Denver Public Relations: Pushkin PR

Lifers

2012-01-03T11:45:00.000-07:00

A new year always begins with promise, hope and opportunity.It’s a fresh start, but that optimism is hard to imagine for a lot of people.

Like the homeless guy named Larry who lives a block from myoffice near the Cherry Creek bike path downtown. He’s a self-sufficient guy whokeeps all his belongings in a little cart he hitches up to his bike and coverswith plastic bags. I see him there when I walk my dogs by the creek. He wasalways with his companion, a big furry husky. My dogs like to greet his dog andthat gives me a chance to slip Larry a $10.

Just before the holidays, Larry said the police had takenhis dog away and euthanized him. It may be a new year but things are not reallylooking up for Larry. They are also not looking up for the woman who called myoffice last week looking for the Homeless Prevention Fund, which is part ofCheckoff Colorado. She was desperate for rental assistance and you could hearthe fear in her voice. Heartbreaking.

These kinds of stories really get to me. Like Woody Allen said in Annie Hall, " I can't enjoy anything unless everybody is. If one guy is starving someplace, that puts a crimp in my evening."

Which leads me to the point of this article. For a change, this article is not about publicrelations. It’s about inspiration. When I need something to believe in, when I hopefor a fresh start, I think of the talented, creative, almost famous troubadourswho make music because the music is reward enough. They are the lifers.

Toward the end of The Last Waltz, Robbie Robertson explainswhy The Band is breaking up. He says the road eventually catches up witheveryone and he does not want to keep testing the odds. He says the road caughtup with Hendrix, Joplin, Hank Williams, Elvis, and so many others, and he doesnot want to join that list. At some point in my life I completely understoodwhat Robbie meant. I lost my endurance and got off the road too. Every musicianI know understands this, but the special ones have the passion to be undauntedand unafraid.

That’s why the lifers are my heroes. Ramblin’ Jack. Tim O’Brien. Mark Diamond. Mary Flower, Pete Wernick, Barry Mitterhof, Harry Tuft, and so many others I’m lucky to call friends. They inspire me to believe thatanything is possible.

So to all the cats who ever played bad gigs in crummy barsfor loud drunks who never listen, here’s lookin’ at you, kids. Best wishes fora happy, healthy, safe and prosperous 2012.

Tebow Time Out

2011-12-16T17:07:00.002-07:00

ESPN is devoting what seems like the entire 60 minutes of SportsCenter each night to the legend of Denver’s new darling. Sports Illustratedsays Tim Tebow has transcended sports and is now “in the same stratosphere asLady Gaga.” The Denver Post said that business management styles will change becausebosses will realize they should be kinder and more respectful, like Tebow.

Enough. Uncle. I need a Tebow time out. All this wholesomepep rally talk is giving me the creeps. What happened to jocks getting caughtwith hookers or pot? I am nostalgic for the days when we could talk aboutathletes shooting themselves in bars or testing positive for steroids. Stop thebandwagon, I’m jumping off.

Colorado is gaga for Tebow. It used to be Elway’s town, whereeveryone bought cars from his dealerships just to have his name on the back oftheir vehicles. Now Denver belongs to Tebow and it doesn’t matter if he can’tpass or read defenses or if he spends the first 58 minutes of the game lookinglost and confused.

Tebow’s brand works because he eats, prays and loveseveryone with a big smile on his face, even the opponents who want to rip hishead off and feed it to the cat. His brand promises magic and so far, he’s beenable to deliver week after week. He oozes positive thinking and people areimpressed with his All American boy authenticity.

In PR terms, Tebow is doing what every Denver publicrelations pro counsels clients to do. He lives and breathes his brand. He deliverson his brand promise. He stays on message. He accentuates the positive,eliminates the negative, and lets his agent deal with anything in between.

I can appreciate his PR savvy and his sincerity, but hisbrand is already overexposed and it gets worse every day. Fans are putting himway above a pedestal; they are putting him on a throne. Even strong brands havetrouble living up to such expectations. Just ask John Elway, LeBron James orBarak Obama. Sometimes even Apple disappoints.

So my advice for Tebow would be enjoy the ride and hope fora nice soft landing. Now if anyone needs to reach me I’ll be in a Tebow TimeOut.

A Tale of Two Crises

2011-11-10T12:27:00.001-07:00

From a crisis communications perspective, the Penn State andHerman Cain scandals have a lot in common. Both are about something thathappened long ago. And both have been badly handled, allowing the damage to getworse and worse with each passing day.

The curious case of Herman Cain is certainly one that crisiscommunicators will use in presentations for years to come. His mistakes areclassic. He ignored the opportunity to confirm, deny or discuss Politico’sstory before they went public. He has demonstrated a stunning lack ofsensitivity and compassion toward his accusers and a condescending attitudetoward women in general. He seems unaware that sexual harassment is a seriouscharge.

Cain lectures the media, boasts about his integrity andattempts to obscure the facts by playing with semantics. He tried the “I don’trecall anything” defense before he admitted remembering something about anagreement, but not a settlement. He blamed the media and he concoctedconspiracy theories. He has not been forthcoming but he has certainly beenarrogant.

Penn State also failed to gain control of the situationquickly. According to the NY Times, before the adults finally took charge and dismissedthe university president and the iconic football coach, “the university devolved into aleaderless circus in the days after its sexual abuse scandal unfolded. EarlyWednesday, Coach Joe Paterno was still calling his own shots, as if his moralauthority had somehow survived the tsunami of a scandal fueled by his owninaction. When the Board of Trustees did the right thing Wednesday night — andreally, firing Paterno and Graham B. Spanier, the university president, was theonly thing it could do — the Paterno cult of personality tried to strike back.Students protested, clinging to the mythical hero they did not want unmasked.”

WarrenBuffet famously said that it takes 20 years to build a reputation and fiveminutes to ruin it. Herman Cain, Penn State and Joe Paterno have all sufferedserious damage to their reputations by denying, hiding or obscuring the facts.By stalling, avoiding or misleading the media, and failing to show compassion,remorse or understanding for the people hurt by their actions or inaction,these individuals and institutions have paid an enormous price in lostcredibility, respect and trust.

What’s worse? Admitting your mistakes and asking forgivenessfor your failings, or letting suspicion and innuendo linger and grow until youhave nowhere left to run? Any crisis communicator can tell you it doesn’t takea press conference to answer that one.

Can’t anybody here play this game?

2011-11-03T11:54:00.000-06:00

In 1962 the New York Mets were born as a new National Leagueexpansion franchise. The team was assembled from players other teams leftunprotected in the league’s expansion draft, so the first Mets were acombination of no name rookies, washed up bums and broken down former New York starsfrom the Yankees, Dodgers and Giants.

Casey Stengel was the team’s first manager. He was alegendary character and baseball man who won 10 pennants in 12 years, includingfive straight world championships as manager of the Yankees. Known as the OldPerfessor for his comical, home spun humor, he famously asked after watching theteam stumble through their first spring training, “Can’t anybody here play thisgame?”

I’m reminded of that quote by the sometimes entertaining,often disturbing and seemingly never ending series of Republican presidential debates. They spend most of their time pandering to whatever group of peoplethey are talking to, throwing around accusations and insults, and changingtheir tune from day to day.

Facts are meaningless to this group, who seem notat all interested in coming up with serious solutions to the mind-bogglingproblems facing the country and the planet.

They are apparently getting advice on this screwy behaviorfrom their campaign managers, who are the ultimate spin-doctors. These are notPR people, but PR people often take the rap for this kind of unethicalmanipulation (spinning) of the facts that the public mistakes for PR.

I don’t know any Denver public relations pros who wouldadvise their clients to say things like “I don’t recall,” or “What he reallymeant to say was,” or “Don’t ask me those questions.” There is a differencebetween political campaigns and public relations campaigns, and the differencestarts with a code of ethics. We have one and they don’t. Spin-doctors are notwelcome in our club. We don’t have time for that.

Campaigning is a game that requires a certain set of skills.Some people play it well, and some stumble around like the 1962 Mets. If you are a fan, it might be entertaining andfun to watch, but it won’t win you any titles. In the end, you are just embarrassing the realpros.

Hope Floats

2011-10-19T15:47:00.002-06:00

It’s hard to be optimistic these days. A do nothing Congress. Millions of people are unemployed while corporate profits and CEO salaries skyrocket. Global warming, famine in Africa, earthquakes, tsunamis, never ending wars and an economic crisis in Europe. Shoot me now.

Denver public relations pros are keenly aware that the more anxious and jittery people are, the less likely they are to invest in their companies or hire more employees. The economy sputters because we are worried and we are worried because the economy is sputtering. Everyone is standing on the sidelines. It’s a hard cycle to break.

So if you are dying for a hopeful sign that things can improve, let me tell you about Will and Zak. They are recent Colorado College graduates who left this week on a four month Source to Sea kayak trip down the Colorado River. They are part of the Colorado College State of the Rockies Project student research team that is studying the impact of climate change and water usage in the seven-state Colorado River Basin.

As Will says, “floating down the river is one of the most awe inspiring, raw, soul cleansing experiences imaginable.” But these guys are no fools. They are armed with an array of digital tools that will let them send back video and written blog updates as they document the state of the river from Wyoming down to Mexico.

Did you know that there is so much regional demand for water that the Colorado River actually dries up before it reaches the sea in Mexico? Or that even though we already use every drop available, states continue to demand more supply and refuse to implement common sense conservation methods?

According to University of Wyoming law professor Lawrence MacDonnell, who spoke this week at Colorado College, it would be smart to place legal limits on how much water new projects can allocate and decrease water use by the Lower Colorado River Basin.

“All these are easily doable by existing laws of the river and some new laws,” MacDonnell said. The problem, of course, is politics. “My guess is we’ll wait until the crisis happens, when reservoirs are empty. We tend to put off unpleasant tasks.”

Talk about throwing cold water in your face. This scenario should be a wake up call to all of us. Luckily, Will and Zak and the State of the Rockies Project students are sounding the alarm. And that’s what gives me hope.

I’m optimistic that they will inspire more young people to get involved. It may seem frivolous to spend four months floating down the river, but not to their generation. Their story and the way they choose to communicate it resonates clearly with people their age. They get the message.

I’m optimistic that these students understand that life is about doing, leading and making a difference. It’s about communicating in a language that your audience understands. It’s about crafting messages and using technology to tell a story that motivates people to change their behaviors. It’s an important story and these are powerful storytellers.

For the next four months, hope floats down the Colorado River. You can follow along here: http://www2.coloradocollege.edu/stateoftherockies/

Sage advice

2011-09-22T11:20:00.001-06:00

A panel of Denver public relations agency leaders spoke recently at a PRSA Colorado luncheon about the outlook for the PR business and what changes Denver PR pros can expect as we look ahead. The sage panel included Gwin Johnston from Johnston Wells, Sharon Linhart from Linhart PR, former national PRSA chair Jeff Julin from MGA, Laura Love-Aden from Ground Floor Media, Larry Holdren from Pure and Pete Webb from Webb PR. Denver PR Blog founder Jeremy Story was the moderator.

The discussion ranged from the economy to social media, and from ethics to how we can best measure the impact of what we do. Here are a few takeaways.

The economy is no doubt causing some hesitation on the part of clients and how they determine when and where to allocate their communications budget. The problem is that budget decisions are based on confidence. If we are running scared, we lay low. If we are feeling good, we plunge ahead. As PR pros, we have an important role to play in how the public and the business community feel about things. If we can help them accentuate the positive and eliminate, or at least keep the negative in perspective, we can promote a healthier economic environment. We can help people lose the blues and sing a happier tune.

We all have our own management style and leadership philosophy. But we have an obligation to create an ethical culture that is ingrained in every team member. Whether we spell out the PRSA Code of Ethics in agreements or simply provide a forum for team members to discuss how to make good ethical decisions, we need to make sure that our teams understand it, live it and breath it. We need to communicate to our clients and the public that our profession places a high priority on ethics. That is the only way to overcome the negative “spin doctor” stereotype public relations carries.

We all know that measurement and accountability are important, but there is no standard formula for measuring our results. What we do and how we measure it depends on each client’s business objectives. So we first need to understand those objectives, and be able to provide a range of counseling and services that achieves them. Our results should be based on what the client needs, not measured by a standard formula.

The main qualities agency leaders look for in a young professional are smarts, business savvy and the ability to read. If you are smart, it doesn’t matter what your degree is in. You must read at least one newspaper or news website every day. If you don’t know what’s going on in the world you can’t help your clients. And hopefully you took some business classes along the way. You have to know how to speak the language to earn a seat at the table.

As successful as these Denver public relations leaders have been, their wisdom lies in understanding that there is a lot we still need to learn. The technologies we use are constantly changing. The boundaries between PR, marketing and advertising are blurring. How our clients engage with their target audiences is constantly shifting.

Leadership depends on our willingness to keep learning, and to encourage everyone on our team to do the same. Wisdom is the ability to learn from our experience, appreciate the present and see all the possibilities that the future offers. Hopefully, some of the wisdom we heard rubbed off, and we can carry it with us as we tackle our next challenge.

Image is Everything

2011-08-25T10:42:00.000-06:00

Now that the NFL owners and players have finally decided how to split up the billions of dollars the league generates every year, sports fans can turn their scorn toward the NBA players and owners, who are trying to set a new standard for sloth and indolence.

Although it is still too early to call a winner, so far it looks like the NBA players are clearly losing the battle of public perception. According to Dave D'Alessandro, who covers the NBA for the New Jersey Star Ledger, this is due to the failure of the players to clearly define their brand.

D’Alessandro writes that “The players have concluded that they’re best served by curling up in a fetal position and playing defense like the Knicks, or by essentially keeping their mouths shut until they are force-fed their inscrutable fate.” He points out that while many NBA players make significant contributions to their community, they are not doing a good job of getting that message out. Instead we see them being arrested, selling products, and hanging out with celebrities.

“Carmelo Anthony was on “Law & Order.” Amar’e Stoudemire flew to China to sell more shoes made by Indonesian hut people earning $1.25 a day. Kris Humphries was married to someone who is famous for literally doing nothing relevant.”

D’Alessandro suggests that instead of whining about how they are going to survive the lockout minus their multi-million dollar salaries (a message that 9 million unemployed Americans find hard to swallow), they should be developing community based programs that tell a more positive story about who they are and what they stand for.

“Send each guy back to his neighborhoods once a week. Pick a day and give free clinics in every city in the U.S. Refurbish playgrounds. Look into the cameras and say, ‘As long we have all this free time, we want to help.’ Build the player equity. Demand that the union wise up and enhance the brand.”

Sometimes brands need to recognize an opportunity when it presents itself. The NBA players have a chance to redefine their brand, to change the perception that they are spoiled brats and create a new brand that says we are grateful for the chance to help the world be a better place.

If your brand is suffering from a lack of clarity or an unfavorable perception, take the time to examine that brand and determine how to better tell your story. Don’t let others determine how people see you. Make sure you tell your story before someone else tells it for you.

5 reasons to stop using numbers in blog titles

2011-08-11T11:07:00.000-06:00

Every morning I get an email with a long list of blog articles about PR. And every article starts with a number in the title, like 10 things you should know about using numbers in blog titles.

