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8 Modern Tips on Landing A Job or Closing a Deal

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Here are eight modern tips on landing a job from today’s Public Relations Society of America Silicon Valley chapter Friday Forum event speakers. This advice can be applied to sales pitches and deal closing as well.

  1. Write well.  
  2. Make sure you present well in Zoom, Cisco WebEx or Microsoft Team meetings. For example, maybe your room background is messy or you have a nervous tic. This could hurt your chances of landing the job, getting the consulting gig or making the sale.
  3. Demonstrate an emotional quotient or EQ during the interview. Speakers said they can tell how someone will be in a job by email communication and the first minute of an interview. This applies to sales as well. People buy solutions from folks they get along with.
  4. Ask an internal reference to back you. If you are applying for a job at IBM, HP, or Google, find a friend at one of those companies to put in a good word for you. The person who hired me at IBM had hired me at a PR agency a couple years prior: She was the hiring manager and my internal reference.
  5. Be a hustler! Follow up. Send a note after each interview.
  6. Unique avenues to success garner attention. An example is not getting into University of California Berkeley right away but instead transferring from community college.
  7. Don’t over follow up. A candidate for a PR job called nine times one morning. This was overkill. As previously stated, this applies to selling. Therefore, be a hustler without being creepy when following up after a sales call or job interview.
  8. Try something old school like a snail mail note. This actually may be the most modern tip on the list because most people don’t do this, therefore a handwritten note or card would stand out. Be aware that the hiring manager is likely working at home.

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Michelle McIntyre is an award winning Silicon Valley PR consultant, IBM vet, and a ranked future of work influencer with a half a million impressions on Quora. The moderators and speakers at the PRSA-SV Friday Forum event referenced in this story were Vanessa Yanez, Ellie Javadi, Brooke Kruger and Kathleen Shanahan, all public relations and image professionals with hiring experience.

5 Must-Have Work from Home Tools Like an Artistic Room Divider

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If you are a work from home professional consider these five helpful tools. I am particularly pleased with my new laptop clip-on ring light and stylish room divider.

Kimberly Stoddard, a PR practitioner in San Francisco, demonstrates her new stylish room divider that makes an ideal online meeting background. Photo credit: Kimberly Stoddard.

Clubhouse – Clubhouse is a social media app that allows you to create a profile, build a following, follow people, and listen to, participate in or run “speaker panels” via audio chat. I call it the “old school radio app” because it involves hearing people speak. You can raise your hand and be called on to speak. I care because it’s hot in the public relations and startup arenas. The negative is that it’s only available via iOS which is iPhone.  My experience on Clubhouse has been fun; it’s a nice change from writing comments, like on Twitter.

Room Divider – Fellow PR practitioner Kimberly Stoddard told me that her new room dividers ordered online helped beautify her Zoom background and block out the moving boxes. She had just gotten to her new place when I first saw them. She said this because I commented that her background Monet art looked gorgeous and natural: I asked her about it. The negative is that they are pretty large, typically six feet tall, so they take up space. I just received an elegant Asian style room divider that created a new office space in the corner of the living room. Another benefit is if you are participating in online meetings from a bedroom, the room divider can block out the view of the bed in the background.

Grammarly is a program that auto-magically adjusts grammar. Fellow consultant, C.J. Lipe said, “When I work with a client in drafting content, such as a blog, article, or newsletter it helps me catch punctuation and grammatical errors. It often gives suggestions or triggers ideas for making changes that may not be so obvious in the moment due to ‘tunnel vision’.” The negative, according to another friend, is that it adjusts the passive voice when he doesn’t want that to happen. He can’t figure out how to turn that off. So maybe it’s a bit too auto-magic sometimes.

Ring Light – My home office has big windows and despite heavy curtains it is hard to adjust the light. What makes matters worse is that I have a sun tunnel. This does not help boost my image during Zoom, Microsoft Teams or WebEx meetings. When I asked for suggestions for laptop meeting lights, I was given two tips, Lume which was $75, and ring. Ring is a style of light not a brand. The one I found online was only $25. It works well. The possible negative is that the large laptop clip is a bit tight. Is this bad for my laptop? Time will tell. Some friends swear by Lume Cube brand.

