In the industry of public relations, in which companies fight for the attention of consumers and media outlets, Ed Zitron is unique. You probably haven't heard of him unless you work in a related field, but Ed is honest, perhaps a little odd, and quite good at what he does.
He also advocates for a no BS approach to public relations, is often critical of his peers, and has even written a book on the subject.
I should note, in disclosure, that Ed has reached out to me and my colleagues before regarding covering the companies he represents, though I haven't personally written about them. Ed himself is more interesting.
Location: San Francisco, CA and Oakland, CA
Current Gig: CEO and founder of Media Relations and PR agency EZPR, professional idiot on Twitter at my business address @edzitron
One word that best describes how you work: Publicity
Current mobile device(s): iPhone 6+, iPad Air 2 (with Logitech Type+ Bluetooth keyboard cover)
Current computer(s): iMac 5K Retina 27", iMac 27", 15" MacBook Pro Retina, ASUS ROG G750JZ (for the games)
What apps, software, or tools can't you live without? Why?
I have ADHD (inattentive type) and a learning disability called dyspraxia (I'm British—that's what they call it there). Essentially this is a combination of different things that means that I need to have whatever I'm working on available wherever I am, even if that's not a particularly reasonable request.
I work predominantly on Macs because of the Spotlight functionality. I need a quick way to find things. I am not organized enough to have a beautifully-structured system of folders.
iMessage is inarguably my most important "app" in that it's how I keep in contact with bunches of people, including my Chief of Staff, Royal Hebert, who I bought an iPad Mini specifically so that I can, regardless of device, not only message him but have the messages I've sent waiting for me. Even if it's on my phone. Royal is the antithesis of my brain; he's organized, careful, his brain moves in a linear fashion, and thus being able to offset things like "at 3PM on Friday nag me until I send this report" to him is critical. He also sends me reminders to make my calls using iMessages to make sure that I can actually jump on them, along with the phone number. This seems very minor, but consider that if I have the phone number in an iMessage on my phone, I can just hit a button and call. These are little seconds off of my day that make me less anxious. Royal's effectively my data-digger, life-wrangler and enforcer, and calling him an assistant is a vast underestimate of what he does.
I also learned to put a computer connected to iMessages, Dropbox, and Google Drive in any crevice or location I might be in at any given time requiring work. It's not about being out of reach; it's about making sure I can be doing the same thing I'm doing in one place in another very quickly.
The reasoning is that my brain feels like it's moving at eight hundred miles an hour at any given time, and I'm an emotional, forgetful creature that will not do something because I didn't get to a computer or a thing to type on once I had the idea.
This means that the iPad Air 2 has changed a lot of how I work. I can type (unmoderated) at 120 words-per-minute, and the Type+ keyboard can actually keep up with my slamming of keys. I can flip it out at any time and actually get through a lot of emails at once. The only issue is that Outlook, my email app, has a nasty habit of not working so well between apps. That aside, I'm able to sit in a Lyft and actually do some meaningful work in 20 minutes, unlike if I just had my iPad.
Software wise, here's what I use:
Google Everything: EZPR is all Google all the time. You ain't good with Gmail? Get out of my face. Google Docs, Google Drive, whatever man. It's all there in one place and it's good.
Evernote: I stopped using it for years, but I got back into it recently when I got my iPad Air 2 and realised taking notes wasn't hellish. It also connects to Skitch, so when I take screenshots they're run into the cloud immediately. This is useful.
Slack: My entire team sits in Slack all day long. We have separate channels for work stuff (coverage we've got clients, new business, outgoing business, etc.) and fun stuff, like Youtubes and Dumb, where we post stupid things I've found online, like The Dirty Cowboy. The important part is that anyone can get me on Slack throughout the day, and it'll leave a long running trail of stuff that I need, such as coverage reports for clients that I've been sent that I'd forget I'd been sent and then ask three times for otherwise. It's imminently searchable. I also used mIRC for a lot of my childhood (I'm really cool) and thus it's quite natural.
Furthermore several clients have Slacks that I plug into. It can be frustrating flipping between them but it's actually useful to be able to send people things on there than send one more email. And I can see that I sent it quicker than if I emailed.
Freshbooks: If I didn't invoice and organize payments through Freshbooks, I'd have no idea what was going on at any given point on the financial side of my business. It is easy for a stupid man like me to ask for the money and know if I have been given the money thanks to Freshbooks. You hit a button and say "hey, man, I need money, here's what for," and they then can send it to you. Thank you, Freshbooks.
