About Alyssa Burns:
Alyssa Burns is a communications expert, strategic advisor, and respected leader. As CEO of Alyssa Burns Communications, she brings extensive experience in strategic communications, helping leaders navigate complex issues with clarity and confidence. Alyssa works closely with executive teams to develop communication strategies that build trust, strengthen relationships, and communicate effectively during times of change and uncertainty. She has held senior communications roles at organizations including Edelman Worldwide and Kraft Foods, earning a reputation as a trusted advisor and effective connector. Alyssa's work is grounded in clarity, integrity, and a commitment to helping organizations communicate with purpose and impact.
Megan Quick: Hello and welcome back to The Creative Stack, a show about the intersection of creativity and information technology. I am your host, Megan Quick, and I'm joined as always by Georg Dauterman, my co-host and president of Valiant Technology — right after co-host of this podcast, in importance.
Georg Dauterman: Yes, it is.
Megan Quick: And Georg, I'm so excited about our guest today — a friend you've made who we were thrilled to have on the podcast. Alyssa is the founder and CEO of her own communications strategy agency, Alyssa Burns Communications. Alyssa, hello, thank you so much for joining us today.
Alyssa Burns: Hello, Megan — I appreciate your enthusiasm, and I'm thrilled to meet you. It's also very nice to see you again, Georg.
Georg Dauterman: Exactly, thank you so much too. So Alyssa, we met doing some networking, had a couple of great conversations, and when I was thinking about people I'd love to talk to and learn from — get a sense of what people do from the perspective of work and technology — you were one of the first people who came to mind, in terms of PR. I'm always a sucker for the origin story, so I'd love to hear how you found yourself in PR. I work with a lot of PR folks and it's never a linear journey, from what I can tell.
Alyssa Burns: Great, thanks for asking. A little bit of background — I grew up in a family of journalists, back when journalism was very well respected. My mother went to Columbia School of Journalism when only five out of fifty people in her class were women. She served on the Pulitzer Prize committee, was in the New York Press Club, and was a total dynamo. My father's entire career was in the newspaper business, back when that could be a career — he was a very engaging storyteller. So literally, our dinner conversations revolved around current events, the books we were reading, our constant craving for knowledge. I liked asking questions, finding out what made people tick, and became an active listener at a young age.
So I have a genuine curiosity about people, especially about how communication influences relationships and decision-making. I worked at the largest global public relations agency in the world, Edelman, when I was in Chicago, and I also worked for a Fortune 100 company. So I have a unique way of looking at things — I understand both the agency and the client side. I can think like a client because I actually used to be one.
Georg Dauterman: I have to interject — that's always one of the most unusual transitions in any kind of organization. When I used to work at an ad agency, I remember people getting really mad when folks from the account team went to work for the client. They'd call them traitors, because now they knew all the agency's dirty tricks.
Alyssa Burns: That's basically what I did, yes.
Georg Dauterman: They were genuinely upset — like, "Man, they know we can't BS anymore, we actually have to deliver." And you're just like, let's go.
Alyssa Burns: Exactly, that's exactly what happened. So about ten years ago, I opened my own agency. I've always had an inquisitive nature and a thirst for knowledge — I think it's partly because I was the youngest of four siblings, so I was always the peacemaker, figuring out how to solve problems. I can stay calm under pressure and see both the big picture and the details at the same time.
Georg Dauterman: That's very cool, I was really fascinated by that. One of the things that always gets me is that I think ninety percent of people have no idea what PR actually does — they think it's seeding stories, or some kind of weird 1920s influencer thing. So what are some of the surprising things people don't know about PR?
Alyssa Burns: I tend to agree with you. A lot of people think public relations is about getting media coverage, writing press releases, or throwing big flashy events. Those can be part of the job, but they're not the heart of it. What public relations is really about is helping organizations build and maintain trust. It's important to understand people — your employees, your customers, your clients, even your communities — and help leaders communicate in ways that are authentic, timely, and meaningful.
Another thing that surprises people is how much of the work happens before anyone ever hears about it. Some of the best communications work is invisible.
