S&T Live Recap: Considerations for Changing Course in Your Public Relations Career

Katie Neal knows a thing or two about career pivots. After earning a degree in communications and journalism, she started as a broadcast journalist in Tennessee and Indiana. And then she transitioned to public relations, working for agencies in Sacramento, Calif., San Francisco, Singapore and Winston-Salem, N.C.

Neal later became communications lead at Wake Forest University in North Carolina, her alma mater. When her family relocated to Lexington, Ky., where she grew up, she started a communications-consulting business there in 2019.

Her main clients were in higher education. But when the pandemic struck in 2020, “I knew that most of my clients were going to dry up quickly,” she recalled. She took on a new account, a telehealth company called TimelyCare that serves college students. The company eventually hired her in-house.

About three years later, in 2024, she found herself senior level in rank, but mid-career in age. She got the itch to run her own business again.

“I realized I wanted to do something in addition to being a chief communications officer, and that’s when I made the next pivot to become a leadership coach.”

Neal, principal and CEO of Katie Neal Coaching & Consulting and immediate past president of PRSA’s Thoroughbred Chapter, was the guest for Strategies & Tactics Live on Jan. 23. Her appearance on PRSA’s monthly livestream series on LinkedIn followed the publication of her piece “Break Free in 2025: Make This the Year You Unstick Your Career,” in the January issue of Strategies & Tactics.

What to consider before a career move

John Elsasser, editor-in-chief of Strategies & Tactics and host of S&T Live, asked Neal what communications professionals should keep in mind when considering a change in their own careers — to start their own practice or to move from a corporate to a nonprofit PR setting, for example.

Financial considerations are paramount. PR professionals contemplating a career pivot should consider the risk and potential reward, Neal said. If the new venture takes longer to be profitable than you might hope, will it be tenable for you and your family?

A big consideration when thinking about a new direction in your career is “figuring out what you really want to do,” she said. “There’s a lot of privilege in being able to make a pivot when you don’t necessarily have to. Some people are working to get by. But sometimes, we have the opportunity to also create some fulfillment out of our career.”

Before switching directions in your career, define the value proposition that you can offer to clients or a new employer, she said. Think about networking and relationships, the state of the economy and the hiring market.

But “truly getting honest with yourself about what you need, what you want and what it’s gonna take to get there are important things to consider before making any kind of a jump,” she said.

Here, Neal offers advice for people who are feeling stuck in their current career path:

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