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Tired of your expertise staying hidden? "Writing & Influence," hosted by Elaine Acker, features interviews with accomplished writers and empowers business executives to confidently unleash their thought leadership through compelling content. Discover how to trust your instincts, silence your inner critic, and publish content that truly showcases your unique value. Each episode is packed with actionable insights to help you build your influence and grow your business using the power of words. Ready to turn your expertise into impact? Learn how to transform your knowledge into a powerful content strategy that leads to real results—all with the help from Elaine and her guests!
Ep15_KristiPiehl
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Elaine Acker: [00:00:00] Welcome everybody. Today I am so excited that Kristi Piehl is here with me on the show. Kristi is the founder and CEO of Media Minefield, and it's an award-winning public relations agency that I think is redefining how brands and leaders show up in the media. After a successful career as an Emmy award-winning TV news reporter, Kristi turned that passion for storytelling into what has become a
thriving PR business, and she's helping CEOs and entrepreneurs and organizations really amplify [00:01:00] their impact. Now, she's also writing a book, which we will touch on. We won't give away any secrets, but it explores why social media has become kind of today's personal diary and why leaders need to be part of that conversation.
So, Kristi, welcome.
It's so good to be part of this. Thank you for having me.
Thank you. Well, when I think of words and influence, I think there's no more important place to think through your words than in a crisis communication situation. So I know you do much more than that, but maybe start there and talk about
how you help people manage through crisis situations and what processes you go through to choose the right words?
Kristi Piehl: Sure. So when we work with crisis clients, we are brought in in two different ways. On the front end, proactively would be [00:02:00] a, we have a plan in place and we have a general idea of, and we've identified what some of their potential crisis could be.
So many, pretty much every business has a few that potentially could happen, but then depending upon the industry, there are some that are more vulnerable to different types of crisis. So we sort of have a plan and have some even language around what kinds of things we could or could not say based on their industry.
That would be on the proactive side. So when a crisis would happen, we'd be kind of ready to go. Also, on that proactive side the best defense for a crisis is having a positive online presence. So what we're seeing with the media is they are in the middle of any kind of crisis, seeing what the CEO, what leaders, what the brand has posted online.
And going out and grabbing something that has been on social media and using that as part of coverage of a crisis. So that's also part of the kind of armor that can be built in advance of a crisis so that a crisis impact is a little [00:03:00] bit mitigated. So there's that side when we're in active crisis and we get calls from company to, you know, oh my goodness, this just happened, please help.
We really think about it has to be authentic. We need to make sure that there's, in many situations a lawyer involved, just so we don't accidentally, we're not lawyers step in something. But our perspective is that no matter the crisis, there's always something that can and should be said. As human beings, we're forgiving.
People make mistakes. CEOs can hire people that steal from them, that make bad decisions. However, the mistake that we see the most often is when people say nothing. When someone doesn't say anything people assume guilt, right? If someone's on the stand and they say, I plead the fifth, we all think, oh my goodness, they're hiding something.
So we talk a lot about it here at Media Minefield, no comment is a comment when you don't give words, people fill in the blanks with their own words in their own stories, and oftentimes it is [00:04:00] worse. There are brands that we work with who, because they chose not to speak years ago in the middle of an active crisis, and then we're brought in later.
We are working to clean that up years and years later because the internet has a really long memory. You can Google things and the year might have been 2010, but boy, it looks bad even now. So those are a couple of different ways that we are involved in crisis and when words really do matter.
Elaine Acker: Now you mentioned one of the biggest mistakes is no comment, not having words at all. Are there any other mistakes that come to mind that people commonly make?
Kristi Piehl: A couple of them. First of all, it's really a misunderstanding the timeframe of the media. Media is fast moving, and so to think, well, we'll call a lawyer and maybe this will go away and two days later we'll figure it out.
