PR Pros: Scott Robertson On The 5 Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Career As A Public Relations Pro
Strong, Ever-Growing Writing Skills — Everything we do in this high tech world still comes down to words. This is our profession’s core skill so make sure your writing skills are INCREDIBLE and they constantly get better. Like playing the bass, you can always get better every single day of your career. You can always learn to play a new song. That’s how we stay sharp and stay relevant over the span of a 30-year career.
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 Scott Robertson.
Scott Robertson has 30+ years of public relations and marketing communications experience with a wide range of consumer and business-to-business organizations including: the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM), the NAMM Foundation, Hewlett Packard, Global Village Communications, Nextel Communications, Warner Music Group and the WG4 DVD-Audio Working Group, The DVD+RW Alliance (including HP, Dell, Philips, Sony, Ricoh, Mitsubishi Chemical and Yamaha) SyQuest Technologies, WorldGate Communications, Cox Communications, Cotelligent, Inc., Webradio.com, Dazzle Multimedia, QSound Labs and Smartship.com.
Prior to founding Robertson Communications (RobertsonComm) in 2012, he held the position of director of marketing & communications/PR for NAMM. Before NAMM, Robertson led and grew the Copithorne & Bellows/Porter Novelli Orange County office, taking it from a handful of staff and less than $500,000 in revenues to 28 staff and more than $4 million in annual revenue in less than three years!
Robertson is an accredited, active member of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) and holds a master of science in corporate communications degree from Lindenwood University as well as a bachelor of journalism degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Journalism. Robertson is also a StoryBrand Certified Guide.
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?
Sure. Coming of age in a rural mid-Missouri high school in the 1980’s, I really just wanted to be a rock star. I had the hair, the earring, the crazy clothes, the band, the sweet B.C. Rich bright red Warlock bass guitar, colored scarves up and down my mic stand — and the attitude. The problem was my parents weren’t about to fund this rock star lifestyle — so they convinced me to attend Mizzou J-school, get an advertising degree and THEN go become a rock star. ….And a funny thing happened along the way. I LOVED the creativity, the exciting work and making a difference in that way. So marketing became my chosen career path and the rest, as they say, is rock n’ roll history!
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began at your company?
Sure, my firm Robertson Communications is celebrating 10 years in business in 2022 and I have just loved and appreciated every minute of it. One of my first clients was Chordbuddy, a unique product designed to teach people to play the guitar in 90 days with a very cool little snap-on plastic gadget designed by the equally cool inventor Travis Perry. As I was starting my company, he had a date on Shark Tank and he made a great deal with Shark Robert Herjavec and needed to spread the word in a big way in order to grow the business. So we did! I remember we did this thing where we had John Rich from the country band Big & Rich take the Chordbuddy onto FOX’s Huckabee show and play his hit “Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy” using the device with Mike Huckabee on bass! It was real and really cool and generated a ton of instant sales for the product. Sometimes PR is hard to measure, but NOTwhen that episode aired it wasn’t. And I just love stuff like that.
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?
Yes, once when I was working for NAMM, we had to produce the annual report and one of our designers accidentally transposed a number in our main association phone number, so 10,000 copies almost went out with what turned out to be a very “adult-themed” phone number on the front cover. When I called the number and heard what our members and our Board (and the press) were going to hear, my mouth just hung open as I envisioned how spectacularly I would be fired for this. — My awesome life story was about to become a cautionary tale. So after a mild cardiac arrest, we regrouped and knew we couldn’t afford to reprint the books so we came up with the idea of putting a sticker over the offending phone number. And my entire department came in on a Saturday to stick labels on the books before they were set to go out. Crisis averted, but I learned to check ABSOLUTELY everything on every printed piece and NEVER take the phone numbers for granted. I always call every number and visit EVERY link in everything I proof today. No detail is too small for me anymore because if it can go wrong, it really will.
What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?
Right now, I have some very exciting clients. I’m working with Noisy Clan out of the UK to disrupt the musical accessories space in the music products industry with a series of products starting with the lightest, most portable music stand ever produced called the Wee Stand. It’s fantastic and will change the lives of thousands of musicians and music students. Also, working with a new social audio app called Breakout Social that will allow users to make money from their own data and be free from big-tech censorship. Finally, I’m just working to help a lot of small companies do PR/marketing the right way and grow their companies with non-invasive marketing. I’m also working on my first book dispelling marketing myths and it should be out in Q2 of 2022. I’m very excited about that!
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?
- Honesty — I am very direct and sometimes brutally honest. But to be a real counselor you just can’t be full of it or tell people fairy tales about what they want to be true. I truly despise “spin” and that perception of our profession. Lying (even exaggerating) is BAD for business and always will be.
- Integrity — I do exactly what I say I will do when I say I’m going to do it — and I don’t ever miss. If the meeting is scheduled for 2 pm, I’m there at 1:50 and if I say the draft will be sent on Monday at 4:30 pm, it’s there, every single time and usually early. Clients MUST be able to count on my word so I take it VERY seriously.
- Positivity — I’m a natural optimist and that serves me well. I always expect to win and I expect things to work out. But don’t worry, I have a backup plan (or two) ready in case they don’t. Staying positive is VERY tough in a profession filled with rejection, but I make the choice every single day to be happy and stay positive. Doing this keeps me going when others would quit or whine. I don’t make or take excuses either. I’m the boss and the buck stops right here with me.
