I Swore I’d Never Do This

Here’s the deal. I work in PR before coming home to wow you all as a mommy blogger.

Most of you (with the exception of a few former-agency friends *waves at Edelman*) have absolutely no idea what I do. This includes the people who raised me, married me, and the vast majority of people who currently work with me.

No, I do not live the glamorous jet-setting life of a “PR Chick,” (although I did manage to discover New York this way). I don’t do party planning and schmoozing with all the “right” people. I don’t have People who call your People, nor am I your People. I don’t do lunch.

When I gleefully share that I’ve placed an article, don’t be surprised when you don’t see my name anywhere near the article. If I share I’ve got an interview, don’t think the New York Times will be asking me any questions.

Really. I like to think of my profession as the wizard behind the curtain. I’m more of the idea guy. My job is to understand what’s going on and come up with ideas. (For the most part anyway, I work in the tech field. Sometimes I find myself in engineering meetings, and let’s face it – I haven’t got a clue. But I digress…)

I share those well-researched ideas with specifically targeted media personalities. It’s called pitching. Ideally, they think, “That is a brilliant idea! I will write a cover story about your genius idea so that all of my readers shall know such amazing knowledge!” Then I transform into a cute little assistant, running around and scheduling meetings and prepping people to aptly tell the story.

This certainly isn’t all encompassing (writing, editing, messaging, ideas, social media). But it’s what we get the most flack for. Also, it’s why we’re called flacks. Endearing isn’t it?

Problems arise when flacks get lazy and spam reporters with irrelevant (or dumb) pitches. I won’t lie – I’ve done it. Problems get compounded by the new culture of 24/7 bloggers. It’s a whole new world of journalism. Our world is no longer the Daily Planet. There is no newsroom filled with suited men in fedoras smoking cigarettes waiting for someone to share a big announcement for tomorrow’s news.

When I started writing this blog, I never thought anyone more than the muppets’ grandparents would read it. But rumor has it you people are out there – Google tells me people are reading. And people have started pitching me. Lookitmeeeeee!!! I’m a real writer! (Kinda.) But hey, I’ve got opinions.

I’ve even been flamed (industry jargon for when a mad blogger rants about you and calls you mean names). And I swore I’d never use my blog to do evil. So there is no flaming here.

Some of the pitches I’ve received:

  1. Will you feature our upcoming show? Each episode is aspirational mix of voyeurism, travel, entertainment, information and property. (Hey, I want to entice my readers as much as you want exciting posts. But I think I’m going to avoid the voyeuristic topics for now. Mostly.)
  2. It’s mattress month! Will you write a cornucopia of wonderful sleep things? (Really? Pitching sleep to a twin-toddler mommy blog? That’s just mean.)

You still have no idea what I do, do you?

Sigh…

I write stuff.

**********

That reminds me!

Tired of pesky hair loss? Well have I got the solution for you. Oh wait…wrong post. Do you love to write and would like to join our group site? Then I have the solution for you.

Over at our group website, A Nervous Tic Motion, we have a great writing team. One thing we are looking for are contributing writers to complete the site. We love diversity so if you want to write about being a single mom, your journey through depression, creative writing, celebrity gossip, book or television reviews, humor, or anything your heart desires, we welcome that.

You don’t have to have young children either or for that matter kids yet or you can have children that are grown with their own families. We would also love to have a man’s perspective on parenthood. (Dads – are you paying attention?)

If you don’t have a blog then you’re still welcome to write for the website. You also don’t have to live in the United States. I would love to have writers from any country. Every writer has the freedom to write about the topics they want to without being censored.

If you’re interested then please email me at elle dot mommyhood at gmail dot com.

 

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