March 2005 Archives

Define your business
Recognize your strengths
Evaluate your opportunities
Assess your feedback
Manage your reputation

One of my fears in setting up this blog was that I would go "live," and later find a typo in one of my posts, or even worse, one of my readers would find a typo. But I decided to ignore that fear and get going anyway.

Well, last night it happened. I found a typo in my blog. And guess what? I'm still alive to tell about it. The sky hasn't fallen and my error wasn't the leading headline in this morning's news. There are no picketers outside my house and I'm not receiving hate mail from around the world. I have already fixed the typo, and you wouldn't even know about it if I weren't telling you.

Most of our fears are the same way. We work ourselves up into a frenzy of self-limiting beliefs and immobility by playing the "What if?" game. But then, on the rare occasion an "if" comes to fruition, it's nowhere near as life-threatening or career-ending as we initially imagined. We survive, we learn, we grow and we move on.

That being said, if you do happen to find a typo, let me know asap so I may humbly correct it.

eMarketer.com has a great article today, Ages of the Blog, summarizing recent stats from a CNN survey.

Disclaimer: I don't represent or endorse eMarketer, I just stumbled across their article while doing some research on blogs; however, before posting this link, I did check CNN and found an article from March 3 highlighting the survey results.

Business frequently takes me to an office about 250 miles from home. I gave up flying this route long before 9/11 because it's just easier to drive anywhere less than five hours away. Normally the trips takes three and a half to four hours. It really depends on how much Diet Coke I drink before (and during) the trip. And lately, it depends on how many bad drivers are traveling at the same time.

Barely an hour into the trip home this afternoon, traffic came to a complete stop, then crawled along at speeds under 35 m.p.h. for the next 30 minutes. I still have no idea why. I do know, however, why just 90 minutes later traffic stopped again.

Someone had been ejected from a car during a vehicle crash and was lying on the side of the road, two lanes away from the car, being worked on fervently by paramedics. I don't know if the victim was male or female, young or old. All I know is they had on blue jeans and were covered in blood. I said a prayer for their survival as my car crept by, just inches away. And I wondered aloud if they had been wearing their seatbelt.

My nephew's good friend was killed in a car accident on Wednesday. He was only 17 years old. He wasn't wearing his seatbelt.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration lists auto accidents as the eighth leading cause of death in our country and the number one cause of death for people from three through 33 years old. Accident statistics are shocking. Over 25% of Americans have been involved in an accident in the past five years. Of those that died, more than half were not wearing seatbelts. In Florida, there were 2,074 accident-related deaths in 2003. 1,236 were not wearing seatbelts. Now, I'm no math major, but even I can understand stats like that. And these stats can be changed!

Well, Orlando is in the national news AGAIN! This time, it's the CBS evening news without (thank goodness!) Dan Rather. It's not enough that we have become daily fodder for cities large and small across this great country with our mayoral crisis. Now we have children in kidney failure because they visited a petting zoo. Two petting zoos, to be exact. One at the strawberry festival and one somewhere else. Calling all crisis management professionals: we have great weather almost year-round, no state income tax, and a veritable plethora of opportunities for those seeking public relations jobs.

As the story continues to unfold, my bet is we learn it's not exactly because they visited the zoos, but more likely what they did at the zoo when the chaperones weren't looking...you can figure it out, you don't need me to explain how children don't obsess like adults do about where their hands have been before putting their fingers in their mouths.

Oh, speaking of Orlando, there's an update on the mayoral crisis. Judge Bronson has dismissed Ken Mulvaney's

It is fundamental to the success of any community initiative to make sure the general public is fully educated about issues in which their support is critical to success. Often, those driving the initiative are so entrenched in the process they forget that the audience they are trying to reach is not nearly as informed about the issues as those promoting the initiative.

You cannot build support among those who do not understand what you are trying to do and why you are trying to do it.

When you're handed your 15 minutes on a silver platter, grab it and run! Our new convicted- felon-turned-Orlando-Mayor has already gotten the web wizards at City Hall to replace the recently indicted-then-ousted Buddy Dyer's photos with his own. I wonder if he did that before or after he told the media they could call him "Mayor. Or Mayor Page if you prefer."

C'mon. The guy was convicted of grand theft and spent eight months in jail. IN JAIL!! And now he's the Mayor or Orlando? Am I the only one who finds this beyond bizarre?

I am so excited! I just got off the phone with Steve, the master's master of makeup and personal image. He's absolutely the best makeup artist in the world. If you don't believe me, then check out his list of very well-known, high profile celebrities! Anyway, Steve told me to check out his website so I did. The PR person in me was beyond delighted (and proud) to find my hubby and me featured on his "consultations" page. I was almost as excited as I am after landing a great feature or publicity opp for a client.

