Communications Business Advisor – Details, episodes & analysis

Welcome to the Communications Business Advisor™ podcast with host Tara McDonagh. In this bonus episode, Tara sits down with Raise the Tide™ members (and life admin evangelists) Amy Lockmiller and Jessica Onick to talk about something most senior communicators quietly struggle with: the invisible workload of running a life, a home, and a career all at once.

Instead of another conversation about "doing it all," they get honest about why it's not sustainable, how they've built support systems like house managers, family assistants, and concierge services, and why getting help isn't laziness or entitlement — it's a strategic decision that protects mental health, relationships, and career longevity. They share how they found their people, what they delegate, how they navigate guilt and "must be nice" criticism, and how this kind of support has directly impacted their work and families. Tara also explains why she openly talks about her own life admin support, and invites listeners to re-think what they're allowed to ask for in this season of their careers.

In this bonus episode, Tara, Amy, and Jessica cover:

• Why ambitious women in comms don't "suck at adulting" — they're trying to do an impossible load
• The concept of life admin and why it's just as real as your inbox and stakeholder list
• Jessica's journey from senior internal comms leader to solopreneur — and why a house manager became non-negotiable
• Amy's experience as a VP-level comms executive, mom of (soon) five, and how a family assistant changed everything
• The difference between childcare, cleaning, and true house / family management support
• Tactical examples of what their helpers actually do: calendars, appointments, errands, returns, laundry, meal prep, trip packing, organizing, and more
• How they each found their support (local mom / babysitter groups, services like Fay, and creative role descriptions)
• The mindset work: guilt, "must be nice," money, and redefining what you're "allowed" to spend on
  Viewing life admin support as an investment in mental health, marriage, parenting, and career growth
• What it models for kids when they see adults asking for help and valuing a "village" instead of martyrdom
• Tara's offer to share her own house assistant job description so listeners can adapt it for their lives

If you'd like a copy of the house assistant / life admin job description Tara referenced, reach out to team@taramcdonagh.com and her team will send it your way. We've also included a link to Faye, the family organizing service Amy uses, so you can explore whether a similar kind of support might be right for you.

Visit taramcdonagh.com to learn more about working with Tara or sign up for her newsletter on advancing as a Communications Business Advisor:, Level Up: Be Extra and her Raise the Tide™ emails for women in the field Raise the Tide emails for women in the field. 

This episode is sponsored by Raise the Tide™, a professional development ecosystem for women in communications - helping them grow, connect, and lead with confidence through mentorship, coaching, professional development and community.

If you found this episode valuable, please rate and review — we create a movement when we spread a message.

Welcome to the Communications Business Advisor™ podcast with host, Tara McDonagh.  In this episode, Tara gets real about one of the biggest myths she hears from women regularly: that they "suck at networking." Spoiler alert, they don't. They just don't network like men.

Tara explains how traditional, low-touch "networking" settings … PRSA or IABC events,  chamber breakfasts,, award dinners, conference receptions … were built for how men connect and network,  not women.. Instead of trying to "fix" women or force them to network like men, which doesn't work, Tara redefines what authentic networking looks like for women in communications today. Women's networking is  grounded in connection, deep trust, vulnerability, reciprocity, friendship and shared growth.

From there, she opens up about her own year-end business planning retreat and what's next for Raise the Tide™ for women in the Communications field … including big news about its evolution into a full ecosystem designed to support every woman in the communications field, whether corporate, non-profit  agency, or consultant and across geographies.  

• Why women don't "suck" at networking … they just network differently than men. 
• How gender and communication research explain why traditional networking fails many women
• The power of tight-knit, trust-based circles versus broad, surface-level events
• Why changing women isn't the answer … reshaping the environment is
• A behind-the-scenes look at Tara's business planning retreat (and her team's reaction!)
• What's ahead for Raise the Tide™ and how it's expanding into a full ecosystem:
  • The Surge — the original Raise the Tide program for women inside corporate communications
  • The Voyagers — for women consultants and agency owners, launching with an in-person business-planning retreat in San Diego (January 14–16)
  • The Shoreline — a new, accessible online community for women worldwide to learn, connect, and grow
  • The Breakwater — for women continuing to learn in good company after at least one year in The Surge
• Why Tara decided to stop keeping Raise the Tide small — and what it means for the women in the field
• Real stories of growth from program members: clarity, promotions, doubled budgets, 30% raises, and renewed confidence

If you've ever felt isolated, stuck, or unsure how to keep growing in this misunderstood field, Raise the Tide was built for you. And if you already have your footing, she asks for your help in spreading the word so more women can rise.

Visit taramcdonagh.com to learn more about working with Tara or sign up for her newsletter on advancing as a Communications Business Advisor:, Level Up: Be Extra and her Raise the Tide emails for women in the field Raise the Tide emails for women in the field. 

