G R E AT C O M M U N I C ATO R S
JENN MEALE
ADAM GOODMAN
President and CEO of Pinnacle Media
Chair, Ballard Media Group
Always on
always reaching to make the unimaginable real
always envisioning my next painting
No one works in a high-stress, never-unplug sort of field unless they really love it. Why do you love it?
I thrive in situations that require quick-thinking, creativity, and the need to predict short- and long-term outcomes. I love starting each day knowing there’s a degree of unknown in what challenges and opportunities will arise that require immediate assessment, collaboration, strategy, and execution.
What’s your go-to stress reliever?
PHOTO: The Workmans
Running outside. Nothing clears my head better than a long run.
Knowing what you know now about this business, if you could go back and give yourself one piece of advice, what would it be and why?
Read and re-read “The Art of War” by Sun Tzu. You’d be shocked by how many combat tactics from 5th Century B.C.E. China can be incorporated into modern-day public affairs and crisis communications strategies.
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INFLUENCE Fall 2024
I’ve always found that working for what you believe in, what you do best, is not work at all. I have often said, only part in jest, that the only times I’ve not been on the clock have been when I was under anesthesia. With that said, I’ve always harbored an unfulfilled ambition to be a bartender at a place filled with unfulfilled professionals — part server, part therapist, part life coach.
What’s your go-to stress reliever?
I have always cheered for the underdog, in sports as in life, believing that overcoming the odds, the expectations of others, is intoxicating. To that end, I have been a long time fan of a chronically under-performing English soccer team, the Queens Park Rangers, whose mediocrity is trumped by the fans’ never-say-die attitude that says, maybe, just maybe, THIS is the year we’ve been waiting for. May the record reflect those same fans have been waiting a very long time!
Describe how you came to be a Great Communicator?
My father was one of the original “Mad Men” in the ad business who, against all advice from family and others, did the media for a GOP candidate for Governor in Maryland, Spiro Agnew, who went on to great success (and infamy). From that start, Bob Goodman did campaign media for Presidents, Senators, and Members of Congress armed with outside-the-box creativity and an amazing instinct to translate what people were feeling into where they could invest those feelings. The key is to be fearless, to buck the herd, to go where others feared to tread. Those lessons are even valuable to any communicator today who wants to put a unique stamp on their work and on the world around them.
PHOTO: Abby Hart Photography
Always on
If you could ditch the 24/7 grind, what 9-5 job would best suit you?