The Great PR Migration

If you’re thinking of diversifying your PR practice or pivoting away from day-to-day client work, this episode is for you.

 

Transcript

Michelle Kane (00:17):

Thank you for joining us for this 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. Hello, Karen. How are you doing this week?

Karen Swim (00:34):

I'm doing great, Michelle. How are you doing?

Michelle Kane (00:37):

I'm doing pretty well. Yes, yes. As this episode airs, we're hitting that mid-August stride, which means change for so many. For some of us it means “Leave me alone. I am still having summer.” But for others it means going back to college, getting ready to go back to school, or just getting ready to go enter another rhythm of life. But that sort of speaks to what we're going to talk about today, where our topic is the PR migration, and just things that we're seeing amongst our colleagues and in PR in general. You know, many people are pivoting away from PR or just starting to dabble in other fields, like education or maybe even something completely different. So we thought, hey, let's talk about this and see what we might be able to encourage our listeners.

Karen Swim (01:31):

Yeah. Isn't it interesting, I'm seeing, I get a lot of the emails now from PR people that are selling services to PR people rather than doing PR. So I'm not sure what's behind the number of PR people that are still in the prime of their working years, still have lots of road ahead of them that are like, let me pivot over to something else. If it's just a genuine shift that we're seeing, because maybe it's been driven by the climate that we're in.

Michelle Kane (02:03):

It could be. And you know, it could be just a certain number of people are just feeling that need to shift. I know sometimes even within a job, right? Every few years or so, you just need a little something new, a little different challenge to keep life interesting for yourself. And I wonder how many of our listeners are having those moments of kind of putting their head up and going, huh, what else could I be doing?

Karen Swim (02:34):

That's such a great point. You're right that in a traditional job, you don't typically do the exact same job for year after year after year after year, your responsibilities shift, you get a different role, you change companies, something changes to keep you on your toes and refreshed. And so it could be that, although I have to say that given some of the challenges that we face today, I can certainly understand those people that are leading the profession because it's just become really difficult to succeed. You know, <laugh> great example, Forbes now has a policy, it does not, you know, there's different brands of Forbes, but Forbes has this policy now that if they put out a query, they do not want anyone except for the expert to respond. They will not take pitches from PR people, and they call out PR people specifically.

So they say, “PR people: do not pitch us, but ask your source to contact us directly per Forbes policy.” So that's an interesting shift, and yeah, one I hope doesn't spread to other outlets. I also almost think “Sure, good luck with that,” because journalists take for granted the amount of value that we truly do bring to that relationship. And some of what we control and avoid to make sure that they get the very best piece of information possible and that they, that communications are streamlined. I think that they are seeing us maybe as an annoyance, but

Michelle Kane (04:20):

Oh, ok Forbes.

Karen Swim (04:22):

…we know the back story on a lot of these things. So <laugh> Yeah. I mean, I could particularly see people poking their head up and going, okay, what else is out there? So I'm seeing people do things like sell everything from business development for PR people. So there are PR salespeople who want to sell you on how to sell clients on your behalf or things like tools that we use, from databases to pitch tools to all kinds of things that we utilize. Yeah, I'm seeing a lot more of that.

Michelle Kane (05:00):

Yeah. And can we just do a shout out to some of those companies solo PR pros are not really into buying at the enterprise level? We are solo shops. Yes, we would love to be your customer, but there's usually maybe 1, 2, 3, maybe five of us. So just think if you get 10 solos to buy your product at a decent price point, oh, there's your enterprise. Anyway. Ok, rant off <laugh>.

Karen Swim (05:28):

I agree. We could do an entire episode on the PR industry and the tools market. And, at the PR industry in general, it's very unfortunate that in so many instances, everything is directed to large agencies or in-house PR people. We just get overlooked quite a bit and that's very sad because we do the same job. And we deliver value just like everyone else. And a lot of times referring those very big companies, which gives us the power to make referrals and to make recommendations. So Yeah. That's too bad.

