Heidi Otway: Welcome to the Fluent in Floridian Podcast, featuring the Sunshine State's brightest leaders, talking about the issues most important to the people of Florida and its millions of weekly visitors. I'm Heidi Otway, president of Salter Mitchell PR. This is the 100th episode of our podcast, and in this special edition, I'm talking with April Salter, the founder of our firm which is celebrating 25 years in business in 2024. Welcome to the Fluent in Floridian Podcast, brought to you by SalterMitchell Public Relations. I'm Heidi Otway, the president of SalterMitchell PR and this is our 100th episode. Special time of the year for us because, April, you're celebrating 25 years in business after founding our firm.

April Salter: I can't believe it.

Heidi Otway: I can't believe it either. Man, how time flies.

April Salter: Time flies, it sure does.

Heidi Otway: Who would have thought that, when you started the podcast, what was it, in 2017?

April Salter: That's when podcasting was really beginning to take off and had no idea we'd make it to 100 episodes. But here we are.

Heidi Otway: Here we are. In this episode, we're really going to be diving into talk about April and her story history as a Floridian, and an entrepreneur, and actually one of my dearest friends and my mentor. Let's dive in and let's not cry.

April Salter: Let's do it.

Heidi Otway: Let's not cry.

April Salter: Let's try not to cry because I ugly cry.

Heidi Otway: I ugly cry, too.So, April, I want to go all the way back to the beginning. I know that you grew up in Key West, which is really true Florida. So tell us about that experience.

April Salter: I am very lucky that I have spent almost my entire life in Florida. I lived, for about 10 years, in Key West. I had previously lived in Bermuda, that was one of the only places outside of Florida that I've lived. But, Key West was back in the early '70s through the beginning of the '80s. It was a very different place than it is now, and sometimes it's hard for me to go back, and see the cruise ships, and see just how much it's changed. But it was a very wonderful way to grow up. As I look back, I have said, "You'd never go hungry as a kid in Key West," because there were mango trees and coconuts. There was always things to do. We'd eat sea grapes. It was a very different and idyllic place. You could ride your bike anywhere, the island is so small. We would take off on a little raft/boat, I think it was actually the packing to a refrigerator that we turned into ... It was styrofoam, very bad environmentally, would never do it today. But it was like a little boat, and we would use that little boat, and off we would go, trailing styrofoam behind us. But we could go fishing, or we could go crabbing, or whatever we wanted about the mangroves. It was completely safe and our parents had no idea where we were all day long. They just knew we were okay.

My dad was in the Navy, so we lived in Navy bases. Actually, I've lived in every Navy installation in Key West and I think there's five of them.

Heidi Otway: Wow.

April Salter: But, Key West was a very different place then. It's a joy to return always, no matter how much it's changed.

Heidi Otway: Yeah. Now, were you a very talkative child? Because most folks who work in public relations or communications, we were very communicative at an early age.

April Salter: They put on your report card, "Talks too much."

Heidi Otway: Yes, that was me, too.

April Salter: Hey, that's because they didn't like girls talking. At the time, it was let the boys talk.

Heidi Otway: Yeah.

April Salter: But yeah, of course.

Heidi Otway: Yeah. Then, when you left Key West, you made your way all the way north to Tallahassee.

April Salter: Florida State University.

Heidi Otway: Yeah, talk about that.

April Salter:

Had never been to Tallahassee. I'd enrolled at Florida State because my sister had gone here. I lived in the Southern Scholarship Foundation housing, which was wonderful. It's a terrific program that was started many years ago, to allow students who are first generation college students to attend college rent-free. It's a communal housing, you live together with kids that are very different from you. Everybody has responsibilities. It was a great way for me to go to college and made it affordable. Florida State was just a whole new world for me. I quickly jumped into the Florida Flambeau scene. Yeah.

Heidi Otway: That's the-

April Salter: That was the student newspaper, so hung out with very interesting, cool people. Got to interview amazing ... Dr. Ruth.

Heidi Otway: Oh!

April Salter: If anyone remembers who Dr. Ruth was, she was totally fun.

Heidi Otway:

Yeah.

April Salter: Bo Diddley, hung out with Bo Diddley all day one day. Just go some really incredible experiences and met some lifelong friends.

Heidi Otway: Good. Then, when you graduated, what was your first big job and career?

April Salter: My first job was at the Teacher's Union, actually, the Education Association. Then, I jumped over to MGT of America, which is management consulting. But, always in the communications space. At MGT, I did survey research and ran their survey research department because I had done that in college, as a part-time job. You never know where those part-time jobs are going to lead. I actually worked for someone who is now one of my dearest friends, Annalise Oppenheim, when I was at FSU. It gave me a great foundation for communications, research and strategy.

Heidi Otway: Yeah.

