When Passion Helps – And Hurts – In PR

Passion and lived experience can be the secret sauce in public relations. The practitioner who believes in the mission of a brand or the power of a product will bring emotional energy and target audience insights that can’t be learned in the strategy room.

But passion can also cloud judgment. It may narrow perspective, overinflate assumptions, or turn into outright bias. It can even make you a bad fit for a job or client – just think about working for your least-favorite politician.

This balance – along with stories of when passion was irrelevant to success – was the focus of a recent panel conversation among Sarah Kissko Hersh, founder of Type A; Michelle Andrade, senior PR and communications manager at Exverus by Brain Labs; and Dustin Siggins, founder of Proven Media Solutions.

Read some of their insights on when passion helps – and hurts – in PR below. The full video is at the bottom.

The Strengths of Passion and Lived Experience

Sarah said that clients notice when she’s passionate, describing it as “a huge competitive advantage” that builds early common ground and credibility faster than any resume. It has also created confidence for her when starting a campaign.

Michelle said passion and lived experiences also create authenticity – and not just for clients. Media gatekeepers like reporters and editors are quick to detect hype. “People can sense disingenuousness from a mile away,” she said. Belief in the client’s product or leadership makes every pitch sharper and every spokesperson more trustworthy.

Dustin said that belief and authenticity were key factors in winning a significant contract in 2022. The prospect asked why he wanted the business – and when he almost jumped out of his chair explaining why the mission was so important, the prospect said the passion was more convincing than anything that had been said in three meetings.

But It Can Backfire

But the same energy can backfire. Sarah has found that being too close to a product sometimes limits creativity. When she was a target customer for one brand, she caught herself assuming her own preferences mirrored those of the entire audience — a mistake that almost messed up the strategy.

Michelle agreed, warning that passionate communicators sometimes overestimate how much the public actually cares. PR professionals may obsess over every headline or post; everyday consumers don’t. Forgetting that gap risks campaigns that talk past the audience instead of to them.

Attachment can also be a problem, said Dustin. “Sometimes an op-ed becomes my sixth child,” he admitted, especially when he’s spent hours grinding on a particularly difficult draft. Passion becomes Gollum-like obsession, turning professionals into defenders of their own work instead of advocates for client success.

When Passion Is Irrelevant

The good news is that you don’t have to be passionate about something, as long as you have the skills. In fact, detachment is sometimes better because it can create objective mindsets.

Dustin described an early client in an industry about which he knew nothing: a government contractor financial lender. What drew him in wasn’t the sector but the story — that the client was helping entrepreneurs avoid exploitation by predatory lenders. By reframing the campaign as protecting small businesses, he found purpose and delivered results without any personal passion for government contracting.

Sarah’s travel PR background gave her a leg up in some pitches — she knew destinations firsthand. Yet that very familiarity often blinded her to what first-time visitors needed. In those cases, she said, an outsider’s or even a skeptic’s perspective was far more valuable.

Michelle recounted a job interview where her personal values conflicted with the organization’s mission. For her, it wasn’t about liking or disliking the product — it was about whether she could do the work with integrity. “If I can’t be effective because of my own core values, then I’m not the right fit,” she explained.

The Bottom Line

Passion can electrify PR campaigns. It can also derail them. The most effective practitioners know when to lean into lived experience, when to set it aside, and when to admit it simply doesn’t apply. That judgment — not passion alone — is what separates powerful communicators from the rest.

Watch the full discussion below.