Tag Archives: PR

GOOD PR STARTS AT HOME

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The Best PR Starts at Home

Do People Feel Welcome Working With You?

Imagine knocking on a friend’s door and your friend just opens the door for you to walk in. They don’t say hi to you nor call you by name, they just let you in and walk away. No, hellos. Nice to see you. Thank you for coming over. Nothing.

This is what happened to me recently when I volunteered at a major conference. I volunteered to work the event for a rather long time period. For this duty, the volunteers would be furnished lunch…it all sounded good to me and I was happy to be of some help.

But….as soon as I reported to duty things went awry.

I was told to be there very early in the morning and thus, was the first one on the scene. The staff I reported to showed up a hour later. And if that wasn’t enough, they never said hello, or thanked us for volunteering nor did they even care to know our names. And lunch, forgetaboutit. One of the volunteers had to remind them of their offer so they ordered a pizza.

This poor experience reminded me of this hard fact - the best PR starts at home. Here’s what I mean by that.

1) When working with volunteers – it is imperative that you make them feel welcomed and valued. They are as important to your event as the event. Without them, you would not be able to produce the event on a shoestring budget. So do your best to make them feel special.

2) PR people need to be friendly. I am embarrassed that I even have to write this statement. But, I am mortified to meet other colleagues that are not friendly to the press nor to people around them. Being relational in this field is a must.

Are you really Friendly

Are You Friendly or Just Appear to Be?

So, this little lesson isn’t just applicable to working with volunteers, it also applies to your Facebook page, website and reactions to the media.

Therefore, when people visit your Facebook page – do they feel welcome there or do you turn your back on them? Do you know their names? Do you not only listen to them, but do you truly hear them.

When a visitor lands on your website, how are they greeted? Can they easily access the information that they need most like how to contact you. Is your phone number prominently displayed or are you just selling them something?

As you can see a friendly welcome will go a long way in life and business. Check your attitudes online and in-person to make sure you are putting your best foot forward.

There’s no risks involved in being friendly and it all starts at home. Make sure when you put your feet on the floor to start the day, that you remember a warm hello and greeting will go a long way.

Thanks for reading and I hope you know that you are always welcome to leave messages or comments or can contact me directly. If I can ever be of any assistance, I hope you know my door is always open. You will always be greeted!

Thanks for the read.

Cindy

AlwaysOn OnHollywood Day 2 Update

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As the second day of the Always On & ETC OnHollywood conference draws to an end – on this day I gathered a few great nuggets of interesting info as the event took a peek into the future.

Some of the take-aways included:

  • The Economy is Coming Back-The conference featured several Los Angeles based equity investors with available money to support business opportunities.  There is VC money not just in Orange County, but also in Hollywood! That’s good news for all.  Apparently, the Silicon Valley is the best hotbed for engineering talent, but LA has a diverse workforce to pull from. LA is a great place for starting up companies in gaming, Internet, analog and content.  Not a great place for enterprise. Another tip is stay local for your investments.
  • Mine! Mine! Mine! - Yeah, it still appears that large content corporations want to keep their product on their own portals and are not willing to give it to distribution partners outside their walled gates.  They call this managing their exclusives.  I am not a fan of this practice, but corporately I understand it.
  • Smarter is Better - Yesterday I learned that all life will be done on our mobile phones, but today I heard about Smart TVs that include a hard drive and include widgets and apps.  Not only will our TVs get more robust, but I love that web content producers are cutting deals directly with smart TV hardware companies to provide their content.  This new approach bypasses the service provider.  What an amazing shift and change.
  • No More Flops - As someone who worked in the online gaming space for a number of years, I was blown away to hear that online gambling will soon become legal in this country.  I never thought the day would exist and I’m not sure how I feel about it. I mean I know there are ways that people have gone around these laws and have gambled online…but, opening it up means that more people will be able to lose whatever money they have. I believe that when this happens there will be another surge in popularity of online poker.

    Do you think it will be good idea to legalize online gambling?

