Communicators share the worst mistakes they’ve ever made

We learn more from our mistakes than our successes.

That’s why we asked communicators on LinkedIn to share their biggest mistakes in the industry. The responses range from funny but cringey typos to media handling mistakes and much more. But all represent a lesson learned and a career improved.

Several communicators shared their stories anonymously. Responses have been lightly edited for style, clarity and brevity.

Have your own mistake to share? Drop it in the comments.

Kevin Petschow is corporate communications North America lead at Nokia.

Misspelled public in public relations by leaving out “l.” 🫢🫢

Mark Stouse is chairman and CEO of ProofAnalytics.ai.

At a big SV agency in 2000, I sent an email to a client detailing where we had made a biggish mistake. For reasons beyond anyone’s understanding, the email server sent it to every client we had AROUND THE WORLD. For the most part, everyone was cool about it. But we had to tell the client that our IT had spammed their issue to others. As you might expect, we lost that client.

Matt Burns is managing partner at Acumen Strategies.

I was a 23-yo flack for a large state agency when a controversial (and expensive) new computer system was implemented. A reporter from a notable tabloid (NY Post) called me to inquire about rumors the system was up and down in its initial days, and I used the word “glitch” to describe the issue. Guess what the front page headline was the next day?

Lesson one of many about media relations: Don’t use or repeat negative words to explain any situation as they invariably end up in quotations.

Dan Mazei is principal at All Tangled Roots.

I once approved a photo for wire distribution that somehow contained… well, it turned out to be NSFW. I’ve probably never felt so embarrassed professionally. 🤦‍♂️

Jeanne Meyer is interim chief strategy officer for DiGennaro Communications.

When I was cutting my teeth in entertainment PR, I got a huge bouquet of flowers from a daytime talk show host for getting her on the cover of one of NYC’s tabloids (in a v. positive light). The day after, my firm got fired because I’d gotten drawn into answering a very speculative question about what that talk show host felt/believed/thought. It was one of those “Do you think [celebrity host] felt [insert]” questions and I confidently decided to tell that LA Times reporter what I thought.

Anonymous

In the early days of COVID, a very influential reporter got word that our company was going to scale back the standard work week (with commensurate pay cuts) before we’d told any employees. I was so proud of myself for working with him to hold the story until we got our announcement out four days later. Our whole comms leadership team was involved given the wild sensitivities…and while we were issuing a pre-market press release that day alluding to that change, I failed to ask at exactly what time the employee message would go out.

You can imagine how it went–we agreed to an embargo, the reporter was ready to go live with his story and our statement after the release went live. But the decision was made to hold the employee update until a live meeting a few hours later. As you can imagine, executives’ and managers’ phones started ringing off the hook when employees looked at the headlines of the day and saw they’d be getting a three-month pay cut.

Even though the timing had been agreed to by every leader, my ass was on the line and I’ve never been screamed at so viciously by an exec. And yet, the story was accurate, so despite her insistence that “I must just not care enough,” I had no grounds to get the reporter to pull it down. It was our mistake…but it’s one I will never, ever make again.

Imagine hosting a large influencer group and having a face to face with a very senior leader in an intimate setting, only having to pivot to said senior leader needing to be on stage in a stadium to speak to the crowd because said influencers didn’t return to the venue. This was certainly a career-limiting moment.

Parry Headrick is founder at Crackle PR.

Said “love you” instead of “goodbye” to a reporter at the end of a call 😫

Brad Gorman works in corporate communications – electric vehicles for General Motors.

Brought CEO to networking event with a bunch of interns.

In chit chat, I casually mentioned UNANNOUNCED embargoed major news in front of CEO and interns.

CEO, politely reminded me “yes, what Brad is talking about is certainly on our radar, but has not yet been announced.”

Anthony Trendl is a speechwriter.

I spelled Hanukkah wrong on a wide-release trifold being mailed to our donors for a Jewish-Christian dialog organization.

There are seven generally accepted ways of spelling Hanukkah in English, as it is transliterated from Hebrew. I, however, presumed an eighth. My boss, an Orthodox rabbi, disagreed.

Jake Doll is director of client relations at PANBlast.

I made an early career mistake of issuing the wrong press release through Business Wire. We kept iterating off of different files: v1, v2, v3 final, v4 final final, v5 final final final etc.

It was a client partnership release. So, I had a lot of people mad at me. My boss (we covered the cost to re-distribute), my client, the client’s partner.

Laura Schwab is senior communications specialist at Hypori.  

One that comes to mind is not getting approval in writing on a press release from a partner myself.