Dropbox: It's Dropbox. You've got your dang files sitting wherever you put them. It syncs between machines. I set my Office Suite and browsers on every computer to save to it. The result is that I don't lose much if anything.
Tweetdeck: I spend a lot of my life on Twitter talking to reporters, talking to friends, saying really asinine things that nobody likes but still I get followers, that kind of thing. I use Tweetdeck with several columns; the usual suspects (mentions/replies/favs/retweets), as well as a separate column looking for mentions of my book This Is How You Pitch. This is because Amazon reviews are important and I'm happy to just say "hey, look, like the book or not, I'd appreciate a review." This helps. Mostly I just use it to keep an eye on whatever is happening in the tech/media industry because that's what I do.
Adium: It's the best chat app out there if you have multiple accounts. Yes, I still use AIM. Wanna talk to me on AIM? edzitron. There's like three of us left.
I don't have any fancy shmancy way to read the news. I really pick it up via Twitter and the newspaper (and their websites) and just... read. I do read Techmeme if I feel super behind on everything.
The problem with the conditions I have, even though I'm a success of sorts, is that I'm not really structured and thus call upon other people to help me structure, be it Royal to help my brain work or Kevin, my fellow who does data-digging, some pitching, and still has yet to come up with a suitable title.
What's your workspace setup like?
I have two distinct workspaces. One is in my house in San Francisco, one is in my "office" in Oakland. The reasoning is that as we're a distributed team (SF, Boston, Portland, NYC) and my job is predominantly sending emails, I can do it from anywhere, including a toilet or a beach in Hawaii. This sounds great, except you can poison your own personal space if you work from home in a place that's classically where you relax. It stops being home. Thus I made a structured effort to make a division between work and home.
For me, your workspace has to be both one that's conducive to work but one that feels good to be in. You have to feel comfortable, energetic and inspired if you possible can be.
San Francisco: I live in a relatively quiet part of the city, and thus I'm lucky enough to have enough space to create a home office that's actually useful. I have to force myself down there sometimes, as it's very easy to pick up the laptop and do a bunch of work on that.
So, when I got the place I found a nook—one long area that's devoid of distractions, with a big sunny window and my iMac Retina 5k. I use a trackpad, as I'm very, very into my gestures and swiping (i.e. four fingers swipe up = view all windows, going back/forward in a browser with a two finger swipe, or scrolling up/down with two fingers). One big thing I did was, as I collect original comic art, was have an installation of the gallery-framed 21 pages plus the cover of the Guardians of the Galaxy Team-up #1 (drawn by Arthur Adams and Brian Michael Bendis) I own along the same wall by the computer. This was so that I didn't just have a blank wall—I'd have something impressive, gorgeous, and totally unrelated to my work to view. It turned an otherwise relatively blank and bland space into something a lot more exciting and invigorating to sit in. When you're having a crap day, it's nice to be able to look up and see something beautiful, made by a local artist who is nevertheless stunningly good at what he does.
And it's a good reminder that I'm a huge nerd and proud of it. I have seen Guardians of the Galaxy 13 times. Don't judge me.
Oakland: I built my Oakland office 30 minutes away from home so that I'd have a space that would separate me entirely from home. This meant that I could leave work at the office (theoretically; I'd say I'm only about 70% successful at doing so, but that's an improvement), and also use the space in different ways than I would. The office is in a former laundry facility and it's very, very strange. A giant brick box.
I built it for two reasons:
- I wanted to work there myself, with a huge desk and the ability to work faster, harder and in a way that wasn't connected viscerally to my own home.
- A lot of my work involves hanging out with reporters and getting to know them. Most PR firms and people seem to focus on weird mixers or getting drinks or getting coffee, with absolutely no consideration of relaxation. As a result I wanted this to be a place where reporters could either A) come and relax and work outside of their office (which has happened a few times) or B) Much more commonly entertain them and get to know them in a way that wasn't inherently "worky."
- Most PR offices are about as dull as it gets. Big glass windows. If people want to drink there, it's usually the worst possible assortment of alcohol ever. If people want to hang out there, it's austere and dreary and feels like, well, work.
The result is that my Oakland office is split into separate sections.
