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That Solo Life: The Solo PR Pro Podcast

That Solo Life: The Solo PR Pro Podcast

Written by: thatsololife
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That Solo Life: Co-hosted by Karen Swim, 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 in PR and Marketing and beyond. Learn more about Solo PR Pro: www.SoloPRPro.comCopyright 2019 All rights reserved. Careers Economics Leadership Management & Leadership Personal Success
Episodes
  • What Solo PR Pros Need to Know Now About the Specialization Economy

    What Solo PR Pros Need to Know Now About the Specialization Economy
    Jul 27 2026
    Episode Summary Michelle opens with the question a lot of solo PR pros have been quietly asking themselves: if I call myself a communications generalist on my website right now, am I costing myself money? Karen's answer is immediate — not 'am I?' but 'you already are.' What follows is a data-driven, practically grounded conversation about the specialization economy: the growing body of research across the freelance and independent consulting world in 2026 that shows generalists getting squeezed and specialists pulling away. Karen and Michelle aren't just reporting a trend — they're translating it specifically for PR and communications practitioners who've never had anyone apply this research to their work. The episode covers the bimodal income distribution hiding inside freelance averages, the vertical-horizontal framework for finding your niche, four common objections to specializing (with honest answers to each), a three-question filter for identifying your niche, and the metric-capturing habit that makes specialization pay off over time. This is a conversation for the solo practitioner who has 'I do everything' on their website tonight — and might be ready to change it. Episode Highlights [00:03] The Opening Question That Frames Everything: Michelle opens before the intro music with a direct question to Karen: if she calls herself a communications generalist on her website right now, is she costing herself money? Karen's answer: not 'am I?' but 'you already are.' The episode's premise is immediate and personal — and Karen and Michelle make clear they're talking to themselves too.[01:05] The Specialization Economy: What the Data Shows: Freelance and independent consulting data in 2026 is pointing in the same direction across multiple sources: generalists are getting squeezed and specialists are pulling away. The average US freelancer earning rate hides what Karen calls 'a canyon' — generalist content and writing on the low end, specialists in high-demand niches billing well over $100 an hour on the high end. Almost nobody is actually earning the average. The floor is dropping for generalized skills; the ceiling is rising for specialized ones. Karen's framing: the middle — 'I'm pretty good at a lot of things' — is where people get stuck. Note: some figures referenced in this episode are still working through the show's verification process; sourcing details will be linked in the resources section as they are confirmed.[04:13] Why Specialization Wins: The Practical Case, Not the Philosophical One: The argument for specializing isn't philosophical — it's structural. A generalist PR consultant competes with an enormous pool of other generalist PR consultants. Someone who specifically handles crisis communications for mid-size healthcare systems competes with a much smaller, more identifiable group. Smaller pool, higher rates, and — critically — the client doesn't have to explain their industry from scratch. That last point is underrated: starting a client engagement already fluent in their world, their vocabulary, and their stakeholders is worth real money. Karen also flags a related shift: companies are increasingly requiring proof of impact before hiring specialists, not just portfolios. That proof is much easier to produce when you've done the same kind of work for the same kind of client repeatedly.[06:40] The Vertical-Horizontal Framework: What Niching Actually Means in Practice: Karen and Michelle push back on the idea that niching just means picking an industry. The framework showing up across freelance research: pick a vertical (the industry — healthcare, legal, fintech, sustainability, professional services) and a horizontal (the service — media relations, crisis management, thought leadership, internal comms, funding round communications). Your niche is the intersection. Examples drawn from recent guests: Sharon Toerek does IP and marketing law for independent agencies. Kara Ryan came up through healthcare communications and built an advisor-led, AI-powered practice on top of that. Both dialed in the vertical and the horizontal. The practical test: once you say your niche out loud, it should stop sounding like a limitation and start sounding like a positioning statement.[09:06] The Filtering Benefit Nobody Talks About Enough: When you're specific, the wrong-fit inquiries mostly stop coming in. You stop getting the 'can you also just quickly help with our internal newsletter' request from an industry you don't want to be in. Positioning does some of your qualifying for you before the discovery call even happens. Karen and Michelle note this is deeply connected to scope creep — a topic worth its own episode.[10:02] Specialization Is an Income Stability Conversation, Not Just a Rate Conversation: Once you're known for a specific thing, you stop pitching one-off projects and start getting asked to stay. Broader freelance data shows a large majority of hiring managers plan ...
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    25 mins
  • The Hidden Messages for Solo PR Pros in the Muck Rack State of PR Report

