For as long as I’ve been in the business of public relations, the Holy Grail of communication is being able to change someone’s mind. To persuade that person.
To be sure, there are no full-proof techniques or magic tricks, but it is possible. As you might suspect, there are a couple of foundational ingredients you need before you can do so.… Read the rest
Memorial Day has become a lot of things, but as its very name implies, it’s not intended to be any of those things.
It’s a three-day weekend, the official start of summer in America, a chance to picnic with friends and family. Barbecue and cookout season is in full swing. What’s your favorite grill recipe?
It’s a day for parades, and perhaps a visit to the cemetery to remember our lost loved ones.… Read the rest
One of the most important steps toward taking a podcast to the next level is also one of the most commonly skipped steps. There may be many reasons for this, from not wanting to confront limitations, to the fact that there are so many different types of podcasts and podcasters, so there isn’t one standard. But if I had to guess, I’d say the leading one is that this step is not so simple or easy.… Read the rest
The following blog post was originally posted on January 28, 2020, just before the pandemic that would change everything. Baseball wasn’t the same that year or since. In anticipation of next week’s MLB Opening Day games across the country, we’re re-posting this slightly updated version.
The grass on baseball fields in Florida and Arizona is getting lush right now, ready for the annual rite that is Major League Baseball spring training and those sunny exhibition games.… Read the rest
The biggest misconception about the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, also known as “March Madness” is that it’s all about basketball. It’s not. If it was, fans would watch a lot more college basketball between December through March.
So, what is it about?
In a word, it’s about “community.”
Start with the annual rite of filling out a bracket.… Read the rest
One of the biggest challenges in media relations is not only having the right spokesperson on a given topic but having enough subject matter experts (SMEs) to go around.
Not every organization or every media relations program can be solely reliant on one spokesperson for everything. No matter how large or small your organization, it may not be fitting for that one person to try to speak to everything.… Read the rest
With a name like O’Brien and having spent decades in the PR business, it was a no-brainer to take on handling public relations for the Pittsburgh St. Patrick’s Day Parade when that opportunity came along. When I say “opportunity,” to be clear, it was a pro bono opportunity, or what others in the communications business may call a passion project.… Read the rest
It’s hardly a secret that police departments at all levels are having trouble recruiting and retaining qualified and talented individuals.
Stellar police officers are opting to retire or just quit, frustrated over lack of resources or support they need to carry out their high-risk duties. Increasingly, good officers don’t want to chance doing what they’ve been trained to do, as they’ve been trained to do it, only to find themselves in the line of fire, literally and figuratively.… Read the rest
I didn’t have to wait until I started going to school to learn how to communicate effectively. That started from the day I was born, trying to make myself heard in a big Irish Catholic, blue-collar family in Pittsburgh. If you had something to say, no one was politely waiting for you to say it. You just had to say it, quick, sometimes loud, simply and clearly.… Read the rest
If you’ve had anything to do, even remotely, with the public relations function you’ve seen this. You may have even been a part of it, but it’s not your fault. It’s bigger than you…way bigger.
It’s called square-peg-round-hold syndrome after the famous psychological experiment where the subject is given a square wooden peg and asked to insert it into a round hole.… Read the rest