0:00:01 – Announcer

You are listening to the National University Podcast.

0:00:10 – Kimberly King

Hello, I’m Kimberly King. Welcome to the National University Podcast, where we offer a holistic approach to student support, well-being and success- the whole human education. We put passion into practice by offering accessible, achievable higher education to lifelong learners. Today, we are discussing careers in communication with a communication degree and good communication skills allow us to share information with others, from meaningful relationships to being engaged global citizens. That is according to a recent article in the Muse. It is one of the top 10 popular areas of studies according to the National Center for Education Statistics, with 5% of students earning communications degrees. Today, we’re going to hear about what those degrees can get you and where you can use your skills. Stay with us.

On today’s episode. We’re discussing the world of communications, and joining us is National University’s Gayle Falkenthal. Gayle is the owner of Falcon Valley Group, a San Diego-based strategic communications consulting practice. Her clients include a range of non-profit public agency and business clients. She has spent 15 years as an award-winning broadcaster and producer before transitioning into public relations. Falkenthal applied her skills in increasingly responsible roles, including Director of Public Affairs for the San Diego County District Attorney and Disaster Public Affairs Officer for the American Red Cross. Prior to starting her practice, she’s known for her exceptional expertise in crisis communications as a steady hand and trusted advisor under the most challenging circumstances. She is a skilled strategist, teacher and collaborator who deliver distinctive messages with a defined call to action, supporting her clients’ business and organization objectives. And we welcome Gayle to the podcast. How are you?

0:02:07 – Gayle Falkenthal

I’m great and I’m so glad to be here and thrilled that National University has this podcast platform to spotlight everybody who’s involved in this organization.

0:02:20 – Kimberly King

I am thrilled that you’re here as well, and I can’t wait to dig into this. But first, before we get started, why don’t you tell our audience a little bit about your passion and your mission?

0:02:32 – Gayle Falkenthal

You know, from as long as I can remember, I just wanted to be a storyteller even as a very young child. That originally led me to journalism and broadcasting, but I realized as I went through that industry that there were many ways to tell stories and many people who needed to tell stories, and eventually it led me to work on what people often think of as the other side of the communication stream, which is in public relations, and I’ve done that ever since. I work for several large organizations. But just about 20 years ago I started my own firm, Falcon Valley Group, and I’ve been enjoying the ride ever since. It gives me the opportunity to work with a lot of different clients in different industries and about even, to my surprise, 13 years ago was invited to start teaching as an adjunct and now as a part-time instructor at National University, which has been an absolutely wonderful experience to reinforce my own learning and to help me keep up with my own profession so that I can then talk about it with the next generation of practitioners.

0:03:50 – Kimberly King

Good for you. I think it’s so rewarding. It’s so important, as we were talking before this podcast about how it sharpens our own skills as we stay connected to the next generation. So that’s exciting and National is lucky to have you. So today we are discussing the exciting field of communications and there’s so much that goes into a communications degree, as you and I both know that. What is the value, Gayle, of a communications degree and what can you do with it?

0:04:21 – Gayle Falkenthal

Let’s think about how we operate in the workplace every day, no matter what you do, you’re a construction worker, or maybe you’re the owner of a small construction firm and you’ve got to talk to a prospective client. Or you’re an HR director and you need to talk to all the employees about a new program. Or you are a marketer, communicator and need to talk about new products, new services, your place in the industry or in the community to the audiences. What do all those things have in common? You’ve got to be able to communicate.

I’ll tell you, I really can’t think of a single job in the world that doesn’t require communication. So, while some of our students will go on to be marketing and communication professionals, many of them will go on to do something else, and every single job they aspire to will require strong communication skills, will require the ability to form a message for the right audience to get the result that you want. I can’t really think of a more valuable degree in the university. I might be biased about that. I’m right there with you, Gayle, but far from the idea that degrees like these are, you know, sort of light lift not a STEM degree per se I would say that a scientist that isn’t able to communicate is severely hampered in what they can do.

0:05:55 – Kimberly King

Really good point and I love how you started that answer. And that is- we use it everywhere, in all walks of life and even if you’re at the bottom, you know in a lab and you’re. But you’re right, you have to be able to communicate what your research is. I was trying to think of what doesn’t take communications. And even the groomer you know they might be not be talking, they might be talking to the animals, but they certainly have to have that front facing ability to welcome you into the grooming shop, right?

0:06:24 – Gayle Falkenthal

Anyone selling a product, developing a product that a buyer needs to understand, needs to understand how to communicate, not just verbally, as we are now, but visually as well. You know, I happened to see in the maybe last couple of days or so, randomly, Neil deGrasse Tyson, a scientist that we all know. Why has he become so popular? You know, he is a famous astrophysicist. He is somebody that most people could identify from a photo. Why is that? Because he knows how to communicate in a clear, concise, you know, understandable way to a mass audience about science. So what’s his super skill, his superpower? He probably is a beautiful, you know brilliant astrophysicist, but he’s also a brilliant communicator, and that’s true.

0:07:19 – Kimberly King

It’s really speaking to your audience and learning. You know that. That art and it is art. How has your degree in PR and strategic communication shaped your career path?

