Is this a weed or a wildflower?

During our hike in the mountains Saturday my wife pointed to some dandelions beside the trail and said, “I keep thinking these are weeds, but up here they’re wildflowers.”

What’s a weed? A plant that grows on its own, without nurture, that people don’t like.

What’s a wildflower? A plant that grows on its own, without nurture, that people DO like.

The same idea came to mind when I noticed Melody’s question on our private Inner Circle forum. She described a promising idea she had to contact a reporter. But she was conflicted because it was outside the journalist’s published preferences: “Is this being resourceful or being annoying?” she wondered.

My answer to her: “If the reporter likes your pitch, you were ‘resourceful.’ If not, then you might have been ‘annoying.’”

This ambiguity might seem frustrating at first, but it’s actually a great thing. It means you can develop the judgment and experience to ignore “rules.” Those have limited applications and can be arbitrary at times anyway. Rely instead on your expertise when making pitching decisions.

Today you can learn more than ever about the media you hope to contact – not only can you review all their recent work instantly, you can get a great feel for their personality via the clues they drop on social media. You devour as many examples of successful pitches as you can get your hands on to expand your vision of what’s appropriate or even possible.

When Media Relations Masters say they “trusted their instincts” or “followed their gut” when explaining how they succeeded with a contrarian approach, what they really mean is that they paid the price to develop a deep enough perspective that they knew which rules to ignore and which to follow.

Know your targets up and down, know your story cold, and seek out great pitches to learn from, and you can eventually show up like a wildflower every time.