PR Pros: Kevin Miller On The 5 Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Career As A Public Relations Pro
An Interview With Kristen Shea
Networking is critical to working in Public Relations. You will meet many people, some with a little influence, some with ground-shaking influence. You have to be at your best for every single one of them. The field is all about maintaining reputation and putting your best foot forward, especially when representing clients. You never know when you’ll be working with or for someone you meet in your daily life.
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 Kevin Miller.
Kevin is a digital marketing expert, former Google employee, entrepreneur, and angel investor. He helps scale the best D2C & technology companies with proven growth marketing frameworks he learned at Google and various startups. Kevin was recently named “Entrepreneur of the Year” in the 2021 American Business Awards.
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 worked at Google helping high-profile clients fit the best advertising strategies to grow their business. I ended up leaving the company to take a $14K marketing course that taught me about all the marketing channels outside of Google. I experimented with my newfound skills and knowledge with several startups over the course of a few years consulting on SEO and growth strategy before launching my own SEO agency, Gr0.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began at your company?
The most interesting story that has happened since I started GR0 is we had a customer write in to our website asking for SEO help and it ended up being the founder of Yum Yum Donuts. He is 91 years old and created the globally recognized brand. I got to meet with him and his family and it was incredibly rewarding because he wanted his information about starting a business to be accessible for free to all entrepreneurs. It was an extremely altruistic effort and one I hope to contribute to!
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?
The funniest story I have about a mistake I made was when I got the GR0 logo painted on the side of our building… the only problem was that we did not own the building and the landlord made me take it down one day after I had it put up! My philosophy has always been to act first and ask for forgiveness later. You live and you learn!
What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?
My hands are pretty full at Gr0 as we have been transitioning through a rapid-growth period, but some other companies I have a hand investing in right now are Brewbird, Arena Ventures, & AGE Crypto, to name a few. I try to get involved with startups that have innovative concepts or practices, or that look to do a lot of good for people. A lot of the companies have products I use myself (and can vouch for), like Disco skincare for men or PYM mood-enhancing chewables.
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 always appreciate it when people communicate directly with me. I think some bluntness is conducive to progress, even when it gets us into trouble at times. Transparency goes well with directness and even better with leading a business. It helps us build trust and learn more about each other. Lastly, compassion is critical. None of us really knows what any of us have been through, I always try to lead with kindness before criticism.
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?
PR traditionally was the collective efforts of an organization to create and release positive press to the public through the media. This press is multifaceted in that it helps businesses extend their marketing reach but can also be used to repair consumer-business relationships when businesses make mistakes in the public eye. PR today has transformed to be an arm of Digital Marketing because of how search engines work and their rampant popularity. Now, marketers can still reach out to the press to disseminate information to the public but can also grow their businesses by earning features and backlinks from the media on well-established websites.
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?
Those interested in PR need to work on their communication skills, writing ability, and understanding of journalism. You can start to do this in various ways, but majoring in Communications is a safe bet, or even Social Media Management or Marketing would make valuable assets to any PR professional. It’s a quickly changing field, so the more you can integrate technology, digital media, and marketing into your education, the better of a foot you will be on starting your career.
You are known as a master networker. Can you share some tips on great networking?
My favorite networking tip is a classic: treat other people how you like to be treated. Having lots of connections and getting to know people in different fields is a very fulfilling experience in its own right, but remember that everyone has their own lives and bandwidth to be working with too. When you reach out to strangers or friends of friends, lead with patience and understanding if they take some time to get back to you. It’s always easier to ask for an introduction than to cold-call someone you don’t really know.
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?
One of the most effective ways to garner leads is to have clients refer them to you. Social proof and referrals have some of the strongest ROIs because they leverage real relationships and credibility. Before we were really taking off at Gr0, it was a singular client with a wellness startup, Ritual, who gave us a sparkling referral that really changed the game for us. After they referred a few other businesses they worked closely with, clients started pouring in and haven’t stopped since.
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.
The first thing you need to be a highly successful PR pro is information. Understanding a business’s needs, goals, clientele, and industry requires hundreds of hours of studying, workshops, and experience alone. When you look at Public Relations as one arm of that project, you begin to note the mutual benefits that connect PR agencies, journalists, and businesses and see how they all fit together. Understanding the public, how different industries are perceived, and how different groups stand to benefit from the ways we represent ourselves to the public are all daily aspects of working in PR.
The second thing you need is curiosity. Curiosity pushes all of us to grow and engages our interest more deeply with our clients. The more interested we are in what we do and who we serve, the better our work inevitably is. I always test new hires for a sense of intellectual curiosity, and a willingness to grow by learning what is not known. In PR, the best performers have this quality in spades.
The third is drive. As with any ambitious career field, you have to push yourself to get the results you need and that your clients deserve. If you’re not showing up to work to think on your feet, push through the obstacles, and motivate others to help you, PR can become an unrelenting and difficult field to navigate. It takes hunger and pride in your work to excel in representing companies while managing the press and public opinion.
Networking is critical to working in Public Relations. You will meet many people, some with a little influence, some with ground-shaking influence. You have to be at your best for every single one of them. The field is all about maintaining reputation and putting your best foot forward, especially when representing clients. You never know when you’ll be working with or for someone you meet in your daily life.
Lastly, the hardest-working professionals need to be the most well-rested. Self-care can be a struggle in many client-facing industries, but you need to prioritize it as much as you prioritize your work if you don’t want to burn out. I’ve had a hard time, particularly in recent years, managing my health when I wanted to be maximizing my time at work. There will always be more to do. There will not always be more of you to do it. You have to find a balance that works for you or you will not show up at your best for those relying on you.
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. :-)
I would encourage people to stand up for each other more instead of tearing each other down. It feels so easy for any of us to fall into the comparison trap nowadays, with social media and the constant drone of news, updates, and notifications. I think the world would be a lot better off if we all focused on taking care of ourselves and helping each other more. Many institutions are already in place to help give people the resources they need to thrive but miss the mark too often in fulfilling that role. It’s commonly left to communities to fend for themselves, which is both a beautiful and unfortunate thing. If I could inspire a movement, it would be to encourage folks to engage and contribute more to their communities.
This was really meaningful! Thank you so much for your time.
Thank you so much! Please learn more about me, my business, and my story at kevinmiller.com.
