#PRChurch: I got humbled hard
You can sit on the juries, take a seat on the board, you can wax lyrical about the do’s and the don’ts. And then you will get a project that will humble you. That will show you flames. That will throw you into a maze where there are only dead ends.
Here’s what I did (that may help you)
And here’s what I learned (that may help you)
What I did:
• I offered to pay back the 1st 50% and obviously did not bill the 2nd 50%
The interesting thing was that the clients (who were truly so lovely about it all) said they did not want a refund (I cost my projects on delivery and outcomes: very much like walking into a shop, buying a dress and leaving. Not sitting and having coffee with the designer and talking about possibilities and theories and sketches and both wondering why we are there) but they wanted to carry on going down the rabbit hole of learning and insights with me.
• I transparently shared feedback from media
So that the client could see exactly what the journalists were saying. This is really important to me: I have always openly shared. Others want to create that ring fence between media and client to mostly create fear and protect their purpose. I’m firmly on the other side of this fence: let me show you exactly what is going down and how.
• I proactively shared feedback on a weekly basis
Nobody needs daily updates unless there is a crisis. However clients also need to hear / see progress to feel safe and to feel trust. I have worked with people who share blow by blow daily feedback and it feels as crazy and panicky as it sounds. And I have worked with people that don’t give feedback until hounded, nagged and begged for it. Just as crazy. Find the middle.
• I gave solutions and did troubleshooting to the max
If there was an issue I needed to raise, I immediately gave a solution. If there was a firm no, I immediately indicated who I would go to next. Be this person, I cannot stress this enough. There is nothing more infuriating than working with someone who only tells you the problems with no attempt at solves. Apathy and appetite are telling. PR is all about course-correcting in real-time. This is why I don’t just stay in the comfort of strategy work. I get my hands dirty in the implementation. Because strategies need to stand up to reality of a mood shift, a trust issue, a newsroom cycle etc. Clients don’t want to hear excuses: they want the facts, they want solutions and they want honesty.
What I learned:
• If something is new and progressive and way ahead of its time and you are excited about it …. don’t assume everyone else will be … there is a VERY HARD education job that needs to happen first.
• Don’t underestimate the importance of having to do a category job vs a product job. By this I mean you can’t eg tell me about a new water filter without telling about the state of tap water first.
• That there are some truly wonderful supportive clients out there who were more than happy to go on a journey with me – it has really changed a boundary for me on what I will and won’t put up with in the future. If a leadership team can be so encouraging, supportive and OPEN when I did not deliver on the initial KPIs, then I am certainly re-evaluating clients who consistently get over-delivery and can barely muster up a thank you.
• Did this spectacular fail make me think twice about stepping outside my comfort zone? Yes. But our job in this life is to expand not contract. Expand our learning, our experiences, our leaps. And I am determined to crack this code for the client. Even though the job has ended.
Been reading:
A much needed foray back into fiction with this delight. I bought it because of the line on the cover, “If you’ve lost your way with fiction over the last year or two, let The Book of Form and Emptiness light your way home.” Reader, it did. “There’s powerful magic here” says one of the reviews. “Heartbreaking and heart-healing says another.” Could not recommend more.
Been watching:
The Tender Bar – a George Clooney directed film starring Ben Affleck. Which would ordinarily put me off. But his Uncle Charlie in this film is the most sublime of the sublime. The entire cast actually is. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. On Amazon Prime. Now if only Affleck looked less a mess in public. I wonder who he really is. I’m not buying this JLo love story / ad campaign.
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Been musing:
Cry and deny. Complain and explain. Futurist archaeologists. You know it’s not the same as it was. Babylonstoren bacon. How do you not have chutney with curry? Don’t under estimate niche expertise like people who can advise how to frame a piece of paper. And then go onto hang that piece of paper. Which sometimes feels like the world of PR – here is nothing to work with – make it something. When you write a brutal, cut-through, no BS proposal that says the previous PR company did a brilliant job and there are no more angles to milk and they should be absolutely grateful and it gets put in front of their board and you are thanked for your candour and directness. Candour. Love that for ourselves. And then you chuckle (with your now very visible double chin because the masks have unmasked us) about the fact that they still want more PR. Why? Because it is still the most cost effective cut through tool in every marketer’s arsenal. Hope is not a strategy said a client in a meeting. Philosophy is speculation. Zen is participation. We dance. We dance. We dance.
Get practical:
There has been very bad health news in my small circle of friends. Maybe you know someone too. These challenges are so part of my DNA with so very many different people in my life they trigger deep trauma: hospital waiting rooms, endless driving pack and forth to hospitals, imploring doctors to listen, trying to fix the unfixable. Here’s the advice I could give when asked this weekend:
- Fill fridges with meals (and some in the freezer because no, believe me, this person has no capacity to think about remembering to defrost a meal).
- Offer to drive someone back and forth to visiting hours (I would be a pack of nerves on the way there, and a mess on the way back – really no fit way to drive).
- Offer to create / man a whatsapp or email group for updates (you will be amazed by how many people expect you to answer their messages whilst you are barely keeping afloat).
- Offer to sleep over on long hard nights (sometimes just knowing there is someone else to lock up, take the dogs out, deal with strange noises allows the deep rest you need).
Get practical. Flowers need vases and watering. Messages need answering. Visitors need coffee and tea made for them. It’s a funny old world when loved ones get sick. Make it about them, not you xx.