My actual desk setup. I use a very long pottery barn desk, connected to a 27" iMac and two monitors. I dedicate one monitor entirely to Twitter, the central monitor to what I'm doing, and the third monitor to Slack. This means that I can actually focus on real work, while at the same time keeping an eye on Twitter without changing windows, and also keep an eye on Slack. It seems egregious (it is) but it's also a way to calculate and cage my distractions. I also view Twitter as a part of my work but also a way to vent my brain from the continuous workflow. It's like a little valve. And it's great to dedicate an entire screen to talking to my workmates. They deserve it.
My entertainment setup. I have a giant Lovesac "sactional" couch—nine and a half feet by five feet eight inches, which is enough for three people to basically sit back as far as they want. This faces an 119" projector projecting onto a Black Diamond screen (I have blackout drapes but this is so it's usable with any ambient light), connected to a bunch of different things (Apple TV, PS4, etc.). This is a good way to recharge during a particularly shitty day, but it's also great to offer reporters that would otherwise hang out with me the opportunity to not go to a soulless mixer and instead kick back and play video games or watch a movie. Or, seriously, if they have a product to test out that could use a large screen to review it better, I have the technology. Also, if a friend's in town, reporter or not, the couch is awesome.
The Conference table. In the rare times I actually take a meeting there, I have an actual conference table can face the projector, which means that I can also turn and say "hey look at that." I also have two giant orbs: the nightman and the dayman that sit on the conference table. My best friend Phil Broughton got them for me as a joke, and they have become a staple of EZPR HQ.
We also have a fully stocked bar (with cocktail mixers—Phil was a bartender in Antarctica), snacks, beers for all sorts of people, and I have my full sous vide setup there. I've held "dinner parties" in the sense that I cooked everyone steaks and we chatted shit about nothing. The goal is relaxation and work if you really have to.
As a side note, my "style" of networking with reporters is mostly "hey, wanna hang out," and very rarely actually involves me saying SO HEY I GOT THIS CLIENT in a loud voice. Growing a relationship in a professional sense does not have to be some sort of weird coercion or, indeed, a direct thing of "TONIGHT WE MUST DISCUSS A WORK." Nor do I expect anyone who has drunk my beers or whiskeys or Manhattans to owe me anything. It's just a case of saying "hey, look at me. I'm alright. Maybe answer that there email."
What's your best time-saving shortcut or life hack?
The ultimate lifehack is knowing your weaknesses and embracing them. I'm good at working with the media and talking to them in a way they don't hate. I am not good at calendaring things, organizing things, and making things perfectly neat. My lifehack is admitting I'm crap at things, and finding the right people and software to fix it.
What's your favorite to-do list manager?
I actually let my own anxiety draw me, based on the knowledge of me and my business's results, and make my to-do list for me. That being said, if I have to do things, I'll usually iMessage Royal. He's become a good friend and also understands how to prioritize things for me. When I assign tasks, I use Pyrus (it's a former client, disclosure) because it's really easy to see whether someone's actually done something on it. I also require people to either assign things on it if they want them to be done, because it will regularly bug me to do them.
If I find myself falling behind, I also use Due. It will literally keep nagging you until the thing is done (or, well, you tell them it's done). This will usually get me annoyed enough to actually do it. This is for things I'm putting off and for things I hate. A lot.
Besides your phone and computer, what gadget can't you live without and why?
This is a really weird one, but the Swash. It's a $500 thing that effectively presses and refreshes your clothes. It sounds like a weird as-seen-on-TV thing, and it sort of is, but when you literally have a learning disability where futzing with an iron causes you to feel sad and angry, it's beautiful. You use clips to stretch out your clothes and then put it on for 10 minutes, and most times it comes out borderline perfectly. This means I can throw the thing in and then take a shower and by the time I'm out, it's ready. This shaves time and frustration off of my life. Now, most people don't see ironing as a huge issue. Or they use one of those laundry services that does pressing. Those are pretty expensive ($2-6 a shirt) versus the Swash.
I should also explain my dyspraxia does really make me feel upset when it comes to particularly handsy, careful tasks like ironing. So removing one of those (and the futzing with the ironing board and so on and so forth) situations from my life immeasurably improves it.
What everyday thing are you better at than everyone else? What's your secret?
