Category Archives: Communications

Communications, Musings

I’ve made a decision

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Not sure if I’m delusional or if it’s just too simple, but after a lot of tossing and turning, a few mighty unpleasantries and bouts of navel gazing, self-flagellation and dangerous introversion – I’ve decided to be happy.

Sounds simple enough.

Frankly, I had no idea at this wise age that it was as simple as choosing happiness. Happiness, I thought, was an outcome; something that you were bequeathed based on events outside of your control. 

Broody, creative types thrive on an eternal state of irrationality and unhappiness. It’s the fuel for their makings. Who ever met a happy, untortured writer or artist?

Turns out I may be wrong. Happiness can be as simple as a choice. 

Happiness researcher Shawn Achor, a proponent of positive psychology and author of books including The Happiness Advantage, says: ”What I want people to realise is happiness can be a choice, and it’s something you can practice.” 

“Happiness, like any other discipline, requires focus and effort. Without deliberate focus happiness can be elusive,” he said in an interview at a World Happiness Summit (there really is such a thing) in Miami and later widely published.

Achor added that being unhappy isn’t a failure. “It’s just a temporary state that can be remedied. Part of the remedy is making the choice to continue movement towards your potential.”

I’ve decided it’s bloody exhausting to think too much. It’s tiring to care what others think. I’ve long been a fan of a quote attributed to Oscar Wilde: what people say about me is none of my business. 

This choosing happiness thing is new to me – I must remind myself daily and honestly, I’ll be faking it til I make it.

And before anyone expects some perky, bouncy reimagining of me – the happiness is for me – a coping mechanism, perhaps.. It’s about an inner calm with a side of I don’t care. I choose not to care. 

As it happens, there’s research out there to support that people who accept things at face value and don’t critically analyse and search for truth (the instincts of a good journalist, by the way) are happier. 

Not only that, but I’ve read that happiness is the single greatest competitive advantage in the modern economy. About 25% of job success based on intelligence and technical skills, while 75% of long-term job success is based on your ability to be jolly and optimistic.

Happiness pusher Achor says apathy, standing still and letting the world break you – that’s what must be avoided. Maintain the momentum towards your potential. One could add the importance of knowing your purpose – but that’s an exploration for another day.

I’m not sure I’m ready to be a poster child for happiness: I haven’t drunk all the Kool-Aid yet. But happiness sure does beat the alternative.

Communications, Musings

Go with your gut

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Sometimes wild thoughts take hold based purely on instinct. It’s your gut telling you something (unpleasant) is looming.

What do you do when your gut is screaming beware?

I listen.

And so begins an interminable internal monologue that deprives sleep and threatens sanity, until I grab the unpleasant question mark by the tail and either rule it out, or deal with the consequences.

The gut is like an internal alarm system. When it goes off it’s trying to tell you something. It has long been my faithful personal radar, picking up on vibes and warning me of potential dangers.

When I was younger, it was devastatingly handy at outing rogue boyfriends and mean girls.

These days, it works for complex family ties and the career, in cahoots with the wisdom and ‘I’ve seen it all before’ nonchalance (or is it disappointment?) that comes with age.

Regardless, our instincts are a primal, intuitive sixth sense that has been honed over millennia of human evolution. According to research done in 2022, the quality of someone’s gut instincts may depend on their overall emotional intelligence (EI). And by learning to increase our EI, we may therefore strengthen our intuitive decision-making.

Gut feelings can manifest in different forms: a sense of unease, a persistent thought that something is amiss, or even physical symptoms like a tightening or drop in the stomach. This happens when I sense something really dire is afoot.

While body and mind are interconnected, and your gut feelings are often a reflection of this deep connection, it’s important to balance gut feelings with rational thought. This bit, I’m not so great at!

You need logical analysis and research to confirm your feelings.

And if that fails, suck it up and confront someone with what your gut is telling you, and see if you’re right!

Communications

It’s the economy, stupid

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People vote with their hip pockets. As an Australian American living back in Australia these days, I watched the US election results unfold with disbelief but also with clarity on a few things. The economy trumps (sorry) everything.

If you don’t have a job and can’t buy groceries; if your cost of living is rising while your wage is stagnant; or if you think foreigners are succeeding while you’re struggling, apparently you vote for a trust fund billionaire with The Apprentice credits over a pro-choice woman of colour without an economic solution you can relate to.

The prospect of a better economic future than Americans feel they have now was enough to get people to the polls, and for them to overlook Trump’s dirty track record.