I was told it was approved through the analyst relations lead, who was supposedly in contact with the partner. The release was issued and then I was contacted by the partner. Not only did they not approve the release, but the quote that was in the release (which again was supposedly approved) was attributed to an SME who was no longer there. It was embarrassing and costly (removing from Business Wire and having to reissue), but I learned a valuable lesson. Always get approvals in writing myself.

Alexandra Crabb is executive vice president at Caster Communications.

Once, I addressed a reporter by the wrong name in an email, immediately noticed my error, and sent a hasty follow-up. The reporter responded with some colorful language, expressing frustration about getting her name wrong. Surprised by the aggressive tone in her response, I replied with profuse apologies. Minutes later, she responded with complete embarrassment – she had meant to forward my email to a colleague but accidentally replied to me instead.

We both laughed about our email mishaps that day. It was a humbling reminder that we’re all human, even when trying to maintain professional communication. Sometimes, the best connections come from sharing those perfectly imperfect moments.

Rohan Hutchings is a contract executive communications worker for Microsoft.

Second job out of college. Did a mailer to about 15,000 community members impacted by a new motorway asking them to fax back a form. I forgot to include the fax number. Spent the next two weeks answering hotline calls that came to my desk.

Judy Schmidt is a communications freelancer.

My very first media relations role, I had a minor crisis but with a major news outlet. I was terrified to say the wrong thing, so I just kept saying the one sentence statement over and over again to all their questions and comments. Reporter was totally frustrated, and I was mortified.

Joanna Brody is CEO of Brody Public Relations.

I did a pre-interview with a radio show for a client who used military flight simulation technology to create a virtual race car installation in Las Vegas. I told the radio interviewer “It’s so realistic, I got nauseous,” which is the worst thing that could happen and not something you want mentioned. Of course, when my client was being interviewed a day later, the reporter asked about that. Fortunately, the radio show was not live and we politely asked for that comment to be stricken, and the station complied. I also kept the contract and went on to get fantastic press for the client. I have never forgotten that lesson: Nothing is off the record with a reporter, even and especially during informal conversations.

Anonymous

Imagine hosting a large influencer group and having a face to face with a very senior leader in an intimate setting, only having to pivot to said senior leader needing to be on stage in a stadium to speak to the crowd because said influencers didn’t return to the venue. This was certainly a career-limiting moment.

Allison Elliott-Shannon is a research and innovation facilitator at Liverpool Hope University.

Signed off on the printing of banner-up displays for the University of Kentucky…with Kentucky misspelled.

Igor Stefanac is a senior digital communications expert at Combis.

Back when I worked for the police department, I told a journalist that the damage from a retirement home safe robbery was a million instead of a thousand in local currency. Next thing I knew, it was a front page news in Croatia.

Kate Meyers Emery is senior digital communications manager at Candid.

First week as a social media manager, posted a photo of me drinking wine on the brand account.

Cassie Jorgensen is associate director, Benelux at Axicom.

When I was a comms intern at a major international film festival, I accidentally uploaded an exclusive film still that was promised to a major distributor (instead of the approved one) to the press site for media use. It was used on the front page of a major daily and there were A LOT of disappointed people.

Michelle Lawless is vice president of Media Minefield.

I made the mistake of answering the phone when a reporter called about a nuanced messaging situation for a client. I made clarifying statements that were quoted in the article (which is not something we ever do at my agency- speak for clients). I had to own my mistake with our leadership and the client who was rightfully NOT happy.

Christina Le is head of marketing at Plot.

Replied to a highly visible political post as the brand instead of myself.

Dylan Jones is managing partner at Boldsquare.

I once approved a press release for a major music event, featuring the name of a performer who had died in a tragic accident a month or two previously.

Jessica Santini is vice president, global marketing for Assembly Global.

I once sent out an email to 1,000 people using an internal comms tool that accidentally BCCed everyone. So everyone got 1,000 copies of the same email. I’ve never run to IT faster in my entire life.

Catherine Cody is public relations and field marketing manager for the National Forest Foundation.

I once lost John Legend. Literally, not figuratively. Soooo many lessons learned from that one.

Jon Amar is a PR and communications consultant.

In 2014, two years into my PR career, I pitched a client to The Washington Post. They accepted the pitch, interviewed my client, and received all pitch materials. I didn’t hear back from the reporter for a week or so — and my media filters hadn’t received a hit — so I followed up and asked when the story was running.

The reporter said “are you serious? It was front page today.”

Katelin Tiernan is owner of The Fix Collective.

Early in my career, I was trying to format an email the old-school CSS way and broke it. But I wasn’t editing just that email. 🙈 Instead, I accidentally amended the master template for ALL emails the company sent.