The reason people do this is because search engines like numbers and some social media genius told them it would boost their SEO. But seriously, have we not gone completely overboard with this maddening trend? Can we all just agree to stop it now?

As a public service to help bloggers begin the healing process, here are 5 reasons to stop using numbers in your blog titles:

Using numbers in blog titles to boost your SEO is just a cheap trick. You’re better than that. You are good enough, you are smart enough, and doggone it, people like you.

It’s boring. It’s a rip off of Letterman’s top 10 list and everyone does it. Dare to be different and make your point without using numbers.
I know you think you are being helpful but you’re not. Most of those tips you are telling me I already know. Tell me something I don’t know.
It’s phony. It sounds like you are delivering a lecture. How about delivering some wisdom instead?
The next time you post an article that starts with 5 things or 10 reasons or 6 sins or 12 steps, a large, scary looking guy named Cheech will come to your house and threaten to kick the crap out of you.

Well, that was a bit awkward but it feels good to get it off my chest. I feel better already. As Woody Allen said in Annie Hall, now we can digest our food.

Ghost Story

2011-07-18T17:04:00.000-06:00

I was watching TV with my dog the other night. She likes to watch. The movement fascinates her and she can actually tell what’s happening on the screen. Her favorites are sports, movies and of course, commercials with barking dogs.

It was a dark and stormy night. Thunder shook the clouds. A yellow moon peeked through a purple sky. Suddenly, there on the screen walked a pale, ghostly character in a white t-shirt, stumbling along a railroad track, mumbling to himself. My dog went nuts. She stood on her hind legs and barked fiercely at this apparition. She was scared crazy and she wanted to send this ghost back where he came from.

After I stopped laughing I realized how startled and frightened she must have been. Even though she forgot about it quickly, I thought about what could make me scared enough to scream bloody murder. And why it is that humans find it much harder to deal with their fear than dogs do.

Humans are scared of almost everything. We are scared of failure or success, of being alone or being loved. We are scared of being embarrassed or being praised, scared of too much pressure or not enough direction. Scared of being ignored and scared of being yelled at. Scared of being bossed around and scared of being too bossy. Scared of terrorists and scared of the law, scared of change and scared to change, scared of heights, scared of clowns, scared of life and scared to death.

As The Band sang, some people get stage fright, some are scared of the spotlight and some are scared with all their might. Woody Guthrie said that some people rob you with a six gun and some with a fountain pen. If Woody was around today he might include the Internet, because that’s where the fear really flies.

We’ve got governments fighting cyber wars and media hacking cell phones. We’ve got people carrying on affairs and posting the most intimate details of their personal lives for anyone to see. We’ve got brands being tarred and feathered with unsubstantiated rumor and innuendo and politicians spreading negative noise about their opponents that sticks whether it’s true or not.

Which finally brings me to my point, which is that I like crisis communications. Crisis communicators put out fires and calm frazzled nerves by gathering the facts and delivering them with honest transparency and compassion. It is our job to keep our cool and remind our clients to keep theirs too. We need to temper our passion with precision and face our fear with the fierceness of our convictions.

Like my dog, it is the job of a good crisis communicator to help their clients learn to look fear in the face when they feel threatened or attacked. When we find ourselves stuck in a ghost story, how do we want it to end? Like my dog, can we make that ghost disappear? Can we make that spirit fly?

Happy Anniversary to Us

2011-06-30T11:40:00.000-06:00

In Colorado, 14 is a big number. Some people spend years attempting to climb every 14,000-foot peak in the state, which we affectionately call 14ers.

On July 1, Pushkin Public Relations will mark 14 years since we were founded in 1997. I’m extremely proud of how far we’ve come during that time, but I think a celebration can wait for a more significant milestone like our 15^th anniversary next year.

For now, I am satisfied to pause and appreciate the clients, partners and team members who made the past 14 years so rewarding. From my first office in our spare bedroom at home, to South Gaylord, the Tech Center and now Larimer Square, every step along the way has been an opportunity to learn. We’ve grown from a solo practice to a virtual agency, but I’m proud to say that our work has been consistently driven by integrity and that our success is still based on hard work and commitment.

To our current and former clients, thanks for allowing us to get to know you and help you communicate. To our strategic partners, thanks for the chance to create and collaborate. To the talented team of contractors I am lucky to work with, thanks for letting me learn from you and for making me a better PR pro. It’s been more rewarding than I can say.

Milestones are important reminders of where we’ve been and measures of where we hope to go. I’m appreciative of the chance to look back, and excited about the opportunities that lie ahead.

No Bull

2011-06-21T10:36:00.000-06:00

Sometimes a break from the office is just what you need to change your perspective. I decided to get away. Far away. So I spent a few days on the Zapata Ranch, a working ranch in Southern Colorado near the Great Sand Dunes National Park. The Nature Conservancy runs it, and the people who work there really know how to live.

We spent a lot of time riding but also working. One day we rode the range for a few hours until we found a herd of bulls. Then we drove them back to the coral where they could do what they do best, which is impregnate the cows. Like any good cowpoke can tell you, you do a lot of thinking on a horse. Somewhere along the way I realized that those bulls were teaching me some valuable lessons. For example…

The Herd Mentality

There is something to be said for the herd mentality. It’s certainly a no brainer. Just follow the dude in front of you and do what he does. Don’t think and don’t ask questions. Once in a while a young bull would break from the herd and blaze his own trail. Lo and behold, the one that took the road less traveled often ended up in front of the herd. Lesson #1: The ability to see a problem from a different perspective is a characteristic of a good leader.

Seize the Day

Let’s face it, being a bull has its drawbacks. Basically, they get one really happy day when they get to fulfill their macho destiny, and then they end up in a tin can on a shelf at Safeway. As the bulls trudged off to their doom, we came upon a pasture filled with cows. Those boys sure perked up. They were totally focused on the moment. Lesson #2: Don’t stress out about things that are out of your control. Enjoy the moment and focus on the present.

The Dude Abides

The herd follows the dude with the most attitude. The chicks dig him and his peers respect him. Lesson #3: Good leaders display self-confidence.

Determined or Bull Headed?

Some bulls can be pretty stubborn. They know what you are up to and they don’t like it one bit. They are not moving, no way. Lesson #4: Determination is a strength. Being stubborn is just annoying.

Down and Dirty

Dirt rules on the cattle trail. To quote one of my favorite songwriters, Utah Phillips, “If dirt were a kingdom you’d be the king.” We’ve become a society that does not like to get our hands dirty. We farm out our dirty work. We outsource it to the people who mow our lawns and put food on our table and a roof over our head. Then we treat those people as though they are beneath us. Lesson # 5: Don’t be afraid to get dirty. Hard work is good for you. And never, ever disrespect the people who work so hard to make sure you don’t have to.

I learned a lot on the ranch. I learned to appreciate what you have and not worry about what you are missing. I remembered how nice peace and quiet is. I enjoyed the wide open spaces, good food and honest hard work. Hopefully, those lessons will stay with me far beyond the dusty trail.

Memorial Day

2011-05-27T12:49:00.000-06:00

In a more innocent time, Memorial Day meant something special. For my father, a World War II veteran, it was a time to honor the soldiers who lost their lives defending our country. It was a time to fly the flag and pause to reflect.

My father’s generation understood why they went to war. They never questioned it. They never doubted. They knew what America stood for and they did what they had to do, even if it killed them. Then they came home and worked their butts off raising their families.

On Memorial Day we still honor those who fought and died but now we are less certain. More conflicted and less united. More divided, more cynical and less patriotic. Today it’s about long weekends and kicking off the summer. Big box sales and parties. Baseball and barbeques.

My father passed away on Memorial Day in 1991. So on this weekend I think about him and salute the sacrifices he and his generation made for their country. His America was different than mine but it still holds the same promise. The brand is a little more tarnished and the answers are not as clear, but when you peel back the politics and turn down the volume that stokes the fear, the values are still the same. Justice. Equality. Compassion. Strength. Courage.

Here’s to you Dad. I will remember. I will stand up. I won’t forget.

Straighten up and fly right

2011-05-13T10:57:00.000-06:00

I admit it. I’m still into comic books. I’m nuts about Superman, Batman, Spiderman and lots of other justice seeking superheroes. For what seems like forever, I’ve been waiting for Clark Kent to put on the costume and fly on Smallville. Kal El has one more chance to fulfill his Kryptonian destiny and become Superman tonight in the series finale.

Superheroes always talk about destiny. They understand that there are two kinds of people in the world. Some of us wait for things to happen and some of us make things happen. Some of us are followers and some are leaders. Some of us like certainty and others are comfortable taking risks.

I’m not so sure I believe in destiny. I don’t think I was destined to own a Denver PR firm. I don’t know that I was destined to move to Denver or be a musician or work for a baseball team or run my own business. Those are all decisions I made along the way that determined the course of my life. I think I just made those things happen, instead of waiting for things to happen to me.

We make decisions and take the path that feels right for us when we get to the fork in the road. Some of it is planned and some of it is just dumb luck. The trick is figuring out if you prefer to follow someone else or pave the way. Do you take the path that your parents or your boss lays out for you or do you try to find your own way?

As PR pros, we often talk to clients about their objectives. What do they want to accomplish? What do they want to say? What story do they want to tell? It’s surprising how often the answers are not clear. They don’t know, or maybe they have never even considered the questions. They are waiting for things to happen to them instead of making things happen for them.

You and your business and your staff and your team all deserve the opportunity to determine their own destiny. To decide what kind of brand they want to represent or leader they want to be. It is important to create a culture that allows everyone in the organization the freedom to grow and improve and change and blossom. A culture where everyone is free to fulfill their destiny.

As Spiderman says, with great power comes great responsibility. Like Superman, we must use that power wisely to lead the kind of life and leave the kind of legacy we choose to create.

Culture shock

2011-04-14T14:26:00.000-06:00

Anyone who has been to a bluegrass festival has probably heard this joke. The band asks “Do we have any Texans in the audience?” After a lot of hooting and hollering, the band says, “Welcome to the United States.” Which reminds me of a story.

When I was a young musician I got a call from a guitar player in Texas. He needed a rhythm guitarist and singer for a Texas Swing band he was putting together. He had a six-month tour booked in the Southwest. Six months of steady gigs is hard to pass up for any musician, so when my West Coast tour was done I loaded up the van and drove from Oregon to North Texas.

We quickly threw the band together and started doing gigs in Texas honkey tonks. Picture that scene from the Blues Brothers with the chicken wire in front of the stage to block the beer bottles hurled by the unruly crowd. Like in the movie, we decided that when the drunk with a gun asks you for a request, you say ‘Yes Sir,’ even if you don’t know the song. You may not sound just like Merle Haggard, but if you are good enough, eventually they will start paying attention.

Until the real gigs started, I slept in the van while the rest of the band crashed in the guitar player’s parent’s house, who seemed to subsist on bacon and Dr. Pepper. The closest bar was miles away. It was hot and humid. I learned that in Texas, Rednecks are role models and guys are named Joe Bob. It was big time culture shock for a nice Jewish boy from New Jersey. It got worse when our six-month contract was cancelled after the first month. I couldn’t wait for my chance to escape back to the cool blue North.

I think about that when I hear about the “culture wars” going on in America. Tempers flare over budgets. Southerners seem to glorify the Civil War. Arguments rage over immigration, abortion, education and unions. Our failure to understand another group’s culture makes it impossible to see the good in them. It’s hard to hear what someone is saying above all the shouting. We become exclusive instead of inclusive. It makes us narrow minded and dumb.

The truth is that when I look back on my time in Texas I remember that the band was actually good. I met some great musicians and some good people. They liked our music. I saw a world I never knew existed and explored thousands of miles of the American Southwest.

As Denver PR pros, our job is help our clients understand that it is important to respect the people they want to communicate with. If you don’t try and understand another’s culture, how can you know if what you are saying to them is relevant? How can you grow your business if you are running in place? How can you lead when you don’t understand the people you ask to follow you?

In life or in business, if we are too rigid to understand another point of view we can’t learn or evolve. We can just stay stuck, surrounded by people who are just like us.

You don’t have to sound exactly like Merle Haggard to be a good country singer. You just have to feel what Merle feels. If only culture shock led to a deeper understanding of other cultures instead of an urge to run away. Maybe we just need to temper our experience with some perspective.

Tripped up

2011-03-27T12:46:00.000-06:00

So let’s say your client is a sponsor of a local professional sports team, the one that just won a championship. Let’s call them the Vapids. And let’s say that your client and the Vapids entered a multi-year agreement just a year ago. The agreement was based on the understanding that your client was the official “marketing partner” in their category. That’s when the Vapids used words like “partner” and “partnership” and “long-term relationship.”

Then they won a championship and the team replaced its marketing department with a new group of slick talking suits. That’s when things changed. Instead of “partnership,” the slick talking suits began using words like “it’s just business” to explain that they went behind your back to a competitor and signed the competitor to a bigger deal without having the courtesy to let you know about it first.

The ethical approach would have been to call you and say, “We’ve been approached by one of your competitors, how do you feel about that?” Instead, they informed you after the fact in an email because they didn’t have the decency to discuss it with you face to face.

Now I am far from naïve. I’ve worked for professional sports teams. I know that the business of sports is not always ethical. But the lack of ethics demonstrated by the Vapids was so galling because the foundation of my client’s business is based on one simple value: integrity. It is the essence of their brand and the strength of their relationships. It may sound old fashioned, but things like your word and your handshake are still important to my client. They understand that empty promises are bad for business and that trust is as important as profits.

Slick sales talk may impress some people, but it takes substance and character to sustain a strong reputation. Once people look behind the curtain you better have something they can count on. Otherwise you are just a fake wizard in a nice suit, as worthless and phony as a ponzi scheme.

Red Rubber Ball

2011-03-02T11:06:00.000-07:00

I got my dogs a red rubber ball. It glows in the dark so we can play at night. My dogs are Labs, and they love to retrieve. They think this ball is the best thing ever. They are really focused and they know what they want. It doesn’t take much to make them happy.

Watching them play is the best example I know of something that is straight, honest and true. It’s pure joy. You don’t need to wonder about their motive, or if they are trying to sell you a bill of goods you don’t really need.

I thought about this after a rather unpleasant experience with a high profile Denver plumbing company. This company prides itself on customer service and goes above and beyond what other companies might do in that area. They email you nice profiles about their “master plumbers” and they are courteous and professional when they show up.

The problems started when they began to put the pressure on (no pun intended) to convince me to do a very expensive repair I didn’t think we needed. They implied, if not threatened, that if we didn’t do this in the next few days we’d be swimming in sewage. Not a pretty picture. So sign here and pay up or else.

As I said, this company wants to be perceived as a reputable business. But ethics are more than just courtesy and a nice website. You can’t just say you are ethical. You actually have to live it and believe it and deliver it. I understand the sales process, but you can’t turn a new customer into a loyal customer by literally scaring the crap out of them.

Turns out things have been just fine since I decided to get a few other opinions. It wasn’t quite as urgent as it sounded. So I will never call that company again or refer them to anyone else.

