PR Pros: Kelsey Matheson Of Ethos Marketing & Design On The 5 Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Career As A Public Relations Pro

An Interview With Kristen Shea

Knowing how to write well and network appropriately are your biggest super powers — like I said before, good writing skills will get you far. Learn how to write and then you can learn how to create the necessary materials to be a strong PR professional.

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 Kelsey Matheson.

Kelsey Matheson is the PR & Content Strategist for Ethos Marketing & Design based out of Westbrook, Maine. She has 9(ish) years of experience in PR/marketing, and has worked for various agencies and companies in London, NYC, Boston, and her home state, Maine. Outside of work, Kelsey resides in Vermont with her partner, Nick, and is passionate about hiking with her rescue dogs Lennon & Sonny, trying all the local restaurants, and cruising through new books.

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?

As with many people, I came out of college not fully knowing what I wanted to do with my life. I graduated with my B.A. in English and Business, and went on to pursue a Master of Science degree in Health Systems and Public Policy with the intention of working in hospital policy design. After graduating from my Master’s, I found myself in an internship at Aurora Healthcare Communications in London — and that was where my PR career began. From there, I’ve had the opportunity to work in a number of different types of settings ranging from a PR agency to in-house. An agency setting is where I feel most at home, and that’s the type of environment I work in today at Ethos.

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

I’m not sure it qualifies as a “story” but I will share a super interesting project my team has worked on since starting at Ethos. Last year, we helped Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens open their one-of-a-kind Giant Troll exhibit that was constructed by internationally acclaimed recycled materials artist, Thomas Dambo. We teased the Giant Troll opening on social media with photoshopped big footprints on some notable Maine landmarks, and, at launch, secured national coverage for the opening by focusing on the artist’s work and the tie to sustainability with the recyclable material use. It was a fun and unique project, and I 10/10 recommend checking out the Giant Trolls if you’re in Midcoast Maine during the late spring/summer/early fall months! They’re so amazing and even better in person.

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?

This story haunts me and makes me laugh all at once. In my first role, I was responsible for measuring how many website visits we had based on a campaign we had launched. I spent weeks combing through the data and keeping my charts up to date only to realize that I had been measuring the data wrong and I was overstating how many visitors had come to the site — at the time I did not understand what unique visitors v. visitors meant (which is Google Analytics 101).

The information had already been shared with the client, and being terrified of my boss at the time, my mind quickly went to a bad place. After a brief period where I considered asking every person I knew to check out the website in a foolish attempt to pad the numbers, integrity quickly prevailed. I came clean with my boss and it all worked out. Mistakes were made, but more importantly, lessons were learned.

I laugh about this story now, but it taught me a valuable lesson VERY early on in my career: integrity is huge (in PR, in analytics, in life in general). The client-facing mistake taught me to really learn a platform before I dive headfirst into reporting, be more methodical and careful when doing client-facing work, and focus on being transparent about the mistakes I make. It also taught me about the leader I wanted to become and I vowed then and there to never lead with fear. I want to be someone the people I manage can trust and confide in when they make a mistake, because then we can find a solution together.

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

My agency is involved in some really cool projects — last year we helped launch Maine’s first ever Wild Blueberry Weekend (which is a huge agricultural industry for the state) that celebrates Maine’s wild blueberry growers and our state’s iconic fruit. Our campaign garnered national news and millions of impressions. This year, we’re planning the second annual Wild Blueberry Weekend — but with a twist. Unfortunately I can’t share the details of what that twist is yet, but I will say that the work we do is fun and supports Maine farmers in a unique way. I can’t wait to share what we’re working on later this Fall. Keep an eye on the Wild Blueberry Association of North America’s social and website if you want to stay tuned.

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?

I think I’m still learning how to lead — and will probably be learning how to do that for the rest of my life. The three character traits that I think are key in being a good leader are:

1. Knowing that you can always learn something from someone else in the room — I often think about this when I’m in a meeting with someone who, on paper, has less experience than me, but comes up with a kickass idea or an amazing story angle. We can always learn from people around us and better ourselves by doing so.
2. Leading with empathy and understanding that people are human — This is a big one. I often think back to how scared I was of my first boss and how that set a bad precedent for how I interacted with my bosses for a long time until I broke the vicious cycle of power/fear leadership. People are human and stuff happens. If we react in a way that acknowledges that they are doing their best, then we will collaboratively have a better outcome. I fundamentally believe that. My current boss is wonderful and has taught me how I want to manage others.
3. Always work on yourself to become a better leader — It’s not just a promotion that makes a leader…it’s continuous work to make sure you’re serving the people you’re managing in a positive and meaningful way. I was promoted this past year to manage someone and it’s been really hard work to ensure I’m helping her grow while also helping myself grow. I try to make time to attend training webinars and speak with others about how they lead so I can continue to grow. I also make an effort to meet with my higher ups to get feedback on my performance regularly. Feedback on my performance let’s me iterate and learn along the way.

