Adventures in Candyland

I’ve always felt like cube farms sucked the life from you. I know I’m not the only one. For years, many companies, mostly European or creative, have been experimenting with better ways for their employees to work. I once worked for a Scandinavian company who had us sitting in pods of four, which I originally thought were cool, but then realized were just as confining as cubes, but looked better. Thankfully, change is afoot. With the advent of Starbucks, wireless and the next generation workforce (the millenials), organizations are learning they need to create freer, more open environments for collaboration and concentration. These millenials won’t stand for bordom, repetion and Office Spaceness (my made up word, but you get it). They’ll just go find a more fun job where they won’t have to whither away in a cube for 9 hours.

In today’s PSKF, they made mention of a NYT article talking about this new way to work.

And yes, we work in one room with our back to one other, but we understand the importance of white space. In fact, Danielle blogged about this very idea a couple months ago. Her blog mentioned creating physical and mental white space - and I think offices who embrace this new way to work will be on their way to helping to create more of both and a lot more positive productivity for everyone.

I’ve been in the PR world for about ten years now, so I’ve learned and I think most people know it can be a tricky industry. For ages, agencies have charged their clients monthly retainers whether or not they pulled publicity that month. And many times, it’s not for lack of trying, often the story just doesn’t resonate with any writers. So there’s always this wierd struggle between clients and agencies. A client pays the agency to get publicity. The agency chooses an account person or team to work to get the publicity. The account person spends time researching, writing, pitching and then nothing happens. But, the client is still expected to pay the monthly retainer. And the agency still has to pay the account person. It’s definitely a dilemma. But, there does seem to be a shift occuring and frankly, I’m not sure what my opinion is on the topic — well, maybe I am.

Today’s WSJ featured a piece called, “Paying for PR — But Only When it Works.” It’s all about this semi-new trend of pay-per-placement PR, particularly in the small business arena. So, instead of hiring a agency or even consultant on retainer, a client would provide a story angle to a pr consultant or an agency who only focuses on pay-per-placement pitching and they would only get paid if the story got covered. In theory, it forces pr people to work extra hard and more strategically to get the placement. But, as much as I understand it, I think the business model is short-sighted (for the business being pitched) and unfortunately, a bit unfair(for the person doing the pitching).

Now, I completely understand and empathize with business owners who put a significant monthly retainer towards public relations and then barely have anything to show for it. There’s no doubt that this kind of agreement has the propensity to leave a bad taste in someone’s mouth as well as give public relations and it’s practioners a bad name (what doesn’t these days). And for agencies, yah, you might have made $60,000, but you’re usually left with a fractured relationship and bad word of mouth.

So, is there a middle ground? I think there is. Here at Sweet Talk, we always begin a business relationship by focusing on the overarching marketing goals of the business by developing a comprehensive marketing strategy plan. And strategy doesn’t exist on PR alone. And PR doesn’t exist on media alone. Today all the marketing rules have changed which is why marketing should start at the 10,000 foot level and then move downward. Many small businesses don’t see this or if they do, they don’t have the time or staff to do it- they might believe one piece of good PR is going to create an deluge of sales. But, readership and viewship is increasingly fragmented these days, so even if you do get one nice piece in your local newspaper you aren’t going to get the flood that being on Oprah would bring you (and yes that is every businesses dream and unfortunately it’s reality for a very lucky few).

The point here is that pay-per-placement agencies don’t really focus on strategy. They just focus on one piece of the pie. So, if as a business and you’ve created a cohesive marketing strategy and you want to farm out the media portion by providing the person with pitches that fit in the overall strategy that’s great! But, if it’s just a one off thing, you’re probably not going to get the response you hope for.

And I’m also not saying the answer is to choose a big agencies with more comprehensive services and overhead.

I think it’s more about finding a company that will work with you and your budget to build something a little more long-lasting, that just like trust, grows over time.

So said the legendary basketball coach John Wooden.

