I really do. It's amazing how I get when I see a hot pair of shoes. The other day, I was telling my assistant that I was in the market for a pair of blue shoes and that night she sent me a link to a web site that had the pair I was looking for in a size 6.5! And, the best part, they were cheap!
Now, they weren't the ones that I would get excited over. They are just plain, leather, navy blue shoes. They have a pointy toe but that's the only thing about the style. Otherwise, they are kind of boring. But, they go with my blue suits and I'm now a happy camper.
So, what does navy blue shoes have to do with running a PR firm? Not much, except that I feel like when you work in the PR world, you need to be very stylish. I think that's one of the things that sets you apart. Your image, your style, the way you carry yourself, the you.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Networking Events Are Sometimes Bizarre!
Most networking events are fun. You get to meet a lot of new people, learn what they do and sometimes even see people you haven't seen in months!
The other night, I was invited to a networking event in Manhattan. I only knew the person who invited me and I walked around the room introducing myself to a lot of new people. One of the people I bumped into had a long beard and wore a skull cap. I didn't think anything of it and went to shake his hand. He refused to shake my hand and I didn't understand why.
A day later, I received the following email:
After reading this, I didn't know how to react. I guess some things are better off not said. Most people don't remember these little details in life and it's best to move on to another networking opportunity!
The other night, I was invited to a networking event in Manhattan. I only knew the person who invited me and I walked around the room introducing myself to a lot of new people. One of the people I bumped into had a long beard and wore a skull cap. I didn't think anything of it and went to shake his hand. He refused to shake my hand and I didn't understand why.
A day later, I received the following email:
"When we first met you stuck your hand out at me and I didn’t return your warm gesture, you looked a little taken aback.
I’m sorry this might have come across as being offensive, and I apologize for that.
In no way did I want to offend you nor did I want to make you feel inferior in any way.
Let me explain, religious Jewish women dress modestly, don’t sing in front of men or touch men, and men don’t look at immodestly dressed woman, listen to them singing or touch them.
The reason for this is for the respect of woman, so that the man shouldn’t be attracted to, or remember her because of her externalities, but for who she really is.
You see, the problem is in the man, men could be external they could be attracted to externalities.
Woman on the other hand are more sensitive naturally and don’t usually feel attraction to men through such externalities.
Shaking hands is touch.
As everyone knows that touch can sometimes blind people of the truth.
Before I married my wife we didn’t touch, not even a handshake, so we can both make sure we made a truly conscious decision.
I hope this answers any misunderstanding you might have had."
After reading this, I didn't know how to react. I guess some things are better off not said. Most people don't remember these little details in life and it's best to move on to another networking opportunity!
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Does it Matter Where You Take Them?
You have a new business prospect. He wants to meet you for lunch. Where do you go?
Do you go to the local diner? Do you take him to Friday's or Houston's? Or should you take him to Peter Lugar's Steakhouse in Brooklyn?
You have an employee who is trying hard to make a great placement for the agency or just closed a huge client, where do you take him?
Recently, I made a deal with one of my employees. If he gets a national placement, he gets to go with me to Peter Lugar's. (Little did I know, he already had a major placement in the works. That same day he arranged for a story in Parenting Magazine. Now I was obligated to take him to Peter Lugar's!)
So I decided to "killed two birds with one stone" and took the employee and the prospect to Peter Lugar's in Brooklyn.
Although I've been dieting recently, I decided to have at least two slices of the porterhouse steak that Lugar's is famous for. The steak melted in my mouth. It was outrageous. I realized that the Brooklyn Lugar's is way better than the one in Great Neck!
So was the employee and the prospect appreciative? I'm not sure. All I know is, I had a great meal!
Do you go to the local diner? Do you take him to Friday's or Houston's? Or should you take him to Peter Lugar's Steakhouse in Brooklyn?
You have an employee who is trying hard to make a great placement for the agency or just closed a huge client, where do you take him?
Recently, I made a deal with one of my employees. If he gets a national placement, he gets to go with me to Peter Lugar's. (Little did I know, he already had a major placement in the works. That same day he arranged for a story in Parenting Magazine. Now I was obligated to take him to Peter Lugar's!)
So I decided to "killed two birds with one stone" and took the employee and the prospect to Peter Lugar's in Brooklyn.