Michelle Kane (06:11):

Yeah. And I think maybe a lot of these pivots, like you said, has a lot to do with the way that pure PR has changed for many years now. It's grown to be an integrated process. So, if you're a PR pro who just really isn't interested in learning about digital marketing or any of the integrated pieces, then yeah. It definitely would be a season to say, “Hmm, you know, what, where can I transfer these skills? How can I do that? Is it time to do some teaching?” Is it time to, I don't know. I mean, we know a couple of our, our colleagues…

Karen Swim (06:53):

Yeah, we have people that are writing books, that are doing courses that are becoming coaches for PR people. Becoming consultants in some other way or, you know, going over to the media side and becoming journalists in an area of specialty. We even have a couple of solo pros that are running for office, which is really cool. So I mean, I think the great thing about communications is that it's such a fantastic skillset that really allows you to leverage that in any other position that you would choose to create for yourself, or if you're choosing to go and work a traditional job, there's so many skill sets, you know, our crisis management skills, our strategic skills, our storytelling ability. I mean, there are just so many things that we do that are so important across the board. And so I feel like in terms of our careers, we have a lot of options that are open to us.

Michelle Kane (07:55):

Yeah. I even think, and of course this partly falls under the PR umbrella, but I was thinking this morning of a situation I'm dealing with of even in the nonprofit world of dealing with sponsors, you know, how certain things that you might say yes to, how that can color your perception to others and just ways to make your systems better, your thought processes better. These are all of the bases that we cover in PR, whether it's an outright deliverable to our clients. But I mean, come on. It's who we are. We're always doing it anyway. <Laugh>,

Karen Swim (08:39):

Yes, we are.

Michelle Kane (08:40):

Troubleshooting

Karen Swim (08:41):

I'm trying to think of some of the more interesting pivots that I've seen outside of, you know, becoming a politician is definitely, but I guess, you know, really that feels adjacent in some ways as well.

Michelle Kane (08:54):

Yeah, yeah.

Karen Swim (08:55):

What would you do, Michelle?

Michelle Kane (08:57):

Oh my gosh, <laugh>. Oh my goodness. What, what do I want to be when I grow up? <Laugh>, I, I joke that I want to be a lady who lunches someday, who just does this stuff for fun. But that's a whole different, Michelle <laugh>, you know…

Karen Swim (09:15):

I think there are a lot of pros on any given day who would join you in that.

Michelle Kane (09:20):

<Laugh>. Yeah. That might be. But being realistic, you know, I don't know, maybe something in education, there's something in me that always pulls towards that world. Even counseling to a certain degree. These are all career choices that I dallied with. I knew for myself that I didn't quite have the temperament to do the whole full day in a classroom situation, you know, of that kind of teaching. Similarly, when I was younger, I shifted from being a psych major to duh, you're good at writing <laugh>. Partly because I knew I didn't have it in me at that time to be any kind of counselor <laugh>.

Karen Swim (10:03):

I love that. And so many solo PR pros do teach. We have a lot of educators, some that have moved towards doing that more than PR for clients, which, you know, I just think that there's such a value to the education industry, but yeah, we have a lot of educators. I think that that's natural. I think that most PR pros really have that ability to teach.

Michelle Kane (10:32):

Oh, yeah.

Karen Swim (10:33):

Because we do quite a bit of education in our work, and so I think that that feels like a natural fit for so many people.

Michelle Kane (10:39):

Yeah, that's so true. Well, how about you?

Karen Swim (10:41):

Outside of being something in the dog industry, I would love to do that, you know? You know, I have plans to open some kind of a cafe where owners can’t just dine with their dogs, but where it's like a combo doggy day camp / cafe where people can relax and meet friends, but their dogs can have a concierge and be taken care of.

Michelle Kane (11:07):

I love that.

Karen Swim (11:12):

I'm working on courses and stuff too. I’d love to do more content creation and again, teaching sharing, right?

Michelle Kane (11:21):

Yeah. Right.

Karen Swim (11:21):

Helping others with their careers.

Michelle Kane (11:24):

Yeah, so true. So true. Sidebar about the dog combo thing. I once told my groomer, I said, “You know what, you need to open up a day spa <laugh>, so that when my dog's getting groomed, I get like a little mini facial.”

Karen Swim (11:37):

I love that we would all have a day at the spa <laugh>, not just this guy.

Karen Swim (11:42):

There's a lot written about the dog economy as they're calling it

Michelle Kane (11:46):

Dog economy.

Karen Swim (11:48):

We're spending a lot on our fur babies, and more and more people are, you know, embracing it. Thank you, everyone who's doing that. Dogs are really, truly a part of our family. So yeah, there's big opportunities in that market.

