Educated Spaghetti: Marketing Ideas That Stick

Is PR dead? Not even close — but it looks nothing like it did 15 years ago. On this episode of Educated Spaghetti, host Lise Anne Schwartz talks with PR strategist Elizabeth Lampert about what's changed: AI, social media, the collapse of the traditional newsroom. And what hasn't: the need to build credibility, authority and differentiation in a crowded market. Elizabeth draws on 20+ years of client PR campaigns to share how to: Stand out in a sea of sameness Get positioned for media opportunities Make an impact regardless of budget Measure what matters. Resources & Mentions: Legal Marketing Association Connect with Elizabeth on LinkedIn Connect with Elizabeth via email:  [email protected] Connect with Lise Anne on LinkedIn Visit righthat.com About the Host: Lise Anne Schwartz is an experienced brand strategist and writer known for creating authentic, original work that audiences remember. With 20 years in professional services marketing, she brings a unique blend of perspectives as a former lawyer, journalist, copywriter, and pastry chef. Her strong focus on storytelling and user-driven communications, combined with skills in surfacing key insights from stakeholder and audience interviews, makes her exceptional at bringing complex ideas to life. Having conducted over 100 buyer interviews and earned degrees from Northwestern University and Columbia Law School, Lise Anne regularly writes on professional marketing topics.  About Right Hat: Right Hat is a marketing and design partner driven by curiosity, courage, and optimism to help clients take their communications to new heights. Specializing in communicating the value of complex, intangible offerings like professional services, education, and tech solutions, they serve as brand strategists, website designers, creators of sales tools, and extensions of in-house teams. Through deep industry knowledge and determination to push past the ordinary, Right Hat combines design, content, and digital strategies to bring powerful brands to life with fresh ideas that help clients stand out in crowded markets. Chapters (00:00:00) - Educated Spaghetti Marketing(00:00:39) - Is PR Dead? With Elizabeth Lampert(00:02:33) - Is AI Killing PR?(00:04:10) - Is AI the Replacement for Public Relations?(00:05:22) - What's the goal of public relations for law firms?(00:08:27) - Do You Need To Choose a Specialty or Be an Authority?(00:11:57) - Should Law Firms Try to Broaden Their Brand?(00:13:15) - Law Firm Marketing: Differentiate or Disappear(00:15:08) - Have We Got Enough PR for Our Firm?(00:16:37) - Law Firm Distinction(00:18:16) - How to Hyper-Inject Your Narrative(00:22:45) - What's the Role of Your Own Channels?(00:24:36) - Measurement in the PR Firm(00:25:38) - Do You Have a Share of Voice?(00:27:53) - How Traditional PR is relevant today(00:30:14) - Newsjacking: How to Get Your Message Out There(00:32:47) - What is your secret sauce for success in PR?

Is your law firm's content just noise, or is it actually working? On this episode of Educated Spaghetti: Marketing Ideas That Stick, Keith Wewe of Content Pilot joins Lise Anne Schwartz to explore what separates a true content strategy from what Keith calls "random acts of content marketing." They discuss measuring what matters, meeting users where they are, and why perseverance — not brilliance — is the secret ingredient to digital content that sticks.

Everyone’s talking about innovation — but why do so few professional services organizations make change that is meaningful and lasting?On this episode of Educated Spaghetti: Marketing Ideas That Stick, innovation expert Lani Beer joins Lise Anne Schwartz to unravel why the biggest challenge isn’t coming up with ideas but building a true culture of innovation.Lani shares lessons from 20 years of transformation work in law, banking, insurance and more. Highlights include: Why “innovation theater” is everywhere, but real outcomes are rare Which human factors make or break AI, technology and change efforts How to prove the ROI of innovation to clients and internal audiences Resources and Mentions Tiny Experiments, by Anne-Laure Le Cunff (see also the Ness Labs Newsletter: https://nesslabs.com/newsletter) The Coaching Habit, by Michael Bungay Stanier One Useful Thing Substack, by Ethan Mollick (https://www.oneusefulthing.org) Section School — AI literacy for business leaders (https://www.sectionai.com/courses) The Donella Meadows Project (https://donellameadows.org) Connect with Lani on LinkedIn Connect with Lise Anne on LinkedIn righthat.com About the Host: Lise Anne Schwartz is an experienced brand strategist and writer known for creating authentic, original work that audiences remember. With 20 years in professional services marketing, she brings a unique blend of perspectives as a former lawyer, journalist, copywriter, and pastry chef. Her strong focus on storytelling and user-driven communications, combined with skills in surfacing key insights from stakeholder and audience interviews, makes her exceptional at bringing complex ideas to life. Having conducted over 100 buyer interviews and earned degrees from Northwestern University and Columbia Law School, Lise Anne regularly writes on professional marketing topics.  About Right Hat: Right Hat is a marketing and design partner driven by curiosity, courage, and optimism to help clients take their communications to new heights. Specializing in communicating the value of complex, intangible offerings like professional services, education, and tech solutions, they serve as brand strategists, website designers, creators of sales tools, and extensions of in-house teams. Through deep industry knowledge and determination to push past the ordinary, Right Hat combines design, content, and digital strategies to bring powerful brands to life with fresh ideas that help clients stand out in crowded markets.

