I’ve Been Sitting on This Conversation for Years. It’s Time.
Introducing Publicist in Your Pocket — the podcast for founders, creators, and leaders who are building visibility and deserve to know what to do when something goes wrong.
I got a phone call once from a family business owner in Kansas.
I didn’t know him. He’d gotten my number from a trade association — one I’d never even agreed to be listed with. And the first thing he said to me was:
“Cyndee, you don’t know me. But I think I just killed my family’s business. And I need your help.”
He wasn’t being dramatic. A reporter had called him and asked if he’d like to be featured in a story. He said yes — of course he said yes — because he’d spent his whole career being told to promote his business whenever he got the chance.
He welcomed the reporter in. Gave him a tour. Was hospitable and open and proud. And as the reporter walked out the door, he handed over his business card.
It was the business card of the investigative editor for a national news outlet.
This good, hardworking family business owner got choked up on the phone with me and said: “Why didn’t I ask questions? Why did I just open my doors? Why did I let this happen?”
And I knew exactly why.
Because nobody had ever taught him the other half.
The Half Nobody Is Teaching
Every marketing course, every business coach, every guru with a podcast and a course and a community tells you one thing: grow. Promote. Be visible. Build your audience.
And they’re not wrong. Visibility matters. Building an audience matters.
But here’s what nobody is telling you: visibility creates vulnerability.
The bigger your audience, the bigger your target. The more people who know your name, the more people who can damage it. The more you promote — the more you need to protect.
The tools and training to do that have historically been reserved for the C-suite. For global brands with crisis communications teams and attorneys on speed dial. Not for the founder filming content in her living room. Not for the podcaster building an audience one episode at a time. Not for the family business that has been serving its community for three generations.
That’s the gap. And I’ve spent my career working in it.
Why I’m the One Having This Conversation
I started my career as a classroom teacher — trained in quality improvement, problem solving, and the Baldrige approach to organizational excellence. I made the pivot into marketing because the way people learn and the way people make buying decisions are more similar than most people realize.
I spent years at a marketing and advertising agency working across wildly different industries. And then I got my real education — five years as the in-house publicist for a nationally recognized family business that happened to be the subject of a hit reality TV show. Global media tours. New York Times bestseller launches. Good Morning America. The Today show.
And at the end of every single day — they were still just a family business. With the same problems, pressures, and vulnerabilities as every small business owner on your street.
That experience introduced me to an entire world of small business owners who were highly visible, deeply proud of what they’d built — and completely unprotected.
And then came the phone call from Kansas. And the question my insurance broker asked me when I called him afterward:
“Cyndee. The question is not whether you’re covered. The question is — why is this not your business?”
That’s when PR Shield was born. And that’s what Publicist in Your Pocket is the public voice of.
What This Show Is
Publicist in Your Pocket is a short podcast. Five to ten minutes. Solo. Just me, talking directly to you.
No guests. No panels. No fluff. Every episode is one idea, one framework, one tool, or one story — something you can actually use.
We’re going to talk about:
How to respond to a one-star review before you say something you regret
How to grow your Google reviews without getting your listing suspended
How to show up in an AI-first world where your competitors are already ahead of you
How to handle the troll, the hater, the fake review, and the news truck in the parking lot
What crisis actually means for a small business — because it is not what you think
The full show notes, ebooks, templates, and tools for every episode live inside the PR Shield community — free for members. The episodes themselves are always free, everywhere, because this conversation should have started a long time ago.
Who This Is For
This show is for you if:
You’ve ever gotten a one-star Google review and felt your stomach drop
You’ve ever had an employee post something from your store and didn’t know whether to laugh or panic
You’ve ever Googled yourself and thought — I might as well not even exist
ChatGPT gives your competitor’s name instead of yours
You’ve ever had a customer threaten to go viral and had no idea what to do next
You’re building something and have a quiet feeling that nobody has ever actually taught you what to do when something goes wrong
You’re in the right place.
Where to Find It
Publicist in Your Pocket is available on Spotify, YouTube, and wherever you listen to podcasts. Episode 1 is live now.
If you want to go deeper — the expanded show notes, tools, and community conversations live inside the PR Shield community at prshield.com. It’s free. And it’s where we do the realwork together.
“I believe every guru who tells you to grow your visibility owes you the other half of that conversation — what happens when it works and something goes wrong. But nobody is talking about that. SoI am. Because no creator, founder, or leader should ever have to pour everything into building a brand and then, when something goes wrong, just figure it out and defend it alone.”
I’m Cyndee Harrison. This is Publicist in Your Pocket.
Let’s get into it.
