About a taxi ride. And relationships

Some years ago, after a wild night out, a dead phone, and zero cash in my pocket, I walked up to a stranger in a bar and asked if he could call a taxi and take me home. It was a misunderstanding from the start – I was just too drunk to explain myself – and he eagerly agreed.

We didn't talk much on our way, just looked out our own windows. But when at my apartment building, he asked if he could come up, to which I – still cluelessly naive – replied “no thanks, I’m okay” and got out of the cab. Closing the door, I noticed the disappointment in his face when he realized that this was it. I truly only wanted a taxi ride.

Oddly enough, this weird little episode reminds me of media relations.

Once, at TechChill (the Baltics’ coolest startup event, fyi), a client asked my co-founder to introduce them to “the media people.” Fair enough, she thought, and brought them to a journalist she knew. Without any warm-up or context, the client dove straight in:

“So, are you gonna write about my company?”

Dude… who are you? Shouldn’t we at least have a drink first?

That exchange is the PR version of asking a stranger to take you home without giving anything back. Mismatched expectations can make things really… awkward.

I get it – you want to get straight to the point because small chats can be exhausting and feel useless. But it’s how all relationships begin. You chat about the weather, then find out what the person does in their life and what their interests are, discover where your interests overlap, and continue communicating until it feels socially appropriate to ask them for a favor. Such as paying for your taxi. 

Media relations work the same way. It takes time, effort, and regular, genuine conversations to build relationships where they recognize your name in a pile of emails and you can ask for favors. Starting with opening and reading your pitch when their inbox is on fire.

You can’t expect that when you’re total strangers. Unless there’s an instant click (which is why cold pitches sometimes work).

When we begin working with a new client in a new industry or market, the relationship-building starts from the beginning. We have to understand who’s who, connect with the right journalists, and then build the relationship from the ground up. It may take months or years for them to cover the company we represent. 

‍And that’s okay. We have to be patient.

There was a journalist I had invited to Riga several times. He was interested but busy, so he never made it. Eventually, I caught him between jobs, so he finally had the time to come. 

He arrived with no agenda and no story in mind. He wasn’t sure where he’d be working next and whether he’ll ever write something about this visit. But he was curious about defence tech, so we set up meetings with startups and people from the Ministry of Defence. Doing a favor, expecting nothing.

He left. We stayed in touch. A year after his visit, he published an in-depth analysis of Latvian defence technologies in MIT Technology Review, one of the world’s top tech outlets.

I keep telling this story when the client asks – why invest time in meeting journalists if they won't write anything. Yes, they might not write anything right away. But the right timing may come.

All this short-story-long to say the same thing we keep repeating: PR is such a long-term investment. It’s very often about the right story at the right time. And it’s about genuine relationships with the media covering your industry. To succeed in PR, you have to be patient and committed to this investment.