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[Music] Welcome to PR360, where every week the brightest minds in public relations, communications and media discuss the topics and trends you need to know about. PR360 was produced in partnership with Global Results Communications. Now here's your host, Todd Perry. Welcome back to PR360. My guest today is Steven Francie, a vice president at Rubenstein Public Relations, where he leads national and global campaigns across technology, defense, AI, aviation, finance, culture, and technology. He works with founders, CEOs and public figures to shape narratives at key moments of inflection, launches, breakthroughs, crises, and category shifts, securing coverage and outlets including the New York Times, Bloomberg, CNBC, Forbes, Reuters and the Wall Street Journal. Known from combining strategic storytelling with disciplined media execution, Steven specializes in positioning complex innovations as clear, consequential stories for business, policy, and public audiences. On today's show, we're going to dig deep into Steven's storytelling process and talk about humanizing tech. So, welcome to the show, Steven. Hi, thanks so much for having me on, I really appreciate it. So, before we get into the hardcore PR stuff, I hear that you have a large collection of vinyl records. I have a bunch of myself, so I wanted to ask, like any great music fan, we always put everything into top 5s. What are your top 5 favorite albums that you have or the best, you know, collector's items? Yeah, you know, it's a tough one I do. I have hundreds of albums and I have a subscription, so I get several months, you know, for the last several years now. I would say something like Columbia House, like they used to have you. Yeah, no penny and you get it. Sort of, I mean, I wish it was a couple of pennies, although they'd get you later on for that one. No, it's cheaper than going to the store, honestly, and they kind of curated based on what my submitted tastes are. So, it's been really great, but some of the big ones for me, I don't know, like Miles Davis kind of blue had to have that, you know, had to have that, especially growing up, you know, this big one in my house. But like Led Zeppelin 4, big classic rock guy in addition to my blues and jazz. But then like Woodstock album, I have like an original pressing on that. I love that in high school and have just, you know, been playing it ever since. That's such a good mood setter for me. Weirdly Alice's restaurant is another good one about our country. And that one is just, that's Thanksgiving to me. I've never had Thanksgiving in my life where that's not been played that literally I'm 40 this year and never missed having that on. So, it's just such a classic one in my household growing up. And then I have an old Robert Johnson classic original like guitars, you know, blues guitar guy. And I have a really old pressing of that that I literally can only play in my office. It only works on the portable record player that I have. Because my wife at home doesn't, I want to say it doesn't reach the right speed, but that's, I only play here. So, it's nice having the office though. But those are, those are some of the big ones for me at least. I go to pretty regularly. That's cool. That's cool. I like the idea of having like Thanksgiving albums because I always have Thanksgiving at my house. So, then I have a nice collection of jazz records that my dad got, you know, back in the 50s and 60s. And so, modern jazz quartets, standgats, things like that. So, I always played those. So, when I hear those, I think of, you know, it's the smell of turkey and everything. Here we are on St. Patrick's Day talking about Thanksgiving. But I remember when I was a teenager, it was at that time when, you know, didn't have much money. It was, you know, I was 15 years old. And CDs were really expensive. You think about it. Like, I remember I wanted to get the wide album by the Beatles. But it was like $32 because it was two CDs. And it's like, who had $32? I don't know what I would have to, you know, what crime I would have to pull off or wait till Christmas to get the wide album. So, but at that time, records were super cheap. It was like, they were like disposable. And so, there was a record store by my house. And I went in there and I got a copy, like, original from probably 68 copy of the wide album. And it was like $4.99. You know, and it had all the posters in it of the Beatles and the headshots and everything. So I always look at that. I'm like, now it would probably cost me 85 bucks to go in and get it. I kind of say, yeah, that it switched, it switched now. And now there, that's where all the high pricing is. But you can't, you can't beat sound quality. So, yeah. I hope I'm holding on to all my old VHS tapes and hopes that one day that will become hip again. And then I'll retire. I still have a few. I had a box with a few laying