  • It’s Not About the Money - I was excited hearing that web broadcast is a hard business and that if you’re in it for that reason, then that’s not the right reason. We can’t assume that the traditional broadcast model should be applied to new media. It’s apples to oranges.  They are radically different.  We are in the pioneer stages and it’s a wild, but adventurous frontier open to all.
  • Social Role Model - I’ve been meeting superstars in new media on a regular basis, but I haven’t met a female yet whom I thought was a definite rock star.  Justine Bateman blew me away today. She possesses the same philosophies as I do and had me captivated and in awe with this answer. She told a person in the audience that just because you aren’t getting traction pitching cable development executives, doesn’t mean that you should pitch online distributors as a default. She said you should pitch online if you live online. I so agree. I always say you shouldn’t hire a social media/pr consultant unless they practice social media themselves.
  • Branded Entertainment - Well, there’s no way it’s going away on broadcast nor web. Drats.  The motivation is too great to not employ these techniques online as well. In web, they see it as brand extension. It’s about efficiency, reach and deliverables. It is just in the infancy and it has tremendous growth.
  • Kangaroo TV – Steve Ross, owner of the NFL Miami Dolphins apparently gives a interactive hand held device to some of his season ticket holders that allows them to see different camera angles to the game as well as watch the other NFL games going on at the same time.  What a game changer. Brilliant idea Mr. Ross.
  • In-Home – You will start hearing this phrase more and more (In Home) entertainment. What this means is that is that this phrase means content provided to you at home via another service other than your cable company.  Also, keep an eye out for web content to be on their VOD channels as well. How cool will that be!

  • The Open Media Revolution is Over: Are We Better Off? Session (L-R) Jonathan Aronson, Tony Perkins, David Wertheimer

    Tony Perkins – I want to send a giant thank you to Tony Perkins, Founder and Editor of AlwaysOn, and his entire team for organizing this conference as well as the others.  He webcasts each one and for those of us who are not able to travel or pay for these cutting edge and topical conferences – this is a priceless gift.  I know I am smarter because of these conferences and more knowledgeable about areas I would have never been exposed.  So from the bottom of my heart, thank you for the opportunity.

Citizen Reviewing (Food Blogs, Etc.) and PR Practices

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Always fess up when you are reviewing food at a restaurant. Photo credit: celinabean.com

Today I am attending a session on food blogging…my attendance was due to the fact that I would like to work with restaurants in the future and as such, I wanted to understand this new growing phenomenon. But, something was said during the session that got the attention of my PR antenna.  It was recommended that you do not need to disclose that you are reviewing the food when at a restaurant. When I pressed further on this subject, the food blogger here today said she wanted an organic experience and did not want to receive special treatment.

I understand that point – however, I think it is only fair that the restaurant is aware that you will be reviewing its experience. It is only fair that the restaurant be made aware of your intention. I do not believe in personal ambushes.

Here’s what I would recommend to be the best practice for Food Bloggers – my approach is one that will build their integrity, reputation and brand in the food community.

1) Have a business card made that promotes your food blog. Have the back side contain blank lines where you can fill in the date that you intend to post your review and how the restaurant can contact you other than commenting on your blog post. These cards should be like those doctor and dentist appointment cards.

2) You don’t have to tell them you are a food blogger until after the meal is done and you have paid your bill. As you get ready to leave, give your card to your server and tell him/her you are going to blog about your experience.  He then can either tell the owner or have owner come over and see you.

3) I highly recommend that you find the owner, if he/she is present you can personally introduce yourself. Remember social media is about relationships and not about ambushes.  You do not have to tell them what your review will say and if they press you, you can just say benign statements like “it was interesting.”

By being direct and upfront about your business as a food blogger, you will build your reputation in this close community. Believe me, establishment owners belong to the same circles.  And if you treat them with respect they will tell other proprietors about you.

Your brand is extremely important and one you need to keep an eye on as well.

Remember – just as one bad review can take down a restaurant, one bad review about you as a reviewer can do the same. Once your credibility is lost, it’s difficult to regain it once you are in the crisis communication mode.

