PR Pros: Amy Preske Of Booze PR On The 5 Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Career As A Public Relations Pro

An Interview With Dina Aletras

Baby steps are OK — if you’re like me, and not a natural-born networker, it’s OK to set small goals before you network. Maybe it’s a goal to join in for one-half-hour of the hour-long networking opportunity, maybe it’s a goal to get five new business cards or meet three new people, whatever it is, it’s OK to take baby steps. Networking does get easier the longer you do it, I promise!

Have you seen the show Flack? Ever think of pursuing a real-life career in PR? What does it take to succeed in PR? What are the different forms of Public Relations? Do you have to have a college degree in PR? How can you create a highly lucrative career in PR? In this interview series, called “5 Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Career As A Public Relations Pro” we are talking to successful publicists and Public Relations pros, who can share stories and insights from their experiences.

As a part of this series, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Amy Preske. With a longstanding career in public relations, Amy Preske has spent more than two decades honing her expertise in the distilled spirits industry. Currently the owner and CEO of Booze PR, Amy previously served for more than 15 years as the dedicated communications executive for Sazerac Company’s Buffalo Trace Distillery, the third-largest distilled spirits company in the world. Throughout her career, she has developed an outstanding reputation in the industry as a thought leader and business strategist, creating compelling communication and branding strategies to drive media and consumer engagement and exponential company expansion.

Thank you so much for your time! I know that you are a very busy person. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

I consider myself fortunate to have discovered my passion for public relations early on in college. I always knew I wanted to do something in the communication field, but I wasn’t sure exactly what. I was learning towards journalism, but once I took an Intro to Public Relations class in college I knew that’s what I wanted to focus on. After listening to my PR professor speak about his career on that first day of class and showing his , I knew PR was the choice for me. I still remember the date, the class and even where I was sitting in the classroom, even though it was 30 years ago.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began at your company?

I started my company just a little over a year ago, after being in corporate and brand communications for more than 15 years at a very large distilled spirits company. Before that, I spent seven years at an ad agency working in spirits PR for a competing distillery. So I’ve spent nearly 25 years focused in the alcohol industry and have seen so many changes in that time. While I don’t have anything earth-shattering that has happened to me in my current role, I had plenty of interesting stories in my former corporate life, including barrel warehouses collapsing and losing 20,000 filled barrels of alcohol, one of the world’s most prized (and expensive!) bourbons stolen from the company’s storage area, and a mix-up on formula shipment for a leading cinnamon whiskey brand which caused a world-wide panic, false rumors, and voluntarily pulling the product from store shelves.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

Yes — always proofread and then proofread again!

When I was first starting in my career, I was tasked with sending out a press release after a cooking contest to announce the winning recipe. The contest was in the evening, and we had to wait to see who won. I then had a 2.5 hour drive back from the contest to my office. So I was, as you can imagine, worn out.

The winning recipe called for “lump crab meat.” But being very tired, and very late at night, I accidentally substituted a “p” for the “b” in crab, which of course, spell check did not catch. But the client did the next day.

Lesson learned, no matter how tired you are, proof and proof again! (And mind your “p’s” and “b’s”!)

What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?

What I love about my role now as founder and CEO of my own business, is I can choose which projects I want to work on. If something doesn’t appeal to me, or instinctively I know it’s not a good fit, say it doesn’t have a good story to tell, or the whiskey doesn’t taste good, I can say no. Right now in the bourbon industry there are so many new distilleries starting up, and it’s been exciting to me to help some of them with their initial branding to figure out their mission and vision, help them craft their messaging, and help brands grow.

You are a successful leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?

Ability to communicate across all levels — I’ve worked for some very large companies, and one of the most important character traits that has served me well has been my ability to communicate across all levels. From interacting with the C-suite to hourly line workers, you have to be able to communicate with people across various roles. Everyone has a story to tell, and everyone has an interesting background, but you need to be able to “speak their language” to draw it out of them. Fortunately, this skill comes easily to me, which has been invaluable in both internal and external communications.

Active Learner — I’m always still learning. At the age of 40, while working a very demanding full-time job, I decided to go back to school to get my Master’s Degree in Public Relations. It was a two-year program, so very fast paced, but I learned so much and am sometimes still amazed I was able to do it! Today, I read between 6–8 newsletters from the PR industry, alcohol industry and mainstream news to keep abreast of what is going on in my field and in the world. The spirits industry is always changing, between M&A’s and new product introductions so you have to stay on top of it all.

Driven by passion — I’m a very driven person who is passionate about what I do. I set professional and personal goals every month, and then break that down further into weekly goals, and even daily goals. When you work from home, or in a siloed position, you have to be very driven to succeed.

Ok super. Thank you for all that. Let’s now shift to the main focus of our interview. For the benefit of our readers, can you help articulate what the different forms of PR are?

Sure. PR can encompass everything from traditional PR, such as news release writing, media pitching, organizing press trips or events, and non-traditional PR which crosses the line to social media, and may include working with influencers, running social media accounts for a client or your business, or product placement on TV/movies. Then there is corporate PR, which may involve high interaction with the C-suite as far as advising, media training, speech writing, internal communications and crisis communications. There are so many different avenues you can focus on in PR, which is one of the things I love about the field.

Where should a young person considering a career in PR start their education? Should they get a degree in communications? A degree in journalism? Can you explain what you mean?

Yes, I definitely recommend a degree in communications, with an emphasis on public relations. A degree in communications will teach you to write, and teach you style guides such as AP (Associated Press) and/or Chicago style, etc. I always said when I was hiring younger talent that I can teach them about the industry, but I can’t teach them to write.