around. I don't think any of them are going to be, you know, the big hits. But, you never know. So, can you tell me a bit what's going on at Rubenstein right now? Yeah, you know, we're. I'm working in the corporate group. And I specialize in a lot of the tech and the, you know, emerging technologies kind of space. So, you know, we're a little bit balanced here. We have, you know, real estate department, which has been thriving here for a long time. I'm a consumer. And the corporate group are kind of all over the place. Yeah, like I said, I'm a flying car company. So I've big unveiling coming up. It'll be, it'll be, you know, before this comes out. But big, you know, big giant news there. And a lot of AI, you know, military space, quantum computing. There's a lot of a lot of great new technology that we're kind of just pushing out, getting into the forefront. You know, some of this is brand new. Some of this is just, you know, obviously been super topical in the last couple of years. AI in particular. I kind of did, I ended actually up in the same position I was in years ago when I got in early with like blockchain and crypto. You know, I did so many interviews where the first question was, what is, what is blockchain? You know, the reporters, there's like, I don't know this beat. I am being assigned this. Like, what is this? And now we're back to that with, you know, AI, quantum and all of this kind of other stuff. You know, at least with the flying car, everybody gets it. They thought it would be here 30 years ago, but they're like, I understand what this is. Or at least they think they do. Yeah. You're not launching a flying car. We are. It's where we're unveiling the final model for like a personal flying vehicle. Think of like a Tesla roadster version of it. The funny thing is, you know, flying car. You know, is the Department of Transportation going to allow something that flies off the road? You know, is something that's light enough to fly? Is it actually going to be able to go on a highway? Who really knows? But to me, I don't really think that's where that industry goes. I think it's more of just like almost like a personal drone essentially. Yeah. I'm in. And that's really, that's really where that market's going. But in the next two, three years, we're going to see a lot change going through that. So it's going to be wild just to see looking up and there we go. Someone who has lived with LA traffic his entire life. This sounds good. I don't even care if it's approved. I'm riding it. They can catch me if they want. I'm going to have a bat cave where I landed downtown LA. No one's going to see what happened. So, so the big question. I mean, hearing this, you know, all these different technologies. You're ahead on blockchain. You know, you know, in the middle of AI and quantum computing. What's your immediate diet like for you to be able to take in all this information and be ahead of the curve on it? You know, it's massive because again, I don't. I've specialized in areas throughout my career. You know, I pick up. I essentially landed in a vertical and worked there. And now I've just expanded and grown what that is. So, you know, I just consume. I don't want to just live in the media landscape where I'm just staring at my phone and just incessantly reading on like what's the latest news. But, you know, to some degree, that's kind of what you're doing. In the morning, just sitting there going through, you know, left center right just digging through all the media, seeing like even the same stories. But seeing how it's kind of translated across each, you know, audience and medium like, oh, okay, this is how this, you know, they're seeing this. So, I'm kind of just every day I start off like what are the important things for my clients or the verticals I'm working on and I just immediately go in and find all the latest news I can and kind of find a good spot for my clients in those conversations. So, yeah, my mornings are pretty heavily, you know, luckily for me, like we said, I'm in New York, so I'm commuting. That's an hour, 45 minutes an hour each, each direction. So, that allows me a good amount of time to kind of prep for my day and just dig through all the latest news because once I get to the office, it's go time. And you just got to get right in there and be like, okay, this is the latest news. This is why my clients the best. Let's have this conversation today. Well, that's great and it's great for your clients because I'm sure there's nothing more valuable than having someone come in that's on the same pages them and understands their industry, you know, close proximity to how they do it. That's a tough find. Yeah, absolutely. And you know, you know, in this industry, there's a disconnect a lot of times with clients. who will think of it as like, you know, they want to tell their story, and that's what they really want to pitch, rather than a lot of folk, or