Professional Development: Fill Your Modern PR Gaps in 2017

It’s a new year and our brains (hopefully) are fresh.

We’re ready to kick some butt and make this our best year ever.

(Especially after last year. Oy.)

But how are you going to do it this year?

What are your goals?

What kinds of professional development do you have planned for yourself?

Hopefully you’ve joined our (free) 30-Day Communications Challenge.

That’s a really good start.

But what about the rest of the year? How will you stay motivated, accountable, and on plan?

Professional Development Accountability

You know the saying, “It’s lonely at the top”?

It’s very, very true.

When you lead an organization or work for yourself, there aren’t many people you can talk to—those who understand what you’re going through and can help.

But what’s worse is no one holds you accountable.

The advantage you have when you don’t run an organization is someone holds you accountable.

It may not be in the way that’s advantageous to you, but someone does it.

We’d like you to focus on you this year.

If you don’t do it, who will?

Sure, you’ll have business goals you’ll have to achieve and, most likely, someone will hold you accountable to those.

But who will hold you accountable to your own professional development?

WE WILL!

How exciting is that?

(Don’t you roll your eyes! I can see you rolling your eyes!)

The Professional Development Plans We Have for You

We have big, YUGE plans for you this year.

When we launched the Slack community last year, it was with the idea that it gives people a private place to have conversations.

What we’ve discovered is it does that—and more.

Which is great because it’s fueling ideas that will help you with professional development and will hold you accountable to pursuing your own growth this year.

Here are some things we have in store:

• Premium channels in Slack where you’ll have access to like-minded folks, more access to me (I LOVE Slack), and access to accountability partners.
• Subscriber-only content that will include higher-level webinars from me and from experts in our industry. Yes, this does mean you have to subscribe via email to Spin Sucks. But, by allowing us to send you an email with two blog posts every day, you’ll get professional development galore in spades. So, if you’re not already subscribed, get ‘er done!
• While we have The Modern Blogging Masterclass, and will offer that twice this year, we’ll launch an additional online course (it’s a surprise!) this fall. We’ll do it as a pilot and Spin Sucks subscribers will get the chance to learn with us (at a discount) first.
• I run a mastermind group, where I work one-on-one (and in a group setting) with PR agency owners. I believe it is the most important work I do because I get to watch agency owners (some who are soloproneurs with big goals and others with scads of employees) exceed their business and professional development goals. This year, I’ll open a second group and invite more of you in.
• And last, but certainly not least, we are going to make a renewed run at Spin Sucks Pro, the membership site we’ve had in the plans for six years. You will have access to live content on timely PR topics, all of our templates, educational video content, community member profiles, case studies, program briefs, special reports, members-only data, and more.

Fill Your Professional Gaps This Year

Some of this will continue to be free (in exchange for your Spin Sucks subscription) and some of it will eat away at your professional development budgets.

As you work through the 30-Day Communications Challenge this month, think about where you have gaps in modern PR.

It might be search engine optimization, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, integrating a PESO model, measurement, or something else entirely.

Write down those gaps.

By February 2, you should know exactly where you need help.

And we’ll be able to fill those gaps with you this year.

If you find you need help in certain areas, please don’t hesitate to message me on Slack or send me an email.

I’d love to hear your thoughts and see if we can fill those gaps for you.

About Gini Dietrich

Gini Dietrich is the founder and CEO of Arment Dietrich, an integrated marketing communications firm. She is the author of Spin Sucks, co-author of Marketing in the Round, and co-host of Inside PR. She also is the lead blogger at Spin Sucks and is the founder of Spin Sucks Pro.

• View all posts by Gini Dietrich →
• Blog
• Twitter
• Facebook
• Google+