The first photo was taken when Steve was prepping me for a video shoot last fall. As a sponsor of the Orlando Business Journal's annual Golden 100 awards luncheon, I had to do a little "commercial" on film that was shown during the event. Suffice it to say that when your face shows up on two separate 60 foot screens in a ballroom of nearly 1,000 people, you definitely want Steve on your team! A little less eyeliner would probably have been good, too.

The other photos were taken in conjunction with Florida Trend magazine's article on power couples in Florida in which we were featured last month. We had a blast doing that photo shoot. Steve and my photographer, Michael Cairns, have worked together many times and Michael has been my photographer for years, so the shoot turned into a joking around, fun-loving afternoon among friends. Like Steve, Michael is one of the best in his industry. He, too, has a who's who list of celebrity clients. And he's usually booked months in advance. Yet when I called in a panic to tell him I needed photos done in the next 48 hours, he came through for me and made it happen, just like he always does.

That's why I do business with these guys. They understand the importance of client relationships. They go out of their way to help. And now Steve is generating more exposure for my business.

When you find someone like Steve or Michael, who are truly good at what they do and with whom you can really work well, do everything you can to cultivate, grow and maintain that relationship. Send them clients and referrals. Call periodically to make sure they're doing well and ask if there's anything you can do to help them. Invite them to meetings, events and social gatherings when you know people in the audience would be good prospects for them. Build the relationships. It makes business (and life) easier when you have friends and associates you know you can count on and even more enjoyable when they know they can count on you.

Today will be an interesting day in Orlando politics. The local media were hot and heavy last night over four grand jury indictments handed out in the ongoing saga of Orlando mayor Buddy Dyer, and allegations that absentee ballot laws were violated during his campaign last year. These indictments come just a day after the Mayor's testimony before a grand jury.

Our local media wolves have already circled themselves into a frenzy in anticipation of learning who is named in the indictments. The indictments were sealed, and the special prosecutor on the case couldn't say who was listed in the indictments until they were served or in custody. Seems one Ezzie Thomas, who is know for gathering absentee ballots in the predominantly black neighborhoods during many campaigns, is at the center of this storm. There have been repeated reports that he was paid to collect these ballots, which is in direction violation of campaign laws.

The smell of blood is already in the air. I bet the replacement wannabes didn't get a wink of sleep last night as they furiously brushed up on their campaign strategies and visualized how the view from behind Mayor Dyer's desk would look when they were sitting in his chair.

As the day goes on, I'm sure we'll have to go to non-Orlando news outlets to find out anything else going on in the world today. Stay tuned.

Six months to publish my first posting and less than four hours to post the second! Actually, I just received an email from PRSA (a great organization of which I am a member) promoting a teleseminar that recognizes the significance blogs are having on PR. Reading the email, I had to congratulate myself for finally entering the blogosphere. PRSA notes that "PR pros need to adapt" - and I have.

Details on the teleseminar:

"How Blogs Are Changing Public Relations - And How You Can Adapt."
Date: Thursday, April 14, 2005 Time: 2:00pm ET (1:00pm CT, 12:00pm MT, 11:00am PT) Duration: 75 minutes

As the public relations industry enters the second major wave of change of the Internet era, a seismic shift is underway. The consumers of news now are generating news of their own! Weblogs - popularly known as "blogs" - are having a significant impact on PR. The whole definition of media has changed and PR pros need to adapt. In this teleseminar, you will learn how you can adapt and apply blogs in traditional public relations campaigns and how you can thrive in the new world of blogs and influence audiences and the media. You will hear from Steve Rubel, VP, CooperKatz & Co. and author of "MicroPersuasion Weblog."

For more information or to register, visit www.corporate.prsa.org.

I set this blog up six months ago but I'm just now writing my first post. Why wait so long? Fear. Plain and Simple. Sure, I have dozens of explanations (and even more excuses) for waiting so long, but who cares?

The reality is that I was afraid to get started. I was afraid to pick a topic. What if noone is interested in my posts? I was afraid to hit the "publish" button. What if I post something and it has typos? I was afraid of the feedback. What if someone disagrees with me and replies with something negative? I was afraid of the commitment. What if people start reading my blog and I run out of things to post? This last one wins best self-limiting, fear-based thought here because, seriously, when has a public relations person EVER runs out of things to say?

What if, what if, what if! These two little words have profound consequences, limiting ourselves, our dreams, even our profit. I've spent most of my career in marketing and public relations so blogging should be something I embraced immediately. Instead, I spent six months playing the what if game.

So, this afternoon I decided to end the game. I reframed my self-talk. I thought about my blog and started asking myself very different questions: What IF I start my blog and someone likes what I say? What if someone finds humor in one of my rantings about typos in People magazine? What if I get really good feedback? What if I had started posting last fall when I actually set this blog up and now how hundreds of regular readers and lots of new friends and blogger buddies? The possibilities are endless.

So, my friends and fellow bloggers, it's official. I have felt the fear and done it anyway. I can now join the thousands who have gone before me and say "Yes, I blog. Do you?"

Wendy Kurtz