It probably was amplified and probably was worse because you chose not to just say [00:05:00] something right away. And even if the something is, thanks for reaching out. We're working to gather some facts. Please let me have your phone number. We'll be back in touch as soon as we can. Even that says, Hey, I hear you.
I see you. I respect what you're doing. Gimme a minute. And that's much better than a no comment. The other mistake that people make is they haven't identified a spokesperson. So basically that means that every employee is potentially someone who could be viewed as the spokesperson because there's been no training, there's no plan, there's no preparation.
So those are a few things that we regularly see companies, mistakes companies make in the middle of a crisis, and I would say the third one, Elaine, that is probably the most common in today's current environment. Is that something that happens on social media? A negative review, a angry former employee on Glassdoor?
[00:06:00] Some of those types of things that aren't gonna hit the headline of any newspaper. But can cause the kind of crisis that impacts hiring, that impacts retention, that impacts clients, that impacts a potential deal that's sitting out there, that now that person has some questions about who you are and what you do.
And the reason that that is such a big problem is because oftentimes, you know, let's say, let's use an example of a glass door. The Glassdoor website, right? So some former employee who perhaps wronged the company or did something kind of epic and unfortunate on the way out, throws a flame and make some kind of major accusation on Glassdoor.
Well, what happens is someone in HR or a coworker or some CEO in a small business will read that and get emotional. And that when they get emotional, they wanna throw a flame back, which is just throwing fire and throwing all sorts of fuel on an active burning fire with someone who [00:07:00] may or may might not have anything to lose by taking you out on the way.
So that's a huge mistake when people get emotions involved and they immediately fire something back, whether it's on social media or on a website, or even in an email. Take a step back, bring in some professionals, or have someone else who might be of calmer heads, calmer minds. Look at a message before those words are fired out.
And once they're out, it's hard to walk that back.
Elaine Acker: Yeah. Well, thinking about, the story that you're putting out there and what might be coming back, you left a career as a journalist in order to do what you're doing now at Media Minefield. So I would think your experience as a storyteller has been especially important in helping you help other people choose their words carefully. So tell me how your experience as a journalist has [00:08:00] influenced what you do, as a PR agency.
Kristi Piehl: Sure. When the business started 15 years ago, the experience that I had as a news person was helpful in that the majority of our initial clients, my initial clients, because it was just me at the time wanted press, and we, you know, I really wanted to help them leverage press for the purpose of expanding their nonprofit or growing their business or their brand.
Over time, as I've expanded the business and hired many, many more journalists to join us, the things that I found are very valuable is quick communication. Realizing that you can craft something that is accurate, that is authentic, that is honest in a short amount of time with lots of noise around, is something that journalists.
And maybe police officers, maybe some healthcare workers in an er. I mean, not very many people have to operate in a crisis with high stakes, high demands publicly. So [00:09:00] that is a, a skill that is learned. I don't think you can get that in school. I don't think you can get that in any other situation then being in a high pressure environment where you have to deliver and where if you make a mistake.
Now, certainly, I'm not trying to say that. Journalists have the same stakes as a police officer or ER doc. However, the ramifications can be really significant if you make a mistake and having, you know, when there's a lot of chaos going on around, being able to kind of center and calm and be able to produce something that is beneficial is a skill that I found really
wonderfully in journalists doesn't mean you can't teach it. We've certainly taught it to other people, but it is something that is kind of special and the ability to write and communicate effectively and understand the context. So a lot of folks even that are good writers, don't understand the context or who their audience is, and that is something that journalists understand and do well.
Elaine Acker: I [00:10:00] really like that. And you just made me think about kind of your journey as an entrepreneur, because do I remember right that you started in a basement somewhere? Yeah. So talk a little bit about this, this whole entrepreneurial journey not to overlook what you just said, because the quick thinking part is so important.
So yes, admittedly, journalists aren't always, sometimes, but you know, are always on that same level of, you know, like the doctor, the er people. The, but the words and the choices made in that moment have such a ripple effect, I love that you were able to take that storytelling piece of what you were doing and now grow that to where you are now.
