Getting Weird in Austin with Starr Baker & Kelly Womer

On June 9^th, our President and COO Laura Pesin will be heading to Austin with EVP Jessica O’Callaghan to get WEIRD—Wired, Entrepreneurial, Imaginative and Results-Driven—at the annual PRSA Counselors Academy conference.  In advance of the conference Laura spoke to Starr Baker, APR (CEO at INK Public Relations) and Kelly Womer, APR, ABC (Vice President and Partner at Linhart Public Relations) about  how to Build the Best Place to Work and Rethink Performance Reviews to help people and business grow.

Building the Best Place to Work with Starr Baker

Starr has been in business for nine years, but this past year has been particularly important in her journey.  Having been extremely lucky in gaining clients through good work and referrals, she hadn’t had to think much about the business side of her business.  But potential growth changed that and she went looking for a guide. Through PR News she found the book “The PR Agency Owner’s Guide to Finance.”  The first paragraph in the book nodded to the fact that “you start your agency because you love PR” – yes…but then it went on to say you must run your business like it’s a business – that’s first and foremost.  It took a long time for that sentiment to click.   

In Her Own Words

“I am not a risk taker by nature…my business partner is.  Although my husband would disagree as I have indeed jumped out of a plane for recreation!  But when you start your own business, you question for so long – am I going to be successful, is this really going to work?”

Well, she’s a two million dollar company now and feels like she’s gotten over that hump.  But there are some key lessons she learned along the way:

Some Must Have Tips from Starr

• You are a business owner now, that comes first, and it’s terrific that you also love what you do.
• Don’t do things the way they have always been done
• Be as creative for your own business as you are for your clients
• Change is hard but necessary – explore and embrace new tools (lots are free!) to make your business more efficient and productive; ultimately enabling your people to focus more on the client and the story than the process

Rethinking Performance Reviews to Help Your Business and People Grow with Kelly Womer

In Her Own Words

“Performance reviews are not a one-time event.  It’s about the dialogue that happens the other 364 days.  It shouldn’t be a dreaded event that happens on a designated afternoon in a cold, dark conference room.” Kelly noted that there was a study done in 2011 by a consulting firm which noted that nearly 25 percent of U.S. employees dread their review more than anything else at work.  Let’s take the doom and gloom out of it.

Some Must Have Tips from Kelly

During her session, she’ll expand upon four ways on how to improve effectiveness of your firm’s ongoing reviews and coaching process:

1. Take a step back to take a step forward:  look at what skills your business needs to grow
2. Lose the ambiguity:  make sure each position has clearly defined expectations
3. It goes both ways:  whatever the review process is, make the dialogue go both ways
4. Track your progress:  schedule regular conversations with your staff 

“What I appreciate most about Counselors Academy is learning what’s working and what’s not from others – one size doesn’t fit all. In our session, I hope we’ll learn ways together to create a culture of feedback, and make performance reviews an ongoing process.”

For more scoop on the PRSA Counselors Academy happening June 9th-10th in Austin, check out the full itinerary or follow #CAPRSA for more useful tips on being WEIRD.

Create Content That Stands Out From The Clutter

On today’s PR News Online, our very own Adrianna Giuliani, SVP of Creative & Strategic Planning, comments on Twitter’s Vine and Lady Gaga. Here’s an excerpt from her interview:

PR News: You’ll be addressing Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter at the conference. What other social platform should PR pros keep an eye on and possibly experiment with?

Giuliani: As brands look for ways to create more micro-content in real time, Vine is an interesting place to play since it marries immediacy with very short form content. With the volume of content that is being produced, brands will need to think about their overall presence across social a bit differently. Going forward it will be more important to be native to a user and enhance their digital experience versus disrupting it.
 
PR News: We hear you’ve given presentations on what brands can learn from Lady Gaga. What’s one lesson brands can learn from Gaga?

Giuliani: The best thing Gaga does is celebrate her fans. From delivering pizza to people waiting on line to see her perform to creating a unique term of endearment that shows affection for her ‘little monsters,’ she understands that, even if you are on stage, your fans are always the stars.

Read the full interview here.