    The Hidden Messages for Solo PR Pros in the Muck Rack State of PR Report
    Jul 20 2026
    Episode Summary Muck Rack's State of PR 2026 report surveyed 971 PR professionals. Only 18% were solos. The rest were mostly from agencies and in-house teams — which means that when the report says 66% of PR pros rate their stress above five out of ten, or that 55% worked more than 40 hours last week, those numbers were never really measuring a department of one. Karen and Michelle decided to build the solo column themselves. This episode takes three of the report's most significant findings and translates them through the solo lens: first, why the stress and workload data almost certainly understates what solos are experiencing; second, why the industry's move toward volume pitching at the exact moment journalists are demanding relevance is actually good news for solo practitioners who were never going to out-blast a team of account coordinators; and third, why the GEO ownership vacuum — 29% of organizations say no one owns it — is one of the clearest competitive opportunities solos have right now. Karen and Michelle also draw on Muck Rack's companion State of Journalism 2026 report throughout, giving the journalist perspective that makes the pitching data land harder. This is a data-driven, translation episode built for the practitioner the industry keeps forgetting to count. Episode Highlights [00:03] The Opening Question That Frames Everything: Karen opens without a greeting: 'Quick question before we even say hello. Did you read Muck Rack's new State of PR report and feel like it was describing someone else's job?' Michelle's answer: she pored through it, noticed only 18% of respondents were solos, and across every chart — stress, hours, pitching, GEO — there was no solo column. The episode's mission: build that column themselves.[02:17] The Report Was Not Built for You — and the Data Understates Your Load: Karen walks through the report's sample: 971 usable responses, 56% agencies, 18% solo. When the report says 66% rate their stress above five out of ten, or that 77% worked after hours at least once last week — those numbers come largely from people with a team absorbing some of the load: an account coordinator to pick up an email thread, an intern to build the coverage report, a colleague to cover a sick day. There is no chart in this report for running all of those roles simultaneously.[03:43] What Freelance and Creative Industry Research Fills In: Because Muck Rack didn't ask solos specifically, Karen and Michelle pull parallel research from broader freelance and creative industry studies. The finding: the majority of freelancers report burnout symptoms, and a notable share describe energy depletion even when logging fewer hours than a traditional employee. The theory is that when you're responsible for delivery, sales, admin, and income security simultaneously, the load doesn't show up as more hours — it shows up as more weight per hour. Michelle: 'Boy, isn't that the truth.'[05:53] Segment 2: Precision Over Volume — Why Solos Are Already Winning the Pitch Game: 49% of PR pros say they pitch more than 20 journalists per campaign. 24% pitch more than 50. Meanwhile, personalization is moving in the wrong direction: only 66% say they always or usually personalize pitches, down from 70% last year, and 73% of those who do personalize are only changing a few sentences. The trend line: pitch more people, customize less per person. And then the number that should stop everyone doing this cold.[06:56] 88% of Journalists Immediately Delete Irrelevant Pitches: Karen and Michelle pulled Muck Rack's companion State of Journalism 2026 report directly. 88% of journalists say they immediately delete a pitch that is irrelevant to their coverage — the single biggest reason pitches get trashed, ahead of being overly promotional at 71% and looking like a mass email at 50%. And 70% say the number one thing a pitch should demonstrate is clear relevance to their beat — ahead of interview access, data, and everything else. 43% say relevant pitches are seldom or never what they actually receive. A journalist quoted in the open-ended responses: 'Don't pitch widely, pitch selectively and then widen as needed.'[09:42] The Solo Reframe: Your Constraint Is Actually Your Strategy: Karen's line: you were never going to out-blast a team with a subscription database and three account coordinators. You cannot pitch 50 people with real personalization by yourself. But the data shows that is exactly the wrong strategy anyway. The industry is trading relevance for reach at the moment journalists are punishing that trade. What solos assumed was a disadvantage turns out to be pointing them at the right approach by default. It's not that you need a bigger list — you need a sharper one. 15 real relationships outperform 50 cold contacts.[11:53] The GEO Ownership Vacuum Is a Solo Opportunity: 73% of PR pros say GEO is at least somewhat important to their strategy. But 29% — the single largest group — say no...
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    18 mins
  • Why Senior PR Pros Should Focus on Development Not Decline

