That Solo Life: The Solo PR Pro Podcast

That Solo Life: Co-hosted by Karen Swim, APR, founder of Words for Hire, LLC and owner of Solo PR Pro and Michelle Kane, founder of VoiceMatters, LLC, we keep it real and talk about the topics that affect solo business owners.

That Solo Life: The Solo PR Pro Podcast is a business podcast hosted by thatsololife, with 355 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

thatsololife hosts That Solo Life: The Solo PR Pro Podcast, a business show with 355 episodes published.

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  Episode #358

  Big Numbers, No Impact: The PR Measurement Gap

  Sep 28, 202637 min

  Episode Summary If a client asked you right now to prove that anything you did last quarter actually moved their business, could you do it? This is the provocative question that opens today’s episode and sets the stage for an honest discussion on what PR practitioners are missing when it comes to measurement. According to the Meltwater and WE Communications State of PR report, 21% of PR pros still name measuring impact and ROI as a top challenge, not because they don't have tools, and not because they don't know it matters. This leaves many practitioners continuing to report on activity rather than impact. The problem is structural: a standards and accountability gap that has been sitting under the industry for more than a decade. The Barcelona Principles are fifteen years old and still not reaching the majority of practitioners who need them most. Just as CCOs have earned a formal seat at the strategic table, 91% of Fortune 500 CEOs say polarization has increased the importance of PR —you have a profession that has been handed an invitation it isn't yet fully equipped to accept. Episode Highlights [00:13] The Opening Gut Check That Frames Everything: Michelle opens before the music with a direct question: if a client asked right now to prove that anything you did last quarter actually moved their business, could you do it? Karen's honest answer is yes but only because she has done the work, and she wasn't always there. The episode is built around the gap between those two positions: the practitioner who can answer that question with confidence, and the majority who can't yet. [02:15] What the Meltwater Data Actually Shows: The starting point is Meltwater's annual State of PR report, produced with WE Communications. Key findings: 21% of PR pros say measuring impact and ROI is a top challenge. 24% point to insufficient resources. And when asked what's blocking better measurement, the top three answers are aligning metrics to business KPIs at 35%, proving PR's value to leadership at 28%, and overreliance on outdated metrics at 22%. Most tellingly: over 40% of respondents are still measuring activity — volume of media placements, reach, impressions — instead of outcomes. Fifteen years after the Barcelona Principles told the industry to stop doing this. [06:48] The Tools Are There. The Standards Are Not.: Karen's reframe of the data: over 70% of respondents say they partially or completely already have the tools they need to connect PR to business outcomes. This is not a tools gap. It is not a knowledge gap. It is a standards and accountability gap. The Barcelona Principles now on version 4.0 after their fourth revision represent a rigorous framework for outcome-based measurement that was agreed upon by 200 delegates from 30 countries in 2010. Among AMEC's own membership, only 3% still consider advertising value equivalencies relevant. But AMEC's membership is self-selected, people who showed up specifically to care about measurement. In the broader Meltwater survey, reach and volume are still the top two metrics in actual use. The people who need the standard most are the least likely to be in the room where it's being taught. [11:40] No Licensing Body, No Enforcement, No Consequence: PRSA has approximately 3,000 members. The Bureau of Labor Statistics counts roughly 282,000 public relations specialists in the US workforce for 2026, not including PR managers or many agency roles. That means PRSA reaches something like 1% of the profession. No licensing exam. No continuing education requirement. No consequence to anyone who never learns outcome-based measurement. Karen is direct that this is not a criticism of a diverse field that welcomes practitioners from many paths. It is simply the lay of the land and it explains why something as established as the Barcelona Principles remains unknown to most of the profession it was designed to help. [13:53] The C-Suite Has Sent the Invitation — The Field Is Still Catching Up: The second half of the episode turns to the demand side. The Conference Board surveyed over 1,700 C-suite executives and found that chief communication officers have, quote, earned their seat at the table now explicitly expected to be strategic advisors, not just message conveyors. The 2026 USC Annenberg Global Communications Report found 91% of Fortune 500 CEOs say polarization has increased the importance of PR inside their organizations, with two-thirds expecting their comms function to be restructured soon. Cision's comms report found 84% of comms leaders feel increased demand from the C-suite for their counsel. But in that same survey, 37% still struggle to measure impact effectively, and 43% struggle to turn the data they have into actionable insight. The C-suite has moved faster than the field's infrastructure, education standards, and