17th
Preface: this post falls into the “PR and $$” category. It takes the form of a rant, a time-honored combination of free verse and creative cussing (see subsequent post). In it, I do not use any concrete examples, contrary to my custom (but in adherence to the form, of course).
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again — PR is a blue-collar job. Well, actually that’s not true — at least not insofar as you might compare my life and work to my cousin Tim’s life and work. He’s a plumber and there are profound differences aplenty (though, for the record, he makes more money).
The metaphor nonetheless applies. For one, if you ever encounter anyone who purports to be in the business of public relations and wears dress shoes with no socks — run, do not walk in the direction of the nearest RFP . This is a sure sign that the individual with whom you are dealing is disastrously out of touch with how this job actually goes down on a day-to-day basis.
After the past few weeks (clients say the darndest things) I’m only more convinced — it’s all about blood, guts and elbow grease, y’all. No room for armchair philosophizing and this collective bong hit we call social media (don’t get me wrong, I love me some high grade micromessaging).
Dave McClure nails it here and I’m tempted to just end this post thusly:
“Silicon Valley is WAAAY too infatuated with the ELEGANT IDEALISM of Entrepreneurship (or the GOLLUM GREED of making a shitload of CASH), rather than the GRITTY REALITY of running a CRAPPY little startup business that will likely GO NOWHERE… which if you’ve ever been through it, is a tough, painful, low-probability motherfuck of an adventure, aka tragedy.”
Hehe, and it’s PR’s job to try and make that process just a little bit smoother. But it’s precisely that gritty reality that I want to spend some time talking about.
PR is all about, as my friend David Hendler once said, “having your finger on the heartbeat of America.” This often gets construed as “trendspotting” by “visionaries.” Incorrect. Trendspotting is damn fun, but it’s not PR. Sure sure, having a handle on the future is part of the game. And likewise I’d say of SEO and marketing analytics (love those disciplines as I do) that a firm grasp of what happened (past tense) is also important in deciding what to do in the now.
But PR trades in the currency of the present moment. And to really understand the present moment, to really have a firm grasp of zeitgeist (directly translated, the spirit of an age and its society), you have to log the hours. You have to do the work. And you have to screw the frack up, get smacked on your ishkabiddle, and get right back up again. And you have to do this lot. You have to get your hands dirty. Wash, rinse, and repeat.
I say this a lot at the beginning of client engagements: it’s all just an elaborate spaghetti-on-the-wall experiment. Anyone who tells you otherwise is preciously inexperienced and too scared to admit that at the end of the day, “nobody knows anything” (per William Goldman). Of course we begin as we mean to go on, but I was recently visiting with the ghost of planning briefs past only to be reminded, once again, that almost nothing. Ever. Goes according to plan.
The trick is to learn the rules in order to forget them, as they say. Make the plan in order to throw it out the window. And wear socks, for crying out loud, because your feet are going to sweat, dude. And then your expensive-ass shoes are gonna start smelling bad too. And a time is going to come when you’re gonna have to choose between your Helmut Lang’s and staying relevant.
Whether you are considering PR or communications as a college sophomore, thinking of hiring a PR firm, or even just trying to figure out how this PR thing works, it’s important to realize that the “relating” part of the job description — the “conversation” part is only the most glamorous part, the tip of the iceberg.
If you’re good at PR, you absolutely spend a hell of a lot of time talking, both online and offline. But most of the job involves a different set of tasks — a mind-numbing amount of reading and research, insanely anal/obsessive attention to detail, long hours in the trenches dealing with real or perceived crises, difficult conversations telling clients the things they don’t want (but need) to hear, playing executive assistant/Mary Poppins for long hours on the conference circuit, and so on. It’s about the mentality that good PR people bring to the job — egos checked at the door, sleeves rolled up and ready to just get to work.