0:07:29 – Gayle Falkenthal

Well, I originally was a broadcast journalism major, but after about 10 years as a professional, I realized, you know, I need to go back to school. Our industry was changing, my career path was changing a little bit and I was in exactly the right position to pick up a mass communication master’s degree. And it was right, as the digital age was landing on us like a ton of bricks. So in retrospect, it was even more important than I realized to be able to get up to speed quickly, early, and be able to follow that path that we are on now. And we’re in another period of time, like I was back then, with artificial intelligence, AI, potentially impacting every single profession on the planet. You know what. You know what I’m going to say- We’re going to still need to communicate.

0:08:25 – Kimberly King

We are!

0:08:27 – Gayle Falkenthal

Even when we have tools to help us, we human beings need to be the ones to guide them, and we’re the ones building them. So we’re going to pivot yet once again, and I firmly believe in National University’s ability to pivot along with that for its students.

0:08:49 – Kimberly King

Well, good, I think you’re right. We all have to rise to the occasion. Can you describe a typical career trajectory for someone with a degree in PR, strategic communications?

0:09:00 – Gayle Falkenthal

A typical trajectory, by no means the only trajectory would be somebody to get these degrees, potentially do an internship or some other sort of entry-level position once they’ve got the degree in hand and take an entry-level job in either the marketing or public relations field. They are diverse fields but they are intertwined more than they ever used to be. Someone may be a junior executive at a public relations agency or a marketing agency working with a client. They may get hired inside a larger organization, a big business. They may go to work for somebody here in San Diego like SDG&E, Qualcomm, Intuit- you know Ballast Point, and work internally as a full-time employee in either marketing or public relations, and they are communicating externally to the customers or the constituents or the stakeholders about products, services, initiatives. They can also be communicating internally, especially with large employers, your employees or your most important audience. You could be communicating through writing, through auditory products, broadcast products like this one- or visually, and there are a lot of ways to do it.

0:10:28 – Kimberly King

Excellent. I love that- it’s really so varied. What are the most valuable skills that you’ve learned during your degree that you use day to day?

0:10:39 – Gayle Falkenthal

The basic, fundamental, foundational skill in all of these various jobs and professions is still the ability to write, to communicate, to put your thoughts into a consumable form by somebody else. I’ve got to get it from the brain out somehow. Some people do it by speaking. Obviously we are right now. But the most precise way, even when it gets turned into a visual medium, say like a film or a television series, it usually begins in writing. So writing skills remain fundamental still to every single thing we do and thank goodness that was always what I focused on, that was what I wanted to do from the very youngest age, even up through now. And there is still, thank goodness, always going to be a place for strong writing skills.

But the ability to take those messages, make them understandable, make them persuasive, based on who it is you need to communicate with. And my poor students get very, very tired of hearing me talk about targeting their communication to a specific audience. Targeting their communication to a specific audience. They hear from me in every class I teach by the final project. They use the phrase the general public… they get an F. They fail, because there’s no such thing, especially in as diverse a society as we’ve got.

0:12:24 – Kimberly King

Right.

0:12:25 – Gayle Falkenthal

And the more that you understand about people you need to communicate with, the more successful you’re going to be. Now you can talk about that being you know, sort of you know a calculated thing, right? You’re going to get into the head of somebody and manipulate them. Well, you’re going to get into the head of somebody to understand what their needs are and see if you can meet those needs truly with what you’ve got to offer.

0:12:55 – Kimberly King

That’s what the communication tool is all about, right? I love that you are honing in on those skills with our next generation and making sure that writing is up there, along with knowing who your audience is. How do you keep your strategic communication skills updated in this ever so rapidly changing media landscape?

0:13:12 – Gayle Falkenthal

Oh boy, you have got to stay alert and informed. You really need to stay close to your professional associations and industry. What are my peers talking about? What are their challenges?

I belong to several groups- among us, we speak often and frequently about what our challenges are. We help each other, we share tools that I’ve got to do right alongside my students in large part, sometimes to keep ahead of those students who are accessing new tools, new methods. How do they fit in to the foundational concepts that we all still need to learn? And thankfully I have clients who expect me to be up to date on the very latest things. They need to know what their options are.

So I get to wrap it all up and nothing beats, you know, testing them myself, taking them out for you know, a test drive and then talking to the students about how these things work in the real world. You know, whether I found them useful, what pitfalls there might be and making sure that our courses give them the opportunity in a safe environment where they’re not earning a paycheck and don’t have a boss and a client breathing down their neck, threatening them and stressing them out. You know, over their future, stressing them out, you know, over their future? No, instead they can do it in the classroom, where making mistakes or going sideways is part of the learning process.

You know, I expect to not see perfection. I want to see that learning occurs. That’s what’s important to me. How do their skills and their approach change from week one to week four? That’s the trajectory I’m looking for. I don’t expect them to be perfect week one. I do warn them that my grading gets a lot tougher by week four when I want to see what they’ve absorbed and how hard they’ve worked in the course over the four weeks.

0:15:23 – Kimberly King

Right, love it. You’re in the right place, exactly where you need to be at the helm here at National. What are the current trends in PR and strategic communication that new graduates should be aware of?

0:15:37 – Gayle Falkenthal

You know, the temptation is to digital, digital, digital, everything right? One of the courses I teach asks students to put together a mock communication plan for a client. I ask them to pick a small business or nonprofit, so it’s something very graspable for them and they propose- according to what kind of goal they set for the program- they propose what sort of communication tactics they’re going to use, how are they going to market, how are they going to do the public relations for this client’s purpose? And so many of them want to start and end with digital tools, specifically social media and specifically influencer marketing, right now is very, very hot. They need to be cautioned about leaning on tools they do not control. Social media is great. Anyone remember MySpace? which, believe it or not, still exists? It does!

