The Aha Moment: Why the Best PR Stories Often Start with a Conversation
The best stories aren't always found in a press release. Sometimes, they're found sitting across the table (or the computer screen) from your client.
As PR professionals, we spend a lot of time looking for stories.
We watch the news. We follow industry trends. We monitor competitors. We look at company announcements, milestones, data and reports. We ask: What is newsworthy? What will resonate with the media? What can we turn into a compelling story?
But one of the most valuable tools in our PR toolbox is also one of the simplest:
A conversation with your clients.
At JLevin Communications, some of our best story ideas have come from sitting down with our clients simply asking questions. Not necessarily questions about the next announcement or the latest company milestone, but questions that get underneath the business.
What are you seeing in the industry?
What are customers asking for?
What has changed in the past year?
What do you wish more people understood?
What are you seeing that others aren't?
And sometimes, the most important question is:
"Why does that matter?" That's where the aha moments happen. Your clients often hold the key to unlocking the aha moment.
Our clients are immersed in their businesses every day. They are having conversations with customers, team members, partners, investors and fellow industry leaders. They're making decisions based on trends they're seeing before those trends necessarily become obvious to everyone else.
To them, it can feel like business as usual…but to us – it’s the key to the aha moment, the key to the story!
Sometimes the client is sitting on the headline without realizing it.
Storytelling is very powerful when it connects firsthand experience with something bigger – call it an industry shift, a customer challenge, a cultural change or a question that others are also trying to answer. Research and communications experts consistently point to authenticity and firsthand experience as important ingredients in effective leadership.
As PR professionals, our job isn't just to tell the story. It's to find it.
Writing is the execution.
Listening is where the strategy begins.
A strong communications partner should be curious enough to keep asking questions and experienced enough to recognize when an offhand comment could become something much bigger.
What starts as a casual observation can become a contributed article, a media pitch, a speaking opportunity, a webinar topic or the foundation of a thought leadership platform.
And sometimes, it can uncover an even bigger story: the perspective that leader uniquely owns.
Make time for the conversation
In today's communications environment, it is easy to get caught up in the immediate: the press release that needs to go out, the interview tomorrow, the LinkedIn post that needs to be written, the announcement coming next week.
But some of the most valuable PR work happens when you slow down.
Set aside 30 minutes.
Put the agenda aside.
Ask questions.
Listen.
Follow the thread.
Challenge the obvious answer.
And when you hear something that makes you think, "Wait. Tell me more about that,"—don't move on.
That's probably the aha moment.
