By Mike Kitchel
I learned about the public relations profession at 230 mph: Ten years with an IndyCar Series team – Panther Racing – followed by another four seasons as the director of communications at INDYCAR, the sanctioning body for the open-wheel racing series that’s highlighted by the Indianapolis 500. Now I’ve decided to take the next step with the formation of Catalyst 317 – opening our services to the masses and, hopefully along the way, creating an opportunity to help up-and-coming PR professionals grow, inspire and flourish.

Listed below are our five keys to PR Badassery. Do you have something to add? Put your thoughts in the comments or contact us directly with your thoughts.

Trust

Everything about this profession starts with trust. The people on your team must trust you, the media you work with must trust you and – inevitably – you must learn to trust yourself to make the right decisions, provide the right strategic guidance and to execute efficiently. This doesn’t happen overnight. And earning trust isn’t something you talk about – it is proven through your actions.

Develop relationships in a way that people begin to understand that you will always shoot them straight. This doesn’t mean you have to divulge all your company secrets to the media – that will lose trust internally and will inevitably cost you your job. It means being as honest and forthcoming as you can given each situation.

Your relationship with the press will always be cat-and-mouse, and by definition it will be contentious at times. Your job is to protect confidential information and manage your message – theirs is to expose the information without filter. It’s a dance you must learn how to balance. Your ultimate responsibility is with the company for which you work, but your rapport with the media is vital. Never lie or intentionally mislead. Tell them what you can, when you can – and be straightforward when you can’t. And, in the inevitable instances where you get sideways with a journalist, be proactive about clearing the air as soon as you can. Don’t let it fester. Because right around the corner is the next big story.

And it will be a helluva lot easier to deal with if you trust one another.

Be Quick on Your Feet

If you’re new to the PR profession, I’ve got some bad news: There are going to be times where you spend months in your office, on the phone and in meetings preparing a picture-perfect plan for an upcoming announcement or event. You will put in a ton of hours to ensure all the major players involved are in perfect alignment, every last detail is scheduled down to the minute and the run-of-show will be memorized better than your wedding vows.

Then it will all go completely into flames.

Your story might break the night before. Your boss may decide to change everything the morning of. Somebody’s flight will get cancelled. Another bombshell news piece could drop and your sure-fire headline story turns into an afterthought. Talk to any PR person who’s been in the business longer than a year and they’ll have horror stories that will make you consider trading in your credential for a job at Starbucks.

Understand Now: This is part of the deal. And it is inevitable. It’s going to happen, and then it’s going to happen again. And, when it does – everybody will turn to you for leadership, direction and calmness in the face of the fire. Your ability to respond in these situations is essential and could dictate how far you will go in this profession. Do your homework. Prepare for the fire. Make sure your team knows their responsibilities in every situation. Think about contingency plans ahead of time. Practice them by role playing. Be ready for bad things to happen and be ready to react immediately.

Always have an action plan for when the most ridiculous situations arise – and then don’t be surprised when something even more unfathomable becomes your new reality.

Be Responsive

This seems easy enough – but this is an area where many PR people struggle. I’ve certainly been guilty of it myself. Maybe you’re busy. Maybe the journalist trying to contact you is chasing a story you can’t talk about. Maybe they want to interview somebody that isn’t getting back to you – so you don’t have any answers. Maybe they’re just annoying. You can try to rationalize it all you want, but you’re just making excuses, and you’re being bad at your job.

At the Indianapolis 500 one year I was excited to find out that longtime Gannett sports columnist Mike Lopresti was attending the race for the first time. Mike and I shared the same hometown and I had been reading his stuff since I was a kid. At that point he was on a two-decade stretch of covering nearly every Super Bowl, World Series, NBA Finals, Olympics – and every other major sporting event you’ve ever heard of – so he brought with him a ton of clout and perspective. I asked him, bluntly, what separated great PR people from the rest of the pack.

Lopresti took a long time to answer and then declared, “The ones who call me back.”

At first, that felt like an overly simplistic answer to a question I’d hoped would score something profound. But, as Mike elaborated, it became clear to me how that lack of communication could have a dramatic effect on his job. Was he going to get the story at all? Should he write about something else? Did he need to file without comment? Should he hold the story because a statement set to be released in the near future? Did one of his competitors already have the story? What could he tell his editors so they knew where he stood?

Once he explained the matrix I understood how much uncertainty and angst could be alleviated by a simple phone call.

Expert Matchmaking

Being an expert matchmaker will separate a great PR person from the rest of the crowd. This is the core and foundation of your job – pairing your stories with the right media outlets and individual journalists. And, it’s important to note, this doesn’t just apply to one single media pitch – it begins with the foundation of your overall communications strategy.

Alignment in your global strategy from the outset is a tremendous asset once you start to drill down into individual pitches. Sure, you can score some good placements with an isolated pitch here or there – but in order for your company message to be impactful, you need your message spread repeatedly across several different platforms. And this doesn’t mean getting 10 outlets to print your press release verbatim. (That’s a long shot anyway.) You want to ensure that there are different journalists writing about you, each with their own take, to maximize reach and to create differentiation and uniqueness in the coverage you’re generating.

This is where your matchmaking ability comes into play – understand all the different angles to your story and do your homework to find outlets that cover those elements, or journalists who would be intrigued by those nuances. If you merely hit send on a press release and then sit back to wait for the coverage to start flowing in, then get comfortable – you’re going to be waiting awhile.
Understand what the outlets you want to write about you are covering. Read multiple stories from individual journalists to understand what they like to cover. Then take that knowledge and find how their commonalities – or the potential angles - align with your story.

Now pick up the phone. A new match awaits.

Be Different

Be bold. Be different. Be remembered. It’s a crazy world out there. You absolutely must find a way to stand out from the crowd if you want to be recognized. The brands that do things differently, think outside the box and the ones who aren’t scared to kick over a few tables are the ones who make an impact. How you execute on that strategy is completely in your hands. It takes creativity, fearlessness and support from the leadership of your company. Don’t stray too far outside the box independently – make sure your boss (and, sometimes, your boss’s boss) are in the loop. Have a plan and be prepared to answer questions about “why?” and “is this worth it?”. Sometimes your ideas will be embraced and sometimes you’ll get pushback.

There has never been a better time than now. The opportunities are endless – social media, digital media, traditional media, dynamic stunts and so on. It’s also difficult. There is a different solution for every brand. And, whatever you do, it needs to tie back to your message, your announcement or your purpose. Don’t do something crazy just for the sake of doing so or at the risk of making your brand look foolish. Have a clear purpose – then prepare, plan and execute. Don’t be scared by the prospect of failure – that will always exist and comes packaged tightly with the risk. But on the other side of that is the potential of the reward. That moment when you pull off something truly impactful is indescribable – for you personally but, more importantly, for your brand.

Take the chance.