We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kate Gardiner a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Kate, thanks for joining us today. To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard

Grey Horse rejects the “pit bull publicist” stereotypes that are rampant in the industry about firms that fiercely protect their perceived territory and growl and occasionally nip at other communications professionals and journalists. We are in an unprecedented era of job cuts in the media industry, and Grey Horse is sensitive to the fact that journalists and communications professionals are doing their best to elevate important ideas and stories in a harsh climate. Our business is built on strong relationships and mutual respect. If we see an opportunity to assist an industry colleague that isn’t directly in service of one of our clients, we aren’t precious about it.

We also operate on the 80/20 principle, with 20% of our team’s hours offered pro bono to a client with a critical mission. Over the last couple of years, that means we’ve been able to help clients in the reproductive justice space with powerful press placements, speaking engagements, and events.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I started my career in journalism and audience engagement, triaging social media for global-facing campaigns including award-winning coverage of the BP Oil Spill (PBS NewsHour), the Arab Spring (Al Jazeera English), Showtime’s Years of Living Dangerously, Hurricane Sandy (New York Public Radio), the launch of Newsweek’s print magazine and Newsweek International. I founded Grey Horse as a full-service feminist communications agency that helps elevate the voices of women and queer people in positions of power. Our bespoke offerings are tailored to the unique needs of companies and can include public relations, audience engagement, brand identity development, content creation and thought leadership, digital advertising strategy, crisis communications, and events.

I am extremely proud to have worked with several dozen women at the forefront of the #MeToo resurgence in 2017, as well as with reproductive justice orgs — especially those who are working for greater access to abortion — and to help raise awareness about new books and films dealing with critical topics from racial justice to the impact and potential of AI. I’m honored to be a member of the 2015 class of Forbes 30 under 30 and I have seen firsthand that the power to attract attention is the power to change everything. As a socially conscious agency, when Grey Horse decides to represent you, we have one simple goal: to help you leave a positive mark on the world.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

Grey Horse does not do any advertising, and our client base consists primarily of referrals from the relationships we’ve built over the years. We have been a remote-only company long before it became more common due to the pandemic, and the centerpiece of our communications is our email newsletter, which has over 20k active subscribers.

Our newsletter isn’t just about what our clients are up to — we feature book reviews from our team, links to articles we’ve read recently that we think our readers will enjoy, and curated job listings from companies we are excited about. Each newsletter leads with an op-ed I write about everything from AI and deep fakes to Martha Stewart as a Sports Illustrated cover girl. We also publish separate issues featuring interviews with activists and educators.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

I read HBR pretty regularly and find MIT Technology Review particularly interesting for new scientific innovations. Most of the time when I read books like ‘So you’ve been publicly shamed’ about crisis communications I’m struck by how differently most women’s experiences may be online because ‘public shame’ often includes threats of bodily harm and degradation based on looks, weight or behavior and it gives me pause – and makes me think I need to write an update (or two).

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.greyhorse.com
• Instagram: @kate_gardiner
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kategardiner
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kategardiner/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/kategardiner

Image Credits
Adrian Buckmaster