April Salter: I'm happy that I've been able to thread that through my entire career.

Heidi Otway: Yeah. Then, you went to become a public servant, working in state government.

April Salter: Yes. When Lawton Chiles was running, I just was infatuated with him. I thought he was such a wonderful public servant, such a great example of what government should be. When he was running for office, I jumped into the campaign. They wound up throwing me into all kinds of interesting situations. From there, I joined the administration and was fortunate ... Either I couldn't keep a job or I was the go-to communicator. They sent me all over. I worked in the Department of Health, which at the time it was called HRS. I worked at the Department of Commerce, the Department of Environmental Protection, the Lieutenant Governor's Office, and then the Governor's Office. It was a whirlwind eight years and it was the best experience of my life.

Heidi Otway: That's where I first met you. I was a [inaudible 00:06:45] reporter.

April Salter: Right, I remember.

Heidi Otway: In the Capital Press Corp. I was sent to go do interviews.

April Salter: You and Lisa Hall.

Heidi Otway: With the Governor Lawton Chiles. Yeah, Lisa Hall would send me over to do the interviews. I'll never forget, my very first interview with Governor Lawton Chiles. It was around agriculture. The farmers brought in a big box of fresh corn. I'm standing there with my videographer and someone said, "Governor, bite the corn." He literally picked the corn out of the box-

April Salter: That's my guy.

‍

Heidi Otway: Shucked it down, and he bit it, raw, fresh corn. I'm 22-years-old and I'm like, "What is going on?"

April Salter: That's our guy. That's my Governor, he was amazing.

Heidi Otway: He was amazing. Every time we would engage, I would either have to call you because we didn't have cell phones, we didn't have beepers on us.

April Salter: Right. I did.

Heidi Otway: Right.

April Salter: I was tied to my beeper.

Heidi Otway: You might have had a beeper.

April Salter: Right.

Heidi Otway: It was just really good. That's how I really came to know you.

April Salter: Yeah.

Heidi Otway: It was April, April. Here we are.

April Salter: It's so funny. What a history. What a history. Working in the Governor's Office was truly exciting. Every day was different. I have not thrown away my calendars from that time.

Heidi Otway: Wow.

April Salter: I look at my notes because it was a little planner that you could make notes every day. Whatever I had planned to do that day was not what I did that day. It was always interesting, difficult problems to work on and lots of amazingly talented people.

Heidi Otway: Yeah. Then, after losing Governor Chiles, which impacted us tremendously, you having worked with him, me having to be that reporter to come and tell that tragic story around the world, you set out to do something different. Let's talk about that.

April Salter: Well, once you leave the Governor's Office, it's hard to figure out what you want to do after that. It's hard to top that. I looked around Tallahassee and couldn't find a job that was the right job for me. I decided to open my own firm, so I opened it up with me and an intern who joined me, who had worked for me in the Governor's Office. We won our first contract and I about had a panic attack thinking, "How am I possibly going to do all the work I've promised to do? Deliverables are due in two weeks." That was my first big contract, was Buckle Up Florida. It was a great big contract, for somebody just starting their firm. It was a great start, and the first of many wonderful clients and causes that I was able to work for.

Heidi Otway: Yeah. What are you most proud of? Thinking back to Hurley Communications Group, and then you launched another company.

April Salter: Yeah.

Heidi Otway: This is not your only business. You got a couple of businesses out there.

April Salter: Yeah.

Heidi Otway: Let's talk about a little bit of the evolution, a little bit.

April Salter: Well, I think that's the joy of being in business and being able to set your own course, is that you can move and change with the times. I was fortunate, I had a longtime friend, Peter Mitchell, who approached me to start a second company after I had Hurley Communications Group. We started Marketing For Change, which was a wholly different advertising agency. Had that for a couple of years, decided to merge the two companies. At that point, we grew to about 50 employees, we had offices in three cities. But I was spending all my time doing administrative work. I didn't really have time for clients or really for my own life. Decided to downsize and we called it a de-merger. We de-merged, and with my wonderful longtime friend and partner, Heidi, we started Salter Mitchell PR. We have had a lot of fun in the last few years.I think that the key is the evolution, change. I started real estate as a hobby about, I don't know, 12 years ago, just after the Great Recession when real estate prices were way down. I bought a couple of properties, and I just fell in love with that business as well. I do feel like I'm the cat who got lucky and has nine lives. I have all these different interests. I really enjoy doing the real estate as well as Salter Mitchell PR.

Heidi Otway: The Fluent in Floridian Podcast is brought to you by Salter Mitchell PR, a communications consultancy focused on helping good causes and clients win. We provide strategic insight and guidance to organizations seeking to make an impact in the nation's third most populous state. Learn more at smprflorida.com. Now, back to our interview with April Salter, the founder and CEO of Salter Mitchell PR, which is celebrating 25 years in business in 2024.