Being prepared and being honest are two things Sweet Talk prides itself on, as you will see in an article in yesterday’s small business section of The New York Times entitled, “Like Marriage, Business Takes Work.” It’s an interesting article about how partners can benefit and evolve from using business coaches and therapists. Our coach, Maggie Mistal, who was also mentioned in the article, has provided us with so much great guidance and advice. She has often been a catalyst of positive change for Sweet Talk, as well as educated us on ways to provide the best service and strategy to our clients.

The article also made mention of our new business model, which focuses primarily on marketing consulting for small to mid-sized businesses and nonprofits. We’ve already worked with several clients to help them create a strong marketing foundation for 2008. We look forward to continuing to provide excellent service and counsel to those of you with whom we already work, and with those we may work with in the future.

If you have any questions about our experience with a business coach, just let us know. It’s a process we recommend to all entrepreneurs.

Our weekly Friday guest post is up over at GoBigNetwork.  The exciting news is that it talks about target audiences and key messaging for startups and small businesses.  (There’s a slight tinge of sarcasm in that part about exciting…)

Catch ya next week.

I love Wired Magazine (I read almost every story every month - went to WiredNext Fest and plan on seeing the WiredHouse in LA ) and The Long Tail is a genius theory from a genius man, but come on Chris Anderson. I get that you get a ton of spam that has nothing to do with you from PR people. Unfortunately, this is a frustration for every person these days, whether they are an editor of a magazine, a business owner or a uhhh, a human being. I’m not saying you aren’t justified in your opinion that PR people need to be more targeted when pitching a story, but have a little sympathy, people are just doing their job. This is my response to said editor’s rant on ignorant PR people in his blog, The Long Tail.

In essence and ideally, PR people exist to provide a very worthwhile service to writers and editors - to make them aware of companies, people, products and concepts that they may not have time to learn about as they are often harried individuals always on some kind of a deadline. But, somewhere this help that we are supposed to be providing has become an annoyance that journalists now thwart and harp negatively on.

But, instead of outing every poor person who is really just doing their job, even if they may not be doing it well, how about if as I have complained about for numerous years and this PR Week Q & A from one of the aforementioned outees seconds, that journalists be more proactive and detailed about keeping their beats and what they cover current on Bacons, Vocus or on the company website. For so many writers there is no detail provided and even so, beats change often and writers move around often. It’s not always easy to figure out who covers what - even if you are an avid reader of multiple publications. This would provide less of an excuse for PR people to flagrantly send mismatched pitches. No sob story here, but why not make it easier for both sides to give and get what is pertinent to and from them.

Would journalists prefer the whole business of PR would just go away for good? There is sort of a circle of life when it comes to editorial and PR, so I really don’t think that’s the solution. Besides PR people being consistently all-knowing, how can we solve this problem constructively and peacefully?

Come on, pitch me your ideas!

Check out how Sweet Talk is helping to differentiate HalloweenMart in a crowded field of competitors in today’s San Francisco Chronicle small business column, “Mind Your Business.”

Social networking can be a powerful and inexpensive tool for small business owners to market their business, but they need to be creative and know how to use it right!

Last week I attended the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) Convention. It’s basically wall to wall (and there were so many walls at this place) aviation. In fact, there were 1,152 exhibitors - meaning no lack of men wearing navy suits. Aviation is an odd industry. Though it would make the most sense that this industry would be technology forward and filled with early adopters, in actuality ,it’s the opposite. To illustrate my point, just look at the dated air traffic control industry who still use a 50 year old system of radar and radio beacons. The the lack of female representation is also paltry. At NBAA there are 10 men for every one woman, and many of those women are “booth babes,” strutting the floor in miniscule red numbers. With the way the men reacted to them, I felt like watching a scene straight out of Mad Men(fabulous show BTW). I’ve attended this show before, so none of this was too surprising, but again it represents the antiquated world of aviation. Thankfully, it seems change is in the air.

