What if I’m an introvert?

It always makes me when chuckle when someone asks what I do for a living.

I tell them, and then they say, “Oh, PR, you’d be good at that, you’re so good with people.”

I know they’re just being nice. But they clearly have NO IDEA what PR really is. And that’s okay – my own dear mother still doesn’t really get what PR is.

You know how fake that “Sex and the City” version of PR is. We’re not hosting swanky parties all the time, or calling up important people and sweet-talking them into doing something they don’t want to do.

This is a strategic communications function that requires critical thinking and objective analysis.

That’s why I didn’t realize that my recent post about “getting out of your office” could make some great PR pros uncomfortable.

One of your fellow readers, Andrew, wrote:

Do you think extroverts have an advantage over introverts on the road to becoming Media Relations Masters? I usually avoid all  four situations you put in bullet points, unless I can blend in while in those environments.

This cogent question made me pause. I have thoughts (I’m about to share), but I don’t know what it’s like to be an introvert. I mean, I used to work all day and then go teach a 2.5 hour night class to budding PR students and walk out more energized than when I walked in.

My mom says that when I was five I would come home from kindergarten and set up a little desk and chair by the sidewalk with a sign that said: “Information – 5 cents.” The idea was that people would walk up and ask me questions and I would tell them the answers. (Sounds ridiculous now – except that’s essentially how I am putting my own kids through college!)

So I have no idea how it REALLY feels for an introvert to walk into the cafeteria with the intention to build rapport with a key organizational player and find out what’s happening in their department. Or to sit in on another department’s meeting and be the only person that nobody knows.

But I do know this – you achieve your highest impact when you focus on your strengths. You might expect me to say something motivational, like, “Introverts, you can overcome this hesitation, just push through it and you can be just like the outgoing and effusive people that fit the mold the lay public has of PR people.”

No. You find ways to apply your unique gifts within the skill set required to become a Media Relations Master. Andrew is already halfway there – you see how he noted occasions when he can “blend in.” He’s already found a partial path to building internal relationships required to get the crucial news nuggets he needs. Now he should step back and make a list of circumstances where he can comfortably “blend in” but still build rapport, and then create those opportunities more frequently.