Power Players in Public Relations and Lobbying

Robert Cornegy is the founder of 610 Collective LLC, a boutique consulting firm, whose clients range from players in the emerging cannabis industry to development projects around the state. He served two terms as a NYC council member; as the chair of the council’s committee on housing and buildings, chair of small business, and chair of the minority-and-women-owned business enterprise task force (M/WBE). Robert is also a Melking fellow at MIT.

What influenced you to pursue a career in this field?
My passion has always been my community. My focus will always be ensuring the community I come from is represented in the room. Whenever there is an opportunity for me to leverage my acumen and experience to help see a project through I know I am doing the work that all my experience to this point has led me to.

Do you have any advice for someone interested in a career in public relations or lobbying?
Build strong relationships in every facet of your life, you will likely need them one day.

What skills do you think are most useful to succeed in this industry?
You need to develop people skills first and foremost. Develop the ability to understand what a project or a client really needs; beyond the needs they have presented you with.

Stephanie Crockett helms Mower, an employee-owned integrated marketing, advertising, and public relations agency with professional staff across the U.S. She also leads the agency’s Energy and Sustainability practice. Drawing on her 25 years in marketing and communications, Stephanie has led multidivisional complex lead-generation and nurturing programs for key clients including National Grid, FirstEnergy, Exelon, Avangrid, LG, FedEx, Bausch & Lomb, Carhartt, Siemens, and ABB.

What influenced you to pursue a career in this field?
I have always loved the study of people and what inspires them to act. From a young age, I knew I wanted to go into marketing. Helping companies diagnose and solve problems and working with them to achieve their goals is work that gives me great satisfaction. The creative environment is one that I’m drawn to. I love being around passionate people.

Do you have any advice for someone interested in a career in public relations or lobbying?
Use communications to create enduring, authentic connections with people. That’s what will breakthrough, motivate someone and ultimately move your mission forward. Be service-minded. Volunteer for organizations in your community that inspire and impress you. The relationships you create through that work can be valuable to your career as well.

What skills do you think are most useful to succeed in this industry?
Listening – You never know when a small comment from a client or colleague can inspire your next breakthrough idea. Listen constantly, ask smart questions, and be ready to dig deeper. Storytelling – PR specialists sometimes need to make the mundane seem magical. Connecting – Understand your audience and break down complex concepts to tell stories that people can connect with.

Since graduating from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, Darren Rigger has raised millions of dollars for Democratic candidates. Darren is a former councilman of the city of Peekskill. He is a New York state committee member from the 90th AD and the former chair of the Peekskill Democratic Committee. In 2008, he was the recipient of the Westchester County Democratic Party’s Distinguished Service Award.

What influenced you to pursue a career in this field?
A family tragedy involving gun violence led me to become a community activist and I have always gravitated towards the fight for justice.

Do you have any advice for someone interested in a career in public relations or lobbying?
Follow your passion. If you are working on issues and for candidates that you are passionate about, then you will do a great job and people will be drawn to supporting your efforts. If you are just going through the motions for a paycheck, people will catch the vibe and you won’t be successful.

What skills do you think are most useful to succeed in this industry?
Don’t ever confuse kindness with weakness. Politics is tough but you don’t have to be a disagreeable person. Smile while you fight for what’s right.

Walter Swett provides strategic resource consulting for those seeking to change the world and follow their dreams. He has led successful campaigns to win elections at every level of government and driven growth for a broad range of organizations. As a donor advisor, he has nurtured the establishment of lasting relationships. He is a Tony-nominated Broadway producer and has worked closely with Democratic leaders throughout New York.

What influenced you to pursue a career in this field?
My first job in New York was a masterclass in politics taught by the great U.S. Representative Charles B. Rangel. I have been fortunate to work with inspiring clients who inspire me with their commitment to public service.

Do you have any advice for someone interested in a career in public relations or lobbying?
Relationships matter. Play the long game and keep in touch.

What skills do you think are most useful to succeed in this industry?
The people who succeed in this industry are the ones who can build consensus and find areas of mutual interest.

