Category Archives: Communications

UBC Day 05: The Art of Procrastination

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Earlier this year, I read an article in Psychology Today called Procrastination: Oops, Where Did the Day Go? and thought it would make a great blog post. The article highlighted our proclivity to put things off, why we do it and how we can overcome this behavior.

In PR, there is no time to procrastinate. When getting a message out, time is of the essence. I strive to keep ahead of things, floating many balls in the air at any given time. I do this daily – and until now hadn’t given it much thought. Yet when it comes to getting my personal sh*t together, I’m as guilty as the next person when it comes putting things off; simple silly things such as sending an email, booking an appointment or getting my homework done. (Did I mention that I’m doing a Degree in my ‘spare’ time?)

Doing homework is a huge area of procrastination for me. Most of the courses I take are online or self study – meaning that as long as I have everything done and handed in at the end of the course, I’m good. I start with the best of intentions, telling myself that this time I will get a head start and do the course work consistently over the allotted six months. I praise myself for being so proactive in my planning.

Then here’s what really happens: I f**k around for three or four months, telling myself that I have plenty of time. Then hustle during the last few to get it done. What this tells me is that I can actually do the work in half the allotted time, but rather than starting with a bang and finishing early, I leave it to the last minute.

If there is one thing that I’ve learned about myself it’s that I work better under a deadline. The tighter the deadline, the more I produce. Ever need something to get done? Give it to a person who is busy. Busy people get more done. PR pros are busy people. Information is constantly changing and it’s our job to be ‘in the know’. There’s a great quote by Will Rogers that goes “Even if you are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.” But back to me procrastinating on my homework.

In the article Procrastination: Oops, Where Did the Day Go? the author suggests that we procrastinate for three main reasons:

  1. We put off things we don’t like to do or that upset us in some way.
  2. Because our intentions are anemic—vague and weak.
  3. We’re easily distracted, and some of us are highly impulsive.

Hmmm. Let’s see.

  1. I want the Degree, but I don’t like doing the homework.
  2. If I’m honest about it, my attempts to “get a jump start” are pretty weak.
  3. I have a huge case of A-DOS: Attention Deficient Ohhhhh Shiny!

To overcome procrastination, the article suggests that one of the “simplest and most effective solutions is to just get started—anywhere on a task.”  Okay, okay, I get it. Start small, but just get started. And I’m gonna do just that… tomorrow.

UBC Day 04: Volunteering Matters!

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I wish when I was first starting out in my career that I listened to those who told me that volunteering would lead to more paid opportunities. At the time I was so focused on just making cash – you know for those pesky bills we get every month – that I discounted this advice, then watched as these same people move forward by leaps and bounds.

It turns out that volunteering matters.

Volunteering the fastest way to gain real-life hands on experience. It opens up cool opportunities that may never have come your way otherwise. It can help to position yourself as an industry leader.  A  former coworker took the volunteering aspect a step further noting that if you are not actively involved in an organization and volunteering your time, there is no point in being a member. By volunteering your time at an event, on a committee and so forth, you meet people. The benefit: the next time you are at an event you already know some people in the room. Smart advise.

For the past few years I’ve been a member of a variety of interest groups and professional associations.  As my time was getting pretty stretched, I decided to take stock of the value each provided and the level of investment I was willing to make to truly get involved. I trimmed the proverbial fat and decided to focus my time on the groups/associations that I felt were a good fit for my interests. Of course in my eagerness, I made a rookie volunteering mistake – I had over committed and had let a few things go.

But the point here is that by volunteering my time I can now say that I was a co-organizer and Program Director for a Communications Conference, I’ve worked as a PR Director and as part of a Board of Directors. The experience has expanded my professional network, expanded my experience and importantly, expanded me.

If you’re like I was five years ago, wondering why your career has stalled, pick something you like and get involved already!


UBC Day 03: Something with which you struggle.

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I am not bilingual.

As a professional communicator working in our nation’s capital – our nation’s BILINGUAL capital – I’m at a disadvantage. I’ve taken some French classes, but in the end I do not have the opportunity to practice it daily so I’ve not come very far. I struggle with the issue of bilingualism as I’ve lost a number of really cool career opportunities because of my uni-lingual status. (Unless you count being able to speak Starbucks!) I would often get frustrated as I’d see opportunities go to someone who had less communications experience but spoke French. The biggest offender? The Federal Government.

