I am thankful to work at an agency whose cultural ethos and brand essence is captured in the life-affirming and aspirational concept of whatcanbe. The creation of CRT/tanaka, itself, was a whatcanbe idea of a bigger, brighter, better future. Mark Raper, Mike Mulvihill and Brian Ellis, the three co-founders of Richmond, Va.-based Carter Ryley Thomas (named after their three children), invited four PR agencies they admired to meet with them in Richmond in 2003 to discuss how we might all work together informally. PT&Co., an agency I had co-founded, was one of those invited to the meeting. Out of that meeting was born the Lumin Collaborative, the PR industry’s first intellectual think tank, whose member agencies are committed to focusing on “what’s next” in PR to better serve our clients.

And, out of the Lumin Collaborative was born our decision to sell PT&Co. to Carter Ryley Thomas and form CRT/tanaka in 2005 with the idea of creating a bigger, brighter, better future for both firms. Since that time, we have created a strong, national PR agency with five offices — Richmond, New York, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C. and Norfolk — and enhanced our capabilities through subsequent acquisitions of an interactive firm (Oliver Creative), a food-focused PR boutique (Lewis & Neale) and a social media firm (Livingston Communications).

Our new agency has continued to win numerous awards for our work, including recognition for a domestic violence awareness and prevention campaign created for Liz Claiborne as one of the “5 Best PR Campaigns” of the past decade, and for our strong, unwavering commitment to workplace culture. Prior to forming CRT/tanaka, both Carter Ryley Thomas and PT&Co. had been recognized, individually, as the “#1 Best Workplace” among all PR agencies in America.

When creating CRT/tanaka in 2005, we sought to identify the spirit of our new enterprise and came up with the word — whatcanbe — that seemed to capture it perfectly. This concept, which is near and dear to our hearts, speaks to the joyful and imaginative spirit at work in the collective minds and souls at CRT/tanaka in seeking endless possibilities for ourselves, our colleagues, our clients and our community. It is about tapping the innate “goodness” and “genius” of our people to create “greatness” in all that we do at CRT/tanaka.

Every day, my colleagues and I at CRT/tanaka wake up, energized by the opportunity to create a bigger, brighter, better whatcanbe future. In work and in life, it just does not get any better than that.

And while this at times has required skillfully finding a covert location for meetings (in the pediatrician’s hallway, parked on the side of a road, in the school playyard), I have always known that I am among the lucky ones.  I work for a caring company.  I don’t imply that this is an oxymoron.  And it also isn’t the secret sauce to our company’s success. 

This fact was punctuated at an event this week at which I saw 15 years of faces that moved in and out of the doors of CRT/tanaka, either permanently or for lunch.  Many of these faces sat around the table when we decided to create a public relations firm with a culture that nurtured goodness, genius and greatness.  This at first meant broad employee ownership, no titles (we were all associates), entire agency meetings to make important decisions and leadership that at times found the CEO helping the interns stuff envelopes and allowing young associates the opportunities that catapulted their careers.

This evolved into a pride for our ‘experiment,’ growth, happy associates, great work and many awards.  In my 15 years with this company, we have had our growing pains.  But at the core of our company are leaders.  Seeing those faces made me so proud of the smart people who built this company — some of whom have gone on to spread the goodness, genius and greatness at other organizations.

Gary Hamel in his Wall Street Journal management blog today highlighted one of the Best Places to Work in America — W.L. Gore.  What makes Gore a great company, according to Hamel, are the very things that were woven into our fabric.  These particularly resonated with me:

• Leaders are the people that others want to follow. You can’t make people follow you.  However, there must be “rules of engagement” with a distributed leadership model so people understand how decisions were made, why they were made and what company values guided them.
• Ownership results in accountability and responsibility for business outcomes.  The challenge we have found here is educating a young staff on how this benefits them financially. 
• A foundation of trust is required among teams so that the best decisions are made in spite of a diversity of thought.  The way to get to trust is to come together.  Decisions don’t need to be made solely by the senior leaders if teams are working well together.
• People who like what they do will do it well.  Clients will be happy.  We have always found that the greatest benefits of our nurturing culture are great work for and commitment to our clients.

Hamel questions at the end of his blog if a distributed leadership model would work for your organization.  What do you think?

Around this time of year, the thoughts of most college students who are about to graduate turn to finding that first job. For many PR graduates, coming out of college in a tough economy, it’s about finding ANY job in public relations.

 A few years ago, I enlisted the help of some of my colleagues at CRT/tanaka to offer some advice – 15 tips, if you will – to college students hoping to land their first PR job. This is by no means an exhaustive list, and the things included on the list are not rocket science. Hopefully, they offer a little insight to PR students about how they can stand out in a crowded job market. Here goes:

1.    Get Internship Experience. Nothing is more impressive on a resume than experience. Get valuable internship experience while you are in college, and be willing to take an internship after graduation. It could lead to a full-time position.

