Issue 6: "I'm a people person"
On how the earned media industry will evolve as we stay home
Happy Super Bowl Sunday, all! Enjoy all the carbs and sodium today. We’ll be having gochujang wings, homemade lumpia, hummus and cupcakes. Because, balance. Before you elevate your blood pressure, let’s learn!
Casual friends and the myth of “being in it”: In college, to complete my public relations degree, I had to spend time with a head of communications at a real company and create a project outlining their challenges, programs and career path. I was lucky enough that Bob O’Rourke, the esteemed head of comms at Caltech, answered my email. One of the most vivid things I remember is that he absolutely loathed when hopeful PR team members described themselves as “people persons” as the main drive behind joining the profession. “It means nothing,” he said, shaking a pen at me as I clacked away on my 2007 Mac. “People persons are bores at parties that try to win with charisma. Communications is hard work, it’s consistency, and it’s helping people understand things that don’t seem understandable.” This is the man who was in charge, for decades, of helping make scientists friendly, fuzzy and worthy of public grants and affection. I can’t help but think of him fondly now, as gone are the days we can casually bump into a reporter, analyst or partner at a workout class or corporate event and you know. Influence. Connect over bad canapes. Pitch ideas over a plank. (True story, as a very eager AE I absolutely pitched a journalist at a workout class. It didn’t work). What Mr. O’Rourke was telling me is that he was disappointed with what some assumed the profession entailed: fluff and free stuff. It’s the kind of stuff I sometimes see being celebrated in meme accounts.
I welcome the change. Schmoozing should be less of our profession. Sure, relationship building, yes. But throwing Michelin stars and exclusive Soul Cycle classes at journalists should no longer be the norm. What should be is normalizing good, effective work. But what I do miss is the casual friendships so eloquently written about in The Atlantic built over years of going to the same conferences, or discovering a client, analyst or the social media team likes the same sports bar, boba place, or yoga teacher as you. How do you think relationship building will evolve post pandemic? Will we just fight over Clubhouse invites? Just get deeply transactional? Or, double down on Twitter?
Tone dEAP: We’re a year into the pandemic, and white collar workers working from home. For the love of all that is good - enough with the hollow links to the employee resource program already. Calling a hotline that tells you to eat more greens and try to incorporate more outdoor walks in between meetings helps no one. This tweet sums it up. Communicators - push back against the executive urge to throw links at the problem. Internal communicators: how are you pushing back with leaders on Year 2 engagement strategies as we all continue to work through a pandemic?
Interesting PR & Marketing Roles
Iterable, Senior Manager, PR & Communications
The Bulleit Group, Various roles
Happy deep winter all, and next time - I’m hoping to binge Flack and see if we can do a deep dive of PR people in film and television. After all, rainy nights are perfect for TV, followed by a book. What are you reading and watching lately?