Georg Dauterman: That's true. As someone who lives in the invisible world too, I can a hundred percent agree with that. When it's done well, it looks effortless, like it just sort of happened — when the reality is it's the classic iceberg problem. You don't see the hours, sometimes weeks or months, of work that go into honing the message and getting it out the door, convincing people on the approach and mindset and all the pieces that go with it.
Speaking of working on both sides of the aisle, if you want to call it that — I know you work a lot with internal teams, sort of as additional consulting. We experience that too, and we sometimes find it really hard. How do you navigate the complexity of an internal team whose agenda might be different from, say, the leadership team or the client?
Alyssa Burns: That's such a good question, and it's actually one of the things I enjoy most about what I do. I don't approach clients like an outside consultant offering recommendations from a distance. I take the time to understand their business, learn about their culture — because every business has one — see how decisions are made, and appreciate the challenges leaders face. By understanding those dynamics, I'm able to give advice and counsel that's practical, strategic, and tailored to their organization.
I think trust grows when you're willing to tell clients what they need to hear, not just what they want to hear — and that can be difficult, you have to be diplomatic about it. Sometimes I challenge assumptions: is this really what's happening, or is this what you think is happening? Sometimes it's slowing things down when everyone wants to move quickly. Other times it's encouraging leaders to communicate sooner, even if the full answer isn't available yet — you just have to respond.
Georg Dauterman: Right, silence is its own answer, I think, in a lot of ways. As someone who's been on both sides of that, not saying anything can do exponential damage. Something we struggle with here in IT specifically is that sometimes we don't have the answer for why something is happening, and we tend to retreat to our comfort zone, which is saying nothing because we don't have an answer yet. It's something we work really hard to mitigate with new staff, even old staff — even myself, I have to remind myself that people want to know at least that you're working on it, that something's happening, and it's not just radio silence where people are wondering if anyone's even out there.
Alyssa Burns: Right, communication is key. Even if you don't have the answers, it's important to say something — that you're working on it, or that you'll get back to them as soon as possible. Anything is better than silence.
Georg Dauterman: Silence is deafening, right? That's the saying. So beyond that initial trust-building, how do you keep the trust alive? What do you find, especially with an authentic communications approach — I think a lot of people are cynical and don't really see that as possible these days.
Alyssa Burns: I like it, throw any curveballs. So I think trust isn't built in one big moment — it's built through hundreds of small interactions. First, I listen before I advise anyone. Listening is so important, and I think it's a skill not many people have. Listening well is a talent — instead of getting caught up in what you're going to say next, it's really important to just listen.
As I mentioned, every organization has its own culture, its own history, its own challenges, and I can't offer meaningful guidance until I understand all of those dynamics. Another way I build trust is by being very transparent — if I don't know something, I'll ask about it. I also insist on transparency from my clients. If I sense they're holding something back, I'll be direct and ask them. I have a spidey sense about it — do I really know the whole story? What else is there?
Georg Dauterman: Is this actually what's happening here? You said it earlier — there's probably a level, when you first start engaging with someone, where they're holding back, or not even being dishonest, more like they didn't think to mention something that could actually be helpful, especially when you're doing something where timing really matters. I think that might be one of our key takeaways today — this honest, open conversation with the people trying to advise and help you. They're not there to hurt you.
Alyssa Burns: Absolutely, absolutely — because it's important that I earn trust with my clients, and I do that by listening, by asking thoughtful questions, by probing a little, but in a polite, non-confrontational way. Especially if I'm dealing with a crisis situation, I absolutely have to know what the real deal is.
Georg Dauterman: I actually have some questions about crisis communications specifically. It's a corollary field, in a way, to incident response — which is its own specialty here, something we don't do ourselves. It's like jumping out of a perfectly good aircraft, some people just do that. How did you find yourself doing crisis communication, and what do you like about it?
