Compass Communications LLC

When a crisis happens, the time to meet your Public Information Officer counterparts in the region is not right after the scanner goes off.

Back in 2015, my friend and colleague Chad Doran and I saw that gap and started a regional PIO network to connect the crisis communicators — police, fire, EMS, municipalities, counties, healthcare, schools and private sector — across northeast Wisconsin. Life happens, things evolve, and that group faded.

Last week it came back. Better.

I am grateful that Eric Rasmussen, Paula Van De Leygraaf and Daniel Kane, directors of Winnebago, Outagamie, and Brown County Emergency Management, took the initiative to revive and reshape this into the Tri-County Region PIO Group, asking me to join them. We created a mission, a vision and a plan to grow.

Thanks to our first presenter, Lori Blakeslee from Green Bay Area Public School District, who talked about how to validate and respond to negative social media.

Crisis communication is better and more impactful when the communicators know each other, trust each other, and have discussed the hard questions before the hard day arrives.

This group is building that foundation. I am proud to have planted a small seed a decade ago and even prouder to see what it's becoming.

Samantha and I crossed paths years ago, and it was Women In Technology Wisconsin Inc. (WiT) that brought us back together when she joined a panel I helped connect her with. Catching up properly was long overdue.

In a note afterward, she said our conversation challenged her thinking and gave her clarity "in a place that was feeling a little muddy." She's been sitting with a question I asked her ever since.

It's a reminder of what honest, open conversation between two people can do. The Fox Cities really is a small world. And I'm grateful it keeps putting the right people in my path.

Here's to catching up way more often than every 6-8 years, Sam.

Two years ago yesterday, I quietly went full time at Compass Communications.

This past year:
🧭 I sent 62 invoices, 12 more than my first year.
🧭 I billed 16 different organizations, up 5 from the previous year. To note, my first year I did many presentations, so many of those invoices were for one-time work.
🧭 That means this second year I increased my number of clients - steady, consistent work - by at least one-third and decreased the number of paid presentations.
🧭 I met more than 120 people for coffee, lunch, or wine, 40 more than the year before (and yes, mostly coffee. I am well caffeinated).
🧭 I wrote 130 handwritten thank-you notes to clients, connectors, and people who simply believed in me.
🧭 Financially, I grew by another third this year, making almost twice as much as what I did when I was employed.

I'm working fewer hours. Traveling more. Making time for the people and experiences that fill my cup.

Two years in, and I'm more energized than I was on Day One. The growth has been unbelievable, but the relationships I have built and the impact my work has had are what I'm most proud of.

To everyone who's been part of this: thank you.

As the school year comes to an end, I wrapped my second podcast for SCORE Mentors Northeast Wisconsin.

My kids recently graduated high school. Many of my friends are teachers; my brother and mom were teachers. Education is personal to me; I talk about it often. Chatting with Britni Walz and Jennifer Riggle of LIFToFFS Learning Collaborative about rethinking how we prepare students was a fun, interesting and timely conversation.

I asked the question "will AI replace teachers?" AI is accelerating change, amplifying human potential and creating learning environments where students and educators can thrive.

The future is changing faster than education systems were designed to respond to. Preparing students today requires more than content knowledge. Students need durable skills, authentic learning experiences, adaptability, curiosity, and opportunities to connect learning to purpose and community.

Britni and Jennifer are doing incredible work through LIFToFFS, a nonprofit pushing for education built around human potential, not standardized tests.

Grateful to my co-host Rick Sense for this educational - literally - conversation.

🎧 Listen here: https://www.score.org/wi/northeast-wisconsin/podcasts/liftoffs-learning-britni-walz-chief-impact-officer-and-jenny-riggle-chief-innovation-officer/