Canva – Canva is a freemium program that helps a non-technical person to create quality social media graphics. I like it because it is easy to use and I get compliments on the images I’ve created with it. Guy Kawasaki strongly recommended it to me years ago when I started consulting and I’m glad I took his advice. Granted, I think he was Canva’s paid influencer at the time, but that’s okay. He is unlikely to work for a company he doesn’t truly believe in. The negative is that Canva has added a lot of features over the years and is now a bit complicated to use. I do pay $1 for their photos from time to time. I also buy Shutterstock photos. Photos are needed for blog stories.

Stock up on a few new tools like a laptop light and a stylish room divider and give your online and personal brand image a boost.

As an aside, thanks Kimberly Stoddard for sending a photo of you and your new room divider.

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Michelle McIntyre is an award winning tech PR consultant in the Silicon Valley. An IBM vet, she specializes in helping artificial intelligence, collaboration, data analytics and storage companies garner valuable attention. @FromMichelle on Twitter @Michelle408 on Clubhouse * Thanks to Meetup Bootstrappers’ Breakfast participants for generating some of these tips.

The US Demographic is Fast Changing; 3 Tips on Reaching Ethnic Communities

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The demographics of my town of Saratoga, a quaint village nestled in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains – and by the way close to Apple, Cisco, Intel and Netflix headquarters — switched from mostly white to Asian probably around 2018. According to 2019 Census data, Saratoga is 49 percent Asian and 43 percent white.

This data is important and educational. Marketers need to realize how big the ethnic communities are in the U.S. and utilize smart tactics for reaching them.

If someone wants to reach the diverse audience here in my Silicon Valley village, made up of affluent technology executives, engineers, software developers, doctors and lawyers, teachers, plumbers, retirees, stay-at-home dads and moms, singles with no kids, and families, it’s wise to also talk to ethnic media when they are pitching stories.

Here are three tips on smart media relations or “PR” outreach to these groups:

  1. Tailor messages to community values. Vietnamese values are not necessarily the same as Indian ones. By the same token, some are.
  2. Use a trusted spokesperson. A colleague was the one that reached out to Sing Tao Daily for a PR campaign recently. I handled the main Silicon Valley newspaper as well as the broadcast networks like ABC, Fox and CBS. When it comes to Sing Tao Daily, my associate speaks their language and two of the people she highlighted in the story pitch were Chinese. Her help was greatly valued.
  3. Offer a stipend to trusted journalists at multi-cultural outlets. Julian Do who drives ethnic media services for clients like Blue Cross gave a unique tip during a gathering of PR professionals in Clubhouse recently. He said these media outlets are hurting for money and giving financial help by way of stipends helps immensely. He said it works adding that it does not influence the story. He compared it to buying advertising.

A good rule of thumb no matter what community you are trying to reach is to give something to the group that its constituents want or need.

Journalists like stories about the people they serve: Their readers or viewers, e.g. if it’s broadcast, like to hear “like” examples. Instead of pitching your standard U.S. company press release on a new product to an ethnic media outlet like Telemundo TV, form a story pitch around an interesting Latinx person at your organization who has impacted the community in a positive way.

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Michelle McIntyre is an award-winning public relations consultant and IBM vet in the Silicon Valley. She’s @michelle408 in Clubhouse and @FromMichelle in Twitter. Some of these tips came from a PRSA-SV Clubhouse panel event.

5 Tips for Startup Founders Like Be Nice and Work with Friendly People

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Here are five premium pieces of advice offered by the speaker at my tech startup founders Meetup this morning. Alastair Hood, Ph.D., CEO, the founder of utilities analytics startup Verdafero had a unique angle to share. Founded in 2009, the company is web-based software that helps businesses more smartly manage their utility usage. 