In summary, be straightforward; provide outlets for rebuttal; be professional and knowledgeable without being snarky.  And don’t ambush anyone.

Build your brand with integrity wherever possible.

Twitter is the New Wire Service

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Tiger Woods learned about his Ryder Cup standing via twitter.

This morning while I was working out ESPN reported that Ryder Cup Captain Corey Pavin denied that Tiger Woods was getting one of the four wild card spots on this year’s 2010 U.S. Team.  Pavin further went on to say that the official announcement will be made September 7.

OK, you may be saying, big deal, Cindy – this is just an another announcement.  But, it wasn’t. This story broke on twitter. Yes, the Ryder Cup Captain held his own presser (press conference) via twitter. He controlled the news by breaking it –which led me to think about how different the present PR practices are from the past.

In the past, news was usually broken by a scheduled press conference. But, today, celebrities/politicians and those in the public eye are taking matters in their own hands.  No longer do these public figures need to rely on an establishment or a PR firm to announce their latest endeavors.  Now, they can just tweet it and the results are just as effective as a press conference.  Heck, besides messages, you can tweet out images, videos and power point slides too. twitter does it all.

So the question really is …are press conferences things of the past? The answer to that is definitely no.  However, they are not as prevalent or necessary as say last year.  Not only is this sad news for PR agencies, but for the news media.  I mean – how in the world is the news media going to monitor every one’s twitter account? You need a mighty big tweet deck to do that to catch breaking news.

Ryder Cup Captain Corey Pavin's tweet

However, if we unravel how Pavin was able to get the word out successfully today (@RC_Captain_2010), I’m sure that among his nearly 7,000  twitter followers, some of those folks were members of the golf media.  Thus, they must have seen it and retweeted and reported it. With one little 140 character message, Corey Pavin broke news in less than a minute and then went about his day. There was no need to set aside a block of time to phone the sports media.  All it took was a one short message to get the message out. I personally think this is marvelous.

This was a great case study and it’s only the start.  I think the journalists of the future will have large monitors on their desks and be assigned certain people to follow on twitter. I can only see this area growing…twitter has now become the new wire service.

Birthday Greetings in a Digital World

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Digital greetings are as sweet as traditional cards

So, yesterday, as many of your are well aware – it was my birthday. I usually like to lay low on my b-day and would rather deny that I’m a year older, but in this day in age of social media….the whole world knew about it thanks to Facebook and there was no way to duck it or run and hide.

My first greeting came when I checked in at my local gym.  After my fingerprint was scanned, the cute, perky trainer behind the counter shouted Happy Birthday. Boy, was that a surprise and it was a nice way to start the day. It totally caught me off guard.

Secondly, I took advantage of a Glen Ivy’s Hot Springs “free” birthday pass.  Yes, for those living near this Corona, Ca. day spa – guests get in free on their actual birthday. I love these promotions and I wish I could see the research on the effectiveness of such promotions.  I mean who attends alone – you always bring friends with you. I normally would not have visited this spa on my b-day, but this free gift was certainly inticing during this tough economy. I had a wonderful time.

Last year I took advantage of “free” admission into Disneyland on your birthday. They no longer have that promotion this season, but that too, was a wonderful marketing ploy.

Yesterday my phone was vibrating all day long due to a number of greetings coming from all parts of the globe from Facebook friends.  The power of Facebook is mind-boggling. And I mean that in a good way.  I must say I enjoyed each message – they were like wrapped gifts themselves. I was always wondering who might appear next.

Facebook Makes Your Birthdays Bigger Than Life

In summary, birthdays in my opinion have gotten better thanks to the digital age.  The celebrations are bigger for the reach now can encompass anyone on Facebook.

I loved getting these messages and I’m sure you’ve had wonderful Facebook examples too.  You don’t need to buy expensive gifts anymore – a 420 worded message is a gift worth giving over and over.

Until next year,

Cindy

2010 TCA Award Winners – A Night Celebrating Honorable TV

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This is a sponsored post–The Television Critics Association is one of my clients. Here is the link for photographs from the ceremony via Getty Images.

