead, a leadership video podcast, and writes the quarterly Taking the Lead column for the Public Relations Society of America's Strategies & Tactics publication.

Five things you’ll learn from this episode:
1. How courageous leaders embrace AI
2. Why every organization needs AI guardrails
3. How leaders can build AI confidence
4. Why listening leads to stronger teams
5. How AI and human judgment work together
 
Quotables
"If you're not already deep in AI, you're behind, but it's also never too late." — Ken Jacobs
“Walk the walk, not just talk the talk.” — Ken Jacobs
“True leaders update their knowledge and fluency.” — Ken Jacobs
“You as a leader have to be able to ask the right kind of questions.” — Ken Jacobs
"Hire smart people and get out of their way." — Jason Mudd

If you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to share it with a colleague or friend. You may also support us through Buy Me a Coffee or by leaving us a quick podcast review.

Guest’s contact info and resources:
Ken Jacobs on LinkedIn
Jacobs Consulting & Executive Coaching website
Taking the Lead Podcast
How to stay ahead of AI in communications and marketing
Four leadership tips to guide you through uncertain times

Additional resources:
What sources feed generative AI answers?
What Google AI Mode means for your PR and media strategy
How are AI tools changing PR jobs?
Axia’s AIVisibility service
Listen to more episodes of the On Top of PR with Jason Mudd podcast.
Find out more about Axia Public Relations.

If you like this episode, you're going to love this:
The best argument for PR? Surprisingly, it's AI
95% of AI citations come from PR content 
Managing communications and PR in the AI era
Embedded AI: The future of PR and communication workflows

Recorded: July, 2026
Support the show
On Top of PR is produced by Axia Public Relations, named by Forbes as one of America’s Best PR Agencies. Axia is an expert PR firm for national brands.
On Top of PR is sponsored by ReviewMaxer, the platform for monitoring, improving, and promoting online customer reviews.