Business ethics are simple. It’s not complicated. There is a right way and a wrong way to treat people and you just need to decide which way you want to go. Then you need to base your business decisions on that ethical direction. Your reputation will follow.

My dogs are not confused about ethics. They know what is right and what they want. They know what is pure and they can smell a phony line of crap a mile away. We can all learn a valuable lesson from watching them play. We all have to choose what sort of reputation we want. As Dylan said, we need to know our song well before we start singing.

One man’s ceiling

2011-02-20T17:14:00.000-07:00

As Paul Simon sang, one man’s ceiling is another man’s floor. In other words, people look at things differently depending on their perspective.

That’s obvious in politics, where a positive term like investment becomes something negative to someone else. Or where an end of life conversation with your doctor becomes a death panel and educating people about a serious problem like childhood obesity becomes something sinister.

This failure to communicate also happens in relationships. Men are from Mars and women are from Venus, right? The fact is, if you don’t trust someone you are going to be skeptical about their motives. Which brings me to my point.

A friend who works for another PR firm was telling me about a frustrating client that consistently challenged him. The client questioned everything my friend did, demanded constant changes and revisions, and made simple projects difficult because the client was certain that my friend didn’t know what he was doing and that the client could do it better. There are two things happening here that make this relationship complicated. One is that this is a typical example of a high maintenance client. Like in When Harry Met Sally, the worst kind of high maintenance client is one that doesn’t know it is high maintenance. The other thing happening here is a serious lack of trust.

The client hired you because of your expertise but now doubts your judgment. Is this an insecure client or are you not working hard enough to earn their trust? Are you not meeting the client’s expectations or are the client’s expectations not realistic? Perhaps it is a little of both, but is this a problem that can be solved? And are you willing to put in the effort to make it possible?

Effective communication takes patience and trust. Both sides need to be willing to see things from the other’s perspective. Both need to acknowledge that there is a problem and agree to work together to find a solution. Both need to be open to compromise.

Reasonable people can make reasonable decisions when there is a good reason. For my friend, the reason has to start with the fact that this is an important client that the firm wants to keep. For the client, it needs to start with remembering why it hired the PR firm in the first place, because it had the talent, experience and track record to help the client succeed.

It may be that the firm and the client would be better off parting ways. Some things just are not meant to be. But if the relationship is important enough they will take the necessary steps to cross the bridge dividing them and meet each other half way.

Are you willing to look at things differently, or is the effort not worth the trouble? One man’s ceiling is another man’s floor. Or as Dylan said, I’ll let you be in my dream if I can be in yours.

2011-02-06T16:02:00.000-07:00

As Leigh Rubin, the artist behind Rubes Cartoons expressed in a humorous cartoon revision of Newton’s Law, “What goes up must come down, except for health insurance premiums.”

That essential law of gravity is very apparent during a crisis. Just ask the owners of the New York Mets, who are facing a $1 billion lawsuit that claims they illegally profited from Bernie Madoff’s investments just two years after New York celebrated them for opening the Mets new stadium, Citi Field. Or as Hosni Mubarak might say, “don’t ask.” Anytime you are being burned in effigy you have a major problem on your hands.

To everything there is a season and you never know when the tide will turn. Crises come in all kinds of shapes and sizes. They can be serious and drawn out, like the BP oil spill. Or they can be less serious and shorter-term like a negative TV story. It can make you look bad but it usually doesn’t make you lose you shirt or your life.

The most important thing you can do to manage a crisis is to prepare for it ahead of time. That means having a plan in place that anticipates what could happen and how you would deal with it if it does. Unfortunately, most organizations don’t plan ahead. They wait until the investigative reporter ambushes them in the parking lot before they contact a PR firm to put out the fire. That may ultimately save the building but not your prized possessions.

It may not be possible to manage a crisis without damage to your reputation, but you can minimize the impact and the recovery process by planning ahead and taking the following steps:

Gather your team and determine what kinds of potential situations can harm your reputation. Identify everything from a tornado to a disgruntled employee going to the press, to workplace domestic violence, to an angry customer talking about you on Facebook.

Talk about how you would handle each situation. What resources would you need? Who would be your spokesperson? What stakeholder groups would you need to contact? How would your team communicate both internally and externally?

Draft a plan that outlines these scenarios, assigns responsibilities and designates the steps you would take in each situation.

Make sure that top management signs off on the plan and buys into it. It is critical that they take it seriously.

Organize drills to help you practice these steps so that if a real crisis happens you will feel prepared and ready to handle it.

Don’t wait until the hounds are at your door to call for reinforcements. Plan ahead so when the ball comes down you’ll be ready to catch it. Like the Boy Scouts, always be prepared. You may not always escape injury but you will surely improve your odds of survival.

One Big Thing

2011-01-19T14:02:00.000-07:00

One big thing. That’s the secret of life, according to Jack Palance, who shared the secret with Billy Crystal in City Slickers. But you don’t have to go on a cattle drive to see how that concept could be relevant to understanding your brand and how to communicate it.

The challenge is boiling it down. Understanding the essence of your brand requires an organization to turn the spotlight on itself, which is not always easy. We don’t always like what we see and we often uncover some areas of conflict or disagreement that we’d just as soon avoid. But the process is healthy for any business. So here are some steps to help you get started.

Just the facts

Start by listing the basic facts about the organization. Where are you located? What type of company? How many employees? When were you founded? How are you funded? Do you serve customers or clients?

Brand attributes

What are some words that you use to describe your organization? Words such as innovative, compassionate, accountable, collaborative, flexible… These are the terms you would use to describe your brand personality. If you were describing a friend you might say, funny, charming, friendly, smart. Now how would you describe your business?

What do you do?

We (name of your organization) are ____. Now finish the sentence.

Boil it down

Next, go back to everything you’ve listed and eliminate anything that sounds too generic or too phony. You are looking for things that differentiate you from your competitors, not things that they would be able to claim as well. For example, a lot of organizations would say they take pride in customer service. What makes you different?

Stake out your turf

Once you boil everything down you should be able to identify the one big thing that clearly identifies your brand. This is what you stand for. It is your brand promise. Now you need to make sure you deliver it every day, every time.

We’ve led clients through this process many times, and they are almost always amazed at what a difference it makes for their organizations. For example, AORN learned that the one big thing about operating room nurses is that they make surgery safe. The 9Health Fair learned that what they really do is encourage people to “own your health.” Susan G. Komen Denver realized that the biggest thing they do is save lives by raising awareness about breast cancer.

I am a firm believer in Cowboy PR. Get to the heart of the matter without a lot of bull. The process of understanding your brand’s one big thing is something every organization can benefit from. You can do it yourself or find a PR firm or independent consultant to help you. The important thing is to get started. That’s the secret. No bull.

Happy New Year

2010-12-31T15:02:00.000-07:00

Denver is home to a lot of talent. PR pros, social media gurus, marketing wizards, video and graphic artists… you name it. One of the best things about having a virtual agency l is that I get to team up with all kinds of talented people: contractors, partners, colleagues and other specialists who are good at things I’m not. Those are the people I turn to for ideas and inspiration. And that is what allows me to swiftly tailor (sorry, I couldn’t resist) the team to the needs of each client.

The biggest benefit for me -- and for my clients too-- is that this sort of collaboration tends to stimulate innovation, which is essential to a successful strategic communications program. It is what motivates us to do what we do. It energizes us, gets our adrenalin going, makes us look forward to going to work each day. It fires us up and if we are lucky, it has the same creative effect on our clients.

So as we close out 2010, I’d like to take this opportunity to officially thank all the people I’ve been innovating and collaborating with this year. Let’s do it again in 2011. Here’s looking at you, kids:

Jeri Pushkin, Dan Christopherson, Melissa Hernandez, Rachel Brand,Erika Gonzalez, Sara Goodwin, Margie McCarthy, Veronica Figoli, Liz Ullman, Ian Atchison, Pete Codella, Jennifer Heinly, Elizabeth Suarez, Heather Evans-Keenan, Jim Hooley, Robin Bond, Zack Littlefield, Steve Gray, Marv Rockford, Steven Shapiro, Laura Love-Aden, Ramona Tooley, Stacey Sepp, Lisa Cutter, Jane Dvorak, Warren Smith, Sydney Ayers, Gina Seamans, Brian Colucci, Roberta Cedillo, Janine Tafoya Manning, Steve Koenigsberg, Robyn Lydick, Brad Friedman, Saul Rosenthal, Wendy Aiello, Jeremy Story, Steve Olsen

Palmer Pekarek, Doug Hock, David Milstead, Caitlin Jenny, Tonya Ewers, Sarah Spaulding, Sarah Ellis.

I hope 2011 is happy, healthy and prosperous for you all.

Courage

2010-12-23T15:04:00.000-07:00

I’m proud of our client.

Suzanne Bragg-Gamble is the executive director of CoverColorado. When we first started talking to Suzanne about developing a communications program for GettingUSCovered, the new health plan for the uninsured that Suzanne administers, she was hesitant. She was uncertain what PR was, how it worked, or even if she needed it.

Despite her skepticism, she decided to trust our judgment. Since then, she’s participated in a press conference with the Governor, conducted multiple media interviews, published a guest opinion column, done presentations at hospitals, agreed to a marketing communications campaign and hosted a webinar for over 100 insurance brokers. She even let us set up a GettingUSCovered Facebook page. You might say that Suzanne is now a PR maven.

Do you have the courage to try something new? To take a leap of faith on something that makes you nervous? To overcome your fear and trust that you’ll be OK if you just dive in?

Regardless of our situation at work or at home, we ought to resolve to enter this New Year determined to try something different. To do something we never attempted, or look at something from another’s perspective. To get out of our comfort zone and accept a new challenge. To throw down the gauntlet to ourselves and boldly go where we never thought we would go before.

Now, that does not mean we need to be reckless or dumb about it. Let’s not make this too complicated or difficult. I’m not saying we should all start jumping out of airplanes. It could be as simple as signing up for some personal training sessions, starting guitar lessons or learning how to dance. For your business, it could be redesigning your website, updating your brand or starting a blog. Maybe you can get serious about reaching out to more diverse communities or allow your staff to handle more of the responsibilities you typically do yourself.

Looking what makes you nervous in the eye is a good test for any business leader. Learning to trust your gut, your team or your PR firm will help you let go of your fear and anxiety. It will help you move forward, not look backward.

I am proud of Suzanne for taking that big leap this year. We should all have such courage in the year ahead.

Year in review

2010-12-02T17:51:00.000-07:00

Wow. It’s the end of another year. A lot has happened so let’s recap.

The Chilean miners. Amazing story. The BP oil spill. That was depressing. The Mets. Don’t get me started.

Here at Pushkin PR, we’ve had some ups and downs as well. I lost my Mom. I also lost a few clients. On the positive side, I saw thundering herds of wild horses, launched a new website and Facebook page, began new relationships with some clients, and enjoyed my first year in my downtown office.

As each year ends we pause to take stock of what we accomplished and examine where we fell short. We set goals for the year ahead and begin preparing for how to reach them. At least that’s what we do if we are not too paralyzed with fear to move forward.

For far too long, fear of losing a job, losing a home, going hungry or getting sick has been all too real for all too many Americans. But a lot of people are frozen by fear that is manufactured. Fear of immigrants, fear of airports, fear of deficits, fear of health reform, fear of anyone who looks or sounds or thinks differently than us. It’s emotional, it’s irrational, and it’s driven by cable TV and talk radio.

It may be comforting to blame our troubles on someone else, but nobody gets anywhere if we are too paralyzed to move. We just get stuck. We stop innovating, we stop creating, we stop making things happen. America used to be a country that could do anything. Instead we are a country that can’t do anything except freak out.

As we look ahead to 2011, it might be wise to think about what we can do to get unstuck. Personally or professionally, what will it take to let us look forward to a challenge again? To make us risk a leap of faith? Can we secure an investment, grow our business, take a vacation or take on new employees? Can we initiate that long overdue project, contribute to a worthy cause, or volunteer our time to make a difference in our community?

Some fears are valid and some are phony. It is up to us to distinguish which ones are real. Will we face 2011 with hope or trepidation? The answer to that question might determine how we feel about things a year from now.

Personality plus

2010-11-10T11:55:00.000-07:00

Just like people, every brand has a personality. Brands can be smart, funny, clever, witty, upbeat, laid back, accessible, intimidating, loud, quiet, outgoing, shy, pleasant or unpleasant. This is something that I talk about a lot with clients. Pushkin PR uses a branding session process to help clients understand their brand personality and learn how to communicate it.

I recently went through this process myself when I worked with my web designer, Insyntrix, to help them understand what I was looking for in a redesigned Pushkin PR website. If you haven’t taken the time to think about your brand lately, I highly recommend it.

We began by thinking about the attributes and qualities that I hope Pushkin PR represents. Not only our core values and what we stand for, but also what sort of words would I use to describe our personality? You can do this with a brainstorming session, over a few beers, or like I did, just by sitting down and putting those words on paper.

The first thing that was obvious to me was that Pushkin PR is acoustic, not electric. No gadgets or special effects, no amplifiers or synthesizers, no bells and whistles. Wooden, not synthetic. Authentic, not phony. Just a nice vintage acoustic guitar with a new set of strings.

I also wanted to communicate that Pushkin PR is more than just me. It is a talented team of independent contractors and strategic partners who bring a high level of customized expertise to each and every client. We are thoughtful, direct, and focused on results. Just like Larimer Square is essential to the character of downtown Denver, we want people to think of us when they think about Denver PR.

Finally, I wanted to express that we don’t waste a client’s time or budget with a lot of bull. We practice Cowboy PR. That means we get straight to the heart of the problem and determine how to solve it.

When Insyntrix began designing the new site they used this information to guide their choice of layout, colors, graphics and photos. It helped them make sure the website communicates Pushkin PR’s brand personality clearly and effectively.

Exploring your brand personality is a worthwhile process for any organization. Does it really express who you are or does it need updating? Is it clear or confusing? Is it creating the perception you want to convey? If not, you have some work to do. The sooner you get started the better.

Shields up

2010-10-29T12:23:00.000-06:00

When Klingons or other enemies threatened the Enterprise, Captain Kirk had a good solution. He gave the “shields up” order and Enterprise and her crew were protected. If only life were like Star Trek.

If an enemy emerged that was bent on disrupting your event, embarrassing your executives, or otherwise damaging your reputation, what would you do? Panic? React defensively? Wet your pants?

From a strategic public relations perspective, it would be wise to engage them in a reasonable conversation and ask them to consider your point of view. You could agree to respectfully disagree and propose to civilly air out your differences.

Unfortunately, that approach is futile if the opposition is bent on creating a media opportunity to make their point. A determined group of true believers does not really care about facts or discussion or respect. They just want a big splash and they get excited seeing it all on YouTube. They don’t care about understanding, they need noise and chaos to survive.

So what can you do if confronted by such a group? How can you manage the situation and minimize the damage to your reputation? These five steps should help.

Love is all you need.

Sometimes a smile goes a long way. It can diffuse an angry situation and make it harder for the opponent to hate you. Of course, it is hard to smile at someone who is spitting in your face but it is always good to treat people with respect even if they are obnoxious.

Tell it like it is.