It’s scary. Go out and look everybody. MySpace is still out there. Remember Vine, which disappeared overnight? Sort of a TikTok predecessor, if you will. Anyone remember Friendster? What if your entire campaign was based on that? Or just a few days before this podcast is being recorded, people lost Facebook and Instagram for a few hours. Oh the outcry, oh the meltdown. But imagine that happening to your client’s account. And certainly we’ve heard of business accounts being shut down. Sometimes it’s a mistake, but if your Instagram account is shut down and that is your only means of communication to your outside world, you are in big trouble.

The news media is smaller, but the news media still exists. There’s also the- citizen journalism, if you will, of blogging, of phenomenons like Substack, which is becoming a bigger and bigger news tool than I think we ever imagined. There are still things like live events, billboards, community meetings, posters. There are a lot of tools out there that go so far beyond, you know, that narrow thinking of oh, we’ll just do it on social media and call it a day. No, and that’s what I want to expose students to is a very broad range of tactics, knowing that once they graduate, in a few years, that’s going to change again, and it’s going to change again. So one of the things we need to embed in every single course is not just learning what factual information I’m going to teach them, but the process of learning how to learn what’s out there and always, always keep learning right?

0:18:45 – Kimberly King

always keep learning, and I do totally agree with you that it is going to change again.

I mean, it’s gone by so quickly, just in what we’ve seen in our careers, but yeah, it’s only going up from here and faster and faster. And speaking of that- the digital media how is it reshaping communication? We talked a little bit about AI, which seems to be at the forefront right now, but what else are you seeing?

0:19:04 – Gayle Falkenthal

It’s an absolute revolution and it really has ended up being a revolution in putting the tools of communication, very powerful tools, into everyone’s hands.

You know, when we started in broadcasting and we’re all alumni of the same TV station as it turns out, of the same TV station as it turns out yes. The average person didn’t have access to broadcasting their news to everybody on the planet. If a company wanted to communicate in that way, in a visual medium, they had to rely on local or national television. That was it. Today, you and I can start the equivalent of a station with the iPhone I have in my hand and signing up for a YouTube channel, and it would take me five minutes, tops. Five minutes. The means of production is now in everyone’s hands, and that, in large part, is a very good thing. What it does mean is the business model, for what we’ve thought of as the news media model in the United States is completely upended. You know, we had no idea that was going to happen.

The first inkling was when Craigslist took over the classified advertising of newspapers. That was, in large part, how it made its money to hire reporters, to hire photographers and to print newspapers and pay somebody to toss it on our driveway right. They didn’t do that. They weren’t selling those anymore and it didn’t take long. Within a very short period of time, suddenly people realized, why am I paying for and waiting for a classified ad to come out on a dead tree in a day or two and maybe sit there forever until whatever I’ve got to sell is sold? No, imagine this. Those ads on Craigslist were free. Truly, that was a turning point in digital media that we never realized how impactful it was going to be.

News media today what we think of as traditional or mainstream media, are struggling to figure out how do we financially keep doing what’s necessary not to slow roll this in a democracy, they are a foundational element of this nation’s function, this nation’s function. But if they cannot afford to stay in business due to digitization of media, we are all struggling to figure out how that transition, which is still in progress, what it’s going to look like. And with AI, we have yet another layer on top of it. And with AI, we have yet another layer on top of it, as big as that transition from newspaper classifieds to Craigslist, we’re going to have human beings. Are they being replaced by chatbots? Not entirely, but they are a valuable tool. We all need to learn how to use.

0:22:25 – Kimberly King

So how much has artificial intelligence going to change the professional field?

0:22:30 – Gayle Falkenthal

I think artificial intelligence is going to radically change it, but perhaps not in the ways people think. You know, what we’re all worried about right now is AI completely taking over our jobs. We are going to need to do certain jobs. I’m never going to need to write a news release or an article again. AI will do that. AI will take our orders at restaurants, no humans involved, right? I don’t think that’s how it’s going to work.

I see the AI revolution in a similar way to when calculators were introduced in doing math. I am old enough to remember when calculators first came along and the first thing that happened was that teachers and professors said oh my God, oh no, this is a disaster. Our students are all going to cheat – learning their math with a calculator. Well, fast forward. We all realized that a calculator simply helps us do our work more quickly and more accurately. I do, at least at this point, think of AI as a calculator for words or calculator for communication, but an operator, a human operator, still needs to input, still needs to drive that tool. To me, that’s the highest, best use of it is helping us do our work better, and I do use it. I never use it for a final product.

A calculator does not do the math to generate a new discovery in physics. A human being has to think about how to use that tool to get the data. A communicator needs to think of it in the same way. If I need to write headlines for an article and in this world today they need to be search optimized I’m going to ask ChatGPT or a similar tool to look at the content of that 900 word article and suggest five different headlines that are search optimized for X terms. Bang, there they are. Now, maybe it only saved me five or 10 minutes or four, but it saved me five or 10 minutes. And add that up over a week, a month, a career. That’s a very valuable tool.

