{"id":2095,"date":"2020-05-04T20:53:12","date_gmt":"2020-05-04T20:53:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/?p=2095"},"modified":"2020-05-04T20:53:12","modified_gmt":"2020-05-04T20:53:12","slug":"dear-younger-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/2020\/05\/04\/dear-younger-me\/","title":{"rendered":"Dear Younger Me…"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Diane Swintal, Public Relations Coordinator\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

I would like to think that my younger self would have been willing to listen to advice, should
\nsomeone have sat me down and offered some words of wisdom. More often, though, we
\nlearn by watching those far more experienced than we are, emulating their example.
\nHopefully we had good teachers along the way, but there still are a few things I\u2019d wish I\u2019d
\nknown in those very early days. Such as:<\/p>\n

Listen (far) more than you speak.<\/em> The media center is full of people who have so much
\nexperience and you can learn so much from them. Don\u2019t be afraid to ask questions. And
\nknow that you\u2019ll never impress someone by what you say, only by what you do \u2013 and
\nrespect usually comes after a fairly lengthy amount of time.<\/p>\n

Value your relationships.<\/em> So much of this business begins with the people you work with,
\nincluding local journalists, national journalists, TV people. Get to know what they need,
\nbecause the better than you are at understanding that, the better you\u2019ll be at your job.
\nNever be too nervous to stick out your hand (remember when that was a thing?) and
\nintroduce yourself. You\u2019ll be amazed at the number of friends you\u2019ll have years from now
\nfrom relationships that began with a simple \u201chow can I help?\u201d<\/p>\n

Be nice.<\/em> It doesn\u2019t take much to treat people with kindness, reacting with a smile. Yes,
\nsome days that\u2019s easier said than done, but you never know when that kid who is currently
\ntalking your ear off will end up in a position of power and you\u2019ll be glad you took the time to
\nbe friendly. Everyone is working hard and if you can make someone else\u2019s life easier, do it.
\nThe only constant is change. Jobs change. Teams change. You change. You must welcome
\nchange because the only constant in racing is change, so learn to embrace it. Life is a story
\nand we all come and go in the telling of it. There will be loss and there will be heartbreak.
\nYou have to accept everything as it comes because there is no other way. You can\u2019t fight
\nsomething you can\u2019t control. Not only will your life evolve, but how you perceive it will
\nevolve.<\/p>\n

Appropriately, you will one day have a client named Change (Racing).<\/p>\n

Be a storyteller.<\/em> It\u2019s more than just writing. It has more heart than that. Once you start
\ntalking to people, you discover how much they really want to be heard. It may take a bit of
\nwork, to get the best quote, to get the best anecdote, but it\u2019s worth the effort. People want
\nto be heard, want to know they\u2019re being heard, so even if they\u2019re a bit reluctant, if you give
\nthem the right atmosphere, they\u2019ll give you what you\u2019re looking for to convey their story in
\nthe best way.<\/p>\n

Proof EVERYTHING.<\/em> Twice. Including texts. Especially texts. And most especially, check and
\nrecheck the subject line of press releases before you hit \u201csend.\u201d
\nThink twice. If you\u2019re not sure it\u2019s funny, don\u2019t Tweet it. And never, ever comment on
\nsomeone else\u2019s racing series. This comes under the heading of \u201cif you don\u2019t like it, don\u2019t do
\nit to someone else.\u201d<\/p>\n

Actually, quite a few things come under that heading. Common sense comes in quite handy
\nhere.<\/p>\n

Have a checklist.<\/em> Flying by the seat of your pants might sound like fun, but when the client
\nhas a list of expectations that they\u2019re paying for, you\u2019d best make sure you did them all.
\nThis is, after all, what you get paid for.<\/p>\n

This is fun.<\/em> Seems like a silly statement when you\u2019re just starting out, doesn\u2019t it? This is not
\nrocket science. We\u2019re not curing cancer. We\u2019re helping to facilitate an industry that is
\nrecreation for most people, so how can it not be awesome? Well, the travel can be a grind,
\nthe hours are long, not every media center chair is comfortable and not every racetrack has
\n24\/7 high speed wireless on pit lane. Try to remember always how much fun it was early
\non, when you walked into another historic racetrack for the very first time, in complete awe.
\nThat feeling will keep you going when you\u2019re writing a press release about your 15th place
\nfinish at 1:00 a.m. in Sebring.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Diane Swintal, Public Relations Coordinator\u00a0 I would like to think that my younger self would have been willing to listen to advice, should someone have [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2097,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,9,51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-feature","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2095"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2095\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2098,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2095\/revisions\/2098"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}