Last night I was honored to listen to John Mose, Senior Vice-President of Public Relations at Cramer-Krasselt in Milwaukee, give a presentation to PRSSA Madison Chapter. The next few posts will be highlights of the presentation with my own commentary for an added texture.
1. Writing is important. Really.
You can land a position by presenting writing examples. You can get promoted by writing up proposals. You can get honored by writing the best press releases. You can be respected for writing media pitches. You can have the advantage of knowing what writers want to write about by being one yourself. Writing is everything.
2. Clients care about details.
You can skip the details when you are writing a plan out because you know them. You can skip the details when you pitch to your boss because your boss knows that you know them. You can’t skip the details when you pitch to your client because regardless of any title or background you have, your client won’t care. They want the details.
3. Understand and consume media. Read!
If you’re like me, reading all the articles in a newspaper is hard. The idea of opening a magazine to have my eyes blasted with absurd and uninformative ads repulses me. One word: literature. Other than that, I love reading articles online, but my eyes can only stand looking at the screen for so long. I’ve written about adaptation and this is when you have to get used to consuming all that you can. I’m making progress, you can too/need to.
4. At an agency, you are the product on shelf.
“Companies don’t cut the product that makes money.” – John Mose
5. PR can’t solve everything.
I’m leaving this up for debate. I have yet to meet a PR Professional other than John to say this. PR Specialists – being one myself – live by the adage If there is a will, there is a way.
6. Better to be fast than perfect.
My spin off of this that I have tweeted a few times, and rarely do I ever tweet something twice, is Be first, but be right first.
7. Be ready to sell some aluminum siding.
Similar to the next lesson; you never know what you may have to sell.
8. Know difference between a good-looking horse trough and an ugly one. You have to go out and be, do, or buy some crazy things.
You never know what you may have to do.
9. It’s okay to have non-traditional experience if you can make it interesting.
Took a year off? No problem, make the reason why fascinate me. Spent that last six years working a job that has no respective value? No problem, find and share what value it did hold. Every topic that you believe will work against you on your pursuit of becoming a PR Specialist, find how to make it interesting.
10. Study something else.
It’s time to confess something to you.
Everything you have read so far on this blog has come from experience, self-learning, or books and classes that are not directed at PR. I have to say that any and all future posts will be of the same context.
John advocates that you study something else, something you are passionate about, because the real world is the education center for PR. I couldn’t agree more.
(HT to John Mose)
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