These days, the only job that seems to keep me interested is the one that combines quite a bit of disparate activity. In PR, we are part counselor, salesperson, troubleshooter, secretary, creative, mediator...you name it and we do it. As a kid I wasn't much different. I had two main career aspirations - surgeon and go-go dancer. In some ways, dissection and dancing go hand in hand in the public relations business - so maybe I'm not that far off from my childhood dreams.
When I was 4, remember it was the sixties and go-go dancing was all the rage. I had the COOLEST pair of patent leather go-go boots, and the shimmeriest shiniest mini- skirt you've ever seen. Me and my friend Sheri would practice go-go dancing on the stone wall between our houses for hours. This is not unlike the activity involved with a pitch. Dress it up, make it snazzy, tap dance your way onto the phone with an editor and then hit 'em with your jazz hands. (Everyone, do your jazz hands now. You know you want to.) That's the outward appearance of PR to most people. We're glad handers, salespeople, we add the "ta da" to the "to do".
But in reality, there's quite a bit more surgery involved than people are aware of.
