I was recently contacted by a YouTube content creator. She’s starting a new series on her channel, and she felt one of my clients would be a perfect fit. I asked her to send over the details so I could review them and coordinate things. Instead, I got an email a week or so later stating that she’d reached out directly to my client and that she’d keep me in the loop on how things progressed.
Fast forward to this past weekend. I got another email. My client had no-showed on the filming date they’d agreed to, and she was trying to hold me responsible. Needless to say, that didn’t fly with me. I responded and, as politely but firmly as possible, pointed out that she’d gone around me. And if I wasn’t going to be allowed to do my job as requested, I certainly was not going to take responsibility for things going sideways.
Here’s the thing. Marketing and public relations folks are in place for a reason. We know what needs promoting and when, as well as when are their busy vs slow times, so we can get things scheduled when it’s mutually beneficial. We know how to talk to our clients, how many reminders they need, how to corral them, etc so no-shows don’t happen. We know what it takes to coordinate things with our clients. It’s in everyone’s interest to work WITH these folks, not go around them.
So take this tip and make things easier for everyone. If you know someone you want to collaborate with has a marketing and/or PR person or team, work WITH them. Even if it seems easier to go directly to the source, you’re doing everyone a disservice, and the final product will be SO. MUCH. BETTER. if you follow this piece of advice.