Backstory Interview with Summer Johnson


This week’s Backstory is about our Director of Public Affairs, Summer Johnson.
- When did you become involved in this career and what drew you to public relations?
I was drawn to politics and the media from a young age. I just knew I was going to go into political journalism and commentary. I read everything I could get my hands on about Helen Thomas and Walter Cronkite when the other kids were hanging out at the pool and making friendship bracelets. After I graduated from journalism school with an additional degree in Political Science, I spent a brief time in local TV news. It was there I saw what a tremendous responsibility reporters have in our free republic; essentially, they tell the public what is important.
But I still had a big passion to advocate for my beliefs and impact policy, so I began working on people and issue campaigns out West, then here on the national stage, on the Hill and at the RNC. I’ve been able to successfully go back and forth between public life and the private sector, so I’m happy to have been able to experience the best and worst of it all.
2. What experiences have shaped your approach to public relations? How have they influenced your counsel to clients?
All of these experiences — all of the hot-seat positions that were all-consuming, under-fire, day-in and day-out — are what enables me to effectively counsel my clients.
I believe you have nothing to sell as a “consultant” if you haven’t been through those tests. I’m able to talk my clients through their crises and anticipate what will happen, how their issue will play out, and then coach them through it, because I’ve been on their side of it. I believe that’s incredibly valuable. Having the experiences of being right in the middle of crisis situations and successfully navigating them — or epically failing — are how you learn and what you are able to offer a client. The only way things are going to become instinctual is through trial and error.
3. How has the industry changed and how have you adapted?
The news environment is so obviously very different. Everyone is consuming their own curated content — they are choosing what they want to read, what they listen to, what opinions they are listening to, and when they listen to it.
You have to continue to be creative and reinvent ways to disseminate information and be relevant. There’s no room to just shoot your message out into space and hope that your audience hears it. It’s never been more critical to get your content right in front of your target audience. You have to be strategic, you have to be a quick on your feet, creative and always thinking about the next big thing, the next new idea to break though.
4. When brainstorming for a new client or new campaign, what’s your first step?
Identifying the goal and the target audience, every single time. Whether the goal is to get an audience to go your way, inform your investors or to create buzz around an idea. So many clients and PR pros think that throwing a news release out into the noisy world is a strategy. We spend a good deal of time listening to clients, understanding their needs and goals. They know their customers better than anyone because they talk to them every day. You can’t go in acting like you know everything there is to know. You need to gather all the information to make a strategic plan.
5. If you could give advice to an aspiring PR practitioner, what would it be?
Make it happen. Have a career goal checklist, and stick to that plan. Read everything you can. Be aware of what is happening around you. Don’t discount what might seem like a trivial job or issue — every topic can be fun and interesting. You can learn valuable lessons with every job and client. Be very careful with your own reputation. Honesty and integrity still matter, even in this cut-throat environment. Finally, find a good mentor, someone who has been through it, to help you navigate the lessons they probably learned the hard way.
