Checking In with Gina Sheibley, Chief Comms Officer at Qualtrics

Just Checking In

Corporate communications are often the most human side of a company. For groundbreaking organizations, building a communications team means enhancing new narratives aligned to a common goal. In this episode, Gina Sheibley, CCO at Qualtrics joins the conversation to talk about growing and leading a comms team, her experience working with agencies, and what it means to lay the groundwork for a corporate culture in which mental health and work-life balance within team members are managed as a top priority.

Join technology comms pros Becky Buckman and Keyana Corliss as they cut to the heart of today’s tech-news cycle and the general craziness that is high-tech corporate communications right now. With a short, not-too-serious take on the industry - with plenty of humor and irony thrown in - they’ll bring you the best in the biz, across comms and media together, for one-of-a-kind insights and perspectives you won’t hear anywhere else!

Jump straight into:

(00:58) - Peloton and the ‘Sex And The City’ Reboot - “They have the greatest response to a crisis communications situation ever.”

(04:41) - Introduction of Gina Sheibley - “So excited to have Gina Sheibley on our podcast. Gina’s the Cheif Communications Officer of a super, super hot tech company called Qualtrics.”

(09:04) - Culture first: How does Gina Sheibley grow a team? In-house teams vs. working with an agency - “If you have a small team and you're not able to grow it to the size that you need, you need the scalability of people being able to dial-up and dial down.”

(12:28) - How to manage good relationships with partner agencies - “You got to bring them in.

You have to have those conversations. You have to get people ready because if you are constantly just dropping bombs on them you're not going to get the most out of it at all.”

(16:04) - Assuming the CCO role in a B2B company - “Being a member of the executive team is being able to bring back the conversations that are happening at the strategic level for the business and really helping my team understand that, so we can align what we're doing to business priorities.”

(20:51) - Discussing burnout, work-life balance, motherhood, and mental health in the communications field - “You have to protect your space to ensure that you can perform at your best, that can mean taking 30 minutes in the middle of the day and taking care of yourself.”

(30:26) - Gina’s takeaways on Qualtrics current environment - “I think of a journalist as someone else who has a job to do and where perfection is when we can meet in the middle.”

Episode resources:

Gina Sheibley on Linkedin

Qualtrics

Thank you for listening to Just Checking In by Battery Ventures. Go follow Becky and Keyana on social media to know more about them. If you enjoyed this show leave a review and help us find new audiences!

This show is produced by StudioPod Media in SanFrancisco. Editing and music is provided by Teresa Buchanan. Nicole Genova is the Show Coordinator.