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Daniel Paulling has spent much of his life in the water. He swam from childhood through Rollins College and later discovered Masters Swimming while in graduate school. Since officially joining in 2017, he has never stopped, even becoming a national champion in the 50-meter backstroke.
Outside the pool, Paulling channels that same energy into storytelling. An award-winning communications leader and former newspaper journalist, he now serves as editor-in-chief of Swimmer, the bimonthly magazine for Masters Swimming. There, he sets the strategy for both print and digital, blending technique tips, nutrition advice and human-interest stories that keep members connected to the sport they love.
You’ve had a career journey from journalism to corporate communications. What drew you to make that transition, and how has your journalism background helped you in your current role?
I went to college really wanting to get into sports journalism as my career. I earned my master’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri and was gung-ho about newspaper journalism from there.
I wanted to be a Major League Baseball beat writer. I started working my way up, covering high schools, then colleges, including Texas Tech and the University of Mississippi. But, as often happens in journalism, I got caught up in a company-wide layoff.
After that, I had an opportunity to cover the University of Alabama, which is a prestigious and very challenging sports beat. I was also a swimmer growing up, and ultimately decided to transition into corporate communications, which is my current role.
I do a lot of content marketing and communications. In a way, the layoff helped me make the transition, but I’ve really enjoyed it. There are a ton of great people in this field, and it’s been fascinating to use my journalism skills to strengthen my corporate communications work.
Can you share a moment when communications made a real difference in employee engagement or business outcomes?
We’re currently facing a crisis situation—we’re being sued by the state of Texas regarding our eligibility policy.
It’s easy to get tunnel vision and focus only on what’s best for the organization, but we also had to communicate clearly with our internal audience, members and external stakeholders. We launched our “Swimsuits, Not Lawsuits” campaign, which received strong support from both staff and members.
It’s been tough to manage daily, but the engagement and backing we’ve received has been energizing. It reminded us that involving people and bringing them along with us is key, so we can stay focused on our mission—getting adults in the water, teaching them to swim and providing events and clubs.
The learn-to-swim program with the Boston Celtics sounds amazing. How did that come to life, and what did you take away from it?
In early 2020, Celtics player Tacko Fall—he’s 7-foot-6—took swim lessons with kids at a Boys and Girls Club. I saw that and thought: We should connect him with our adult Learn to Swim instructors in Boston.
Many adults feel nervous about learning to swim alongside children, so this was a chance to show that adults can and should learn, too. We reached out to the Celtics, and they were excited. We even had three or four other players who wanted to participate.
We hosted an event in January 2020, but then COVID hit, and with players getting traded or released, momentum slowed. Still, it taught me that when you see an opportunity — even on social media—you should think, “How can we make this ours? How does this tie to our mission?”
What’s one underrated digital storytelling tactic communicators should be using more?
I rely on Axios’ Smart Brevity approach, because I know people skim —myself included. You have to make information easy to absorb quickly.
It’s about finding creative ways to repeat key messages: emails, infographics, landing pages, shareable graphics, talking points. The more you make it easy for people to engage, the better.
Where do you find your creativity?
I read a lot and listen to podcasts. I also work across email marketing, social media and communications, so I try to bring what I’m learning in other spaces into my role.
For example, how can internal communicators use behavioral science? How can we apply marketing practices to increase engagement or drive action? I schedule time each day — about three hours for deep work in the morning, then about an hour for professional development like reading and listening. It’s been really effective for me.
Do you have any favorite podcasts or resources you’d recommend?
Yes—Behavioral Science for Brands and Nudge are two podcasts I recommend. I also subscribe to Ragan’s newsletters, PR Daily and Ragan. Honestly, there’s so much information out there — reports, YouTube videos, newsletters — that I try to absorb as much as I can and figure out how to apply it to my work.
What’s one piece of career advice you’d give yourself, whether starting in journalism or communications?
I’ll cheat and give two. For journalism: Always have a plan B. When I was in school, no one really talked about layoffs. Then I entered the field, and they were everywhere. Always consider how your skills can be applied to other industries, and network outside your current field.
For communications: Connect your work directly to business outcomes. A mentor once told me: Work as close as you can to the revenue side of the business. Show how your work supports strategy, efficiency, or revenue growth. It’s tough to show ROI in communications, but if you can say, “I helped increase this metric by X percent, which supported Y business goal,” you’ll stand out.
Isis Simpson-Mersha is a conference producer/ reporter for Ragan. Follow her on LinkedIn.
The post US Masters Swimming’s Daniel Paulling’s one underrated digital storytelling tactic appeared first on PR Daily.