Remember, he’s the guy who incited insurrection at the US Capitol in 2021; lied; bullied; politicised the Justice Department and the FBI; abused the pardon power; obstructed investigations; fired whistleblowers and truth tellers; profited from his presidency by refusing to divest from his international business empire; cosied up to dictators; and has worn countless accusations of sexual impropriety, among other cons.

But here we are. It’s the economy. stupid, a phrase coined by Jim Carville, a strategist in Bill Clinton’s successful 1992 US presidential election.

With all the commentary on the latest election, it became apparent that no-one in Washington is fired for spending too much (moreso for spending too little) and no one votes for a Scrooge. Notably, the word ‘spending’ came up only three times in the Trump/Harris debate, and even then it was only associated with Ukraine.

It’s always easy to see things in retrospect: the economy was always going to hold the key.

Communications

Jack + Jill of all trades : a generation of generalists

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Public relations. Digital marketer. Social media. Graphic designer. SEO. Proofreader. Web developer. Content creator. Photographer. Videographer. Filmmaker. Hostess. Influencer. Digital editor. Copywriter. Speechwriter. Crisis communications. Sales. Business development. Strategist. Designer. Event planner. Sponsorship. Networker. Public speaker. Presenter. Media trainer. Front of House.

These are some of the many things I don’t claim to be an expert at. They are not my field of expertise. They are not my bread and butter, and have not been in my job descriptions over the years. I don’t have university credentials in them.

And yet I do them. Many, almost daily.

No doubt there are countless of us who started on a career path, twisting and turning along the path until we became specialists, honing our skills and concentrating on what we excelled at and loved. But over time and out of necessity, we rebounded and our jobs morphed into a bit of everything somehow related to that core expertise.

There would be plenty of ex-journos working in corporate communications or marketing or some mishmash of both also dabbling in that long list of career paths above. Stuff has to get done and all these things, and more, somehow land in the same deep kitchen sink.

It’s little wonder so many of us feel like imposters. Even after decades working, often excelling in areas you didn’t train for and don’t believe you’re ‘the expert’ at, you find yourself overreaching and doing anything tenuously connected to your actual job.

The same applies in other fields, I’m sure. Accounting these days is expected to stretch way beyond taxes and back-room number crunching to all-round business advisory. Technology services leaned from IT support to everything from running security cameras and hanging giant TVs from the ceiling to AI training and cybersecurity awareness. Dentists don’t just check your teeth these day, they have technologies to whiten them and can even administer Botox to treat dental issues.

These days when a service provider utters the words: ‘no worries’ or ‘too easy’. I shudder. It’s never ‘too easy’ and i inevitably worry.

I identify as a journalist who works in corporate communications, with an aptitude for PR and issue/crisis management. I dip into websites and socials, I can media train and proofread and take a usable photo. I can present and create a presentation, i can network and work across BD and partnerships if required. I’m an ad-hoc marketer.

But i identify as a journalist, working in corporate comms,

With all the time-saving, productivity enhancing AI tools at our fingertips (as we keep being told) you’d think I could ‘outsource’ the extraneous tasks. But no, it turns out I could use AI to do the things i actually love doing and am good at like writing for a myriad of audiences on all sorts of topics, or structuring communications strategies or plans.

I don’t want to drop the stuff i love so I can faff about in Canva trying to create social tiles, or in the backend of a website trying to load forms or upload images.

It feels like we’ re doing less of what we’re really good at and more of everything else. Is this the great dumbing down of expertise to create a generation of generalists?

Communications

Finding a tribe

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I’d forgotten how important it is to be around people who get what you do.

When you work as a journalist in a newsroom of other journalists, there’s a collective understanding and respect for the craft. You are united in a healthy mistrust of other professions, particularly the sales team and anything beyond your editorial fiefdom.

That unity flies out the window when you cross to the dark side of communications in any business that focuses on something other than what you do, be it superannuation, transportation, or accounting. When you’re outnumbered and everyone has their lane, people don’t necessarily understand (or care) what you bring to the table.

So, spending time recently refreshing issue management skills in a crisis communications course was a tonic.

Hosted online, with participants spread across Australia, it was hardly a social gathering, and that was fine. As Comms and PR professionals we deal with similar issues and business structures. We speak a shared language. We know what it’s like to be ‘the comms team’ in a bigger business where few get what you do beyond ‘write stuff’ and make others and the business look good.

Bravo to the newly formed Communication and Public Relations Australia (CPRA) for adding Communication professionals to its remit. The transition to CPRA from the Public Relations Institute of Australia opens a new door for comms pros looking for a tribe.

Those of us who’ve crossed from journo to other finally have a place.