Years ago, I had set my sights on getting a job within the Federal Government. Time after time I was called in for their screening test, invited for an interview and then set off for language testing – despite being forthright on my lack of French. Still, I diligently did the testing, slightly improving as the years went on, but never enough to make the cut. It was tough to repeatedly hear that I was the best candidate – if only I spoke French. There are many things in this world that you can BS your way through… but a language isn’t one of them.

Ever hear the saying: The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results?

That was me. Then I smarted up.

I am not bilingual.

I will never work for the Federal Government.

And when I took a moment to actually think about it, I really didn’t want to work for them. It turns out that my struggle with French was really a struggle to let go of a career path that I was no longer interested in. Once I let go, I discovered a plethora of opportunities that were perfect for where I did want to be.

Take the Leap!

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Yesterday, as everyone is aware, was leap day. To me leap, day is a gift. It’s a day to do something new. After all, it does happen only once every four years so why not make the most of it!

So to make the most of my extra day, I attended Take the Leap!, a communications forum held in Ottawa that I helped organize with a small, but amazing, group of fellow communicators. It was an awesome day filled with learning, networking and presentations from creative and inspiring professionals. I want to share with you my top ten takeaways from the day:

1. Our day started off with our Keynote speaker, Franklin Holtforster sharing his favorite quote by Will Rogers: “Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.” This is true of anything, but especially for professional communicators. We can not afford to rest on our laurels. Things change too quickly.

2. Twitter, and any social media for that matter, is part of any good campaign, but it is not the campaign alone. Sometimes we get so wrapped up in the ‘cool factor’ of social media, that we discount the importance of using all avenues to get our message out.

3. Regardless of the medium you choose to communicate your message – content matters! Always has, always will. If you do not have any value to add, refrain.

4. When using social media to communicate, check your facts before sharing! Just because we can share something with the world instantaneously, doesn’t absolve us from taking a moment to ensure our message is accurate or else we’ll spend more time backtracking and cleaning up a mess.

5. People may forget, but the Internet never does.

6. To know what your brand is, you also need to know what it is not. Take the time to develop your brand and define your audience. This will save you time and money in the end!

7. Once you have defined your brand, you need to be consistent in how your message is delivered – regardless of the medium.

8. Developing a 30 second elevator pitch is essential. AND harder than you think!

9. When pitching to reporters… see what they are tweeting about first.

10. Despite social media playing a bigger part in our interactions, face-to-face relationships still matter. Face-to-face meetings will never be replaced by chats, tweets or Facebook messages. Social media is an great way to connect and maintain touch points, but in the end it shouldn’t replace human contact.

So friends, these are my top ten takeaways from Take the Leap! I hope you find them helpful.

Any PR is Good PR… Except When it’s Not

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There is a popular saying that “any PR is good PR”. Well THAT theory has just been blown out of the water by a company called Ocean Marketing. Ocean Marketing was responsible for one of the biggest PR follies that we’ve seen in a while. And you may have missed it while you were sipping your eggnog. What happened you ask?

It begins with Dave, a customer who contacted a company called Ocean Marketing, responsible for the public relations for N-Control, to find out the status of his order to see if he would receive it before Christmas. Unfortunately for Dave, and for N-Control, Paul Christoforo, owner of Ocean Marketing, receives Dave’s email and is having, what he later describes as, a “bad day”. Emails get exchanged with Dave politely asking for information and Christoforo providing inadequate two to three word responses. As the exchange continues, Christoforo becomes increasingly rude and belligerent explaining to Dave that delays happen and, my favourite part,  that Dave should put on his “big boy hat” and stop complaining or he’ll take his order and sell it on e-bay.  (Are you cringing yet? It gets better.)

Well, the unfortunately for Christoforo, Dave did put on his “big boy hat” and forward this email exchange to a number of news outlets and to a guy named Mike Krahulik, one of the creators of a popular game-centered website called Penny Arcade and organizer of PAX  gaming expo.

Christoforo then attacks and insults Krahulik, brags of his own importance and basically tells both Krahilk and Dave to f**k themselves.  Krahulik at this point has reached his insult limit and posts the entire email correspondence between Christoforo and Dave on his website. With 3.5 million readers, Penny Arcade fuels the rage against Christoforo, spreading this exchange to major sites and blogs. After a few days, Ocean Marketing is dropped by N-Control who begun to do damage control as seen in a recent press release. I think it’s safe to say that Paul Christoforo will never work in PR again. In a recent interview with MSN it is apparent that he is not sorry, just sorry he got busted. Classy to the end…  

You don’t need to be a PR professional to see the many ways Ocean Marketing spiralled into an #EpicFail.  But here are my three takeaways:

Quality Customer Service Matters – Every. Single. Time.
The biggest takeaway from this entire fiasco is the reminder that good customer service is the backbone of any successful business. Regardless of size, it is critical that employees, and anyone representing your business, understand that customers will make or break your company.  Had Christoforo been upfront with Dave and explained in a professional and respectful manner that there was a delay and apologized, this entire situation could have been avoided. Christoforo failed to demonstrate professionalism and retains that he is in fact the victim, being crucified for having a bad day.