not. Fogas has to be on thought leadership with a mixed in with, you know, you're applying announcements or major news, but if, you know, the idea that, like, you know, the major networks are just gonna cover, like what you want to cover, and like, oh, we're doing this, you should just talk about our company. Well, it needs to be in the context of news, and what's like relevant to their audience in that day. So it's about kind of finding that path through, because, you know, this is public relations, it's not advertising, you know, it's not marketing. That distinction is sometimes really hard for people to kind of to wrap their head around. Yeah, if you want advertising, go down the hall, and pay, you know. If you want to pay someone to put an ad up, absolutely. But, you know, if you want someone to write, you know, a fluff piece about you, that's a lot trickier, it's easier to get in being, like, you're an expert. You're an expert on something. You just need to learn how to turn a conversation about one thing and do a conversation that's about you and that one thing. So how is it that you are able to humanize these high-tech ideas and make it so that the average person understands them? Yeah, so to me, it's about the impact, right? Like real world consequences. Yes, this technology is amazing. It's usually extremely complicated. Again, 50 interviews in a row with blockchain of first question being, what is blockchain? And then get to the end of that answer. And they all want to just kind of be like, I kind of want to ask you that same question again, 'cause I didn't understand it. So it's just so high level and some of this, or really technical, that it's better to just be like, this is how it's going to change your life, right? Like AI was complicated. Chat GPT cut through that in a way of being like, is a practical use that you can understand. Now, AI is being used in a ton of other ways that most people aren't really paying attention to, but that's the simplest one to get their foot in the door. And then they're kind of like, okay, I get it. I don't really understand the mechanisms or the details, but I understand how it impacts my life. And so that's where the story is, like the impact, personally, less so of like, you know, how does, you know, how does this tech work? How did you code all of this? The coding is for a smaller audience. You know, that's tiny audience. The general one is like, how does this help my life? - Great, I love that, you know. Like you said, you fly in cars, you're in LA. I'm in New York. That, I live in Brooklyn, it's an hour commute. That would take me about five minutes, if I took my clients vehicle from point A to point B. I wouldn't even really have to do anything. I've just hit a couple of buttons, it would do it, and I'd have a really nice view while I'm going. But you know, I mean, there's, selling the benefits is always the key in all of these things. And I think off times when I was an advertising the client would always want to sit and go, you know, if we're selling their grass seed, they'd want to sit and say, okay, in the ad in our 60 second spot, please talk about it. We have 42% more nitrogen than the, you know, than the competition, and you're going, no, no one cares, I'm sorry. Like that's our job, as, you know, the person in the ad room to say, no one cares. People care about having a green lawn. Let's talk about how it makes it greener, not the nitrogen that's in it, or, you know, how, where it's sourced from or whatever, you know. - That's what I mean, you gotta get into the, you know, you gotta get into it with them, and you gotta just, you know, sometimes the dealing with the client is telling them, you know, they say no to something, and you like, no, you're not, we've gotta go back to this. This is totally worth it. I understand on paper, you're thinking, well, this doesn't have anything to do with what we're talking about, but I'm going to make it about that. We're gonna, we're gonna step by step transition from this broad topic into what we wanna talk about. You just gotta trust the process that's gonna work. - Okay, now I'm gonna put you on the spot here, because when you were listing the different, you know, technologies that you're, you know, trying to get ahead of, and that you understand, and understand how to communicate to them, I'm the guy sitting here, not the person going, how does blockchain work, because I kinda get that. Quantum computing, and what's the benefit for me to, what's quantum, like chat GPT, yes, I can go and I can find a good bowl in the AS recipe. So quantum computing, what's it doing? - You know, quantum computing, you know, there's a lot of, it's, well, one, it's mass computing, you know, on scale, that's just gonna cut times down. So we're gonna be able to get through, like AI is gonna have a huge impact, right? On, on, let's, you know, again, people are using it for, yeah, a good recipe, but it's gonna be able to crunch, like medical data, right? And it's such a high level that, you know, in five, 10 years, the likelihood of us being like, well, we've come up with a bunch of cures for things, 'cause we've been able to just tackle all this mass data, and just pull stuff out of it that we wouldn't necessarily, you know, be able to do. Quantum computing is like pouring gasoline onto that AI, right? It's just gonna get there so much faster, 'cause AI is gonna take a bunch of different routes, quantum is doing it all at once, even just like data centers, right? That's gonna be such a massive conversation in the next two, three years and more, right? 