This episode is sponsored by Raise the Tide™, a professional development ecosystem for women in communications - helping them grow, connect, and lead with confidence through mentorship, coaching, professional development and community.

If you found this episode valuable, please rate and review — we create a movement when we spread a message.

Welcome to this week's episode of the Communications Business Advisor™ podcast with Tara McDonagh. Today, Tara dives into one of the most critical challenges communication leaders face in uncertain times—advocating for more resources, influence, and investment when the natural reaction right now is to contract. If you've been questioning how to maintain your role as an advisor and resist slipping into order-taking in the face of budget cuts and chaos, this episode provides the insights and strategies you need to thrive. 

Tara invites listeners to reframe their thinking by stepping out of a scarcity mindset and moving toward abundance. Instead of retreating during times of uncertainty, she emphasizes the unique value that communications leaders bring—from managing reputations to creating calm within chaos. Tara highlights the critical role communications plays in business success, underscoring the function's ability to protect and advance company reputation when it matters most. 

Tara provides actionable advice on how to position Corporate Communications as a necessary investment rather than an area for cuts. From reading the room strategically to building strong internal relationships, Tara gives listeners the tools to make a compelling business case for why their team deserves more resources—even in difficult financial climates. This is about leadership, courage, and stepping into your role as a true strategic advisor. 

To take the next step, visit taramcdonagh.com/levelup to sign up for Tara's "Level Up: Be Extra" email series. This exclusive content dives deeper into the topics explored on the podcast and equips you with actionable insights for your career and team. 

This episode is sponsored by Raise the Tide™, a program tailored to support women in communications, healthcare, and higher education on their path to leadership success. 

If you found this episode valuable, please rate and review Communications Business Advisor™ to help spread the word and elevate the profession.

Welcome to the Communications Business Advisor™ podcast with Tara McDonagh. This week, Tara dives into a timely and scary issue—corporate communications is at risk of losing ground after years of progress. From earning a seat at the table to influencing decisions, these gains of being heard and respected are now under threat in today's economic and corporate environment. What can we do to maintain (and grow) in our gains, defend out space and NOT slip backwards? Listen in.

• Internal Communications at Risk: Respect for roles in internal, executive, and functional communications are at risk as leaders revert to pre-pandemic practices of making decisions then telling communicators to figure out how to message it rather than engaging us in the decisions and TRULY listening to our counsel. 
• Return-to-Office Challenges: Tara explores how return-to-office mandates is a bellwether example of Comms professionals being sidelined as respected advisors and instead being treated as order-takers. Communicators then must handle the fallout amid unrealistic expectations of maintaining positive employee engagement scores while also delivering news that will most certainly negatively impact those scores. 
•  Economic Pressures: Threats (and realities) of tariffs, tight budgets, and scarcity all round in corporations makes it infinitely harder to advocate for resources or staff. Tara discusses how THIS is the new biggest challenge for Communicators throughout organizations everywhere - not what or how to communicate tough challenges, but to do it without being yes men or women and maintaining our influence and boundaries as respected advisors. 

• Advocate, even when it's scary: Tara emphasizes advocating for yourself, your team, and the wider field, or risk losing self-respect and all the gained ground you've achieved for yourself, your team, and your field.
• Set the tone for your role: Teach senior leaders how to treat you AND what to expect from you - that you will call out risks even when it's unpopular and scary. It will bring you respect and showcase your leadership. 
• Focus on Outcomes: Push for metrics tied to organizational goals. For example, if return-to-office policies aim to boost collaboration, ensure results are measured in relation to collaboration - not simply whether bodies show up in the office or retention numbers. 
• Consider Corporate Comms. Consolidation: Crisis comms and incident preparedness is having a moment - out of necessity. If you don't already have a consolidated corp. comms. function with Internal Communications, Public Relations, Crisis Communications, Public Affairs, Event Planning, Executive Communications and business functional communications in the same area - now may be the ideal time to make the case to consolidate. It's not only good for the organization, but also good for the department because they can go in on it together. Together they can ensure that all who need to be engaged in decisions are weighing in. That there is a voice at the table in important discussions because the sum of the parts (or individual comms. functions) are looking at the whole … more on this soon. 

If you've enjoyed the Communications Business Advisor Podcast™ so far, please take a moment to share this episode with someone, drop a rating, or leave a review. We can ignite a movement when we share the message.

Visit taramcdonagh.com to learn more about how to work with Tara. Or follow her content on LinkedIn at: Tara McDonagh, where she posts five days a week on comms.-focused topics.  

The Communications Business Advisor Podcast™ is brought to you by Raise the Tide™, the unique coaching, community and professional development program that elevates corporate women communications leaders and emerging leaders in the communications field. 

