How I Got Here: The Australian Ballet’s Public Relations Manager on staying true to your values
Words by Kate Streader
“I had to really work through what it means to be a good PR operator and stay true to my values. It doesn’t mean you have to be pushy or thick-skinned – you can be gracious and kind too.”
Have you ever stalked someone on LinkedIn and wondered how on earth they managed to land that wildly impressive job? While the internet and social media might have us believe that our ideal job is a mere pipe dream, the individuals who have these jobs were, believe it or not, in the same position once, fantasising over someone else’s seemingly unattainable job.
But behind the awe-inspiring titles and the fancy work events lies a heck of a lot of hard work. So what lessons have been learnt and what skills have proved invaluable in getting them from daydreaming about success to actually being at the top of their industry?
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Welcome to How I Got Here, where we talk to women who are killing it in their respective fields about how they landed their awe-inspiring jobs, exploring the peaks and pits, the failures and the wins, and most importantly the knowledge, advice and practical tips they’ve gleaned along the way.
Today, we sit down with Anthea Waller, Public Relations Manager at The Australian Ballet. Australia’s national not-for-profit ballet company, The Australian Ballet has been entertaining audiences with innovative classic and contemporary works since 1962.
Anthea’s position is all-encompassing – some days, she’ll be crunching data and sifting through spreadsheets while others will see her on set at photoshoots, helping execute concepts she was part of creating. Having always dreamed of working in her PR and trying out several roles within the industry before landing her current position at The Australian Ballet, Anthea can confidently say she’s found her passion.
What do you do and what’s your official job title?
My job title is Public Relations Manager at The Australian Ballet. I get the lucky job of telling the stories of The Australian Ballet and working with media to bring those stories to life. This involves strategic publicity campaigns for our huge national ballet performance schedule to boost box office revenue, building awareness of The Australian Ballet brand and profiling all of the wonderful, talented people who make up this company.
Take us back to when you were first starting out. Did you study to get into your chosen field, or did you start out with an internship/entry level role and climb the ladder? Tell us the story.
I’ve actually never wanted to do anything else other than PR. Even when I was 16 years old, I told the career counsellor at school that I was going to be a Public Relations Officer. I had a family friend who was studying communications and she told me about what she was learning at uni and I was hooked. But unfortunately studying wasn’t my forte in high school. I was too busy socialising with my head in the clouds. I’m a bit of a dreamer. That resulted in me A) not passing the Public Relations entry exam into RMIT and B) not meeting the ENTER score requirement – I was devastated. Oh, the tears that were shed.
Looking back, it was one of my first significant life lessons. It made me understand that if you want something, you need to work hard for it. After this, I was more driven. I pivoted quickly and completed a Diploma in Event Management and Business at TAFE which earned me credits, got into a Bachelor of Professional Communications at Monash University, studied hard with my newfound determination, and graduated with distinctions.
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Whilst studying, I completed multiple internships in different industries and landed my first role as PR and Event Officer at Peninsula Health. I then set out to work in as many different industries as I could to see where I would find my passion subject matter. This journey saw me working in London in a B2B PR agency, then back in Melbourne in hospitality PR and then working on big consumer brands at another agency. I then applied for a Publicist role at The Australian Ballet and progressed to PR Manager – passion found.
What challenges/hurdles have you faced getting to where you are now? Can you tell us about one in particular?
The relentless pace of the PR profession is a challenge faced by many in my profession. It takes a while to learn how to prioritise your workload and communicate effectively so that you’re not missing deadlines or letting something slip through the cracks. It’s learning how to please all stakeholders, whilst also negotiating alternative deadlines so that you have the clear space to do your job. There is a bit of an outdated stereotype of a publicist or PR that isn’t a true reflection – I had to really work through what it means to be a good PR operator and stay true to my values. It doesn’t mean you have to be pushy or thick-skinned – you can be gracious and kind too. Hard back and soft front.
What do you want people to know about your industry/your role?
It’s a lot more strategy, admin and reporting than people may realise. Analysis and tracking is a huge element of PR and many of our strategies and decisions are data-driven now. You have the days where you’re being creative and assisting at a photoshoot that you helped bring to life, which is the flashy part, but you also have the post-analysis, media monitoring and sifting through massive spreadsheets.
What’s the best part about your role?
I have found the true meaning of storytelling from working in this role at The Australian Ballet. We really are so spoiled from a PR perspective. There is never a shortage of fun facts or inspiring people to pitch or profile, there are endless amounts of intricacies and fascinating elements of a ballet production, and the people behind the company that make it all happen are interesting to boot.
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The dancers themselves are the most incredible people – so talented and engaging. Did you know the oboe is the instrument that tunes the whole orchestra before a performance? Or that there were 32 different coloured pointe shoes in the production of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland? We talk to every department in this company to uncover these little gems and we’re constantly learning and surrounded by artisans creating incredible work. Plus, you can hear the live piano from the ballet studio at your desk. It’s a delightful work soundtrack. Walking up to the Sydney Opera House to work for the day when the company is in Sydney also never gets old.
What would surprise people about your role?
It can take us ten hours of work to make one photoshoot and interviews happen, from conception to then arriving at the shoot. Whenever you see an editorial piece with The Australian Ballet that has a beautiful photo with one of our artists, the amount of preparation, precision, logistics and internal approvals that happened to get to this point are extensive. We take great pride in this as a company.
What skills have served you well in your industry?
Curiosity, reading and consuming the media your industry is operating in. Listening and taking notes in every meeting, always reversing the brief when someone gives you a task. Just being as solutions driven as you can. You might not get it right, but your manager or your client will always want to see that you put the time into thinking about it.
What advice would you give to someone who wants to be in a role like yours one day?
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Explore as many different industries as you can. You might be working in an industry that you don’t particularly have any affinity to, but without realising, you’re going to refer back to all these experiences in your future roles and apply your experience in many situations.
When you start out in PR you might feel like you’re stuck in media lists, media monitoring, clippings and reports – it may seem boring at first but if you flip your perspective slightly, this is actually the perfect way to learn about the media landscape, the names of journalists and what they write about or report on. You will be consuming and reading so much and that, in turn, creates the best foundations for your career in PR.
What about a practical tip?
While studying PR or in your first PR job, have a think about other marketing disciplines or strings you can add to your bow in the communications field. Secondly, subscribe to your favourite media outlets, buy the newspapers on the weekend, read the supplements and bookmark your favourite online publications on your laptop so you’re reading as much as you can.
Read the rest of the How I Got Here series here.
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