Tip: No one cares that you, as a professional communicator, are having a bad day. Suck it up and slap on a smile. You can cry about it when you’re off the clock.

Don’t Underestimate the Power of the Internet
Given the immediacy of the Internet, any bad publicity has the potential to quickly turn viral. It didn’t take long for major news sites and blogs to pick up on the story; or for Ocean Marketing to get bombarded with angry comments on their Twitter account – which has changed names at least twice since this all started. And it didn’t take long for a parody video to be created and posted. Funny thing about the Internet, it’s unforgiving and it never forgets.  Is this case, the anger against Ocean Marketing is another point of proof that the Internet can make or break the perception of your company.  

I think Dave said it best:  “Welcome to the Internet, bitch.”

Bad Publicity Does Exist
And we’re back at the saying “any PR is good PR”. After reading this, would you agree? The fallout from bad publicity can be dire and have fatal consequences for you and your company’s reputation. If your company experiences bad publicity, carefully manage social media channels, customer satisfaction and the flow of your message. In the height of the anger against Ocean Marketing, N-Control quickly fired Christoforo and hired a new public relations manager who quickly started damage control. If your company has the misfortune of experiencing public relations mismanagement, it is important to realize that damage control can help to restore faith in the company again.

Tip: Maintaining customer satisfaction and good public relations can ensure that your company’s reputation stays intact.   

For Love or Money?

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A friend of mine was telling me how she was offered a job in her area of expertise what would be her “dream job” but decided to turn it down because it paid significantly less than her current position. Which got me thinking… What’s the price on happiness? Do you have one? Do I have one?

Opportunity and fate are funny things. Sometimes they come in packages that are not presented in the prettiest wrapper so we decide they are of little or no value. We call it our “gut feeling”. In the case of my friend, who shall remain nameless, she though it would be taking a step back. It was obvious that she’d be taking a financial step backwards, but was it really a step back in her career path? What about job satisfaction? How important is to love what you do? I guess this goes back to an earlier post of mine: Do you work to live or live to work? Gut feelings are tough because sometimes it’s hard to distinguish it from fear.

Don’t get me wrong, I understand where she is coming from. I’m sure we all do. We need money to live and once we’ve become accustom to a lifestyle that we like, it’s hard to let that go. I’m sure that about 80% of the people in this world are not “living their dream” because more often than not, the dream pays crapola.  I’d love to be the person who plays with the dogs all day at PetSmart’s doggie daycare… but not for minimum wage. 

Why does it have to be one or the other? What can’t we eat our cake AND have the cash to pay for it too?

Do you have a plan?

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We just finished our business planning here at work which outlines our corporate goals and priorities for 2012. This got me thinking about personal goal planning. I’m not referring to the New Years’ resolution style of promises we make to ourselves that are broken within a month – but rather real planning and goal setting. Where do I want to be in three years? Where do I want to be in a year? What do I want to achieve? And more importantly, what am I going to do to get there?

There are two camps on this one: the planners and the go-with-the-flow crowd. Which are you? Myself, I’m a planner. Whether it’s personal or professional, I’m a firm believer in “The Plan.” From setting a goal to learn the violin (still working on it!); planning my next vacation (helllloooo Peru!); planning my career path or even what I’ll be doing next month – I like to plan. Those who know me can attest that I’m not the type the person to sit around waiting for a scrap of opportunity to be thrown my way before I take action. In fact, the-go-with-the-flow crowd makes it easier for us planners to attain our goals faster because there’s less competition!

But don’t mistake my having a plan to mean that I’m not flexible. The best plans are always fluid, changing and evolving along the way. Much like with corporate planning, it’s good to do a check in with yourself to ensure you are still on the track you want to be on.  I often ask myself: What have I done today/this week/this month to get me closer to my goals? Are these still my goals?

The Dali Lama famously said: “Be the change you want to see in the world.” He was speaking on a global scale, but this can be applied in your own life as well. Be the change in YOUR world. Make opportunity happen… Good things don’t always come to those who wait.