Welcome to the Communications Business Advisor™ podcast with Tara McDonagh, your go-to platform for corporate communications professionals who elevate their work, build influence, and solidify their role as critical advisors at the decision-making table. In this episode, we continue our discussion on Moms in Comms, and we tackle it a bit differently this time. 

We hear YOUR voices … YOUR stories … many of them. 

We start with an interview with a Communications leader in the Corporate environment working at a billions-of-dollars, known brand in North America and we end with sharing several perspectives from many women from the Senior Manager to Senior Vice President level at Corporations - all in Communications functions (PR, Internal Comms, Executive Comms, Public Affairs, and Crisis Comms). 

We purposefully kept full names and companies out of this episode so we could encourage candid conversations. And here's what we tackle: 

Motherhood bias

Motherhood biases still impact women in the workplace, from doubts about leadership capabilities to unfair societal expectations. From navigating fertility treatments, announcing pregnancies at work, and being "typecast" as a working mom. This episode challenges the "mom vs. child-free" divide, emphasizing that structural change is the key to advancing our field and the women in it. 

Child-free women perspective and Male allies

Tara speaks with her guest, Andrea, about what it was like for them both before they became parents and what biases they remember from that time, as well as the systems set up to divide us rather than unite us. Related to this, we discuss men's role in being active advocates and allies in this mission of inclusion and growth for women in our field. 

Challenging Workplace Norms

From outdated maternity leave policies to rigid return-to-office mandates, corporate systems can keep Moms from elevating in their careers. Tara and her guests encourage leaders to push for inclusivity, remote or hybrid solutions, and even innovative ideas to continue the growth path for women. Success stories showcase women securing promotions, negotiating confidently, and driving change within their industries.

This episode is sponsored by Raise the Tide™, a program for women communications leaders working in the corporate environment.

Visit taramcdonagh.com to learn more about how to work with Tara. Or follow her content on LinkedIn at: Tara McDonagh where she posts five days a week on comms.-focused topics.  

Share your thoughts by rating and reviewing! For more insights, subscribe to Level Up: Be Extra and elevate your Communications leadership game.

Welcome to the Communications Business Advisor™ podcast with Tara McDonagh. This week, we kick off a two-part series on navigating communications leadership through the lens of motherhood, bias, and systemic challenges. Tara shares her personal experiences navigating being in this field both as a mom - and as a child free woman for quite a long period of her career. And she ties it all to why we deal with it and what to do about it.

In this episode of the Communication Business Advisor Podcast, Tara McDonagh explains:

• The Motherhood Penalty & Gender Bias – Women face pay gaps, earning less than men for the same roles. The numbers reduce even worse when you become a mother - the motherhood penalty. Tara shares her own experience navigating workplace bias when she was a child-free woman, challenges in the workplace on the path to motherhood including fertility treatments, and the reality that she was unsupported in a system that made her choose between being a present parent or taking a role truly worthy of her expertise and leadership - but one would need to be sacrificed.
• Bridging the Mom vs. Non-Mom Divide – Workplace structures often pit mothers and non-mothers against each other. Tara highlights shared struggles and calls for collective action to create supportive, equitable environments.
• Fixing the System, Not Ourselves – Citing Nobel Prize-winning research, Tara advocates for systemic reforms like flexible policies and remote work, emphasizing that workplaces—not women—must adapt.
  
  

Tune in next week for Part 2, featuring candid insights from women in communications.

This episode is sponsored by Raise the Tide™, a program for women in corporate, healthcare, and higher education communications.

Visit taramcdonagh.com to learn more about how to work with Tara. Or follow her content on LinkedIn at: Tara McDonagh where she posts five days a week on comms.-focused topics.  

Share your thoughts by rating and reviewing! For more insights, subscribe to Level Up: Be Extra and elevate your Communications leadership game.

This one was first released last year and listening to it again, I was struck by how relevant it still is. If you're a woman in this field, or just interested in learning more about the unique challenges women in this field face … maybe you manage them or are managed by one, or collaborate with them … this is the episode for you. Listen in and let me know what you think. 

Women dominate the Communications field in numbers, but not in leadership roles. Why? Couple gender bias together with our misunderstood and oversimplified field and we have a fight on our hands. 

In this episode of the Communication Business Advisor Podcast, Tara McDonagh explains:

• Equal Pay Day and International Women's Day - and why companies will recognize one while ignoring the other (or maybe they'll ignore both in 2025).
• Gender bias in the workplace and its impact on women's careers - and how and why that shows up even more for women in Communications. 
• How second-generation bias, the just world hypothesis and the double-bind impact women at work. 
• What to do about this challenge. 
• Where to follow more content on women in communications: www.linkedin.com/company/raise-the-tide-for-women 

If you've enjoyed the Communications Business Advisor Podcast so far, please take a moment to share this episode with someone, drop a rating, or leave a review. We can ignite a movement when we share the message.