The opposition already has its mind made up, but people seeing the news reports or videos may not. Make sure that your side of the story is getting through. Use traditional media, social media and blogs to deliver positive messages about the important work you do. Give people the opportunity to give you the benefit of the doubt.

See me. Touch me.

Be transparent. People become suspicious of your motives when they think you have something to hide. Be open about your organization, your mission, your work and your positions. You don’t have to give away trade secrets, but you should be open and honest and authentic in your communication.

Carry on.

Don’t get sucked into someone else’s agenda. Your audience is on your side, not your enemy’s. Get their support. Steve Goodman was a great solo performer. I once saw him stop an obnoxious member of in the audience by improvising the lyrics to the song he was singing to ask the person to please shut up or leave. The audience went wild because that was exactly what they were thinking. He didn’t miss a beat and an uncomfortable situation was resolved.

Know when to fold them.

If the situation threatens the physical safety of you or your staff or the people attending your event, it is time to call in the cavalry. Don’t be afraid to ask the police or security to step in if the situation calls for it. That’s what they are trained for.

Nobody likes confrontations except for groups that thrive on confrontation. We don’t have a force field to protect us but if we keep our wits about us we can protect our ship and our crew. We can enter a hostile or alien situation and cause no harm. And as Captain Kirk would remind us, that’s our prime directive.

You don’t have to move the mountain

2010-10-05T12:13:00.000-06:00

Rural Colorado nonprofits are suffering. Always challenged by the need to raise funds, the economy is forcing donors and volunteers to make tough choices about where to spend their money or time. Resources are down and the competition is stiff.

I recently met with a group of nonprofit directors in Steamboat Springs, nestled in the beautiful Yampa Valley in Routt County. You would think with all the million dollar vacation homes and seasonal money flowing into Steamboat during ski season that nonprofits there would be golden. Not so fast.

Most of these directors are one-person or small shops, running an organization while also responsible for fundraising and marketing. Each of them is concerned about competition for donations from larger, better branded nonprofits that attract the well-healed seasonal crowd. They worry about being well-kept secrets. The idea of begging their friends for help keeps them up at night. They are not sure how to connect with potential volunteers.

We discussed a lot of ideas, starting with understanding what their brand promise is and how to communicate it in the right way to the right audience. Our discussion was focused on basic PR strategy. What do you want to say? Who do you want to say it to? What is the best way to reach them?

Based on that very energizing conversation, here are five steps small nonprofits can take to raise brand awareness:

Crystallize your brand. Take some time and go through a branding exercise with your board. If you don’t know how to do that, enlist a PR pro to conduct a branding session. Get at the heart of who you are and what you do. Create a brand foundation, or elevator statement. Try on a few ideas for a tagline or positioning statement to help people understand why they should connect with you.

Develop a plan. Start with some goals and objectives. Then outline a few strategies and tactics to help you achieve them. Take a look at where you are now and where you want to be a year from now, and then use your plan to take you there.

Paint a picture of your audience. What do they look like? Where do they live? How do they like to get their information? What motivates them to contribute to their community? What is important to them? If you don’t know the answers, ask them. Find a few people who represent your audience, take them out for coffee and get some feedback. You’ll be amazed at how much you can learn.

If they won’t come to you, go to them. If your events are not well attended, try meeting your audience where they hang out. Get them information at their church, community center, library, school or workplace. Deliver information to their desktop electronically. Use social media to build your network and spread the news by word of mouth.

Find an intern. Lose the burden of shouldering the load all by yourself all the time. Enlist an intern to help you develop a social media program, distribute flyers, send press releases, coordinate events, respond to emails and come up with great ideas you never even thought of. Take advantage of their energy and talent. In return, teach and mentor them.

As the gospel song says, “you don’t have to move the mountain, just show me the way around it.” The challenge is formidable but you have the ability to meet it. You are the answer to your prayers.

Smart went crazy

2010-09-21T09:37:00.000-06:00

Jews all over the world recently celebrated Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. OK, maybe celebrated is not the right word, because instead of getting wild and crazy we fast. Mostly it is a time of reflection about where we are and where we would like to be.

As our rabbi pointed out in his sermon, most of us are so busy that we have no time for reflection. We let apps and tweets distract us. We literally run into walls (or cars, or each other) because we are too busy texting to notice what’s right in front of us. Ironic that our smart phones make us so dumb.

In our virtual world, our lives whiz by so fast that we miss the chance to connect with the people who actually make our lives meaningful. If we don’t remove our headphones and put down our iPhones once in awhile, we run the risk of confusing our virtual reality with actual reality.

Everyone can relate to the need to slow down our personal lives, but what about our business lives? Do we also need to unplug long enough to make some human contact with our co-workers, colleagues, staff and clients? Can we slow down enough to think? Can we allow ourselves to accept that someone might have a different opinion? Can we quiet down enough to listen? Because without silence there is only noise, and without different opinions there is no diversity, and without thought there is no wisdom, and without wisdom it is impossible to lead. And without leadership we are just not getting very far.

We owe it to ourselves and to the people we do business with to pay attention to what is really important. The business of public relations is about relationships, and real authentic relationships depend on real authentic connections.

For example, what if we could:

· Make one day a week reality day. No emails, no Facebook, no Twitter. All contact must be by phone or better yet, face to face.

· Hold regular informal staff meetings with no agenda except to get to know each other.

· Personally meet with each client every month. Take them out for coffee, lunch or a beer. If that’s not possible, call them. Find out what’s going on in their lives and what keeps them up at night.

· Invite your Facebook fans to an open house. Get to know them outside of cyberspace.

These steps can help us put some soul back in our lives and our businesses. They can help us find our inner human. Disconnect so we can reconnect. Now, step away from the iPhone and no one gets hurt.

5 Reasons to get Accredited in Public Relations

2010-08-18T15:04:00.000-06:00

I recently met with a young Denver public relations professional who is considering going through the process to become Accredited in Public Relations, or APR. Most people hear APR and think of credit cards. But to PR pros, especially those of us who are active in PRSA, the credential represents something significant. It's a big step.

As with most things worth attaining, getting your APR has pros and cons. The APR brand is often misunderstood, and not just by people outside our profession. It means committing the time to study and prepare for a difficult oral and written exam. And many PR people don't really get why it is important or how it can benefit them.

I am not saying an APR is essential to be a good PR pro. There are plenty of talented PR people who decided they don't need it. Some would rather pursue a graduate degree or learn from a respected mentor. But like any other professional credential, APR represents to people inside and outside the profession that you possess a certain body of knowledge. It says that you have achieved a level of competence and success that entitles you to call yourself a professional.

If you are wondering if APR is right for you, consider these five reasons to get your APR:

It will distinguish you from your competitors.

Maybe it won't instantly translate into a better salary or bigger retainer, but there are employers and clients that look for the APR credential to help them decide which candidate or consultant to hire. It gives you an edge.

You won’t have to feel like you are faking it.

Let's face it, half the people in this profession, including me, got our training through trial and error. Wouldn't it be nice to not have to panic when your boss asks for a strategic PR plan? Instead of frantically emailing friends and looking online for a template, wouldn't it be nice to feel like you've mastered the fundamentals of your profession?

It will help you be more confident.

You will be part of a network of colleagues that takes their job seriously. You will know that you have the experience and knowledge to handle anything thrown your way.

It will make you a better professional.

If you have any pride at all in what you do for a living, you want to be good at it. It's not the army, but if you want to be the best PR pro you can be, this credential is for you.

It will give you a sense of accomplishment.

You'll be proud that you took the initiative and that you succeeded. Maybe that's the best reward of all.

Whether you agree or disagree, please leave a comment and let me know. If you have other reasons to get an APR besides the ones I listed here, I'd love to hear them.

Cowboy PR

2010-07-27T09:49:00.000-06:00

Sunday I had breakfast at the Holiday Inn in Cheyenne, Wyoming. The waitress suggested the breakfast buffet. I asked what was in the breakfast buffet. She said "Well, we’ve got ham, bacon, sausage…" "Hmm, I don't eat those," I said suspiciously. She said, "Well, we have fruit, cereal, eggs…" So I ordered the breakfast buffet.

The truth is, we all have to make adjustments sometimes. When things don't go your way, when a client doesn't agree with everything you recommend, and especially when people look at you like you must be from Mars because you don't eat bacon, ham or sausage. That ability to adjust your saddle or even change horses in midstream when you need to find some common ground is a lost art these days. That's one thing that really impressed me about the people who run Cheyenne Frontier Days.

The Cowboy Way is no bull. These people really practice the art of Cowboy PR. They are straight shootin' communicators who say what they think and mean what they say. Their core values include honor, respect and courtesy. It might sound old fashioned, but that culture is fundamentally what PR is all about. You may not agree with them, but at least they will respect you enough to let you voice your opinion, as long as you do it in a respectful way. If you chose to be ornery about it, they'll just get up and leave until you calm down. In Cowboy PR, there is no time for showboating. They are too busy rounding up the truth.

For too long, Cheyenne Frontier Days has been letting other people tell the story of how animals are treated at rodeos. Often that story has been negative. It's been told by people who truly believe that their perspective is the only one that matters. They make a lot of noise and they fire a lot of cheap shots. So this year, CFD asked Pushkin PR to help it tell its own story in its own words and let whoever wants to decide which story they like best.

Now CFD has 20,000 fans on Facebook, dozens of their own videos on YouTube and hundreds of people following them on Twitter. They had a front-page feature story in the Sunday Cheyenne Tribune-Eagle focusing on their commitment to keeping rodeo livestock healthy and safe. Most of all, the 2,500 volunteers who run the organization feel better because they are finally being listened to instead of just hollered at.

Honor. Respect. Courtesy. That's straight shootin' communications. That's Cowboy PR.

Wild horses

2010-07-12T17:57:00.000-06:00

Yesterday I saw wild horses running wild. Huge herds of them, running loud and fast through half-mile long clouds of dust, just like in those old Westerns. I was on a ranch in southern Colorado where real cowboys let me see how they live and work. They were gathering up hundreds of horses for Cheyenne Frontier Days (a Pushkin PR client) and other rodeo events and I got to tag along. For someone who grew up wanting to be a cowboy, it was a once in a lifetime experience.

Before you ask, the only injuries I saw were to humans and vehicles. The horses were fine and not a single one was mistreated or harmed in any way. After a long morning in the truck and the saddle, we all went back to the ranch house for a fantastic lunch. It was a typical day on the ranch, much like it's been for generations. Hard work, honest pay, good food and everyone is treated with respect, whether you have two legs or four.

Well pardner, it got me to thinkin'. The people I met, the people who do this for a living, are just not the sort of people who would intentionally harm any animal. They brave blizzards to bring feed to remote pastures, they carry colts and calves through deep snow to safety and nurse them back to health, and they raise these animals like they are members of their own family. Some are bred to buck, some are bred to ride, and some are just born to be wild.

Yet the people who run and participate in and attend rodeos are consistently attacked in a very personal and often crude way by people they've never met for a lifestyle and culture that has been passed down to them by their parents and grandparents and great grandparents. It's an Old West tradition they are proud of and they take their responsibility to uphold it very seriously. They have a code of honor that is based on respect and honesty and trust. Your word is your bond and a handshake is good enough.

We live in a time when it's OK to judge and taunt and insult and ridicule and lie about anyone who is not just like us. We are way past the point of having reasonable dialogue. If you are from a different political party or race or religion or state or country or cause or Facebook group, it's OK to say whatever I want about you regardless of whether it is true or even makes sense. There is no room for common ground. Mutual respect? Fugetaboutit.

In PR, we counsel our clients to engage in respectful dialogue and debate. Sometimes that is just not possible. If your mind is made up already, it doesn't matter what I say, I won't convince you to consider my point of view. The well is poisoned. Better not let the horses drink.

So as I headed off down that hot old dusty road, I was struck by how people who I'd never met welcomed a stranger into their home and showed me a way of life I'd only seen on TV. And I was sorry that some people are so intolerant that they can never see something from another's point of view.

That, buckaroos, is definitely not The Cowboy Way.

Trust your inner voice

2010-06-09T15:09:00.002-06:00

In Field of Dreams, Ray Kinsella hears a voice. "If you build it, he will come." He has no idea what it means. Maybe he's going nuts. Most entrepreneurs probably know the feeling.

Although skeptical, when Terrance Mann sees the ghostly baseball players, he gets it. Something inspirational is happening, something that will draw people to it just because it is sincere and true. Ray thinks he's crazy for bringing his family to the edge of financial ruin but Mann says, "People will come Ray, people most definitely will come."

How can you be sure you can trust your inner voice?

In some intrinsic way, people respond to the truth. Politicians and cynics may believe that the bigger the lie, the easier it is to get people to fall for it, but the truth is that in the business world, lying or cutting ethical corners is expensive. It leads to damaged reputations, lost customers and law suits.

Ethical companies attract loyal customers and employees. Unethical companies attract skeptics. Public relations firms exist to help companies tell the truth, yet there is a common perception that PR pros are spin doctors. Perhaps this is because the profession was founded by someone who perfected the art of manipulating public opinion.

Last night a group of Denver PR leaders listened to author Larry Tye talk about his book The Father of Spin: Edward L. Bernays & The Birth of PR.

Bernays is considered the "Father of Public Relations." He opened the first PR firm in 1919. He coined the term public relations counsel and wrote several books, including Crystallizing Public Opinion (1923) and Propaganda (1928). Bernays figured out that the best way to sell a product was to turn it into a social cause, so he helped the American Tobacco Company make it acceptable for women to smoke by calling cigarettes Torches of Freedom. In 1929, he originated the concept of the global media event by getting power companies to go dark at exactly the same time to celebrate the 50^th anniversary of the light bulb. He pulled this off on behalf of his client, General Electric.

Bernays had a dim view of the public. He was convinced he could manipulate public opinion to suit whatever objective his clients wanted. Influence the opinion leaders and you capture the people who follow them. The problem is if the public finds out you were lying it will take much more than opinion leaders to get them back on your side.

The Father of Public Relations was wrong. Public relations is more than propaganda or publicity gimmicks. It is a strategic approach to how businesses communicate. Public relations helps entrepreneurs listen to their inner voice by asking essential questions like What do we stand for? and Why are we here? If you can't answer these you need to do some soul searching. People need to understand why you are in business and what makes your business special.

PR helps create companies that people feel good about by building ethical corporate cultures that inspire long term brand loyalty. And doing so from the start is much easier than repairing a corrupt culture after it becomes infected with deceit.

A few years ago I met a delegation of government ministry public information officers from Azerbaijan. In their language, the word for public relations is propaganda. They were fascinated to learn that American PR firms did more than just parrot the party line. They were also surprised to learn that PRSA members adhere to a professional code of ethics that allows us to practice honest persuasion but prevents members from counseling clients or employers to engage in any sort of dishonest manipulation.

Public relations can help you build a transparent corporate culture based on honesty, to evangelize your brand by communicating your passion to your employees, and to establish a reputation that attracts loyal staff, customers, clients, patients, investors, donors, or partners.

If you build this kind of company, people will come. They most definitely will come.