THE TELEVISION CRITICS ASSOCIATION ANNOUNCES

2010 TCA AWARDS WINNERS

Fox’s “Glee” Takes Home Multiple Honors as “Program of the Year,” “Outstanding New Program” and “Individual Achievement in Comedy” for winning actress Jane Lynch

“Modern Family,” “The Pacific,” “The Good Wife,” “Life,” “Breaking Bad” and “Lost” are honored along with “M*A*S*H” and James Garner

BEVERLY HILLS (Saturday, July 31, 2010) – Members of the Television Critics Association (TCA) recognized the top programs and actors representing the 2009-2010 TV season tonight at its 26th Annual TCA Awards, held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.  Dax Shepard, star of NBC’s “Parenthood,” introduced the ceremony that bestowed 11 awards in categories reflecting comedy, drama, miniseries, news and youth programming at its annual event in conjunction with the TCA’s summer press tour.

The biggest winner of the night was Fox’s musical ensemble comedy “Glee” which was the only series to win multiple awards from the 200-plus professional TV critics association, garnering the top honor “Program of the Year,” as well as “Outstanding New Program,” and “Individual Achievement in Comedy,” with lead actress Jane Lynch’s victory.

Tom Hanks Loves Attending the TCA Awards

ABC’s “Modern Family” was voted “Outstanding Achievement in Comedy,” and ABC’s “Lost” and AMC’s “Breaking Bad” tied as the victors in the category of “Outstanding Achievement in Drama.”

Nick Jr.’s children’s show “Yo Gabba Gabba” won its second consecutive TCA Award as “Outstanding Achievement in Youth Programming,” and Discovery Channel’s “Life” series took the top honors as “Outstanding Achievement in News & Information.”

Julianna Margulies, star of CBS’s “The Good Wife,” received the award for “Individual Achievement in Drama,” and HBO’s World War II miniseries epic “The Pacific” garnered “Outstanding Achievement in Movies, Miniseries and Specials.”

In addition to recognizing the year’s finest programming, the TCA bestowed a Heritage Award trophy to CBS’ former series “M*A*S*H” for the cultural and social impact that program has had on society.

The organization also presented actor James Garner with a Career Achievement Award for the influence his work has had on the small screen.

2010 TCA Award recipients are as follows:

  • PROGRAM OF THE YEAR: “Glee” (FOX)
  • OUTSTANDING NEW PROGRAM: “Glee” (FOX)
  • INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN COMEDY: Jane Lynch, “Glee” (FOX)
  • OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN COMEDY: “Modern Family” (ABC)
  • OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN DRAMA: TIE – “Lost” (ABC) and “Breaking Bad” (AMC)
  • INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN DRAMA: Julianna Margulies, “The Good Wife” (CBS)
  • OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN NEWS & INFORMATION: “Life” (Discovery)
  • OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN YOUTH PROGRAMMING: “Yo Gabba Gabba” (NICK JR.)
  • OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN MOVIES, MINISERIES & SPECIALS: “The Pacific” (HBO)
  • HERITAGE AWARD: “M*A*S*H*” (CBS)
  • CAREER ACHIEVEMENT: James Garner

ABOUT THE TELEVISION CRITICS ASSOCIATION

The Television Critics Association represents more than 200 journalists writing about television for print and online outlets in the United States and Canada. For 26 years the TCA has honored outstanding achievement in television and enduring contributions to the medium’s heritage through the TCA Awards.  Membership in the Television Critics Association is open to full-time TV writers at newspapers, magazines, trade publications, news wire services, news syndicates, and text-based Internet news organizations. For additional information on the TCA, please visit www.tvcritics.org.

-TCA-

Posted via email from cindyronzoni’s posterous

2010 TCA Awards Winners – A Night of Celebrating Honorable TV

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This is a sponsored post–The Television Critics Association is one of my clients.  My pledge to you is that I will always disclose every affiliation on my Who I Am page.

