Jim Delulio
About 11 percent of U.S. working adults are employed as fulltime independent contractors. That percentage, which includes Uber, Airbnb and other gig-economy workers, has expanded 50 percent in the last 10 years and will continue to grow. And that, according to Jim Delulio and Danya Proud of executive recruiting firm PR Talent, means more opportunities – and challenges – for independent practitioners.
“In my 30-plus years in the business, I don’t think I’ve seen the industry change as much as it has over the past five years,” said Delulio, president and founder of the nearly 20-year-old firm, during the Sept. 6th PRSA-LA Independent Practitioners Alliance luncheon held at Taix restaurant in Los Angeles. “The PR skill set is changing, and it’s become very dynamic. A good example is the movement toward integrated communications, which has become a reality at PR agencies where having a PESO (paid, earned, shared, owned) skill set has become the norm.”
For independent contractors, this evolution places a premium on continuing education.
Danya Proud
“You have to look for areas you want to exploit, understand where your skill set fits in, and anticipate the skills you’ll need as demand changes and as the business becomes digitally based,” said Delulio, who was an EVP at PainePR (now Citizen Relations) before launching PR Talent. “It’s fluid, it’s dynamic, it’s growing and it’s exciting for a lot of people.”
And it’s not just in media relations, he added. “Moving forward, media relations will still be a part of the mix but it will be less of the whole as traditional media go away and as ad dollars flow into digital.”
Rates remain steady
“There’s been some downward pressure on rates because of websites like Upwork and Guru.com, where PR people are charging between $20 and $70 an hour,” he said. Adding stress to market rates are fees set by recent entrants who will charge whatever rates can make them money. “However, since 1998 when I started matching freelancers to assignments, hourly rates overall have been pretty consistent. They’ve ranged between $90 and $120, with some people charging $200 an hour. For good talented public relations folks with five to 15 or more years of experience, a $90 hourly rate is pretty common.”
For long-term or retainer assignments, hourly rates can drop to $70 an hour, which can help bring in additional business that evens out revenue peaks and valleys.
More than just “arms and legs”
Proud, who is PR Talent’s vice president for recruiting in Los Angeles, Phoenix, Austin and Dallas, among other markets, added, “We’re moving away from specialists. We’re seeing clients who want an all-in-one writer, media relations professional and events marketer – a real integrated communications person who can do everything. The foundational skills you have now can apply to any industry but you have to understand your strengths and know how to make them relevant to the client’s business.”
She also noted a gap between the knowledge that consultants have of the clients’ business and that of their clients’ industry. “You don’t need to be an expert, but you do need to be relevant about what their business is all about,” said Proud, who in 2015 transitioned to what she calls “career matchmaking” after working at McDonald’s, Golin and Zeno Group. “I still feel that a lot of clients use freelancers and consultants as arms and legs to get stuff done. But consultants can bring a good strategic perspective and ideas the client may not have thought about.”
Marketing your practice
Pulling from a combined 50 years of public relations and PR executive search experience, Delulio and Proud offered several marketing strategies for independent professionals:
- Fill staffing gaps – PR job vacancies are new business opportunities. Ease a hiring manager’s pain by helping fill the workflow gap.
- Build rock-star teams – Create a virtual firm that combines a range of expertise, such as social media, media relations and editorial, that helps uncover more new business opportunities. Target the smaller and mid-sized businesses that can’t afford the price tags of larger agencies.
- Look forward – Technologies like virtual reality and AI are changing the industry. Anticipate the trends and skill sets you need to remain competitive.
- Build an evergreen brand – Share, publish and post on LinkedIn. Convert your LinkedIn connections into an email marketing database. And create a LinkedIn profile that differentiates you from the competition. Proud suggested three resources on where to start:
- The 1 Sentence That Will Make (or Break) Your LinkedIn Profile,
- Please Change Your LinkedIn Headline Now.. Here’s Why and How, and
- 10 LinkedIn Headlines that Stand Out from the Crowd.
With seven offices across the U.S., PR Talent is a leading executive search and recruiting firm specializing in consumer branding, digital entertainment, consumer technology, healthcare, B2B, social media, social marketing, deep tech, corporate communications and internal communications. The firm is a sponsor of PRSA-LA’s Independent Practitioner Alliance.