accountability systems. That mismatch is Karen's core diagnosis. [17:43] The RPIE Cycle and Why Evaluation Gets Swallowed: RPIE — research, planning, implementation, and evaluation — is the standard planning cycle taught in PR programs. Karen and Michelle note that many practitioners who didn't go to school for PR, or came up through a different path, may have been doing this intuitively without knowing it had a name or a structure. The specific gap: evaluation is treated as the thing that happens when there's time left over at the end of a campaign, not as a scheduled, dedicated phase of the work. The consequence is that most PR practitioners are doing the middle of the cycle thoroughly and skipping the ends. Karen also names something counterintuitive: failure is a reportable metric. It tells you where to adjust your tactics, refine your messaging, and reconsider your audience assumptions. Avoiding reporting failure is human nature — and it's a mistake. [22:53] The Solo-Specific Barrier: Tools That Cost $250,000: Karen names the measurement gap that no industry report will capture for independent practitioners: many of the tools that do the heavy lifting on measurement dashboards and attribution are simply unaffordable at solo scale. She is direct about her own experience spending roughly 40 hours of work time building measurement infrastructure by hand because she didn't have a $250,000 tools budget. Once the system is built, it's built. But getting there without agency resources, without a team to distribute the labor, and without a budget for enterprise software is a real and legitimate barrier that the industry data consistently undercounts. [25:52] The Three-Question Filter: Karen closes the practical section with three questions every solo practitioner should be able to answer about their current client work. One: for each current client, can you name the two or three specific business KPIs that your work is actually supposed to move? Not outputs but actual business KPIs. Two: have you scheduled evaluation as its own dedicated time block, separate from the campaign itself or does it happen when there's time left over? Three: could you defend your measurement approach to a skeptical CFO in 60 seconds using outcome language, not reach and impressions? Karen's note on the third question: if you flinched, that's not a failure. That's useful information. [27:21] The Live Drill: Healthcare Media Relations: Michelle walks a scenario: a practitioner running media relations for a regional healthcare system, whose monthly deliverable has always been placement counts and impressions. Karen runs the three questions against it. On KPIs: the practitioner needs to sit down with the client and ask what business result the placements are supposed to support — patient volume in a specific service line, donor confidence, physician recruitment. If the client can't answer that, the conversation about KPIs is the starting point, not a measurement tool. On evaluation time: most PR campaign cycles move from execution to reporting to the next campaign, with no actual evaluation phase. Blocking even a few hours at the end of the quarter to ask whether the numbers agreed on what actually moved is a structural change. On the CFO test: impressions are not an outcome. The practitioner who can connect placements to a physician recruitment result or a patient inquiry spike can defend their work. The one who can't is at risk in any leadership conversation. [32:10] Why This Is Not Optional and Where to Start: Karen closes directly: this is not a nice-to-do. Measuring outcomes and not outputs, understanding the language of business, being able to show how your work moves the business forward this is the life of your PR business and career. She says it with weight, not alarm. And then immediately offers the other side: don't feel bad if you don't know where to start. The knowledge gap is real, the barrier is structural, and the path from where you are to where you need to be is learnable. Free resources exist such as books, case studies, and the RPIE framework itself. Peers who have already built this muscle can help. The Solo PR Pro community is specifically the safe space for questions practitioners don't want to ask publicly. Resources & Additional Information Meltwater and WE Communication: State of PR 2026 Report AMEC: Barcelona Principles (version 4.0) The Conference Board: C-Suite Outlook 2026 That Solo Life, Episode 342: What the 2026 USC Global Communications Report Says About PR Today USC Annenberg: Global Communications Report 2026 Cision: 2026 State of the Media / Communications Report Solo PR Pro membership community: soloprpro.com That Solo Life podcast website: thatsololife.com Host & Show Info That Solo Life is a podcast created for public relations, communication, and marketing professionals who work as independent and small practitioners. Hosted by Karen Swim, APR , President of Solo PR Pro, and Michelle Kane , Principal of Voice Matters, the show delivers expert insights, encouragement, and practical advice for solo PR pros navigating today's dynamic professional landscape. Listen to all episodes and catch up on previous conversations at thatsololife.com. Did this episode inspire you? If you found value in this conversation, please take a moment to leave us a review https://www.thatsololife.com/rate/ . Your feedback helps us reach more solo pros just like you! Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode.