THE TELEVISION CRITICS ASSOCIATION ANNOUNCES

2010 TCA AWARDS WINNERS

Fox’s “Glee” Takes Home Multiple Honors as “Program of the Year,” “Outstanding New Program” and “Individual Achievement in Comedy” for winning actress Jane Lynch

“Modern Family,” “The Pacific,” “The Good Wife,” “Life,” “Breaking Bad” and “Lost” are honored along with “M*A*S*H” and James Garner

BEVERLY HILLS (Saturday, July 31, 2010) – Members of the Television Critics Association (TCA) recognized the top programs and actors representing the 2009-2010 TV season tonight at its 26th Annual TCA Awards, held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.  Dax Shepard, star of NBC’s “Parenthood,” introduced the ceremony that bestowed 11 awards in categories reflecting comedy, drama, miniseries, news and youth programming at its annual event in conjunction with the TCA’s summer press tour.

The biggest winner of the night was Fox’s musical ensemble comedy “Glee” which was the only series to win multiple awards from the 200-plus professional TV critics association, garnering the top honor “Program of the Year,” as well as “Outstanding New Program,” and “Individual Achievement in Comedy,” with lead actress Jane Lynch’s victory.

ABC’s “Modern Family” was voted “Outstanding Achievement in Comedy,” and ABC’s “Lost” and AMC’s “Breaking Bad” tied as the victors in the category of “Outstanding Achievement in Drama.”

Nick Jr.’s children’s show “Yo Gabba Gabba” won its second consecutive TCA Award as “Outstanding Achievement in Youth Programming,” and Discovery Channel’s “Life” series took the top honors as “Outstanding Achievement in News & Information.”

Julianna Margulies, star of CBS’s “The Good Wife,” received the award for “Individual Achievement in Drama,” and HBO’s World War II miniseries epic “The Pacific” garnered “Outstanding Achievement in Movies, Miniseries and Specials.”

In addition to recognizing the year’s finest programming, the TCA bestowed a Heritage Award trophy to CBS’ former series “M*A*S*H” for the cultural and social impact that program has had on society.

The organization also presented actor James Garner with a Career Achievement Award for the influence his work has had on the small screen.

2010 TCA Award recipients are as follows:

  • PROGRAM OF THE YEAR: “Glee” (FOX)
  • OUTSTANDING NEW PROGRAM: “Glee” (FOX)
  • INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN COMEDY: Jane Lynch, “Glee” (FOX)
  • OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN COMEDY: “Modern Family” (ABC)
  • OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN DRAMA: TIE – “Lost” (ABC) and “Breaking Bad” (AMC)
  • INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN DRAMA: Julianna Margulies, “The Good Wife” (CBS)
  • OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN NEWS & INFORMATION: “Life” (Discovery)
  • OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN YOUTH PROGRAMMING: “Yo Gabba Gabba” (NICK JR.)
  • OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN MOVIES, MINISERIES & SPECIALS: “The Pacific” (HBO)
  • HERITAGE AWARD: “M*A*S*H*” (CBS)
  • CAREER ACHIEVEMENT: James Garner

ABOUT THE TELEVISION CRITICS ASSOCIATION

The Television Critics Association represents more than 200 journalists writing about television for print and online outlets in the United States and Canada. For 26 years the TCA has honored outstanding achievement in television and enduring contributions to the medium’s heritage through the TCA Awards.  Membership in the Television Critics Association is open to full-time TV writers at newspapers, magazines, trade publications, news wire services, news syndicates, and text-based Internet news organizations. For additional information on the TCA, please visit www.tvcritics.org.

-TCA-

Business Plans and PR – A Necessary Ingredient

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Drinks are never a good idea when being interviewed. The only one who gets interesting quotes is the reporter. Credit: Michael Yarish

Did you happen to watch the premiere of AMC’s “Mad Men” this week? If you did, you might have noticed that the premiere episode was titled “Public Relations.” And with that, executive producer Matt Weiner wrote an excellent episode that showed off the true power of Public Relations in the work environment.  His writing prompted me to write this post to remind all business owners that when writing business plans – do not forget to add in public relations as a viable means to market yourself. Also, this post should remind established businesses to look at when their last interview was conducted. If it has been over two months…it’s time to dust off that area and start the hunt again.

