About Spin Sucks
At Spin Sucks, we have a vision. It is to change the perception people have of the PR industry. We're not spin doctors. We're not liars. We're not creators of fake news.
We are ethical. We are upstanding. We live the Golden Rule.
Together, we can change the perception and, in doing so, begin to prove the work we do can affect the goals of an organization—and finally prove the work we do is an investment, not an expense.
Gini Dietrich
Gini Dietrich is the founder, CEO, and author of Spin Sucks, host of the Spin Sucks podcast, and author of Spin Sucks. She has run and grown an agency for the past 14 years. She is co-author of Marketing in the Round, co-host of Inside PR, and co-host of The Agency Leadership podcast.
Laura Petrolino
Laura Petrolino is the chief marketing officer at Spin Sucks, where she contributes weekly to the blog, creates glitter-filled fun in the community, and effectively reads minds. She is a competitive bodybuilder and the founder of the online bakery, Petro Powered Pastries.
Martin Waxman
Martin Waxman is a special projects advisor at Spin Sucks, which means we pick his brain apart when it comes to higher education and how Spin Sucks can contribute to the growth of students. He is a professor and author. In his spare time, he is a comedian and he can play a recorder with his nose.
Dawn Buford
Dawn Buford's official title is executive assistant, but she's also operations manager, HR leader, editor, creative, designer, cat herder, and organizer. There is pretty much nothing Dawn can't do. She also is an incredible baker, according to her colleagues, and is an urban gardener extraordinaire.
Our Founding
Spin Sucks was founded by Gini Dietrich in 2006 as a blog... a terribly written, horribly thought out, not strategic blog. But as we began to understand the digital web and how it built reputation, grew awareness, and improved sales, the little blog founded on Typepad with no direction soon became an industry go-to.
The Book
With the growth of Spin Sucks as an industry "must read", a book was on the horizon. With the help of Pearson, the organization that published Marketing In the Round (a book Gini co-authored with Geoff Livingston), Gini was able to bring the Spin Sucks message—and, with it, the message that the work we do is an investment—to a larger audience.
Professional Development
In 2011, we had a vision to bring the Spin Sucks teaching to a larger stage—and to reach more professionals around the globe. Online education was something being talked about, but not much yet existed. We set out to provide online education to communicators worldwide. To say we were early is putting it mildly.
But today, through the Spin Sucks Academy, we have worked with hundreds of agency owners, corporate communicators, nonprofit specialists, students, professors, solopreneurs, and business leaders in our mutual quest to evolve the PR industry.
The Spin Sucks Academy
In 2020, we created a partnership with the S.I. Newhouse School for Public Communications to bring a certification to professionals who have learned how to correctly and effectively implement the PESO Model, a framework we developed.
Through online training, coaching, and rigorous and forward-thinking education, PESO Model Certified communicators are trained to lead the industry and build and scale integrated communications programs for organizations of all kinds.
"At cocktail receptions, on a plane, in an elevator, or when you meet someone new and they ask what you do, the answer is inevitably, "Oh! You're a spin doctor!" Or, "Ohhhh! You're one of those who lie for a living." Actually, no. Sure, there are subsets of the industry—just like any other industry—where the professionals are unethical, but those of us who believe that spin does suck abide by a code of ethics and live by the Golden Rule."