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  Episode #357

  How to Solve the Gap Between What Clients Say and What Audiences Believe with Kaitlin McCready

  Sep 21, 202629 min

  Episode Summary Kaitlin McCready calls it 'many lives of communications', a career that has moved through corporate tech, the MTA in New York City, Jacobs Engineering, the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation inside the federal government, and now Communio Strategies, her solo practice that is about one year old. But the through line across all of those chapters is the same problem: the gap between what an organization says and what its audience actually believes, understands, or acts on. Kaitlin joins Karen and Michelle to talk through how that through line became the foundation of her practice, the WEAVE framework she developed to bring change management discipline into communications work, the 90-day project-based consulting model that is working exceptionally well in the current market, how a relationship with her masseuse led to a county government client through a mayor introduction, and the Substack she started not primarily to grow an audience but to maintain a writing practice and own a topic she had genuinely earned. This is a rich episode for practitioners who want to think more rigorously about what communications is actually for, and for solos about a year in who need to hear that the path from interest to paying client is slower than it looks but more networked than it feels. Episode Highlights [01:52] The Through Line That Connects Many Lives of Communications: Karen asks Kaitlin to name the thread that connects a career that has moved through tech, government, engineering, federal agency work, and now solo practice. Kaitlin's answer is specific and immediate: it's the gap between what an organization says and what its audience is prepared to believe or act on. In tech, the problem was differentiation. How do we stand out when everyone claims to be different? At the MTA, the problem was the opposite, everyone was a customer, but trust was not assumed, and moving millions of people from one belief to a new one and then to action was the whole job. Those two poles of the same problem became the thing she kept working on, and the thing she now builds client engagements around at Communio Strategies. [03:33] What the MTA Unlocked — and the First Thing Kaitlin Did When She Didn't Know the Answer: Michelle asks what the MTA experience unlocked for Kaitlin beyond the scale of the challenge. Kaitlin names a weakness she had to confront: asking for help. She came into the MTA as her first public sector role, hired in part because of her private sector background. But she didn't understand how to navigate city council relationships, how to work with public officials, or how to move a population of millions. Her first move: find people who had already solved a version of the same problem. She located practitioners in London, Sydney, and Los Angeles who had managed high-profile disruptive infrastructure projects, asked them what worked, what didn't, and what they wished they'd known. That body of external knowledge accelerated her onboarding by an order of magnitude and gave her a platform to prioritize immediately. The practical lesson: before you try to figure something out alone, find the person who has already done it. [05:14] The WEAVE Framework: What It Is and Why Communications Without Change Is Just Information: Karen invites Kaitlin to explain WEAVE, the framework she built to integrate change management thinking into communications work. The origin: while leading internal change management at Jacobs Engineering during a major digital transformation, Kaitlin was trained on the Prosci change management philosophy and realized it described everything communicators already do — she just hadn't known it had a name or a structure. The framework runs five elements. W: Why — the organization's origin story and reason for doing the work. E: Edge — what uniquely equips them to do it. A: Attune — aligning the organization's message with the actual beliefs, worldviews, and wants of the audience. V: Viable — how you translate belief into action that is visible and creates momentum. E: Engage — the ongoing, durable relationship that sustains the change beyond the initial campaign. Kaitlin's line that has resonated strongly in recent pitches: communications without change is just information. [10:43] One Year In: What Surprised Her About the Solo Journey: Michelle asks what has genuinely surprised Kaitlin in her first year. Her answer is honest: she thought it would be easier to move people from interest to action. The interest is there, people respond to what she says, they like talking with her, they engage with her thinking. But translating that engagement into paid engagements has been slower and more circuitous than she expected. She names a recent client win as the example that reframed this for her. [11:46] The Masseuse, the Mayor, and the County Contract: Kaitlin traces the origin of a recently won county government contract, working backward through every step that led to it. It started with her masseuse, an entrepreneur who knows Kaitlin's transportation background and introduced her to a client of hers who turned out to be a local mayor. That conversation led to another introduction from the mayor, which led to the client who is now a paying county government account. The lesson she draws is not just the value of networking but the value of showing up consistently, being curious about other people's work, and letting relationships develop without a transactional frame. Karen's footnote: this is also proof that making time