'Cause they're, they're looking, with AI, all of these companies are looking to build out, but they're all gonna be, they're not gonna be in dense, population areas, they're gonna be kind of rural more likely, which is gonna have impacts on water and their power grids, and that's gonna be a big stumbling block. And some, and a lot of that is like, you know, power consumption, right? And it's just keeping everything cool. You know, quantum computing, they actually is a way now that you could do it, so you don't, you know, you don't need that, right? You're not generating as much like sheet, so there's actually quantum computing that can do all of that at room temperature. Well, you could do all of that computing at room temperature, so basically all of the data centers, but you don't need as much space for it, and you don't need to keep anything cool, the way you did. I mean, your energy consumption drops, like dramatic, which allowed you to adjust, again, medical data just crunching through, right? Like national security technology, like all of these things, we're just gonna take huge leaps, and it's gonna be startling. I mean, again, AI has been what, five years, and the jumps we're making with that, and quantum is gonna dwarf it. - It's so funny that something so abstract and technological comes back down to temperature, you know? - Yeah. Yeah, you know, I mean, I've worked in a long, long time ago, you know, at, well, I think it was EMC, but now it's probably Bob I Dell, but you know, they were building, it's like server towers, and you're just in these rooms, you go into a room and there's all these towers, and it's just frigid ice cold. And you just know that that's just eating up 90% of what they're paying for, essentially. You know, like, cutting your overhead, it's just, it's wild over gunnancy, and like something so simple, you're right. It's just like, yeah, is this room cold enough? Because if it's not, we're never gonna advance our technology. This very simple thing of like, okay, great. I mean, we're seeing, we're talking about, they're putting some of these things in the ocean to keep them cool, and now we're talking about putting them into space. And you're just like, great, if we could just avoid dealing with that entirely, all of those other things are extremely costly as well, so the better it is keep costs down, and you know, productivity skyrocket. Wow, that is really cool. Well, you know what, here's the deal. I now understand what quantum computing is, 'cause you had an amazing ability to explain it to me. Yeah, to me, though, is like the simplest answer is, you know, if you're cracking a code, you know, are you gonna do like one by one, like I'm gonna try this one, then the next one, the next one. Computer can do that extremely fast. Quantum computing tries every password at the exact same time, right? That's kind of the idea behind it. It doesn't need to take one by one by one, it doesn't, everything it wants, so you're instantly getting your answers. And that's, again, gonna be just game changer. So you're telling me, four factor authorization is in our future. Absolutely. So, okay, I am a journalist when I'm not doing this, that is the senior editor at a website called Upworthy. And so I get pitches all day. I get 35 pitches in my inbox. Very rarely is anything relevant, but I get a whole bunch every day. And so what's the best way that you pitch reporters in, you know, the landscape that's always changing and the fact that there are fewer of us these days. And we're all seeing a whole bunch of pitches come through. So how do you get our attention? Yeah, by the way, 35. Wow, that's, I mean, I remember when the pandemic happened, a reporter said that they went from getting like, you know, a couple hundred to a thousand emails a day, you know, with everyone. Yeah. And there's just no way, like getting through that is so hard. Some of it is about relationships, right? You just got to get through the door once. Now you're in a position where you can call somebody up, you know, you just, I have a check-in calls, right? You, with that being as well, like you don't want to just be calling them to pitch them. Sometimes you want to call them and just check in. See how they're doing, like build that relationship. That