From Policy to PR – It Was the Same Job All Along

Most careers in public relations and public affairs move like a daily Amtrak train heading to its usual destination. College graduates hang up new diplomas in a large public relations agency. Others launch into in-house roles, rising up the ranks to lead corporate departments.

And then there are the journalists – experts in writing and messaging for today’s mediaverse –  who move to the other side of the table. 

Two of these practitioner types begin their careers at the ripe old age of 22 or 23. But me? The aforementioned college students and young journalists weren’t even born when I started my decades in coalition management, campaigns and public policy. My PR career started last year, around the time I became a Medicare dependent. 

What I didn’t realize until I jumped the tracks was that everything I had done had the same foundation as PR and public affairs — we just didn’t call it that. Both disciplines have the same mission: helping important ideas reach the people who need to hear them.

Campaigns and policy organizations teach a particular set of skills. You learn how to tell a story that resonates with the public and to communicate complex ideas clearly. You learn how institutions work—and how they sometimes don’t. Most of all, you learn that relationships matter. Trust, built over years of collaboration and shared challenges, becomes one of the most valuable assets you carry forward.

Those skills, and the lessons that come from building them, translate naturally to the world of PR and public affairs.

Today, instead of advancing a single campaign or policy agenda, my focus is on helping organizations navigate complicated public landscapes. Businesses, nonprofits and advocacy groups often have meaningful stories to tell, but they need help shaping the message, reaching the right audiences and engaging thoughtfully with policymakers and the public.

That’s where experience matters.

The relationships I have built over years in politics and policy—on Capitol Hill, in statehouses, in newsrooms and across advocacy communities—aren’t just professional contacts. They are the connective tissue that helps organizations communicate more effectively and engage more responsibly with the world around them.

For me, the transition has also brought another reward: the chance to help build a growing company from the inside. Public affairs firms, like the clients they serve, succeed through collaboration and trust. Building a strong team, creating a culture of curiosity and integrity and working together to solve problems are as energizing as any campaign night victory.

But perhaps the most unexpected benefit is that some client work becomes something more.

Public affairs professionals are trained to serve their clients well, regardless of the issue. Yet occasionally a project arrives that resonates on a deeper level. Maybe it touches on a policy challenge you’ve long cared about. Maybe it involves a cause that impacts families in ways that statistics alone cannot capture. When that happens, the line between professional obligation and personal commitment can blur in the best possible way.

Those moments remind us why communications work matters in the first place.

At their best, communicators aren’t just worried about strategy or messaging. They are about helping important ideas find their voice and their place in the public square. They connect people, institutions and solutions. And sometimes, we lend professional experience to efforts that feel less like assignments and more like missions.

Careers rarely follow a straight line. But sometimes the detours reveal opportunities you didn’t know were possible. For me, the career pivot (that wasn’t) has been a fun, productive and rewarding opportunity to use my skills, relationships and experience. 

For those who have spent years in politics or policy, the move into public affairs may not be a departure at all. It may simply be the next chapter in the same pursuit: using experience, relationships and hard-earned insight to help good ideas—and good organizations—move forward.

Kerri Toloczko is Director of Public Affairs for Proven Media Solutions and has been involved in public policy, communications and coalition management in Washington, DC and across the country for over 30 years.