Although I've been dieting recently, I decided to have at least two slices of the porterhouse steak that Lugar's is famous for. The steak melted in my mouth. It was outrageous. I realized that the Brooklyn Lugar's is way better than the one in Great Neck!
So was the employee and the prospect appreciative? I'm not sure. All I know is, I had a great meal!
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Juggling Family and Work...
Wow, it's hard! I have two children and they are now at the age where I need to be the chauffer and drive them everywhere. If one wants to do something the other doesn't. If one wants to eat at a particular restaurant the other doesn't. My weekends are filled with trying to make the kids happy by driving them to their appointments and catering to their every need.
Why do I do this? For starters, their my kids and I love them. Secondly, I feel guilty. I'm always working. Even when I'm away from the office I'm working. I'm always thinking about ways that we can improve the firm and the quality of work for our clients. I think about this all the time -- on weekends, in the evenings, before I go to the office in the morning, etc.
That reminds me of my typical morning -- get up at 6 am. Take a shower, get dressed, get the older kid up and ready, make lunches, get the second kid in the shower, drive the first kid to school, come back and help the second kid get dressed, feed him breakfast and check my emails at the same time. As the clock approaches 8:30 am, we need to rush out the door, get in the car and drive to the bus stop. When the bus picks him up moments later, I drive to work. There's no down time!
When I get to the office it's just as hectic. I have people in and out of my office asking me questions, I have a "zillion" emails and I have a list of people I need to call back. I'm not complaining I just sometimes wonder how I do this.
A few business owners have said to me, "you work so that you support everyone else." You know, that's true. As hard as I work, I'm the last to get paid and when money is tight, I don't get paid at all.
So why do I do it? I really love it. I find that working in the PR world is like a good book that has it's ups and downs but keeps getting better every day.
Why do I do this? For starters, their my kids and I love them. Secondly, I feel guilty. I'm always working. Even when I'm away from the office I'm working. I'm always thinking about ways that we can improve the firm and the quality of work for our clients. I think about this all the time -- on weekends, in the evenings, before I go to the office in the morning, etc.
That reminds me of my typical morning -- get up at 6 am. Take a shower, get dressed, get the older kid up and ready, make lunches, get the second kid in the shower, drive the first kid to school, come back and help the second kid get dressed, feed him breakfast and check my emails at the same time. As the clock approaches 8:30 am, we need to rush out the door, get in the car and drive to the bus stop. When the bus picks him up moments later, I drive to work. There's no down time!
When I get to the office it's just as hectic. I have people in and out of my office asking me questions, I have a "zillion" emails and I have a list of people I need to call back. I'm not complaining I just sometimes wonder how I do this.
A few business owners have said to me, "you work so that you support everyone else." You know, that's true. As hard as I work, I'm the last to get paid and when money is tight, I don't get paid at all.
So why do I do it? I really love it. I find that working in the PR world is like a good book that has it's ups and downs but keeps getting better every day.
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Dead Beat Clients Can Kill A Business!
It's amazing how many "dead beat clients" I have had through the years! Clients who I would have never thought would have "screwed" me out of money after years of hard work and dedication on my part, did. And the part that gets me most is that I'm still angry almost a year later.
This past week, I came into contact with three of my "dead beat" clients. The first, a women's association, asked me to speak at a seminar. I was actually surprised they asked me because we didn't end on the best of notes. I decided to speak and "hold my head up high," even though I felt a little uncomfortable.
Last year, the group hired my firm to handle the logistics of all their meetings. After exceeding the allocated hours each month and evaluating the job, I found that each month we lost thousands of dollars on the job. Therefore, after the contract ended, I explained to the volunteers that we would no longer go forward. They understood, I thought. I finished off the month of work and at the end of the month, I got a call from a past president asking me to renegotiate the contract. "What do you want to be paid," she said.
My staff and I prepared a new proposal and presented to the client. They asked me to go one month at the same salary they had paid us during the year while they thought about it. We continued with them. At the end of the month, we sent them a bill and they refused to pay. They ended up giving us a quarter of what we were supposed to get paid!
Another former client, was a non-profit organization that hired us to organize and coordinate their black tie gala. The Director negotiated my contract down. And the clue to me was that it was done during my vacation! We went forward with the job thinking that we would meet lots of people and get other work from it.