2.    Volunteer.  Along with internships at corporations and PR agencies, consider interning or volunteering for non-profits. These organizations always need help, which offers interns great opportunities to get hands-on experience. While many non-profits may only offer unpaid internships, the experience you gain will pay dividends in your career.

3.    Write, Write and Write Some More. Most employers in PR place a premium on strong writing skills. Find every opportunity to add writing samples to your portfolio. Join the student newspaper. Create a newsletter for a student organization or non-profit. Practice writing e-mails flawlessly. And get to know the AP Stylebook like the back of your hand.

4.    Proof Your Material. Make sure that your resume, cover letter and supporting material are error free. If you aren’t the best proofer in the world, have someone review your material who is.

5.    Network. Attend local PRSA, AMA, IABC, Social Media Club and even Ad Club meetings. Join your college’s young alumni and/or alumni association, and utilize professional social networking sites such as LinkedIn. You never know when or where a job opportunity might present itself.

6.    Ask for Informational Interviews. Ask for informational interviews at companies where you think you’d like to work, or that you want to learn more about. The company might not be hiring now, but could be two weeks from now. If you’ve made a good impression, they’re likely to remember you for the job. Or, they can refer you to others who might have a position that is a good fit for you.

7.    Do Your Homework. Research the PR opportunities in the area where you want to work. Pay close attention to the work environments (agency, corporate, government, non-profit, etc.) and the type of work you will be asked to do as an entry-level employee to make sure your skills and interests match the job requirements. Understand the company’s products, services and breadth of work. Integrate this knowledge into your application letter and interview whenever possible.

8.    Customize Your Resume. Present your experience in a way that is tailored to each job opportunity. Demonstrate to prospective employers how you would be an asset to their company and their PR team.

9.    Show Your Passion. Make yourself stand out from the crowd by demonstrating the passion and personal dedication you have for the specific type of PR for which you are interested. Also articulate your desire to learn and grow. Sincere interest and passion for your work can help make up for a lack of experience.

10.  Ask Questions. You should never be afraid to ask questions while interviewing. It shows you are interested and want to learn as much as possible about the prospective company.

11.  Be Willing to Relocate. You might have to leave town to find that dream job – or any job – in this economy.

12.  Be Flexible. Your first PR job may not be your dream job, but look at it as an opportunity to gain valuable real-world experience.

13.  Create a Support System. To land internships and that first PR job, professors and guidance counselors can serve as great references and help guide you down the right career path. Also, rely on friends and classmates in your job search and share leads with one another. A classmate may already have a position in the company you want to work for, and may be able to provide valuable insight and a way to get in the door.

14.  Embrace Social Media. With PR 2.0 and the increasing importance of social media, it’s essential that you have a grasp on new technologies and trends in this space. Increasingly, companies expect you to have experience and an understanding of social media – in fact it’s almost a job requirement for entry-level positions these days. Your knowledge of tools such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, wikis, blogs, online communities, etc. will help demonstrate your worth to your prospective employer.

15.  Send “Thank You” Notes. Don’t forget the lost art of writing “thank you” notes. If a prospective employer has taken the time to interview you, take the time to send a “thank you” note or e-mail to express your genuine interest in working for that company.

While the job market is tough right now, it’s not impossible to land that first job in PR. It will require some perseverance and patience. Hopefully, these 15 tips will help with that job search.

Are there any other great tips to add to our list?

The one that got me thinking the most was this Social Media Statistics infographic demonstrating a study conducted by Pear Analytics, where 2,000 random tweets were analyzed for content. Long story short: the majority of tweets consist of completely pointless babble. Surprisingly, considering the number of companies getting on the Twitter train, only 10% are spam or self-promotional. Not surprisingly, under 10% were considered interesting with pass along value. It’s also interesting to note that conversational tweets were a close second in frequency. In other words, people like to chat on Twitter, putting the social in social media.

So, as a PR professional and active Twitter user concentrating in food and beverage business, what does this mean for me? It definitely means I’ll look to up the ante in my interesting and unique content to stand out in the crowd. For our clients, I’d say our best bet is to strike up some meaningful conversations with all the foodies out there in Twitterland. As a smart colleague once said, participate in the conversation.

