Public Relations: New Age Seduction

Published on June 20, 2017, at 1:10 PM
by Katie Willem.

Getting hired in the field of public relations isn’t easy. In fact, the hiring process can be quite demanding. Most of the time, it takes more than a résumé full of accomplishments and a piece of paper saying you graduated from a decent school with a reasonable grade point average. It takes wit, intense amounts of eye contact with complete strangers and a winning personality to go along with it.

That’s right, folks, your brain can’t only be smart in the world of PR; it’s also got to be sexy — as in, “Hey there, I noticed you the moment you walked in,” winning-personality sexy. This is the new world in which we live in as public relations practitioners. It’s been thought of as behind-the-scene work for too long now, when in reality, PR practitioners are becoming the face and voice of the companies they work for or the people they work with. So we practitioners must demand the attention of others, but not with outrageous stunts or beautiful looks (though those can sometimes be beneficial), but with brains that are wicked smart and sexy as hell.

Now I suppose this may a weird thought for some of us. How can a brain, which by definition is just an organ, be sexy?

Some of us got into this field because that moment in high school when we dissected a sheep brain completely and utterly disgusted us, so the thought of a brain being sexy is a foreign notion. Scientists and engineers have had a grasp on the “sexy brain” market for as long as I can remember, but I think it’s time for them to share this notion with us communications people. Stick with me on this one.

Your brain controls every aspect of your true sex appeal. Confidence levels, how you hold your body, the way you speak, and even what comes out of your mouth are all controlled by your brain. Your brain is who you are, and as public relations technicians, we should be experts at this new age seduction. Why? Because the field of public relations requires us to have a firm grasp of all of these skills. We must exercise and tone our personalities, to make them the most attractive things about us, because that’s the true selling point when it comes down to it. Because a PR practitioner who cannot make you like them — trust them even — is not a capable practitioner. How can someone expect you to make them look good if you cannot even make yourself look good?

So what does a sexy brain look like? It actually doesn’t begin with intelligence, though many like to believe that it does. A sexy brain starts with something we can share in common with everyone we meet. It’s called emotional intelligence (EQ).

Emotional intelligence is the ability to both empathize and sympathize with others, and respond to their emotional needs, as well as your own emotional needs. Increasing emotional intelligence is the first step any public relations practitioner should take, as it aligns oneself with the public. That’s when confidence, intelligence, charisma and other components of this new age seduction can really come into play.

What’s the greatest news about having a sexy brain? When you have one, you don’t only have it for your professional life, but for your personal life as well. Ultimately, this is a brain that will get you very far in both work and play, and it’s all for the better.