I don’t think we should be afraid of it in that way. Right, you know whether we’re going to enter the Terminator movie universe of, you know, AI taking over… I understand those fears. I would like to think that, as human beings, we’ll keep our hand on the helm.

0:25:13 – Kimberly King

I love your analogy about the calculator, and that’s true. Hopefully, that’s what’s going to happen. It’s going to enhance, not make it a negative event, because it is an event. How has the field of PR, strategic communications, evolved? You’ve talked about it a little bit since you’ve started your career. First. We didn’t have cell phones back then, probably just had computers as well. So we have evolved.

0:25:39 – Gayle Falkenthal

Oh, remember pagers? And typewriters? I’m much happier with a phone than a pager. Somebody’s number popped up. I didn’t know whether it was an emergency or somebody wanted me to bring something home from the store on the way home. [Laughter.]

I will say, even going back to when I started my PR firm, the vast majority of my day-to-day work was in media relations, because digital media was still very, very, you know, minor part of what we did, you know still nascent and I was really looking to the very broad spectrum of news media available and also more popular media, you think magazines and trade publications and specialty. There was this whole universe of smart writers, editors, reporters, producers, hosts, who needed things to write and discuss and talk about. My job was to get those topics and the right people in front of them. I would say that was 80, 85% of my job. Today it’s maybe 10 or 15% of my job, which means I had to learn to do a lot of other things that have taken up so much more of my time, and most of it all stems back to.

I now have the means of production in my hands, thank goodness. I was a reporter, I was a producer, I was an editor. I know how to do that stuff. I know how to shoot and edit my own content for my clients and they can run it on their own channels exactly in the way they want to present, in the format they wish, with the tone, with the right people and I am not relying on somebody else’s judgment assessment to decide whether my client’s important information gets on the news that night versus the 10 or 50 or 200 other actually valuable bits of information get out there. Now, all these news operations have their own websites and, in theory, an unlimited amount of space, but they do not have an unlimited amount of personnel and time, so it’s still a limited, you know, it’s still a limited opportunity and we don’t have to rely on that as much anymore.

0:28:12 – Kimberly King

Yeah, yeah it is. It’s really exciting to see the different avenues that you can really represent somebody and their brand or whatever it is that you are representing, to be able to find those avenues, not just look in one place. So I I’m right there with you. I think that’s exciting. Some other unexpected ways your degree has helped you in your professional life.

0:28:37 – Gayle Falkenthal

Oh, what a wonderful question. You know I do think, especially the master’s degree. You know it opened up the opportunity to teach and we’ve already talked about the need to stay ahead of your students, especially in a very swiftly moving field like marketing and communications. And teaching reinforces my own knowledge in many ways. It forces me to stay current, but I’m always delighted how much the students teach me in the classroom. They are reflecting a world through different eyes back to me, facing challenges I didn’t when I was at that point of my career or as a college student. That perspective is so valuable to me and it’s valuable for me to understand what they need and potentially what anyone in that life circumstance needs. That helps my clients and me communicate with them so much better and it’s simply the opportunity to learn and experience their lives reflected back to me, not just in the classroom but their challenges. It’s a window I never expected that I so value every day, every time I talk to a single student or a group of students.

0:30:05 – Kimberly King

Love that. It’s really a great comforting feeling, though, that you are giving back and you’re learning just as much as you’re giving. So good for you. You inspire, so that’s great. Love it, and you’re still smiling.

0:30:21 – Gayle Falkenthal

I am and I must admit. There are those moments that make you, perhaps, in the privacy of your own office, roll your eyes or laugh, but that’s all part of it too, and to me it’s so important. It is an imperative, it’s an obligation in my mind to make sure the generations following us, in this upheaval of information, have the capacity and the tools to understand it, to assess it. Media literacy is a crisis to me. That is a crisis of illiteracy as big as anything we’ve ever faced.

Our students, whatever their degree field, is in need to be able to assess properly, to be their own fact checker to really think through the information they’re being given, because, while the democratization of these media tools is in large part a good thing, it does allow a lot of unscrupulous people who want to bend the public’s thinking to be out there spewing some very dangerous ways of looking at the world and some sheer misinformation. We need to prepare our students to understand that is out there, to be skeptics, to be good media consumers. Every single person listening needs that skill set today in a way that you know, maybe 20 or 30 years ago we didn’t have to be quite as skeptical.

0:32:01 – Kimberly King

I agree 100%. I think we are lacking in critical thinking, as you write. A media consumer that should be a class in and of itself because it’s coming at us no matter what side of the fence you’re on there, or politics it’s misinformation at its highest degree. I think, in this era that we’re living in today, how important is networking and this PR, strategic communications industry, and how can students start building their networks?

0:32:34 – Gayle Falkenthal

So important. It is not a stretch to say that most of the professional roles I’ve ever had in my life were due to networking. You know, my very, very first job in broadcasting was a tip from a fellow college student at San Diego State who was a few years ahead of me. He had a part-time job and said hey, we’ve got an opening. Are you interested? That started a 15-year wild ride in broadcasting from that simple communication. But think beyond your classmates and I know, in a virtual environment, sometimes an online environment, can be difficult. So you even have to be more deliberate about it and you need to use those communication skills we’re teaching you to let people know hey, I aspire to do this. Join student professional associations. Join the professional associations themselves. As a student, you might be very surprised to learn how welcoming they are to new members who are going to be in their industry for the next 30, 40, 50 years. That infusion of fresh thinking and new talent is welcomed. Trust me on this. So look at professional associations like the American Marketing Association, the Public Relations Society of America, specific to these professions. There is also an organization called the International Association of Business Communicators. Get to know these folks. Find out what you can learn from them. Volunteer, help them, they will help you. This is your opportunity to demonstrate your skills to them, again, in a low key environment. Nobody’s paying you to do this. You’re not one of a hundred job applicants. They get to see you up close. Make sure you stay in touch with your alumni associations, get to know the businesses, go see speakers in your community and ask questions.

