Oh no, pass the handkerchief! The young PRO sitting opposite me has just had her first traumatic phone call with a journalist.

I heard her briefing the news room of a well-known newswire when half way through her pitch she went silent and quickly put the phone down. I asked her what the journalist had said and she replied: “If you f*cking phone me about this f*cking story again, I’m going to print off your f*cking press release and use it as a darts board!”

"Welcome on board", I said to the (very nice) girl. Before reassuring her that the journalist is always like that, and that he has an odour problem.

We all have our own stories to tell about press briefings that go wrong.

Sometimes it can be the client who mucks it up. Journos much prefer talking to clients than us PROs, but it's always a nail-biting experience accompanying a client to a press meeting if you can’t trust what they might say.

One of my clients is an MD of a multinational brand who is prone to giving away corporate secrets. It has happened so often that he has asked me to kick him if he starts shooting his mouth off at the wrong time. The only problem is that the last time I “gently nudged” his ankle, he made the situation even worse by exclaiming: “I’ve obviously just said something I shouldn’t because my PRO has just viciously kicked me under the table!”.  So if the journo's ears hadn't pricked up before, they had now.

So here are a few tips for recovering after an awful press briefing:

1. Imagine the journalist in their underwear. It helps you get their power in perspective, they are only human, even if they look like some sort of creature from a horror movie. 

2. Don’t cry in public, you must try and make it to the loo.

3. We all make mistakes, so if it’s your fault then don’t beat yourself up about it. But if it’s the client’s fault then slag them off to everyone in the office. But not to the press perhaps.

4. Write a mental list of all the great press briefings you have given. If you haven’t ever given any, then perhaps you ARE rubbish. Time to move job?

5. Last, but by no means least, have a stiff drink. And then have several more.