A year and a half ago, my 85-year-old mom had to start fresh when she lost her home in a fire. Last summer, when her garden was ready to harvest, she realized she missed yet one more thing – her favorite recipe for zucchini relish. Her best friend, Betty, shared her copy, and after using it, my mom just wasn’t happy with the results.
Last weekend when I was filing away a recipe in my old fashioned recipe box, I came across her relish recipe. So I gave her a call. The timing was perfect. She had just gathered a batch of zucchinis. I read the recipe over the phone, repeating the magic potion that she had previously shared with me. When I later called her, her excitement was evident. “It’s the best zucchini relish I ever made,” she said. I smiled to myself. She was back in her own style – comfortable, confident and completely satisfied with her work.
I thought about how we, as public relations and communications professionals, develop our own style. After years of experiences, successes, and failures, we develop our own magic potions, and eventually a comfortable style that reflects the confidence we have in our work. Sure, we jump in and embrace new techniques and technologies, but as we integrate them with our other tools for success, they remain just tools and techniques.
What is most important when we meet with our clients is that we bring those experiences and a style, that only we can bring, to apply to their communications and public relations needs. And when the job is complete and we have met all our customers’ goals, we can reflect with a smile, happy in the knowledge that we embraced our style and because we did, we can be comfortable, confident and completely satisfied with our work.
