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“You can’t run a business like that.” Someone once told me. This kind of challenge (I.e being told what I can’t do) seems to switch on my ‘yippee’ gene, a circuit in my brain starts buzzing and yells at me “why not?”. Then, lots of questions, doubts, negative thoughts (left brain stuff). Then perhaps, I think, “if I can’t do it like that it ain’t worth doing” , part of me might as well die because I won’t feel alive if I don’t do it.

So recognising an impending death I let go (my two favourite words), drop into a deeper expansive space and think “what if ….” (Right brain).

Then wonderful, crazy and usually very successful solutions happen. (Bye the way, this is mindfulness, just in case you ‘business’ people thought that was wishy washy rubbish)). And I might find mentors, sponsors and resources suddenly appear to support me (this is called synchronicity). Like Mrs Satir:

“Feelings of worth can flourish only in an atmosphere where individual differences are appreciated, mistakes are tolerated, communication is open, and rules are flexible – the kind of atmosphere that is found in a nurturing family. ”
Virginia Satir

For any individual, nothing matters more than self worth. If you can give someone that (like a good parent does) you have given them the world. And if your people have that you will have an unbeatable business.

I run my business like a satir family, our people are or will be shareholders (it’s ‘ours’ not ‘mine’), I empower and step back, we accept acknowledge each others weaknesses and honour applaud strengths and use the latter to overcome the former. And, each seeing what the other yet cannot, we expect high standards of each other, raise the bar so we can leap higher than we thought possible (eriksons ‘latent potential).

So whatever is responsible for my ‘Yippee’ Gene – perhaps the local pub growing up in a working class area (the ‘Y knot’) or that vivid day 9yrs old at school given my first ever ‘project’ ( go out, read books, research, think for yourself, find out about the world … Yipppeeee went my brain!) – thank you!

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When we write public relations material, whether it is a release, a case study or a script for a video, we need to be part journalist, part marketing person. However the former is always more important because the material we write has to tell a story and must be worthy of readership – see my previous blog ‘Is it worthy?’.

So how come, assuming we understand this, do so many press releases, case studies etc written by PR people, seem lack-lustre? I think it all boils down to the mental attitude of ‘brilliant’.

Remember that Fast Show character? The Manchester teenager who thought everything was brilliant! Whilst this character has his faults, not least falling down holes in the ground, you have to admit he was passionate.

And passion is the difference between lacklustre and sparkling, between a job and a calling, between a tenacious desire to hunt the best story out so that people will read.

You need to be passionate about writing. You need to be passionate about your subject. So, for some, this is ‘limited’ to: write what you are passionate about.

As for those ‘brilliant’ others, well they can get passionate about anything, if they need to. And this makes for brilliant PR writing. Keep a Zen Mind-Beginners mind, and develop the mind of a child again, a mind that is open to be filled with wonder about anything! And be Brilliant!

Here’s a reminder of how to do it!

My next blog post will tell you how to do ‘passion’ as a behaviour to change your writing success.

Visit Changeworks Communications for more brilliant PR

I was thinking about a conversation I recently enjoyed: a colleague asked me what I enjoyed writing the most, features, case studies, releases, scripts, blogs etc. my first response: everything !

But it is the relish of the release that feeds several of my values in life: creativity, challenge and powerful communication .

There is no reason to write a press release except for having something worthy of news to tell.

The editor doesn’t want to fill space heshe wants to engage, captivate,educate or entertain readers. This is about relevance, and relevance is context specific. Someone reading a trade mag at their desk seeks a different meaning than the reader of the local free rag or the online news site. Whether its microlocal, educational or minute by minute, it’s your responsibilty as a writer to make it newsworthy.

It might take 2 hours to get the skeleton down. And this assumes the right probing questions have been put to the client? What, why, how, who etc … Kipling’s 6 honestserving men. The 250 to 350 words of a release require the most careful and loving crafting of all. Get the ‘mini what’ in the first paragraph, then plan the flow of paragraphs to tell and engage. One idea per para and one big idea.

remembering of course to weave in your client’s key messages, to enhance the story. Use the right quoted people to add the C factor: credibilty. Edit many times. And only then, sense check it for newsworthiness. What is new, appealing, educational, news about this? Will it capture, captivate and keep the readers’ attention?

Here are some tips for creating newsworthiness:

1. is there a monetary value you can use?
2. is there a big brand involved?
3. are there hidden drivers and influencers behind this story that you can research?

think carefully and spend time to make it worth the editor’s AND the readers’ while.

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A recent HBR article talks about Hiring for attitude and training for skill. Employees who are in sync with your values are assets because they will contribute to making your organisation different. And differentiation is critical to survival in the competitive economy we live in. If you recruit for character, over and above credentials, you will more likely be able to build a team who are passionate about making a difference to your clients and to your brand. However, this is the hardest thing to get right in the recruitment process and requires a Columbo-like persistence and flair at asking questions!
 
Whilst character is critical,  in PR an ability to write is an equally important trait. A trait implies a fixed quality rather than a state that can be taught. And from what I have seen in 20 years of working in the industry, writing talent is more innate than taught. Some senior PR expert say it comes from early childhood exposure to critical reasoning and precis writing at an early age. If, like Columbo, you can put people under the spotlight, test them, whilst putting them at ease; you will likely see their natural talent. (We do a writing test like this).
 
Of course, having some experience is also a huge asset for any new hopefuls, because working in PR is uniquely demanding: creativity and detail; big picture and organised planning; mental toughness and strong sensitivity for relationship building. In fact, experience is so important in this competitive field that the PR industry itself has gotten itself some bad publicity lately, in the furore over unpaid interns. But, like Columbo, it is best to not get caught in the ‘trappings’ of experience: after all, someone will have 14 years’ experience but may have learnt nothing at all, yet another with a year’s meaningful work could have embodied every minute into his or her ‘muscle memory’.
 
So when it comes to PR recruitment there is a double edged sword. Attitude is vital in securing people who can be flexible, creative and organised;  with strong interpersonal skills to handle your clients well. At Changeworks we demand the best. So we test for a key level of skills and experience but we become PR Columbos at  looking for what makes people who they are. Which boils down to behaviour. We don’t recruit on values, or attitudes; we recruit on behaviour. We have identified six non-negotiable behaviours that are essential to our vision of success. We recruit on these, we manage on them, we align our PDR process around them. (And we’re not telling you what they are, you’ll have to guess!).
 
Attitude consists of three components of existence: thoughts and values/beliefs; emotions and emotional reasoning;  and behaviours. Behaviour is the only directly observable, therefore measurable component. So whilst in our recruitment process at Changeworks we have a three stage process that involves psycho-metrics (MBTi and MTQ48), skills tests and (usually) two interviews. Our favourite tack is Columbo-style questioning: “…. and one more thing …?”.  We weave the subtleties of the meta model and other techniques drawn from NLP to do this (almost) as well as Mr Columbo (we hope).
 
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