Alyssa Burns: I think that's one thing that sets me apart as a communicator — I do crisis management and resolution, and a lot of people in communications don't touch it. I learned a lot about it working at the Fortune 100 company Kraft Foods, which had acquired another company and gone from about fifty manufacturing facilities to about a hundred, over the course of a few months. When I started at Kraft, I was responsible for half the country — the East Coast, from the Mississippi over. My name was on a card in every one of those facilities: if there's an emergency or special situation, call Alyssa.
I learned quickly to work cross-functionally with legal and regulatory affairs, manufacturing, HR — developing messaging and being the calm person when something was happening. Whether it was a plant layoff, an employee getting hurt, or something like a boiler explosion at one of the plants — in a small town, that's huge news. I learned that a lot of people relied on me to stay calm under pressure, and I realized it even more once I was promoted to a brand management role, when people at the facility level would tell me how much they appreciated what I'd done for them. That's when I realized I actually really liked this work. I've been doing it for years now, and it's always a challenge — always a new situation.
Georg Dauterman: It never ceases to amaze me — you hear about something and think, they said that? Why? Or you look at the person and think, this seems like someone of good judgment, so why would they do that? How do people ignore the facts for so long?
Alyssa Burns: Right — what?
Georg Dauterman: In manufacturing, or in other crises — if you just stopped for a moment and thought about it, you'd realize how bad it was, before it even happened.
Alyssa Burns: I counsel a lot of people on this — a lot of crisis situations are simmering underneath the surface, and management just doesn't pay attention to the warning signs. It's amazing how often that happens. They think it's just going to go away, and it doesn't.
Georg Dauterman: Working in a field that's not dissimilar in some ways — we're always tasked with warning people, and sometimes they don't listen for weeks, months, even years, and then it goes bad, and they're like, how did this happen? And you want to pull out the documentation. What upsets me is — I wish people were more transparent, like, hey, we can't afford to do that right now, or we have conflicting priorities, so what can we do? A more dialogue-driven engagement, instead of a harsh no, helps everyone understand why there's a simmering situation, and there might be a reason it's there — then you can find other mitigations or preparations.
Alyssa Burns: Exactly, before it all blows up. It's so true. And I can handle truthful things — when I'm dealing with a crisis, I need to know the real story, because I'm going to develop messaging, and we can get through anything as long as we're truthful. If I don't know the truth, my reputation is destroyed along with the company's, or the individual's.
Georg Dauterman: That's a really important summary — it actually segues well into my next question. Knowing this truthfulness, honesty, and transparency, what are the three main things you think every company, from a twenty-person shop up to something like Kraft or Edelman, should understand about communications in general — like your personal, overarching philosophy on it?
Alyssa Burns: I love that question too. I think there are three fundamentals. First, communications is a business strategy — it's not just part of marketing. Every business decision has a communication component, whether you're launching a product, navigating a crisis, navigating change within your organization, or trying to attract top talent. Communication influences how people experience the organization. That's number one.
Number two: internal communication — what's happening on the inside — is just as important as external communication. Employees are your first audience. If they don't hear what's happening from leadership first, they'll fill in the gaps themselves, and you don't want that. It's really important that information trickles down and that you're upfront. Strong internal communication builds trust, alignment, and engagement, and that strengthens everything externally too — but you have to be strong internally first.
Georg Dauterman: So would you say for most companies, they're always looking outward, and maybe they should look in the mirror first before getting overly focused on how they appear externally? Really focus their energy on how their staff feels, how they approach problems, understanding the why and the how of what's going on — because your people are your business, especially in services.
Alyssa Burns: Right — they are, because employees know what's going on. They understand the culture better than anyone. They're the client-service people, they're on the front lines, they know what's being said in the office, what the opinions are. You have to communicate with them — it has to come down from the top, and it has to be constant.
Georg Dauterman: They make the culture. So — I'll put you on the spot here — what's more important: constant, or consistent?
Alyssa Burns: I'd say consistency is very important — being consistent with the messaging, with what your culture actually is, and living that. Your actions have to support your message, because when they don't, people know.
Georg Dauterman: The modeling of it — yeah. Working with companies and people who do as I say, not as I do — it gets old really fast.