for self-care has a professional return. [13:05] The 90-Day Project-Based Consulting Model: Karen asks Kaitlin about the 90-day consulting model she has built and why it works in the current market. Kaitln explains that clients almost always come in with a tactics request, such as get me into the New York Times, get me mentioned in a trade publication. The model starts by walking them back from the tactic to the actual business problem, which requires patience and a particular kind of coaching. From that clarity comes a very specific, focused 90-day plan. Ninety days is enough time to solve a defined problem, get real results, and test the client relationship from both sides, because as Kaitlin notes, solos should be evaluating fit too, not just demonstrating value. It's also short enough that the client doesn't feel they're committing to a large open-ended engagement. And within every organization, Kaitlin says, there is a whole network of partnerships and adjacent problems that 90 days of proximity reveals, creating a natural path to follow-on work and niche development. [17:35] Turning the Practitioner Lens on Yourself: Michelle raises the question that trips up many solos: how do you apply to your own practice the same diagnostic and positioning rigor you apply to clients? Kaitlin was helped by an unusual circumstance — when she left the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation, her former colleagues (many of whom were also navigating unexpected career transitions) asked her to help them tell their own career stories. In building a framework to help them identify their unique differentiators, she essentially built the tool she then used on herself. The schema for helping others translated directly into clarity for her own positioning. [21:06] The Substack as Thought Leadership Infrastructure — Not Audience Building: Karen highlights that Kaitlin has built a consistent Substack practice, posting every Tuesday on her newsletter called Trust Issues, which explores how and why ideas and people change, and the role trust plays in that. Kaitlin's framing of why she started it is the part worth listening to: she did not start it primarily to grow an audience. She started it as a forcing function for a weekly writing practice, as a home base for documenting what she knows, and as a way to own a topic she had genuinely earned through a range of experiences, corporate, public sector, federal government, and elected local official. The writing practice has surfaced things she had forgotten she knew and created a body of work that is now generating teaching opportunities with college students. Karen's observation: you picked a topic you were passionate about and had genuine experience in. That's the difference between a Substack that compounds and one that becomes a slog. [24:17] The Alignment Brief — and the Role of Communications as Chief Alignment Officer: Kaitlin describes a tool she developed at Oracle and repurposed at the MTA: the alignment brief. It is essentially a structured questionnaire that gets all the teams working on a project onto the same page about what the product is, what the benefits are, what success looks like, and how it will be visible. She now gives it away for free because people ask for it constantly. She also names a framing she heard on another podcast that resonated: the communicator's role is often chief alignment officer. Getting everyone pointed in the same direction is not adjacent to the comms work. it is often the precondition for the comms work to do anything. About Kaitlin McCready Kaitlin McCready is the founder of Communio Strategies, a communications consultancy that helps organizations close the gap between what they say and what their audiences believe, understand, and act on. Her career has spanned corporate technology communications at Oracle, public affairs and stakeholder engagement at the MTA's New York City Transit, change management and corporate strategy at Jacobs Engineering, and federal agency work at the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation — where she led communications for EV infrastructure deployment across the US. She is also a local elected official in Northeast Ohio. Kaitlin developed the WEAVE framework to integrate change management discipline into communications planning, and she writes the weekly Substack newsletter Trust Issues, which explores how and why ideas and people change — and the role of trust at every stage. Communio Strategies is approaching its first anniversary. Website: communiostrategies.com LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/kaitlinmccready Substack: Trust Issues Resources & Additional Information Communio Strategies: communiostrategies.com Trust Issues: Kaitlin's Substac k on trust and change. Prosci: Change Management Certification Program (referenced by Kaitlin) Solo PR Pro membership community: soloprpro.com That Solo Life podcast website: thatsololife.com Host & Show Info That Solo Life is a podcast created for public relations, communication, and marketing professionals who work as independent and small practitioners. Hosted by Karen Swim, APR, President of Solo PR Pro, and Michelle Kane, Principal of Voice Matters, the show delivers expert insights, encouragement, and practical advice for solo PR pros navigating today's dynamic professional landscape. Listen to all episodes and catch up on previous conversations at thatsololife.com. Did this episode inspire you? If you found value in this conversation, please take a moment to leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform. Your feedback helps us reach more solo pros just like you! Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode.

