Ms. InterPReted

"Ms. InterPReted" welcomes a corporate communications veteran and PR trailblazer, Travis Parman -- chief communications officer of AppHarvest, an applied technology company building some of the world’s largest indoor farms in Appalachia.

With some two prior decades of experience in the automotive industry -- most recently as vice president for Nissan Americas and president of the Nissan Foundation -- Travis recently took on the CCO post with AppHarvest, as part of a personal calling to engage his own renewed sense of purpose, tying in sustainable nutrition for diverse communities, alongside his Southern roots as an Appalachian native (Greeneville, Tennessee).

Travis discusses with career-long friend Mary Beth West his perspectives about his favorite Abraham Lincoln quote, the ethics of crafting reliable brands alongside an authentic sustainability story, and how to achieve interpersonal trust within publicly traded corporate boardrooms and c-suites. A pioneer for LGBT diversity / inclusion, Travis also relays the story of his career pathway in that regard -- and his advice for others.

Show Notes

In this conversation, Travis Parman shares his insights about:
  • How people sometimes "fall into public relations" from different fields ... and how he has evolved his ideas about what constitutes PR expertise as a former self-confessed "public relations purist"; 
  • Why his favorite Abraham Lincoln quote that he learned in high school helped chart his academic and career course toward public relations: "In this age, in this country, public sentiment is everything. With it, nothing can fail; against it, nothing can succeed. Whoever molds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes, or pronounces judicial decisions";
  • Why diverse practitioners are so often the best public relations professionals: "They know how to read a room";
  • Ways that PR students should work to position themselves for thriving public relations careers, by bringing their diverse perspectives and backgrounds to the fore;
  • In what ways companies need to avoid knee-jerk responses to "diversity programs" that lump people of one diverse cohort together and inadvertently segregate them; 
  • How one-dimensional, tactical and transactional "understandings" of PR pose some of the industry's biggest limitations that must be countered and overcome;
  • Why being too deferential can be a PR professional's most self-defeating behavioral modus operandi in growing their career;
  • Ways that cross-cultural and international standards differ -- and why public relations practitioners need to advance their game, including in the #PRethics arena and with full team involvement and buy-in.

FOLLOW #PRethics

FOLLOW Travis Parman:
Twitter: @TravisParman
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/travisparman/ 

FOLLOW AppHarvest:
Twitter: @AppHarvest

FOLLOW FLETCHER MARKETING PR:

What is Ms. InterPReted?

Public Relations stands as one of the most misunderstood, misinterpreted areas of business and organizational management. With Fletcher Marketing PR Founder and CEO Kelly Fletcher and Senior Strategist Mary Beth West, we’re here to turn around PR’s own bad PRess, cut through the nomenclature, and demystify public relations as the best pathway to create, grow and amplify the roots of positive management, communications, culture and careers -- for success that matters.