Episode show notes:

Welcome to another episode of Just Checking In! Today our guest is Judy Shaw, the person in charge of corporate communications connected to listings and media relations at the New York Stock Exchange. She is also the host of "What's the Fund?" and one of our personal favorites, "NYSE Floor Talk," where she has conducted interviews with some of the most well-known CEOs, celebrities, athletes, Oscar winners, and VIPs of all time. This expert in comms with more than 25 years of experience, joins the conversation to talk how she achieved her big city dream, how to use media to showcase companies in creative ways, how the “NYSE Floor Talk” was born, plus some crazy stories from the trading floor.

Join technology comms pros Becky Buckman and Keyana Corliss as they cut to the heart of today’s tech-news cycle and the general craziness that is high-tech corporate communications right now. With a short, not-too-serious take on the industry - with plenty of humor and irony thrown in - they’ll bring you the best in the biz, across comms and media together, for one-of-a-kind insights and perspectives you won’t hear anywhere else!

Jump straight into:

01:06 - Becky’s latest podcast obsession - “It’s called Bone Valley. Have you heard of it?”

02:52 - The power of storytelling in the comms industry - “You have to be a really good storyteller to do well in this role.”

04:21 - Introducing Judy Shaw - “We have Judy Shaw on the show today. I think she's actually done an incredible job of turning what's supposed to be sort of like a financial transaction, right? Buy my stock. Sell my stock. It's the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. She's brought storytelling down to the New York Stock Exchange.”

08:34 - Judy’s story, from law to media relations - “ I started working in the general counsel's office as an admin, and I was like ‘wow, I'm here, here I am’, and then I was like, ‘oh, general counsel, admin’, not all the fun and excitement, you know, of the New York Stock Exchange”

13:58 - Creative ways to showcase companies - “ Through the years, you know, we've had many different things that have happened here on the floor, you name it, it's pretty much been done. Years and years ago where we had a horse on the floor.”

17:35 - The birth of NYSE Floor Talk - “An interview series where we were gonna focus on all the amazing things that were happening here at the New York Stock Exchange. Talking to CEOs that are coming through the building, but not just limited to CEOs.”

21:19 - How to work with other comms leads? - “A lot of times, you know, we'll just see kind of a blend of everything we're working together, right? Because we're all chasing that common goal, right? We want to maximize on, on opportunities for the client.”

24:09 - Memories from NYSE Floor Talk - “ I took a picture with him and then just a few years ago when he won the Oscar with Lady Gaga, it was a whole big thing with Lady Gaga. So I then said ‘oh, let me post my picture with Bradley Cooper.’”

28:05 - Judy’s 9/11 experience - “The markets are resilient and they're remaining open. And that's a very important day here at the NYSE, you know, for the trading floor. And we market every year. And it really means a lot to everyone that was here on the floor during that time. You know, that changed the world at that point.”

Episode resources:

Judy Shaw’s LinkedIn, Twitter and

Episode show notes:

Welcome to another episode of Just Checking In! Today our guest is Jennie Blumenthal, bestselling author of Corporate Rehab, a book focused on a topic that is likely very relevant to many of our listeners: burnout and the “hustle culture” that is so pervasive in our industry today. Jennie spent many years as a top executive working with Fortune 500 companies, traveling frequently, and being away from her family. But one day, she had the realization that maybe she wasn't as happy as she thought she was. This expert today joins us to talk about the toxic side of hustle culture, the definition of burnout, the behind-the-scenes of her book, and how she became a coach executive that helps companies to go through a corporate rehab and start thriving.

Join technology comms pros Becky Buckman and Keyana Corliss as they cut to the heart of today’s tech-news cycle and the general craziness that is high-tech corporate communications right now. With a short, not-too-serious take on the industry - with plenty of humor and irony thrown in - they’ll bring you the best in the biz, across comms and media together, for one-of-a-kind insights and perspectives you won’t hear anywhere else!

Jump straight into:

01:05 - Keyana’s connection to Jennie - “When I talked to Jenny for the first time, it was like she peered into my soul.”

02:32 - Women in tech & burnout - “In light of some of the things we've seen in the news over the last, like six months, even week about really prominent women in our industry in tech, taking a step back.”