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  Episode #356

  Is Now the Time to Consider Fractional PR?

  Sep 14, 202628 min

  Episode Summary Fractional roles seem to be growing in scope, including in Public Relations. Over the years, we have seen our fair share of creative titles, but does the Fractional title in Communication roles have longevity? In today’s episode, we take an honest look at the fractional title, extract what's actually useful, and give solo PR practitioners a real framework for deciding whether fractional positioning is a fit for them, or whether it's a fashionable label with a new set of obligations attached. The hosts discuss the rate data for fractional roles and adoption projections for midsize companies. Episode Highlights [00:18] Should I adopt the Fractional Title?: Michelle opens before the music: if she put fractional communications director on her website tomorrow, would she be sounding as senior as she actually is — or cosplaying a Silicon Valley CMO? Karen loves the question. It names exactly the tension the episode is built around: the fractional label is real and valuable in the right context, and it is also getting slapped on LinkedIn profiles by people who have changed nothing about how they actually work. Karen and Michelle are committed to examining both sides honestly. [02:52] The Rate Data: What Go Fractional's 2026 Benchmarks Actually Show: Go Fractional, a marketplace that publishes its own rate benchmarks by role, shows the fractional director of public relations averaging $203 an hour in 2026, with typical engagements running around 32 hours a week. Karen and Michelle both flag what 32 hours means in solo practice terms: that is essentially all of your billable time for one client. There would be no room for additional work. For broader fractional CMO engagements, monthly retainers commonly run $8,000 to $22,000, with day rates in the $1,500 to $3,500 range and hourly rates around $200 to $350. Karen's bottom line: most solo PR pros are already undercharging. The gap between what solos currently charge and what the fractional rate range represents is a real income conversation, not just a semantic one. [06:43] The Adoption Reality: Who Is Actually Buying This: Gartner projected that more than 30% of midsize enterprises will keep at least one fractional executive on retainer by 2027. Karen's honest read: 30% is a meaningful number, but it requires understanding which markets and industries you actually serve. She cautions against chasing the label without first asking whether your specific clients in your specific verticals are operating in the kinds of environments where fractional executive models are being adopted. She also notes an important structural difference: fractional engagements are typically time-bound, one to two years, sometimes as short as six months, while many solo PR practitioners maintain client relationships of five, ten, fifteen years or more. That shift in tenure expectations is not a footnote. It changes the business model. [09:44] Objection 1: This Is Just a Trendy Label for Freelancer: Karen names the objection directly: fractional is real. There are fractional CEOs, fractional CFOs, fractional CMOs and it emerged from a genuine market need. Companies wanted senior executive function without a permanent hire, particularly high-growth startups scaling toward a defined goal. The problem is that the label has been diluted by people applying it to what they were already doing. Karen's line: it has to be more than a label. It has to be a real change in how you scope work, structure your time, and price your value. If it's just a rebrand of what you're already doing, it will not hold up to a client's scrutiny. [11:08] Objection 2: I Don't Have C-Suite Adjacent Experience: Michelle raises the credibility question: what if you don't have 15-plus years or a director-level background? Can you credibly claim a fractional director title? Karen's answer is yes, with honesty about what you bring. She draws on the Dolly Parton example from a recent piece she'd read: when Barbara Walters made a condescending comment, Dolly didn't get defensive. She owned the narrative and redirected it. Karen's parallel for practitioners: if a client challenges your seniority, you don't deny the gap, you own what you do bring and redirect toward the specific value that makes you the right person for this engagement. Karen also flags what the Solo PR Pro community data shows, many solos left corporate America holding director-level titles. The experience is often already there; the confidence to claim it is the gap. [13:28] Objection 3: Clients Will Expect Fixed Weekly Hours I Can't Sustain: This is the structural objection, and Karen says it's the most valid one. Fractional positioning is not a marketing decision; it's an organizational one. It assumes fewer clients getting more defined hours each, not the same scattered client load with a prettier name on top. That is a genuine shift in how you run your business. Karen's reframe: for practitioners who want built-in natural breaks, the project-based nature of fractional work