In this episode of the VideoMy Pod’s US Series, host David Macciocca and co-host Bryan Cheney, founder of People Nerd and People Brand Collective (PBC), sit down with one of PBC's co-founders, Crystal Lay, to explore a topic that doesn’t get nearly enough airtime: the isolation, lack of standards, and professional fragmentation facing employer brand and people communications practitioners today — and what’s being done about it.
Drawing on over two decades in the industry, including stints in marketing, HR, consulting, and agency work, Crystal shares why employer brand professionals are among the loneliest in the workforce, why the industry is about 10 years behind traditional marketing in terms of maturity and structure, and why she and Brian set out to build something bigger than a conference or a Slack group. She also gets into what makes a community genuinely work, why PBC deliberately includes agencies, vendors, and consultants as equals, and what it would mean for the industry to finally have its own professional standards, research, and advocacy body.
For anyone working in employer brand, recruitment marketing, or people communications (whether you’re a team of one or part of a larger function) this episode will resonate deeply and might just make you feel a little less alone.
Key Topics:
02:00 – Crystal’s background: from marketing to recruiting to 20+ years in employer brand
06:00 – The epidemic of loneliness and why it’s hitting EB practitioners especially hard
10:00 – Why EB and people brand professionals are the “redheaded stepchildren” of every industry group
14:00 – The gap PBC is trying to fill: no professional home, no standards, no advocacy
18:00 – Why PBC includes agencies, vendors, and consultants as equal members — not second-class ones
22:00 – Consultant speak, individual identity, and remembering your personal value
25:30 – Who disproportionately ends up outside corporate roles — and why that matters
28:00 – What community success actually looks like: Dunbar’s theory and the deeper metrics
31:00 – Creating industry standards, original research, and a living knowledge base
33:30 – How PBC services members globally across time zones and learning formats
34:30 – Why employer brand deserves the same advocacy SHRM gives to HR
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