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.



 

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.

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.
 

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.



 

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.



 

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.



 

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.