is actually an opportunity. You do a high-value six-month engagement, step back, take time, then pick up the next one. But you have to be genuinely ready to operate that way, not just willing to say you will. [16:00] Objection 4: What If a Client Asks What Makes Me Different: The quiet objection: if a prospective client pushes back and asks what actually distinguishes you from any other consultant and you don't have a real answer beyond the title, you have a problem. Karen and Michelle are both direct: if you're going to name it, you have to be ready to back it up. Fractional is not a word that does the positioning work for you. You still have to know what you specifically bring, who specifically you serve, and what result you specifically deliver. The label focuses the conversation. You still have to win it. [17:09] The Three-Question Filter for Self-Assessment: Karen's three questions for any solo practitioner genuinely weighing this decision. One: can you honestly commit a defined chunk of weekly hours — ten, twenty, or even thirty-two — to a small number of clients rather than juggling many smaller ones? This is a capacity question, not an aspiration question. Two: have you operated at a senior strategic level where you own the outcomes rather than execute tasks someone else scoped? Be honest about what senior strategic responsibility has actually looked like in your experience. Three: does the pricing range work for the size of client you're actually targeting? The $8,000 to $22,000 monthly range requires clients with budgets to match. If you primarily serve small local businesses or early-stage startups on tighter budgets, fractional may be aspirational for a future client base rather than a realistic current pivot. [19:10] The Live Drill: Six Years of Healthcare Comms, Eighteen Months Solo: Michelle walks a hypothetical: a practitioner with six years running healthcare comms in-house, now eighteen months into solo practice, currently juggling five smaller retained clients at different rates. Karen runs the filter. On capacity: consolidating from five scattered clients to two or three larger, more defined engagements is a real structural shift, and the right question is whether the listener can genuinely commit to that model. On experience: six years running healthcare comms in-house is exactly the kind of background that supports a director-level fractional claim credibly. On pricing: if even two or three of those five current clients are midsize or larger organizations, there may be a direct pathway to repricing existing relationships at fractional rates. If the current client base skews toward small local clients on tight budgets, the fractional pivot is a longer play toward a different client type. [22:21] Why This Is a Positioning Decision, Not Just a Label Decision: Karen closes on the point the whole episode has been building toward: how you describe your own work shapes what you are allowed to charge for it. Most solo PR pros are already undercharging, not because the market won't bear higher rates, but out of habit and out of fear. The fractional conversation, done honestly, forces a real examination of capacity, value, and pricing that most solos avoid. Even for practitioners who ultimately decide the fractional model isn't the right fit, that conversation has value. Karen is transparent about herself: the corporateness of fractional work, the reporting structures, the Slack pings, the internal politics is not where she wants to be. That's also a real answer, and it's the kind of honest self-assessment the episode is asking every listener to do. Resources & Additional Information Go Fractional: Rate benchmarks by role (2026 data referenced in episode) Fractional C-Suite: The Future of Work: Why Fractional Executives are Booming in the AI Era (Gartner Future of Work data) Over50Pros: Fractional Work State of the Market Intelligence Report That Solo Life, Episode 349: What Solo PR Pros Need to Know Now About the Specialization Economy That Solo Life, Episode 355: Why Solo PR Pros Should Plan for Micro Retirement Now Solo PR Pro membership community: soloprpro.com That Solo Life podcast website: thatsololife.com Note on sourcing: Karen and Michelle flag on air that some of the broader fractional adoption statistics are difficult to verify precisely — treat aggregate figures as directional rather than definitive. Host & Show Info That Solo Life is a podcast created for public relations, communication, and marketing professionals who work as independent and small practitioners. Hosted by Karen Swim, APR, President of Solo PR Pro, and Michelle Kane, Principal of Voice Matters, the show delivers expert insights, encouragement, and practical advice for solo PR pros navigating today's dynamic professional landscape. Listen to all episodes and catch up on previous conversations at thatsololife.com. Did this episode inspire you? If you found value in this conversation, please take a moment to leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform. Your feedback helps us reach more solo pros just like you! Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode.