One of the advantages to having a degree in communications with an emphasis on public relations is that many times the communication staff in companies are lean. You may be the only person leading comms. For many years in my career I was the sole PR practitioner, so I had to know all aspects of PR — and advise the CEO on what to do during a crisis. So having a degree in PR was imperative to my success in my career.

You are known as a master networker. Can you share some tips on great networking?

Networking does not come natural to me, it’s something I’ve had to work at. But I’ve found some little tips and tricks that have helped me:

Figure out your comfort zone — are you more comfortable in big or small groups? If it’s big groups, great, go to every large-scale networking event and shimmy around the room, business cards in hand. If it’s smaller groups, you’ll likely be more comfortable finding smaller conferences or events to attend.

Seek out the wallflowers — When you go into the room, look for the people who are on the fringes of the room, tentatively dipping their toes into networking. Talk to them, get their backstory, make them feel valued too. No matter if you’re an introvert or an extrovert, the wallflowers will appreciate you noticing them.

Get over yourself — OK, this may be a misnomer, because most people do NOT like promoting themselves. They feel self-conscious and boastful. But you’re going to have to get over that and do some kind of self-promotion if you ever want to get ahead professionally. You may be selling yourself to your CEO to get a higher position, promoting yourself when you interview for a new job, or expounding on your business acumen in a new business pitch, but promoting yourself when you are networking is how connections are made.

Baby steps are OK — if you’re like me, and not a natural-born networker, it’s OK to set small goals before you network. Maybe it’s a goal to join in for one-half-hour of the hour-long networking opportunity, maybe it’s a goal to get five new business cards or meet three new people, whatever it is, it’s OK to take baby steps. Networking does get easier the longer you do it, I promise!

Lead generation is one of the most important aspects of any business. Can you share some of the strategies you use to generate good, qualified leads?

I network! I’ve been fortunate that many of my leads have come through word of mouth. When I looked at starting my own company, I networked extensively. I asked people who had done the same thing if there was enough business to support such a narrow niche as the alcohol industry (answer: Yes!) I connected with former co-workers, friends of former co-workers, fellow PR professionals, business owners, journalists, people that others recommended to me, pretty much anyone I could think of — I did so much networking!

But it paid off, I felt like I had a good understanding of the market, what the needs are, and future business pipelines.

Today I like to use speaking opportunities as a SME (subject matter expert) for lead generation. It’s a great way to get new business leads (attendees) and also to connect with fellow SMEs who I may want to collaborate with in the future.

Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. Based on your opinion and experience, what are your “5 Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Career As A Public Relations Pro” and why. (Please share a story or example for each.)

1. A curious mind — PR Pros have to be curious — what’s the story hook for the journalist? What’s an angle we’re not thinking of? What kind of interesting stories do your clients/co-workers have to tell? I’ve always joked that I’m the Nancy Drew of the PR world because I’m always digging to find information and checking with sources that may be unconventional.
2. Problem Solver — Just like I love to Nancy Drew it and solving a good mystery, I love to solve problems. I get joy out of being a resource for others. Want to know where to find those pictures from that event in 2012? I gotcha. Want to know the best process to ship a sample for review, or the best resource for packaging, I can connect you to someone I know. Point is, good PR Pros have made themselves indispensable at their companies, and CEOs have come to rely on them for their problem-solving skills.
3. A relationship builder — The PR Pro’s world is a small one. You are constantly coming across the same journalists, the same competitors and the same fellow PR pros. Take the time to build good relationships early on, you will be glad you did later. I’ve been in the distilled spirits industry for so long that I’ve “grown up with” spirits journalists and have seen many start their careers spirits writing, or podcasting, or vlogging. And many of them remember me giving them their start with an interview or product request, which blossomed into a wonderful relationship years later when I needed their advice as I started my own business.
4. Be responsive — Some of the best media hits I’ve gotten in my career were just due to the fact that I was the first source who responded back to a media inquiry. It even got my former company featured on a national TV show, which ended up causing the company’s website to crash the night the show aired! Even if you don’t have the answer right away, at least respond to the media person and acknowledge them, and let them know you’re working on it. Media will then learn to come to you as a source first, since you’re always responsive, which can be a game changer in getting your client/brand name out there.
5. The ability to say “no.” — Most PR Pros want to be people pleasers. It’s likely why we went into PR in the first place. Get the great story placed, send in pretty pictures, get thoughtful quotes from your source and tie it up in a pretty bow to show to your boss or your client. But to be a truly good PR Pro, you need to feel comfortable saying “no.” No if you think the CEO’s story idea doesn’t have traction, no that’s not the way you would word that response, no, we’re not going to do the interview with the “gotcha” journalist. “No” is just as powerful of a word and earns you more respect than being a “yes person.”

Because of the role you play, you are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

Fair, balanced and fact-checked journalism. While a great deal of journalists still adhere to these standards, sadly, there’s still misreporting happening, not just in the US but globally. If people were only exposed to stories that were fair, rigorously fact-checked and unbiased, I think we’d all get along better.

This was really meaningful! Thank you so much for your time.

About the Interviewer: Dina Aletras boasts over 20 years of expertise in the corporate media industry. She possesses an in-depth understanding of growth, strategy, and leadership, having held significant roles at some of the UK’s largest media organizations. At Reach PLC, the UK’s largest tabloid publisher, she served in various director capacities. Additionally, she held leadership roles at The Independent Magazine Group and DMGT. Her extensive knowledge spans editorial, digital, revenue, sales, and advertising.

Upon relocating to Switzerland, Dina took on the responsibility of managing and promoting the international section of Corriere del Ticino — CdT.ch pioneering the English page “onthespot.” She also was the Co-Editor of Southern Switzerland’s first official Italian and English bilingual magazine.