Full Name
Peter Shankman
Company
The Geek Factory
Speaker Bio
Called “a public relations allstar who knows everything about new media and then some," Peter Shankman
is a spectacular example of what happens when you merge the power of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity
Disorder (ADHD) with a desire to improve the world. A bestselling author, entrepreneur, and speaker, Peter
is recognized worldwide for radically new ways of thinking about the Customer Economy, Entrepreneurship,
Social Media, PR, marketing, advertising. And ADD/ADHD.
Peter is best known for founding Help A Reporter Out, (HARO) which in under a year became the defacto
standard for thousands of journalists looking for sources on deadline, offering them more than 200,000
sources around the world looking to be quoted in the media. HARO is currently the largest free source
repository in the world, sending out over 1,500 queries from worldwide media each week. HARO’s tagline,
“Everyone is an Expert at Something”, proves over and over again to be true, as thousands of new members
join at helpareporter.com each week. In June of 2010, less than two years after Peter started HARO in his
apartment, it was acquired by Vocus, Inc.
Peter is the founder of ShankMinds: Breakthrough, an online entrepreneurial community, with members in
morethan ten countries. Peter also hosts an awardwinning podcast on ADD and ADHD, Faster Than
Normal, which is helping to turn the conversation around ADHD from curse to gift, by interviewing successful
people who have made ADHD their secret superpower.
Peter’s Customer Economy and Corporate clients have included American Express, Sprint, The US
Department of Defense, INCOMM, Starwood Hotels, United Airlines, Royal Bank of Canada, Snapple
Beverage Group, Saudi Aramco, Foley Hoag, LLP, NASA, Haworth, Walt Disney World, Abercrombie and
Kent, The Ad Council, Discovery Networks, New Frontier Media, Napster, Juno, Dream Catcher
Destinations Club, Harrah’s Hotels, and many, many others.
Peter is the author of four books: Zombie Loyalists: Using Great Service to Create Rabid Fans
(Palgrave/Macmillan, 2015,) Nice Companies Finish First: Why Cutthroat Management is Over, and
Collaboration is in (Palgrave/Macmillan, 2013,) Customer Service: New Rules for a Social Media World (Que
BizTech 2010,) and Can We Do That?! Outrageous PR Stunts That WorkAnd Why Your Company Needs
Them (Wiley and Sons, 2006,) and and is a frequent keynote speaker and workshop presenter at
conferences and tradeshows worldwide, including South By Southwest, TEDx, Affiliate Summit, BlogWorld,
TBEX, The Public Relations Society of America, CTIA, CTAM, CES, PMA, OMMA, Mobile Marketing Asia,
and the Direct Marketing Association.
Born and raised in New York City, Peter still resides there with his beautiful wife and daughter, and cats
NASA and Leeloo, all of whom consistently deny his repeated requests to relinquish the couch. In the few
hours of spare time Peter has per month he’s completed 22 marathons, seven Olympic distance triathlons,
four halfIronman triathlons, and one full Ironman Triathlon. He’s also a “B” licensed skydiver with over 400
jumps. In 2011, Peter authored a tweet that was voted as one of the Top Ten Tweets of the year by Twitter,
out of more than 160,000,000,000 tweets sent.
is a spectacular example of what happens when you merge the power of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity
Disorder (ADHD) with a desire to improve the world. A bestselling author, entrepreneur, and speaker, Peter
is recognized worldwide for radically new ways of thinking about the Customer Economy, Entrepreneurship,
Social Media, PR, marketing, advertising. And ADD/ADHD.
Peter is best known for founding Help A Reporter Out, (HARO) which in under a year became the defacto
standard for thousands of journalists looking for sources on deadline, offering them more than 200,000
sources around the world looking to be quoted in the media. HARO is currently the largest free source
repository in the world, sending out over 1,500 queries from worldwide media each week. HARO’s tagline,
“Everyone is an Expert at Something”, proves over and over again to be true, as thousands of new members
join at helpareporter.com each week. In June of 2010, less than two years after Peter started HARO in his
apartment, it was acquired by Vocus, Inc.
Peter is the founder of ShankMinds: Breakthrough, an online entrepreneurial community, with members in
morethan ten countries. Peter also hosts an awardwinning podcast on ADD and ADHD, Faster Than
Normal, which is helping to turn the conversation around ADHD from curse to gift, by interviewing successful
people who have made ADHD their secret superpower.
Peter’s Customer Economy and Corporate clients have included American Express, Sprint, The US
Department of Defense, INCOMM, Starwood Hotels, United Airlines, Royal Bank of Canada, Snapple
Beverage Group, Saudi Aramco, Foley Hoag, LLP, NASA, Haworth, Walt Disney World, Abercrombie and
Kent, The Ad Council, Discovery Networks, New Frontier Media, Napster, Juno, Dream Catcher
Destinations Club, Harrah’s Hotels, and many, many others.
Peter is the author of four books: Zombie Loyalists: Using Great Service to Create Rabid Fans
(Palgrave/Macmillan, 2015,) Nice Companies Finish First: Why Cutthroat Management is Over, and
Collaboration is in (Palgrave/Macmillan, 2013,) Customer Service: New Rules for a Social Media World (Que
BizTech 2010,) and Can We Do That?! Outrageous PR Stunts That WorkAnd Why Your Company Needs
Them (Wiley and Sons, 2006,) and and is a frequent keynote speaker and workshop presenter at
conferences and tradeshows worldwide, including South By Southwest, TEDx, Affiliate Summit, BlogWorld,
TBEX, The Public Relations Society of America, CTIA, CTAM, CES, PMA, OMMA, Mobile Marketing Asia,
and the Direct Marketing Association.
Born and raised in New York City, Peter still resides there with his beautiful wife and daughter, and cats
NASA and Leeloo, all of whom consistently deny his repeated requests to relinquish the couch. In the few
hours of spare time Peter has per month he’s completed 22 marathons, seven Olympic distance triathlons,
four halfIronman triathlons, and one full Ironman Triathlon. He’s also a “B” licensed skydiver with over 400
jumps. In 2011, Peter authored a tweet that was voted as one of the Top Ten Tweets of the year by Twitter,
out of more than 160,000,000,000 tweets sent.