I am really good at meeting people in a professional sense and getting to know them, and somehow maintaining a good professional and personal relationship. My secret, at least in PR, is that I am not bothered by a "no" and I am staunch that personal and professional barriers are set in stone. If someone can't run a story that is also a friend of mine, I won't get pissy at them. Even if they said they'll do it then don't. Because in the end that's a work situation. It doesn't make them a bad friend or a bad person. And nothing I ask them to do is as a friend beyond "can you read this email and tell me what you think."
What do you listen to while you work?
I'm a huge Queens of the Stone Age fan, so this makes up a great deal of my musical day. That being said I've been on a kick of Soundgarden recently, along with old System of a Down. When I really need to focus I'll sometimes use silence, but I do enjoy having something on the background.
Strangely, I've found Ram Jam's Black Betty to be good productivity music. If I'm having a particularly successful day I'll put on Queens of the Stone Age's Smooth Sailing. If I'm relaxing into the end of the day, Foghat's Slow Ride. This is not related to the content of said song.
When I'm really down and need to get pumped up for something, I'll listen to either Fairweather Friends by Queens of the Stone Age of Wax Ecstatic by Sponge.
Music has a big emotional hold on me and it's something that I've learned to use to help me throughout my workday.
What are you currently reading?
I just re-read the entirety of Warren Ellis and Stuart Immonen's Nextwave. I also collected about 20 of the pages which will soon adorn HQ in all their pride. It's a great comic, well-written, comedic and enjoyable. It also resurrects tons of tertiary Marvel characters like Forbush Man, Elsa Bloodstone, Boom Boom and Devil Dinosaur.
I'm also re-reading a book about lying by former CIA lie-detectors called Spy The Lie. It's excellent, brutal and fun. I try and remind myself as an act of humility what lies look like and how I can avoid them absolutely, or detect them before they hurt myself or someone I love.
Are you more of an introvert or an extrovert?
I may seem like an extrovert to most people, but I am an introvert. There are many times I want to be left alone and relax on my own. Even though I'm in a job where I have to apparently be social and stuff. As a result I rarely go to networking events. I much prefer three to six people that I can talk to at once versus a big group I need to sift through. I can deal with public speaking (I just did a panel with 50 people watching and didn't die!). But I do enjoy my solitude or small groups.
How do you recharge?
I play video games. I watch movies. I spend time with my friends. I exercise a little. I go driving.
One of the big things I try and do is break my instinct to get negative and over-serious. PR people generally take themselves too seriously, but in business in general it's easy to fall into a rut of thinking everything is awful. This means that I have a battery of my own personal stupid, funny videos: The Internet Has Been Wheelclamped, Bane Outtakes, The Dirty Cowboy (a history of country music leading into a man dancing beautifully to weird music), British comedy show Shooting Stars' series of insults against Jack Dee and several others.
Truthfully, Twitter and my idiocy on there is a vent for my errant thoughts, almost like hitting a release valve on my brain. Even if it's sort of work related, it's still a way to just let out some thoughts. A dumb joke here, a thought about a product there, it helps clean my brain.
I also have a wonderful little corgi called Bertie. He's about 25lbs and can jump. I put him in doggie daycare during the day because otherwise he'd be sad because I'd be working. So I get him home about 6pm, and we usually sit on the sofa together, playing tug-o-war or with a toy, or just letting him lounge on me. He'll put his head on my arm and stare at me if I'm feeling sad, and even in my worst moods it's nice to be seen through the eyes of an animal that thinks you're amazing because you feed him food and get him toys.
I've made a lot of effort to surround myself with friends who aren't in tech. My closest friends include, apart from one or two reporters (as I was one, this sort of happens), a dominican monk, several scientists, comic book writers and artists and, of course, a professional dog trainer. I don't find myself, even though I'm in the bay and in tech, around a lot of "techies" and it's a relief.
Also, cooking really relaxes me. I learned sous vide about a year ago and it's become a really great way to feel like I can build something outside of work.
What's your sleep routine like?
I like to wake up at 8:30am and go to bed at 12am. This generally works out. I don't sleep enough because I'm bad at sending myself to bed.
What thoughts keep you up at night?
I am an anxious person, and my brain oftentimes likes to wake me up and say hey Ed remember all that crap you've got to do tomorrow? Also, it'll sometimes come up with chaotic situations that say that everything is going to go to hell. Sometimes I'll very rarely get woken up with a good idea for something to write in my next book, but mostly it's "you've got to worry about something." Last night the thought I got woken up with was "goddamn it, is that the raccoons again?" as they were attacking my trash.
What do you do differently from peers in your field?