Michelle Kane (12:03):

Absolutely. Yeah, there's, I think that's the beautiful thing about what we do, because we don't come to our desks every day and move widgets from one page to the next. Our jobs are really creative. So that lends itself to transferring that whole mindset to everything you do, you know? Yes, it really does. So, the beautiful thing about doing this line of work is you may discover some hidden talents along the way that you never realized it. Let's say you're pitching a certain story about a certain company or their new initiative, or maybe it's a nonprofit. Just think how big your world gets. So if you're not thinking about a pivot now, start thinking in that way of, okay, you know, these people that I meet, it's not just, “All right, I'll do this thing, and then next…” Follow up with that person and learn more about what they do just because it interested you.

Karen Swim (13:07):

Yeah. And we certainly have it. We've even had people as guests on our shows - Major come to mind. She has a popcorn company. She still does PR, but she has a very successful popcorn company. By the way, she's got a new flavor out, so go check her out. So the sky is really the limit. If you have something else that you're interested in, by all means you can pursue it in addition to doing PR. And some of us pursue, you know, we have our own side gigs, because for me, I think of my side gig is something that I want to pivot to in retirement. And move away from the day-to-day client work and move over into doing something a little bit different. So yeah, there's lots of interesting examples out there, and I think that we should all be thinking about that. And with this economy, it's been a wake-up call for, I think for a lot of people that it's very helpful to have multiple revenue streams, and that's always been the case, but there are ways to achieve that. You can achieve that through investing, of course, but it doesn't hurt to have like a Plan B for yourself.

Michelle Kane (14:22):

No, that's so true. It's interesting, just this last week, I have made myself be more conscious about doing more voiceover auditions just because, you know, it's to the point where the mechanisms are in place that it's not so arduous. Before I would have to print out the script and hook up my Yeti, and now it's like, oh, let me plug in my headphone here and bing bang, boom. And just say to myself, well, doh Michelle, you can do that in the first 15 minutes of your day. Now, did I do it today? No, <laugh>.

Karen Swim (14:57):

I love that though, because that's okay. You're so perfect for that.

Michelle Kane (15:00):

Aw, thanks.

Karen Swim (15:02):

And you're right, there are so many different avenues and channels right now that are looking for that, so yeah.

Michelle Kane (15:10):

Yeah.

Karen Swim (15:10):

That's so perfect. I love it. I love it. I'm so here for it.

Michelle Kane (15:15):

Oh, we'll see, we'll see. But I see too, I've seen some people, they're not PR pros per se, but they're in the comms business, just either niching down on what they do.

Karen Swim (15:26):

Yes.

Michelle Kane (15:27):

As opposed to being something for everyone, you know, they're deciding really, snd I think too, it's probably a combination of post pandemic, the economy, everything, just really determining this is what we do really well. We want to focus on this. And with that comes opportunity for collaboration to fill those gaps that it's, it's not to say, well, we only do this.

Karen Swim (15:50):

Definitely. Well, Katie Boos, great example of that.

Michelle Kane (15:53):

Yes!

Karen Swim (15:55):

She really found that she loved the thought leadership. And so she specializes in that. That's what she does. She doesn't do any of the other things anymore. She specializes in that. Helen Ne is someone that I met through lunch club. She's a PR pro, not in the us but in the UK. Yeah. She also made a pivot into thought leadership in a different way where she started out hosting these veil interviews with CEOs and enterprise leaders, and now she's turned that into a whole thing. So she has a studio, and that's all she does.

Michelle Kane (16:26):

That's fantastic.

Karen Swim (16:28):

So, yeah. We should have Helen on the program one day too, to talk about it. Yeah, that would be great. She's a solo like our audience. So yeah, there's so many creative things that we can do, we have so many talents that we can use them in so many different ways.

Michelle Kane (16:49):

Yeah, we do. We do. And I think it could be an, an instance of, okay, we've all been through a lot in these last several years, and it kind of feels like the vibe is, okay, let's stop and take a beat and take a breath and see, okay, where am I? And just check in with ourselves. And I think that's good to do periodically no matter what's happening. But I realize we're all coming out of some serious survival mode. But we just wanted to get you all thinking today. So if, hopefully this has inspired you, we say that every week because we always try to inspire you, but we really do want to hear from you. What would you want to do? If you could do anything in your next career pivot? Hit us up at soloprpro.com, share this around, talk about it with your friends. Until next time, thanks for listening to That Solo Life.