This week’s blog comes courtesy of Client Director Neil Coleman…

I came across an article recently where former Ulster and Ireland winger Andrew Trimble talked about how bravery earns rewards.

“You get rewarded for being brave,” he originally told the Belfast Telegraph on a podcast.

Honestly, it’s one of those lines that stuck with me for days afterwards. Partly because it’s so true of sport, but mostly because it’s true of pretty much everything we do professionally.

I’ve spent most of my career somewhere between sport and communications. Years at the NI Football League, my roles at Ballymena United and at Derriaghy Cricket Club, and now here at Clearbox. The more of it I do, the more I think the two worlds have far more in common than people realise. The best moments in both nearly always come down to someone being brave enough to make the call.

In PR the safe option is always sitting there. It will start from a press release that doesn’t say anything wrong, but doesn’t really say anything at all. Or the campaign nobody could possibly object to, which usually means nobody remembers it either.

Nobody ever sets out to be mediocre. It just sort of creeps up on you. It feels like being careful, or keeping everyone happy, or “let’s not rock the boat this time.” Do that often enough, though, and that’s what you end up being known for.

For me, going with your gut isn’t the same as guessing. A player’s instinct comes from thousands of hours on the training pitch. Ours comes from years of reading rooms, knowing what a journalist actually needs, and learning (sometimes the hard way) what works and what doesn’t. If you’ve put the hours in, trust it.

Bravery comes in many forms, most people that pull someone out of a burning building don’t wake up planning to do it, but instinct takes over. The difference is that you can plan to be brave in sport… and in PR. You also have to inspire others to be brave around you and make sure they are willing to stand by your side in victory and in defeat.

I’ve been fortunate to have had a front row seat to bravery and brilliance on the sporting field; whether it was a last-minute penalty kick to win silverware in football or whenever Craig Lewis stepped up on the final game of this season to rattle out an unbelievable century of runs to save his beloved Derriaghy Cricket Club from relegation. Bravery transcends talent.

No player has ever been handed the perfect pass, and the game won’t stop and wait for you to get it exactly right. The news cycle is no different. In a crisis, a clear, honest statement out within the hour is worth far more than a perfect one the next morning, when the story’s already been written without you. A social post that’s 90% there and on time beats a flawless one that turns up two days late.

I’m not saying be sloppy. The facts have to be right and the tone has to be right. But there comes a point where another round of edits stops making something better and starts killing it. Sometimes you just have to hit send.

A wise man once told me that perfect is the enemy of good.

In PR, bravery doesn’t usually look like a last-minute penalty. It’s a lot quieter than that. It’s telling a client what they need to hear rather than what they want to hear. It’s getting out in front of a difficult story instead of hiding behind “no comment.” It’s pitching the idea that makes the room go a bit quiet, saying no to work that would only ever be “fine” and backing the youngest person in the room when their idea is the best one on the table.

That’s the kind of agency I want Clearbox to be. Not reckless, and never careless, but willing to make the call that others would talk themselves out of.

Not every brave call comes off, of course. But I’ve found the regret of a brave call that didn’t work fades pretty quickly. The regret of playing it safe and being forgettable tends to hang around a lot longer.

Andrew Trimble was right. Bravery earns rewards. Not every time, but a lot more often than playing it safe ever will.