What was unique was that Mr. Hood often peppered in comments about being nice and working with friendly people. I liked the tone of that and believe that I was hired several times as a PR consultant because I simply got along well with the marketing or PR leads or founders. 

Here were five key takeaways:

  1. Don’t take money from investors if you can help it. Their vision might not be yours. I’ve heard this time and time again. But my two cents is to scale big time after you gain a bunch of customers, you may need to take money from a trusted source.
  2. Always be nice to people, especially when bootstrapping. You may need a favor from them later. He shared that he ran into Mark Zuckerberg once.
  3. Don’t fall for the Silicon Valley bullsh– story. I believe what he meant was don’t think that starting a company is all glamour and big payouts. You have to work hard, meet with many customers and prospects and take risks.
  4. Look for other avenues to generate revenue while you are developing your solution. Perhaps a customer prospect would be interested in your consulting services while your software as a service or saas software product is being finalized.
  5. Work with people you like. You will spend a lot of time with them. Along the same theme, he added, hire a friendly attorney. I asked if all lawyers who work with startups require a major retainer and the response was, no.

It was seriously refreshing to hear about the importance of collaborating with nice and friendly folks. 

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Michelle McIntyre is the founder of Michelle McIntyre Communications LLC, an IBM vet and Silicon Valley PR diva. She loves to garner big attention for large and small companies including VC firms and has achieved 11 awards for outstanding results. @FromMichelle on Twitter

Worried About Ageism? Here are 2 Job Hunting Tips from PR Experts

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Fifty year public relations industry Vet Gerry Corbett hosted a PRSA-SV talk today called “Ageism in the Workplace is Getting Old” with guest speakers and PR Practitioners Patti Temple Rocks and Scott Monty. 

Patti Temple Rocks is the author of “I’m Not Done. It’s Time to Talk about Ageism in the Workplace.”

Here are stats and advice that was shared: It mostly revolved around applying for jobs.

Ageism is Worse During the Pandemic

Ms. Rocks says that ageism is worse now because companies are cutting budgets during the pandemic; one way to do that is to get rid of the highest paid most experienced people. She added that ageism is rampant in tech and at PR agencies.

The following statistics which come from the website Builtin.com were shared by the moderator. Only 10 percent of people ages 65-69 work. Half of people 55-64 are employed, and half notice ageism when they enter their fifties. 

How can seasoned professionals rise above being viewed as too old?

First, when you look for a job utilize your network. Cold calling a company probably won’t work. In fact one speaker believed that sometimes artificial intelligence algorithms weed out older workers’ applications automatically. If you contact people who know and like you, you’ll have a way better chance. Another speaker commented that even young people get ignored because they didn’t use a friend at the company to get an interview.

Secondly, tailor your resume for each opportunity. This makes sense because if you have been working 20, 30, 40 or even 50 years you have done a whole heck of a lot. Instead of listing everything, choose things that showcase activity and results that are relevant to the job you’re applying for. It’s hard work figuring out what to say and not say but it pays off. And you don’t have to list things chronologically. 

The speakers agreed that ageism at the workplace is common but there are ways around it. Be smart when you reach out to companies for work.

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Michelle McIntyre, the founder of Michelle McIntyre Communications, is a seasoned PR industry pro who helps tech companies and their VCs get attention. She has worked at IBM and three PR agencies including WE for Microsoft. @FromMichelle @PRSASV on Twitter

7 Online Event Tips for Marketing and PR Professionals

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Here are seven easy to follow video meeting best practices designed to massively improve your next online event. This will also boost the quality of your everyday remote work. The first one will take you “back to the future.”

Ethernet Wire Internet Connection — I first heard of using an Ethernet wire instead of wireless during my son’s freshman year at University of California Berkeley in the dorms. Amazingly, this was just last year. Ethernet is from the 1990s! This Back to the Future-type trick leads to faster and more reliable internet. Then I heard it again from a VLAB volunteer. VLAB has brought their emerging tech panels from in-person to online.

Back to the Future film photo credit: Alamy via BBC

Headset for Audio — Headsets or earbuds bring a microphone closer to the participants mouth. Make sure a headset is charged before an event. 

