Ask Me Anything: Profitability, PR Results, Bike Riding, and More!

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Yesterday, we did a full article on this week’s Spin Sucks podcast episode and the Ask Me Anything feature. As I reviewed the questions our community submitted, I realized we weren’t able to get to all of them. We work hard to keep the podcast episodes to 15 minutes or less—and we just ran out of time! But, as I recommend to our clients—and to all of you—some of your best content is in the questions you are asked. So this is part two (with answers this time) of the Ask Me Anything feature…in written versus audio format. Client Misconceptions About PR Though Shane Carpenter did get a couple of questions answered in this week’s podcast episode, I thought his other two questions were fun and relevant. He asked: What drew you to be a communications professional? What are the biggest misconceptions you find clients have about marketing communication? The first answer is…necessity. I was going to go to law school.

I wanted to do contract negotiations for professional athletes. But I also very badly needed a job, if only to pay my way through school. A friend of mine called and said she had interviewed for an account coordinator job at an agency, but she wasn’t interested in the job. She thought I’d be perfect for it. So I applied, interviewed, was offered, and accepted the job. The rest, as they say, is history. And law school Timeshare Owners Email List never became a reality. Though I still think I’d be great at contract negotiations for professional athletes. The second answer is more along the misconceptions they have of communications. They all think communications is just media relations—and they think getting on the front page of the New York Times will solve all of their problems. A couple of years ago, two weeks before Christmas, a prospect called me in a panic. Target had told him, if he didn’t sell out of his product on their shelves by Christmas, they were pulling him from their stores.



He just knew we could get him some publicity and all would be good. It was sad to have to break it to him that we couldn’t do it that quickly (unless he robbed a bank) and that it was unlikely that solve his problems by Christmas. That tends to be the biggest misconception most have. I joke that there must be some secret start-up school that teaches you to find a PR firm and ask for as many articles as one can get in the shortest amount of time. They all seem to want it. Working with Contractors and Being Profitable Kimberly Capwell is working on her financials and making her invoicing and reporting even more sophisticated. To that end, she asked: Do you pay contractors hourly or a flat rate per month (to align with fixed client retainers for example)? We always try to work within the contractor’s hourly rate (because fair is fair), but negotiate the number of hours it’ll take to do certain things. That always falls within the client’s fixed retainer. If it ends up being more—and the client has requested it—we submit a scope of work change with new estimate. The idea is to always, always be profitable, no matter who is doing the work.