The One Question You Should Ask Everyone You Meet

At the risk of dating myself, who else remembers “The Sunscreen Song?” The track was put to wax by Baz Lurhmann during the summer of 1999 and features lyrics taken from a hypothetical commencement speech penned by Chicago Tribune Columnist Mary Schmich. The tune features some great pieces of advice. Specifically, though, it features the following advice about advice:

“Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it’s worth.”

I love that line. Dispensing advice is a way of fishing from the past, taking the best parts and reusing it. While this line and the majority of the song was written with the personal aspects of life in mind, I’ve found it applies to the professional aspects of life as well.

I mean, it makes sense, right? The best way to learn is to take on advice from those you respect and those in places you aspire to reach. Whenever possible, I ask the business owners, marketers, and entrepreneurs I meet to share with me the best advice they have ever received. You’d be surprised how much insight such a simple question can yield.

As it relates to PR/marketing, here are a few of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever received in no particular order. Hopefully, they will help you on your own journey.

  • If it’s going to take two minutes, do it now.
  • Be strategic in everything you do. Moving forward with an idea? Vetoing an idea? Shifting direction? Have a reason why.
  • Take complete ownership of both your victories and failures.
  • Think big – every time – and scale it back to meet your needs.
  • Learn how to write (yes, this needs to be said).

Oh, and one more piece of advice. Remember cool songs written during the years before you were of legal age to vote. They might help you write a blog post one day!

(This post has been updated since its original publication in February 2016.)  

8 Reasons Why PR Agency Pros Will Miss “Mad Men”

Did you watch the series finale of Mad Men? It was exactly what you’d expect from the modern classic – emotional, compelling and wrought with existential crises. But perhaps most important, it delivered a fitting conclusion to the tale of Don Draper – arguably The Golden Age of Television’s most “difficult man.”

For those who work in agency life, the end of Mad Men allows for a different type of mourning, for we are no longer able to see elements of our profession represented during prime-time. Here are thoughts from me and several of my colleagues — all huge Mad Men aficionados and PR agency veterans — regarding what we appreciated most about the show as well as what we will miss:

  • “I will miss having a reference point for explaining what I do for a living to family members. My explanation usually goes a bit like, ‘Have you ever seen Mad Men? It’s sort of like that, but not at all.’” – Nicholas Porter
  • “I’ll miss seeing Don create campaigns on the fly. At his best, he’s a brilliant strategist who cuts through the clutter, drills into what the client wants and paints a vivid picture that sells the consumer on the client’s product. Heinz ketchup. Jaguar Cars. Coke. The stories he spun were inspirational. Now, on the other hand: Don at his worst? That’s a different story…” Michael O’Connell
  • “I will miss seeing the collaborative process on the small screen! Seeing individuals working together in one room to bring ideas to life was always my favorite part of the show.” – Jen Bonney
  • “I will miss watching Peggy Olsen’s career trajectory and her struggle to be taken seriously. It was inspiring.” – Gaby Berkman
  • “I will miss seeing the reality of agency life on television. Change is the only constant in this world and Mad Men exemplified that as each big idea or opportunity led to a new agency, and a new challenge for the core characters. The show demonstrated how smaller, more nimble agencies like Sterling Cooper Draper Price – and PAN – best serve clients by staying ahead of the curve.” – Shelly Runyon
  • “I will miss how the show used 1960s culture and historic events to tell modern stories that agency professionals and ‘civilians’ alike could relate to. I also loved Megan!” – Alyssa Miron
  • “I really enjoyed how spot on the series was when it came to 1960s pop culture references. It was a fun tour through history that felt more like “real life” than what we were taught in school or learned from our parents.  But the number one reason I will miss the show? Joan! – Nikki Festa
    • The show did a great job of capturing the décor and the attitude of the times.  My first agency job in was in a heavily smoking office working with a guy named “Sterling” who, in some ways, was a lot like Don Draper. I’ll miss the protypical agency characters. My favorite Mad Men scene: the picnic in an early episode where Don, Birdie and the kids have a picnic outside in a park. Instead of cleaning up the trash when they leave, they just pick up the blanket, dumping and leaving all the garbage all over the ground, and drive off. My second favorite scene: the birthday party/cookout with the kids wearing plastic bags on their heads and shooting guns at each other and not a single parent being concerned. I could relate to Mad Men—and that’s what I’ll miss most. It was like watching memories from my childhood – Tim Monroe

What will you miss the most about Mad Men? Feel free to share!

(A version of this post previously appeared on PRSpeak.)

 

Via Vanity Fair
Via Vanity Fair

Hitting the Deck: Untraditional Networking with 1000Pirates

If you claim you don’t love pirates, my claim is that you have no soul.  🙂

Entrepreneurs, start-up founders and tech gurus are certainly among the many who adore these swashbuckling heroes, and rightfully so, since they have plenty in common.

Last month, I had the pleasure of attending Boston’s 1000Pirates networking event. Yes, the event is as random as it sounds – a night where business folks are encouraged to forgo traditional networking in favor of donning pirate costumes and partying. A few days later, I recounted the experience and what I learned from it in a post for my agency’s blog. Today, I learned it was the most trafficked post our site received during the entire month of October. (I also got this nifty little block trophy and a gift card to Starbucks for the achievement!)

I’ve decided to share the post for you all here as well. Happy reading..ARRRGG!!!

Hitting the Deck: Untraditional Networking with 1000Pirates