Why finding your niche is crucial for PR pros

Have you ever wondered why Super Bowl-winning quarterback Tom Brady doesn’t line up next to teammate Ndamukong Suh on the defensive line?

Despite being a star player, and arguably one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time, Brady would undoubtedly make a terrible defensive lineman. Other than his diminutive size compared to the other behemoths in the trenches on either side of the line of scrimmage, Brady has spent his entire 20-plus-year career specializing in the art of quarterbacking, not defensive line play.

Throughout my 30-plus-year career, I’ve found many parallels between football and PR work. Much like how Brady has spent decades honing his quarterbacking craft, public relations pros need to immerse themselves in their clients’ businesses and industries to effectively communicate the oftentimes difficult-to-tell stories that move clients’ businesses forward.

Sure, talented PR pros will argue that they can tell any story—but they can’t tell every story as well as they tell the stories they’re most immersed in. The best PR pros understand their client’s business and the industry in which they operate, which enables them to successfully translate that potentially technical information or industry jargon and communicate what really matters to the right people at the right time on the right platform.