    Why Senior PR Pros Should Focus on Development Not Decline
    Jul 13 2026
    That Solo Life Episode 347: Why Senior PR Pros Should Focus on Development Not Decline Episode Summary Are you in the later stages of your Solo PR career? Today’s episode of That Solo Life is one of the most grounded, research-backed, and genuinely useful conversations the show has had about what it means to be a late-career practitioner in an AI-dominated landscape — and why the narrative telling experienced pros they're behind the curve is not only wrong, it's the exact opposite of what the evidence shows. Karen and Michelle walk through the real data on AI adoption, two peer-reviewed studies that directly challenge the 'experience is a liability' myth, a practical three-bucket framework for deciding what to ignore, what to adopt, and what to anchor, four mindset shifts for the final stretch, and three action items that can be done this week. The tone throughout is not inspirational poster energy. It's honest, warm, and built for practitioners who are genuinely tired and need a practical path forward, not another list of tools to chase. Episode Highlights [00:25] The Opening Sentence That Names What Everyone Is Feeling: Michelle opens with what she calls 'a statement a lot of our listeners have either said out loud or are saying to themselves': she's five years from wrapping up her career, and she just doesn't have it in her to learn one more new tool. Karen doesn't argue. She validates it — and then reframes it. The feeling isn't laziness or fear. It's the cumulative weight of four or five complete technology revolutions inside a single career.[01:59] The Real Weight of Experience: Four Technology Revolutions in One Career: Karen lists what experienced PR pros have already navigated in a single career: typewriters to desktop publishing, fax machines to email, print media to social, and now AI. The question she frames for the rest of the episode: the real question isn't 'can I learn this?' — you've already proven you can, repeatedly. The question is how much of this do you actually need to learn, and how do you protect your energy for what matters most.[03:16] The Data on the AI Usage Gap — and What It Actually Means: Karen cites National Bureau of Economic Research data: AI tool usage at work is about 34% for workers under 40, and about 17% for workers 50 and up. That gap is real. But the research also shows it's not about ability — it's about confidence and on-ramps. Nobody handed experienced practitioners a clear 'start here' door. The industry is selling urgency, not discernment. And discernment is exactly what experience builds.[04:41] Busting the Myth: Experience Is Not a Liability in an AI World: The myth Karen and Michelle want to kill: that going further along in your career means you're slower, behind, and less valuable in an AI world. The counter-argument is research-backed. As AI makes production work cheaper, what becomes scarce and valuable is judgment — knowing what's worth doing, what's true, and what will land with a reporter versus blow up in a client's face. Karen's line: you cannot prompt your way to 30 years of pattern recognition.[05:51] Two Studies That Prove Experience Is an Advantage, Not a Liability: Karen cites two unexpected findings. A University of Mannheim study of BMW plant workers found productivity actually increased with age, right up to retirement — because veterans knew which problems were expensive and headed them off before they occurred. A North Carolina State study of software developers found that older programmers knew a wider range of topics, answered questions better, and in some cases were more adept with newer systems. The researcher's theory: if you're fluent in old technology, you understand new technology better because you know what problem it's solving.[09:48] The Three-Bucket Framework: Ignore, Adopt, Anchor: The practical core of the episode. Ignore: the platform of the month (if it's durable, it'll still be there in a year), tool maximalism (one capable AI assistant covers the overwhelming majority of actual work), becoming a technologist (fluency, not engineering), and anything you're only doing out of fear. Adopt: baseline AI fluency using one tool for real tasks, and understanding how audiences are now finding information through AI rather than clicking through to websites. Anchor: the things you don't age out of — judgment, relationships, trust built over decades, storytelling, strategy, and ethics.[15:30] Anchor: The Things You Don't Age Out Of: Karen's framing for the anchor bucket: as the tools get cheaper, your judgment gets more valuable. This includes knowing what not to publish, when to tell a client to stay quiet, and how to catch the AI-generated thing that is confidently, completely wrong. Michelle: that last one is becoming a job all in itself. Karen's reframe for the whole framework: the new tools handle the first draft. You handle the final judgment. That's not a demotion. That's the senior seat. You've ...
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    24 mins
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