Source:
https://www.podbean.com/eau/pb-d4srv-14cea4b

PR pros, communicators, we work in a unique environment. In an industry where we feel compelled to always be “on” and available, it’s challenging to make the time to work on our mental health. Know that you are not alone and know that taking that time is not only worth it, it’s essential.
Mental health is a topic we’ve addressed in a previous episode and in this Solo PR Pro blog post.
 
Transcript
Michelle Kane (00:02):
Thank you for joining us for this episode of That Solo Life, the podcast for PR Pros who work for themselves like me, Michelle Cain, and my company VoiceMatters, and my wonderful co-host, Karen Swim of Solo PR Pro. Hi Karen, how's your day today?
Karen Swim, APR (00:19):
Oh, I'm so good, Michelle. How are you?
Michelle Kane (00:22):
I’m good. I'm good. I'm a little bit toast. Had some major client events happen this weekend, and towards the end of the week, it seems like everything is decided to happen in the same two week period, which in this business is often beyond our control, so we tend to roll with it and get through as best we can. So yeah. How about you?
Karen Swim, APR (00:51):
Same. It feels like October has been, we know that, well, for us, the fall is usually busy, but I agree with you. It feels like there's all of a sudden 10 things happening on every day. There's meetings. There have been so many more meetings to go to so many more events, some of them all happening within the same set of days. And I think that that's probably a good segue into our topic today too.
Michelle Kane (01:22):
Yes, yes, it is. We're going to talk about which something we touch on often, and we're pretty sure there's reasons for that mental health, especially for those of us who work in the PR industry, the personality type that it takes to do this job. You're someone who's conscientious, always concerned about getting the details correct, and usually the one balancing all of the plates in the air and the many moving parts of things, not just for yourself and your business, but on behalf of your clients. So after a while, that tends to take a toll and we need to be cognizant of that.
I speak more from more of a viewpoint of hopefulness about this, but try and plan for that as part of the planning process that we do for our work.
Karen Swim, APR (02:25):
I think it's so helpful to also have people that can help to pull you out of a spiral sometimes just saying things out loud to another human being who truly gets the work that you do in the same way that we talk to our friends, but many of us have friends that are not in our business, and so they can empathize on one level, but it really does help. So even if it means just hopping on a Zoom meeting with a fellow colleague and just having a virtual coffee and just chatting about stuff, just voicing it out loud, it can make you feel like you're not the only one struggling. It reaffirms us and it has a way of energizing us. And I know I recently just came to a whole new understanding that I am a big overthinker. I overthink everything, and in my head I'm always writing scenarios, and I have been like that since I was a kid, which makes me great for pr, but it's not so great when you are trying to have a peaceful stress-free life. It means that I have to work at that and I have to sometimes tell myself to stop overthinking everything and stop running scenarios and just enjoy life. Same. Take somebody else to say, don't overthink it because I'll overthink everything. And I'm always like, okay, but what if this happens? And what if this happens and I want to plan for all of it, all of us do because that's who we are.
Michelle Kane (04:01):
Oh, totally, totally. Always thinking through, okay, well if this happens, then what all the “if thens” and to be ready for as much of anything as you can. And yeah, and that totally bleeds into my personal life too. I like to have a plan because I like the rest in knowing how a day is going to unfold. Not that I don't enjoy being spontaneous, so it can be loose. It can just be, oh, we're going to go to Philly, hang out and have dinner. Then I know, okay, that's enough of a plan for me at the moment.
Karen Swim, APR (04:38):
I read the stat, and it's from a study last year, and they were saying that, or maybe it was 2021, they were saying that PR people feel guilty about taking time off from work for mental health reasons. And that breaks my heart because as business owners, as communication professionals, we should never treat mental health like it's separate from our overall health. And I know that many of us are also guilty of powering through everything. Looking at my wonderful co-host over here who recently worked through illness, we will power through it all, covid, pneumonia, broken bones, I mean seriously. And we have to stop doing that. It brings to mind Simone Biles, who at the top of her game, the GOAT, and she had to walk away from her job