If Video Quality Fades Switch to All Audio or Phone — Immediately switch to all audio or turn off the online chat and dial in by phone if there is video disruption. Thanks Cisco Webex for this tip.

Shift Your Schedule — Join a video meeting five minutes early. This may mean setting your last meeting to end 15 minutes before the hour.

In Your Face Light Source — Webcams work best with a lot of light. It’s important that it not come from behind the participant like via a window. If there is a window there, close the curtain or shade. A lamp behind a laptop will help brighten a face evenly.

Focus on Eyeline — Placing your webcam at eye level looks best to viewers. Stack books underneath your laptop. This brings the camera more directly in front of the eyes as opposed to below. 

Work Outside the VPN — Turn your virtual private network or VPN off for higher quality online meeting or event service. I found this tip on the Webex website. They are known for security among other things so I’ll take their word for it.

Good luck with your next online meeting. I encourage you to share your tips with others. Thanks go to VLAB Volunteer Ms. Avery Hudson and Cisco’s Webex Collaboration website for these tips. 

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Michelle McIntyre is a Silicon Valley tech PR diva, IBM vet, founder of Michelle McIntyre Communications LLC, and a long time community volunteer. She’s the media relations lead for the Silicon Valley Monterey Bay Council of Boy Scouts of America and has served on several executive boards including district PTA. 

5 Ways To Stay Motivated as an Entrepreneur

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Here are five tips to stay motivated from a Meetup called Bootstrappers Breakfast, a group that fosters early morning entrepreneur discussions. There were ten of us in the Zoom chat the other day: We all participated equally with the discussion led by Sean Murphy.

The challenge as stated was how do you motivate yourself to pursue new clients when you are busy serving old ones? It’s like networking for your next job when you are happily employed. That activity often falls by the wayside.

Here’s what participants had to say.

First, to stay motivated stay organized. Make a task list. One person put his in a Trello board. Another swore by his e-calendar and put all to-dos there. 

The second tip had to do with networking goals. Set up a weekly goal each week, e.g five meetings. Additionally aim to keep catch-up chats to 20 minutes. Super busy people will be more likely to say, “Yes” to 20 minutes instead of an hour.

The third piece of advice was to find a work buddy. Set up a Zoom chat and work together with your friend. State what you are trying to get done and they can ask, how is it going? 

The fourth tip is to attend a peer accountability Meetup. The one the Bootstrap Breakfast participant said he goes to regularly is for entrepreneurs. This reminded me of my book writing class at Stanford. We reported our progress to the instructors and classmates each week. I did finish my book draft by the way.

Tip number five is about reading books on developing good habits. The two recommended were Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg and Atomic Habits by James Clear. If a habit to spend a certain amount of time each week drumming up new business is formed then there is a much higher chance that goal is achieved.

In summary, find your own personal formula for staying motivated to look for new business even when you have clients. Then you’ll have way less downtime as a consultant or entrepreneur.

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Michelle McIntyre who wrote this story is the founder of Michelle McIntyre Communications LLC. An award-winning IBM vet and social media microinfluencer, she invites you to follower her on Twitter @FromMichelle

State of Communications 2020: Leaders Report It’s Not Business as Usual

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The Silicon Valley Public Relations Society of America Silicon Valley chapter held its Friday Forum today with a panel offering timely updates on the state of communications departments and agencies.

In-house and agency pundits commented on the benefits of PR consulting help that’s fully remote, lack of diversity in the communications c-suite, 2021 spending priorities and mental health challenges.

There were varied answers in response to, how has business changed in 2020?

Jocelyn Breeland, Stanford said there have been communications staff cuts and hiring freezes. She has lost administrative support. A+ for transparency, Ms. Breeland.

Scott Thornburg said a PR leader now wears many hats and many plans went on hold. Now it’s time to rebuild.

Shaun Fletcher, PhD summed it up nicely, “We can no longer move forward as business as usual.”