07:58 - For Fortune 500 execute to burnout - “The longer I had to sit in the quiet of how exactly did I get here and how when I was building this life, that's everything we're taught to go after and women can be anything. How did I wind up in a place where I felt so empty? and I felt like. This wasn't what I wanted”

10:04 - The toxic side of hustle culture - “We get caught in this, ‘I have to keep going’, ‘I have to go even faster’, and then our relaxation time doesn't actually refuel us. It's just another way of overstimulation.”

12:13 - What’s burnout? - “We're all part of. So it's not just you aren't doing it right and if you just run faster, you'll outrun your burnout. It's something that's increasing in the pace within our own culture.”

15:00 - Women burnout stories - “And as I started talking to other women and they started contributing their stories, I was shocked at how much we'll tolerate before, we'll actually seek help or try to find a solution.”

18:10 - Intro to hustle culture research - “ It really was this constant performance and productivity mentality, that I noticed across, and that was the first piece. The second really was really got what got me to this whole concept of going from survival into thriving, and that is survival mentality is really based on the scarcity mentality.”

23:11 - Corporate rehab - “It's about, is understanding what are the patterns and the mindsets and the behaviors that you're wired for or that you've picked up over time, might have served you earlier in your career. That it's time to reevaluate and sit down so that you can actually thrive.”

30:03 - Burnout in comms departments - “We are not surgeons, no one dies. But there is still a lot of pressure, I think, in terms of the fact that our job does really, influence people's lives in a respect and there's a lot to that.”

34:30 - The hardest part of healing - “So much of what I would have said I missed were things that I found through my own healing journey, we're actually unhealthy attachments.”

Episode resources:

Jennie Blumenthal’s...

Welcome to another episode of Just Checking In. Today our guest is Joe Williams, a tech writer, formerly of Bloomberg, Business Insider, and, most recently, Protocol. But with Protocol’s shutdown, Joe had time for us at JCI and offered us an interesting perspective on the state of the media today, including insights about how he likes to cover complicated, B2B technology stories. . This expert in covering wonky tech issues joins the conversation in this episode to talk about the landscape of media business models, the do’s and don'ts of covering technology issues, and how to craft a great story. Plus, he’s got an interesting viewpoint on Elon’s Twitter.

Join technology comms pros Becky Buckman and Keyana Corliss as they cut to the heart of today’s tech-news cycle and the general craziness that is high-tech corporate communications right now. With a short, not-too-serious take on the industry - with plenty of humor and irony thrown in - they’ll bring you the best in the biz, across comms and media together, for one-of-a-kind insights and perspectives you won’t hear anywhere else!

Jump straight into:

03:31 - Catching up with Protocol shutdown - “The media is not immune to everything going on, and particularly when you're in a niche industry, or maybe not niche, but when you're a beat publication and the industry you're covering is going through a tough time, it's pretty evident that that's gonna filter down to you.”

07:39 - The landscape going forward for the media business - “I think fear that consumers aren't going to want to pay, I think it's misguided because I think they don't want to pay for journalism that they don't want or that they don't find useful.”

09:20 - The model of self-started journalism - “I worry about kind of tunnel vision or I worry about not having that second set of eyes or that, that newsroom to kind of, you know, bounce ideas off of.”

13:52 - What makes a good story within the tech comms industry - “ I think to still talk about it like it's some futuristic like Star Trek concept is really disadvantageous. And frankly, I think kind of insulting to the reader”

26:23 - The biggest tech comms PR turnoffs - “Companies now I think, always fear that reporters are always digging for something, which is funny to me cuz that's our job and that's what we should be doing.”

28:47 - Joe’s refreshing perspective regarding Twitter - “It's a self-fulfilling cycle. He says something, we write about it, and he says something else. We write about it. There has to be a breaking point that it's, you know, but I don't know what happens, besides him shutting down the website.”

Episode resources:

Joe Williams’s Twitter and LinkedIn

Thank you for listening to Just Checking In by Battery Ventures. Go follow Becky and Keyana on social media to know more about them. If you enjoyed this show leave a review and help us find new audiences!

This show is produced by StudioPod Media in SanFrancisco. Teresa Buchanan is the Show’s Producer. Nicole Genova is the Show...