What if the key to stronger client relationships is simply... listening? On this episode of Educated Spaghetti: Marketing Ideas That Stick, Tara Weintritt of Wicker Park Group joins Lise Anne Schwartz to explore why clients love giving feedback and how to set up feedback projects for success. Website: https://wickerparkgroup.com/Email: [email protected]: https://www.linkedin.com/in/taraweintritt/

Authenticity and uniqueness are crucial in professional services marketing, where the relationship is key to what you are selling. In this episode, Lise Anne Schwartz welcomes Allison Shapira, author of AI for the Authentic Leader, to share tools and strategies for using AI in communications while maintaining a distinct, human voice. They discuss custom chatbots, the journey through Allison’s Authenticity Loop and their shared love for the beleaguered em-dash. In this episode:  (00:00) The authenticity paradox: why AI-generated content loses trust (02:49) Why LinkedIn posts are starting to sound the same (08:21) The AI Authenticity Loop: a five-step framework for staying grounded (12:37) Using AI to show up as your best self in difficult conversations (15:48) Building custom chatbots aligned with firm values and individual voices (29:21) The secret sauce to authentic communication About the Host Lise Anne Schwartz is an experienced brand strategist and writer known for creating authentic, original work that audiences remember. With 20 years in professional services marketing, she brings a unique blend of perspectives as a former lawyer, journalist, copywriter, and pastry chef. Her strong focus on storytelling and user-driven communications, combined with skills in surfacing key insights from stakeholder and audience interviews, makes her exceptional at bringing complex ideas to life. Having conducted over 100 buyer interviews and earned degrees from Northwestern University and Columbia Law School, Lise Anne regularly writes on professional marketing topics.About Right Hat Right Hat is a marketing and design partner driven by curiosity, courage, and optimism to help clients take their communications to new heights. Specializing in communicating the value of complex, intangible offerings like professional services, education, and tech solutions, they serve as brand strategists, website designers, creators of sales tools, and extensions of in-house teams. Through deep industry knowledge and determination to push past the ordinary, Right Hat combines design, content, and digital strategies to bring powerful brands to life with fresh ideas that help clients stand out in crowded markets. Resources Website: https://allisonshapira.com/ai-for-the-authentic-leader/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allisonshapira Lise Anne Schwartz LinkedInRighthat.com

In this episode of Educated Spaghetti: Marketing Ideas that Stick, Lise Anne Schwartz talks with Paul Zimmerman, head of Public Relations and Communication at Michelman Robinson, about the whys, whens and hows of taking the leap into a branding project. They discuss the key ingredients in creating a strong message that resonates with clients, and how to activate it before and after launch. Plus, Paul shares his favorite resource and secret sauce for successful brand building.In this episode:  (00:00) What a brand actually is—and what it's not (03:52) Why professional services firms overlook branding as a business imperative (05:50) Finding the right time to launch a brand project (09:30) Why Paul partnered with an agency (Right Hat) (16:55) Uncovering "Strategy First" as the core differentiator (20:56) Paul's advice: do it right the first time and partner with experts About the Host Lise Anne Schwartz is an experienced brand strategist and writer known for creating authentic, original work that audiences remember. With 20 years in professional services marketing, she brings a unique blend of perspectives as a former lawyer, journalist, copywriter, and pastry chef. Her strong focus on storytelling and user-driven communications, combined with skills in surfacing key insights from stakeholder and audience interviews, makes her exceptional at bringing complex ideas to life. Having conducted over 100 buyer interviews and earned degrees from Northwestern University and Columbia Law School, Lise Anne regularly writes on professional marketing topics.About Right Hat Right Hat is a marketing and design partner driven by curiosity, courage, and optimism to help clients take their communications to new heights. Specializing in communicating the value of complex, intangible offerings like professional services, education, and tech solutions, they serve as brand strategists, website designers, creators of sales tools, and extensions of in-house teams. Through deep industry knowledge and determination to push past the ordinary, Right Hat combines design, content, and digital strategies to bring powerful brands to life with fresh ideas that help clients stand out in crowded markets. Resources Paul Zimmerman LinkedIn Michelman RobinsonLise Anne Schwartz LinkedInRighthat.com

