My entire life breaking the typical rules of how to get ahead, “make it,” or achieve a career goal as always suited me best. Perhaps it is my personal destiny in this lifetime to have to find innovative ways around conventional rules, but that is how I have always lived. The road less traveled… that is the story of my life!

What I can share in this blog entry is that breaking the rules, whether it has been in my public relations career within my pr firm or when it comes to my journalism career, it has gotten me where I am today. I didn’t go through the normal channels that most do to get to the point of placing public relations clients in some of the world’s largest media outlets nor have I gone through normal channels and career protocol to have achieved conducting more than 100 in-depth interviews with some of today’s most well known newsmakers and legends from entertainment, politics, and publishing. I was never some editor or reporter’s assistant, I never worked for a large publication, I never earned my wings and built my rolodex slowly over a number of years all while toiling away doing grunt work in someone else’s office. I am not putting that down, and many people have gone that route and gone on to wonderful careers, both as a publicist and as a journalist, it just was never for me.

I am not afraid of hard work, quite the contrary. I work my butt off my days, but I do it on my terms, not someone else’s; that is the main distinction. I am completely self-made. I think that whether you are trying to publicize your company or yourself (which is why you may be reading this blog), or whether you are simply trying to reach a dream in some other profession outside of the realm of public relations, breaking rules and doing it your way can always apply. Don’t get me wrong, you need to study the proper protocol if you are to be taken seriously within the culture of a specific industry, but try going off of the main path a bit and see where that less traveled road leads you, you may be pleasently surprised.

As I have recounted many times, with my public relations firm I set up shop after some success as an entrepreneur who found great success in publicizing myself to promote my businesses at the time. I then transferred that self-taught knowledge to helping others get their businesses off the ground and gain media coverage. I began doing celebrity interviews for a newswire with no formal journalism education and no contacts to speak of, but rather through countless hours of self-imposed study of how celebrity interviews are booked, orchestrated, conducted, written up and edited. I went to the University of Allison Kugel. I was pretty gutsy and presumptuous and just started going after interviews as if I had been doing it all my life and it was as natural as breathing. More than 100 major interviews with headlinemakers later, it proved to be a good tactic.

If you are searching for a publicist or a larger public relations firm to help promote your business or if you are simply trying to make your way on your own, I encourage you to think outside the box, leave the conventional thinking to others who prefer to spin their wheels in an overly saturated marketplace. Be creative, be spontaneous, take some risks and really put yourself out there. The worst that can happen is that you will learn what Not to do and need to re-group and go back at it again, but no one ever died from hearing the word “no.” Don’t be afraid of that word. I, personally, have disciplined myself to be imperveous emotionally to the word “No,” no matter how harsh the delivery from the other party. You have to do the same. Not being afraid to fail spectacularly will actually help your chances of succeeding. Ironic, yet very true.

Beauty public relations is probably, truth be told, the most fun for any publicist to do, simply because skin care, color cosmetics, hair care, you name it… makes every woman feel special and pampered. Even something as simple as buying a new scented body lotion can sometimes make you feel almost as though you have had a makeover. Add to that, a great self tanner and a new tinted lip gloss and you feel like a million bucks! Am I lying?

The drawback to purchasing any beauty products or even in publicizing beauty products is in sorting though all of the clutter. How do you do that? Whether you are a PR firm who is handling a beauty account or simply a consumer heading to your local Sephora, CVS pharmacy or department store beauty counter, every brand claims to have the best beauty line on the market and you just don’t know where to begin or where to spend your dollars. It can be overwhleming and turn something fun into a daunting task. So, I break it down as follows. Specifically speaking, my I am handling beauty public relations and promoting a beauty brand or beauty line, I break it down by product. It is not as easy to get an entire beauty or cosmetics brand noticed as it is to get one super star product noticed amongst the clutter. it is all about piece mealing by product. For example, as someone who has done the leg work I can tell you this:

Victoria’s Secret, beleive it or not, makes the best mascara
MAC makes the best lip colors, just in terms of pigmant and texture they are pretty superior
SUN, in my opinion, makes the best, most natural looking self-tanner and I recommend the SUN cream for the face neck and chest areas and their foam for the entire body application.
NARS makes incredible blush (both powder and cream/powder in a stick). And their highlighters make your skin glow. I recommend “Orgasm” powder blush and cream blush in a stick form
Eye color and eye pencils, I am a huge fan of Chanel
For those with sensitive skin look no further than Clinique. Clinique will not steer you wrong and their color cosmetics are pretty good. I actually really like their lip closses, especially berry blush.

So there you have it. I am not brand loyal! I go for the best possible beauty product. When I am doing public relations for a beauty brand I always ask to try to line and I pick out about 3 superstars out of the whole product bunch and we tout the genius of those particular products and why they are a must have in every woman’s makeup bag. If you have a beauty brand think about which product you ar emost proud of and which brand is really the anchor of the entire line. Which product did you really nurture to make it superior in the market? Once identifying your stand out product you are ready to promote it to editors, bloggers, buyers and consumers. Why do women have to have it? What beauty problem does it fix and why or how?

From working in public relations for over ten years and running my own public relations firm, Allison Dawn PR, for nearly seven years I have learned what makes client/publicist relationships work and what doesn’t.

The single most important thing to consider when choosing a public relations or marketing firm to represent your company is a shared vision with similar values. It’s really that simple. As a personal example, Allison Dawn Public Relations tends to gel most effectively with companies and organizations that share a vision of strong work ethics, corporate responsibility, philanthropy and a general awareness that public relations and publicity is a long term career, and not a single, short term project.

Building, polishing and cultivating a public image that will resonate with the media, potential consumers and with your industrty’s insiders requires ongoing strategic planning and public relations efforts that consist of: traditional public relations, community outreach, viral marketing, online social media, philanthropic outreach, impeccable customer service and ongoing branding indentification strategy.

When a client signs with my PR Firm, and says they just want as many media placements in magazines and on television as possible in the shortest amount of time, I can do that for them. I can blitz the media with their product samples or service and pitch their company ad nauseum, and our firm has a good track record at getting media placements, but in our optinion that is only part of the picture. One issue with “quick fix” publicity is that there has to be a strong news angle or “hook” to get a large amount of publicity in a short amount of time. Very often, and many PR Firms will not fess up to this, but if the brand is unknown this requires something of a circus trick. You have to make the brand, product or service seem as outrageous and novel as possible to generate media interest quickly. Does that help in the long run? It depends whom you ask.

What I often try to explain to clients is that a better way to attract positive media attention that will likely last and build over time is to spend the first part of the marketing and public relations campaign making the client newsworthy. Doesn’t that make sense? Creating a strong foundation and public relations platform that we can then go to the press with has long lasting results. For instance, if product placement and buzz in the celebrity weeklies like US Weekly, Life & Style Weekly or Star Magazine is what a client has set their sites on, well then we need to first set our sites on building a celebrity following. The press then follows and it has a more organic feel. That is why we love to work with celebrity stylists, personal publicists, costume designers, and the like.

If a client’s goal is to eventually link up with a high profile charity that is headed up by a well known entertainer or politician, well then don’t we need to establish a resume, so-to-speak, of philanthropic work that will impress that particular targeted person?

I could cite endless examples. The point is, don’t put the cart before the horse. Everyone will see what’s in your cart but it won’t go anywhere.