His main concern seemed to be the added mental health challenges of people of color. He asks, can we do a better job as communicators telling those particular challenges and stories?

2021 spending priorities 

Ms. Aarti Shah who has been reporting on the communications industry since 2007 for PRovoke, formerly The Holmes Report discussed survey results released in August about 2021 spending priorities. 

The top five spending areas communications leaders in house will focus on are first corporate reputation, followed by second place public relations. Social media, in particular organic, was third on the list. Content development ranked fourth followed by employee engagement/change management. 

Lack of c-suite diversity

Shah was clearly bothered by the lack of diversity and people of color in the communications c-suite. Others chimed in on that topic. Jazmin Eusebio said when she started at her current communication job, she was shocked to not find anyone who looked like herself: “There were a lot of white faces. But now we have made huge strides.”

Syreeta Mussante seemed the most frank about lack of management diversity. She said that in her experience San Francisco firms have done a better job at employing and promoting nonwhite males than San Jose companies. 

Mussante mentioned that some agency managers clearly frowned upon female workers having children. (I’m pretty sure she was talking about a previous job.)

A representative from Highwire PR mentioned that they were hiring more diverse candidates. 

On remote work

Curtis Sparrer who runs a PR firm that’s been remote from its inception said that right now publicists are more accessible than they ever have been. He added that the high touch fluff activities mostly have gone away: there is more time to focus and be attentive to clients. 

Sparrer seemed the most positive of the bunch maybe because he was already remote, which I can relate to. I’ve been a remote PR professional for well over a decade. When Covid hit, I thought, it’s almost business as usual for me.

Although I’ve been remote a while, I do miss the in-person networking. I fondly remember sipping wine with PR friends at Santana Row pre-Covid.

Besides Fletcher mentioning the special mental health challenges of people of color, most PRSA-SV panel participants did not dive deep into the topic.

To sign up for the next PRSA-SV panel, visit the group’s page on Eventbrite. Go here to join PRSA.

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This story is by Silicon Valley PR Consultant Michelle McIntyre. An IBM vet and Eagle Scout mom, Ms. McIntyre serves as the volunteer media relations lead for the Silicon Valley Monterey Bay Council of Boy Scouts of America. @FromMichelle on Twitter

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21 PR Tips For Stunning Results in 2021

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Here it is. My annual public relations tips advice story geared towards technology startup founders and public relations practitioners. Times have changed with press interviews and events going online and ongoing industry consolidation. Most of these tips are evergreen so if you are reading them in 2022, the majority will still apply.