way, one, they know if they're in a pinch, they can turn to you and be like, look, I know this necessarily isn't what you always pitch me, but maybe you know someone. Maybe you'll help me out. So you kind of build that relationship. And then some of it is just about a little bit of a game'smanship, right? You know, like when I'm writing subject lines, I try to get them to be as close to like a headline that would fit that reporter in their outfits possible, right? So I take a step away from them to like, if that sounds like a story you would run, great. Now I just got to convince you in my email. And again, I just need to get you to open it, step one. That's it. even like the hardest part is just even getting you to look at. But then sometimes, I've done it where I used to, I used the subject line quick question. I used that for a couple of months where I was dealing with people to the point where a reporter came back and I'm like, I know your game. I know what you're doing. (laughs) Because you're like, yeah, it seems, you're opening my email. That's what I needed you to do, right? My next like first line in that email is gotta sell you on the topic. And then I gotta put in my client as like, well, yeah, this is the person who needs to be speaking about this. So it's all just about creating that relationship with the person and getting him to engage with you. Because again, there's thousands of us, we're all competing for the same topic. And even in the firm here, even in my accounts, AI is big. So I have, sometimes there's overlap with my own clients. You don't love, right? Because then you're maybe, you know, you don't wanna be in position where you're picking and choosing between your own clients. You know, you pick what's best for the story, for the outlet. But you don't, you try to avoid that position if you can. But, you know, again, it's about, just, you know, it's about coming through the noise. And by the way, after the pandemic, you know, all these reporters are remote, or at least a lot of them. You know, a lot of people aren't in the office as much as they used to. So calling them, just calling into like a generic line, getting, you know, the reception, and then getting through the reporter is so much harder now. - Mm-hmm. - Because it's so heavy on emails here, it's so, I mean, the level to it, you know, it's like, you know, applying for a job, right? One thing, your resume stand out. And some people do interesting things. I know some people, you know, fold theirs up into like, an accordion kind of thing. So that, when it's in a stack, it looks weird, you know, just like, it kind of just like messes with it. Now, maybe that'll turn someone off, maybe, but maybe they'll just be like, oh, what is this? You know, it's kind of about finding that little, that little thing and then just exploiting it to some degree. - I did something to get the attention. I, a while back, I was in a line, to try to get season tickets for the Raiders in Las Vegas. - Okay. - And I, I engaged with the sales guy and said, look, all that section, you know, whatever, it's all sold out, you know, we got nothing. So I sent him a bottle of Jack Daniels to his desk and a Coke with it. And I just said, thank you for spending some time with me. If anything comes up, let me know. After it was delivered, the guy emailed me, and said, Todd, two seats just opened up in the section that you want. And I said, ah, yes, that's the key. That's how you win it life. I was very happy. And so every time I go and I sit down in my seats, I'm like, yeah, I just pound myself on the back as my greatest. - Oh, and that's a great move. That was an excellent move. It's, it's all about relationships, right? I mean, to, at the end of the day, the reporter needs someone who's gonna, you know, get them where they need to go or tell the story that they want to tell. But, you know, creating these relationships is so critical. Now, part of that is, every once in a while, there'll be a new story and it's like, oh, this newsroom just got wiped out. You know, half the people and you're getting texts from people being like, hey, I'm bouncing this place. I'll let you know when I land at my next opportunity. You're right. And again, you're there to just kind of keep that relationship going. You want to just check in with people, make sure they're doing all right. You know, send, hey, if you got to send something to someone in a moment, again, it's, it's gonna work out in the long run. You want someone, you want to build a relationship where a reporter is gonna be like, I need someone to get on an interview in 20 minutes and I'm calling you because you're gonna deliver. Right. You may not be 100% of the time, but enough that I can send it out and have like, you know, calm because they're running around scrambling, right? We are as well, but you know, their deadlines are, and you expect like a TV in particular. What's that