Early May batch of links replaced by a recent PR win

I’m flying home from vacation today so this week’s batch of links is replaced by a walk-through on a recent PR win.

Over recent years, I’ve changed the way that I do my work. I have turned what used to be a majority of outbound - emailing reporters with ideas of what to write about, reminding them of how I can support them toward stories - into much more inbound. Much of this change comes with experience. When they send me requests these days of how I can help for a story they’re already actively exploring or putting together, it stems from a decade or more of them getting to know me and my areas of knowledge and network. It’s also fueled by the fact that I am assigned six companies these days, as well as remaining in touch with dozens more. Sometimes, stories run that I was asked to chip in for that have none of my active assignments cited there, however I helped anyway because I want the reporter to keep sending me stuff that’s relevant. I want to be perceived of as a helper, even if the reporter only thinks of me once or twice a year. If I can motivate, say, 100 reporters each year to think of me once, that’s going to lead to positive outcomes for me. I can hit my performance goals just as effectively without having to solicit my support.

I believe that all mid-career professionals should be doing a version of this, compressing their existing work into fewer hours in the direction of the same results. It frees you up to turn your attention to more elsewhere, the type of assignments then that will get you saluted and rewarded. It’s not neglectful, rather it’s practical. Finding efficiencies is part of the job implicitly, to free yourself up to take on more and to do better with time.

Here’s an example of what that looks like for me:

Since our venture group supports anything consumer-facing, this is the type of request I leap at. See, it’s my job to know people who can speak to subjects like this one, well in advance of getting a formal request. I prepare ahead of time for anything that will touch on consumer spending, consumer habits, consumer saving, consumer startups, or consumer VC. I can stretch to include experts I know on areas just outside these core topics, but within that nucleus I must deliver. It’s not every day that something as ideal as this request lands in my inbox.

The story published less than a week later. It included five total sources, four of whom I guided to the reporter. One is a portfolio company, which I get credit for. The other three I sent are not. They are companies I simply met along the way, but that I knew from past conversations had what to say about the next generation of retirees - and what’s changing around them. In hindsight, it’s not surprising that I was able to help this much for one PR opportunity. I didn’t myself do much other than flag the opportunity to the right people at the right time and encourage them to get in touch with the reporter directly, mentioning me. I didn’t have to coordinate anything. I am just distributed leads where they belong.

I don’t aspire to meet everyone, however I do intend to meet everyone building in the spaces I can support. The best way, I have found, for me to remain in touch with relevant founders ahead of possibly, maybe someday doing some work together is to fold my PR work underneath my business development work, to make one whole rather than two halves, and to allocate leads to them that they would and will crush. It’s not surprising to me either that they all wound up cited in the story with different perspectives; they have told me in the past that they’re ready whenever to speak on these topics as they arise. I don’t have to media-train or worry about anything, portfolio companies or otherwise, as I trust them to do their jobs better than I could instruct them to. My rule is that if you can speak to investors, customers, and employees well enough to keep them happy then you’re capable also of talking to reporters on deadline for stories you’ll want to be a part of.

In the days that followed this story going live, I spoke to the comms lead at the portfolio company that is currently in my jurisdiction. I commended her on the pace at which she moved to get them included. I said on that call that these were my favorite stories to work on when I was in-house because they required little effort, just speed and urgency, and they didn’t ask the senior executives to pull back on what they were already working on. This way, they can run their business without dropping the ball on PR advancing without them. Three weeks later, they can come up for air and ask how the PR program is running and ruling, and they won’t discover it’s at a standstill, awaiting their return. Instead, it chugs along without them, press flowing as it should with other spokespeople on topics they want to chime in on now and next. In some ways, I said, these are the best-performing pieces of press, ROI-positive by definition with what goes into them and what comes back from them over time.