Putting the ”PR” in Professionalism

Are you weary of people calling themselves PR professionals who seem to be storytelling their careers? The few who talk a good game, leaving a trail of disgruntled clients? In this episode we talk about ways PR practitioners – from those new to the profession to seasoned pros – can represent our profession well.

 

Transcript:

Michelle Kane (00:02):

Thank you for joining us for another episode of That Solo Life, the podcast for PR pros and marketers who work for themselves, people like me, Michelle Kane, with VoiceMatters, and my wonderful co-host, Karen Swim of Solo PR Pro. Hi Karen, how are you today?

Karen Swim, APR (00:19):

Hey, Michelle. I'm doing great. Solidarity to the writers who of this recording are on strike. We stand with writers, hang in there WGA, we hope that you get what you need and deserve. And if I were in California, I would be out there with you on the picket line.

Michelle Kane (00:42):

I fully agree. Fully agree. I hope that the WGA gets everything they are asking for because they are the backbone of all of the projects on which they serve.

Karen Swim, APR (00:54):

Yes.

Michelle Kane (00:55):

You know, if you like watching things where words come out of people's mouths, , you need to thank the writers.

Karen Swim, APR (01:02):

Absolutely. And that's kind of a funny segue. I mean, serious topic, but yeah. Writing, storytelling. Hmm. And PR peeps who might be storytelling their careers just a tad too much.

Michelle Kane (01:20):

Just a little bit. Yes. We're going to to carefully edge into these waters. I'm sure we, you'll soon be nodding listeners, these people that come into your path, these self-declared am I going to say the word, the G word, gurus, the people that come across as very flashy, but you soon find out there's precious little substance, however they present themselves as seasoned PR professionals. And, you know, it just really, it doesn't do any of us any good. It's not a service to us. In fact, it's a disservice of the hard work that truly seasoned professionals put in. And you know, I say this a lot and I think just as technology grows, and I'm not even talking about AI, I'm talking about the Canvas of the world, the people who, “I have a MAC, I'm a designer.” That whole mindset of you can do anything. Well, yes, but to a point. To a point. Even though, we're not licensed, we're not doctors. We don't get to call ourselves “Dr. PR professional,” there's still a lot of training and experience that goes into doing what we do well.

Karen Swim, APR (02:41):

There should be yeah. And I mean, while we have the APR credential and some people do have a degree in comms, the access point to practice the profession, like so many these days is, is very low. You could just set up shop and call yourself a digital PR person. I came up in PR from a very non-traditional way. And the reason that I pursued my APR is because I wanted to have that foundation. I wanted to have the language, I wanted to have the breadth of information to be able to really practice as a professional. So this discussion today is not saying that you have to go the traditional way in order to be a professional, but what we are imploring people to do is to strive to be a professional.

Please do not be out there, as Michelle said, calling yourself an expert, calling yourself a professional, calling yourself professional when you can't even write a PR plan. There are just some things going into running your own business that you really should know how to do. And you should know how to do some of the things well. You don't have to know how to do everything. You don't have to be perfect at everything. If social media is not your jam, that's okay. You can partner with people to walk you through that. But if you do not know how to research, plan, implement, evaluate, notice how I used RPIE. Please learn. Please learn. I beg of you to go learn. This came out of previous discussions because I think it's very frustrating when people who take this profession so seriously and do consider ourselves to be professionals, when we see questions coming from other people, or we see content being produced by other people that we know is not at the level of professionalism it can be very, very frustrating. And people get very angry about that and they feel as though it diminishes the entire profession by bad actors.