So. Just to inspire the rest of us. Can you tell us a little bit about that journey from the basement to [00:11:00] where you are now?
Kristi Piehl: Yes. And I want to tell another, I will do that journey. I wanna tell you a story that I think will be valuable. So you reminded me of it because I think everyone in any career can do something like this, even if it's an entrepreneur, certainly should do an exercise like this.
So when I was a young anchor reporter in Sioux Falls, South Dakota in the late nineties, there was a gentleman, his name was Steve Bankson, and he was an anchor. Think Walter Cronkite, but on a much different level. He had been there for a long time. He was revered. He was like a newsman's newsman. And I have a lead story and it was, I don't remember if it was the six o'clock or 10 o'clock news, but I was working at the number one rated station in, in the state, and it was an important story.
And this is, you know, back at the time where there wasn't social media and this was the way the people got their news was sitting down and watching the news. And so, and I don't remember what the story was about, and frankly, for the purpose of the story, it doesn't matter. I wish I, [00:12:00] I wish I did and someday I should go back and figure it out.
But needless to say, I had the lead story and it was, we were really under a deadline. And so I would write my story, he would approve it. He was the managing editor as well as the main anchor, and then the photographer would edit it all together. And so generally that process takes about an hour. Now, I was covering this breaking story, so I had about a 30 minute window.
So I, and the photographer is, you know, standing around like itching to edit. And I sat down next to Steve. I said, you gonna read my story? He highlighted the entire thing and he deleted all of it. And he said, peel, you can do better. Wow. And there was no time in that moment to weep or to yell at him, which is sort of what I wanted to do.
It was just to deliver. And so I had to go back to my desk and very quickly do something that was better and bring it back to him. And we got it done and we got it on the air and he was right. It was better. And the reason that that story has stuck with me and why I think [00:13:00] everyone needs someone like that, or to be that for someone else, is that
unless you're under a kind of time crunch and the stakes matter. You don't know what you're capable of and in an entrepreneurial role for me, I have applied that lesson a lot in that there are times every entrepreneur, their back is up against the wall. They are struggling to make payroll. If the client doesn't pay, they can't pay their lease, they need the buyer to buy now.
They don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. There are all of these high pressure things that every entrepreneur deals with, and you have to somehow figure out how to by yourself. It work and you have to, when the pressure is high, be able to deliver and not complain or flame on social media. Throw your hands up in the air and play victim.
You just gotta do. So that was something that happened in the, in news that has really impacted me and that I've, I've tried to instill in my kids [00:14:00] is you have to believe you can, and you need someone else who believes you can as well. And every entrepreneur needs people around them who are saying, you got this.
I get it. It's hard, but like, I believe in you. I know you can do this. So when the, when the business started. So there's the story. I'll put that to the side now I'll move to the answer, the question you actually asked me. I was, as you mentioned, a news reporter. I was working at, I was an investigative reporter at the A BC station in Minneapolis and doing some national work and
my whole department in late 2008, early 2009, we all lost our jobs. So we were all laid off. It was an economic downturn. At that time, the housing bubble burst and I was, you know, two little kids married without a job on unemployment. Very humbling and knew that I wanted to help people. I knew that my news background and storytelling ability was
valuable and could be leveraged. And I also knew that I did [00:15:00] not like public relations as an industry. I had interfaced with it a lot as a reporter and in the news business, and saw how flawed it was in that PR folks didn't understand the power of storytelling to the masses. They oftentimes showed up as sort of a voice of a brand that like, this isn't marketing.
Yes, it's marketing, but it's storytelling so that you can move a buyer or an employee or someone to action and to build a reputation in an authentic way. It isn't to show up with a fancy flyer and spew out marketing messaging. It's a different thing. So. All that to say, I got stuck. My exit from the TV station was very public.
