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Anyone hiring a sustainability manager/ninja like myself? A bit about me:
1. Trained as an urban planner, I am a public policy and sustainability professional with 5+ years of global experience working with UN entities, governments, private companies, and communities
2. Most experience in managing and supporting sustainability programs, expanding and strengthening stakeholder engagements, and developing win-win sustainable strategies and policy solutions
LinkedIn: mahakagrawal2505
Email: ma4100@coumbia.edu
Leadership books recommendations?
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Hi ! Who’s at 3% in person in Atlanta this week!
Fleishman or Weber for Healthcare?
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Mentor
It depends on who or what you’re pitching, what your angle is, and who you’re trying to contact. Current covid-focus everywhere is a bit of a complication, to be sure, but...
how long have you been in your role - are you PR focused in house at Accenture, or working on behalf of clients? It’s well known that anchors and on air talent are not the contacts you generally work with (until you have an established relationship after multiple engagements), so some context here would be helpful in tailoring advice for you.
Mentor
Thanks. Context is helpful. I think overall journalists and editors are really focused on immediate covid stories, but overall we are starting to see that shifting a bit to success stories, current state with predictions or implications for future wfh, etc. which bodes well for future pitching, at least?
The tricky part, IMO (agency, corporate reputation, manufacturing and healthcare background), is that autonomy and AI are complex stories that kind of have a lot to unpack on a good day. A lot of folks are worried they’re going to decimate union / manufacturing workforce - from production to transport and more - and i think most consider it as a strong nuance and tough sell to educate people otherwise... which means it’s tough story to tell these days especially, when the workforce has been so further hurt by covid. On one hand, Public perception might be critical of any good news story there; on another, it’s just really heavy education and reframing existing perception in a time where everyone is mentally taxed and without the brainpower to understand the nuance.
So, certainly not the end of it - definitely opportunity in the future. But just a few current ideas of why you may not be receiving any interest at this time.
If I’m not sure who to reach out to, I’ll quickly call news desk. Tell them what I have in a few seconds and ask who the best person to reach out to is. Sometimes they’ll give you a name that’s not currently on your list. sometimes they’ll immediately transfer you. sometimes they’ll just tell you to send to news desk.
Agree with D1. I think it’s all about COVID right now. We always struggle to get TV placements, but have been pitching a COVID story and got placement on all of the nightly network news and morning shows in the past month.
Thanks all for the feedback/hints - super helpful, I appreciate the support.
Instead of going to TV first, do you want to sharpen the story with print and op eds etc? Then you need something attention grabbing to get broadcast coverage. Like a company that using this technology now and has the footage to use. Maybe even lean in to the fact that it will be a polarizing topic to grab the reporters attention.