PR Careers: Learning to Thrive When It’s All on You

Being the sole communications professional supporting a company, program or department takes grit, tenacity and no small amount of project management. The workload is never ending, support requests never stop, and it’s all on you to make everything come together. No pressure!

Over my 26 years of public relations work, I have held several ‘lone wolf’ positions for organizations ranging from 8 people to nearly 2,000. These jobs are a particular kind of demanding, but very rewarding too. Rise to the challenge and you can stretch and grow as a communications professional in ways that will propel your career.

Here’s my take on how to thrive:

Balance Those Endless Priorities

When you’re running solo, if you’re not working on a task you know nothing is happening with it in the meantime. It’s a constant, niggling stress in the back of your mind and it takes some getting used to. The immediate needs, requests, and emergencies of the day can quickly take all your time, and sometimes that is just how it plays out.

Ideally, however, try to save room in your work schedule to regularly spend time on mid- and long-term projects in addition to putting out fires and day to day work. These projects tend to be infrastructure investments such as improving the quality/functionality of a website, developing conference displays or promotional videos, creating branded social media templates, etc. You benefit from a robust infrastructure because well thought out assets will be there when you need them in the future. You are already prepared to quickly respond to requests for professional products. In short, your work life gets much more comfortable.

Time management challenges us all, but it can be especially stressful for solo workers who are getting pulled in many directions at once. For me, mid-day tends to be a great time to work on my longer-term projects. When not inundated with meetings, I try to approach my days as follows:

30 minutes - Email. Identify any high priority fires that need to be addressed.

30 minutes – Review of social media accounts. Schedule any tweets or posts. Engage with your social media community.

2 hours – Highest priority short-term projects.

15 minutes – Email

15 minutes – Social media account check-in.

2 hours – Long-term projects

1.5 hours – Highest priority short-term projects.

30 minutes – Check in on freelancer/contractor projects so that I am not a bottleneck keeping things from moving forward.

15 minutes – Email

15 minutes – Social media account check-in.

Consult with Your Community

You may be a one-person shop, but you are not shipwrecked on an island. You need communications colleagues to listen to your ideas and plans, and to give constructive feedback. You will find it easier to try new approaches and take risks with the benefit of second opinions.

There are many sources to draw on as you build your support community. Consider LinkedIn, professional society forums, colleagues from other units in your company, and so on. Or, create a communicators networking group within your company. Be sure to develop two-way relationships and offer the same peer mentoring and support in return.

I also suggest getting a personal career mentor. Find a more experienced person, or several individuals, who have the career experience to help you shape your own path.

Create Real Relationships with Contractors and Freelancers

If you can get the resources, you may have the opportunity to hire freelancers, web and graphics designers, videographers, and others. Approach these scope-specific hires with the goal of creating long-term relationships. Invest in these individuals and in the future, they will be more motivated to work you in when their schedules are tight.

Put time into ‘onboarding’ contract service providers well to make the experience as productive, efficient and pleasant as possible—for both sides. Check out AQUENT’S article In the Gig Economy, How to Access, Attract, and Retain Great Freelance Talent.

Don’t Ignore Your Weak Spots

Solo comms practitioners need to be “functionally literate” in all aspects of communications. If there is an area where your knowledge and skill base is light, dig in and learn more. It is tempting to bury your head in the sand and focus on what you already do well. Trouble is, at some point, one of your customers will ask for a communications product that you’re not prepared to create. I guarantee it.

Commit to continuously upskilling. Not only does it make your life easier, it's the best investment you can make in your career. Learning new skills at your own pace is a better plan than the stress of frantically scrambling to meet a deadline as you learn on the fly.

If you're just starting out in a single communications practitioner role, I hope these tips (based on hard-won experience) are helpful. Feel free to reach out with questions. And do let me know if I have missed anything. Share your experiences in the comments below.

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