In partnership with PRNEWS, “Lessons Earned” is a series featuring IPR Trustees and affiliates discussing a hard-fought lesson or triumph that helped to mold or change their career. Timed for Pride Month, this latest edition features lessons assistant professor Joseph Czabovsky of the University of North Carolina learned about PR during a funeral. It was one … Continue reading Lessons Earned: A Moment at a Funeral Taught Me Everything About PR
In partnership with PRNEWS, “Lessons Earned” is a series featuring IPR Trustees and affiliates discussing a hard-fought lesson or triumph that helped to mold or change their career. You know the feeling. The knot-in-your-stomach, lump-in-your-throat sensation when you realize you’ve made a mistake. It was May 2014. The day began like any other. I was compiling news headlines … Continue reading Lessons Earned: How a PR Pro Recovered from an Awful Mistake
In partnership with PR News, “Lessons Earned” is a series featuring IPR Trustees sharing a difficult lesson. For 12 years, I was in the “if you want it done right, do it yourself” camp. Any thought of delegation was a sign of weakness. I wasn’t anti-team or anti-collaboration, I was independent. Maybe it’s because I am an … Continue reading Lessons Earned: How a Three-Day Off-Site ‘Changed My Life’
In partnership with PR News, “Lessons Earned” is a series featuring IPR Trustees sharing a difficult lesson. As a history major, I had no grounding in business when I graduated. I eventually leveraged a portfolio of freelance articles for Ohio newspapers about various topics–none business-related–into a temporary position with the state of Ohio Auditor’s press office. I … Continue reading Lessons Earned: How ‘Languages’ Led to a Successful PR Career
In partnership with PR News, “Lessons Earned” is a series featuring IPR Trustees sharing a difficult lesson. Being busy can be a good thing. It likely means you are in demand, essential to your customers and staff and you are achieving things. But if it is your default setting, it can indicate you’re taking on too many … Continue reading Lessons Earned: How I Stopped Being Busy…Some of the Time
In partnership with PR News, “Lessons Earned”is a series featuring IPR Trustees sharing a difficult lesson. I was petrified and excited. After becoming leader of the communications and outreach department at Southwest Airlines, late in 2005, something unexpected happened. I clammed up; I was absolutely terrified to speak up or share an opinion, and I was … Continue reading Lessons Earned: How a PR Pro Found Her Voice
In partnership with Ragan’s PR Daily, “How We Did It” is a series featuring IPR Trustees discussing a success in their public relations career. This column is called “How We Did It,” but because we learn more from mistakes than successes, I wanted to share my failure handling a crisis when I was the chief communications … Continue reading How We Did It: Four Lessons from a Mismanaged Crisis Response
In partnership with PR News, “Lessons Earned” is a series featuring IPR Trustees sharing a difficult lesson. There was nothing unusual about that Manhattan summer day – the subway was sweltering, I got body-checked on the 7-train, and I sat at my desk overlooking 42nd St in front of two scrambled eggs and a side of … Continue reading Lessons Earned: How a PR Pro Got Out of a Well-Paid Rut
In partnership with PR News, “Lessons Earned” is a series featuring IPR Trustees sharing a difficult lesson. I hate to admit it has been more than two decades since I set out from the University of Kansas, journalism degree in hand, with all the confidence in the world. I was ready to conquer the media industry. In … Continue reading Lessons Earned in Our Nation’s Capitol
In partnership with PR News, “Lessons Earned”is a series featuring IPR Trustees sharing a difficult lesson. Failure is the mother of success. This saying has never been truer for me than when I think about how I developed as a writer. Good writing was never something I gave much thought about as a student. At least … Continue reading Lessons Earned: How Shortfalls Can Become Strengths
In partnership with PR News, “Lessons Earned” is a series featuring IPR Trustees sharing a difficult lesson. If I had a dollar for every business mistake I’ve committed, I’d be sitting atop the Forbes 400 list. Alas, based upon my multiple failures, I’m lucky to be standing at all. But, as is the case with most of … Continue reading Lessons Earned: When Believing the Client’s Promise Goes Wrong