Here are some thoughts on how to improve your or your clients’ Twitter communication:

• Be a resource: Tweet useful bits of information and links to educational or interesting blogs and Web sites, or drive people to useful parts of your website for educational purposes. This is an occasion where self-promotion has a purpose.
• Be funny! Encourage retweets and community interaction with a little bit of funny. Humor goes a long way in grabbing people’s attention. A good example: I posted a picture of an empty glass of Rioja and tweeted “Sad Times.” This was retweeted and followers of @RiojaWine went up significantly that day.
• Chat ‘em up: Following people within the foodie community, there are countless opportunities to strike up a conversation. This is grassroots PR at its best, and a great way to engage and create a loyal following. Is this time consuming? Yes sir! Is it absolutely necessary? You betchya.
• Jazz it up a little: Don’t just post words and random thoughts. Post pictures, a GPS location of whatever cool place you’re tweeting about or a link to an interesting article. If you’re sipping a nice glass of wine, take a picture of it, post a review or talk about what you’re pairing it with.
• Make it searchable with #hashtags: This is an oldie but a goodie. Journalists searching for trends and people searching for communities and Twitter friends will more easily find you in the sea of information out there.
• Make friends: This seems obvious, but invite 25-30 followers in your respective community per week. They will follow you back, especially if you follow some of the above rules to tweet by.

Today, former ESPN baseball analyst Steve Phillips came clean. Phillips was involved in a sex scandal (ala Tiger) involving a 22-year-old production assistant last fall. He was immediately fired by the network and the story died. Or, so it seemed. This morning, just a day or two after leaving a treatment program for sex addiction, Phillips surprisingly decided to come clean on the Today Show. What is interesting about his appearance is the fact that not only did he take responsibility for cheating on this wife and kids, he also tried to describe what “sex addition” really means. I’m sure there are many who feel he’s just looking for an excuse, “…ask for forgiveness and move on.” But this morning, Phillips became the face of the issue. It’s a risky move if he hopes to rebuild his career, and one in which you have to question the true motive. He spent a lot of time talking about the need to repair his relationship with his family, which poses the question, was this effort really about saving his marriage, or was it about saving face? While getting out in front of the issue makes sense from a PR perspective, does it really help his kids who will likely face a new round of whispering behind their backs? According to Google’s story “hotness” scale, this story is “on fire.” That’s what happens when you put a little hot air on simmering coals. While it makes Mr. Phillips a hot commodity, I question whether the appearance aligns with his stated goal of winning his family back.  

 
photo credit: Greg Timm

 There are two types of people in this world: snow angels and snow crabs.

Snow angels embrace the snow. They eagerly anticipate its coming, stocking up on hot chocolate and brownie mix. They get out their snow gear–and they have a ton of it–so they can be ready for snowball fights and romantic walks in winter wonderland. For them, snow is full of opportunities. It’s a welcome and well-loved friend.

But all that snow just makes snow crabs, well - crabby.  They complain about how messy it looks after the first day. They gripe about the fact that schools are closed and they can’t get to work. They mope about not being able to get to the gym. They whine that they’re cold. For them, snow is something to be simply endured until it goes away.

I admit it–I’m a snow crab. The foot of snow blanketing central Virginia has not made me happy. It’s screwed up my carefully planned agenda and caused me to rearrange my priorities. It’s forced me to think differently about how to accomplish what I need to get done for my clients, colleagues and family. It’s required me to find new tools and new people on whom to rely. It’s made me slow down (gasp!) and think about what I’m doing and how I’m doing it.

But really, is that all bad? Most people rarely take the time to examine what they’re doing and how they’re doing it. In our rush to get things done, we don’t make time to really listen, learn and absorb. But that listening, learning and absorbing is critical to creative ideas and transformational thinking. It’s essential for bringing value to our relationships, whether they be with clients, classmates, coworkers or even family.

I hear we’re going to get wallopped with another snowstorm this weekend. This time, I’ll be prepared. Instead of fretting about what I’m not getting done, I plan to leaf through some art books, dig around on the Web to see what more I can learn about clients’ industries, bone up on  the details of what’s going on with our legislative session, call professional colleagues whom I respect just to chat. I’ll think about different things in hopes that it will spur me to think differently about ordinary things.

With any luck, my inner snow angel will whack my outer snow crab with a great big shovel.

Bring on the snow.

Here it is the last week of January and I can already see the New Year’s resolution bandwagon starting to lose members at my local gym. I’ll have to admit, I’m not exactly following my resolution at 100 percent, but a campaign I’m working on is giving me added incentive to stay engaged in my goal of improving my wellness. It’s called America’s Wellness Challenge and you can learn more about it at www.lifesupplemented.org.  Right now we are running a $15,000 sweepstakes to incentivize Americans to take that first step in improving their wellness – kind of like health care reform at home. 

All you have to do is take the free My Wellness Scorecard which measures your  overall wellness. I’ve been a WannabeWELL for years but with the big 50 around the corner, it’s time to make a change.  The best way to lower our health care costs is to take better care of ourselves. Now you have a chance to win $15,000 at the same time!