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?

This is a great question to ask in today’s world because PR comes in so many formats. I would say that public relations is a multi-faceted, ever evolving industry that helps maintain a company’s public image by getting their story out there in new and exciting ways. This is done through traditional media relations, social media content, influencer marketing, experiential events, virtual events, education sessions, white papers, opinion articles, and more. Those are the big ones.

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?

I imagine that a lot of PR professionals encourage young people to start with a communications or journalism degree — which I think is wonderful. But I would actually recommend an English degree (or at least taking some English classes) as a good career starter. Writing is the backbone of a career in PR. You NEED to be a strong writer to make this career path work for you and I trace my writing success back to my English degree.

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

Networking is about meeting people where they’re at and relating to them on something that is meaningful to them. I spend a lot of time fostering connections on LinkedIn, attending networking events, simply introducing myself to people via email, or making connections through friends. It’s a full time job that I don’t really think of as a job because it comes pretty naturally to me as a curious human being — but if it’s something that’s not natural to you, I think you can build your confidence by doing it again (and again, and again). Put yourself out there, introduce yourself to someone new, and see what happens. This goes for reporters too! The worst that can happen is that they’re not interested in chatting — no big deal.

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?

In traditional media relations, I don’t focus on generating leads as much because it’s more about storytelling and brand awareness. However, when it comes to online PR (social media, influencer marketing, etc.), I ensure that the brand story is told in an effective way and ROI is measured as we go. A good example of a lead generating PR project was the Cognition Kitchen guide my team and I created for our client, the Wild Blueberry Association of North America, to build awareness of how good wild blueberries are for your brain. The guide included three of our brain-healthy commodity food partners (eggs, fish, and tree nuts) and featured 16 recipes, brain health facts/research, and other ways to live a brain-healthy lifestyle. We made the Cognition Kitchen guide a piece of free, online (but gated) content so we could capture emails and add them to our database to continue the wild blueberry brain health conversation in other ways. We used social media, podcasts, and media relations to drive awareness of the guide, and garnered over 1,100 downloads with very few advertising dollars behind the work. We were pleased with the results!

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.

1. Knowing how to write well and network appropriately are your biggest super powers — like I said before, good writing skills will get you far. Learn how to write and then you can learn how to create the necessary materials to be a strong PR professional.
2. Develop relationships with reporters and foster those relationships over time — Networking makes the PR world go around. When I establish a relationship with a reporter, I ensure I foster it and get to know them as individuals so that when a story comes to fruition, I can send it to them and ensure they’ll consider it because they trust me and we have a rapport beyond our jobs.
3. Grow a deep understanding of how PR is not just media — it’s social media, it’s influencers, it’s events, etc. — PR is so multi-faceted these days. It’s about paying attention to trends, iterating on the work you’re doing, and remembering that rejection doesn’t always mean a “no.” Is there potentially another way to tell the story you’re trying to tell? Chances are, yes.
4. Bringing creativity to your writing, pitching, strategy, and more will bring you far — At the core of PR, you’re telling a story about something and that requires being creative with how you tell it. Be creative, try new things, encourage your client to experiment with tactics, and tell new stories that may seem odd/different — with this approach, you’ll go far.
5. Understand what is and what is not newsworthy — and educate those around you on that — Unfortunately, when you’re close to a project, it can seem incredibly exciting to you, but may not be to the rest of the world (at least from a media standpoint). Education to clients on what is newsworthy vs. what isn’t is important so that expectations are set and goals are not skewed. If something isn’t traditional media worthy, perhaps you could tell that story on a different platform (social media is always a good place to start).

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. :-)

Equality for women in the workplace is really important to me — I would love to start a mentorship program that allows women across the marketing industry to connect with each other, ensure they have the tools to advocate for their seat at the table, and build connections with one another to lift up women in PR.

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