PR is still a necessary ingredient for every established company and extremely helpful for start-ups.  I know I harp a ton about social media…but, basically, I morph social media into PR nowadays.  A business plan needs to include PR&SM. Both are equally important.

As “Mad Men” depicted, the new agency Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce took advantage of public relations to help get the word out about its company free through the media.  They chose wisely…they went after Ad Age, the perfect vehicle to promote the new shop. A Perfect PR hit – it was a bulls-eye.

However, Don Draper blew the opportunity and did not realize that by his reluctance to answering questions, that the reporter filled in the blanks with information that was inaccurate and void of anything of interest to gain leads.  It was a missed opportunity and the perfect example for everyone interviewed for the need to be on their game.

A friend who is experienced in marketing was helping a client who was presented with a great PR opportunity. The client was being interviewed for a cover story in a local business magazine and so, my friend asked me advice.  The advice I gave him is what I give to all.  What message do you want to convey? Basically, when you are being interviewed, you can drive the interview and give the reporter the information that you want said about your company.  If you don’t have a plan, then the reporter has full rein.  It’s a missed opportunity.  You can drive the interviews and you should see them as golden opportunities for free advertising. Think about the entire message and what would you want the headline to say. And when interviewed, present that information in your comments.

We all make mistakes at first and don’t worry if you do for there are second chances.  Don Draper seized upon his failure and hit another bulls-eye. He was able to secure another interview with the Wall St. Journal, and with that second chance, he drove the article and used the medium to convey his shop’s attitude and culture.  He hit a home run after not even getting on base at his first chance at bat.

PR is powerful and never should be overlooked. Thank you for reminding us of that fact “Mad Men.”

What did you think of the episode?  And PR a part of your business model?

Cindy

No Kin of Mine

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Kin - a failure or ahead of its time?

So by now, I think we have all heard that Microsoft’s latest device, Kin, which was billed as the first phone built for social networking has been taken off the market after only two months in consumers hands.

As a result, I thought it would be good timing to discuss how to handle PR when products shut down.

Ahhh, the Kin. I was a bit confused by the need for such a device when it was announced, how about you?  I mean smart phones are exactly that now, smart and can handle social networking…so why would I need a special phone just for that?  Its selling points didn’t grab me.  Like Apple products that come onto the market, they are trailblazers and become mainstays in our life.  Can you imagine not having an iPod, iTouch or iPad in your life now?  But, a Kin. It wasn’t a necessity, but a gimmick that Microsoft thought would be the “in” thing for young consumers.

I mean it looked cool and I understand what it did. It shot great photos with its camera and you could easily share videos and text for social sites.  But, with so many other devices capable of the doing the same thing…I guess in two short months consumers didn’t feel the need for it in their lives.

I have recently experienced this myself as I start my own social media agency.  I am finding that if my potential client is not open to social media or an advocate of it – then it’s best for the both of us not to do business together-that is not until that client understands the power of new media.  Therefore, the Kin is a product that probably was ahead of its time and the market was too small to understand its need.

I mean I recently attended a meeting where Sprint’s 4G network was discussed through the use of the HTC EVO android phone.  That phone can do the same things and a few more than the new iPhone 4 can do and it sure can handle everything that the Kin does.  So as Microsoft found out – there really wasn’t a need for Kin.

And as a PR pro, I applaud Microsoft for having the guts and um balls to pull the plug on the device and face defeat. I know corporately it was a hard decision to make for not only did Microsoft face personal embarrassment, but so did Verizon who was the sole carrier.  Verizon supported this concept and thus went down with them.

But, I want to remind you – that there is no such thing as failure.  Look at Thomas Edison, a premier inventor.  He did over 10,000 tweaks to the incandescent light bulb before he perfected it and showed it off.  To him, this is how he views failure.

Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. T. Edison.

