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

Steve, appreciate you joining us today. Can you share an important lesson you learned in a prior job that’s helped you in your career afterwards?

As a rookie sports reporter at a small Florida newspaper, I butted heads with the local high school football coach. He felt I should be a cheerleader for the local team. Ten years later, as Washington Correspondent for another newspaper, a U.S. senator and I clashed for the same reason. He felt I should write only positive stories about the local senator. The lesson I learned was that you must stay true to your core values. Most important is not being liked – that will come. Most important is the integrity of the work.

Steve, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I like to think that I have spent more than four decades telling stories that matter – as a Washington correspondent, government speechwriter, adjunct professor, life coach, novelist, and photographer.

I joined The Communication Center (TCC) in Washington, D.C. 2013 after ten years at the U.S. General Services Administration, where I served as deputy communications director and chief speechwriter. I’m also the author of three political novels—Pretender, Bootlicker, and Bella—plus the self-help guide, Your New Fighting Stance, drawn from my work as a certified life coach. I am currently working on a fourth political novel titled, The Run of Their Lives.

Across each role, from chasing headlines to penning novels to coaching future communicators, I have remained a storyteller at heart. I am hopeful that my journey reflects a lifelong commitment to clear, impactful communication, delivered with warmth and integrity.

In my role as Training Director at TCC, I work with leaders from various industries to sharpen their public speaking, presentation, and media interview skills. I find it rewarding to help clients gain confidence – whether it’s guiding a nervous executive through a high-stakes speech or training a subject-matter expert to handle tough questions from reporters. The brand I strive for is simple: to be a coach who listens closely, offers sharp, actionable insight, and genuinely cares about helping others grow.

As a photographer, I have a similar goal: truth in every frame. My website, piacentephotos.com, showcases a growing portfolio of powerful visuals that have attracted a loyal audience, including more than 10,000 followers on Instagram. Whether documenting the streets of D.C. or the serenity of a distant coastline, I try to use photography to tell wordless stories with depth, warmth, and clarity.

Have you ever had to pivot?

After 9/11, the bottom dropped out of the newspaper industry. Advertisers stopped advertising and newspapers felt it badly. First to go were the Washington Correspondent jobs. I lost mine and – despite having won awards and receiving stellar performance reviews – found myself staring at unemployment. Oh, yeah, we had three young kids at the time.

The problem, or so I thought, was that I only knew how to do one thing – be a reporter. If I’d had a life coach, he or she would have told me no, I’d actually learned a lot being a journalist that transferred nicely to other disciplines. I could have been a full-time professor, or gone into PR, or worked as a press secretary. What I wound up doing was speechwriting. Though I’d never written speeches, I was hired based on my writing ability. One hiring manager told me, “You can write. You’ll figure it out.”

The pivot was tricky at first. My principals kept complaining that I was trying to get them to sound like me rather than writing in their voices. It took some time, but I figured it out. And then it became fun.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

When I was a young reporter, my editor called me aside one day and said, “Steve, do you want anyone to ever read your stories?” Naturally I was shocked. I said sheepishly that of course I wanted people to read my stories. He then told me the key that has served me through several careers, and which informs everything I put on social media. He said, “If you want people to read your stories – if you want them to pay attention – you have to answer two questions right away.” The questions were: Why does it matter, and why should I care.” When you run your social media posts through that filter, it paves the way for audience connection. Most people fall into the trap of posting whatever occurs to them. This simple tip has helped me attract nearly 11K Instagram followers and more than 2,000 Linkedin followers.

Contact Info:

• Website: stevepiacente.com piacentephotos.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stevepiacente/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/piacentephotos/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevepiacente/
• Twitter: https://x.com/wordsprof
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/StevePiacente
• Other: https://www.thecommunicationcenter.com/

Image Credits

All photos by Steve Piacente