Well, I've been with you for 20 years and I've learned so much about just business and life. Both of us raised our families-

April Salter: That's right.

Heidi Otway: Within the company. We've also been able to pivot, and just look ahead to what is going to impact us, and how do we position the company so that we can continue to grow and serve our clients. For those who are listening, you have all this wealth of knowledge with different industries, different clientele from the CEO to the marketing director. As people are listening into this conversation and wondering, "I'm just getting started," or, "I'm ready to accelerate my company," you as a business woman, founder, entrepreneur, what would be your best advice to them as they're thinking through how to navigate? Especially these times, where we're having so many things that are disrupting the way we do business, from AI, to remote working, to just the climate of our country.

April Salter:I think we have to change the frame on that a little bit. I think that the goal for any well-lived life is to continue learning, is to continue evolving, to continue to learn new things. To not begrudgingly go along with the change, but to embrace it and to lead it. And to say, "I don't know much about this, but I want to learn everything I can. Tell me more, tell me more, tell me more." I think that's what I've enjoyed the most because, for example, there are things I take from my real estate business that are directly applicable to our PR business. Things from PR obviously are helping me with vacation rentals, and so forth. But I think that the overall mentality of how can I learn more today so I can be better prepared for tomorrow, what do I need to keep doing. Whether that's listening to masterclasses. I listen to tons of podcasts. My husband, of course, tells me, "Put your phone down." But I'm always listening, and learning, and trying to take on new interests because I think that's what keeps you happy, that's what keeps you alive. It opens doors for you.The other thing, I think, is I have really enjoyed the people that I've worked with, the people I've met along the way. When you really listen to people and you really learn their story, you're able to both connect with them and connect them to other people. Because really being present with people, and just being where they're at, it allows you to say, "Gosh, you should really get to know so-and-so. You two ought to get together." Because the more that you can give out of that karma into the world, I believe, the more it comes back to you. The number of referrals that I've gotten from people who I just met. I was on a cruise a couple months ago, and I met somebody on the cruise ship who just rented a month-and-a-half with me at the beach.

Heidi Otway: Wow!

April Salter: You never know where connections are going to lead.

Heidi Otway: Exactly.

April Salter: I think being open to them, and not being afraid. Life is scary. Taking chances is scary. Trying to make payroll is scary. There's a lot of things in life that are challenging.

Heidi Otway: Yeah.

April Salter: I think we just have to put one foot in front of the other, and have courage and say, "I'm going to figure it out. If I can't figure it out, I'm going to ask somebody and they'll help me." One of the things I think I learned early on is I say to people, "I really need your help." The answer, 100% of the time, 100% of time is, "Let me help you. Yes, I will help you." Use that the next time and you need help from the bank, or credit union, or credit card company or whatever.

Heidi Otway: Yeah.

April Salter: Can you help me? The answer will be yes.

Heidi Otway: Yes, yeah. I've learned so many lifelong nuggets from you in our time together. The help one, as I was growing as a community leader and as a business woman to where I'm at now, I remember you saying, "If you ask for help, someone will help you." Especially if your motives are pure and you genuinely need that support to help you get there. You've helped me in so many ways and opened so many doors. I do take that to heart.

The other thing I really learned from you is that always be curious.

April Salter: Yeah.

Heidi Otway: Always be ahead and wondering, "What's the next thing that's going to happen?" Because if you don't know, you don't know. Because you always say that to me.

April Salter: Yeah.

Heidi Otway: "You don't know, you don't know, so go find out."

April Salter: Right.

Heidi Otway: Those were some ... That, and a whole lot of other little nuggets. I'm glad you hit on those for everyone that's listening. What she said does work, it does work.

April Salter: Absolutely. One of the things I'm most proud of, many years ago, I was a member of a group called the Sedona Roundtable. It was PR firms that got together once a year, facilitated by a wonderful man named Al Croft. We would gather once a year in Sedona, Arizona. Who doesn't want to go to Sedona, Arizona? I think that's probably why I first agreed to go to that conference. But, as a result of the friendships that we made there, we spun off our own group. Al Croft had since passed away. We named our group in his honor, The Croft Society. We're now a group of about 18, maybe 20 firms, who get together once a year. That's the whole purpose of it is give til it hurts. Somebody says, "I'm having a problem with an employee, I don't know how to deal with this." 10 people will say, "Here's how I would handle it." Or, "Here's our employee manual." We give til it hurts, we try to share that knowledge with each other because when people need help, they need help. That's how we all ... The rising tide lifts all boats, absolutely true.

Heidi Otway: Yeah.

April Salter: That's what we all need to be doing is helping each other learn and grow.

Heidi Otway: Yeah. At the core of this is relationships.