I got job offers in media and knew that it was time for me to end that part of my career. And I have an English literature degree and just took a class at my church and class was how to help other people with your gifts and talents. And the question that we got asked in this class was, what do you know so well you [00:16:00] could teach someone else. I wrote down news, I still have the, the workbook, and I immediately knew, I'm gonna call this business media minefield. We're gonna disrupt public relations, we're gonna help people with storytelling. It's gonna be different. It's gonna be PR in a totally disruptive fashion.
And I called my husband, who was in New York at the time, and I had just picked up the, my kids from the, like, church, daycare where they had, you know, the kids during the class. And I called him and I said um, honey, I'm starting a business. And he said, great. And within 30 days the business was, you know, certified in the state of Minnesota.
And here we are 15 years later. So that was the journey. And there were many times where I had to, you know, okay, payroll is due, I got people to pay. What are we gonna do? And I go back to the Steve Hemmington lesson of, you got this, I believe you can do it.
Elaine Acker: And how did that influence though your leadership style?
Because you said, you know, you need the people around you, especially as an [00:17:00] entrepreneur, to believe you can do it as well. So you've surrounded yourself with good people and you have been able to lead them as the business has grown. So, and I've also seen you say people first, for example, on your website.
So what does people first mean to you and how has that influenced your leadership style?
Kristi Piehl: Sure. So when I started the business and had the first employee, I knew that I wanted to be sort of anti news culture, and by that I mean back to the high pressure, high stakes environments. Some of those environments are very toxic and every newsroom that I worked in, while it, there were wonderful people and I worked with fantastic, incredible folks.
I also worked with some not so fantastic, incredible folks. Like all of us have, of course of our careers. Yeah. And it's a very toxic environment where what you produce matters and if you make a mistake, you're gonna get work. You're gonna get to the overnight shift and you better be nice to [00:18:00] this person.
There's a lot of politics. And it doesn't matter if it's your kid's birthday or it's Christmas Eve, Hey, there's a burning building burning, let's go. And I knew that I, I wanted, I believed at the time that there must be a way to do business well, to make money, to help other people and to respect other people's families, and to allow them to have this mythical work life balance.
And so that was kind of the philosophy. As time went on, I realized, so the first people who joined the business were people who knew me, people who believed that I could, and we had the ability to grow the business based on a couple of contracts that one particular contract that I, I got early on in the, in the business that allowed me the runway to, to grow the business.
And then about three, four years ago, I would say, maybe even five years ago, I started to get into this. Boy, I don't know that this is fun anymore. And [00:19:00] boy, I, I felt oftentimes, like I just didn't have the ability to grow it, and I, I wasn't able to be the leader that the people around me deserved. And I ended up taking, I, I'm a big reader.
I take a lot of like classes and, you know, internet things, but I realized I needed a, a more formal education to understand if I am, am built to, to grow it or should I you sell it? is someone else better equipped? I didn't have an answer that, was it me or was it someone else?
But I did feel really res. I know that we're sitting on, and this is something that is much bigger than it was at the time. Just didn't know if I could get us there. Just in fact, last weekend officially graduated with my master's in management and leadership from Pepperdine University. So, congratulations.
Thank you. So I, I got my master's and that course, it's two year program and some other [00:20:00] work that I was doing convinced me that yes, I'm the right person and I needed the formal training and the formal experience and the kind of practice that can happen in a classroom setting.
With my professors to apply some new things into the business. I also had to come to grips with something that I think every entrepreneur has to who's growing a business, which is the people who are with you at the beginning may not be the people to get it to the next level. And that is a hard reality it butted up against my family first belief and the loyalty part of who I am. And ultimately I realized that this 40, 50 employees, there's a lot of families and a lot of people relying on me and my leadership team and my ability to empower other people. I owed it to all of them to make the best decisions with the business and to kind of remove [00:21:00] some emotions.