SXSW Trends: The Sharing Economy Enables Experiences

Our Director of Digital Strategy, Andy Amendola, went to SXSW Interactive and brought back a wealth of information which he’s sharing with us via a series of SXSW blog posts this week. 

One growing trend covered at SXSW panels was the growth of startups that enable consumers to share what they own in order to earn a little extra money.  For example, Airbnb which facilitates the rental of your home to tourists, RelayRides which allows you to rent your car when you’re not using it, or marketplaces like Etsy that allow you to sell your home-made crafts.  All of these services provide people with unique experiences, allows them to interact with their neighbors and connect them to the source of where things came from.  These online services are creating an era of even greater interaction.

Why It Matters: As we know very well, it’s the unique experience that excites consumers on social media because thats what drives your own influence and cool factor, aka “Expeerfluence.”  Could it be possible that these types of startups will begin to disrupt existing economies, and start competing with the products made by massive corporations? Probably not yet, but we’d be surprised if Hertz and Hilton are not watching these companies very closely.  

How Can We Apply? As we’re thinking of creating new experiences for our consumers around our brands, are there ways to make them more unique, special, or human by taking a homemade approach or do-it-yourself angle that makes people feel more connected to it? 

SXSW Trends: Hardware Is Hip Again

Our Director of Digital Strategy, Andy Amendola, went to SXSW Interactive last week and brought back a wealth of information He’ll be sharing his musings and observations in a series of SXSW blog posts over the next week. 

Some of the most buzzed about apps at SXSW were not apps, but actual physical technology.  3D Printing was one of the most buzzed about technologies primarily because the MakerBot founder, Bre Pettis, announced a new device, The Digitizer. This is something that allows people to replicate small 3D objects indefinitely, just by scanning them.  Essentially, it’s a 3D scanner.  Before this, 3D printers required complicated computer aided designs.  As this technology evolves we may witness a new industrial revolution. 

The other type of technology that was buzzing was Space Travel, driven by the presence of NASA at the fair, as well as SpaceX CEO and all-around badass, Elon Musk.  Musk is the founder of Paypal, Tesla Motors (electric supercars), Solar City (largest supplier of US solar panels) and SpaceX, a commercial space travel company.  His goal is to one day enable people to travel and live on other planets. His hardware is a revolutionary reusable rocket technology, that can land anywhere with the accuracy of a helicopter, allowing human space travel to be more cost effective and therefore more likely. Sign me up! 

Last but not least is Leap Motion, a technology that will revolutionize how you interact with computers and anything electronic.  It’s basically bringing what was imagined inthe film Minority Report to life, and only for $79.99. With this device you can control your computer, browse the web, draw, paint and play fruit ninja without ever making contact with mouse, a keyboard, or even a screen.  Don’t worry, I already ordered one. 

Stay tuned for more SXSW intel coming your way next week!

Facebook Launches Its New Search Tool, Graph Search

Facebook unveiled their new search engine, called Graph Search, earlier this month. This new search tool isn’t just offering you a way to find your friends (or stalk your exes), it’s an attempt to pull all the information that matters to you within the context of your social life. Graph Search skips the results that are popular to The Internet, in favor of the results that are popular within a group you actually care about.

Here’s an example of how the new search works. Say you’re searching for a good fro-yo spot to go to for dessert. Graph search won’t just bring up a well-linked list a la Google — Instead, your fro-yo query will be answered with a little help from your friends, presenting you with suggestions based on where your friends have checked in. Eventually, Graph Search will scan the kind of words your friends used to describe the place (favorable or unfavorable), but for now the “Like” is the biggest indicator that you should check this place out.

Read more about graph search here: http://gizmodo.com/5976014/facebook-just-declared-war-on-google-meet-your-new-search-engine-updating-live

Day in the Life: Chloe D’Angelo

Before we shut down the office to celebrate the season, we wanted to give you another Day in the Life Feature. This time, we caught up with Chloe D’Angelo, Senior Account Supervisor on the Sebastian Professional Team.

Title: Senior Account Supervisor

What’s a fun fact about you? I’m a crazy cat lady but I don’t have any cats. I guess that just makes me crazy then?  