I know I’ve mentioned Very Light Jets(VLJs) and Eclipse Aviation which are probably the biggest advancement aviation has taken in a long time. In any case, these new mini-jets may very well change the way we all travel in the future. Take a look at Day Jet, a new airline carrier flying Eclipse planes. DayJet is the world’s first per-seat, on-demand jet service, an entirely new approach to short-haul (under 600 mile) regional business travel. And it’s supposed to be semi-affordable probably right now around $600-$700 a flight, but hopefully if it works, closer to the $300-$400 range -even I can afford that! Right now, Day Jet is trying the concept out in Florida - so we shall see how this new niche progresses. Day Jet believes time is at a premium, especially for their target, the business traveller. Time is also at a premium for the wealthy, which is a nice segway into why I attended the show.

Wouldn’t it be nice to fly from NY to Paris in four hours and 14 minutes? Doesn’t seem possible does it? Well, if you have 80 mill and can wait a few years, you’ll be sipping plus de cafe au laits sur l’avenue Montaigne(finally using my French minor). Aerion Corporation has designed a Super Sonic Business Jet which will fly above and just below mach speed to get 10-12 lucky passengers from NY to Asia in nine and a half hours… and in comfort and class to boot! And all made possible by the jet’s unique wing structure. Check out what this sweet machine will look like. It is a quite an interesting company with superlative leadership. Anyway - I was working the booth to handle the media who attended and wanted to speak to executives. Check out this picture I took of the wind tunnel model. Pretty slick hah? Just about seven more years till take-off! Now this would be an advancement in aviation.

We just need a few more clients so Sweet Talk can put the company name on a reservation list! Thankfully, we have a few more years.

Since starting Sweet Talk last year, we have been asked countless times, “What industry do you specialize in?”  In fact, the question is so prevalent, and so automatic at networking events, that we have found ourselves trying to formulate an answer to it.

Here’s the thing…as entrepreneurs getting started, with somewhat varied backgrounds, we didn’t plan to start out specializing in any industry.  We figured we would take what business came our way.  But we also strongly believe that our expertise and the marketing/PR/communications principles we know can be applied to just about any industry and customized a little bit to fit each clients’ needs. 

Then we had a long conversation with a woman slightly older than us, who had had tremendous success in the marketing world by being a generalist - by applying her expertise to all industries, and we felt this justified the Sweet Talk philosophy. 

But the question kept coming…”What do you specialize in?”  And we started to feel like not having an answer was hindering us.  So we took a look at our clients, our backgrounds and what we enjoy.  And here’s what we know we specialize in:

We work with clients who are trying to reach a luxury audience - either with a high-end product or service, or as a nonprofit looking for donors.  

That’s our thrust.  That’s our answer.  BUT, we still strongly believe that our expertise and our knowledge can be applied to just about any industry out there, and we certainly don’t want to close ourselves off. 

Last week, I saw this post on the Blog of Tim Ferris (author of The Four-Hour Work Week) about the Top Five Reasons to be a Jack of all Trades.  And it made a lot of sense.  

Sooo…we continue to struggle with whether or not to specialize in a certain industry, or to proudly be generalists.  What are your thoughts?  Are you a specialist or a generalist?  Let us know!  

If you live in LA like I do, especially in Santa Monica where you don’t have air conditioning, you would understand that it would have been impossible to work yesterday due to the suffocating and seemingly endless heatwave we are experiencing here.  Which is why I, along with the greater part of Los Angeles, fled to the Pacific to try and catch our breath.  Finally, I could actually form thoughts!

So, I was finally able to do a little work. There are really no holidays for entrepreneurs. Anyway, yesterday I came upon this post from Seth Godin where he talks about the definition of hard work changing.  How hard work used to actually mean hard work (i.e., working in the fields), but eventually it evolved into someone who spent the most time toiling away at their desk.  Thankfully, there is an evolution there as well, as I agree time really doesn’t equate to hard work.  He claims it’s not the amount of time you spend, it’s the risk you take which is the hard work.  And you know what, it reminded me what we’re doing, going out there on our own, taking a big risk and yes, we are working hard, harder then we have ever worked. We decided not to go with the status quo even though it would be a lot easier, but we are succeeding, growing and learning more than we ever could working for someone else. So even though we have some of the most frustrating days I have ever experienced, I know that the hard work is worth it and it will catapult us to a place none of us knew we could make it to.

Ok - enough of my little pep talk! Maybe the heat has melted my brain.