  1. Use listacles and other evergreen content marketing tools often. Listacles like “3 ways to Be a Better Boss” and “10 Tried and True Methods for a Smoother Digital Transformation” share better on social media than say a software product update. 
  2. Add product reviews as part of your PR tactic repertoire. My favorite B2C technology media outlet is CNET. I placed a few reviews over the years including one for PumpUp community fitness app. CNET has great reach and the staff members are respectful.
  3. Write exceptional press releases. Don’t make them too long and fight the urge to include meaningless drab quotes. If your CEO is asking you to insert jargon like “mission critical” explain why you should not.
  4. Build new relationships with journalists. Try to find ways to connect a bit on a personal level but in a respectful normal manner. Maybe you ask an authentic question via Twitter. Don’t try this with the cranky ones though. Warning. Most people hate Twitter DMs.
  5. Create a tight smart media list. I was hired as a consultant by a Silicon Valley PR agency that pulled one of those big 100 item lists from Cision. I quickly identified 10 key writers I liked from the big list, and confirmed they were still in their roles via their Twitter profiles. I scheduled an interview that same day. It was with Venturebeat and the story was excellent.
  6. Identify your best story angle. Is the company the first, best or biggest at something? If yes and you use the angle, make sure you have a credible source backing up the claim. 
  7. Pitch the story at the right time of the day. You can sometimes find a comment from a writer online about when they loved to be pitched, e.g. 4 to 5 pm their time. If you have news to release and want to reach the East Coast folks first thing and you are in California, consider working super early morning your time to reach out. 
  8. Keep in mind diversity and inclusion (D&I). Edelman PR which has 95,000 Twitter followers has consistently only spread messages that push “D&I” in the past week. If you are reading this months or years from now, it’s the middle of September 2020.
  9. Read PR news and trends websites at least monthly, e.g. Ragan’s PR Daily is highly regarded. I like Ragan’s different sections like writing. I just figured out The Holmes Report is now PRovoke. A little tricky to say and remember but catchy.
  10. Secure your brand name across all social media platforms. If you are starting out in PR consulting and pick an LLC brand name, e.g. mine is Michelle McIntyre Communications LLC then immediately take “ownership” of the Twitter profile with that name if possible. 
  11. Do proactive PR so your image is built before an image crisis hits. When there is a scandal e.g. employee lawsuit or patent infringement complaint and those are common in tech, if your company already has a good reputation you may do better in court.
  12. Track what’s being said about your company and competitors. Google Alerts is the least expensive way to do this. It’s also very good. If you want to supercharge your efforts, pay some bucks for Meltwater. That system gives you a nice overview of almost real time of how much attention you’ve garnered.
  13. Have a company policy about what your employees can post online. When I was with IBM social business business unit, the company was the first in the industry to set up community posting guidelines. 
  14. Read inspirational writings like books by Guy Kawasaki. I’m a fan of Arianna Huffington’s Thrive Global site. She always pushes the unique message that getting enough sleep will make your life much higher quality. My PR friend Libra White at Lam Research always touts business books via audio. She can listen during long drives.
  15. Know how you compare to the competition. Use a spreadsheet if needed. Don’t say, “We have no competitor.” That’s annoying. Does anyone have no competitor? Once you know the competition you can do better PR for your company.
  16. Be present on Twitter and make people can find you there. Build up minimum 100 followers. I recently met with a PR director of a tech company. I could not find him on Twitter. Respect was lost as a result.
  17. Be aware of other major news at the time you are pitching yours. I just read a months old posting by Lumina PR about a webinar that featured speakers like Eric Savitz from Barrons. The topics which were always present at the time were coronavirus, racial unrest and the upcoming presidential election. By the way, now in September it’s still true. Question for tech PR buddies: have you ever done a product launch on Apple Computer announcement day? That’s always “fun.” Tip: pick a different day than Apple news day.
  18. Take a PR-related class every couple of years, e.g. through Coursera, which is free learning. The one I’m looking at now is from Ivy League school University of Pennsylvania. It’s on influencer marketing. Apparently I’m a ranked influencer in future of work, number 89 out of 100 on social media (Onalytica 2018 report: download the report to see my name.). Now I’d like to learn more about doing some influencing for pay beyond what I’ve done with Microsoft’s former agency not too long ago. I blogged on their collaboration website working for 1000Heads. They post my stories with Microsoft Teams adds. They paid me for writing.
  19. Do PR for yourself once in a while. If you are a PR pro working for or consulting for a company, get some press for yourself too. Personal branding is good for your CEO and your own business and/or career. I’ve worked late nights and weekends on my own press and have built up a few nice stories, e.g. I made a list in a Ragan story by Frank Strong. It was on the top underrated PR professionals to follow on Twitter. I was number three out of 50.
  20. Always subscribe to a top business journal; and change up subscriptions once in a while. I like to switch from Wall Street Journal to New York Times, like, one year get NYT and the next subscribe to WSJ. Note that people who work for PR agencies or big corporations with deep pockets can subscribe to many. As a freelancer it’s hard to budget for all of them. I like that Business Insider is online only.
  21. Update your headshot photos. Schedule a new headshot for your CEO and yourself if you haven’t done that in the past five years. Paul Sakuma is a quality Silicon Valley photographer for hire. He used to be the local Associated Press wire photographer in San Jose. Also I’d like to thank Paul Sakuma for donating a bunch of time to nonprofit VLAB a while back. I’m VLAB’s main blogger and he took some awesome executive headshots for us. Mark Hundley is also one of my favorite photographers. 

