As I sat listening to a client discuss what they wanted and needed from the year ahead, ideas began to flow. Excited by the meeting, I jotted down the key business priorities that had shared and emailed the team involved in servicing them, with some ideas of my own on how we could align behind these needs. The PR plan for FY 26-27 is directly related to understanding the business plan. Meaningful reputation work is possible when there is alignment between client actions and communications.
This is true in business and in life. The act of enquiry, to know and understand what another wants, is powerful. It leaves them feeling listened to, and if that listening translates into aligned action, then they feel supported. This, done consistently, is the art and science of great client servicing. Sometimes, when a relationship is ready for it, the listening can include hearing what is not said and also challenging some things that are. If the intent is to be supportive, challenging the assumptions and exploring new ideas is very helpful.
So much of my time and life has gone in service of mapping stakeholder expectations and then attending to them. Campaign planning broken down into steps is simple. Get the client brief right, translate it into SMART PR goals. Prioritise the core target audience and get deep into their world of the target stakeholders’ needs, wants and desires. Figure out what you want your audience to do. Frame a message that will enable that behaviour once they hear it. Deliver the message repeatedly through a range of tactics that stitch together into a campaign that delivers results. Measure progress. This formula has worked many a time and, when rooted in a good insight, will do so repeatedly.
In another client session, this time a coaching one, a client ended the hour we spent together, summing up the session with this line: “This year, I want to listen to myself…” (I have permission to use and share this wisdom.) A coaching session is quite similar to campaign planning in PR. The only difference, the campaign being designed is for the client’s life.
Am I listening to myself? Are you? An inquiry into oneself seems hardest. Maybe that’s what they say, it’s difficult to see what others see in you. But difficult as it may be, if it’s not my work to do, then whose is it? Finding ways to hear myself, see myself, and find myself has many roads. Coaching for sure is one, so a few sessions to look within are on the cards, to help me figure out how to play the cards that life has dealt me.
A Substack post by Alan Seal, on the topic of a listening circle about wants and needs from 2026, highlighted the nuanced but significant difference between a want and a need. Designing a good campaign, or for that matter, a good life, is about focusing on deep needs and attending to them.
The fundamentals of business or life revolve around understanding what sustains the business or the life. Everything else is window dressing. The core offering, the core purpose, needs to be continually refined and strengthened.
So maybe a good time to pause and look within. Ask yourself, “What do I need and want in 2026?” Examine what is needed and what is wanted. In the story of your life, what is the title of the chapter of 2026? Is there a word that offers itself to you?
What are you willing to give up? What do you want to hold on to? And if you have got this far, and the answers are uncomfortable, then you are probably on the right track. To end with some wisdom from Tim Ferris, which I picked up from his blog on stoicism and confronting fear – “Don’t save it all for the end. There is every reason not to.”
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