In this episode of Educated Spaghetti: Marketing Ideas that Stick, Lise Anne Schwartz sits down with Alessandra Almeida Jones, Global Chief Marketing Officer at BCLP, to talk about messaging to a global audience. Together, they noodle over whether global marketing exists, the challenges of branding a cross-border merger, and how to build a culturally competent team. Plus, Ale shares her favorite resource and secret sauce for better communication around the world. In this episode:   (00:00) Why global marketing doesn't actually exist  (02:10) How working with a global team differs from local marketing  (04:02) Building internal networks that give you eyes and ears everywhere  (06:20) The BCLP merger: creating a brand everyone could recognize themselves in  (11:24) Why some lawyers say they don't care about brand (but actually do)  (14:21) The biggest challenge: trying to get everyone to agree on everything  (16:20) How enduring client relationships became BCLP's differentiator  (22:02) The biggest mistake people make about marketing globally  (26:53) Secret sauce: empathy, curiosity, and building relationships with humility  About the Host Lise Anne Schwartz is an experienced brand strategist and writer known for creating authentic, original work that audiences remember. With 20 years in professional services marketing, she brings a unique blend of perspectives as a former lawyer, journalist, copywriter, and pastry chef. Her strong focus on storytelling and user-driven communications, combined with skills in surfacing key insights from stakeholder and audience interviews, makes her exceptional at bringing complex ideas to life. Having conducted over 100 buyer interviews and earned degrees from Northwestern University and Columbia Law School, Lise Anne regularly writes on professional marketing topics.  About Right Hat   Right Hat is a marketing and design partner driven by curiosity, courage, and optimism to help clients take their communications to new heights. Specializing in communicating the value of complex, intangible offerings like professional services, education, and tech solutions, they serve as brand strategists, website designers, creators of sales tools, and extensions of in-house teams. Through deep industry knowledge and determination to push past the ordinary, Right Hat combines design, content, and digital strategies to bring powerful brands to life with fresh ideas that help clients stand out in crowded markets.  Resources Alessandra Almeida Jones LinkedIn Lise Anne Schwartz LinkedIn Righthat.com 

In this episode of Educated Spaghetti: Marketing Ideas That Stick, Lise Anne Schwartz and Roy Sexton, Chief Marketing Officer at Vedder, dish up ideas on building consensus for professional services marketing projects. They discuss the biggest mistakes of would-be consensus leaders, why Roy loves the word “pilot,” and his surprising take on creating lasting agreement. Plus, Roy shares his favorite resource and secret sauce for getting people to support a new project.  In this episode:   (00:00) The number one thing holding companies back  (05:05) Childhood experiences that shaped a consensus builder  (10:26) Pilot strategy that turns law firm skeptics into advocates  (17:41) When to proceed without consensus (and how to do it safely)  (23:54) Why trying to leave a legacy guarantees you won't  (32:06) Roy's secret sauce: listen more than you talk  About the Host Lise Anne Schwartz is an experienced brand strategist and writer known for creating authentic, original work that audiences remember. With 20 years in professional services marketing, she brings a unique blend of perspectives as a former lawyer, journalist, copywriter, and pastry chef. Her strong focus on storytelling and user-driven communications, combined with skills in surfacing key insights from stakeholder and audience interviews, makes her exceptional at bringing complex ideas to life. Having conducted over 100 buyer interviews and earned degrees from Northwestern University and Columbia Law School, Lise Anne regularly writes on professional marketing topics.  About Right Hat  Right Hat is a marketing and design partner driven by curiosity, courage, and optimism to help clients take their communications to new heights. Specializing in communicating the value of complex, intangible offerings like professional services, education, and tech solutions, they serve as brand strategists, website designers, creators of sales tools, and extensions of in-house teams. Through deep industry knowledge and determination to push past the ordinary, Right Hat combines design, content, and digital strategies to bring powerful brands to life with fresh ideas that help clients stand out in crowded markets.  Resources Roy Sexton LinkedIn Lise Ann Schwartz LinkedIn Righthat.com 

In this episode, find out the meaning behind our unusual name, and get a taste of what professional services marketers will find at the Educated Spaghetti table. Host Lise Anne Schwartz, Brand Strategist at Right Hat, introduces herself and previews her goals for the podcast and its guests.