We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Emily Reynolds Bergh a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Emily, so great to have you with us and we want to jump right into a really important question. In recent years, it’s become so clear that we’re living through a time where so many folks are lacking self-confidence and self-esteem. So, we’d love to hear about your journey and how you developed your self-confidence and self-esteem.
I have developed my confidence as much through successes as failures. Throughout my career, I’ve learned what I’m naturally good at through successes, like landing client coverage in The New York Times or maintaining client relationships for 6+ years. But I’ve also gotten more confident through failure, like when launches don’t go exactly as planned. Those moments have taught me how to be a better PR pro, and I’ve made it a point to learn from those mistakes. Now, I’m confident I won’t repeat them. I’d recommend aspiring PR professionals just get out there and work to build their portfolio. The confidence will come!
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
I’m the Founder of R Public Relations firm, a PR and marketing agency that employs passion and purpose to tell the stories of consciously-minded brands and deliver impactful results. We are a full-service agency, offering everything from social media content creation and management to media relations and beyond. Each wing of R Public Relations employs highly specialized creatives who love their work and take the time to get to know our clients.
We launched our marketing wing in 2024, and we are excited to add R Crisis Management to the R Public Relations family, further expanding our services to handle anything that’s thrown in our clients’ way.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Writing is always going to be number one in public relations. Our industry is based on messaging. If you can’t write a clear, concise sentence, you’re going to struggle–and I think that’s true in many other creative industries, too.
Baseline graphic design skills are my second choice. There are loads of free courses available online. I especially like Canva’s graphic design school, which takes users through design basics and helps them apply those skills to their own designs.
Third for me is communication. PR professionals need to be great communicators with media personnel, clients, and internally with their team members. It is literally impossible to do our job if you aren’t good at proactive communication.
As an individual, I think a certain level of well-roundedness is key to success in creative spaces. If you are an incredible videographer, you still need to be able to write a good sentence. If you’re a content pro, having an eye for visual design will make your work better. But generally, I recommend creatives get really, really good at just one thing. I started my career specializing in media relations. I used my skills to build a team of highly specialized media professionals–we were known for securing exceptional organic coverage for our clients. The gaps I have in my own skillset guide my hiring decisions; I look for marketers, social media specialists, and editors to round out my team.
We’ve all got limited resources, time, energy, focus etc – so if you had to choose between going all in on your strengths or working on areas where you aren’t as strong, what would you choose?
As an individual, I think a certain level of well-roundedness is key to success in creative spaces. If you are an incredible videographer, you still need to be able to write a good sentence. If you’re a content pro, having an eye for visual design will make your work better. But generally, I recommend creatives get really, really good at just one thing. I started my career specializing in media relations. I used my skills to build a team of highly specialized media professionals–we were known for securing exceptional organic coverage for our clients. The gaps I have in my own skillset guide my hiring decisions; I look for marketers, social media specialists, and editors to round out my team.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://rprfirm.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rprfirm/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rprfirm/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/r-public-relations-firm/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/rprfirm/
Image Credits
Image credits: RPR, Josh Huskin
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