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. Most people know PR as publicity or earned media coverage and yes, that is key to generate trust for any brand, but today, PR is also about creating content (blogs, social posts, infographics, videos) and using all of these pieces to shape perceptions along with paid campaigns to penetrate places where we need to be, but earned isn’t working or isn’t an option. Today PR runs the marketing mix, runs the brand and decides how to mix it based on what we want our audiences to think/believe. And it’s wild when they do, you feel like you’ve tapped this great power that you probably shouldn’t have. I always say, if they knew how powerful PR really was, they would outlaw it. And you can see it all around you today if you know what to look for.
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?
I think it’s SO important to be a great writer. Words remain the core of our work. If you can’t get it done with words, this profession is going to be a tough climb. So yes, a degree in communications and journalism is best. But if you aren’t getting a degree, get a ton of real-world writing experience and make sure you work on your writing always. It’s like practicing scales or patterns when playing the bass — you have to do it every single day or you won’t be quite as good the next time you need to rock.
You are known as a master networker. Can you share some tips on great networking?
Yes, stop talking about yourself — because no one really cares. Seriously, save that for your solo album or your memoirs. Human beings are very self-centered creatures. As marketers, we know this — and since we know it, we can use it. When you are networking, be interesting — which I define as telling interesting stories about the audience’s most favorite subject — themselves. Hook them with a problem they’re experiencing and then simply present yourself as a guide to help them solve it. Doing this will make you seem FAR more interesting than anyone else in the room. Do not EVER directly answer the trap question “What do you do?” Instead answer it with a specific problem you solve (that they’re having) and explain how you could be the solution and change their life for the better. Practice answering that question in this way so you’re not EVER talking about yourself unless it’s in the context of helping them get what they want.
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?
I advocate non-invasive marketing, that is marketing that doesn’t need to bother or annoy anyone and instead ATTRACTS its audience. My favorite strategies are:
- Start with a great story all about THEM and what they are struggling to accomplish right now — As a Certified StoryBrand marketing guide, I make sure my clients are telling THE clearest, best story possible which attracts an audience if done correctly.
- Amplify created content using social media channels to get it out there and be ready to participate on any platforms to answer questions and really engage. Not just the big tech driven ones either — Get into the Reddit groups, the Discord packs, YouTube comment threads and discussion boards — all of it. The best guitar solo in the world doesn’t matter without an amplifier and sound system so EVERYONE can hear it!
- Create GREAT emails that tell GREAT stories and help the audience solve its problems. Most emails are sales-driven garbage pushed through marketing automation software that is essentially worthless and treated as such via spam filters and junk folders. Be better. Be amazing for them and you will create some raving fans! (Just like a band does by playing that next incredible show!). My client emails have a 30–40 percent open rate and we only push that send button when we are 100 percent sure what we are sending is GREAT (for them).
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.)
- High Self-Esteem — Today, PR people outnumber actual media about 7 to 1. Yep, there are WAY more of us than there are actual news reporters, so your pitches and story ideas are going to fail much more than they will succeed. You need to feed your psyche with positive things about YOU — how great you are, how much you rock, how incredible you look in those pants — whatever. The world is ready to tear you down so YOU have to build yourself up every single day to fight back. I believe in the power of positive affirmations and I make sure my subconscious mind HEARS me say how great I am all the time. Because if YOU aren’t in your corner, who is going to be? You know, besides Mom 🙂
- Strong, Ever-Growing Writing Skills — Everything we do in this high tech world still comes down to words. This is our profession’s core skill so make sure your writing skills are INCREDIBLE and they constantly get better. Like playing the bass, you can always get better every single day of your career. You can always learn to play a new song. That’s how we stay sharp and stay relevant over the span of a 30-year career.
- Creativity — This is us looking at a program and saying, “Hey what if we….” Or “why don’t we…..” Some of the best results in PR come from taking different approaches and innovating. Maybe it’s a creative way to approach a pitch or a client’s business — maybe it’s taking the whole PR playbook and flushing it to do something no one has seen yet. As Walt Disney said, “”It seems to me that we have a lot of story yet to tell.” Yeah we do!
- Flexibility — The PR world has dramatically changed and continues to change. You have to be flexible and consider all media options (paid, earned, owned) to accomplish client objectives. When you work for smaller companies, things can change FAST so trust your skills and go with that flow. You never know what the next day might hold and to me, that is THE coolest thing about doing PR during these times.
- Passion — You gotta love PR to be truly great at it. You must read and consume media like we do with a critical eye to see who is writing about what and why, and what public perceptions are out there where our work can make a difference. No one trusts anything else in the marketing mix — and with good reason. But by adding earned media and influencer reviews and opinions in there, we can build that critical brand trust that drives growth in the right way. That’s the work of PR today. We build trusted brands who do great work to improve our world.
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’d like to help bring some empathy back to marketing. I see a lot of tactics with ZERO empathy for the audience –marketers don’t even see them as people just “conversions” or “targets” That is wrong. We can be MUCH better than that. We can be creative and powerful and solve real problems, but we have to listen and use our empathy to REALLY be great. I believe in the future of marketing if we make the right choices. Not the easy choices — the right ones. Not CAN we make dinosaurs…but SHOULD we. And that makes all the difference in the world.
This was really meaningful! Thank you so much for your time.
Thank you for the opportunity! Let’s rock!
PR Pros: Scott Robertson On The 5 Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Career As A Public… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.