PR Coach Michael Smart
Your PR Coach
Michael Smart is the trainer and coach who PR teams large and small turn to when they need to earn more media placements and level up their writing. He is regularly among the highest-rated speakers at the industry’s largest conferences.
Michael has placed positive stories in the Washington Post, USA Today, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, TIME magazine, and NBC’s Today show. He has trained more than 9,000 PR professionals on how to boost their communications results, including teams at companies such as General Motors and Aflac, nonprofits such as Wounded Warrior Project and The Salvation Army, and agencies such as Edelman, Red Havas and WE Codeword. People who have participated in his workshops have subsequently placed their own stories in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, USA Today, People, CNN, and Today and national distribution on the Associated Press.
He has conducted on-site media relations training for clients from Geneva to Tokyo and ongoing personal coaching and services to many more, from Fortune 200 companies to mid-sized and smaller firms. His online PR training courses on media pitching and PR writing have reached thousands of students around the globe, and his group coaching program, the Inner Circle, has welcomed members from 48 states and several countries abroad, with members representing global brands, food/travel/hospitality, higher education, nonprofits, healthcare, technology, agencies, agency owners and solo pros.
A former newspaper journalist, Michael has won national and regional awards for news release and feature writing. He also taught public relations courses for five years at Brigham Young University, where he earlier earned bachelors and master’s degrees in communications with an emphasis in public relations. He enjoys adding to his list of the nation’s most underrated restaurants and exploring the mountains and national parks near his Utah home with his family.