Curiosity is, especially as a student, your superpower and your best weapon, and nobody thinks any question coming from a student, you know, is stupid or out of line. Most people are very flattered to be asked a question and share their knowledge. You might build a relationship that proves really valuable to you. And then there are people like me who enjoy helping somebody I see as a rising talent, who’s really got all the ability they need, all the tools to succeed, and you know helping them when I can, And I’ll tell them later, you know, your success is my success. And when I’m a really old lady hard on my luck out of a job, I’m going to come back to you, ask you for a favor. And don’t you think I’m kidding! But joking aside, it is in our best interest as the senior members of a profession to build the next generation of professionals with the skills with the ethics, you know, with the healthy approach, with that critical thinking which I hope is a part of every single classroom at National University, no matter the topic. We need to build that up behind us and it’s like walking on a trail through a park. Leave it better when you left it than when you found it.

0:36:08 – Kimberly King

I love it. On that note, we’re going to take a quick break. I love talking to you. I can talk to you all day. Don’t go away. We’ll be back in just a moment. And now back to our interview with National University’s Gayle Falkenthal, and we’re discussing life in the communications field. So interesting, Gayle. Are there any specializations within PR strategic communication that are particularly in demand that you’re seeing right now?

0:36:43 – Gayle Falkenthal

Absolutely there are, and they do all revolve around the digital media sphere. A person that knows how to work with digital media, particularly as it comes to search optimization, how to maximize its reach to the audience. That also involves knowing, on the marketing side of things, how to work with pay-per-click advertising very targeted communication that you pay for, versus public relations, you know, which you’re strategically choosing, what your audience needs to see. So a knowledge of those digital tools is very important today. Social media is still a specialty area that’s of great interest, and earlier I mentioned that students are all right now extremely eager to learn more about influencer marketing, and that has really changed a lot of the marketing industry. It is not going away. It needs to be used cautiously, just like any sharp tools need to be used cautiously. But that is an area that has had a lot of growth and it’s important to know how to use it and how not to use it, and that involves a lot of human connections. So, like anything human, it can get messy.

0:38:07 – Kimberly King

Love it. How did you decide on your area of specialization and what advice would you have for students considering these options or their options?

0:38:17 – Gayle Falkenthal

In my case, because I came out of journalism and headlines and what was important to a community.

When I switched over into the public relations field, it was specifically in the public affairs field, in large community organizations or influences, that made an impact on people’s everyday lives. I was really not built to sell the latest electronic gadget as a marketer. Among the organizations I worked for were the San Diego County Water Authority, the San Diego District Attorney’s Office- which was quite a ride, as you might imagine- the San Diego Convention Center Corporation and the American Red Cross, all of whom play a fairly large, important role in people’s lives. And then, as I transitioned to my own firm, I still work with a lot of organizations in those areas of influence. I have the Water Authority as one of my clients. Another one of my very valued clients is Serving Seniors, which is the organization in San Diego that addresses older adults impacted by homelessness.

And you know I really can’t think of two topics more in the news right now than this region’s water needs and its needs to deal with homelessness. But I do have some fun clients of you know that, not that those aren’t important, but I would say there are some more light-hearted clients that balance the plate for me, which in my own life is a healthy thing and I have worked on and off with several large boxing promoters and I’m working with a fairly new boxing management agency which is an outgrowth of a sideline of mine, which is sports writing. And I’ve worked with some green builders over the years who build living walls and green roofs, and that’s been a lot of fun as well.

0:40:21 – Kimberly King

Wow, I love it. You’re so diverse and, just from a personal point of view, I love that you are right there with serving seniors and that’s near and dear to my heart and I love what you’re doing with them.

0:40:33 – Gayle Falkenthal

And you have been a wonderful supporter. Thank you so much. We don’t want to turn this into a PSA for them. [Laughter.] No, but it has. But you know, it proves that we all cross paths with each other in different ways and have those opportunities for communication Right.

And if a student, you were listening. Think about where those opportunities lie. In your own life you develop your interests and your career connections. It’s so important for you to do that. You could do that in line at the grocery store. If you strike up a conversation with somebody. Do not be afraid to do that.

0:41:07 – Kimberly King

Right, that’s such a good. I love that. Great advice. We were just kind of talking about this off camera and that is how important are internships or practical experience in the PR strategic communication field.

0:41:21 – Gayle Falkenthal

Practical experience is an asset. It is not a requirement, but there is nothing like being able to practice in an environment where the stakes are lower than in paid employment. When it’s your full-time job, where you’re in a role, where you are expected to be learning. That’s part of the process that you’re not expected to do everything perfectly as when in somebody’s paying you to be a professional. I am very aware that many students are working to put themselves through school and the thought of working for free. You know it sounds great for us to say, hey, go out and volunteer isn’t feasible. Isn’t feasible, because you need to make a living and I respect and understand that. It can be a detriment to students who’ve simply got to support themselves. It could be a huge concern in a lot of the underrepresented communities we want to see get into these professions, If you are the first person who ever attended college, for example in your family. So more and more I implore employers and organizations- internships need to be paid. They need to be paid. Many internships have become the equivalent of an entry-level job. Internships should not be free.