The Importance of Being Engaged

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Just over a month ago I started a new job. It’s exciting, fresh and new. And long overdue…

I’d been with my previous employer for eight years, almost to the day, when I walked out their door for the last time. Over those eight years, I had the opportunity to grow, learn and meet the most amazing people – some who are now my closest friends. While there was an obvious level of investment on my part, it became apparent that it was time for a change when I hadn’t learned anything new in a long time and internal prospects were nil.

As a communicator, it’s especially important to stay engaged to produce quality work and offer fresh ideas. After all, you are the company’s voice. If you’re not interested in what you have to say, then why should anyone else?  I admit it. My enthusiasm had waned.  When you’ve been doing the same thing for a long time it’s easy to switch to autopilot.  Disengagement is common but it’s not healthy for the employee or an organization. Thankfully the solution is simple – change. Change your job. Change your corporate structure. Change your attitude. Shift your paradigm. Change is ALWAYS good – even if it doesn’t feel like it at the time. Getting outside of your comfort zone is the best way to shake things up and wake up.

So how long is too long to stay in one role? I was discussing this very topic with a mentor of mine who is an experienced communicator. She said that five to six years is a healthy length of time for a communicator to stay in a role before it’s time to move on. That got me thinking about my eight years. I’ve always prided myself in having a large comfort zone, but the longer you do the same thing, the smaller that zone becomes until it’s not comforting at all.  But hindsight is 20/20. You can’t change what has happened. You can only take action focus on the road ahead… and my road is full of possibilities.

Is self-promotion bragging?

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Every communicator self promotes. It’s how we get our personal message / brand out there.  But self-promotion isn’t an instinctive behavior. It’s an art form that is cultivated through trial and error. Self-promotion is an important skill to master, because no one likes a braggart.

As children forming into adults, we are taught to be bold, strong and ambitious. We are told to chase our dreams and celebrate our successes. But at the same time we are expected to also be humble, show humility and most importantly not to brag. In this digital age of self-promotion and personal branding; of websites and tweets,  how much is too much? When does self-promotion cross over the line into bragging?

While this is far from a new topic, to me HOW the message is delivered can determine whether it will be received as self-promotion or bragging.  Because in the end, it’s the same message, “I did bla, bla, bla.”  Verbally it can be as simple as how/what words are emphasized. When discussing a recent accomplishment, if the emphasis is always in the “I“, then you’re stepping into bragging territory. “I did this. Or I did that.” Me, me, me.  Bla, bla, bla, I’m so great.

How self-promoting can remain as such can be as easily as mentioning an accomplishment and explaining why it’s a big thing for you. Make it more personal and in my opinion, you’ll look less arrogant. “I’m really proud of the recent project I did because…”  Hey! While we’re at it, here’s a great idea: take an interest in the people you are talking to! Ask them about what they are doing and LISTEN when they reply. Having a great conversation with someone will leave a lasting good impression. If you’re talking AT me and not to me, I’ll remember you alright…

Online self-promotion is tricky because it always begins as a one-sided conversation. You’re putting yourself out there, trying to stand out among the masses. You’re broadcasting your message, initiating interactions and discussions, so by all means toot your own horn now and again to share your successes. But make sure you join the conversation. Take the time to develop relationships, provide insight and opinions. Let your personality shine. If you take the time to be part of the conversation, I will quickly learn on my own how great you are – AND I’ll TELL OTHERS.

Do you Live-to-Work or Work-to-Live?

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One of the things that I’ve noticed among my fellow communicators is that most of us tend to fall into the live-to-work category. That is, communications is not only a job, but rather a lifestyle. We’re passionate about what we do. It’s shown in the events attend, the organizations we participate in and the people we socialize with.

What does it mean to live-to-work? To me it means how you invest your time and energy is important to you. The eight hours or so a day spent working needs to fulfill whatever it is you are uniquely looking for. I live-to-work. This doesn’t mean that all I do is work and have no life. But communications is part of my lifestyle and it is important to me that I’m making a difference, providing value and at the end of the day, proud of what I do. I’m often described as a passionate person. Whether this is meant as a compliment or as a fault I don’t know, and frankly don’t care. Passion is what drives communicators to do what they do best. Not only do I want the world to hear my message, but I want it to be changed by it.

Work-to-live? No thanks. Spending eight hours a day converting O2 into CO2 waiting for the clock to hit 5:00pm  so you can get to your “real life” sounds pretty soul crushing. That isn’t to say the work-to-live crowd are not good at what they do or are not satisfied. But rather they are doing something that is just okay to get the money to fund their passions.  And that’s okay – for them. But I’ll stick to my guns and follow my bliss.

How about you? Do you live-to-work or work-to-live? What lights your fire?