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  Episode #355

  Why Solo PR Pros Should Plan for Micro Retirement Now

  Sep 7, 202631 min

  Episode Summary In a recent episode ( Episode 350 ), we addressed burnout and called it out as a business risk. Today’s episode addresses a different reason to step away from your business with a micro retirement. Unlike burnout, micro retirement is a planned business response and not a crisis break. It is a deliberate, designed pause that you build into your practice before you need it, the same way you build a financial runway or a contract clause. Michelle opens with a hypothetical question: what if she wanted to disappear for four months next year, and Karen's first reaction is not alarm but logistics: let's talk about how. What follows is a clear-eyed conversation about what micro retirement actually is (a planned break of weeks to months, taken periodically across a career, not a one-time event at the end) and what the research shows across two very different surveys. The episode also discusses how solo practitioners are uniquely positioned to give themselves permission that employees have to negotiate along with the real risks in a tumultuous 2026 economy. Karen and Michelle walk through four objections with straight answers and provide a three-question framework for figuring out if and when micro retirement is realistic. The episode closes on something that goes deeper than logistics: the uncomfortable question of who you are when the work goes away, and why that discomfort is data worth paying attention to, not something to push past. Episode Highlights [02:26] What Micro Retirement Actually Is — and What Makes It Different: Karen defines the term clearly: a planned, intentional break from full-time work, usually between a few weeks and several months, taken periodically across a career rather than saved for one event at the end. The key word is planned — this is not a crisis break forced by illness or collapse. It's a designed pause, built in advance, the same way any good business decision is built. Karen contrasts it with how most people actually stop: running ragged until the body or the psyche creates an unplanned break, which is never tidy or pleasant. [05:19] What the Research Shows — and Why the Sample Matters: Two surveys, two very different pictures. An HSBC quality-of-life study of 10,000 respondents found 37% plan to take a mini retirement at some point before actual retirement, but the sample skewed heavily toward high earners with assets between $100,000 and $2 million. Karen flags this upfront: it matters when we get to the objections. The SideHustles.com survey of 1,000 average American employees tells a different story: 75% believe employers should offer structured micro retirement or sabbatical policies, 10% are actively planning one this year, 59% would consider one at some point, and one in five have already taken one. When you get to Gen Z, 85% believe these policies should exist. The appetite is there across income levels, the HSBC study just shows who currently has the financial cushion to act on it. [09:12] The Solo Advantage Nobody Talks About: You Can Give Yourself Permission: Employees have to negotiate. They have to ask HR, work around policy, or quit and hope to get rehired. Solo practitioners have no employer to grant or deny anything. That is genuinely freeing, but it also means there is no external structure forcing the planning conversation to happen. If you don't build the runway yourself, nobody builds it for you. Karen and Michelle are direct: the freedom is real, and the responsibility that comes with it is equally real. [11:09] The Honest Risk: Naming the 2026 Economy Without Dismissing It: Karen does not pretend the timing concern away. In a tumultuous 2026 economy where many solos have already lost business to budget cuts, stepping back is not without risk. Your pipeline doesn't pause because you do. Client relationships need maintenance. This isn't a reason not to plan, but it's a reason to be honest about timing and to build the infrastructure before the break, not during it. The episode makes room for the real tension rather than talking around it. [13:20] Objection 1: I Don't Have $100,000 to $2 Million Sitting Around: The HSBC study describes what wealthy people are already doing. The SideHustles.com study shows the appetite exists at every income level. The version of micro retirement accessible to most solo practitioners looks less like three months in Portugal and more like the hairstylist Michelle describes, building deliberate off-weeks into the business cycle so that absence is planned and clients adjust around it. The goal is a protected break, not a luxury vacation. Those are different things. [16:35] Objection 2: My Clients Will Replace Me and My Pipeline Will Die: Karen connects this to the specialization episode: if your business depends entirely on your personal presence at every touchpoint with no systems, referral partners, or documented processes, stepping away is genuinely risky. But that's not an argument against micro retirement. It's a diagnostic. It tells you that the business needs infrastructure before you can step back, and building that infrastructure is phase one of the plan. Michelle reframes it through the account executive experience: you went on vacation and someone covered. That concept is not foreign; it just has to be built into a solo practice deliberately. [18:19] Objection 3: The Economy Is Too Uncertain Right Now: Karen's honest answer: she's not going to tell you your worries are unfounded. They're not. But maybe this episode gives you the runway to plan for 2027 instead of 2026. Use the time to test referral partners in small ways, bring in subcontractors on pieces of work, build the rhythm. A planned micro retirement is a stress test, and unlike an unplanned forced absence, you can still step in if you need to. The planning itself is the value, regardless of when the break actually happens. [20:00] The Quiet Objection: Would I Even Know Who I Am Without Being Constantly Available: Michelle names the objection nobody says out loud: what if I stopped for real and my business survived? Would I even know who I am without it? Karen's response is direct and careful. For many practitioners, identity and career are so tightly wound that the question of who you are without the work is genuinely scary. That discomfort, Karen says, is data. It's not something to push past. It's something to sit with, to do the work on, and to begin untangling in smaller stages, because your job is what you do, no matter how much you love it. It is not who you are. [23:48] The Three-Question Framework: Karen's three questions for working out whether and how micro retirement is realistic for you right now. 1) What percentage of your revenue could survive your absence without you personally present? Be dead honest, not aspirational. 2) What's the smallest version of a break that would still count as a real reset for you? It doesn't have to be six months. It might be three uninterrupted weeks with no email. Calibrate it to your nervous system, not to a survey headline. 3) Who is your reality-check person or community for this decision? This is not a decision to make alone, and especially not at 2 am when you're burned out. [26:41] The Live Hypothetical: A Solo Seven Years In with No Infrastructure: Michelle runs the scenario: seven years in, exhausted, three solid retainer clients, everything routes through their personal inbox, no backup. Karen walks it through all three questions. Revenue survival without their presence: close to zero percent — because everything is personal. That's not a failing; it's a finding. It tells you that phase one isn't planning the break; it's building the thin layer of infrastructure that makes a break possible. Even one trusted referral partner, a shared inbox process, or a part-time contractor who can triage is enough to start. Two weeks offline becomes a systems test, not just a vacation. That data then becomes the foundation for planning something longer. [29:00] Community as the Missing Infrastructure: Karen closes on the thing that ties this episode to every other episode: the decision to step back from your business should not be made alone, in a spreadsheet, during a 2 am spiral. It should be made with people who work exactly the way you do — who have built these systems, navigated these decisions, and can tell you what worked and what didn't from the specific vantage point of an independent practitioner. Community is not the soft option here. It's the missing infrastructure. Resources & Additional Information That Solo Life Episode 350: The 4 Structural Fixes That Protect Solo PR Pros from Burnout HSBC: Quality of Life Study (mini retirement data — high earner sample) SideHustles: Micro Retirement Survey (1,000 US employees, average age 40) Solo PR Pro: Membership and Resources Host & Show Info That Solo Life is a podcast created for public relations, communication, and marketing professionals who work as independent and small practitioners. Hosted by Karen Swim, APR, President of Solo PR Pro, and Michelle Kane, Principal of Voice Matters, the show delivers expert insights, encouragement, and practical advice for solo PR pros navigating today's dynamic professional landscape. Listen to all episodes and catch up on previous conversations at thatsololife.com. Did this episode inspire you? If you found value in this conversation, please take a moment to leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform. Your feedback helps us reach more solo pros just like you! Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode.