That was really difficult, and I think every entrepreneur. Has to get there. And a growing business requires that the leader is constantly growing and evolving. And that is hard. I mean, doing the deep work of what kind of leader am I? What things happened in my past that I have to work on so that I can understand why when this person says this, it makes me feel this.
It is deep work and it is. emotional work and I think the best leaders i've ever been around and the kind of leader I want to aspire to be isn't just a transformational leader, a relational leader, but the kind of leader who knows themself well and that's hard. Worth it and hard.
Elaine Acker: That is hard.
And I think about people that I see on social media who are truly digging into thought leadership. And for me, when I say thought leadership, I'm thinking about people who are willing to say things that [00:22:00] are disruptive, that share insights into who they really are and how they really think. And I know that, that you work with CEOs and things on and high level executive leaders on how they express themselves in social media.
So do you wanna talk about that a little bit? I guess maybe the question is this, you know what? What do you think when you hear the term thought leadership and how then are you helping people apply that to their social media?
Kristi Piehl: Thanks for asking, because the thought leadership concept is something that so many people get wrong, and I sort of blame the influencer culture for some of that, that we
feel like to be a thought leader means I need to be like X person. I need to show up and give off this kind of brand, a personal brand. And when I think about thought leadership [00:23:00] and the way we think about thought leadership is the realization that everyone already has a personal brand. It is who you are.
It is not what you make. It is not what you say. It is who you are. And once you understand that you have this personal brand already going if you're a thought leader, it means that you are thinking things, that you're not just reading from someone else and cut and paste and also saying it. You are actually trying things that
maybe you applied a little bit from this book and a little bit from this book and someone said this one thing, and voila, you have this kind of thought, but it isn't something that you can get from chat GPT. It isn't something that you are control C, you know, it's something that you are authentically and vulnerable thinking and doing, and willing to share in an authentic way.
So when we think about a thought leader, it doesn't mean that they are a rocket scientist or have a PhD. It means that they are willing to share what they're [00:24:00] learning and what they're applying with others in a social media space. And everyone who's leading companies, every leader on any executive team is a thought leader.
They, they may not think of themselves that way. They also are an influencer. The rise of the executive influencer is a differentiator in companies. We, you know, several years ago, trademarked a process that we use here in taking a leader and determining who their audience is, what their messages are, how to do that authentically, and then proactively putting
content out on social media. Most of our executives focus on LinkedIn and there are other platforms depending upon the industry as well, but it is showing up as this thought leader, but with an understanding of who their audiences are. So a thought leader is someone who realizes that. Okay. Potential employees are, are part of my audience.
A customer is part of my audience. When we work with folks who are more seasoned in their careers, they're thinking about the next a board position [00:25:00] or giving back to the community. So we have to think about that. We have folks coming to us that are, okay, I wanna sell my business in a couple of years,
and research shows that if I am showing up and my leaders are showing up while on social media, the price of the business actually is increased. So how? How do we show up in an authentic way as thought leaders that doesn't feel like you got it from either an 18-year-old, no offense, 18 year olds or a computer.
You know that it is actually who you are and we realize that. Very few people think the way that we all think when it comes to content and storytelling and, and many executives are frankly embarrassed that they don't understand social right because it, it is constantly evolving. We've got teams of people who are staying on top of the algorithms and the this, I mean, I'll get in a message from my team.
Hey, 32nd videos are now performing better than a minute [00:26:00] video, so let's make your next video 30 seconds. We don't expect people to be experts and all that we want from them is to understand who they are, what they care about, what breaks their heart, what are they passionate about, what organizations are they involved with, how comfortable are they with putting personal information out there?
What does their marketing team want them to be, helping with initiatives wise. And then we can start to, get their voice and put them out on social media in a way that is valuable for their leadership and for their legacy.
Elaine Acker: And tell me a story, Kristi, tell me. A story about when A CEO, first of all, got over that fear, that hesitation and did the thing, and then how did it matter?