Michelle Kane (05:17):

Indeed, indeed. And like you said, there is a huge difference between aligning with or putting people on your team to fill certain roles at a professional level. That's not what we're talking about. I spent some time as an account executive at an ad agency, and really that's been my model ever since. You are the person, you are the hub, you build the strategy, you work with all of the players to make things happen. And of course, you know, I'm also a writer, so I wear that hat as well, which comes in handy. But I noticed as time has gone on and, thank goodness for the internet, it's made it easy for us to set up solo shops. But I've seen a lot of people setting up shop and I would just say to myself this is why you need an account executive. This is why you need someone like us who creates the strategy, who oversees it all? Who orchestrates it? Who knows what is good and what isn't? Who knows the difference between good design and bad design? I mean, and I am eternally grateful actually to the agency where I started - you look back, it was a good thing at the time, but as you look back, you realize, oh my goodness. In fact, I was chatting with an ex-coworker, gosh, a few years back, she had moved on to a different position and she was waiting for approval for an ad. And you know, that's something we did. So she thought, well, I'm just going to approve it. And she got her hand slapped because that wasn't the right channel. And she said, well, there was a deadline. I knew it was right. .

Karen Swim, APR (07:04):

Yeah.

Michelle Kane (07:05):

You know, but all that, to bring it back to our topic of, you need someone, when you're working with clients, who has that experience, who just knows how to guide a client through something and isn't just throwing it together haphazardly because you know that's not going to last long, that that's not going to serve them well for the long run, certainly isn't going to leave a trail of happy clients. And those unhappy clients are going to say, “Ugh, PR, I worked with someone, it was terrible.

Karen Swim, APR (07:44):

Well, I think another thing that really is a personal pet peeve of mine is that you have people calling themselves either PR professionals or that they practice PR and to them that strictly equates to media relations. But then they're not even good at media relations. These are the people that spam the universe hoping for something to stick. They don't have a strategy, they're not aligned with the client's overall goals. There's nothing but tactics. And yeah, any monkey can put together a bunch of emails and you know what, even a broken clock is right twice a day. So it's frustrating because then you have clients and, maybe you're getting media for them may not be quality media. Maybe you are able to land tier one coverage, but it's just about that.

And that's all you do. You have one trick in your tool bag and that's it. And then when the client is not happy, because you don't have the skillset to be able to be more nuanced in how you practice, and you're not able to really deliver a higher value strategy, you're going to turn through your clients very quickly. And then these are the people that come to true pros and say, “Ugh, we don't believe in PR.” Well, they don't believe in PR because they've never seen it practice before. And that's because we have these people that are playing at the profession and it's time to stop playing. Right. And again, not to make anyone feel bad about maybe being newer to the profession or maybe learning, but it's an encouragement to please learn. And does not mean that you have to, you know, learn like a textbook worth of things before you can start.

Maybe you start it, maybe there are some things you know, but please up your game level up because you really do, you know, you're lowering the bar for all of us. And that's not okay. It impacts our ability to earn a living. It impacts our ability to do our job well because we, as PR professionals, part of our job is to protect our publics. That's not just our clients. And you have to know that responsibility. In order to protect it and if you're not bothering to learn what this job really entails, that's not a good look. It's almost like, would you go and order a custom cake from a bakery where the person knew how to spot great cakes and maybe knew how to draw, but didn't know how to bake and they're learning on the job. And so sometimes it's good because like, oh look, they hit on something that work, but sometimes it's not and they don't really know what to do, but they're figuring it out as they go along. You are a business. You have a responsibility to come into this game with some skillset, some level of skillset, please.

Michelle Kane (11:03):

Right, right. And, just to build on that of, you know, don't feel bad. I mean, if you're just starting out, then those are the services that you offer, where your comfort zone is with an eye on growth. You know what you do really well. Focus on that until you do other things better. I mean, we're always learning - all of us, or at least we should be. And just talking to those of us who might have come to a client who's coming off of a bad experience, have a discussion about that. Say, oh, well, okay, what happened there? Oh, okay. And that can, you know, again, we're always talking about educating our clients. That can be an instructive moment of, well, so no, here's what you can expect working with me or working with us. You know, we will make sure that x, y, z happens. You know, just help them to get beyond that perception of that bad experience.