Alyssa Burns: It sure does. So, I know you asked me for three things and I think I only gave you two — number three is that credibility is built over time. It's not built during a crisis. Credibility is earned through consistent actions, transparent communication, and delivering on promises. Organizations that invest in trust every day are going to be much better positioned when challenges arise — and they always arise. Communication is saying the right things to the right people at the right time, and as I said, your actions have to support your message.
Georg Dauterman: That's a lot — and I think for a lot of folks it would almost feel like too much to hold in mind, on top of everything else they have to do. But it should flow naturally. That's what leadership is, right — clear communication.
Alyssa Burns: You got it. Everything changes, but it's important to be consistent, transparent, and honest.
Georg Dauterman: Alright, I'm going to turn this a different way — where have you seen it go off the rails, where you had to jump in and say, stop, this is what we're going to do? That crisis moment where you took charge and gave the guidance to help people navigate the situation.
Alyssa Burns: Ideally, I like to come in and be called for crisis situations when people realize something's going to happen, rather than after the fact, when it's already, "oh my god, what do we do." I've counseled doctors before — I got a call once on a Monday from a labor law attorney who said something was going to break with some doctor clients of his. I asked when, and he said tomorrow. The reason he'd contacted me was through my network — he'd heard I do crisis work. Getting time on doctors' schedules is obviously difficult, but I emailed them and said, I'm here to help, let's talk.
I had a quick conversation with one of the doctors — it was a private practice with three doctors, and one of them had basically been found to be violating patient trust. The other two were very upset, disappointed — they'd been friends and colleagues with this person for years, so it was shock and disappointment. I went through and said, this is what we're going to say, and made sure it was approved by legal. I'd learned that working at a public company — no matter what I drafted, legal had to approve it, so I wouldn't be on the hook for something I shouldn't have said.
Georg Dauterman: A hundred percent — especially in a situation that touchy, where there's going to be downstream impact from a dissolution of the business partnership, and who knows how much everyone knew beforehand. I'm sure your spidey sense picked up on that too — like, these guys genuinely had no idea, they're still processing it themselves.
Alyssa Burns: Absolutely. So I got the statement approved by the lawyer, and sure enough, the next day I got a call from one of the doctors saying there was media outside the door, what do I do? I'd lived in Chicago, a huge media city, and I knew it was going to be all over the news. I told him: they're calling you, you don't need to let them in, it's private property, you have every right not to. They're going to keep calling, keep wanting a scoop — I recommend reading the statement over the phone and saying, "that's all I have to say, thank you." If they call back asking for more, say no. He asked, what if they approach the employees? I said, you can tell your staff they don't need to say anything, you can have security walk them to their cars.
I monitored all the media that evening and into the next day, and the coverage showed the doctor spokesperson — not the one being let go — saying exactly the statement we'd proposed. You can't really ask for better than that. I actually got a thank-you from the doctors, and I got paid within twenty-four hours. They kept asking how long this was going to last, and I told them, until some other story happens — it'll probably pass in a day and a half. And it did.
Georg Dauterman: And the worst part is, if they'd fed the trolls, so to speak, it would've gotten way worse — because now you're engaging in a dialogue that's not meaningful. You always have to remember, they're there for a specific purpose, and it's not your purpose. That's really helpful — I think people feel the need to explain themselves, and that's probably a dangerous thing to do in that kind of situation, because those folks are going after a scoop.
Alyssa Burns: That's right, and they want the adverse side of everything — that's what gets people to click, that's what gets rankings, that's what gets read. So I'm available to offer that counsel. When he called, I told him exactly what to do: don't let him in, read the statement, politely hang up — remember you have the power to hang up the phone.
Georg Dauterman: That's really powerful — it's almost like when you talk to defense attorneys, and the first thing they tell you is, "I'd like to speak to my lawyer." It's a similar moment, where you have to resist the urge to say, I didn't know anything, we didn't do anything wrong, I'm innocent — you have to just be quiet.
