PR or PF? What Are We Practicing, Anyway?
(And Why Didn’t I Put This in My Book?)

I just finished a fun and thorough interview about my book for the Eternal Leadership Podcast, and right at the end I was asked to offer tips to authors, experts, speakers, coaches and consultants about how to get that first bit of news coverage for their products or services. I started talking about the importance of building and maintaining relationships with journalists, and something I’ve said for nearly two decades flew out of my mouth — and made me mad I didn’t think to put it in my book.

PR, I have long argued, is really nothing more than PF — professional flirting. The same things you do when you want someone to like you romantically are what you do when you want reporters to cover your story and add you to their Rolodexes: Affirm and intrigue them in equal measure. Don’t compliment their looks, but their work; don’t try to impress with your fashion sense, but with your story sense; don’t talk too much about yourself, but just enough to be sufficiently interesting that they’ll answer your next contact or even contact you back; if you’re funny, sprinkle in some humor; if you’re smart, drop some erudition; and always find out what they like so you can provide it.

Getting a story is a lot like getting a date. Hey, that sounds like a good title for another book …