"People Want to Hear Stories." A Zoom Chat With Dave Donovan

Last night, I had the opportunity to settle in from my home and hop on a Zoom chat with Dave Donovan; Executive Vice President and Director of Sports for DKC. In a moderated discussion led by professors in the S.I. Newhouse School of Communications, Donovan covered topics from both his present day work representing quite a variety of clients in public relations and his prior time spent in the broadcasting realm working college sporting events. While it was obviously exciting to hear about the type of work that goes on behind the scenes for clients such as Kevin Durant, Jay Williams, and the entire Big East Conference, there were a few statements that Donovan made throughout the night that connected with me. As I've been writing posts around connecting sports to building a professional brand for myself, I found some of the points Mr. Donovan made almost as if they were directed at me. I'd like to share a few below and offer my own interpretation.

Following a question in the moderated discussion portion of the evening regarding working not just in one sector of PR (sports, entertainment, etc.), Donovan emphasized the importance of not being too linear. As someone who considers sports to be my biggest passion, this was refreshing to hear. We can all benefit from our personal love of the game, and any chance we get to pursue work in this area will certainly be great. Nonetheless, we should all strive to diversify our interests and areas of work. Narrowing our path will limit us in the connections we can make and the opportunities we will have.

Carrying right off of that diversification aspect, those of us pursuing careers in PR should take advantage of all areas of communications that we can obtain while we're in college. Donovan hinted at this when explaining his transition from broadcasting to working in public relations. Hearing the stories of the types of work he has been asked to do makes it more apparent that these fields of communications, while different, share a lot of commonalities. Obtaining that core background and learning how to do a little bit of everything in the classroom is more important now than it's ever been.

Donovan also spoke to the importance of storytelling, something that has been the framework of my education so far at Syracuse. Put into a sports perspective, he explained that while people outside of the profession would love to hear the intricacies of what we do, they'd much rather hear the stories of where our work has led us and who it's led us to. For those of us in college hoping to join the field, we must never forget this. Our ability to engage an audience and tell a convincing story is what makes us unique.

Of everything that was discussed through Zoom last night, the parting advice we were given is what hit home with me the most and the advice I'd most like to speak to. Donovan noted that to him, the strongest sign of professionalism is the ability to be a good listener. In our field, this can definitely be something that gets lost on us, as so much of what we do is that storytelling element mentioned above. As much as people want to hear our stories that we have to share, they also want to have their own stories heard. Once we truly listen to our clients, partners and other contacts, especially as the youngest generation currently looking to be part of the workforce, we will have the tools necessary for success in the industry.