What Trying to Convince Boys to Let Me Play Football Taught Me

We all know there’s a certain age when boys run away from girls and never ever want to play with them. Well, imagine what it’s like to be a girl who likes boys’ games at that age! It all changes into: “I can’t play with you, the other boys will laugh at me”, “Go get your dolls and play with the girls”, “You, play football? No way!” and other such lines. As I was the type of girl who loved football, climbing trees, running and fighting boys, you can imagine I had a hard time doing the things I loved.

So basically, I was trying to get them to see things from my perspective. To get them to listen, understand and come to agree with me. Sounds a bit like PR to you? It does to me! So here’s a few things I picked up.

1. Giving up is rarely an option, but sometimes it’s worthwhile

I had a limited numbers of children to try convince on my street. The boys where the ones with power. I used to follow them around and keep asking them to let me play. It rarely worked. But it sometimes did. Right now, I am trying to reach a limited number of publications (online and offline). Let’s face it, mail servers are not as easy or as hot as cool phones and other gadgets. And for those interested in such matters, there are plenty of stories to tell. I just have to keep on trying.

On the other hand, trying to get the girls to play football and climb trees instead of making doll fashion shows didn’t work that well. I was really targeting the wrong group!

2. Whenever you have something really cool, everyone is interested!

Being the first kid on the block with a skateboard from Germany really made me a shiny star. And I negotiated a lot of fun games with the boys for rides on it. Also, having a new shiny ball when the one used for the game gets crashed under a car led to the same great results for yours truly.

Later I found out nothing beats a great story. If your product or service is really useful and what you launch or say is newsworthy, it will be picked up by the press. Having huge budgets helps, but so does playing smart.

3. When they need you, they know where to find you

My friend Dragos is a great example. We were raised together, living next door, and we were great friends. We were inseparable inside, but when we went outside, he completely ignored me. He didn’t want the rest of the boys to laugh at him.

Yet the moment we went inside and he had no other playmate, he wasn’t running away from me anymore. He actually came by or user our special knock in the wall to invite me over to his house. I would go wild playing with remote control cars

4. The situation changes in time

If you play your cards right, work on building strong relationships, they pay off. When it comes with girls and boys, we know how things get better a few years later. Same goes for your PR efforts. If you put your heart and mind to it, your emails are actually read, you see more reviews being published and people get to know your company’s name. It a really cool feeling actually!