I have always been fascinated with media studies, particularly in the context of political and popular culture. From a young age, I would follow political campaigns or read the latest in celebrity gossip and consider how people were framing their stories, and what I would do differently.

Starting. I had no previous experience in Communications before I started this career, and so the key was mostly to take the first steps and learn as much as I could (as quickly as I could) by experience. The key to improving myself has been to use failures as learning experiences, and to try to finish each day knowing and understanding more about the field than I did the day before.

It's almost all relationship-building and storytelling. The most important thing I've read about relationship-building is Rand Fishkin's post about Manufacturing Serendipity (http://moz.com/rand/manufacturing-serendipity/). As for storytelling, people respond to passion and authenticity. If you don't connect with the story you're sharing, neither will anyone else.

Seeing a piece of press go out, and watching people respond positively to it. Many things in Public Relations are outside of your control, and there are a lot of steps that go in to a piece of press. So when you do see a piece go up, and you see people respond positively to the story that you are telling, it's both rewarding and incredibly exciting.