No, that is NOT me in the above photo. I’m not THAT crazy! But, Peter Shankman evidently is. He is co-hosting #DadChat this Thursday, September 26 from 6:00 – 7:00 p.m. PT/9:00 – 10:00 p.m. ET. When we discussed what topic he’d like to do at #DadChat he said the following, “…the concept of people giving up what they love when they have a child if what they love happens to be dangerous. Skydiving makes me a better person, and why wouldn’t I want to be the best person I can be to my child? Let alone teaching my child to understand and embrace fear, to learn from it. But ask some people, and I’m the worst dad in the world because I still jump from planes after spawning a young’in.“ How we Confront Fear is our topic because Peter has more or less expressed that sky-diving is easy in comparison to raising kids!
Who doesn’t feel afraid about being a parent, about blowing it, saying or doing something that will damage them forever!? We’ll confront these fears with Peter, ask questions, share thoughts and stories, and otherwise become the better for it!
Below, find a full biography of Peter – I’m including all of it because you deserve to know about this incredible dude:
PR Week Magazine has described Peter as “redefining the art of networking”, and Investor’s Business Daily has called him “crazy, but effective.” Peter Shankman is a spectacular example of what happens when you merge the power of pure creativity with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) along with a dose of adventure, and make it work to your advantage.
An author, entrepreneur, speaker, and worldwide connector, Peter is globally recognized for radically new ways of thinking about marketing, customer service, advertising, PR, and social media.
Peter is currently the co-founder of Shankman | Honig, a global consultancy that empowers companies to better utilize their customer service to increase revenues and decrease marketing costs.
Peter Speaking in Bogota, Colombia (2012)
Peter is best known for founding Help A Reporter Out, (HARO) in 2008, which in under a year became the number one website for thousands of journalists on deadline to connect with experts and sources for their stories around the globe. HARO is currently the largest free source repository in the world, sending out over 1,500 queries from top-tier media to more than 300,000 sources each week, enabling any company or any individual to get their expertise in front of the world, entirely for free. HARO’s tagline, “Everyone is an Expert at Something,” proves over and over again to be true, as thousands of new sources add their knowledge at helpareporter.com each week. In June of 2010, less than three years after Peter started HARO in his apartment, it was acquired by Vocus, Inc.
Since 1995, Peter has maintained his award-winning blog at shankman.com, which both comments on and generates news and conversation. Peter consults worldwide to clients ranging from Fortune 50 companies to government agencies, including American Express, Sprint, The US Department of Defense, Royal Bank of Canada, SnappleBeverage Group, Unum, Walt Disney World, United Airlines, Saudi Aramco, Taj Hotels and Resorts, Peninsula Hotels, Foley Hoag, LLP, Haworth, Abercrombie and Kent, Liberty Safe Company, Discovery Networks, Harrah’s Hotels, and many, many others.
Peter is the author of three books: Most recently, Nice Companies Finish First: Why Cutthroat Management is over and Collaboration is In (Palgrave-MacMillan, April, 2013), Customer Service: New Rules for a Social-Enabled World (Que/Pearson, 2010), and Can We Do That?! Outrageous PR Stunts That Work and Why Your Company Needs Them (Wiley and Sons 2006), and is a frequent keynote speaker at corporate summits, conferences, and tradeshows worldwide, including TEDx, South By Southwest, TBEX Europe, Affiliate Summit, BlogWorld Los Angeles and New York, The Public Relations Society of America, CTIA, CTAM, CES, PMA, OMMA, Mobile Marketing Asia, and the Direct Marketing Association, as well as dozens of private corporate events each year.
Peter sits on the advisory boards of several companies, including DailyWorth, ScotteVest and Namely, and is honored to hold a seat on the NASA Civilian Advisory Council. He was appointed to this position by NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. He’s also an angel investor, specializing in very early stage tech, advertising, marketing, and social media companies.
A marketing pundit for several national and international news channels, including CNN, Fox News, The Today Show, and MSNBC, Peter is frequently quoted in major media and trade publications, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune, The New York Daily News, The Associated Press, Reuters and USA Today.
A proud Boston University graduate, Peter started his career at America Online as a Senior News Editor, helping found the AOL Newsroom and spearheading coverage of the Democratic and Republican 1996 conventions, which marked the first time an online news service covered any major political event.
Born and raised in Manhattan as a product of the New York City public schools, Peter still resides in Hell’s Kitchen with his beautiful wife, stunning daughter, and not-so- bright cat, the latter of whom consistently denies his repeated requests to relinquish the couch. In the few hours of spare time Peter has per month, he’s completed 14 marathons, seven Olympic distance triathlons, three half-Ironman triathlons, and one full Ironman Triathlon. He’s also a “B” licensed skydiver with over 300 jumps. In 2011, Peter authored a Tweet that was voted as one of the Top Ten Tweets of the year by Twitter and ABC News, out of more than 120 billion tweets sent.
