What You Don't Learn In The Classroom
Hands down, the most thrilling part of my career as a public relations professional is speaking to college students about the real world of working in entertainment and sports.
Recently, I had the honor of spending two hours with the stellar students in Professor Gregory Bishop's Principles of Public Relations class at the University of Southern California USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism. We brainstormed, did some mock pitching... And my favorite: I shared a couple dirty tips and tricks necessary for PR survival in the entertainment and sports industries. That means dealing with the ethics of whether (and how) to keep secrets, knowing how journalists really think, sending a private SUV to (sports) clients so you know they'll show up in time for a charity event, the difference between communicating with clients and communicating with their mothers (or wives), and... why do they call it a step-and-repeat?
Colorful anecdotes and candidness provoke curiosity and questions from the bright-eyed future publicists sitting (and sometimes Googling on their laptops) in the classroom. This is what creates an engaging discursive site for students to apply the theories and principles they've learned to real-world situations.
