Hola from Colombia - How to p*ss off a journalist

I’m writing this from surrounded by trees in my cabin the charming colonial town of Villa de Leyya, four hours northeast of Bogotá. 

I turned up here to celebrate another lap around the sun - a solo birthday, involving a swim enveloped in nature, a deep tissue massage, a hike to 10 turquoise pools, and a visit to an eye-catching terracotta casa made from clay. 

I planned to forgo writing the blog this week but I was prompted to tap away after a particularly dire experience that I thought might be worth noting. I won’t go into specifics but it centres around an interview I was supposed to have in Bogotá last week. 

I first started emailing said company in early December. From the start, emails weren’t responded to very quickly and they couldn’t easily pin down a date or time to interview the chief executive. We explored interviewing other directors in-person and when that wasn't working we focused on the interview taking place over Zoom while I would meet the PR in-person. The whole process was painful. Days were edging closer, the logistics kept changing and I felt like I was constantly chasing the PR. Two days before the potential interview, she asked to speak on the phone. During the call she tells me the company is in a two-month "quiet" period where they can’t speak to the press. Tbh, at this point I’m inwardly fuming because as the PR of the company, surely she should know this. I try and find a solution: what if we go ahead with the interview but don’t publish it till April? She says she needs to check with the legal team. The next day I receive an email saying they are in a quiet period until August and can’t do any interviews before then. At this point, I fire off an email explaining how much time has been wasted, given this is intel they would have known. The pitch and commission was hinged on this company and this has left me in dire straits – if they have openly communicated in December, I wouldn’t be in this situation. 

Overpromising this is something I talk about a lot in my workshops (and I know many of you wouldn't work in this way). This PR has now left me in a terrible position, with my commission slipping away. All it would have took was an honest email back in December – rather than an email on the day or day before I was supposed to be meeting in January – explaining the situation. OK, grouchy Ted Talk over.