Parry Headrick’s Post

At Crackle PR *I’ve never approved a single time off request* Because we don’t do them. My team doesn’t need my permission to recharge 🪫 They know themselves better than I do. I also don’t monitor work breaks and we don’t track time in 15 minute increments like I’ve had to do my whole PR career 🙄 Because it doesn’t matter. I don’t care when my team eats lunch, when they exercise, when they want to call it a day early and get some fresh air. Hell, I take a nap if I need it; so can my team. I’m not running a daycare center here. I’m not interested in monitoring potty breaks. I hire smart empathetic PR people I trust to do great work for killer clients like grown ass adults. From wherever they work best. Because for me and our clients? Results are what matter. Everything else is window dressing ✌️ This is the way ✊ #publicrelations

🚨 PLEASE KNOW: Nothing is “off the record” in a media interview. ESPECIALLY the thing you *already said* out loud 🤦♂️ Good rule? Never tell a reporter something you wouldn’t want splashed across a massive billboard in Times Square. It’s not their job to protect you. Or coddle you. Or make you look good. Their job is to *accurately report what you tell them.* Period. Remember this: Loose lips sink ships 🤐 This is the way ✊ #publicrelations #mediarelations #journalism

“Culture” isn’t free beer and snacks. 🍺 It’s not pics of your kids in your cubicle. It’s not trust falls at the company picnic. Nope. Culture is how you feel tonight about work tomorrow. Sweet dreams ✌️ This is the way ✊

Q: “Why do you post about PR on LinkedIn every day? Don’t you have an actual PR job?” 🤨 I get snippy DMs like this occasionally. I get it. I do. Usually it’s from folks who resent the crazy engagement I enjoy here because of convos with readers like you. My answer is pretty simple tbh. I *ungate my brain* about the PR industry on this platform to: 1. Educate folks about what PR is — and especially what it isn’t! — and to share the good, the bad, the ugly about an industry constantly in flux 2. To enable the marketers/biz leaders who may one day hire Crackle PR to *ambiently vet me/my agency before they even have a need.* 💥 That last point is key. By the time a CMO/head of comms reaches out to me, they *already know* my PR philosophy. ✔️They *already know* my ethics. ✔️They *already know* I’m no bullshitter. ✔️They *already see* how I value my team and lead with empathy. And they almost always say some variation of: “I feel like I already know you” before we ever even meet. What I’m really doing here is what I think is, directionally, the future of PR, sales & marketing: Social selling. To wit: Always adding value until the timing and needs align for my firm and our audiences. I do zero outbound. Zero hard selling to anyone, ever. No pressure tactics, no arm-twisting, no pitch-slapping. I just drop knowledge & insights every damn day with *nothing* expected in return. This isn’t how PR agencies are typically built. This isn’t a comms playbook chronicled in college text books. But i know this much is true: This is the way ✊ #publicrelations #marketing #socialselling 👇

It’s *mortifying* to admit this but… Once I used the *wrong name* in PR pitch to a top tier reporter 😬 Once I used the *wrong boilerplate* in a client’s press release (yes, it crossed the wire) 😳 Once I got the time zones wrong and *missed a press briefing* I booked with a top tier biz pub 😩 Once I got wildly lost driving a client to an analyst meeting in Manhattan - and we *completely missed the briefing* 😣 Once I *completely forgot what I was saying* in a new business pitch in front of the entire C-Suite of a publicly traded company … … I literally blushed, broke into a cold sweat, and … sat back down 🫣 I’ve screwed up SO badly, so many times in my career. I cringe thinking about them to this day. Yet here I still am. I’m standing here. 🕺 Battle scars and all. You know, most of us on LinkedIn like to share our victories. We like to cheer each other on, and to celebrate one another’s successes. As it should be. 👏 But for every positive notch on my belt there’s an *equivalent scar* on my pride for when I flat out stumbled and fell down. That’s the part I want *you* to know. When people in your profession make things look easy, it’s because they’ve taken their share of failures and embarrassments over 10,000 hours of learning their craft. Yet they kept going. They learned in defeat. They won by failing. They fell down 7 times .. and stood back up 8. So don’t be afraid to fail, my friends. Because I know this much is true: if you aren’t failing, you aren’t trying. This is the way ✊ #publicrelations #failforward

I *highly recommend* Summer Fridays. Meaning encouraging employees to cut out at mid-day for a long weekend, provided their work is buttoned-up. Or in our case, we do “Forever Fridays.” Meaning we do this *year-round* because it’s awesome 💃🕺 Winter. Spring. Summer. Fall. This policy is: ✔️Great for morale ✔️Great for mental health ✔️Great for prioritizing friends & family See you cats on Monday ✌️ This is the way ✊ #publicrelations #mentalhealth #workflexibility

Happy Friday to everyone *except* corporate bosses still forcing employees to commute to the office 5 days per week. Not that sitting in a beige cubicle for 40 hours isn’t *fantastic for your physical and mental health*, but come on. 🙄 It’s 2024. Think outside the box 📦 This is the way ✊ #workflexibility #publicrelations

📄 Listen, press releases have their place in an overall PR strategy, BUT: I’d argue that 80%+ of ‘em could be a quickie blog or LinkedIn post. But, hey, if cranking out press releases is your primary “PR tool” you just can’t help yourself, right? 🤷♂️ When all you have is a hammer… *everything looks like a nail*. 🔨 It’s time to be more selective about what you try to pass off as “news.” Reporters damn sure are. This is the way ✊ #publicrelations 👇

I don’t know who needs to hear this today, but… 🤔 PR is expensive because it’s *hard AF* to do well. Thats it. That’s the post. 🫳 🎤 This is the way ✊ #publicrelations #b2btech

To be fair, I don’t think “most PR agencies are trash.” Some? Definitely. Most? Hard no. But I’ve made it my mission to expose the obvious BS of the frauds and cranks who give the best of us a bad name. And every day I’m seeing other smart voices in PR join this fight. Sunlight is the best disinfectant ☀️ This is the way ✊