Beyond Pathetic

2010-05-26T13:59:00.000-06:00

It's hard for any public relations pro not to see the BP oil spill as a case study in crisis communications. Which is sad, because this is a disaster of monumental, historic proportions that will severely damage the environment and the ecosystem of a good portion of the United States for years to come, and will have a very negative impact on the livelihood of millions of people. An entire way of life may be wiped out.

Everyone feels bad and everyone involved, from BP to federal, state and local officials is determined to work as hard as they can to limit the scope of this disaster. Unfortunately, if you live anywhere near the Gulf of Mexico, that determination is not enough to sooth your oil-soaked feathers.

In a crisis, the first step is to show compassion. BP did that well. Company executives sounded sincere when they accepted responsibility and promised to do whatever it takes to stop the leak, clean up the mess and compensate the people and communities that have been affected. Step two is action. Again, BP did a good job of explaining the steps they would take to solve the problem, from robotic subs to plugging the leak by pumping it full of mud and cement.

It was in step three that BP came up short. That's where you put things in perspective. As the CEO of a multinational company in an industry that rakes in billions in profits each year and is used to getting anything it wants rubber stamped by the government, it is easy to understand how Tony Heyward might be dismissive of people who question his decisions. And he is certainly under an enormous amount of pressure. Even so, when your company’s slogan is "Beyond Petroleum" and when you've just caused the biggest oil spill in history, it is not a good idea to explain that in the big scheme of things, this spill is relatively "tiny". Or as Heyward explained to the media, "The Gulf of Mexico is a very big ocean," Not good Tony, not good at all.

So here we are over a month after the rig blew and BP is just now getting around to trying a few things that may or may not work. Each day as more photos of brown beaches and oil coated pelicans hit the Internet, people are demanding to know just what the hell is going on at BP. Even the anti-government crowd wants the government to step in.

If I were advising BP right now, my advice would be to just shut up and plug the leak before it gets any worse. You've said enough already Tony. The Congressional hearing was bad. Please stop listening to your lawyers. Don't let your people dance around questions about what exactly you mean by a "legitimate expense." Just plug the leak, clean up the oil and then worry about how much this is going to cost you. Do it now or whether you like it or not, BP's new slogan will be Beyond Pathetic.

Service with a smile

2010-05-25T15:16:00.002-06:00

Denver is a friendly town. Visitors are impressed with how nice people seem and how clean the city looks. And that's good for Denver public relations. Service with a smile is the best PR we could ask for.

Good customer service is so fundamental that it makes you wonder why some businesses don't seem to get it. It creates a lasting, positive impression that builds word of mouth and increases the value of their brand. Bad customer service annoys you, frustrates you and makes you swear you will never do business with them again. From a PR perspective, that is not very smart and yet it happens every day.

Who do you think of when you think about bad customer service? The cable company, the phone company and the airlines come to mind. Long hold times stuck in a nightmare of voice activated hell. Customer service reps that don't seem to care about solving your problem. They don't even seem worried that you are getting more and more upset. You could get the same response talking to a brick wall.

So let's look at three companies that get it.

Downing Street Garage

This small, independent Denver auto repair shop sets the bar. Even if you just need an oil change, they treat you like their most important customer. They shuttle you to work and they phone you with regular updates. After your first visit you get a personal call from the owner asking if everything was OK, then they follow up with discounts on your next service. They are friendly, they explain everything up front, and they talk to you like you are not an idiot. They want you to be a lifelong customer and you find yourself liking that idea.

H.M. Brown

Imagine a positive car buying experience. This auto broker takes the hassle out of buying a vehicle. Just tell them what you want and they find it for you. Then they take care of every detail, from the sale to the trade-in to the registration. You never feel pressured or worry about getting swindled. They speak your language.

Apple Store

No other brand understands brand loyalty like Apple. The Genius Bar is a stroke of genius. The stores are fun, like a playground for grownups. Let’s say you want to switch from a PC to a Mac but you are not sure about how difficult the learning curve is. You make an appointment with someone who will answer your questions, soothe your fears and find you exactly what you want. Then they make learning how to use it enjoyable. They never make you feel like a stupid PC moron.

So the next time some underpaid customer service rep at the rental car company tells you they don’t actually have the car you reserved last month or you are standing in a 10-deep line while one bank teller takes 10 minutes on each customer, remember that good customer service is like playing an instrument. Anyone can do it, it just takes practice. Lots and lots of practice.

Seven keys for solo PR pros

2010-05-03T10:35:00.003-06:00

The other day I ran into a journalist I used to pitch. These days newspapers and TV stations are shedding reporters like my dog sheds fur in the spring, so it was no surprise she decided to get out of the media business and get into PR. It is also no surprise that in Denver and around the country, many former journalists find out that landing a gig at a public relations firm is not so easy.

In many cases, they decide to set themselves up as independent practitioners, which is the case with the woman I ran into. She knew that I opened Pushkin Public Relations years ago (this year is the firm’s 13^th anniversary), and she wanted to know the secret to staying in business over the long haul. That got me thinking about what advice I might offer to someone just starting out as an entrepreneur. What advice did people give me when I started out?

So here are seven keys for solo PR pros:

1. Your brand is your reputation. Don't screw it up. Don't let the pressure of paying the bills tempt you to do something unethical. The damage to your reputation will cost you much more than the loss of the contract. Maintain your integrity. Say what you mean and back up what you say. It's better to walk away than to work a client you have doubts about.

2. Don't panic. Business is cyclical. You will have good months and bad ones. The trick is to enjoy the down time and try not to stress out when things get really busy. That is easier said than done but it is something you should constantly remember.

3. Find a mentor. Someone you trust that you can turn to with questions or concerns. When I started out, someone told me that I should spend one-third of my time serving my clients, one-third on administration, and one-third of my time developing new business. That was great advice for someone who knew nothing about running a business.

4. Network your butt off. I know, everyone says this but not everyone is comfortable doing it. The Denver public relations community is close and collaborative. Our business depends on referrals so network with others in your field as well as clients in the industries you want to build relationships with. Join PRSA or another professional association. Join social media clubs or leads groups. Participate in online communities through Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

5. Stay hungry my friends. Put yourself out there in a metaphysical sense. Be open to landing new business. Be ready for the next opportunity that comes along. Stay positive and focused.

6. Build collaborations and virtual partnerships. This is a great way to compete for business, expand your expertise, learn from other professionals and get out of your box.

7. Get a closed sign for your door. Repeat after me: "I am not a freelancer I am a business owner." Don’t let the freedom of a home office become a trap that keeps you on the job around the clock. Close up shop when you are done for the day and don't open up after hours unless it is a critical emergency.

What tips do you have for new solo practitioners? What questions do you have if you are just starting out? Leave a comment and let me know.

Balancing act

2010-04-01T16:47:00.003-06:00

Sorry I am late. Really late. I've been neglecting my blog for weeks now. I've been busy taking care of clients, pitching new clients, doing interviews, having meetings, writing plans, worrying about health care, taking care of my family, trying to have a personal life, watching too much sports, playing a little music and just being generally distracted by the return of baseball season and springtime.

Wow, that is a lot of excuses. While we may counsel our clients to avoid this sort of trap, Denver public relations pros are not immune to the "getting wrapped up in trying to do too many things at the same time" disease. Before you know it you are unfocused, unhappy and unmotivated. Diffused, dazed and disconnected. Stuck in a rut.

A recent survey of social media practitioners on CloudSpark.com found that for an average brand, it takes 65 hours per week to maintain four social media channels at any given time. That's one full time job for 1.5 people.

I find this hard to believe. If you are like most serious PR pros I know, you are doing much more than just social media. You are doing strategic planning, media relations, crisis communications, community relations, writing articles, media training clients, business development, networking, mentoring and presentations. Oh, I almost forgot, and trying to have a personal life.

Social media is a very important strategy, but it should be just one pillar in what is hopefully a well-balanced, strategic, integrated communications program. The key word here is balance. Focus too much on one pillar and the others will certainly weaken. Eventually, things will start to fall apart. That is true for your business or your personal life.

A smart brand knows that success is not just based on sales or revenue or how many people follow you on Twitter. It is based on your reputation, which depends on how you conduct yourself and how you treat others. Do you behave ethically? Do you have a sense of balance in your life? Do you allow the people who work for you to have a sense of balance in theirs?

Today I will stop to smell the coffee and write this blog. I can get back to the rat race tomorrow.

Mike the Headless Chicken

2010-03-12T11:49:00.002-07:00

Have you ever worked with a client that is constantly running around like a chicken with its head cut off? I have.

Last year, Pushkin PR helped the world famous Mike the Headless Chicken Festival in Fruita, Colorado garner local and national media attention for this annual celebration of an actual headless chicken who became an international celebrity after he lost his head. It seems his farmer cut off Mike's head to prepare him for dinner. When he saw Mike shake it off like nothing happened, he kept Mike alive for years by feeding him through a straw and Mike toured the country as a famous sideshow. True story.

The truth is that economic pressure can often make any client feel urgency to see instant results. They feel pressured, so they try so many things all at once that nothing ends up working. Like a chicken without a head, they end up just running into walls.

Our job as communicators is to get them to calm down. There is a tendency for us to try so hard to please our clients that we allow them to dictate tactics over strategy and to decide too soon if a particular tactic is working or not. Our job is not to make them happy. It is to make them successful. And the way to do that is to be patient and strategic in our approach.

This strategic approach generally includes four steps:

Identify the problem and what you want to accomplish. A communications review can provide a picture of where you are today and where you would like to be in 12 months. What problem do you need to solve? What is working and what isn't?

Develop a communications plan that starts with your objectives, then determine what strategies you will use to meet your objectives and the tactics you will use to support your strategies.

Stick to the plan. Give it enough time to tell if it is working or if you need to make adjustments. Try not to get sidetracked. Make sure not to lose your head and end up bouncing around from wall to wall.

Give your plan enough time. Only then can you evaluate whether you met or exceeded your objectives, and if not, what you could do better next time.

Our clients depend on us to steer them in the right direction, not to let ourselves be steered off course by their fears and anxiety. Our job is to not lose our own heads when we see our clients running around without theirs. Like Mike the Headless Chicken, just feed them through a straw and send them back on their way.

Sitting Shiva

2010-03-01T15:59:00.001-07:00

My mother passed away on February 20. I got to spend the last two days of her life with her. She was not afraid, she was ready, and she died peacefully without pain.

Jewish tradition requires us to observe a seven-day mourning period called Shiva. When we "sit Shiva" we don't leave the house, so people from the synagogue bring us food and take care of menial tasks. They bring the services to us and say the daily prayers in our home, including Kaddish, the Jewish prayer for the dead. Once Shiva is over, I will continue to say Kaddish for my mother during daily prayers and on Shabbat for 11 months to honor her life and her memory.

Shiva gives you a lot of time to think, and I spent the past week thinking a lot about the lessons I learned from my mother. Sandra Pushkin was a proud Jewish woman. She was born in Brooklyn to immigrant parents who arrived in America with nothing. They taught her to be frugal and work hard, which she did her entire life. The only thing she loved more than the Jewish community and Israel was her family.

My mother was devoted to her husband, her children, her family and her friends. She taught me to waste nothing and appreciate everything. Responsibility was big with my mother. Not just being responsible for yourself and your family, but the responsibility we all have to help others, to practice kindness and charity, to stand up for what is right and to speak up for those who have no voice.

So as I sat there reflecting on my own life, I took heart from the lessons my mother taught me.

Be responsible. That means providing for my family, being accountable to my clients, behaving ethically at home and at work, contributing to my community, my people, my country and my planet.

Be grateful. Appreciate where you came from and everything you have. Treat others with kindness.

Be happy. Even though my mother was a big worrier, a trait I inherited, she always had a smile for everyone. She enjoyed taking care of people. She wanted to make sure everyone always had enough to eat. She ended every one of our phone conversations with "I love you, up to the sky and into space."

Be present. Understand what is important and what isn't. Don't sweat the small stuff. Always treat family, friends, clients, employees, colleagues and strangers with kindness, respect, dignity and love.

There are a lot of people who teach us important lessons in life. Sometimes we are too busy or too arrogant to remember to appreciate those lessons. Sometimes we need to sit Shiva to finally understand what it was that they were trying to tell us. If we are lucky, we will keep those memories with us when we stand up and move on.

Spring Training

2010-02-15T11:26:00.002-07:00

It's hard to believe but baseball Spring Training starts this week. Pitchers and catchers report in a few days. Although Spring Training is a time for renewal and looking ahead, not back, here's a blog that I posted last year at this time. I think is still relevant.

For baseball fans, there is nothing like Spring Training. It is a time to forget about last year and look forward to a fresh start. It is a chance to shake off your blues and have a little fun in the sun. It's like a break but not a vacation. Teams establish their goals for the coming season, and every player works hard or they don't make the team.

Hope springs in Spring Training. Whether they are rookies or veterans, All Stars or Minor Leaguers, Hall of Famers or guys who only had a cup of coffee in the show, everyone has a positive outlook. There are no egos in Spring Training. Everyone mingles with the fans and signs autographs. Every fan has a chance to sit in the front row.

We could all use some spring training to help us escape from the daily dose of gloomy economic news that makes us dread getting out of bed in the morning, and refocus on what we need to do to improve personally and professionally. From a PR perspective, spring training would be a chance to examine our brand, polish our key messages and adjust our communications strategies. It would be a time for every player and coach to get on the same page and realize that only by playing as a team can we give ourselves a real shot at winning the title.

To paraphrase Nuke LaLoosh from the movie Bull Durham, "Baseball is a very simple game. You throw the ball, you catch the ball, you hit the ball. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes it rains."

If we think about our own businesses and our own lives that way, we can boil it down and keep things simple. We can avoid getting hung up on the negative and focus on the positive. We can allow ourselves an opportunity to let go of our mistakes and start fresh.

In Spring Training, every team starts out in first place. The teams that win in October are the ones that maintain that perspective through all the ups and downs they encounter over the course of the long season.

Ship of fools

2010-02-02T13:14:00.003-07:00

A Denver funeral home puts the wrong body in a casket. Then they have to dig up the right body. Then they tried to bury the problem by refusing to comment.

The University of Colorado dental school lets unlicensed residents prescribe drugs using the credentials of off-site faculty members who never saw the patients and in at least one case, did not have an active state license to practice. Whoops. I guess someone forgot to attend the regulatory compliance class.

Toyota spends months ignoring or denying a serious safety problem until the company's reputation for quality and integrity is badly damaged. Now Toyota is spending millions on full-page "open letters" (don't you love that term?) in major daily papers and facing hundreds of millions in repair costs and lost sales, not to mention the long, painful process of repairing its brand. Oh what a feeling.

A crisis can happen to any organization, big or small, at any time. It is not surprising that all these crises popped up in the same week. What is surprising is how they were handled. The funeral home obviously did not have a crisis plan at all. CU and Toyota apparently knew about their situation but ignored or failed to address it for a long period of time. What the heck were they thinking?

Crisis management is not just about how you respond when you have a crisis. Putting the fire out is a lot harder than preventing the fire in the first place. Repairing a reputation is a lot harder than building it. Every organization should consistently be anticipating potential problems, determining how those problems can be prevented, and developing a fluid plan to address those problems if, in fact, they do happen.