April Salter: Absolutely.

Heidi Otway: It is relationships. As I think about we have the rise of social media, digital media, everyone connecting online, and the Zoom calls, and less of the in-persons because of the pandemic. I always try to encourage people that you need other people. You can't do this alone. Even I tell our team, "I can't run this business by myself."

April Salter: Right.

Heidi Otway: I need you, I need them, so that we're all working together. Those relationships matter.

April Salter: Sure.

Heidi Otway: In your career, what are the relationships that you feel like man, these are the relationships that just-

April Salter: Too many.

Heidi Otway:I know it's too many.

April Salter: There's too many for me to really say that. I'm not going to ugly cry, so I'm not going to do that.

Heidi Otway: Yeah, we said we weren't going to cry.

April Salter: We're not going to do that.

Heidi Otway: We're not going to do that.

April Salter: But, I do think the key is being there for people and just really trying to do everything you can. When someone asks, you say yes. Because they'll do it 100-fold for you.

Heidi Otway: Yeah.

April Salter: That's just how we all get better.

Heidi Otway: Yeah, that's currency. That's gold. Relationships matter.

April Salter: Yeah. Yeah. It's not just about business.

Heidi Otway: I know, exactly.

April Salter: It's about life.

Heidi Otway: It is. It is. Yeah. Our clients are not just our clients.

April Salter: Fact.

Heidi Otway: They're not just our clients. We said we weren't going to cry, and here we are crying.

April Salter: Boo-hoo-hoo.

Heidi Otway:

Our clients, we become their trusted advisors.

April Salter:

Sure.

Heidi Otway:

We talk about our families.

April Salter: They keep me up at night.

Heidi Otway: Right.

April Salter: It's one of the things that I love about crisis work is that you get in down deep with people. Whether it is their having a lawsuit, they're having some major issue in their business that is jeopardizing the company, the reputation. When you get that close to people ... As a PR counselor, I'm not the kind of person who can just let it go and keep it business. I'm worried about them at night.

Heidi Otway: Yeah.

April Salter: I'm thinking, "What do we need to do to help them?"

Heidi Otway: That's right.

April Salter: "What else could we do? What else could we do?" It's one of the challenges of public relations, I think, is that there's always more that you can do. There's always one more phone call, there's always one more strategy you can employ for that client. It's hard to just take a backseat and say, "It isn't written in the communications plan so we're not going to do that." Well, we do that. I think that's the difference that having a smaller firm allows us to do. We don't have shareholders. We don't have people who are, other than you and I ...

Heidi Otway: Yeah, yeah.

April Salter: We can help people when they need help.

Heidi Otway: Yeah.

April Salter: That means a lot of pro-bono work. Some of the most important work I've done has been pro-bono work. It feels good to do it, employees love to do it, and gosh, the not-for-profits really appreciate it. I feel like it's our responsibility. We have a skillset that is unique and it's up to us to share that.

Heidi Otway: It's very valuable. You can't really put a dollar amount on relationships.

April Salter: Right.

Heidi Otway: You really can't. That's why I love, I think our staff even enjoys when we get to do the pro-bono work, when we're working on ...

April Salter: Sure.

Heidi Otway:

Our whole thing is about helping good causes win.

April Salter: Totally.

Heidi Otway: Yeah.

April Salter: Yeah.

Heidi Otway: That's how we do it.

April Salter: Yeah.

Heidi Otway: Any closing thoughts that you'd like to share with our listeners as we celebrate 25 years of you founding the firm?

April Salter: Yeah.

Heidi Otway: Our 100th episode of our Fluent in Floridian Podcast.

April Salter: I just say thank you. Thank you to our current staff, our past staff. We've had some amazing people!

Heidi Otway: Amazing!

April Salter: And just great opportunity. I just say here's to another 25 years.

Heidi Otway: Here's to another 25 years. Thank you all so much for listening to the Fluent in Floridian Podcast, our 100th episode.

April Salter: Woo-hoo!

Heidi Otway: Celebrating 25 years of April and all her awesomeness.

April Salter: Oh, let's go have some fun.

Heidi Otway: Let's go have some fun.

Thanks for listening to the 100th episode of the Fluent in Floridian Podcast, brought to you by SalterMitchell PR. Our firm is focused on helping good causes and our clients win by providing strategic communications, issues management, crisis communications, creative services, media relations and marketing. Our clients include Fortune 500 companies, small businesses and nonprofits in Florida and across the US. As we celebrate our 25th year in business, we want to thank our clients, employees and friends who've helped us reach this important milestone.

If you need help telling your Florida story, SalterMitchell PR has you covered. You can learn more about us at smprflorida.com, where you can also listen to all of our podcast episodes. You can also listen to us on your favorite podcast app.