Dan Schwartzberg
Dan Schwartzberg

I was interviewing a candidate this week for a media relations position. The candidate was entry level, had just finished school and was interested in breaking into the communications field. When I asked what interested them the most, the answer was “everything except media pitching.” When I asked why, the response was that they were afraid to pitch.

This got me thinking about when I first came into PR, and I was also afraid of pitching. I decided to revisit those thoughts to figure out what exactly I was afraid of and why. All these years later, I realize that fear can be a source of growth rather than something to be avoided. Fear can be used as a source of energy, and confronting our deepest fears can help us develop the very important media relations skill of resilience.

If you find yourself facing fear about media relations, here’s some perspective to help.

Rejection

Clearly no one likes to be rejected. It’s unpleasant ─ but only if you take it personally. It’s a reporter’s job to receive, process and choose which stories they find newsworthy, and many, many things can go into their decision making. In media relations, you will be rejected most of the time, but it’s not that you are not worthy. It’s just that the story isn’t newsworthy right now. Don’t get stuck ruminating over a rejection. Reassess the story, your pitch angle and the timing to see if there is a chance to revisit it down the line. Focus on how good it’s going to feel when you do land that interview!

Making a Mistake/ Getting Yelled at

This could be a paralyzing fear in media relations because it feels like your mistake is the absolute end of the world and your career. It’s not. Mistakes happen and will continue to happen. What’s important is making the effort to correct your error as soon as possible and try not to make it again.

In the first couple months at my first- ever “real” job, I was pitching a satellite feed for a major event (this was before virtual interviews existed) and giving out satellite coordinates to television stations so they could record the footage of our event to use for their newscast. After pitching many outlets, I realized that I got the transponder number wrong: I put 15 when it should have been 16. Seems like a small problem, but it was actually a big mistake since stations could be looking for the footage in the wrong place. I panicked of course and tried to fix it without anyone finding out because I was afraid I would get fired immediately. So, I decided to pull all-nighters for the rest of the week and go back to every single station I pitched and correct the transponder number.

Finally, it was the day of the event and satellite feed. I panicked at my desk all morning, hoping that everything would be fine. I snuck into a conference room at 1:59 (the feed was at 2:00) to wait for the feed to be up on the bird. That 60 seconds felt like 60 years. Pacing around in the giant conference room I waited… one minute passed… silence… two minutes… I may just have pulled this off… three minutes… Could I be home free????? At three minutes one second, the CEO hurried into the room and said our client was on the phone, furious because television stations were calling them saying they couldn’t see the feed. “How can that be? I went back to every single station I pitched,” I thought to myself.

Turns out the client did some pitching on their own and used the media alert I wrote with the wrong coordinates. I had no idea they did that. It didn’t even occur to me anyone would do that. My first instinct was to just quietly grab the bag my uncle got me for graduation and run out, never to return. But I decided I should just admit my mistake and face the consequences. So, I went into my CEO’s office and told him I had the wrong transponder on the alert and I’d tried to fix it but didn’t realize anyone else would be pitching but me. I offered my resignation and headed for the door when my CEO stopped me. He said, “Why didn’t you tell me? I would have just bought the coordinates for the wrong transponder and fed it out on both of them.” I hadn’t thought of that either.

In the end, my biggest mistake was my fear of making a mistake and getting yelled at and trying to hide it instead of asking for help from people who had done this before. It was one of the most valuable lessons I have learned: don’t be afraid of your peers or even your boss. Their experience and knowledge are valuable!

Misspellings/Wrong Information

Even when you are double- and triple-checking your work, sometimes you have read so much information in a day that you become blind to possible errors. As long as your pitch is relevant, timely and to the correct person, they will most likely give you a pass for calling them “Shannon” instead of “Sharon” ─ and even for the dreaded “Dear {First Name}” pitch email. Doesn’t hurt to send a personal follow-up message just to the person if you notice it and want to correct yourself ─ they may appreciate the gesture.

Imposter Syndrome

Sometimes it may feel like everyone is going to notice that you don’t know what you’re doing. They won’t. I mean this in the nicest way possible: no one is paying that much attention to you. Take the steps you need to feel as confident as you can. Ask questions on LinkedIn, find a sample pitch, try one or two out and see how it goes. As long as you feel good about what you are sending (and you will the more you do it), it will be fine.

Failure

You can’t learn to succeed unless you fail. The real failures in media relations are not learning what works or how to build relationships with reporters. Rejection and failure are all part of the game, and you have to play to eventually learn how to win. You’ve got this!

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Dan Schwartzberg is EVP, Media Strategy at 4media group.