Amanda Conte

I think our culture at Red Thread PR is incredibly important to my success. We have a rising tides mentality where if we're learning something, we're sharing it out with one another. We want to make sure we're all staying in that same boat of continuous learning and growing, and we're always fostering that type of environment. I've also learned to lose any competitive edge, which is the fastest way to win. I think back to early in my career when I was worried about what my title was or if I was getting promotions faster than other girls next to me. But now, with maturity and experience, I've learned to really learn from everybody that's around you. We've got folks who've come from in-house roles, who've come from other completely different backgrounds, and there's so much to learn in the folks that are around you. Once you kind of lose that competitive mindset, it just opens up so many learning possibilities to all the resources that are on your team.

I would absolutely say that losing any competitive edge is the fastest way to win. I think back to early in my career when I was worried about what my title was or if I was getting promotions faster than other girls next to me. That comes with maturity and experience, right? We don't know that when we're young and just trying to climb the ladder. But really learn from everybody that's around you. I think that's another really special thing about our team - we've got folks who've come from in-house roles, who've come from other completely different backgrounds, and there's so much to learn in the folks that are around you. So once you kind of lose that competitive mindset, it just opens up so many learning possibilities to all the resources that are on your team.

I think the greatest challenge is keeping up with advancements in the industry. AI has really turned PR and all the other adjacent industries like marketing and advertising on its head. Where once consumers might have looked to Google, and we may have tried to influence SEO patterns for the best restaurant to go to or the best pet insurance brands, now AI is sort of the one-stop shop. So our team is working really quickly to get smart on how earned media and other tools that we use are influenced by AI and also influence AI and LLMs. I think that's been a big challenge, but an exciting challenge for us. More than many others in the space, we've really grabbed hold of new tools and learning opportunities to get smart on it as quickly as possible. I think it's a really exciting time for PR. There was certainly a moment where we all worried if AI was going to take certain aspects of our work away, but I think earned media and everything that we do has become even more important as it feeds LLMs and it helps our clients gain more visibility.

I think cultivating an incredible team and an incredible team environment is something that always stays with me even longer than some of the great client achievements that we work on. It's something that I think we're - it's commented on regularly, just how close and how strong our team is, and I think that means so much more in certain ways than the work itself. I've also had the fortune of working on projects that really fed my soul, like lighting up the Empire State Building for opening nights at the New York Philharmonic or working on a September 11th anniversary performance. Those things that really fed my soul stay with me. I'm also a lifelong student type, in that sort of lifelong student-type mindset. I think continuous learning and growing is really important, and making sure our team stays at the forefront of conversations in our evolving industry.