 If you are able to volunteer, you know, a lot of us spend a lot of time doing things that we do to relax. We’re watching, you know we’re binging on, you know, whatever streaming program we’re into or we’re playing video games or we are chatting with our friends, can you carve out a few, even a few hours a month to volunteer? You may find a lifelong passion in an organization that you can stick with, and many large nonprofits look for people to help them communicate to the outside world. They will let you write an article or shoot video for their website, their blog, their social media channels. Video skills in particular are especially in demand.

A lot of the leadership are, you know, non-digital natives running those organizations. They just don’t have those skills. Yeah, you’ve been on TikTok every day for the last three years. You’ve been shooting Instagram reels for 10 years of your life. You’ve got those skills. Learn the principles of communication. Meld with those video skills that you’ve got and you are going to be one valuable volunteer and one valuable intern when you get there one valuable volunteer and one valuable intern when you get there. Marry some of those digital skills to what you’re learning and go out and take them out for a spin.

0:44:25 – Kimberly King

I love that. That’s so true. They walk around and they have the skills right here in their hands, and I think it’s such a key piece of advice that they do need to learn the principles and how they can be more valuable as a volunteer, as a nonprofit or as they move up. I love that. Can you, Gayle, recommend any specific types of internships that would be most beneficial for someone in this major?

0:44:59 – Gayle Falkenthal

If you are fortunate enough to get an internship with an existing marketing or public relations department. I mean, that is the holy grail, obviously.

And you have the opportunity to learn from people who are working in the field. You know, think of it as another big classroom. Be curious, ask questions, ask if you can watch somebody work with a client or tag along on an assignment. You know, go beyond whatever small jobs you’ve been assigned. That’s extremely valuable. Access even in the smallest way to an organization or an assignment where communication is part of the skill, embrace it. Maybe it isn’t a marketing associate’s internship or a public affairs specialist internship.

I would challenge you that if you manage to get, say, an HR department internship, they are communicating with their internal audience every single day. Think about internal employee communications. What departments have to do that, I will tell you. Sometimes, when you land in a department like that and they aren’t a department full of professional communicators, you are so valuable to them they will put you to work and everybody wins. So broaden your perspective, broaden your horizon. Think about where you can help them do their work better and you will learn from that. And a lot of an internship isn’t necessarily the technical skills. It’s navigating the workplace, the internal politics, the dynamics of the pecking order. You know, all of those things you intrinsically learn when you become an employee in an organization, you’re going to benefit from that, no matter what you do.

0:46:59 – Kimberly King

Yeah, almost having that little exercise and where do you see your values? And sometimes, when they’re young or when they just are maybe naive, not realizing what that outside world looks like, that’s a really good exercise and so thank you for that reminder to your own students that they do have values coming into it that they may not even be aware of. How do you help students bridge from academic studies to professional performance?

0:47:26 – Gayle Falkenthal

One thing I find very important, especially in a professional field like this one. This is not necessarily as pure an academic field as you know learning healthcare or sciences. I want them to be able to have practical, hands-on opportunities within the classroom environment. What kind of, you know, tasks or projects might they work on when they become a paid employee? What’s realistic? And based on the practical, real-world application I’ve had the opportunity to perform every day of my life for many years, I see what I’m doing every day, what my colleagues are doing, the clients that I’m working with, what projects are in the pipeline. How can I simulate those well in the classroom? And, thanks to digital media opportunities, I can ask students to go out there and do much of the same groundwork that a paid employee would do.

Figuring out, for example, here’s a preview- we are redesigning one of our core communication classes and all the exercises are things that an employee would really do, in real life. One of the exercises that everybody’s very enthused about is imagining having a brand new, very hot celebrity chef as a client and you want to book him on a podcast, just like this one that takes guests. So they’re going to go through that imaginary exercise with real-world information. What podcasts are out there that talk about food and cooking? Which one would be a good fit for this particular chef that’s described. As part of the class, they’re going to have to go find real world information and then figure out, using the communication skills they’ve learned, how do they pitch this person as a guest? How do they follow up? Make sure that the producers have the information they need, that the chef is well prepared to do the interview and that it comes off successfully. Jeff is well prepared to do the interview and then it comes off successfully. And if they can tell somebody a potential employer, they did this project, they’ve already had practice in that low stress environment. Well, sure, grade seems stressful, but your job doesn’t rest on your success in the classroom. You can now tell an employer oh yes, I know how to do that, I’ve done that.

0:50:08 – Kimberly King

Love that. That’s great. Real world experience right there as well. And just, your students are from all over, right? They’re not. I mean, we’re in San Diego, but they’re really all over, is that right?

0:50:19 – Gayle Falkenthal

I have had students all over the planet. I had students as far away as Guam, Hawaii, and the barrier islands of Alaska. That was a winner. All the way to our active duty military who are amazingly continuing their education, and one of them once said to me you know, professor, I’m so sorry, some of my assignments might be a little late. The internet out in the desert in Kuwait, where I’m deployed, isn’t always reliable. You know what? I gave him a pass.