Alyssa Burns: Right. On another crisis situation, I actually sat in on a white-collar crime case in federal court — it was the plaintiff's defense against the US government, with FBI witnesses and informants involved. I was talking to the CEO of a privately held company who said, "There's no way I'm going to court, I do not talk to the media." I told him, I'll be your fall person, I can do it. So every night after court, for about seven days, I'd call the CEO and report back on what was happening. The messaging was that this partner had been let go years ago, he no longer works with the company — he's not a current employee, they got rid of him when they found out what was happening. And sure enough, the guy got convicted and sentenced to five years. It's fascinating stuff — I learned so much sitting in on that federal court case.
Georg Dauterman: That's amazing — it's like seeing the inner machine of how it all operates. And luckily that gentleman had set things up in a way that he wasn't going to get jammed up — but the moment you open your mouth, it could be much worse. So, obviously you have a ton of experience doing this — what's changed in PR from when you started? What's the big change you've seen?
Alyssa Burns: The speed of communication has changed more than anything else. When I started my career, organizations had the luxury of time — news traveled through newspapers or television, and companies had hours, sometimes even days, to gather information and come up with a strategy before responding. That window has disappeared. Now, news, opinions, and especially misinformation can spread globally within minutes, sometimes seconds, through social media and digital platforms. Organizations are expected to respond quickly, but also thoughtfully — that's a really difficult balance.
What's interesting is that while the pace has changed dramatically, the fundamentals haven't. People still want honesty — tell the truth. People expect transparency, accountability, and empathy. Technology has changed how we communicate, but it hasn't changed what builds trust. If anything, the speed of today's environment makes those fundamentals even more important.
Georg Dauterman: Right — that was sort of my follow-on question, how has technology changed PR, but I think you've answered it: the speed, the breadth, the need to respond quickly because of how fast things move now. Different direction — do you think people should prepare in advance for potential media issues?
Alyssa Burns: A hundred percent. I have a manufacturing client, and I put together a whole crisis communications plan for them. We've all heard of the "red binder syndrome" — that big binder sitting in the operations room that no one knows the last time anyone updated.
Georg Dauterman: I literally said that to someone yesterday — the binder everyone spends hours putting together but never actually looks at, and the leadership team never even discusses. That's the one. Yeah, we don't want that.
Alyssa Burns: Right, exactly, you don't. So for this manufacturing client, I didn't just put a plan together, I thought through a lot of different scenarios — what happens if there's a rogue employee, protests outside the building, an accident, a fire, a natural disaster? There are templates and materials for all of those. But most important, the first page has the emergency response numbers — the people you need to triage immediately. I make sure those are all up to date: fire department, police department, FBI office, hospital, security, insurance, everyone's cell numbers current. I also do tabletop training a couple of times a year — going up and training the people on the factory floor, and the people who might be answering the phone, doing role-playing exercises. And I make sure my number is on speed dial — if media calls, don't speak to them, just take their name and number, say someone will get back to them, and then call me. Everyone has my phone number, my email. What I'm really trying to do is prepare them to believe it's going to be okay — they don't have to handle everything on their own, they can contact me, the president, the lawyer, the plant manager — we've got it all lined up.
I wish more companies would do that, honestly.
Georg Dauterman: That's great. The interesting part is, we spend a lot of similar time in risk management, thinking through what happens if, have you thought about this. We do a similar tabletop exercise for technology, and I think the communication component is actually underplayed there. Having worked with a number of customers who've had technology situations — cyber incidents, whatever it may be — they often don't know how to tell their employees what happened, don't know how to tell their customers what happened, and there's always this fear around it. I think communication is such a huge part of any risk management plan, and it's probably the part people think about least — CFOs especially, probably, since I know CFOs don't think much about the IT part either. COOs tend to be a bit better at it — not to knock CFOs, they just have a very specific role. COOs tend to have a more open mind for "well, what do we do if this happens."
Alyssa Burns: Right, and I like that you brought that up, because I'm putting together a whole cybersecurity section in this crisis communications manual. I'd love to talk to you about that — I'm sure you have some great suggestions, and I'm happy to pay you for your time. Because things like phishing emails and ransomware attacks happen all the time.