When did it prove that it mattered?
Kristi Piehl: I have two stories. One is someone that I have, we are not involved with, you know, not a client or anything, someone that I watch. And then I have a story about myself. So I'll start with the, so Ed Bastian is the CEO of Delta, and I suspect that he's got a team of people helping him, whoever they are.
They're doing a [00:27:00] great job and he shows up on LinkedIn. He highlights his employees, he highlights the different locations that they are flying to and different. Upgrades that they're making. I fly Delta regularly. In fact, I would fly it only I, some cities, it makes it more difficult, but I generally am a Delta frequent flyer, and
when they have, they've gotten into crisis. You know, they have had things happen even in the last year where there have been delays where there was a shutdown and people were kind of stranded and he, immediately used his social channels and he immediately talked on LinkedIn to the customer. So yes, there are stakeholders, yes, there are shareholders.
Those people were probably getting different messages as well. And I'm sure the employees were getting messages in internal channels, but that team recognized, okay, ed has a very large audience. We know that it's the business professional audience. Those are the people who are probably folks that we really need to make sure, [00:28:00] continue to have trust with us and know that we have are credible.
So let's use adds voice. And put it out there on social media. And that was picked up on news organizations. It was, and I saw a lot of positive engagement in the middle of a crisis because he was using his social channels well. So that's a, a, a business, a business example. On the personal side, I have.
Been working on my own personal brand and my audience for years because we, we are helping all sorts of executives. I do a lot of speaking. It's important that I also do what we say other people should do. And so my, my social media has been, I. A focus for, you know, a strategy of ours for many years, and I need to show up in an authentic way.
So in January, 2025, my, at the time, 17-year-old son was diagnosed with cancer. A rare cancer. It's treatable, thank God. But it was a shocking diagnosis and I knew that I had to [00:29:00] share that publicly. Like I, I didn't want to, I, I hated thinking about it. It took a couple of weeks and my team said, you know, Kristi, we at some point, because I'm canceling all of my speaking engagements, I cut my travel.
I, it, it, my life changed for the month of January because we had to figure out what the diagnosis was and the treatment plan, and also just the emotion of, oh my goodness, in the middle of, you know, kind of senior year. So. It took a couple of weeks. We really were intentional about it. And also we talked about why, like what is the purpose, For me, I think that everything that can be put out into the world on social media can help other people. It absolutely can help other people. And if you approach social media, not from what am I getting out of it, but how can I help other people and how can I share something in a way that I don't know.
A year from now, six months from now who it's helping, but I believe it is, and it will come around in Boomerang back. [00:30:00] So we decided on February 4th, which is World Cancer Day, we, I would go out, I, I wrote something. My team, I. Clean it up a bit. The graphics department took my son senior picture and put a yellow ribbon, which is, he has Ewing sarcoma, and the yellow ribbon is color and symbol for people fighting sarcoma and just decided we can use it to raise awareness.
so we put it out there. He of course, reviewed it. I'm a big advocate if you're gonna. Anyone you're gonna post a picture of on social media, they better be comfortable with it. And so we put it out there on all of my social channels. And from that, Elaine, I wasn't expecting. And that's I think another thing. Yes, of course we measure engagement with all of our clients.
Yes, of course we want things to perform, but we don't have an expectation that if I put this out, this many people need to see it and this will directly come back from it. I think that's a mistake a lot of people make with how they think about social media. So we put it out there [00:31:00] and I got, you know, someone I had was supposed to go speak in Cincinnati, and, and the, the woman, someone who was gonna be in the audience knew I wasn't gonna be there and knew personal reasons, but she
and I had already connected on LinkedIn and she's offering me, you know, a cancer specialist in Cincinnati. Now, I didn't need that, but that was a connection, a powerful one. What did happen from that is I ended up getting connected to Mark Herzlich, who was a, my son is a football player, will play college football when he's healthy
Mark Herzlich is someone who's written a book about Ewing sarcoma. He had it, he ended up winning the Super Bowl with the Giants after he got his in college when he was diagnosed. And so I got connected to him via social media and he ended up talking to my son on the phone while Alec was at the Mayo Clinic getting one of his initial, appointments.
