After I graduated college and before I found my first career opportunity, I made a regular habit of watching The Today Show with Hoda Kotb and Kathy Lee. One day, Hoda was thumbing through a newspaper (which she usually does to generate timely conversations with Kathy) and exclaimed something along the lines of “oh my gosh, do you see these Post-it notes (appropriately marking the page she was trying to find)? The people at 3M noticed I was always losing my page when I was talking about a story.” ( “ahhh,” sang the heavenly angles.)

“GENIUS!” I yelled, startling one of my cats.

The public relations team over at Post-it observed where they could solve a well-known news figure’s problem at hand (those dang newspaper pages always stick together . . .), and they sent a free pack (ok, probably 20 packs) of their product to then be seen on TV. I think I solidified my official PR-geekdom with this revelation.

Let it be noted, nowhere in the broadcast did I see an ad for 3M, Post-it or any other 3M product that I can recall for that matter (I know it seems relatively impossible).

After I let the excitement of an earned TV placement settle in, I realized PR (and my love for it) has taken over my life. I always make a comparison to my brother’s girlfriend, Amy, when I think about this topic. She’s currently a psychology doctoral candidate. I’ll vent to her just as a friend . . . and you know what she does? She asks me “and how does that make you feel?” Or my favorite: she’ll go even deeper into Freud’s theories or other studies of psychology as if she were drafting her thesis right then and there. Drives me nuts! (I still love her.) But I now understand, I do this too! I share brilliant PR moves I see from day-to-day with friends and family who couldn’t care LESS about PR. Bless them. They are so kind to me.

So, tell me. Am I crazy? Or has PR (or your related profession) totally consumed you? Sure, feel free to share whether you think it’s a good thing or a bad thing. I’ll stick on the optimistic side that the “obsession” for lack of a better word, is good; means you are passionate about the career you’ve chosen.

So, what I was going to say next was . . . did you see the VMAs when Kanye got on-stage and . . .

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