So that’s my PR advice to you. When a product, a TV show or employee is not performing, don’t be afraid to advise your CEO that he/she can pull the plug.  The company will be better off in the long run for it and embarrassment of its demise will be remembered for less than a week. Some other news story will take its place and you will be able to get on with your work as usual.

Look at Toyota…they are weathering the storm and are getting back to work. Cut bait and move on.

Homer Always Shoots Straight From the Hip

If you don’t – then your job as the head of the PR dept. will get quite messy. You will spend a good chuck of your time every day putting out fires from leaks that will arise as news of your product’s ineffectiveness starts to hit the media or is shared through social media.

People have a hard time keeping secrets. And when dealing with television shows, you can never hide the ratings.  Consumers can see how last night’s episode performed or didn’t perform.

Be on top of your game and like Thomas Edison – keep perfecting your product. I’m sure elements of the Kin will remain in the next device that Microsoft launches for it did produce some novel touches.

Soldier on for it takes more courage to admit defeat than to live a lie.

Good job Microsoft.  You did the right thing and deserve respect for trying.  There’s no black eye in this situation.

One More Try

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The Sun Will Rise and This Will Pass

I hope you don’t mind that I’m writing this post to be a source of encouragement, mainly for me today, and if you get some relief from this thought, well, that would be awesome too.  But, you know, with the state of today’s job market and employment trends, it is a bit rough out there for us professionals who are used to working on a daily basis at the same company and performing the tasks that we love.

This economy and new employment structure for consultants/freelancers requires one to have incredible amounts of patience, understanding and fortitude as well as flexibility and humor.  It certainly is character building and I am really learning how to pull up my bootstraps.  At times, its fun and other times, it can be overwhelming as you realize everything is out of your control. (Addendum-Good PR pal Marc Grossman sent me this link to cheer me up…if you need an immediate laugh please check this out. Thanks Marc…it worked.   (Please Fire Me!)

If you are like me you have a routine that you follow – each day hours are spent on job search, networking and/or researching potential clients.  You keep re-working your elevator speech and tweaking your resume.  You talk to friends seeking advice and watch the world trends to find clues as to where the new currency is hiding.

Day after day you follow this procedure.  Then the days turn into weeks and then months. I can’t believe it’s almost July!

I know this feeling well. The days fly by and you feel like you are not making progress.

When I review what I’ve accomplished I can feel that I haven’t achieved much – but, I know that I have.  My growth may not be in tangible items, but I have gained knowledge and connections.  And those carry a currency as well. I have to remember I am making progress.

I don’t know if you’ve noticed that they are playing “Cast Away” a lot this month on cable.  And I’ve been stumbling upon it quite frequently.  In this season of my life, I’m sympathizing with the main character played by Tom Hanks, Chuck Noland.  I mean when I’m working by myself in my home, I sometimes feel like I’m in a cave.  I miss going with co-workers to lunch.  I understand how you have to be as resourceful with what you possess and you must keep a close eye on budgets.  But, it’s the line he says at the tail end on the movie that always provides me with a sense of hope….Chuck Noland says to a friend (I’ve paraphrased it a bit), “I had power over nothing. I knew somehow I had to stay alive. I kept breathing and one day the tide came in and gave me a sail.  And now here I am.  I have ice in my glass.  But, I know what I have to do now.  I have to keep breathing because tomorrow the sun will rise and who knows what the tide could bring.”

Since I have some extra time on my hands I’m leading a job search work team at a local transitional housing center.  And, every meeting we always say, “We’re all going to find jobs, we just don’t know when.”  And this post is for those in-between times, when you feel you have no power over anything and you don’t feel like making one more phone call, or attending one more networking event, or submitting one more resume online or attending one more class to learn a new trade.

So, if that’s you right now…I’m telling you, well really me, try it one more time…for you never know what the tide may bring today. The sun will rise and you have to keep breathing and hoping…you will be employed steadily again.

Here’s the actual clip from the movie. Mr. Hanks does a much better job than I did in communicating this simple, but truthful way of life.

We will be sailing back to civilization.

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