Toronto

From early morning meetings to late night client dinners, Edelman Canada’s President Lisa Kimmel is a busy woman. Thankfully she took time out of her schedule to talk to young professionals for a Ten Thousand Coffees group chat.

Here are some takeaways from our conversation:

1. No matter how hectic your job, it’s important to make time for yourself so you can stay healthy. Lisa exercises 3-4 times/week and appreciates the alone time.
2. In an agency environment like Edelman, a good PR professional is highly adaptable, reflexive, flexible, solution-oriented, collaborative, curious and able to deal with overwhelming client responsibilities.
3. A few of the most important skills for a PR professional are sales, public speaking and critical thinking.
4. Effective internal communication, something I was particularly interested in learning about, involves honesty, transparency and frequent discussions. An account executive should understand the strategic plan for the entire agency and open communication makes this possible.
5. Employment engagement is an essential priority. Lisa advises employers to recognize that employees are your best advocates, so equip them with the right tools to talk about your company at a party.
6. An effective employee engagement program invites contributions from employees at junior and senior levels so management can gather insights for operations.
7. Media companies like Facebook and Twitter sometimes eliminate clients’ agencies as the middleman and go straight to presenting solutions to clients. This is an obvious threat to agencies who want to be involved in all campaigns, so some agencies like Edelman are starting to partner with media companies like The Globe and Mail to present solutions to clients based on joint capabilities.
8. Lisa understands the value of information interviews, but young people should realize that she’s inundated with requests. Tell a story in your email invitation to capture her attention because too many people say, “I’m passionate about public relations and want to meet with you over coffee.” If and when you are awarded an information interview, make sure you come prepared. Know your elevator pitch and research the senior employee’s company.
9. For job interviews, ensure that you can articulate your point of view on the industry. Do enough research so that you can confidently predict future trends and think about your portfolio so you can describe the work you’re most proud of doing.
10. Young professionals without a family should take advantage of opportunities to work abroad, such as landing a job within your agency’s international network.