0:51:00 – Kimberly King

Yeah. What else can you do? God bless him.

0:51:01 – Gayle Falkenthal

So we have, you know, deployed active duty military, who are all over the world. And they are still continuing their education. Bravo, I will meet them halfway and way beyond. Good for them.

0:51:18 – Kimberly King

Love that. Thank you for that. Do you recommend pursuing a graduate degree or a certain certifications in PR strategic communication?

0:51:28 – Gayle Falkenthal

I do, but with a caveat get your first degree and then get out there and get to work. Get a little real world, hands-on experience and find out where your strengths are, what you like to do, what you maybe you know isn’t really your thing and you’d rather leave to somebody else. Find out a little more about your place in the world and, for practical reasons you know, start earning a paycheck, start getting you know, some financial stability and personal growth in your life. Give yourself a little breather to acquire that experience, and five, 10 years in. Then go back for your graduate degree.

About the 10-year mark, normally I would say is when you kind of see that next generation of tools and technology and thinking come along. However, it’s becoming even faster than that. So I would say, now you know, I would normally say give it a good eight or ten years before you think about going back. You might want to think about it at the five-year or eight-year mark, but I would not, unless you’re planning a strictly academic career path, where that educational path is really important. I would give it a little breathing room. Get out, acquire some professional experience and I find that students who do take that break to get the career experience to add on to their first four-year degree are so much the better for it. They are far better students, they’re far more focused. It’s just a better experience all the way around. So I’m very happy to see some of my students back. You know, some of the very, very first ones might just now be coming back and I would welcome them back to see them getting their graduate degree.

0:53:26 – Kimberly King

My daughter is 22 and she graduated last year and now she’s in her career in the workplace and she keeps saying should I go get my graduate degree? And anyway, I pretty much told her the same thing. It’s great to dip your foot in the pool and then find out what the real world is like.

0:53:43 – Gayle Falkenthal

It’s so important. And you find so much more about yourself. You know that’s important too. Focus inward. You know it’s not selfish, right, you will direct your attention and your energies better once you have a grip on that. We you know we’re all still learning that at every age, but I think in these major life transitions that’s so important. Don’t be in such a hurry. Tell your daughter, you know give it a few more years, her focus, I think, will change a little bit and her approach to her education. All to the better, all to the better.

0:54:19 – Kimberly King

You know, and we told her too, just for future, depending on the next job or what, maybe they’ll even pay for your education or your certification. So you know, bravo.

0:54:29 – Gayle Falkenthal

That is a good point and I will say part of what helped me with my graduate degree is my employer had a tuition reimbursement program. He didn’t pay for all of it, but I was very, very happy to accept the money offered, and a good company understands there’s an incentive there Everyone going back right now to start learning more about digital tools, AI, how this entire profession has really transformed in the last 20 years. That’s the kind of employee you want.

0:55:19 – Kimberly King

Right, absolutely willing to, always be willing to learn. So what additional qualifications or certifications have found you found most valuable in your career?

0:55:30 – Gayle Falkenthal

You know, once you’ve got the basic degree, there are some tools that can be of value for you to learn. I did get a digital media certificate from San Diego State University many, many years after I left, and that was to learn to work with a website to shoot and edit video, even though that was my degree actually was broadcast production and journalism. But that was a long time ago, and that was long before we all had the equivalent of the cameras we used then in school in our hands and in the back pocket of my jeans. So it’s important to stay up to date with some of those technical tools. So I’m a big believer in that. I’ve also seen several people I know go back, sometimes at a community college level or some other sort of learning, to get schooled in things like graphic design, which is an incredibly valuable skill in the visually forward universe we’re in. I’m a big believer in making sure your technical skills stay up to date.

And I don’t care what your age is or what your generation is. Defy the stereotypes. Everyone can do it. I’m living proof of it. That is part of your role as a professional. Don’t just wave it off because oh, only 20-year-olds are on TikTok.

0:57:06 – Kimberly King

That is not correct, that is so true, and I love that. Digital skills, I think, is I mean it’s here to stay and it doesn’t matter how old you are.

0:57:17 – Gayle Falkenthal

So good job and it’s possible that you aren’t going to be the one shooting, editing, producing the video, but you’re probably going to work with somebody who is producing the video. But you’re probably going to work with somebody who is and you are so much better at directing that professional and working with them as a partner and getting the end product that you want when you understand the process better, right.

0:57:38 – Kimberly King

Right, good point. So how competitive is the job market now for new graduates in the PR strategic communication field? Is the job market now for new graduates in the PR strategic communication field.

0:57:53 – Gayle Falkenthal

It is very competitive, there’s no question. A lot of these jobs for students, aspiring professionals. You know, when they get that degree they do it because, gosh, it’s glamorous, it’s fun. They all want to work in entertainment PR, they want to be that person walking the red carpet with a famous client, they want to be working for Netflix or on a movie set. They want to be working in travel and tourism or the hospitality industry and hosting parties for influencers, or in the beauty industry right? Kind of offshoot of the health industry. There’s a lot of jobs out there besides those. Those jobs, yes, are very competitive. Those jobs are also very stressful, very all-consuming and not always all that well-paid, because there are so many people willing to do it because it’s fun and it’s glamorous.

