Are you writing a book? Producing a film? Taking a start-up public? Launching a product or service? Starting a social movement? Aiming to change public policy? Applying for the Fulbright? Trying to make partner in your firm? Aiming to get tenure at your university?
The Intelligentsia Agency has helped others in exactly these situations and we can help you! Tell us about yourself and your work.
Have you ever wondered how those people you see profiled in The New York Times or interviewed on The Today Show are “discovered”? Why are certain people invited to speak at conferences and others awarded the coveted prizes in their professional fields? How does someone become the “top” plastic surgeon or “the most feared” divorce attorney in town? Why is someone else’s work celebrated while yours goes unnoticed?
Simple: those people have publicists!
And it’s high time you have one of your own.
At this point in your career, your professional reputation should precede you. You should be quoted as the expert in some of those articles your clients, peers, and competitors read. You should be speaking at professional conferences. You should be nominated for some prestigious awards. Your opinions should make the OpEd pages of your industry trade journals and local newspaper, if not The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.
Publicity builds name recognition. Unlike advertising which can obviously be bought by anyone, media attention in the form of interviews and feature stories offers third party endorsement and confers authority on you and credibility to your work. Name recognition attracts attention which in turn sells your products and services and can help secure blue chip business deals. Your high profile will interest investors in funding your work. Your reputation will prompt committees to grant you the awards and honors your work deserves. As a business leader, your name and reputation can even serve as a powerful calling card to recruit top employees in a competitive talent market. By engaging in a proactive publicity campaign you figure as a major character whose actions drive the narrative of the story.
Don’t confuse publicity and public awareness of your work with arrogance or self-promotion. Neglecting to promote your work is downright self-defeating. How can you win industry awards or be invited to deliver a keynote address if no one is aware of your expertise? No one can publish or read your book if you keep the manuscript locked in a drawer. No one can retain your professional services if they are unaware of your existence. If you fail to promote your work, you run the risk of having your contributions overlooked while someone else gets all the glory…and all the business.
A publicist can promote you without your apparent involvement. And, perhaps best of all, your publicist takes all the rejection, buffering you from the no’s while presenting you with opportunity after opportunity to showcase your talents.