So if not for social media, that connection would've not have been made. And if not for social media in five years from now, when someone looks up. Sarcoma or high school football player, cancer [00:32:00] diagnosis, they're gonna be able to find my son and we will absolutely be able to show up for them. So that's an extreme example, but I think it highlights that it is important to show up in personal ways, but it doesn't mean that the minute, you know, I'm not
posting from the hospital. I'm not posting pictures of my son at his worst times. I'm also not only showing his best time, my social channels are really for, that's not the purpose of it. I am not going to become a cancer mother influencer. Some people do that. That's great for them. That isn't what we've chosen to do with his fight and what he wants and how he wants to approach it, but it does allow
a large audience and it does allow the ability for us to help others and it allows other people to help us, which I had never felt it quite that way until we went out public with that message.
Elaine Acker: And that's such a gift to, to allow other people to help you. And I think we don't ask for help so often.[00:33:00]
People want to help. Mm-hmm. They want to be involved. And I love those connections. All right. Tell me, talk about connections. I'm thinking about your book and all of the things that you shared, because I get to see the behind the scenes progress. Mm-hmm. So I'm gonna let you talk about it as much or as little as you want to in this moment.
Kristi Piehl: you and I met when we started working on this book, and it was supposed to be kind of finished in January, and it is about social media. It is about how important it is that we, I. We no longer have the benefit of holding onto our stories, whether we put them out into the world or not, they're out there.
If you've never Googled your name, I encourage you to Google your first name, last name in some, you know, whether it's your state or your industry or something, there's probably content out there that you didn't realize was out there about you, because if you're not intentional about it, then you're handing over your story to [00:34:00] someone else.
And I see this all the time with the CEOs that we work with and that I train and that I do speaking engagements with. And so the book was, you know, kind of one of the talks that I give only with more information around it and some personal stories, client stories, that sort of thing. And then when Alec was diagnosed in January, we, put the book release on odds.
And I also realized that it was an opportunity for me to insert some of the things that I am experiencing and seeing via social media with my own reflection and time that I have now and making that book more personal and doing what I say other people should do. Do it for myself, which has been difficult.
So it is now in the stage where I am rounding out and it's, it's progressing and you'll see it in the next month. Elaine. And we're, we're targeting a, we have book launch concepts going in October.
Elaine Acker: Well, and you know, I'm excited to see in here what you've been [00:35:00] working on. Mm-hmm. And see it come to fruition, and we'll certainly be part of that launch.
Is there anything else you can think of that you want people to know while we're here,
Kristi Piehl: you, if you're listening to this, you probably care about business or branding or entrepreneurship, and it is so important to not just focus on the the brand of the business, whatever business you're involved in, but to think about your own personal brand and in 10 years from now, or 15 years from now, or 20 years from now, you can't go back and say, boy, I wish I would've captured the first day at this job.
I wish I would have thanked my mentor. You have to leave these breadcrumbs as you go through life. And it is to some degree a personal diary. I'm not suggesting a daily post if you want to. Weekly, monthly at the very, very minimum. And it kind of breaks my heart even to say that, 'cause my team would be like, that's not enough.
But it's important that you show up intentionally, authentically on social media platforms because [00:36:00] it will impact you now and in the future. It impacts your career, it impacts your family, and it can make a difference.
Elaine Acker: Thank you for that. I love watching your journey. I follow you and I encourage everybody else to follow you as well.
We'll be sure and put the information on how to connect with you in the show notes, so look for that. Follow Kristi and Kristi, thank you for being here.
Kristi Piehl: You're welcome. Thanks for inviting me, Elaine.