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  Episode #354

  Beat the Economy By Breaking into a New Industry

  Aug 31, 202622 min

  Episode Summary Some industries are on fire right now, hiring, growing, and spending. And some are bone dry. If yours has gone quiet, you've probably already heard the advice to pivot. Karen and Michelle are not here to tell you that pivoting is possible. They're here to tell you how. Episode 354 is a practical guide to breaking into a new industry when your current one has stalled. This episode is for the practitioner who is sitting in a dry sector right now and needs real steps to take. Karen and Michelle start by busting the myth that skills plus reputation walk seamlessly across industries, clarify exactly what does and doesn't travel with you. The episode is tactical and includes: how to reframe your existing portfolio through a new industry's lens, how to land a flagship project without working for free, four pathways to first opportunities in a new vertical, the mistakes to avoid when you're tempted to cut your rates, a realistic 3-to-6-month timeline with honest caveats, and the one concrete step you can take today. Karen is clear from the start that she is not speaking theoretically; she has had to take some of these steps herself, and the advice reflects it. Episode Highlights [01:22] The Myth That Skills Plus Reputation Walk Across Industries Unchanged: Karen names the belief that gets a lot of solo practitioners into trouble: that PR is PR everywhere, and their skills and reputation can carry them into a new sector without friction. Michelle validates the partial truth that media relations instincts, crisis communications, executive positioning, and messaging discipline, those are your core muscles, and they do travel. What doesn't travel: industry vocabulary, regulatory landscape, buyer psychology, and the media relationships themselves. A healthcare reporter relationship means nothing in fintech. Plan for that rather than hoping otherwise. [02:22] Relationships Don't Transfer — But Skills Do, and That's Enough to Start: Michelle's framing is direct: don't count on your contacts to save you. What saves you is your own capability. You know how to build a message, craft it with precision, and hold the room under pressure. Karen's practical response to practitioners worried about starting over is that you are not starting from zero. Your portfolio still exists. Your experience and judgment still matter. The task is to reframe what you've already done through the lens of the new audience you want to reach, and to do the same with your LinkedIn, your bio, and your case studies, swapping out PR jargon for the new industry's language. [04:41] The Fastest Credential is One Flagship Project in the New Space: A single flagship project in your target industry outweighs years of history in your previous one. The question is how to get it without working for free. Karen's preferred path is a short-term embedded stint as a contractor with a PR practitioner or agency that already serves the industry you want to enter. You're not responsible for the whole strategy; you're not necessarily client-facing, but you're learning the landscape and building your portfolio at the same time, while getting paid. Karen's second preference is pitching a byline to a trade publication in the new industry. You don't need sector experience to have a point of view on communications and PR. That byline becomes proof of presence in the space. [06:29] Four Pathways to First Opportunities in a New Industry: Michelle and Karen walk through the four most practical routes. First: adjacent industry referrals. Look inside your existing network for one-degree-removed introductions. You are probably closer to your target industry than you think. Second: volunteer with a trade association in the industry. This builds knowledge, visible credibility, and relationships, and for APRs, volunteer hours count toward renewal. Third: offer to ghostwrite for someone already working inside the industry. You gain the knowledge as you write the piece and prove your capability in the process. Fourth: subcontract for an agency already serving that vertical, building your portfolio before going direct to clients. [11:14] Where the Money Is Flowing Right Now: Michelle names the sectors actively hiring communicators in 2026: AI, healthcare, energy, and climate. Traditional retail and some legacy media are not. Karen adds the nuance that even in sectors that are struggling overall — she cites tech specifically — there are portions of the sector where money still exists and is still being spent. The prescription: read financial publications, track where investment is flowing, follow the problems that are predicted and who is positioned to solve them. Broaden your view within sectors before assuming the whole sector is closed. [13:11] The Mistake Everyone Is Tempted to Make: Pivoting on Price Instead of Positioning: When you're new to a space and feel you need to prove yourself, the temptation is to undercut your rates. Karen is direct: do not do this. Clients who find you through price are not clients who value your judgment. What you can do instead is start with a smaller scope of work such as a three-month project, a productized offer, or a focused consultation. In this way, the engagement feels lower risk to the buyer without compromising your rate. Michelle's alternative: develop a sharp point of view on the industry's actual challenges, which signals that you belong there regardless of your history in the sector. Pivot on positioning, not on price. [15:51] Setting a Realistic Timeline and Not Getting Discouraged: Karen's honest assessment is that a realistic runway for breaking into a new industry is 3 to 6 months. In the current market, it could take a year or longer. The economy is moving in windows. There are periods where things open up, then something shifts, and clients pull back. Karen names this from personal experience, not theory. The practical implication is don't try to turn away from your current sector overnight. Work the new industry alongside what you're already doing, chip away consistently, and measure forward progress by inbound interest and repeat conversations rather than by contracts signed. [17:43] Speed It Up With In-Person Networking: Karen's tactical advice for shortening the timeline: if the target industry exists in your local area, find the in-person touchpoints. Local chamber of commerce, trade association meetings, industry mixers, and direct coffee requests to people inside companies you'd like to work with. Karen is careful to say don't use the phrase 'pick your brain' — instead, tell them honestly that you're interested in serving this industry and want to learn more about what they're facing. Follow up with a small, thoughtful thank-you. Face-to-face accelerates trust in a way that digital outreach does not. [19:58] The One Concrete Step to Take Today: Karen closes with a single, low-lift action: pick one adjacent connection in your existing network and ask for an introduction this week. Don't overthink it, don't plan the whole campaign first, don't wait until you've rewritten your website. Take one step. Michelle adds the Solo PR Pro community as a place to practice the pivot; the private forum is full of practitioners who know people across industries and are ready to make introductions. Resources & Additional Information Sectors actively hiring communicators in 2026 (per the episode): AI, healthcare, energy, and climate communications. Solo PR Pro membership community — Solo PR Pro's private forum is specifically mentioned as a place to practice the pivot, make connections, and get introductions into new industries. soloprpro.com That Solo Life podcast website: thatsololife.com Host & Show Info That Solo Life is a podcast created for public relations, communication, and marketing professionals who work as independent practitioners or microagenices. Hosted by Karen Swim, APR, President of Solo PR Pro, and Michelle Kane, Principal of Voice Matters, the show delivers expert insights, encouragement, and practical advice for solo PR pros navigating today's dynamic professional landscape. That Solo Life was recently recognized as one of the Top 33 Solopreneur Podcasts on the Web by Feedspot. Listen to all episodes and catch up on previous conversations at thatsololife.com. Did this episode inspire you? If you found value in this conversation, please take a moment to leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform. Your feedback helps us reach more solo pros just like you! Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode.

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