But there are many organizations making this world better, working on things that are not glamorous but important, like the civil engineering firms building our bridges or replacing the water pipelines in our streets who need to communicate with the residents about what’s going on in their neighborhood and need your help the residents about what’s going on in their neighborhood and need your help. Or somebody in a scientific field who needs to be able to translate what they’re doing to the public or to potential funders that need to be persuaded to invest in that company. The internal communication portion, which we’ve touched on a few times in this podcast, is just so important.

Your first audience as a large company is your employees, and when you’re getting these degrees, you’re thinking about working for a very trendy cosmetics company or a restaurant or hotel and inviting people on vacations and things like that. But you need to communicate inside those companies to make sure the employees understand what’s expected and giving them all the tools and how to work together, and that can be enormously valuable. And every company over about 25, 30, 50 employees needs somebody, or a few somebodies, like you.

So think very broadly. Think about the things you use in everyday life, the things that you see and touch in your so-called non-glamorous existence. Right and broaden your horizons, and when you do that, job market broadens for you so much more than when you thought, oh, I just want to be the director of marketing and communications at a very upscale resort or work for somebody in the streaming production industry. No, broaden your focus and don’t focus at first. You might be pleasantly surprised what good jobs those turn out to be, and I tell people many times.

Some of my favorite clients are you know, the thrilling field, and no insult intended to anybody who falls into this category listening- some of the civil engineering firms I’ve worked with. They are incredibly smart, creative, dedicated people. They are pleasant, they say please and thank you, and they truly appreciate what you do as an expert in your field, as they value being experts in their own and that reciprocity goes a long way.

1:01:36 – Kimberly King

I was going to say something to that degree. But you know right, it’s literally, it’s heartfelt. You know you are helping them and they really appreciate that, so I love that you said that. That’s a really good key element.

1:01:46 – Gayle Falkenthal

Shout out to all my civil engineers that,

1:01:48 – Kimberly King

So I love that you said that that’s a really good key element. How do you know if you belong in PR and public relations?

1:01:53 – Gayle Falkenthal

A lot of people think, oh, I can’t get into those fields unless I’m really an extrovert and I’m out there all the time and I love talking and I’m unafraid to be on camera. I couldn’t possibly do it because I’m kind of shy or I don’t really like speaking in public. Let me tell you right now that the broad range of tasks and job assignments means there’s something for everybody. You know you might be that person counted on to be writing articles for a website on very complicated topics. You aren’t going to be out speaking in public or trying to pitch the news media every day.

You may be designing that website. Every day you may be designing that website. You may very much be behind the scenes and be very happy being in that advisory capacity to somebody else. Don’t presuppose, don’t prejudge that you’re a bad fit. If you’ve got the skills and you have a passion for it, your personality will be the right fit for the right job. Not everybody is out there big making a lot of noise. There’s a lot of room for that quiet excellence behind the scenes that everybody relies on.

1:03:24 – Kimberly King

Love it. Just a couple more questions here. And what is the best piece of advice you can offer to someone just starting out their journey in the PR, strategic communication field?

1:03:35 – Gayle Falkenthal

Questions, questions. Curiosity is your best asset as a student. It is the one time of your life nobody is going to look down on you or wonder why are you asking these questions? Shouldn’t you know about all of this? Openness, the desire, the hunger to learn? You should be a hungry beast, being fed, craving every possible experience and bit of information. Don’t turn away from it. Truly, curiosity is your number one asset. And then assimilate that information. Think about it. How is it useful to you? Where does it fit into your life? Maybe it doesn’t fit right now and you set it aside and you never return to it, but maybe a year or two down the road, when you’ve had a little more education or experience and you think, hey, wait a minute, now I’m fitting that puzzle piece into place. I set it aside a year ago and now I know where it fits in my life, in my career trajectory. So every other sentence you ask should probably have a question mark at the end of it.

1:04:51 – Kimberly King

Love it. Looking back, what do you wish you had known or done differently during your college years or as a PR strategic communications major?

1:05:04 – Gayle Falkenthal

I’m going to irritate every single employer right now. I wish I had pushed back sometimes on some long-established thinking that was there. Only because it was long-established thinking. I wish I’d pushed back a little more sometimes. I also admire in many ways the recognition by generations of people who’ve entered the workforce after me about the issues of burnout and mental health and burning the candle at both ends is not a healthy thing.

Work-life balance is real and we need to demand attention to our own health and well-being so that we can bring the best self to the work we do. When we do it, yeah, but working all the time, measuring someone’s value by the length of time their butt’s in the chair or they’re sitting at this computer screen- that, thank God, is in the past, and I’m one of those people who once embraced that, and it was a mistake for a lot of us. So, work hard when you’re working, value your time, and play hard when you’re working. Value your time and play hard when you’re not.

1:06:30 – Kimberly King

Boom, I think that’s where we drop the mic. That’s great advice. [Laughter.] I love it.

1:06:35 – Gayle Falkenthal

Good, I can go play then!

1:06:36 – Kimberly King

Yes, go play hard. Thank you for sharing your knowledge. This has been a fabulous time with you today and if you want more information, you can visit National University’s website, nu.edu. And thank you, Gayle, so much for your time.

1:06:52 – Gayle Falkenthal

It’s my pleasure.

1:06:56 – Kimberly King

You’ve been listening to the National University Podcast. For updates on future or past guests, visit us at nu.edu. You can also follow us on social media. Thanks for listening.