5 Reasons Why I Do What I Do

As I enter my 14^th year work­ing in the pub­lic rela­tions indus­try (my eighth with Bell­mont Part­ners), I took some time to reflect on why I do what I do, and why even after a decade and a half, I can’t imag­ine doing any­thing besides pub­lic relations.

1. I’m a news junkie. Ever since ele­men­tary school, I was inter­est­ed in cur­rent events. I’d watch local news with my fam­i­ly, read the Sun­day paper and watch the TODAY Show before school. I start­ed out my col­lege career think­ing I’d pur­sue this pas­sion and major in broad­cast jour­nal­ism. When I took my entry course into mass com­mu­ni­ca­tions and learned more about pub­lic rela­tions, I was hooked. I loved the idea that you could still work with the media on telling impor­tant sto­ries; and do so on behalf of a For­tune 500 com­pa­ny or a small non­prof­it. Or both. And every­thing in between! Flash for­ward, and the fact that I get to work with some of the same anchors and reporters I grew up watch­ing, pre­pare seg­ments on the sets of tele­vi­sion sta­tions that were broad­cast into our liv­ing room every night and see a sto­ry I helped place in print in the Sun­day paper, tru­ly makes me pinch myself.
2. I love to write, espe­cial­ly about Min­neso­ta. When I was in 4^th grade we had an assign­ment to write a trav­el brochure, and I wrote all about the Brain­erd Lakes Area. As a kid, we went up there every sum­mer, and it was a mag­i­cal place for me. I wrote about every­thing from boat­ing, to mini golf, to the local restau­rants. My aunt still has the brochure hang­ing on wall of her cab­in up north. The fact that I’m lead­ing the Tourism & Hos­pi­tal­i­ty Prac­tice Group here at Bell­mont Part­ners, and that our clients include Explore Min­neso­ta, Min­neapo­lis North­west Tourism, the icon­ic Uptown Art Fair, Mid­west Dairy’s Princess Kay of the Milky Way pro­gram (to name a few), and I get to write about how awe­some Min­neso­ta and its events are for a liv­ing, is anoth­er pinch me moment. In my new role as Account Direc­tor, I’m excit­ed to grow this group and learn even more about the trav­el and hos­pi­tal­i­ty industry.
3. Events are an adren­a­line rush. Yes, they can be stress­ful and unpre­dictable. But when you see your hard work come to fruition, it’s total­ly worth it. Over the years I’ve had the oppor­tu­ni­ty to both plan and imple­ment events from the ground up, as well as pro­mote them with the media. I pop out of bed when my alarm goes off at 3 a.m. for ear­ly morn­ing live shots from the scene of an event – I can’t wait to get the day start­ed and exe­cute our plans.*
   *P.S. One of the best days to vis­it the Min­neso­ta State Fair is Day 1 at 6 a.m. Every­thing is spot­less, and there is no wor­ry­ing about parking!

4. Vari­ety is the spice of life. I’m cur­rent­ly watch­ing about 12 dif­fer­ent TV shows, and my “sug­gest­ed for you” playlists that are curat­ed by Spo­ti­fy include about 15 dif­fer­ent gen­res, because I love vari­ety. And no day is the same in the PR indus­try. One day I’ll be writ­ing a pitch about a cool new Min­neso­ta restau­rant, the next I’ll be at a site vis­it for an upcom­ing event, the fol­low­ing I’m learn­ing about the intri­ca­cies that goes in to nam­ing apple vari­eties. Bore­dom is def­i­nite­ly not a side-effect of this job.
5. The peo­ple. I work with some of the most tal­ent­ed peo­ple in the PR indus­try here at Bell­mont Part­ners. I also get to work with amaz­ing clients. I love col­lab­o­rat­ing with these peo­ple and com­ing up with strate­gic and unique ideas. And we have fun doing it.

Life in the PR indus­try can be hec­tic, but I can’t imag­ine it any oth­er way and am excit­ed to see what the next chap­ters of my career hold.