Karen Swim, APR (12:06):

Oh my gosh, absolutely. I think, you know, to be honest with you, I've had a few clients like that. We've had two recently that we really just dug deep. Rather than running away when they say, “Oh yeah, we had a bad experience with PR, we're not afraid to ask the questions because we're trying to make a decision if we want to work with this particular client. Because sometimes it's not the agency, sometimes it's the client. Right. So don't be afraid of just digging deeper for your own satisfaction to know, like, okay, is there something like, as you said, that I can learn from this situation. Is this someone that really could be a great client? Or are these red flags? I mean, but you don't know until you dig and you ask, right. And you ask for examples and then you talk through it. And I have found that with reasonable adults and professionals, sometimes you can work through things and you have a greater understanding. And sometimes the way somebody else practice is not the way that you practice. And that same misunderstanding would not have happened. And so it could be a good fit for you.

Michelle Kane (13:23):

Correct. Yeah.

Karen Swim, APR (13:24):

Again, the people that do not have the expertise that are just, you know, get a client, lose a client, no big deal. They just, they're churning quickly. This is not what any of us want to be representative of PR it, I know of an agency still standing, their whole M.O. for many, many, many years has been to bring clients in, spend a lot of time on discovery, not really deliver anything of value have junior people on the account, and then by the time they're out of discovery and supposed to be delivering results, they get fired and they just move on to the next client. So they just purposely turn through and are making their money by holding onto people through a false period of discovery and not really delivering results. This is so completely unethical. But I would always also say, check your ethics if you're selling something that you do not know how to do. Because you should know how to do what clients are paying you to do. Let's just be clear about that , it's fine to have a really narrow engagement. Last week on our program, we had a wonderful guest, Katie Boos, who is a seasoned PR pro with an agency, but she found through practicing her profession, that she really loved events and she really loved the, you know, getting speakers.

And so she leaned into that slice of thought leadership hard. And that's what she does. She has a very narrow specific focus in her PR practice and she delivers on it. She's good at it. She continues to learn and to grow and to deliver what clients expect from her. So it's fine to not be a generalist. It's fine not to have all the skillsets. Maybe there is a slice of PR that you actually are good at. As Michelle said, focus on that slice. And if you want to build your skills, there's ways to do that through hands-on learning by working with other pros. You know, be honest and say, “Hey, is there an assignment that I could work on with you that I'm trying to build my skills in X?” Right. And I don't have that skillset, but I'm willing to learn if you're willing to teach, and I can pitch in and help on the account, but being open and honest with other professionals is really important too, because if you're in professional circles or groups and forums and you're asking 101 questions, you are going to create people that have zero desire to help you and will have no respect for you as a professional.

You see through that straight away and you just think, huh, okay, what are we doing here? And it's frustrating and it can be demoralizing, but, you know, try not to let it . And I love what you said about, you know, niching down if that's, and that is the beauty. As we often talk about being a solo shop. Even if you, even if you're a micro agency or something larger than a one person business, you get to create the business that you want, which is a wonderful thing. But, you know, at the same time, yeah, we have to tolerate some people that just pop out there and, and suddenly and, and you know, you see it everywhere, right? You see it in job listings where someone's looking for a marketing coordinator and lists all these things with horrible pay and you realize that's really a director position and that person needs a team and good luck with that. Those are also potentially, well, depending, obviously if the pays not very good, you're not going to pop in. But sometimes those are fun to just play with and say, Hey, would do you want to hire consultants?

Karen Swim, APR (17:38):

And I think that the existence of many of those want the world at low prices kind of originated with people doing things that really weren't qualified to do. And didn't know to charge the right value.  Because it’s not really what they do. And I mean, PR is not the only profession where people are overselling themselves. Marketing, you know, is rife with social media. It's why you have people out here thinking, oh, well if you're Gen Z I'll just hire you to do my social media because you're a digital native. But does that person understand how to align your social media strategy with your company goals, by the way? Yeah. They know what strategy or do they know the tactics because the tactics are important, but who's going to guide your strategy?

Michelle Kane (18:30):

Right. Do they know, do they know what brand voice is ?

