On the sixth day of Christmas, Spin Sucks gave to you six PR professional development opps, five productivity tools, four PR pro gifts, three PR trends, two PR books, and one habit to change in 2018.
Are you ready for some PR professional development?
There are lots of opportunities for you and, if you put your mind to it, 2018 will be successful both for business and for your satisfaction.
From writing and learning how to use tools to honing your craft and building a plan, you will improve.
Without further ado…
PR Professional Development with Michael Smart
There is no one in the business better at media relations than Michael Smart.
Thankfully, he’s taken what he knows about pitching, getting responses, and getting results and create a PR professional development opportunity for you.
His Inner Circle provides you the tools you need to not only get results but to become a journalist’s preferred source.
I’ve had the opportunity to talk with some of his Inner Circle members, and I’m always blown away by the results they get.
Plus, he’s lots of fun to be around and to learn from—he’s one of my favorite people on this earth.
If you need help with media relations, no matter where you are in your career, the Inner Circle is for you.
You’ll not only have success, your career will improve in major ways.
PR Professional Development for Writing
There is only one way to hone your craft, and that is through writing every day.
When I look at some of the very first stuff I wrote on this blog, I’m embarrassed.
But I would not have improved had I not written every day.
Plus, writing today is significantly different than it was in college and early in your career.
If you don’t have a reason to write every day, I recommend taking a straight-up writing course.
When I asked my team for recommendations, the majority ruled on Story Doctor.
Off the beaten path for PR professional development, David Farland has both live workshops and online courses.
Though it focuses on fiction, my personal belief is that is the very best way to hone your business writing.
We are storytellers, which means we have to consume and write fiction.
Lots and lots and LOTS of it.
With Story Doctor, you begin with outlining the story and then continue to mastery.
By the time you finish, you will have your first novel drafted, and you’ll be a better writer at work.
PR Professional Development with PRSA
I’d be remiss in not mentioning all of the PR professional development courses PRSA has for you.
Everything from writing and social media to crisis communications and measurement, PRSA has something for everyone.
In fact, their media relations are taught by Michael Smart so you can kill two birds with one stone if you so choose.
Ann Wylie teaches their writing courses whom I learned from when I began my career.
I’ve always kept her training materials because they’ve been so valuable.
No matter what you want to hone next year, PRSA has an option for you.
Even better, if you are a PRSA member, most of their PR professional development is included, or is offered at a steep discount.
If you’re not, expect to pay about $250 per course.
(If you want to take more than one course, it’s worth the membership, which I think is about $500 per year.)
PR Professional Development with Skillshare
Since that fateful day my 4th-grade teacher told my parents I was getting a D in handwriting, I have been obsessed with hand lettering.
(I ended up getting an A, but it was the first time I’d had to work hard at something.)
When I bought my first bullet journal at this time last year, the obsession became a craving.
I even had a client say to me just yesterday,
I hope the pages you use to take notes on me next year have my name scrolled in fancy fonts.
Combine my craving with the iPad Pro and Whitney Danhauer’s recommendation to use Procreate and a monster has been created.
HOWEVER.
Procreate is crazy intimidating because it is for real artists—not silly girls who want to draw on their kitchen chalkboards.
So I found a hand lettering course on how to use Procreate on Skillshare and off I went.
For a whopping $8.00 a month, you can join Skillshare and learn pretty much anything your heart desires.
From photography and writing to entrepreneurship and hand lettering, you can become a master of everything.
ALL THE THINGS!
PR Professional Development with Scrivener
When I co-authored my first book, Marketing in the Round, we sent Word documents back and forth.
It was a pain in the toosh.
So when I sat down to write Spin Sucks, I did some research to figure out if there was a better way.
Mitch Joel recommended I check out Scrivener, which I immediately fell in love with.
If you decide an entire chapter doesn’t belong where you have it, you can just click on it in the left-hand sidebar and move the entire thing.
No copying and pasting to a different location and screwing up any formatting you have.
Scrivener does it all for you.
And it is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G.
But it also has so many features, that it can become intimidating very quickly.
Enter Learn Scrivener Fast, an online course that will teach you everything you need to do in just a few hours.
If you’re not a tinkerer and want to just get down to actual writing, take this course and learn how to use Scrivener.
No matter what kind of writer you are—blog or white papers or novels or business—Scrivener will make the process 10,000 times easier.
(That might be a slight exaggeration.)
PR Professional Development with Spin Sucks
And last, but certainly not least in the PR professional development realm, we have the 30-Day Communications Challenge.
In January of this year, we held the 30-Day Communications Challenge to help you jumpstart your year and build a fully integrated PESO model program.
It was such a huge success, we’re doing it again.
This time with tweaks, improvements, and updates.
We also have created an eBook this year, complete with step-by-step instruction, video tutorials, extra video support from Buzzsumo, and a fun and friendly competition.
It officially begins January 3, 2018.
This program won’t help with weight loss or exercise or eating well (though we can cheer you on if those are your personal goals!).
It will, however, help you with your communications plan.
It includes everything from building your mission and vision (or refining it if you already have one) to implementing a PESO model program and measuring it.
Yes, we will help you finally figure out how to measure your communications efforts.
The Challenge, itself, is free—you receive a once daily email with a writing prompt and homework assignment.
By the end of January, you’ll have your plan complete.
Or you can spend $22 and buy the eBook, which allows you to skip ahead and do the work on your own time.
It also has video tutorials for those who prefer to watch rather than read.
Personally, I would buy the eBook, simply because I know how robust it is.
(And because my team killed it—it’s a pretty incredible piece of content.)
Either way, it’s an inexpensive way to get your 2018 plan on paper, so all you have to do is execute, come February.
The Floor is Yours
And now it’s your turn.
Between all of the skills we can hone, the fun we can have, and learning we can do, what do you recommend for PR professional development?
