Streamline Your Public Relations Process with Bill Excel for Public Relations

Bill excel for Public Relations

let's jump back into getting getting into PR getting into broadcast getting into Communications yeah what's one of the biggest takeaways through your career that you're like I wish I knew that earlier I would say the ability to jump around a little bit more I was fortunate in many ways to stay in Pittsburgh right but I know a lot of people grew as whether it's a broadcast or producer not only in their profession but maybe in life in general of having to go and pursue it somewhere else you know maybe in a small town that nobody you have no friends nobody's heard of you and it's a real grind so in some ways we kind of did that when we moved to Florida but I think early on I would advise if you can if you can to take in those experiences especially when you're younger and maybe you don't have the family right off the bat too I think that'll help but don't be afraid to experience because you can always come back home right you can always come back home I mean all my jobs were out of the state and until I started my own business I never worked in in the state that I grew up until I was my own boss there you go when you talk about jumping around so obviously we're talking about location but also moving in careers how quickly how fast is too fast I know as a recruiter if I see someone that's changed their jobs three times in three years I'm not interested in working with them yeah that's a that's a actually a really good point and even if there's gaps right in your resume there may be some some problems I probably like anything Scott I think things have changed today how we see those things that maybe we did 15 20 years ago I think the Market's different working from home that hybrid uh part of things I think makes it a little more challenging I I think if you you're somebody who has bounced around I think would it would raise some red flags it may and at least if you're somebody who's interviewing that person you're doing your due diligence to make sure you're definitely asking why are you why are you doing it and you're doing this so that's that's all I I can say I think you know one of the things we we have talks in my house with my wife is there's a little bit of a loyalty Gap I think sometimes with people who start out at a job and is the grass Always Greener somewhere else for some people it might yeah for some people it might I think it's how you go about the process though I agree and you you can leave a place in a better shape than you started and explain this for your professional growth and that transition should be good but if you jump in six months less than a year you do an average job and then you rip them out at a bad time that's not going to look good for you you're not gonna get that recommendation letter like it's just it's not good for your career I I would agree and I think you know we go back to the example of you know what did you learn a little bit when you were interacting with all these sports teams and media members how to be a professional yes how to and I don't know you know that maybe there are classes today for that there it seems like there's a class for anything probably e-learning you know dress well speak well but I think you know whether you want to call it manners whether you want to call it professionalism you need to treat the place you work at with a certain amount of respect and I think in today's culture we forget that it is often about me me me and look to an extent we're all guilty of that but there are other people who are relying on you who have given you an opportunity where I think you need to owe them a little bit more than hey I'm just unveiling after a week yeah after I've been here for six months yeah so let's talk about your transition into PR was otter PR your first role as a publicist or did you have obviously you had experience in the space but were you doing it with other companies what does that look like no so I mean I I say you know I've been in the broadcast business the media business for 20 years so I feel like in many ways that's my training but in terms of actually being a publicist uh otter was my first okay sure and uh very fortunate for that opportunity it was more you know I think doing the broadcasting which is great but you know wanting to be challenged trying something different and seeing if you can push yourself even a little bit more and so when the opportunity came about with otter um my wife and I were like this this I I won't forget it because I we were talking about the interviewing process and everything that that otter had to offer I remember saying to her and and she echoed it it felt right yeah and I I don't I haven't had that happen too often when it comes to opportunities broadcasting you're going to go a lot of different directions with it very rarely you're going to get your dream job especially coming right out of school absolutely but I I think in terms of the process what the goal was at otter clients getting into the media I looked at and I said you know I can do that it felt right and uh lo and behold it did yeah and you've been promoted pretty quickly you just became an account strategist and as a publicist I believe you went through a couple tiers before you made that jump So within a year three four times even had kind of a jump what does that look like obviously you've had success because of your background experience but what are you really doing that's kind of helping you succeed that quickly so I do think the professional experience probably has helped more than maybe even I give a credit for yeah you know being able to handle a client you know because every client's different now look there's there's some clients that are just impossible let's just be honest you know um we want to be frank you know you get a lot of a great success for them and it's like oh what do you what else what else are you getting for me expectation and managing is very hard and of course you're dealing with business owners and entrepreneurs sure you know my goal is a billion dollars and correct I'm nowhere near that obviously Billy it's not the goal but to everyone's expectations they want to be the best they do yeah they do and I think you've got to temper those a little bit and and that's fine um I do think the interacting with professional athletes coaches being in an arena filled with 50 60 000 people you may not seem like that that translates to what I do but you're not in awe let's put it that way you're not in awe of anything you know and I think that that helps the pressure of that communication is off because you're a natural Communicator that is correct and you know there is you will have pressure when you're doing I'll never forget the the first time I was an executive producer for a major broadcast I put on the headsets and I had 25 different people talking my headset I went to myself I went how in the world am I going to be able to just communicate and you know what after a while it slows down like anything else yeah it slows down you're able to say okay I need to talk to him her him and the other thing too was at the time I was 23 24. I'm in the booth with the radio voice of Pitt but also the Steelers Bill Hillgrove huge Legend still is to this day and here I am very green telling him when to break yeah or hey Bill you got to wrap it up yeah you find yourself in those moments absolutely you know you find it and there's always rough patches how do you learn from those mistakes too I think helps but I think again just kind of being in that environment allows you to think quickly