This plan should include:

A designated crisis team and team leader. The leader sends out the "Bat Signal," and calls the team into action when action is required.

A system of communication: Who contacts which stakeholders? Who is the spokesperson designated to speak for the organization?

A messaging platform that allows the spokesperson to show compassion, define how the organization expects to fix the problem, and puts the situation into perspective in a way that positively reflects the values of the organization.

A careful post-crisis review process to help the team identify what worked well and how the crisis plan could be improved.

The midst of a crisis is not the time to wonder where the fire extinguisher is and when was the last time you checked to see if it works. Taking some time to plan ahead will provide you the best shot of minimizing the damage and reducing the recovery time. In business, your reputation is all you have. Don't screw it up by being stupid, shortsighted or arrogant. No one wants a ticket on a ship of fools.

Solid Gold

2010-01-26T12:02:00.002-07:00

In public relations we talk a lot about messaging. Staying on message is, as Banya would say on Seinfeld, golden. It's the gold standard. But before an organization can stay on message, it needs to first figure out what the message is, whom the message is for, and the best way to deliver it. That's not as simple as it sounds.

Organizations that try and do too much for too many, or worse, to be all things to all people, end up with messages that can be confusing and dull. Some organizations dilute their messages because they want to please everyone. Many are just too busy to develop a clear understanding of what they want to say. And that's a problem that can be very frustrating for each internal and external audience the organization is trying to reach.

Organ donation organizations are a good example of delivering a clear message in a consistent way. Many of them use Donate Life as a primary message. It communicates the organization's mission and a call to action, all in two words. From there, they can expand the message. "Organ donors save lives." "One donor can save the lives of eight people." "Give the gift of life."

Townsend (a Pushkin PR client) is an intellectual property law firm. They wanted to communicate that no one is better at protecting the ideas and innovations that inventors and entrepreneurs create. When the firm went through a recent rebranding process, it settled on a way to communicate that message in one word: Townsend. The message is simple, clear and direct. You came to the right place. Enough said. Rather that coming up with long, complicated sentences that tried to explain the firm's long history, every practice group and every industry it serves, it settled on something beautifully simple: Townsend, period.

When an organization struggles to explain who it is or what it does it is an indication that something is wrong. That's when you hear people saying that someone is "off message." They ramble, they stumble, they get themselves in a whole lot of trouble. It’s like taking to someone at a party that's had a few too many drinks. Pretty soon you start explaining to them that you are due back on planet Earth.

If this problem sounds familiar, take a step back and ask a few important questions:

Who are we?

What do we stand for? What is our brand promising?

What do we do?

What are the three most important things we want people to know about us?

Answering those questions will help you define the core qualities that define your organization. After that, the trick is to communicate them in a clear and consistent way. Once you master that skill, you'll be in like Flynn. Solid gold.

Taking a peek at the future

2010-01-11T15:13:00.001-07:00

Taking a peek at the future is no simple thing. Just look at Colorado. Who would have guessed that Governor Ritter would decide not to seek reelection? Or that Ken Salazar, the leading candidate to take his place, the man who said being governor of Colorado was his dream job, would decide to stay in Washington?

It's the same in public relations. We all try and come up with our most educated predictions on the economy, industry trends, new technology and the job market. We tweet about the "new" Twitter, we blog about the "new" PR, we tell our friends and our connections what is about to happen, but none of us has a crystal ball. Instead of guessing what's going to happen, what if we decided to make it happen?

What kind of business do you want? What kind of reputation do you strive for? What are the three most important things you want to accomplish this year? And how can you go about achieving them?

James Brown was the hardest working man in show business. Would you like to be known as the hardest working doctor in medicine? Or would you rather be considered the smartest lawyer in the room? Do you want to be a thought leader or a community leader? Do you want to be feared or loved? How about respected?

For me, instead of worrying about being an expert at all things and mastering everything I don't have time to master, I would like Pushkin Public Relations to be known for its integrity. Don't get me wrong, I want us to be known for our smarts too. But technology and the media world are changing too fast. Mastering every new social media tool that comes along is too overwhelming. That's what strategic partners are for. Personally, I would be happy to be known as the hardest working man in PR. The James Brown of PR. I like that.

Being a leader means being able to anticipate change and help your team, your co-workers, your organization, your clients or your community adjust. It seems that we can make the process easier and more predictable if we work as hard as we can to create the future we'd really like to see.

What can we learn from this?

2009-12-22T17:00:00.001-07:00

For most Americans, 2009 will be a year to forget. The Great Recession took its toll. Millions lost jobs and millions more lost their health insurance. Businesses closed, families were torn apart and communities suffered.

If you were fortunate enough to survive you feel relief, but as you count your blessings you also feel sadness for those that did not fare as well. One thing for certain is that no matter how you did, there are some valuable lessons to gain from the experience. So what can we learn from this?

For one thing, we learned a lot about our survival skills. Do we have the ability to get creative in times of distress? Can we adapt to changing circumstances or have we become too rigid to change? Can we respond positively to a daunting challenge and even thrive when tested?

We also learned something about our capacity for compassion. Did our primal instinct to protect our turf take over, or did we extend a helping hand to someone in need? Even during hard times there are lots of ways to help, from volunteering at a food bank to being flexible with employees who can no longer afford childcare or health insurance. It can even be as simple as scheduling an information interview with a job seeker.

Perhaps the most important lesson we can learn from the past year is to never take anything for granted. Always deliver above and beyond what is expected. Make sure you consistently communicate with staff, clients, customers, contractors, patients, students, co-workers, vendors, partners, family and friends. Let them know how much you value and appreciate them.

As you look toward 2010, take some time off from worrying about what you've lost and remember to appreciate everything you have. Resolve to buy lunch for a client, drop a friend a thank-you note, forward a lead to a vendor or send a colleague a referral. Give a loved one a call and lend a hand to a stranger. Understand that in all the uncertainty the one thing you can count on is you.

Here's to a bright, happy, healthy and prosperous 2010.

Chasing Tiger's Tale

2009-12-03T10:26:00.001-07:00

Like Tiger himself, I am somewhat conflicted about how to respond to the episode of the mysterious car crash. The general consensus from PR pros is that Tiger could have avoided a drawn out media frenzy by quickly and truthfully addressing all the speculation, rumors and innuendo. In his words, the advice from the PR community was to come forward with a "public confession."

There is no doubt that using vague wording like "sins and transgressions" just fuels the speculation. The media and the public love to see revered figures brought low and when they smell blood they really get nasty. Knowing that an icon is "not perfect"
or "only human" just means they are weak enough to take them down. So in that regard, it might have been better for Tiger to accept the advice of his PR counsel and come clean. Explain what happened, answer any questions, beg forgiveness and move on with his life. Smart steps for any brand concerned about its reputation.

But the truth is that Tiger is more than a brand. He actually is human. So is his wife. And they have the right to work out their issues privately, without the assistance of the public, the media, the PR community or the floozy from Vegas. His brand has been damaged but not nearly as badly as his marriage. His sponsorships might suffer but not nearly as badly as his family. Corporate Tiger has taken a minor hit, but Personal Tiger's life is a mess.

So while I am certain that this episode will become a classic case study in crisis communications, my advice to the media, bloggers and PR pros is to back off. Let him be. Let his wife be. Let them work it out. Stop being so consumed with the personal problems of celebrities and celebrity wannabees and pay attention to the serious problems facing our planet, our country, our communities, our business and our own families. Let's stop chasing Tiger's tale. There's plenty to do right here at home.

See the brand. Be the brand.

2009-11-20T13:47:00.001-07:00

One of the most interesting discussions in public relations circles these days involves social media channels like Twitter and Facebook. The question is, who should be representing your brand? Are your tweets more authentic if they come from a person or from an organization? What is more effective, a Twitter handle that uses the name of the company or the name of an individual who works for the company? Can whoever speaks for the brand, actually be the brand?

In social media, authenticity is crucial. To be followed, you must be credible. To be friended, you must not be phony. On the other hand, many brands are using Twitter to provide quick, responsive customer service that they can't provide through a call center that reeks of "let us put you on hold until tomorrow because we don't really care about your whining."

Pete Codella is a social media strategist based in Salt Lake City. He says that just like companies raced to reserve their dot-com name, they should do the same to protect their brand on the various social media platforms. They can keep those URLs as placeholders or use them as active channels. Pete also says that in social media it's the people and personality that really shine.

"We're naturally accustomed to interacting with other people and not with big entities, so a brand is more effectively represented by its people than by the brand alone," says Codella.

There is also the issue of who owns your social media content, the employee or the company? What happens to all the company's followers, fans or friends if the employee leaves the company? But we will save that topic for another blog.

The bottom line is that both approaches are necessary. The brand should have its own channel, which may be most useful for customer service, contests and incentive programs, or directing online traffic to important news and announcements. Individual employees can serve as the brand's ambassadors while using their own channels to support the company's mission.

Ultimately, social media is a way for brands to build awareness and loyalty by connecting the brand with people who share the same passion or promise. Brand ambassadors play a critical role in evangelizing the brand through their own social networks.

Like other areas of PR, social media works best when it is part of an overall strategic communications program. And like any communications program, the best way to start is by asking, "What is the problem and what do we want to accomplish?" The answer to those two questions will determine the answers to all the questions that follow.

Full Circle

2009-10-22T09:26:00.001-06:00

As a kid growing up in New Jersey, I was fascinated by the Old West. Stories of cowboys and pioneers, and songs about hobos and freight trains struck a chord with me. So as soon as I could, I loaded up the wagon (in this case it was a VW squareback) and headed west.

I knew about the bums of Larimer Street from a Utah Phillips song and from Kerouac's On the Road, so the first place I stopped on my arrival in Denver was Larimer, where I explored the skid row saloons and freight yards. I soon discovered the Denver Folklore Center, where I learned another song called Larimer Street by a Denver songwriter named Chuck Pyle. Not long after that, I was street singing in Larimer Square and performing in clubs like Josephina's and the short-lived Cabaret, now the Comedy Works.

My journey took me to Texas, Minnesota, Estes Park, Boulder, Key West, Boston and back to Denver. Now, 12 years after opening Pushkin PR, I find myself back where I started, in a new office in Larimer Square. I move in November 1. Maybe I won't be doing much street singing, but I do expect the move to be good for my business, my brand and my spirit.

I look forward to being part of the downtown business community and I know I will enjoy the energy, diversity and opportunities to network with other creative firms. As a virtual agency and a member of the Sage Public Relations Group, I will continue to work collaboratively with the same team of talented colleagues, contractors and communications specialists that Pushkin PR clients have come to appreciate.

Coincidentally, I signed my lease on 9/9/09. The number 9 comes up a lot in my life, so hopefully, all those 9s are a good sign. At least that's what my wife keeps telling me as I stress out over the details of the move.

So now I've come full circle. I am where I want to be and excited about beginning the next phase in my business and my life. To quote Chuck Pyle, "everybody's down on Larimer Street." Hope to see you there soon.

2009-10-22T09:21:00.001-06:00

As a kid growing up in New Jersey, I was fascinated by the Old West. Stories of cowboys and pioneers, and songs about hobos and freight trains struck a chord with me. So as soon as I could, I loaded up the wagon (in this case it was a VW squareback) and headed west.

I knew about the bums of Larimer Street from a Utah Phillips song and from Kerouac's On the Road, so the first place I stopped on my arrival in Denver was Larimer, where I explored the skid row saloons and freight yards. I soon discovered the Denver Folklore Center, where I learned another song called Larimer Street by a Denver songwriter named Chuck Pyle. Not long after that, I was street singing in Larimer Square and performing in clubs like Josephina’s and the short-lived Cabaret, now the Comedy Works.

My journey took me to Texas, Minnesota, Estes Park, Boulder, Key West, Boston and back to Denver. Now, 12 years after opening Pushkin PR, I find myself back where I started, in a new office in Larimer Square. I move in November 1. Maybe I won’t be doing much street singing, but I do expect the move to be good for my business, my brand and my spirit.

I look forward to being part of the downtown business community and I know I will enjoy the energy, diversity and opportunities to network with other creative firms. As a virtual agency and a member of the Sage Public Relations Group, I will continue to work collaboratively with the same team of talented colleagues, contractors and communications specialists that Pushkin PR clients have come to appreciate.

Coincidentally, I signed my lease on 9/9/09. The number 9 comes up a lot in my life, so hopefully, all those 9s are a good sign. At least that’s what my wife keeps telling me as I stress out over the details of the move.

So now I’ve come full circle. I am where I want to be and excited about beginning the next phase in my business and my life. To quote Chuck Pyle, “everybody’s down on Larimer Street.” Hope to see you there soon.

Rocktober

2009-10-09T16:32:00.001-06:00

Look, I feel bad enough as it is without you reminding me. I know that I've been neglecting my blog lately. I've been busy and I just have not had that much to say, at least not anything very interesting. Sometimes even public relations pros can run out of clever things to say.

When that happens in any business, it is a good time to take stock and evaluate where you are. Take your pulse and check your vital signs. Are things going the way you planned or is a change in course in order?

It could also be time to make sure you are not neglecting other relationships in your personal and professional life. Are you taking the time to communicate with your staff? Are you neglecting your clients? How about your wife and kids?

When we over extend, we risk failing to do anything right. We cut corners, we lose sleep and we get sick. Then we feel stressed and guilty for neglecting the things and people that are most important to us.

When I was president of the Colorado chapter of PRSA, a few former chapter presidents gave me some good advice. Basically, you could sum it up in one word. Delegate. Know when to hand things off and make sure you surround yourself with people you can trust. They will have your back.

Just ask the Colorado Rockies. If you put together the right team, no one player has to shoulder the entire load. Someone always steps up when another player gets hurt. The team wins or loses, not just one player. They support each other, they take care of each other, and they fight for each other. They leave their egos at the door.

It's Rocktober. The Rockies are in the playoffs and the Denver forecast calls for snow. Go celebrate.

New Rules

2009-09-18T15:15:00.001-06:00

Shana tova (Happy New Year). It is the beginning of the ten-day period called the High Holy Days. It is said that on Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, the book is written, and on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the book is sealed.

That means we have this time to make amends and reflect on how we want to live our lives. If we reflect well, we will be written into the Book of Life for a good year. If only it were so simple in business. We could just look back on the past year, make up for all the times we screwed up, promise to be nicer to our employees, clients and colleagues, and know that this year, everything will be different. New year. New rules.

It reminds me of a Steve Goodman song that goes like this:

If your life was on videotape
Everything would be all right
When your head hurts the morning after, you could roll it back to late last night
You could replay all of the good parts and cut out what you don't like
Wouldn't we be in good shape, if our life was on videotape.

Unfortunately, nobody uses videotape any more. Everything we do or say is on file somewhere in cyberspace, digitized and spread around instantly for anyone to see. In the digital world, nothing is off the record and it is much harder to take it back. Unless you are a politician and you have people who specialize in pretending something never happened and explaining what you really meant to say.

The point is that in business and in life, we need to be more thoughtful, more civil and more responsible with our words and our actions. We need to speak and act with integrity and respect toward others. We need to understand that everything we do impacts others and make sure that we remind ourselves of that every day.

