I love pomegranates. They’re good for you. The colors are beautiful. They’re perfect for snacking … But man, they’re a lot of work. I’ve tried all the methods: I’ve opened them under water, smacked them with a spoon and gently peeled them out of their shells. But no matter which way you dice it, they’re a pain.
PR can be very much the same way. We have a joke around the office from one of our favorite movies, “The Devil Wears Prada.” Anne Hathaway’s character becomes disenchanted with the glitz of her high-demand job in the fashion world, and Meryl Streep’s character turns to her in the most regal tone ever and says, “Don’t be silly, Andrea. Everybody wants to be us.”
We’ve found it’s always the perfect way to sum up the most random jobs we find ourselves doing in PR. Here are just a few we’ve experienced over the years:
- You come to work dressed in your best heels, only to learn your boss needs you to deliver five 1,000-pound boxes (or at least they felt that way) of brochures across town to the client. Luckily, you brought some band aides for your feet, and the brochures are getting to the client in time for their trade show the next weekend.
- You hand-tie bows and insert countless tiny keys into paper keyholes, each one with care, because you just know someone is going to compare the two and notice if one bow is slightly larger than the other.
- You spend all day peeling wrappers off of wine bottles just so you can save your nonprofit client some extra dollars on their centerpieces.
- You burn the midnight oil researching and writing because it’s the only quiet time you can get.
- You bust out your best origami skills to fold hundreds of tiny paper airplanes because you had that crazy vision for your event.
And while, let’s be honest, there are times I’d rather be wearing my brown sweatpants with a bowl of popcorn in my lap, we laugh at each other and say, “everybody wants to be us.” Because the truth is, there’s a whole lot of fruit behind the flesh of the weird things we do for our clients. Over the years, we’ve each gotten to work with some really cool people, organizations and companies who are changing the world.
They’re finding healthier ways to grow leafy greens. They’re helping women become more aware of their bodies and the symptoms of ovarian cancer. They’re offering new options for travel to connect our city to the world. They’re helping companies recover data they thought was lost forever. They’re helping companies keep employees happier and putting them on a path to growth. They’re putting their own hard-earned money into creating resources for other people to start their own businesses. They’re bringing people together to collectively make sure every child has a chance at a future. They’re offering smaller companies the chance to use technology previously only accessible to Fortune 500 companies. They’re putting on events that people from China and Scotland come to be a part of!
Make no mistake. Tulsa is cool. Our people are cool. And the things happening in our city are amazing. Look out, world. Because this pomegranate is about to bust open.
