Special Friday Industry Insights Edition: Looking To 'Atone' For Media/PR Sins? Here's how to get started.

Tonight into tomorrow marks the holiest day of the year for those who are Jewish, and for that reason there won’t be a Saturday edition of the newsletter this week

But I wanted to take a beat to send a dedicated message today because I feel like the spirit of the occasion can offer valuable food for thought.

Known as the day of atonement, Yom Kippur is when Jews spend the day fasting and reflecting, and a big part of that is looking at our actions and choices in the past year.

And, honestly, I can’t help but think this is something we can all learn from in our industry.

While I’m never one to integrate religion and business (or church and state, for heaven’s sake), I think that in the frenetic and sometimes transactional nature of our business, there’s some lessons we can take away from a day devoted to taking stock of our actions in past year, for better or worse, and taking steps to make things right.

Being authentic

On Yom Kippur, we’re supposed to look inward and be aware of where we came up short in our lives and relationships in the past year. What does this remind you of? Branding and authenticity, and BEING HONEST AND SINCERE.

Take a moment to think about your messaging and your pitches — your brand and how you represent it - and try to work on being more genuine and authentic in your actions. In my inbox, I often see invitations or pitches that say one thing and then do another. This is something to work on going forward, should you want to have more honest PR/media relationships.

We speak a lot about having stronger, more genuine relationships. That’s a great way to start.

Making things right.

Hey, crap happens.

Maybe you were supposed to give a writer a tea expert to chat about some factors to consider when choosing the best tea and completely ghosted, putting my deadline in jeopardy. Maybe you sent out an invite and then completely changed the parameters (or uninvited them altogether!). Maybe you were supposed to send a media sample necessary for testing for a deadlined story - and then didn’t until three weeks later, missing their window. Maybe you invited a journalist on a trip, said it was fully hosted, and then sprung on them at the last min that some crucial aspects were not covered. Whatever. it’s fine. We’re looking forward, not back.

A big part of Yom Kippur is that we atone, but we also are all about forgiveness and reconciliation and finding better ground in our dealings in the future. Mistakes happen. Conflicts happen. We’re all human. Lets candidly look at where we went wrong and make actions to do better in the future (I love a good teaching moment!).

This shows you care about your work and your relationships but also a level of commitment and integrity that make people want to work with you!

Setting intentions

On this holiday, the reason that people fast is about cleansing and atonement — but the symbolism of that is letting go of the past and setting better intentions in the new year.

This is so like our industry! Lets move on from past faux pas and bad habits and aspire to stronger media relationships, better, more targeted pitching, and more honest and genuine interactions and intentions.

(And, yes, booking a consulting session can help me help you with a lot of that!)

Gratitude

While this sounds like a holiday all about sadness and being hungry - and I won’t lie, the caffeine headaches are real - it’s kind of also about being grateful. It’s about acknowledgement and appreciation and being a friend when a friend is needed.

We all try to do that every day, from being sustainable (try for less wasteful mailers!) to sending a friendly note when someone is going through a tough time. It’s staying in touch even if maybe someone isn’t currently writing content that includes your client. It’s all about positive relationships vs. transactional ones.

We can all take a beat to recalibrate now and then and make better choices for ourselves and our work - whether or not this is your day to do so, I hope you get some value from my own takeaways this weekend!

<3

aly