All of us can benefit by taking some time to renew, to recharge, to reflect. To make amends for our blunders. To make a promise to do better. We can, we must, we will.

May you be inscribed in the Book of Life for a happy, healthy, peaceful and prosperous year.

Don't get fooled again.

2009-09-02T11:51:00.001-06:00

One year ago my friend Seth got sick. He was healthy one day and deathly sick the next, but in spite of his terrible pain he refused to see a doctor. Seth had no health insurance.

By the time his brother convinced him to go to the emergency room it was too late. They rushed him into surgery but there was nothing they could do. He never made it out of the hospital. This is America. No one should die because they can't afford health insurance, but every day, thousands of people lose their coverage and thousands more go bankrupt trying to pay their health care bills. Fewer companies provide employee health benefits and more people gamble that they won't get sick.

As the debate about how to fix a broken system rages on in Congress and across the country, powerful lobbies are spending hundreds of millions of dollars scaring people into believing that health care reform is something to fear. That is just a lie. Making health care more affordable and making health insurance available to every American is not scary. It is something every American should want. It is patriotic to support it. To not support it is morally indefensible.

There are no villains in this story. Insurance companies and doctors and hospitals and the government are not intrinsically bad people or businesses. Most of them want to find a way to do the right thing, to communicate civilly, to collaborate in a positive way to solve a huge problem. They may be suspicious of someone else's motives or protective of their own interests, but ultimately everyone wants to be part of the solution.

As communicators, that is our opening. That is where we can play a positive role by encouraging constructive dialogue and keeping the debate transparent and civil.

Don't get fooled again. Now is the time to put people before profits. The time to fix our broken health care system is now.

Communicating Strategically Helps Nonprofits Get Attention

2009-08-05T11:23:00.001-06:00

Non-profit leaders are stressed out. How can anyone survive, let alone thrive as funding dries up, endowments shrink and long-time donors disappear? Even in a good year, every nonprofit thinks they are a well-kept secret. How can we get some attention for the great work we do? We have a great story but how can we get people to listen?

Too often, the answer is to focus on tactics. Getting a story on TV may get you some nice results, but if it is not part of strategic communications program the results will likely be short-term. Long-term success depends on moving strategically. A tactical campaign is like putting the cart before the horse. You might make some progress but you won't get very far.

So what does a strategic communications plan look like? It should include your goals, measurable objectives, strategies to meet those objectives and tactics to support your strategies. A good place to start is by asking, "What is the problem and how can we solve it?"

Situation analysis

The first step is to see where you are now. What is the problem we need to solve? What are our challenges and opportunities? Is the problem that we've been around for years but nobody knows us? Or we have a serious competitor? Or we need to reach Hispanics but we don't speak Spanish?

Define your goals

Depending on the situation analysis, your overarching goal might be to raise brand awareness or to reach a wider audience. Maybe it's establishing a multicultural outreach program. The goal is really the solution to your problem.

Identify clear objectives

Establishing measurable objectives at the outset will help you determine if the campaign was successful. A measurable objective must be specific. We will increase donations by 15% by year-end. We will add 200 new members within the next year. We will increase Web hits or calls to our hotline by 25% over the next six months.

Know your audience

Who do you want to reach? Every organization has multiple stakeholders. Some are internal, like employees and volunteers. Others are external, like donors, foundations or clients. Understanding your audience is essential before you can decide which strategies and tactics you will use to reach them.

Craft your messages

What are the three most important things you want to communicate? If you want them to resonate, they should be culturally relevant, clear and consistent.

Design your strategies

Your strategies should help you meet your objectives. For example, a media relations program is a strategy that could help you increase donations. A social media program could increase traffic to your Web site. A community relations program could help you target potential new members.

Create your tactics

Each strategy needs supporting tactics. A media relations program might need a media kit and a news release. A social media strategy might require an online newsroom and Twitter. Community relations might include a booth at a cultural festival or health fair.

Starting strategically makes determining the success of the campaign easy. Just see how you did at meeting your objectives. If you did well, you should also see that you achieved your overall goal.

If you want to be a highly regarded success instead of a well-kept secret, resist the temptation to focus on tactics. Take the time to think strategically and develop a plan that gains you the attention you deserve.

Teachable moments

2009-08-02T14:09:00.001-06:00

As a former history teacher, I was fascinated by the Budweiser sponsored teachable moment at the White House. Most teachers don't include beer with their lesson plans but hey, whatever it takes to get through to your students.

Denver public relations pros have been fascinated by some other teachable moments lately. One was the never-ending saga involving Ward Churchill, a professor at the University of Colorado. That one involved issues of free speech, tenure, plagiarism, meddling politicians and how not to handle a crisis. Another one involved a surgical tech at Denver's Rose Medical Center who may have exposed thousands of surgical patients to hepatitis C by stealing their pain medication and replacing it with her used, saline filled syringes.

Public relations pros can use situations like these to teach our clients how to manage conflicts, communicate complex, controversial issues to diverse groups of stakeholders, and repair damaged reputations. Whether you are dealing with a conflict that needs resolution or a crisis that needs managing, there are some basic lessons to remember.

Lesson #1: Pipe down. I can't hear you when you are shouting.
Professional mediators know that conflict resolution depends on establishing a safe environment for respectful conversation. Maybe it's a community forum or maybe it's over a beer, but before you can get another group to understand your point of view you need to stop shouting and start listening. Communication is a two-way process. You need to listen before you can have a chance for constructive dialogue.

Lesson #2: You can bury your head in the sand but it won't save your butt.
I was recently called in to help a company handle some negative press. The company felt that the reporter was out to get them, but when the reporter called for a comment the company ignored the call. Then they demanded the paper print a retraction. I proposed that we arrange a meeting with the reporter so the company could express its point of view in a non-confrontational setting but the company was convinced it would not get a fair shake. They used the excuse of protecting the privacy of their investors, but they should have been worried about protecting the reputation of their company. When you say "no comment" it just looks like you have something to hide.

Lesson #3: You can't control the message if you don't take charge of the situation.
The beer summit, CU, Rose and the company facing bad press all have something in common. They let outside forces manipulate the situation, and in the process they lost control of the message. At the White House it was the media and political special interests. At CU it was the Governor and State Legislature. At Rose it was the health department and lawyers. And at the company with bad press it was the attitude of one misguided executive who thought he had all the answers.

In every crisis someone will try to influence the outcome or control the way an organization responds to the situation. Our job is to help our clients communicate their messages quickly, clearly, and openly.

If you are faced with a crisis that can damage your reputation, remember these basic rules. Show compassion and do not speculate. Tell the truth and do not hesitate. Be ready to listen without getting defensive.

If you follow these guidelines you may find that you and your stakeholders actually learn something from your teachable moment. Class dismissed.

Bon voyage

2009-07-14T10:40:00.001-06:00

There is an active debate going on within the public relations community about the future of the profession. It is the kind of soul searching that we encourage our clients to do. It keeps brands fresh and makes sure they deliver what they promise.

The debate centers on how we perceive our brand and how we want others to perceive it. On one side we have people who see PR as publicity. Publicists are about who you know. They believe that being seen with the right people in the right places is what makes you influential, and that clients will pay for that kind of influence because it creates buzz and word of mouth.

On the other side we have people who see public relations as strategic counsel. Counselors are about what you know. They believe that their value is in their experience, wisdom and savvy. They perceive of themselves as trusted advisors to successful entrepreneurs and CEOs.

This debate got me to thinking about how the public perceives public relations. In the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Douglass Adams described how the people of the planet Golgafrincham decided to get rid of the useless third of their population. They told them the planet was about to be destroyed and they had to leave immediately. So they built a space ark and loaded up their middle men -- insurance salesmen, HR directors, management consultants, accountants, hairdressers, TV producers, marketing consultants and yes, public relations pros -- and blasted them into space. The useful people stayed on the planet, while the ship of fools eventually crash-landed on Earth, where the mediocre, useless Golgafrinchams mated with the cavemen and became our ancestors.

If this is how the public thinks of us, we have a big time branding problem. As the public relations profession continues to evolve, we have an opportunity to blend traditional approaches with new technology to create a brand that can be taken seriously. Mediocre and useless is unacceptable. It is time to ship the spin doctors into space and make a clear distinction between publicity and public relations.

OK, maybe I am being a little too judgmental, but if you want to be a self-promoting bimbo specializing in fluff, fine. Get on the ark. Bon voyage. The rest of us will stay here working on thoughtful approaches to complex problems for ethical clients contributing to a better society. Have a nice flight.

Knock on wood

2009-06-29T15:56:00.001-06:00

The King of Pop is dead. OK, I admit it. I was never a fan. I'm not a fan of pop music in general. And like Farrah Fawcett, another pop culture icon who also died last week, Michael Jackson and his music seemed too slick, too artificial, too produced for my taste. Not phony exactly, just too made up, too commercial, and too manufactured.

In pop culture, fame and fortune are destinations we aspire to. But when it comes to the way we want people or businesses or politicians to communicate, we prefer it to be authentic. It's like the difference between acoustic and electric music. They are both good, but acoustic music is more authentic because it sounds the way a wooden instrument was built to sound. It is not distorted by effects or electronics, or forced through speakers. It is as real as it gets.

Authentic communication is one reason why social media is so powerful. It is raw, uncensored, personal and emotional. We demand authentic communication from our political leaders, and when they deliver, we support them in a way that is also authentic because they connect with us on a level we can accept without skepticism. We don't always agree with them on everything, but we accept the fact that they are not just blowing smoke.

Organizations that communicate authentically are better positioned to build long-term brand loyalty. Healthcare organizations can reach more patients, and nonprofits can serve more constituents, if they earn the trust of the community. Corporations can protect their reputation and retain their customers even when hard times force them to make difficult decisions. Even if tuition goes up, students will want to attend a university that communicates authentically about the challenges that lie ahead.

Farrah and the King of Pop found out that fame can be fleeting and fans can be fickle, even for pop culture icons. But if we make the commitment to communicate authentically, the chances are good - knock on wood - that we will reap real and long lasting rewards.

Father's Day

2009-06-21T19:05:00.001-06:00

Today is Father's Day and I'm thinking about my dad. I think about him a lot since he's been gone, but most of all during baseball season. Baseball is one of those true things that fathers and sons share and pass down, like war stories or treasured heirlooms. It was the one way my father and I could still connect even during those years when we weren't communicating at all.

It was at a Father's Day doubleheader at Shea Stadium where I learned that my dad was a baseball genius. He taught me how to keep score. He knew exactly when the Dodgers bus would pull up to the player's gate before the game so I could get Sandy Koufax's autograph, and how to slip the usher a five so we could get down to the good seats. I inherited from my father, who grew up as a Brooklyn Dodgers fan, the unfortunate genetic trait that makes me live and die with my team even though I know that I am doomed to be bitterly disappointed year after year after year.

Today on Father's Day, I realize that even when communication seems hopeless there is always a way for people to find a connection. Even in Iran, where the government cuts off access to cell phones and TV, but the people use Twitter, YouTube and Facebook to tell the world what is going on in the streets of Tehran. Even in Washington, where the debate over health care becomes louder and more contentious while reasonable compromises are being floated behind the scenes that make finding common ground seem possible.

This weekend, I went to my first game at the Mets new stadium, Citi Field, and I thought about my father. Today I realize that an even better way to honor him would be to figure out how to connect with people when it seems impossible, and how to sidestep the traps that prevent us from communicating. We all have lessons we learned from our fathers. If we are as smart as they were, we take those lessons and use them in our daily lives to make our little corner of the world a better place.

Don't rain on my parade

2009-06-12T11:23:00.001-06:00

Let's review the recent national news. The first Latina ever nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court, who was raised by a single mother in the Bronx housing projects and worked her way up to the top of the judicial system, is called a racist by a bunch of cranky old white guys. Democrats and Republicans took turns locking themselves out of the New York State Senate. When asked to take a seat at the healthcare reform table, special interest groups responded by drawing a line in the sand. We saw two Americans murdered by domestic terrorists.

What we have here is more than just a failure to communicate. We are drowning in a sea of toxic rhetoric that makes respectful dialogue impossible. You can blame it on anger and fear and economic stress if you want, but this hate filled atmosphere did not happen overnight. It is fueled by insults, slurs and verbal tantrums on radio, TV and the Internet, and it will not disappear overnight either.

Jack Kerouac wrote, "Imagine trying to explain to 1,000 raving Tokyo snake dancers in the street that you are looking for peace but you won't join the parade." When we try and communicate with people who just cannot see things from our point of view, we are in for trouble. Either we are not communicating clearly or the other party is not willing to listen. Finding common ground becomes impossible if we insist on remaining in our own separate camps.

The PR profession gets a bad rap, but the PR pros I am privileged to call my colleagues are sincere, ethical communicators who counsel their clients to practice integrity and to communicate with respect. It is time for us as a profession to step up to the plate and take a leadership role in guiding America away from the precipice and back toward undivided ground. It is time for us to return America to a place where we can voice our own individual opinions in our churches or synagogues or capitols or museums without fear of being shut up or shot down.

We can begin by challenging the media to behave responsibly. We can counsel our clients to engage in positive collaboration that builds healthy communities. And we can challenge ourselves to motivate our extensive social networks toward positive change and to make sure we always communicate responsibly within those networks.

You don't have to join the parade to see that the dancers are having fun. Let them. Maybe that simple act of tolerance is all it takes to make a difference.

Hat Man

2009-05-27T16:53:00.001-06:00

I've always been a hat man. Panama hats, fedoras, baseball hats, cowboy hats, I like them all. But these days it seems like everyone is wearing a lot of hats, especially PR pros.

That was the topic of conversation at the Colorado Healthcare Communicators program this week. As the media landscape shrinks due to mergers, layoffs and closures, journalists are becoming scarce. So to get our clients' stories told, we have to play the role of journalists. We have to be writers, editors, producers, reporters and photographers. We have to produce the stories and feed them to the media in a format they can use in print, on the air, or online.

Not long ago, the media would have turned up their nose at our VNR. Now they are practically begging us to send them video. The good news about this trend is we have a lot more control over the story. Now we can actually create it instead of wondering if our messages will be diluted, misconstrued or edited out altogether, or if the story will paint our clients in a negative light. We can make sure our clients say something clever, compassionate or profound, and that they always look like an expert. Then we can take the story and put it on our own video channel. Just like an ad.

In some ways, that is also the bad news. Bad because we are losing a level of journalistic integrity that allows the public to trust that the source of the news is credible, honest and objective. We can debate about whether the news media has already lost that claim, but if PR pros can now deliver not just the idea for the story but the actual finished product, what's to prevent us from only telling one-sided stories that always paint a positive picture? Nothing, really, except our own professional code of ethics, which we can choose to abide by or ignore.

The real question is, if PR is evolving into citizen journalism, do citizen journalists have an obligation to adhere to the same ethical standards as professional journalists? Do citizen journalists have an obligation to practice journalistic integrity? The answer is, it depends. And the way you feel about that depends on how you answered.

Like every complicated issue, there are two ways of looking at it. Which is why we as a profession are so conflicted. By day I'm a PR pro. By night I'm a citizen journalist. What can I say? It's my fate. It's my curse. I'm hat man.

