PR Pros: Rob Pasquinucci of Intrinzic On The 5 Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Career As A Public Relations Pro
Being successful in PR starts with being a good writer. You don’t need to be Hemmingway, but you do need to be able to distill information in a way that is easy for an audience to understand. You need to be able to think like a journalist and write in that form, with a good working knowledge of the AP Stylebook.
Have you seen the show Flack? Ever think of pursuing a real-life career in PR? What does it take to succeed in PR? What are the different forms of Public Relations? Do you have to have a college degree in PR? How can you create a highly lucrative career in PR? In this interview series, called “5 Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Career As A Public Relations Pro” we are talking to successful publicists and Public Relations pros, who can share stories and insights from their experiences.
As a part of this series I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Rob Pasquinucci.
Rob’s career includes stints at two integrated marketing firms and on the client side at the world leader in eyewear — Luxottica. His experience includes public relations, long-form content development, crisis management, magazine editing and corporate communications.
Rob holds a MA in communication from Northern Kentucky University and a bachelor’s in journalism from Ashland University. He is an accredited member of the Public Relations Society of America and teaches PR writing courses at local universities.
Thank you so much for your time! I know that you are a very busy person. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
I was working at the headquarters at my college fraternity, and we announced that we were rolling out a plan to remove alcohol from our chapter houses. We made the announcement externally and the story got picked up broadly. I spent two weeks on the phone with reporters, arranging interviews for our leadership. It showed me that PR can have the excitement that I got from working in a newsroom, but with better hours and pay!
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began at your company?
It’s been an interesting 5+ years here at Intrinzic. We’ve had some great opportunities to build PR into the work the agency does for clients. An interesting story, albeit not necessarily related to the work we’ve done, was a morning when I walked in to find the office flooded — which was odd since our suite was on the third floor. Our office had a cool deck area that, unfortunately, filled with water during an early morning thunderstorm and that flowed into our space. What a mess!
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
We were doing a printed magazine for a client and we misspelled the client’s name on the masthead. Ouch. He was cool about it, and I re-learned that enduring journalism lesson — check, check and doublecheck everything. Especially names!
What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?
Among other clients, I’m working on Construction Safety Week, which is a campaign to encourage construction workers across the U.S. and Canada to do the right thing when it comes to safety.
You are a successful leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
I think the first trait is the ability to listen and try to understand where others are coming from. For example, if someone seems to really be driving for a certain outcome, understand the why that is motivating them.
Second, I think you need to always be curious and willing to learn. The best leaders are good at knowing what they don’t know and surrounding themselves with smart people to guide them.
Finally, I think you need to be able to model what you want from your team. Don’t check and send emails after hours if necessary. Give people the time they need to manage their work and life balance.
Ok super. Thank you for all that. Let’s now shift to the main focus of our interview. For the benefit of our readers, can you help articulate what the different forms of PR are?
Great question — there’s a couple ways to answer that. First, you can practice PR at a corporate (client side) or agency level. Second, PR involves many sub-disciplines, including media relations, government relations, corporate communications, crisis/issue management, content development and the emerging world of influencer relations.
Where should a young person considering a career in PR start their education? Should they get a degree in communications? A degree in journalism? Can you explain what you mean?
The short answer is, yes, getting a degree in journalism, communications or PR (if available) will help you as you start a career in PR. But, I also recommend getting broad business knowledge during the undergraduate years to really understand where PR fits in the world of business.
You are known as a master networker. Can you share some tips on great networking?
I think the key to great networking is to make sure you’re “giving” as well as “taking.” In other words, go out and engage with others on LinkedIn even if there isn’t a short-or long-term benefit for you. And network relentlessly. For students, talk to your parents’ friends, even if they work in some other field. You never know who can help you down the road!
Lead generation is one of the most important aspects of any business. Can you share some of the strategies you use to generate good, qualified leads?
We try to offer advice to help any marketer or brand — we believe if we share some of our knowledge for free it will attract and audience that, eventually, can lead to qualified leads. We partner with the local business newspaper to do lunch-and-learns and share content with trade organizations like PRSA and AMA.
Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. Based on your opinion and experience, what are your “5 Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Career As A Public Relations Pro” and why. (Please share a story or example for each.)
Happy to share my 5 things. For me, being successful in PR starts with being a good writer. You don’t need to be Hemmingway, but you do need to be able to distill information in a way that is easy for an audience to understand. You need to be able to think like a journalist and write in that form, with a good working knowledge of the AP Stylebook.
Second, you need to have a nose for news. You need to understand what “news” is and how it can be different for different audiences. Read lots of publications. See what’s trending on social media. Understand how your brand might be able to fit into these stories.
Third: You should have a working knowledge of the tools and technology used in PR. Beyond basic office/computer experience, you should understand how to use the internet dig to get details that make stories better, be able to upload news releases or images to share them broadly and understand some basics around photo/video production to be a savvy PR pro.
Fourth, you should have an understanding of developing goals, a strategy and tactics to help PR integrate into the larger marketing mix. This understanding helps PR pros move into management roles and have a “seat at the table” as their organizations make decisions.
Finally, you need to understand people. You can’t take the “public” out of public relations. Being a “people person” helps. This doesn’t mean you have to be an extrovert, but you should be able to understand what makes people tick and how you can influence them. One of the industry’s founders was the nephew of Sigmond Freud, so the tie to psychology is something to consider.
Because of the role you play, you are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I spend a lot of time looking at the news industry, and have seen many outlets slash staff to the point that they only cover a fraction of what they used to cover. I fear that the “watchdog” role of journalists has been diminished, and in its place is “fake news” shared on social media. I’d like to see a bigger emphasis on building better news literacy across the country.
This was really meaningful! Thank you so much for your time.
PR Pros: Rob Pasquinucci of Intrinzic On The 5 Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Career… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.