The Director was so difficult to work with. She refused to work with any of my staff. She only wanted to work with either myself or my Vice President. So for nearly six months, my VP was out of commission, working solely on her job. She worked weekends, evenings, early mornings, all to appease the demanding client. As the event got closer, the rest of my staff got pulled in and they worked evenings and weekends to make sure the event was a great success. Through this process, things got very hectic with my staff. I started to loose people over this particular job and my VP was also ready to quit.
When I asked the Director to give us more for things not included in the contract, she said fine. She pushed off the bill until after the event. When I spoke with her directly she told me she would pay the couple of thousand she owed us. Instead, she decided not to pay!
We helped raise this organization more than $500,000 and they refused to pay us $2000! This job ended up costing me thousands of dollars due to the fact that my VP was totally out of commission from other jobs. It also cost me money in turnover and so many of my staff were so stressed from dealing with this person that it took me months to re fix what she had broke.
I thought we were finished. Until, my VP bumped into her at the parking lot of a local mall. And then, we received a nasty email asking us to take all references to them off our web site and networking sites. So, here we diligently work on a job that we charged very little for to try to get more work from others in her network to find out that we couldn't even talk about the success that we helped them achieve. I think something is wrong with this picture!
Finally, another association that we represented this past year, decided that they could not pay us the $30K that they owed us. We had worked on this job for 13 years. We always went above and beyond the call of duty. I totally expected them to pay us for the work we did. Then, budget time, they realized they had no money. I told them they could pay it out over time. They finally agreed to a payment plan of $500 every quarter. By the time they pay me back, if they ever pay me back, it will be almost 15 year in the future!
It's amazing how all three of these events occurred in the same year! I hope 2008 is better!!!!
This past week, I came into contact with three of my "dead beat" clients. The first, a women's association, asked me to speak at a seminar. I was actually surprised they asked me because we didn't end on the best of notes. I decided to speak and "hold my head up high," even though I felt a little uncomfortable.
Last year, the group hired my firm to handle the logistics of all their meetings. After exceeding the allocated hours each month and evaluating the job, I found that each month we lost thousands of dollars on the job. Therefore, after the contract ended, I explained to the volunteers that we would no longer go forward. They understood, I thought. I finished off the month of work and at the end of the month, I got a call from a past president asking me to renegotiate the contract. "What do you want to be paid," she said.
My staff and I prepared a new proposal and presented to the client. They asked me to go one month at the same salary they had paid us during the year while they thought about it. We continued with them. At the end of the month, we sent them a bill and they refused to pay. They ended up giving us a quarter of what we were supposed to get paid!
Another former client, was a non-profit organization that hired us to organize and coordinate their black tie gala. The Director negotiated my contract down. And the clue to me was that it was done during my vacation! We went forward with the job thinking that we would meet lots of people and get other work from it.
The Director was so difficult to work with. She refused to work with any of my staff. She only wanted to work with either myself or my Vice President. So for nearly six months, my VP was out of commission, working solely on her job. She worked weekends, evenings, early mornings, all to appease the demanding client. As the event got closer, the rest of my staff got pulled in and they worked evenings and weekends to make sure the event was a great success. Through this process, things got very hectic with my staff. I started to loose people over this particular job and my VP was also ready to quit.
When I asked the Director to give us more for things not included in the contract, she said fine. She pushed off the bill until after the event. When I spoke with her directly she told me she would pay the couple of thousand she owed us. Instead, she decided not to pay!
We helped raise this organization more than $500,000 and they refused to pay us $2000! This job ended up costing me thousands of dollars due to the fact that my VP was totally out of commission from other jobs. It also cost me money in turnover and so many of my staff were so stressed from dealing with this person that it took me months to re fix what she had broke.
I thought we were finished. Until, my VP bumped into her at the parking lot of a local mall. And then, we received a nasty email asking us to take all references to them off our web site and networking sites. So, here we diligently work on a job that we charged very little for to try to get more work from others in her network to find out that we couldn't even talk about the success that we helped them achieve. I think something is wrong with this picture!
Finally, another association that we represented this past year, decided that they could not pay us the $30K that they owed us. We had worked on this job for 13 years. We always went above and beyond the call of duty. I totally expected them to pay us for the work we did. Then, budget time, they realized they had no money. I told them they could pay it out over time. They finally agreed to a payment plan of $500 every quarter. By the time they pay me back, if they ever pay me back, it will be almost 15 year in the future!
It's amazing how all three of these events occurred in the same year! I hope 2008 is better!!!!
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