This is Part 4 in the PR/FAQ Primer series, you can find Parts 1-3, you can find them on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/olia-kerzhner/recent-activity/articles/ and on my website: https://www.oliakerzhner.com/articles.
I know I said the PR/FAQ Primer has 3 parts.
I lied. There is actually the 4th Part, the Advanced Level, that shows you how to use PR/FAQ as a powerful self-coaching tool. This is for folks who take their own growth and development very seriously, and dedicate time and energy to working on themselves; what I refer to as Self-Coaching. I often assign this exercise to my clients who are figuring out their next career move, and deciding which direction they want to go. If you are not currently working with a coach, you can do this exercise on your own, and maybe discuss the results with a trusted friend.
To me, coaching is all about increasing awareness. First and foremost, that means increasing awareness of yourself.
And PR/FAQ is an excellent tool for exploring your own motivations and figuring out your direction. The trick for this exercise is to think of yourself as the customer. Write the Press Release and the FAQs from the point of view of what’s in it for YOU, not anyone else. What are you achieving for YOURSELF by implementing this next thing? What concrete things will YOU gain when the Press Release goes live?
This is your way of getting in touch with what you actually want, exploring your own desires and bringing them into your consciousness. Your goal is not to write a compelling sales pitch, as you do with other PR/FAQs, but to find out what you actually want to do and what you’re hoping to get out of it.
As you do this exercise, take your time, feel deep inside yourself, so your own truth may surface. It’s a meditative exercise and it might take you several days to even get in touch with what it is you want from your career before you can set it down on paper. You might be surprised with the results, for example you might discover that what you actually want is to work fewer hours rather than getting promoted, or vice versa!
Whatever it is, you will gain a lot of clarity simply by doing the exercise of setting on paper what you are hoping to achieve and why it will be good for you. PR/FAQ gives you an excellent framework for making those benefits concrete and clear.
Most importantly, it will give you the chance to feel how the proposed project resonates with you energetically, whether you feel excitement and clear intent; or if it feels heavy and lifeless, and even writing the PR/FAQ is hard work.
Here is an example of one such PR/FAQ. I wrote this for the same project, for the PR/FAQ Primer series, but unlike my first example, this one is written from the point of view of my own personal benefit.
Compare and contrast this to the example PR/FAQ I wrote for Part 1, for the same project but from a different customer viewpoint. In this example, I am the customer. Ideally, for any project you create, you can write 2 compelling and enthusiastic PR/FAQs: one for the intended customers of your project, and second from the point of view of yourself as a customer. Only then will you know that the project is worth your time and energy.
Example PR/FAQ from the point of view of Olia as the customer
September 20th, 2023: Today, Olia Kerzhner announced that after taking the summer off to work on non-coaching projects, she published the 3-part article series “PR/FAQ Primer” on LinkedIn and on her own website.
“God, I am so happy to finally get these articles out of my mind and onto paper, I mean computer screen,” said Olia. “These articles have been rattling around my brain for a couple months now, demanding to be let out. It’s a big relief to finally free up the space they were taking up in my head.”
Olia has been planning to publish articles regularly, and is happy to finally make a start.
“I have many other articles writing themselves in my mind, and it’s good to be finally letting them out. When starting something new like this, the first step can be hard, so I’m glad it is now behind me!”
Olia loves coaching, she enjoys 1-1 work with clients as well as leading group workshops. Writing articles based on her coaching experience is yet another avenue she can use to inflict her coaching wisdom onto the world, and possibly even help some folks enrich and grow themselves.
FAQ
Q. How will writing articles help you continue to grow?
My big ambition is to write a book, Self-Coaching Guide for Techies. Writing small articles is a way for me to start the writing process and see if I have the stamina for it.
Q. How will you measure success?
While it is tempting to measure success by tracking social engagement metrics, this is not the goal here. There are much easier and more effective ways to simply get likes and comments than sharing sophisticated and advanced material. And while, like every human, I enjoy and value positive feedback from my audience, the way I will measure success for this project is simply that the articles are written and posted on LN and my website.
Q. How will you determine that your content meets the quality bar?
The quality bar I will use here will be my own and completely subjective. I will know I have expressed a concept fully and to the best of my current ability (ie., reached the “quality bar”) when I’ve iterated over my draft for several days, and no new thoughts or ideas on the subject arise, and there is nothing superfluous left to delete.
Q. How will publishing articles help you grow your coaching practice?
The more quality content I put out there, the more people will get to know about me and my approach to coaching, which will make it easier for prospective clients to find me.
Q. How will publishing articles help you attract the right clients?
My best coaching experiences have been with clients who really resonate with the way I coach, and therefore are able to advance and grow rapidly with my help. Publishing these articles will help me attract such folks, because the content I’m putting out will give them something to resonate with and will help them find me.
Q. What else are you hoping to get by publishing your content?
I am only human, and I love getting feedback on my work, it encourages me to keep going! I am hoping to get such feedback for my content and to enjoy engaging and interacting with folks who resonate with what I have to offer.
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