My Escape From PR Firm Hell -- One Year Later

One year ago today I felt like the figure in the famous Edvard Munch painting “The Scream.” After returning from vacation, I was unceremoniously shown the door by a horrible PR firm in Orange County. I worked for gutless, cold, heartless fools that just discarded me with no qualms …

What’s worse is that they didn't care I worked my ass off for them and their clients for more than 13 months to secure key stories in the media. I bet the media hits I worked so hard to get still adorn the walls of their lame firm in the form of slick, beautiful wall plaques. Oh well, doesn't matter now.

My departure from their lame firm has proved a blessing in disguise. I am happier than I have been in years in my career.

Once again, I am working for myself. I have my own clients. I heed my own counsel and I have come to realize it is the best (and only) path for me. Gone is the horrible stress of working for creepy untalented, fake corporate hacks that had little or no appreciation for my PR talents and attacked everything I did and said.

However, these petty fools couldn't produce the excellent results I have secured for a number of firms and clients for more than 12 years. Not if their lives depended on it.

Now, I work for myself with no foolish middlemen who lack real knowledge of the power of media relations or PR whether it is in the new or old media. It all comes down to value. If your clients fail to value your efforts, all the slick explanations in the world will never convince them. Only results and effort will.

I hold them no grudge. I forgive them the ugly. foolish and backstabbing things they did to me, but I don't forget …

This poem is a good indication what these fools put me through.


GP

*****************************************************

PR HELL, Part 1

Drained by
hypocrisy.

Making a living
instead of truly living.

Giving away my best ideas
to swine
in the service of fools.

Frustration mounts
as I chafe against
soulless discussions
about accounts of the dead.

This truly is work.
Work to stay interested
and involved.

One soulless gig
after another.
Running out of passion
and ideas.

Sometimes I feel just like
a broken down politician
that has run out of lies to spin.

George Pappas
Copyright 2008