Karen Swim, APR (18:35):

Probably not. Have you talked to some of these people? Do they know personas? Do they know how to do message maps? All of these things that professionals will tell you. Do they know how to ride a crisis plan around social media to protect you? Is there an escalation plan should something happen? These are all things that professionals recommend and it's not overkill. We recommend and we do these things because we understand the depth and breadth of our jobs and we know that it's more than being task monkeys. Which none of us are. And I'm sure , I believe with all my heart that most of our listeners are not. And so this again, is not an indictment for anyone starting. It's not being the, you know, mean PR girls that are like, “Ugh, you suck and you should get out of this job.” It is an encouragement for all of us to uplift the profession. By really living up to what it really means to be a PR pro. It's already hard enough to fight against clients who are out here calling press releases articles, and it's like nails on a chalkboard for me. Yeah. I get that. That's a little thing. But we all have those little things that drive us over the edge. Like yeah, that's not an article. It's a news release. And in some cases, you're right, girl, that's not even an article that is a marketing brochure. And I cannot put this on a site.

Michelle Kane (20:10):

We can repurpose our content in appropriate ways, but we shouldn't just take the copy and put it everywhere.

Karen Swim, APR (20:18):

The media does not want your product brochure.

Michelle Kane (20:22):

No.

Karen Swim, APR (20:23):

But it's not on the wire.

Michelle Kane (20:25):

Exactly. No, no, no, it's not. And actually in the back of my mind, I'm already thinking, okay, who's the listener looking to buy the domain name task monkeys.com ?

Karen Swim, APR (20:36):

It might be me. I don’t know. We'll see.

But I mean, we're joking, but we are. Yeah. And you know, Michelle and I hope that we are always a source of encouragement and information, and this is something we wanted to address because it is being discussed among PR professionals and it is something that bothers us too, because we work too hard in what we are building. You listeners, you're part of the, we work too hard, we strive too hard to get where we are in our careers. Many of you did put in time in traditional PR roles and came out of agencies in leadership positions. Some were client side, some went to school and you know,  your major is in comms, others are APRs and you're proud of this job. And I believe that that is something that we all share. We're proud to do this job. We love this profession and solos. We really have to make sure that we are continuing to set a high standard and not lower ourselves to these people that are really n not a credit to our profession, but we continue to raise the bar so that we're setting a standard for the next generation coming up behind us.

Michelle Kane (22:03):

Yeah, I agree. And I think especially as solos and or self-employed micro agency leaders, because what credibility do we have beyond our track record and the perception of our profession? Because it's not like we don't produce widgets that we can say, look, my product is beautiful. See how nice it is. No, our service is our product. So it's so important.

Karen Swim, APR (22:32):

100%. And I know the younger generation is, they're more comfortable with fluidity. They will get a job and they will leave a job in a heartbeat. Like zero emotion about it. Like Yeah, I'm not doing that. But you cannot bring that same attitude into running your own business because at some point you're going to run out a runway. Yeah. I mean you could drop around, you could practice in different countries, but there's something very satisfying about having a reputation that says you deliver results. It's personally rewarding because you're connected. You're the person that's producing the service, and you get to see the outcomes of that service. And building a reputation based on results and meeting the expectations that you set, that's what's going to give you longevity. That is what is going to allow you to scale your business. That is the thing that you can tap into.

You can tap into that bank of trust. And that does become more important because it's expensive and exhausting to keep hopping around and churning through clients. It's not the way, I promise you, at some point in your lives, you will get a bit older and you will see that that takes a toll because you're constantly having to expend the energy and there's a price tag to continually onboarding new people. Yeah. It gets old. It's not as fun as it sounds and you think, you know, you can't keep treat treating your clients as though they're dispensable. And this environment today should maybe help you to take note of that, that they are not dispensable, they are valuable. People do move to other companies. They do remember. And your leads may one day dry up. Because you're not who you said that you were.

Michelle Kane (24:36):

Yeah. It's so true. So true. Well, we hope that you've gotten value out of this today. We hope that every week, but especially today, I, you know, I'm sure many of you were nodding your heads rolling, your eyes giggling along with us, but we are so grateful for you and the time that you give to us. And we are equally grateful if you share this around, if you know someone who's going through this and if this might help, just give them some encouragement. We would love to be a part of that. And until next time, thanks for joining us on That Solo Life.