I consider myself a pretty solid good story teller, and with a big grin on my face I am geared to tell you one that blends some of my favorite things in life (technology, web 2.0, ladies, people with good senses of humor, and the awkwardness of being the world’s greatest Chinese Jew).
As I have mentioned before, Yardbarker moved to a great new office in the SOMA district of San Francisco. We’re on the 6th floor of 7 floor building and I have yet to acquaint myself with the neighboring tenants.
However of late I have been realizing that every time someone from the 7th floor is in the elevator is going down and stops on our floor, they are typically an attractive female around my age. Usually I am little zonked out at work so I never really put any thought into who are neighbors to the North were although obviously I endorsed the new digs, the new area, and our new neighbors.
So coming back from a late lunch and trip to the bank, I saw someone scrambling a bit to try to make the elevator. I want to iterate that I am a hold the elevator kind of guy, and do not discriminate on who I hold the elevator for (unless they would be wearing attire of a sports team I hate) . But in this case, I once again found myself sharing an elevator ride with yet another seemingly very nice, well spoken, and yes attractive person from the 7th floor.
The elevator was slow enough where this time I actually learned that the company above us is LaunchSquad, a PR firm that has an extensive client list mainly in technology.
It was then I had “that AHA moment”. Since graduating college, I have continuously been impressed by the people I meet from PR. Some of my closest female friends from high school and college have gone into this industry and they are some of my friends I respect the most. They definitely turn a few heads too.
In addition over the years, I have found myself meeting various PR contacts whether it be ourinternal PR agency or contacts met at events like trade shows, think tanks, and networking engagements. Time and time again, I came away somewhat blown away that almost all of these new contacts were female, young, very well spoken and energetic, and quite frankly usually very pretty. To be honest I don’t know if I have ever met a male PR contact. Research shows that indeed the growing industry is now anywhere from 65-75% female.
Below are 3 stories documenting my infatuation/ongoing education of the PR industry.
– Recently at a conference I had to tell a new contact who wanted my card, that I had given out almost all of mine to PR contacts At the time I was just trying to avoid giving out another card, but it was true that I had indeed had a higher ratio to giving out cards to people in PR then any other function.
-Another time I had a kickoff meeting with a new PR firm. I attended the meeting with 4 people from my team and we all sat one side of a standard conference table. We were ages 25-33 and ALL male. On the other side of the table were 5 lovely ladies setup almost like Russian dolls mirroring our ages and looks. It was ridiculous.
– Later that year, at a conference, our PR firm wanted me to introduce them to as many customers as possible during socializing times. It wasn’t a hard sell as we were at a technology convention for programmers and engineers (95% male). I kept approaching strategic customers with the line, “how would you like to meet the prettiest women at this conference?”
Time and time again it worked like a charm, and our PR firm was flattered by my methodology (props to them).
Getting back on track, today after realizing that upstairs was most likely an hub of PR babeage, I posted this ridiculous Tweet on Twitter. My apologies if you don’t know what Twitter is. Someday my friend….someday.
Now if the above Tweet comes off in bad taste, I would to like that Tweets are limited to 140 characters and I couldn’t really elaborate. From all I have learned dealing with women in PR is that they are pretty much all great catches in ALL regards, not just looks. They’re successful, energetic, passionate, great conversationalists (big points there), and yes….they are somehow someway typically all attractive.I honestly have to say that PR is the only industry which I consider somewhat of a filter for finding a potential girlfriend. Teachers and sideline reporters are next on that list.
After a couple of meetings I then logged into my Gmail…..to see that I suddenly had about 20 new people following me on Twitter. All the names were female, and before today I had only a dozen or so people following me on twitter so this was somewhat startling.
At first I thought maybe they were Spam accounts, but as I looked at the accounts they were all…….. young, women, and yes….attractive.. WTF?
I knew it was somehow tied to my Twitter message, and quickly deducted that yes seemingly the whole floor above had zoned in on my previous message. How? I have no idea as I am not really tied to them at all. Obviously someone found it and called an all hands meeting where I was most likely auctioned off to the higest bidder. More likely they just got a good laugh out of my brash compliment.
About 1/2 an hour later my B movie aficionado partner in crime, Mike, let me know his buddy working upstairs (most likely a dream job from what I deduct) had said that I was quite the talk up there.
So yes, now I am following 20+ ladies on the floor above me and vice versa. Because of this I can see that they have had a pleasant afternoon entertained at the idea that I put PR professionals on a very high pedestal. Glad to know they took it in good humor and probably added a level of entertainment and flattery to their day.
As I left the office I asked good friend FTR, the % chance that I would awkwardly have to share an elevator ride with one of the great ladies at LaunchSquad. He guessed 10% which I agreed with but knew that miraculously it was going to happen without a doubt.
Elevators open and yes on script two of LaunchSquadders are there with big grins on their face. I introduced myself, shared a laugh, and tried to figure out just how all of this got started. I have no idea, and I might never know. The point of the story is that Twitter no longer sucks and PR professionals or LaundSquad employees in general typically also possess a good sense of humor and elite Twitter proficiency skills.
They also make great bloggers and finally answered my question on why PR has become such female dominated industry.