Where do you commute from? How is it? I commute from ‘Gramercy Hill.’ It’s 20 mins on the train; 40 mins on the feet

Describe your typical day at DVPR:

9-11: Drink coffee; check inbox, which is usually flooded with emails from European and Asian colleagues and clients who are up hours before I am; scan the news to see what other tiny animals in fluffy coats are being left behind in shopping centers; scan Facebook (that’s how I track brands, influencers, news, I swear!); start working on Fiscal Year plans (a safe assumption at any point in the year) 

Noon – 2: Considering many of our clients and agency partners are based in LA and like their calls first thing in the morning, this window is usually spent on conference calls.  Most days I’m having Delmonico’s tomato basil soup while responding to emails or reading about the Lohan scandal du jour.

3-6: Pretend to check for mail in the mailroom when really I know there nothing’s there except for weird catalogues I haven’t gotten since high school (Alloy?!). I’m really just jonesing for a tootsie roll in the candy bowl. Get back to my desk, review a memo with my friend “Tracked Changes”… sometimes there’s a team status meeting to talk about pitching plans, or a planning brainstorm, or a client call. 

Describe one accomplishment from your time at DVPR that you are most proud of. Oh there are lots of highlights! A ‘Factory Girl’ story for Sebastian in NYLON magazine is one.

What are you generally doing after work? What are you doing after work today? If I’m feeling ambitious: running or at the gym. If I’m feeling social: dinner and drinks with friends (I have an Excel grid of target places, it’s serious); sometimes a concert.  If I’m feeling lazy: Contemplating cooking until it’s too late to cook anything and then default to ordering on Seamlessweb, again, while watching Homeland (S1, Ep. 9 at the moment!)

If you weren’t in PR, what would your job be? Professional horse trainer or environmental lawyer.

Thanks, Chloe!!

See you next year, Tumblr! xo

Day in the Life: Tracy Green

The DVPR team works hard, and we wanted to start a feature that highlights each of our amazing colleagues individually. We are answering the age-old question, “What do you do all day?” with our new Day in The Life feature.

To kick things off we caught up with Tracy Green from the Wella team. She told us about her work, her dreams of being a Bieber backup dancer, and what it’s like to be a California girl in NYC. 

Enjoy!

Name:  Tracy Morgan Green (yep…just like the comedian)

Title: Account Executive on Wella Professionals

What’s a fun fact about you? I can recite the alphabet in 5 different languages

Where do you commute from? How is it? I planted myself in the West Village when I moved to the city 9 months ago from Los Angeles and have been enamored by the charming streets, striking brownstones and fashion forward residence ever since.  Conveniently living right above an iconic diner and subway line with a straight shot to DVPR…I can say I’m a happy camper.

Describe your typical day at DVPR:

9-11: A true believer in ‘The early bird gets the worm’ I am at the office around 8am every morning to read through my emails and prep for the day ahead.  When 9am rolls around I am usually heading up for a morning coffee and some girl chat with my neighbor, Lindsey Trop before tackling my to-do list. The remainder of my morning is used to answer emails and review documents before the west coast wakes up.

Noon – 2:  ‘Wired In’ -  you can find me jamming out to anything from Tiesto, Rascal Flatts or Mariah Carey Christmas while I power away on pitching the latest and greatest Wella has to offer. 

3-6: Meetings, Calls and Deadlines…and the frequent walk for an afternoon Coffee Bean with Stephanie Puelio.

Describe one accomplishment from your time at DVPR that you are most proud of: I was given the opportunity to lead Wella’s title sponsorships in regional fashion weeks. With Vegas, Boston and Los Angeles completed and Miami quickly approaching it has been quite the run. I have developed lasting relationships with inspiring stylists, designers and the P&G sales team that has resulted in media coverage and tremendous salon client interaction. This has by far been one of the greatest learning experiences and personal growth in my career to date. 

What are you generally doing after work? What are you doing after work today?  Every night in NYC brings something new and exciting for this PR gal. You can find me grabbing drinks with editors, attending magazine events, store openings, girls dinners and date nights with my stellar boyfriend. Tonight’s agenda entails manicures with one of my favorite beauty editors and soon to be published authors at Townhouse Spa.

If you weren’t in PR, what would your job be? A backup dancer for Justin Bieber or Ryan Goslings personal assistant.