Tiger Woods is a phenomenal golfer – no question about it, and no one will ever take that away from him. He used his athleticism to build an amazing personal brand that stood for excellence on and off the course. For years, people have associated Tiger with integrity, honor and family. And companies have paid big bucks to associate their brands with this “one-man brand.” Apparently, however, the “brand” was all just a well-orchestrated illusion.

Tiger’s recent “transgressions” have resulted in late night talk show fodder and generated a tremendous amount of online chatter. According to information reported by the New York Times, 91 percent of buzz about Tiger pre-accident was positive. The Friday following the accident, that number dropped to 43 percent. And those late night jokes? Not so funny if you’re one of the companies paying Tiger millions to represent your brand. The same New York Times article cites Nielsen research that states that through Dec. 7, there were more than 20 Tiger jokes pairing him with at least one sponsor by name. Of course, there’s always going to be someone out there that claims any publicity is good publicity. But, in today’s digital age where reputations can be built and destroyed faster than ever before – and consumer trust and credibility are increasingly harder to earn – companies have to be that much more careful of the personalities they choose to represent them.

What would you do if your company had a multi-million dollar sponsorship agreement with Tiger? Companies like Accenture and P&G have decided to cut – or at least loosen – their ties with the iconic golfer. Other sponsors like Nike have decided to stick by him, citing this as a “blip” in his career. Meanwhile, Tiger’s decided to take a hiatus. When he returns – be it six months or a year from now – will people – and sponsors – be willing to forgive and forget?

photo credit: James Jordan

Two potential clients came by the other day for what I like to call a “chemistry check.” In the course of our conversation, they asked an interesting question: when we have found that we have not been successful with clients in the past, what did we think was the reason for that failure?

It’s a great question. In an industry that has its fair share of egos, it’s easy to point the finger back at the client for not listening to our wise counsel. But if we’re honest with ourselves, many of our client “challenges” come down to one thing: unclear expectations.

In the excitement of starting work with a new client, it’s tempting to rush to begin without doing the proper homework. But those first few meetings with clients are critical; they set the stage for the rest of the relationship, which often succeeds or fails based on what is decided in the beginning.

Several years ago, we put in place processes that ensure that we are providing top-notch value and service to all of our clients. Key in this initiative is a process for determining what the client expects from us right up front so there are no surprises down the line. We sit down with clients and walk through a process designed to uncover their communications preferences, measurement milestones and overall goals for their organization so we can not only be a seamless partner but provide on-target strategy. The most important part of this conversation centers on establishing realistic expectations about progress and results. This can be challenging when we have a client who, for example, wants us to guarantee a story on the front page of the New York Times within two weeks. But it’s incombent upon us as counselors to manage those expectations right up front. If we don’t, it almost always leads to disappointment on the part of the client and frustration on the part of the agency.

Let me point out that this conversation shouldn’t be one way. The wise potential clients whom I referenced above also asked us what they could do on their part to ensure success. It was a great opportunity to talk about the importance of access and timeliness, among other things. These gentlemen understood that expectations are a two-way street. If our clients don’t think to bring this up themselves, then we shouldn’t hesitate to let them know–up front–how their actions can contribute to a successful outcome.

Charles F. Kettering said, “High achievement always takes place in the framework of high expectation.” You do indeed get what you expect. So let’s continue to focus on setting clear, realistic expectations in all of our engagements rather than having to clean up the mess later.

photo credit: yark64

Today marks the 68th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that initiated World War II. More than 2,400 Americans were killed, including 1,177 crew members on the USS Arizona. Part of this vessel still rests at the bottom of the harbor to serve as a memorial to the people who perished in this tragic attack.

In 1997, I was able to visit the memorial constructed at Pearl Harbor in person. At the time, my husband Kevin (who served in the U.S. Air Force for 10 years) was serving a one year unaccompanied tour in Kunsan Air Base, Korea. We were meeting up at his 6-month, mid-tour mark in Honolulu for a 2-week reunion. The clearest memory of this visit to the memorial site was seeing the oil from the USS Arizona still rising to the surface of the water around us.

Although I was not born until the 70’s, I had learned about Pearl Harbor through history classes and personal stories from my grandfathers who had served in both the U.S. Navy and U.S Army. It was extremely important for me to honor and acknowledge this sacrifice made by so many of our military. I feel fortunate to have not lost anyone personally, but as a military spouse for 10 years, I had experienced what it felt like for my husband to get sent away twice to foreign countries for more than 6 months at a time and return safely on both occasions.

Please keep the military in your thoughts today - both past and present.