Visit taramcdonagh.com to learn more about how to work with Tara. Or follow her content on LinkedIn at: Tara McDonagh where she posts five days a week on comms.-focused topics. 

The Communications Business Advisor Podcast is brought to you by Raise the Tide, the unique coaching, community and professional development program that elevates corporate women communications leaders and emerging leaders in the communications field.

Welcome to Episode 22 of the Communications Business Advisor™ podcast with your host, Tara McDonagh. This week, Tara explores the love and frustration many communications professionals feel for their field. She candidly discusses challenges like small teams, underfunded departments, and underappreciation, while also talking about the emotional highs of getting that seat at the decision-making table as an underdog and knowing we made a difference.

The Trials and Triumphs of Communications Leadership 

• Tara dives into how ambitious overachievers are drawn to this field.  Not because it's easy. But because it's hard. 
• She addresses the frustrations of limited resources, paired with the satisfaction of being the underdog who positions communications as a key advisory function - and delivers. 
• Tara challenges professionals to stop seeing leadership opportunities as a privilege and start treating them as the norm. 
• Listeners will leave inspired to advocate for their teams and reframe their mindset around their role as an essential business leader. 

Explore more at taramcdonagh.com and sign up for the "Level Up: Be Extra" newsletter for exclusive career resources. 

This episode is proudly sponsored by the Raise the Tide™ program, elevating the Communications field and the women in it.

If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review the podcast—your support helps elevate these conversations and the communications profession!

Welcome back to the Communications Business Advisor Podcast! This episode dives into a fundamental question every communications leader should ask: "How Important Is It?"

Tara McDonagh shares insights from a recent strategic planning session with a comms team, where the question revealed surprising opportunities for efficiency, clarity, and advocacy. If you're a communications leader juggling endless priorities, struggling with resource constraints, or looking for ways to focus on what truly matters, this episode is for you.

• Rethinking Prioritization as a Gift
  Tara challenges the notion of prioritization as a "dirty word," reframing it as a tool to unlock more—more resources, clarity, and focus.
  
  
• A Fresh Approach to the Prioritization Process
  Discover how Tara's simple yet strategic framework evaluates tasks based on risk, business importance, and communication expertise required. Learn why adding a "people-pleasing bucket" can help identify work that distracts from critical goals.
  
  
• Empowering Others Through Toolkits and Processes
  Why letting go of low-risk, low-value tasks isn't just about delegation—it's about empowering colleagues and preserving your team's capacity for impactful work.
  
  
• How to Advocate for Resources While Holding the Line
  Tara offers practical advice on navigating conversations with executives who may not understand the nuances of communications. From socializing strategic plans to using advocacy questions, she provides actionable steps for negotiating effectively.
  
  

Keep advising, my friends. Keep advising.

If you're ready to partner with Tara for a workshop, speaker engagement, or ongoing counsel, reach out soon—spots for 2025 are filling up fast. Visit www.taramcdonagh.com for more details.

Raise the Tide™ proudly sponsors this episode, supporting communications leaders as they navigate their careers, connect across industries, and redefine success. Learn more at www.raisethetide.net.

Welcome back to the Communications Business Advisor Podcast! It's 2025, and with a new year comes the chance to adopt a new mindset - because mindset can change everything. 

Today, Tara McDonagh challenges communications leaders to rethink the way they prioritize their time and energy in their organizations. If you've ever struggled with justifying your workload, advocating for resources, or redefining your leadership role, this episode is for you.

Why "Because I Get Paid Too Much" Matters: Tara challenges the misconception that strategic leaders recognizing their value is arrogance, reframing it as essential business thinking. By aligning task complexity with expertise, leaders enhance their presence while safeguarding company resources. 

The "Must Do" Exercise for Work and Life:  Tara presents a simple yet powerful exercise to categorize responsibilities into "Must Do" (tasks only you can handle) and "Someone Must Do" (tasks that can be delegated). By adopting a mindset of strategic delegation, leaders can create space for high-value work while achieving better personal balance. 

Building the Case (and Mindset) for Resources:  Tara highlights the importance of mindset, urging communications leaders to recognize their value as a foundation for advocating for resources. She shares how building a business case for resources doesn't start with writing or research but rather mindset - even if people think they have that part covered. It likely still needs some work before an impact can be made.

Want support in navigating this journey? Swing by www.taramcdonagh.com.

And be sure to sign up for Level Up: Be Extra emails for even more exclusive insights. 

Raise the Tide™ is proud to sponsor this episode, empowering women in communications to amplify their careers, connect across industries, and redefine leadership on their terms. For more, visit www.raisethetide.net.