Georg Dauterman: It happens every day. The way we always explain it is that it went from being a bunch of kids horsing around, to being a criminal enterprise run by very smart people, or state-sponsored actors who are incentivized to go after companies and countries. They have a very vested interest in coming after all of us.
Alyssa Burns: Absolutely — it's becoming more and more sophisticated, and much more frequent.
Georg Dauterman: I hate the overuse of the word AI in pretty much every conversation I have these days, but this is definitely one of the places it matters — if anyone takes anything from this, just be careful when someone sends you a voice recording. It may not actually be the person. The deepfakes of voices and video have gotten so sophisticated now that you need to have plans within plans to protect yourself. That's a whole different conversation, honestly a whole different podcast in itself, but preparing for that is really important.
So, to try to wrap this up — is there any specific technology you rely on for your business, something that really helps you do your job better? Could be AI, could be anything.
Alyssa Burns: I do use AI occasionally, to help with research, organize information, summarize lengthy documents — that kind of thing. It lets me spend less time on administrative tasks. But I think you also need to be careful with it. AI doesn't replace originality or creativity. It can't read human behavior the way some people like to think it can, and nothing can replace face-to-face, in-depth conversation — you can pick up so many cues from what somebody isn't saying.
What I do rely on technology for is monitoring media coverage when I'm working for a client, or tracking emerging issues. I stay very aware of what's going on with my clients and their businesses, and I like to stay informed in real time, which technology helps with. So at the end of the day, technology makes me more efficient, but experience, judgment, and relationships are still what drive good communications.
Georg Dauterman: I a hundred percent agree with that. Something you said earlier, I want to echo — the fundamentals don't change. Even in IT, the things we learned thirty years ago, twenty-five years ago, still hold true today. The concepts, the mindset, the underlying action haven't changed — the medium has changed, but the actual work and the outcome we're looking for hasn't. Even with AI tools, at the end of the day we just want to do a better job, serve our customers and our people better.
So, this has been a great conversation — to put a pin in it, if you could leave the audience with one thing, what would it be?
Alyssa Burns: I appreciate you asking such great questions, it's been a lot of fun to answer them. What I'd leave the audience with is this: communication isn't just about delivering information, it's about building trust. Every conversation, every email, every meeting is an opportunity to strengthen the relationships that matter most. Organizations often only think about communications during a crisis, but trust is built long before a crisis ever occurs — it's built on consistency, transparency, and treating people with respect, especially when the message is difficult.
In my experience, organizations with the strongest reputations aren't necessarily the ones that never face problems. They're the ones that communicate with honesty, clarity, and integrity. Good communication informs people. Great communication builds trust. And trust is every organization's most valuable asset.
Georg Dauterman: I love that — that's a perfect way to put it. Thank you so much for your time today, this was such a great conversation, as always. I've got some follow-ups to do with you after this. Megan, anything else you want to add?
Megan Quick: Alyssa, I just want to echo Georg — thank you for being here. He was taking notes, and I've taken a few of my own. One thing that really hit me was when you said, "I can handle truthful things." I feel like that's such a good mantra, not just for business, but for life — tell me the truth and we can get through it, duplicity just makes things less trustworthy. That really stuck with me.
I have a whole list of other things you said that I won't read all of, but — where can folks find you, if they listen to this and think, wait, I'm very interested in what this brilliant person has to say?
Alyssa Burns: My website is AlyssaBurnsCommunications.com, and my email is alyssa@alyssaburnscommunications.com — it's a long one. My number is 312-543-0361. Text me, message me, email me — I can always get back to anybody. Again, that's alyssa@alyssaburnscommunications.com, or AlyssaBurnsCommunications.com. Thank you so much, I really appreciate the opportunity, it's been a blast.
Georg Dauterman: Thank you, it's been super fun, such good information. Alright, thanks.
Megan Quick: Incredible stuff. Thank you all, have a great day — bye, everyone.
Alyssa Burns: Of course, thank you both, take care. Bye bye.