One big thing I've noticed is that for some reason I'm one of a too-rare breed of people in technology PR (I'll get it in the neck on Twitter for this one) who actually knows their stuff when it comes to tech. I'm not saying I'm a genius, but I generally keep up on apps, I can build a PC, I read constantly (historically and currently) to understand the industries I'm in. If I'm working on something based on a book or a comic, I read them in their entirety. It's a principle that's mostly "try and know as much as the reporters you're pitching," which may not be possible but I bloody well try. It takes a lot of effort to do. It's not easy. It requires focus. But it's awesome when you can sit with a reporter and have an actual intelligent discussion about a client versus saying "uhh, well, y'know. It's a thing. Right? Right." It's simple: You work in games? Play a lot of games. You work in tech? Use all the apps and read about the apps. Learn about the big players. The end.
Anyway, I don't form-pitch, which is when you send out the same email to 50-150 people at once. I genuinely care about the people I'm pitching and doing a good job. I care more about the results than I do about looking good or feeling good about myself. I care a little too much about it, thus when I lose a client I feel all emotional. I do not lie. Ever. If I find I'm making a white lie, I'll back off and say "no, that's bad." I am not afraid to attack bad PR people in public who form pitch endlessly, and I am not afraid of attacking the industry at scale for being generally promotional of very, very bad habits that border on harassment (i.e. calling people up on the phone when they really don't want to be [called]).
Overall, though, I'd say the real difference is what my friend Matt Weinberger said: "You've made a career out of being Ed Zitron." That sounds sort of arrogant, but really it means that I am myself, unvarnished, controlled only to a certain extent. My Twitter is my positive and negative thoughts, my clients know the real me, as do most people. I am proud of who I am, even if it is a big, anxious doofus. I don't mind making the occasional enemy, and I love making a good friend. I am not the saccharine PR person who loves to run or drink coffee or loves media or uses #hashtags. This has gained me quite a few enemies and a lot of good friends, and makes me happy in what I do. If I had to become the freakish Lovecraftian brandlords of the PR "mavens" I think I'd go back to writing about video games.
Fill in the blank: I'd love to see _________ answer these same questions.
Warren Ellis. I also nominate Phil Broughton who works as a "Health Physicist" (nuclear safety stuff).
What's the best advice you've ever received?
My dad made me promise on the first day of my job to never, ever lie. That may not count as advice per se but it was the greatest thing to be held to. I don't know if I'd have lied if he'd not this said to me, but I love my father dearly and keep my promises absolutely.
My father also was a very successful management consultant, and thus gave me some other great advice: don't overload yourself, or you'll fail to do well at anything. It's really easy to want to take on every client, for business reasons, to feel like you're a "success," but if you fail to do well for all (or at least most of them) you're not doing a good job.
One time a man on the street also walked up to me and my brother Matt and said "don't drink, it's rude," which may not be the best advice, but it was the best-delivered advice in my life.
Is there anything else you'd like to add that might be interesting to readers or fans?
I think that anyone in PR can take everything a lot less seriously. This doesn't mean they're negative people—in fact it's quite the opposite. I wish everyone would unclench and say "alright, maybe I don't just have to talk about how great PR is." I think PR is a good fun job, but not one that I'd go around saying I'm amazing for being in, nor is it the most important career. If 50% of us disappeared overnight in the style of The Infinity Gauntlet, nobody would notice apart from maybe our clients.
Finally, and this is the best advice I can give, learn to ask for help and to rely on those closest to you. When things suck, there's no shame in going to someone you respect and asking for advice. It took me over a year to be willing to hire someone to supplement my disorganization, and I felt ashamed until I saw how much Royal stopped things falling through the cracks. This doesn't necessarily mean that you have to hire someone full-time—it may just be a case of getting a virtual assistant, or asking a colleague for advice, or something that involves you sucking it up and saying you're not good at everything. Weakness, ironically, can be strength.
The way I work is chaotic, high-speed and very annoying to watch over my shoulder because I'm constantly command-tabbing. Relying on people who can compliment my style has made me much, much better at what I do.
Oh, and I'll mentor anyone.
The How I Work series asks heroes, experts, and flat-out productive people to share their shortcuts, workspaces, routines, and more. Every other Wednesday we'll feature a new guest and the gadgets, apps, tips, and tricks that keep them going. Have someone you want to see featured, or questions you think we should ask? Email Andy.
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