Tara Seymour is a public relations senior at the University of South Florida. She specializes in creative thinking and promotional development and thrives in seeking new innovative ways to create a brand. She is an active member of PRSSA and PRSA, and is an intern at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, FL.

Standing out in the public relations world is nothing less than an up-hill climb. As a graduating senior at the University of South Florida, I have witnessed the competitive nature of PR students. Everyone wants to become the best—that one student to become the legend of their school. Unfortunately, there is not enough room for every student to become a PR legend. However, I am convinced that with hard work and devotion every PR student can find their place in this career.

Finding your place in this career takes time. It is not something that can happen overnight, in fact, it takes years to develop. I found my place in public relations through my ambition. My ambition has taken me to places I never imagined I could go, and it has opened my life up to a whole new world of opportunities. Two years ago, when I was beginning my journey in mass communications, I was driven, but I was unprepared for what the real world had in store for me. It took a real life experience to prove to me that I needed to work harder to get to where I wanted to be.

In December of 2007, I had an internship opportunity at HARPO studios in Chicago. To land this internship I had to go through my first real interview. A panel of HARPO employees interviewed me for nearly five hours. It was a great experience, but it scared me to death. My lack of experience was evident, and I didn’t have the skills to back up my interest. That day I realized how competitive this world is, and how much work I needed to do to get the job I wanted.

When I got home, I put 100 percent devotion into my future. I wanted to learn everything, get experience and grow as a student and future professional. I did research on career options, I dived into job searches, I practiced my interview skills and I invested time in career centers. It became a full-time job preparing for my future career, and it still is today.

The feeling of not being prepared or experienced gave me the motivation and final push I needed to jump into public relations. I spent all my spare time interning and learning about mass communications. But, I still struggled to find my niche in PR. I took full advantage of my mentor and the professors who were willing to guide me in the right direction.

They were incredibly helpful, and I would not be where I am today without their help. My mentor provided me with insight, suggestions and future internship opportunities. She was not only supportive, but she also introduced me to many professionals in the media workplace that I now network with today.

Even with the help of my mentor and professors, it still took me five different internships to figure out what I wanted to do in public relations. It was challenging, but all the hard work has paid off. I have walked away from every experience with valuable tools and new lessons learned that I will take away with me for the rest of my life. Finding a niche and a place in PR takes time, but with ambition and hard work anyone can get there with the right attitude and determination.

“You have to figure out who you are—and are you going to be true to that?” – Mona Pasquil, vice president of MSHC Partners, Inc. and business development consultant and sales strategist for IBM. Keynote speaker at the 2009 PRSSA National Conference in San Diego.

Tara Seymour

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Picture Credit: Taken by Cherisse Fonseca Rivera

I am a sucker for good reads. I read everything. I am the girl who reads the advertisements in the bathroom stalls.

This week I had a discussion with other public relations professionals on what blogs we have been reading lately on a regular basis. Here is a list I was able to compile and have made sure they are in my Google Reader.

• UnMarketing
• Chris Brogan
• Peter Shankman
• IttyBiz
• Conversation Agent
• Communication Overtones
• The Brand Builder
• Successful and Outstanding Blog(gers)
• Altitude Branding
• Mark Collier
• Danny Brown
• David Meerman Scott

One I had never heard of, but I am looking into, was Pioneer Woman. I have been amazed this week at all the information I have gathered from conversations I have had online. I encourage you to join online chats, take advantage of free webinars and engage with a few people using any social media tool.

See that tab at the top of my blog. The one that says “IQResources”. My goal is to some day put all the resources I have found in one place so that everyone can have easy access to them. Right now it is an empty page, but my goal is to start putting it together over the holidays, when I don’t have to grade papers or prep for classes.

I would also like to send email updates with resources and other stuff that have helped me along my journey. If you have not done so already, sign up for my email newsletter and updates today!

If you have a blog your reading on a regular basis, I would love to hear about it. Leave a comment or email me at cherisse@innovativequeen.com

This week I had the privilege of being the moderator for #soloPR, a weekly chat with independent public relations professionals and consultants. The chat happens every Wednesday from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. EST. (I want to thank Kellye Crane for the opportunity to fill in her shoes while she was traveling. Thank you!) I have been participating in this chat for a little while now, and I can not tell you how much I learn from this group of pr professionals each week. I always say it is the fastest hour of my week.

I wanted to take the opportunity to share with my blog readers some of the things we talked about this week.

First question was about building media list on a pr solo’s budget. Let me just tell you, I go about it the old fashion way. I make and keep my own of media contacts. I found this question interesting because I just taught my PR Writing students how to create media lists. A great tip that came out of the conversation, and seemed to be an occurring theme, was teaming up with other solo professionals to share accounts with Cision or Vocus. I love that as public relations professional we count ourselves as a member of a community. We are willing to share resources and contribute to each others success.

We also talked about mentors, do we have them and how did you approach and build a relationship. I was inspired by this dialogue. First, it made me realize that social media has opened up a world of mentors for me. They may not know it, but I follow, watch and keep track of what they are up to through Twitter, Facebook and blogs. Second, I reminded my students yesterday that they never know who is standing in front of them teaching their class. Class work is just as important as any internship or network that they have. Kelli Mathews, a professor at the University of Oregon’s School of Journalism and Communications, wrote a great guest blog post yesterday on Lindsay Olson’s blog. Don’t forget your professors!

I am not sure why I think I never have anything to blog about. This chat gives me tons of topics every week. I encourage you to join us. You don’t have to be a pr pro, you can just be interested in what we do. Stay tuned next week. I am writing two new blog posts. One on our third question this week on how much pr do we really do, and another on the fourth question on all the resources that we use.

By the way, Happy Halloween!

I waited until today to write this post because I really wanted to think it out. During yesterday's #Solopr chat I was directed to Media Metamorphosis, a blog by Chuck Tanowitz. Tanowitz post yesterday recapped an event for entrepreneurs, basically teaching them pr 101. This sparked my interest because he had two critiques of the panel. First, they had no idea how public relations helps media relations, and second was public relations is media relations.

I am challenged by the idea that public relations is media relations and that business owners think that they can do it on their own. Something that has taken me years to perfect and is always work in progress through relationship building. I loved a comment by Doug Haslam, in which he used the word facilitates.

I am constantly having to define what I teach and do to my family and friends. It reminds me that potential clients may not understand public relations either. I love my profession because it gives me the opportunity to serve others, which is why the word facilitate sparked my interest.

I’ll let you in on a little secret. I enjoy thoroughly looking up words in the dictionary. Even the words I use everyday, a thousand times a day. My heart for service loves the definition of facilitate in Dictionary.com, “to make easier or less difficult; help forward (an action, a process, etc.)…”

How would perceptions of those around us change if we used facilitate to define public relations?

Public relations is not just about media relations. When I am helping out an organization, I always start with the basics. You know that whole research, action, communication and evaluation thing. But if public relations is about relationships, how about starting with this?

1) How can I make things easier or less difficult for the organization?

2) How can I serve this organization to help them move forward?

3) What is “our” action plan?

4) How do we get the process going?

Sometimes these questions involve media relations, but most of the time it does not. So if you are a business person reading this, next time you come across a public relations professional who is ready to serve you, give them a chance to be your facilitator. I promise your will be blown away with the results!