Richard Edelman is the president and CEO of Edelman, a ​​leading global communications and marketing firm. He is considered one of the foremost experts on corporate trust as creator of the Edelman Trust Barometer. During his 26-year tenure as CEO, Richard guided the firm’s entry into digital, creative, performance marketing and advisory. Richard is one of the longest tenured agency leaders in the marketing services industry. He serves on the board of directors the Ad Council, the Atlantic Council and the 9/11 Museum.

Richard Fife started his career with the Garth Group and has gone on to develop strategy and produce media for mayoral, congressional, senatorial, gubernatorial, and presidential campaigns in more than 15 states. Most recently, he served as a strategist and communications consultant to the winning campaigns of U.S. Representative Dan Goldman, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, and Senator Robert Jackson.

What influenced you to pursue a career in this field?
Growing up in turbulent times and in a political family, this career was more a calling than a business move–a chance to work with good people and good causes and to do good things to fight injustice, create opportunity, and build a better future. It is what motivated me then, and still motivates me today.

What skills do you think are most useful to succeed in this industry?
Listen; work hard; tell the truth.

Randall Franklin is a political consultant/organizer and lobbyist in the New York City area. He grew up in Suffolk County and has always been active in his community and interested in local politics. He learned the importance of hard work from his mother, assistant director of billing at a Long Island hospital and his father, who served as motorman for the MTA for 30+ years. Throughout his life, Randall has dedicated his career lobbying on behalf of local residents on issues ranging from: housing, fair elections, voter’s rights, small businesses, gig workers rights, and alternative public transportation.

What influenced you to pursue a career in this field? 
My interest in pursuing lobbying and organizing as a career began with my public service work in college. I served as vice president of my student government at Brockport University,  and representative of the SUNY Student Assembly. It was in college that I started applying principles of hard work, dedication, service and networking to help forge relationships that laid a political action network across New York State and Washington DC.

Do you have any advice for someone interested in a career in public relations or lobbying? 
The best advice that I can share with anyone looking to get into public relations, lobbying, politics, or anything associated with these, is that knowledge is key and that your net worth is your network. It is imperative to build relationships, even if that person’s views don’t 100% align with your own. There is always something you can connect on. People will remember the way you make them feel rather than the specifics of what you said. For anyone looking to get active in politics, see what local races are happening, and get involved. Campaigns are always looking for volunteers to make calls and get the word out. A lot of knowledge can be absorbed by volunteering. 

What skills do you think are most useful to succeed in this industry? 
It is imperative that you spend some time developing your own principles. In this field, there is a great deal of back and forth, of asserting and retreating, without taking the time to develop and formulate one’s own opinion. It’s important to keep in mind that you are a very particular individual, with specific thoughts and skills that you bring to the table. I also try to establish a genuine connection with people.

Anat founded Anat Gerstein, Inc. in 2010 as the only full service communications firm exclusively working with nonprofits and government entities. Today, Anat’s 20-member team supports nearly 50 organizations in advancing missions and achieving organizational goals. Previously, Anat served as communications director and chief of staff to New York City Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum. Anat started her career in the corporate advertising and PR sectors, working on brands like Crest, Vicks, Cigna and Prozac.

What influenced you to pursue a career in this field?
I was fortunate to get to know the nonprofit sector while working for Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum. I saw the sector’s huge impact on making New York the greatest city. At the same time, I saw the challenges nonprofits faced in telling their stories, connecting and engaging key audiences, and moving people to action. I knew I could develop a new kind of communications firm that would support nonprofits in achieving their missions.

Do you have any advice for someone interested in a career in public relations or lobbying?

• Do public relations for people, causes, or organizations you care about deeply. It will feel less like a job and more like a calling. 
  
• Love the news and read, watch, listen to everything.
  
• Be creative, but also know you can also adapt others ideas, making them your own – and better.
• Be persistent.
  
• Network, including with reporters (they like to have coffee/drinks too!)

What skills do you think are most useful to succeed in this industry?
To be most successful in PR, like any other field, you need to have the drive to consistently deliver great work. PR top skills include: storytelling, verbal and written communications,  creativity, and interpersonal skills.