The Dumb and the Useless

2009-05-21T11:53:00.001-06:00

Like an episode of the classic soap opera, The Young and Restless, which a friend of mine aptly dubbed The Dumb and the Useless, I am becoming a little annoyed with the crusading social media evangelists who gleefully dance on the graves of newspapers and PR firms while busily texting and tweeting people they've never met about every inane thought and intimate detail of their apparently really cool and exciting lives.

I admit it, watching a room full of people at a conference tapping away on their iPhones and Blackberries instead of giving the speaker the courtesy of listening seems to me to be rude and obnoxious, not hip and trendy. If never being present anywhere is the future, let me off at the next stop.

And another thing, I don't care what you had for breakfast or when you are going to the gym or how bored you are at work. Keep it to yourself. Tell me something I don't know, share your opinion about something important, or let me know about an event or cause or organization I might be interested in, and you might get my attention. Otherwise you are just wasting my time.

Look, I get it. It's new, it's evolving, it's your world and you love it. But please try and explain it to me in a way that doesn't sound like anyone who has a different opinion about it or doesn't quite see it the way you do is a total moron just living in the past and hanging on for dear life against the rising tide of global change. Dig (with one g) this: We are all members of the same family and there is room here for all of us.

Social media has its place but so does traditional journalism. Public relations is evolving and it should evolve, but it is still about building relationships with groups you need to communicate with and determining what you want to tell them. Sometimes the best way to build those relationships is over the phone, or even (gulp) being present enough to meet someone face to face. Imagine the possibilities.

I'll make you a deal. I'll listen and learn from you if you will be present long enough to listen to me. Or as Dylan said, "I'll let you be in my dream if I can be in yours."

It's about the band

2009-05-15T16:58:00.001-06:00

The Dead came to Denver this month on their first tour in years, and the party was on. Non-Deadheads may wonder what the big deal is about a band that's been around for 45 years and has lost a few members along the way, including its spiritual leader, Jerry Garcia. But as any Deadhead can tell you, what makes the band special is their ability to play as a team.

Like jazz musicians, they seem to telepathically communicate and instinctively understand what the other band members are going to do next. On stage, everyone is improvising. With few words and minimal body language, they can play long sets of complex songs, shifting gears seamlessly as one cohesive unit. No set or solo or concert is exactly the same from one night to the next. The fans have their favorites but the band has no stars. The difference between the Dead and most other rock bands is that the Dead is about the band, not the players.

So what is it that creates teamwork and how can you instill that attitude in your organization? In sports it's called chemistry. Winning teams have chemistry and losing teams need it. But do winning teams have natural chemistry or do they create an environment that encourages it? Does team chemistry require a charismatic leader to set the right example, or can a group of players with a common goal create their own chemistry?

Not to be Zen about it, but the answer to those questions is yes. Teamwork is something everyone can appreciate but it is difficult to accomplish. Each leader and each organization is capable of creating it, but many are not willing to devote the time or make the commitment. And sometimes it just happens.

Take the mysterious case of the Denver Nuggets. Maybe some of the Dead's attitude rubbed off on them, because the notoriously me first Nuggets are suddenly playing the type of team first game that NBA coaches dream about. They are even talking championship. The lesson here is, if the Nuggets can play as a team, anyone can. It takes a major commitment but the rewards are worth the effort. Once everyone buys into the concept, the results will come quickly.

There is no specific roadmap to teamwork, but the path becomes illuminated once an organization is open to following it. To quote the Dead, "that path is for your steps alone." Ramble on easy.

When a pig flies

2009-05-04T14:32:00.001-06:00

Swine flu is making us sick. Not the virus, just the overwhelming media frenzy that is scaring the pants off everyone. It would be one thing if pigs were actually flying, but the reality is that so far, this appears to be a new but milder strain of the seasonal influenza virus, which causes 36,000 deaths every year in the U.S. To put that number in perspective, to date we've seen 26 deaths in Mexico and only 35 of the 286 confirmed cases in the U.S. have resulted in hospitalization. Not exactly cause for widespread panic.

It seems that what we have here is a failure to communicate, or at least a failure to coordinate clear, consistent and factual messages. The media, seeing a great opportunity to jump to conclusions, sensationalizes the flu hoping for news of deaths or at least a few school closings and people on airplanes in surgical masks. Public health officials are sending mixed messages, one day warning us about a scary pandemic and conjuring images of the Black Plague, and the next day reassuring us that it is not as bad as we thought. One day we should not get on a plane and the next day we should not overreact. One day it's off with the pigs' heads and the next day it's not even called swine flu anymore.

No wonder we are all confused. It's situations like this that make PR people crazy. We'd like to sit everyone down, have them all take a deep breath, find out exactly what the facts are and then prepare a few clear consistent messages for a few key spokespeople so that each expert speaks to their area of expertise in one collective, level-headed voice.

When a crisis happens it breeds chaos. It is natural for people to speak before they know the facts or to panic if there is too much uncertainty. Rumors can spread and the damage can grow worse by the minute. But the only way to put out the fire is to be deliberate, disciplined and organized. Follow the plan and stick to the rules. Be compassionate. Do not speculate. Maintain your composure. Communicate clearly, consistently, factually and transparently.

No doubt, public health officials, media and PR pros will learn a lot from this crisis once it finally resolves. We will look back and examine what we did right and what went terribly wrong. It will be a good crisis communications case study. But for now we must endure weeks and months of rumor, speculation and recrimination, while the media camps out at schools and hospitals, following every parent with a sick child, hoping for some drama.

Keep Your Journalists User Friendly

2008-08-04T10:56:00.001-06:00

As we PR typed always tell our clients, it's all about relationships. Particularly our relationships with journalists, which after all, are what most clients believe they are paying for.

Although our connections with journalists are crucial, journalists are not our friends. We use them just as they use us. This was reinforced at a recent Denver workshop hosted by former Rocky Mountain News reporters Rachel Brand and Janet Forgrieve. They emphasized that journalists and PR pros have mutually beneficial relationships that need to be kept professional and maintained through constant contact. They suggested cultivating a few relationships with journalists who cover beats relevant to your clients. You can count on them to listen and they can count on you for a good story. Simple, right? Wrong.

As newspapers continue shrinking, it is hard to tell who covers what anymore. Cutbacks sever our connections and journalists are no longer just reporters. Now they need to be videographers and editors too, and they often cover topics they don't know much about. They are under more pressure so they have less time to schmooze. Pressure makes it harder to start, build and maintain relationships. So what can we do about it? Here are a few tips from Brand and Forgrieve.

Meet and greet. Set up time for coffee to talk about your clients and their upcoming stories. Offer to be a reliable resource.
Read their articles. Let them know you are truly interested in what they write. Remember who you are contacting. Don't send the wrong pitch to the wrong journalist.

Be your own journalist. Are you sure that what you are pitching is really newsworthy? Is it indicative of a new trend?
Be prepared. Do you have the information they need? Can you provide video for websites? Saving a journalist some steps will go a long way in building your relationship
Don't be a pest. Follow up with a call and another email, and then stop. If they are interested, you will hear from them.Don't burn bridges. There are lots of other PR folks out there they can turn to for stories.

Our reputations are our business. Damage them and we won't be in business long. If your gut tells you that the client wants you to do something that you know is not right, then go with your instinct. Long after you are done with the client you will still need the relationship with the journalist. Even if they are just using us, we still need them to be user friendly.

That's Mine and You Can't Have It

2008-08-04T10:41:00.001-06:00

To protect or not to protect, that is the question. Hasbro, the maker of the popular word game Scrabble, answered that question definitively when it slapped a lawsuit on the Agarwalla brothers from India. The suit accused the brothers of pirating Hasbro's intellectual property when they created Scrabulous, a popular game application that's attracted half a million users on Facebook.

Scrabulous was one of Facebook's most popular applications, attracting more than 500,00 users a day. It was also an obvious rip off.

Nevertheless, the blogosphere has been up in arms about what many perceive to be a bad PR move by Hasbro. Shouldn't they be thanking the brothers for generating so much fuss abut Scrabble? The company reportedly made a huge offer for the software but the Agarwalla brothers turned it down, confident they could get more money. So was this a good business decision or bad PR for a big company to pick on two punks from Calcutta? It is better business for Hasbro to protect its intellectual property or to look at it as free advertising that builds its brand?

Trademark and copyright infringement is serious business. It is also illegal. That's because there is great value in intellectual property. Many of today's most iconic brands, from Microsoft and Apple to Coke and Starbuck's, owe more of their worth to intangible assets like intellectual property than they do to fixed assets like property and equipment. If you don't protect your brand, it's like leaving the keys in the door when you leave home. Everyone and his brother can just help themselves.

Maybe it was all fun and games at first, and these guys were just benevolent, open source Robin Hoods who wanted to improve something you own and then give it away for free. But at some point greed took over and it became a case of theft for profit, clear and simple.

So Hasbro weighed the bad PR it might get from some bloggers against the bad PR it might get from its stakeholders by giving away the Scrabble brand. And it made a business decision. It decided to launch its own Scrabble application on Facebook. Facebook users now have the option to play Hasbro Scrabble application or simply go directly to the Scrabulous website.

So for the two brothers from India, the game comes down to this. What's a four-letter word for bummer?

Back to the Future?

2008-07-31T11:27:00.001-06:00

According to Hollywood time, we are already well past the fictional movie future we thought we would find by now. Here we are and there are no flying De Loreans, no time traveling, and no space odyssey. Not even any cranky robots to keep us amused.

We are, however, in the midst of a new era of communicating. Web 2.0, or New Media, allows us to communicate and interact in ways that seemed impossible ten years ago. Now we know the instant that something important happens in our world, and within seconds we can participate in a group conversation about how that event impacts our lives.

Another giant step for man is the ability to download coupons right to our phone. Mobile marketing is a great way to reach a young target audience that is comfortable accessing everything it needs on the mobile phone in their pocket. McDonald's and Dunkin Donuts have some great examples of using SMS technology to connect with customers.

At the recent New Media Summit hosted by Metzger Associates in Boulder, Colorado, there was a lot of talk about mobile marketing and social networking applications such as Twitter and Facebook. These social marketing channels make it easier to exchange information and deliver relevant messages to highly targeted audiences.

Twitter is called microblogging because you can post comments like a blog, but the posts have a 140-character limit. You can quickly build networks by tweeting people that follow you, or you can follow influential users yourself. It seems like everyone is using Facebook. Italy has a page and so does BMW, which launches a contest where Facebook users graffiti cars to win a model BWM painted by famous artists like Andy Warhol. Facebook is a great way to build corporate or personal brands and interact with potential clients and customers.

Pushkin Public Relations encourages our clients to realize that the future is now. Learn how Web 2.0 strategies can fit into your overall communications programs. Understand that his is how a new generation of stakeholders and employees is communicating.

We may not have flying cars but we are in a very exciting time when it comes to how we communicate. The world is truly at our fingertips.

Practice Makes Perfect

2008-07-18T12:54:00.001-06:00

When I was a working musician, I always looked for opportunities to soak up a lesson or some words of wisdom from musicians whose talent just blew me away. It did not take me long to figure out that the one thing that separates the good musicians from the great ones is that great musicians never stop practicing. They know that they can always get better and that there is always something they can learn. They know that the day they stop being creative is the day some young hotshot passes them by.

Now that I own a Denver, Colorado public relations firm, I know that the same rule applies for PR pros. If you ever get to that point where you think you are smart enough, that is the time to get out of the business. There is always something you can learn to help you provide better service to your clients.

These days technology is changing so fast that it is hard to keep up. It is not just learning how to use new media tools like social marketing, SEO, podcasts or blogs. It is researching which tools are most relevant for your clients and learning how to use them to communicate in a relevant way to the audiences you are trying to reach.

Whether it is new media, old media, business basics or economic fundamentals, the best way to keep learning is to surround yourself with people who know something that you do not. We can all use a mentor. That person could be someone with more experience or an intern who looks at the world with a fresh perspective that opens your eyes. It could be someone in your immediate network or someone you meet by joining a new social or business networking community. It could even be the person you are mentoring yourself, who just might be able to teach you as much as you are trying to teach them.

Now some people do not like to practice, they just want to play the game. Remember when basketball star Allen Iverson famously defended himself after he was fined for missing practice?

Practice? We are talking about practice?

But basically, it boils down to this. No matter what business you are in, there is always something to learn. And whenever you think you know it all you are about to learn a valuable lesson. The rest is just practice.

Taking Your Seat at the History Table

2008-07-10T16:15:00.001-06:00

Denver is putting on its dancing shoes and gearing up for the 2008 Democratic National Convention. Unless you have been living under a rock you know that it is coming to the Pepsi Center in August. And now that the DNC has announced that Senator Obama will deliver his acceptance speech to a crowd of 75,000 strong at INVESCO Field at Mile High, Denver PR firms are definitely stressing out. We all have our hands full figuring out how we can get our clients and ourselves a seat at the history table!

Along with the obvious historical implications of the Obama presidential campaign, this convention will make history in another very important way: the role that new media will play in instantly delivering the up-to-the-minute news on every speech, meeting, meal, deal and party taking place in every corner of town. Thanks to Twitter, Facebook and Digg, we can expect constant updates on what is going on and who is saying what, right down to what they had for breakfast, lunch and dinner. And with the help of laptops and mobile phones, we can expect every gaff and screw-up to be uploaded to YouTube within seconds.

To leverage all the capabilities that this new technology provides for those of us savvy enough to grok it, a new media Big Tent is going up: http://www.demconwatchblog.com/2008/06/big-tent_27.html.

Hosted by Daily Kos and sponsored by Google, this is a 9,000 square-foot, two-story showcase for bloggers and new media journalists complete with a stage for political discussions and a kiosk to make You Tube videos. A lounge will provide workspace, WiFi and refreshments, and the public can come to mingle with influential bloggers, journalists and community leaders. It sounds like heaven for people who get their news from the Internet and blogosphere rather than TV, newspapers and radio.

The most historic thing about all this is not really the technology. It is how the technology will be used to give even the little guy a voice. Under the Big Tent, the public can listen in on experts debating every hot topic and participate in the conversation through social marketing networks that actually make democracy democratic. For the first time in a long time, people can feel that their opinions matter and that their voices will be heard. Imagine the possibilities.

Denver public relations pros would be wise to consider how their companies or clients can participate in this truly American conversation. Even if they have nothing to say, they can still listen. Even if they can not sing, they can still dance to the music.

Diving In

2008-07-02T17:33:00.001-06:00

The other day I took my puppy swimming for the first time. She's a lab so she dove right in, followed my other lab and pretty soon she was swimming. Nothing to it. She was having a blast with the other dogs like she'd been doing it all her life.

That's how I feel about blogging. This is my first blog entry and even though I have no idea what I am doing, I figured the best way to get started was to just dive in. Now I'm blogging.

I think for most businesses and entrepreneurs, that's the best way to deal with these uncertain economic times. Even if it makes you nervous, the worst thing you can do is to sit on the sidelines watching all the other dogs swim. Take a risk and dive in, it will make you feel better.