Jennifer Fortney is the Founder of Cascade Communications (est. 2001), a nationally acclaimed integrated PR and brand marketing agency serving startups, small businesses, and family enterprises — and author of "Be a Media Magnet: A Bootstrapper's Guide to PR" (Amazon, 2025).
In her nearly 30-year career in PR and marketing communications, Jennifer has worked with household brands, including launching the Appletini and boosting the mixology industry, helped hundreds of companies and nonprofits be discovered and grow - securing more than 20 national cover stories in outlets including The Wall Street Journal and USA Today, and helping startup clients generate $1M or more in revenue in under two years.
She is the creator of the Cascade360 model, a proprietary integrated PR and brand storytelling framework built for long-term visibility, experience and growth. Jennifer and her team were one of five finalist for the PRNews Consumer Product Launch of the Year Award.
Named one of the Top 10 Most Influential Startup PR Professionals in the World and a Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses alumna, Jennifer brings real-world credibility and a practitioner's eye to every stage. A journalism graduate of the University of Kansas, she has written broadcast news, worked in sports and corporate marketing agencies, and served as the PR instructor for SCORE Chicago/Small Business Administration for five years. She is a media expert and contributor and speaker.
Jennifer is an emerging expert on companies in generational transition — the brand, marketing, and PR challenges that arise when family businesses change leadership, need to refresh or rebrand, or reposition for the next generation.
She is available for speaking engagements in the Chicago area and Northwest Indiana, virtual events, and will travel for the right opportunity.
3 topics · no fee, no honorarium, no mileage
Review available topics below. Use the “Request This Free Speech” button and fill out the contact form. Jennifer contacts you to discuss the details of the request.
While the media world continues to shift and change, companies of all sizes are still hungry for the valuable earned media mentions and features that bring an unparalleled credibility. So, what are they to do? Jennifer shares that today, PR is much more than just earned media. It's more than the newspaper story on a plaque on the wall.
It's search, reviews, how you use a story to gain even more traction and create content campaigns around it and best utilize the psychology of marketing and story telling to boost sales and donations.
The way you tell the story of your business or organization is all that matters to your customer. Today, customers want to be more engaged with the companies in which they do business and organizations' they support. The story is the reason they buy or donate. It is what they will share with friends and family when asked about where they purchased or what causes to do they support.
The trick is that not everyone knows how to tell their story well across all platforms. This is where Jennifer comes in to walk you through finding your story and telling it appropriately and consistently for brand building.
Your family business survived the hard part — building something worth passing down or selling. But when leadership transitions to the next generation or new owner, most companies keep the old brand out of loyalty to the founder. That loyalty can quietly work against the new leadership's vision, credibility, and growth as well as the direction of the company.
Jennifer Fortney draws on 25+ years of brand and PR strategy to walk family business owners and next-generation leaders through the marketing blind spots that emerge during generational transition — and what to do about them.
You'll learn:
• the five warning signs your legacy brand is holding new leadership and the company back
• a practical framework for honoring your history while building the future
• and how to reposition your story for the customers, markets and key stakeholders
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