Read this PR tips list every once in a while to refresh your PR game. Despite life’s roller coaster ups and downs right now which include California fires and pandemic office closures, if you work smartly and stay flexible you’ll do quite well in your career. 

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Michelle McIntyre, founder of Michelle McIntyre Communications LLC is an IBM vet and award winning Silicon Valley PR diva. She’s the volunteer media relations lead for Silicon Valley Monterey Bay Council of Boy Scouts of America and ranked 89 out of 100 on Onalytica’s 2018 Future of Recruiting influencers list. She was named 2017 VLAB volunteer of the year. Follow her on Twitter @FromMichelle.

PR Advice for Tech Startup Founders With One of A Kind Products

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by Michelle McIntyre

As a seasoned public relations professional, I’ve enjoyed many productive and passionate discussions with genius technologists who want their “one of a kind” startup product covered by the media.

shutterstock_374219557

Here’s a tip for inventors. Quality feature stories are written because something is societally relevant, interesting cocktail conversation fodder or a unique problem solver. Journalists do want to know, how will this change the world?

During an initial consultation with a founder usually I start out by asking what is different about their new product or service.  Sadly 75 percent of the time the answer is, “There is no other product like ours.” And it’s hard to respond without objection because  99 percent of the time that’s not true. Usually I can find an example of several similar products via a simple internet search.

The secret to a company getting coverage is simple. Leave the ego at the door. Quit thinking a product is the only one of its kind and ask others like an experienced PR professional what is really interesting about your story.

One founder I met with was finalizing an app that tracked a child’s to-do list. I searched and found another app that made the exact same claim. They in turn switched to a communications plan that made more sense having to do with showcasing their expertise in productivity instead of touting its uniqueness. It had a beautiful interface by the way.

Another tip is when you share information with the person you have assigned PR to don’t hold back on the good stuff. One founder I worked with waited a few weeks to disclose he was born with a serious medical problem and had several surgeries to correct it. Through diet and exercise he overcame it. His online fitness community he created was partly born because of this rough start in life. As soon as he told me, I told a Business Insider writer. She liked this angle about the founder and wrote a feature about him and his co-founder.

This app was also quite unique though. It weeded out bully comments automatically. That in fact was an impressive feature and resulted in nice coverage in TIME. But when you start with a claim, that a new product is super unique, unless you have a third party expert saying it, it’s usually a turn-off to writers.

To quote Journalist Dean Takahashi via a story he filed on PR tips in Venturebeat a few years ago, “What I love is finding something unique and interesting to write about. I want to find something magical, and I think most journalists, even the most cynical of the bunch, share the joy of discovering something really cool. Sometimes the real story isn’t the game itself. It’s the person who made it.”

I don’t mean to call out a founder who is a hard working, award-winning and an obviously smart inventor. The point is be very careful about telling someone your product is one of a kind. It probably is not.

I worked with a brilliant technologist with an artificial intelligence startup who wrote a celebrated technical paper years before the formation of the company. The technological phenomenon discussed in the paper was “in” iPhone’s Siri. When I pitched a writer I started with that detail, its impact on technology that tens of millions of people use. (Last I checked around 41 million people used the Siri voice assistant.)

This business reporter filed a story soon after. And that story focused on the startup solution, the funding and its venture capitalist. But the hook was the impact of what was in that paper.

In summary, journalists get pummeled with hundreds of pitches and press releases a day. Make sure you leave your ego at the door when talking to them: test your story line or pitch on a friend or family member to see if they say, “That’s interesting.”

Let others decide what’s interesting about your startup story, trust their feedback and go with it. Be careful going down the path of saying it’s a one of a kind product. It likely is not.

Photo: Shutterstock

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Michelle McIntyre is the president of Michelle McIntyre Communications LLC, a seven year old tech PR consulting firm. She’s the recipient of 11 awards for outstanding results mostly from IBM. She’s held numerous nonprofit executive board positions focused on enhancing the lives of children. @frommichelle on Twitter