show starts? You know, people cancel a tech issue, you know, and everyone's kind of like, all right, all right, we let you know, up until the client is on the air, you're just like, okay, I just need to make sure everything goes great. And then we were sitting there and be like, talking points. All right, we're hitting stuff. Great, great, great. As soon as it's over, I hope, you know, you go back to that producer, but I hope you got everything you need. I'm happy to provide anything else. You know, you just want to be as helpful as possible because at the end of the day, you're helping them. I mean, they're, you know, it's a relationship, but they're the ones on the time crunch and we just got to make sure that we're reliable. Right. Great. So Steven, on every show I end with a question, and this is kind of like, there used to be a show called, Inside the Actor Studio, which James lived in, right? And at the end of every episode, he always went through the same questions. And it was like, what would you say to God or what's your favorite curse word or whatever? So on this show, we do things a little bit differently, but it's great because I always get a different answer from every PR professional that comes on the show. And the question is, what is your thought leadership philosophy? Yeah, I would say, you know, you got to take a, if you're going to be in this again, most things are starting a thought leadership area, right? It opens up your ability to talk about your company, your product, your service, whatever it may be. You need to take a position. You got to take a stance, right? Some people don't want to get, you know, they don't want upset anyone, right? We have media that is fairly, you know, biased in some, you know, way, right now there are a lot of central stuff, such as a lot of left and right wing. They're all kind of covering the same things in wildly different ways. And, you know, if you, if you have a position and you believe it, you shouldn't walk away from it because you're nervous about like, oh, well, they won't necessarily like this. Great, let them have that opportunity to ask you the question about it, right? You want to, you want to be challenging, right? You're, you're, you're, you're professional. You're, you're not an observer. You're leading this space, right? You know what you're talking about, own that, right? You don't want to be, yeah, you just don't want to kind of be wishy-washy. You got to make sure that if you have a contrarian point of view, there's nothing wrong with that. If the news is going to push back in you, you got to be able to defend yourself. And that's what we're here for to make sure you're trained that you know how to answer a question that if you get a tough one, you don't kind of just start spouting off, you take a moment, you take a breath, and you go into it. Because again, it's, it's a confidence. You have the knowledge, right? You just need to make sure that you don't get spooked from an answer, you don't be like, oh, maybe this person's not going to like my answer. That's fine, right? You, they can challenge you. They can push back. That's going to open up a great dialogue. That's going to make it a much more dynamic conversation. So it, it just, it's allowing for a lot more. And I just want people to just, again, like, take a stand. Take your position. Don't be afraid, don't be afraid of it. Right? If you're going to say it, say it loud, say it clearly, you know, back it up. Put your name on it. Yeah. Jane Moore would always say on ESPN. Is he ESPN? So, Steven Francie, it's been a pleasure having you on the show. Great. Appreciating that energy, special, you know, you got a couple hours on me here on the East Coast. But I appreciate coming in, bringing some high energy to the show. What's the call to action here? How do people follow up with what you're doing? Yeah. You know, you can find me-- well, you can-- I'm good at my company's website, Ruben's sign PRs, a lot more about content. You know, just look me up. I'm on Twitter @StevenFrancie. So it's pretty straightforward on that one. Or LinkedIn is a great place to connect with me. Also, just at, you know, my name's Steven Francie. But yeah, you know, I'm always looking for the, for the latest stuff, again. We're emerging technologies. We're emerging spaces. And I just, I always love to know the latest thing. And I want to help people get their work out there. So anyone looking for help? Just do try now. All right. Thank you so much. And hopefully we can meet up sometime down the line. Absolutely. Looking forward to it. Thanks for having me on. Thank you. All right. Have a good one. PR360 was produced by Todd Perry in partnership with Global Results Communications. Be sure to subscribe to the show and leave a review wherever you get podcasts. Follow GRC on all socials @ GlobalResults. Follow Todd on Twitter @ ToddAperry. That's Todd with 1D. Talk to you next week.