Sometimes it takes a few (embarrassing) mistakes and borderline crisis situations for you to learn valuable lessons. With the hopes that you’ll never have to experience this, I’ve shared some not-so-proud moments of my career in public relations to date.
Spell check doesn’t catch everything.
My very first job at a PR agency taught me a great lesson: proofing anything you write is essential.
It was my first week of work and I got my first assignment – draft a press release about an event a client was hosting. I had all of the background information needed to write what was sure to be a Pulitzer-winning release. I included the date of the event, location, activities, and of course that it was free and open to the public. After reading through the finished product, I clicked the spell-check button for one final boost of confidence. Then, I walked across the hall and placed a printed copy of the press release on my boss’s desk. I couldn’t wait for her to provide feedback, so when she called me into her office to review my work I skipped into the room with the excitement of a 5-year-old on Christmas morning.
“This was good,” she started. “But just remember that spell check doesn’t catch everything” as she handed me back a piece of paper. A circle had been drawn around one word on the page: “public” – except that I had forgotten the “L” in public. Now, instead of the event being open to the public, it was open…well, you get where I’m going with this. I was mortified to say the least. To this day, I have never forgotten to include the letter “L” in the word public.
Moral of the story: spell check is a great backup strategy, but don’t rely on it.
Similar doesn’t mean same.
I was leading the PR efforts for legendary NFL Hall of Famer Jim Brown’s charity golf tournament. The event happened to take place the week after another legend passed away – the “Godfather of Soul” James Brown. Naturally, this news was the topic of conversation – media and water cooler talk included.
Later that week, a colleague of mine was making follow-up calls to media to confirm their attendance at the event. I could only hear her side of the conversation, but it went something like this:
Hi (insert reporter’s name here), wanted to see if you were able to send a crew out to cover the James Brown golf tournament tomorrow.
Yes, James Brown.
No.
No, it’s the James Brown tournament.
Yes, I’m sure. Can you cover?
Oh my God.
Yes, yes you’re right. That was such a mix up on my part.
OK yes, thank you. I hope to see you there.
Again, I only heard the one-sided conversation, but if I were a gambling gal I’d bet that the reporter was confirming that this was an event hosted by Jim Brown, not James Brown.
Moral of the story: James and Jim are similar, but similar doesn’t mean they’re the same.
Don’t panic.
A few years ago, I was coordinating media interviews at a gala held at a fancy hotel in Miami. A co-worker of mine was handling logistics inside of the hotel, while I was stationed outside. The best way for us to communicate was through radio walkie-talkies, which shared a channel with the hotel’s operations team.
Halfway through the event, a small fire started in the kitchen. The hotel staff had extinguished the fire in less than a minute, so there wasn’t a need to inform the guests or panic. Except my co-worker panicked. Loudly. She started screaming “fire!” on the radio (which as a reminder, could be heard by the entire operations team) and put everyone into a state in alarm. After we found her (ran to her and grabbed the radio out of her hand), we updated her that the situation was handled and she had essentially caused a scene for no reason.
Moral of the story: If people are following your lead, don’t lead them into an unnecessary panic.
