My friend Dan Sussman, like me, lost his mother recently, and over coffee today he made one of the best analogies I have ever heard to describe the weirdness you go through when you are dispersing of your parents’ belongings.   “I felt as if I were striking a set, like in the theater,” he mused.   “You look at the objects, and then you move on.” 

If that doesn’t completely describe what it’s like to go through a major life transition, I don’t know what does. Whether you’re packing up your office and leaving a job behind, or going through boxes of your mom’s belongings to figure out what to donate and what to keep, it’s exactly like taking down the set from a play.  The little dramas that played out over time were intense and very real, but after the play is over they seem out of place and in many instances, sadly, just way too specific to that particular play to be of use in another story.

This isn’t to diminish their value in any way.  Dan’s analogy just reminded me of how our lives are really only a series of different ongoing vignettes.

I hope whoever takes down my set saves and treasures my Topo Gigio key ring. 

Photo credit:  Nic’s events, creative commons license

I first met Marion a little over a year ago, when I limped into an Arizona Book Publishing Association meeting and grabbed a seat in the back. I was just starting to get out and about after struggling with piriformis syndrome. She came over immediately to greet me and welcomed me to the association.

I’ve gotten to know her better since then, and admire her mission and commitment to “giving voice” to others. She told me, “I have always been fascinated by who people are and where they come from, and why they live one side of the street instead of the other.  Imagine my surprise when I met a group of women who chose to live on no street at all. What started out as a desire ‘to give voice’ to these women, wound up with a www.togivevoice.com website and an audio CD and then a book.”

Marion is a great example that you can be any age and from any walk of life to write a book that resonates with the public and exemplifies your passion.   Over the past few years, she has given voice to these women in a variety of formats, including the book, the website, and through recorded interviews to help bring them alive. She has begun Internet-based marketing with blogs, podcasts and a Buy page on the website.   Throughout the journey, she has relied on the Arizona Book Publishing Association to help her understand this new world of self-publishing.

“A mentor recommended in 2007 that I join the association,” says Marion. “The members have quietly guided my publishing growth while challenging my marketing focus. They honor my passion ‘to give voice’ while reminding me that I’m not crazy.”

I admire her because she hasn’t stopped there.  Her next project is  a new book called “The Noble Art of the Printed Book Through Social Media Publishing,” (the working title) which is being developed this summer.  She is interviewing different experts to articulate the unique value not only of the tangible, printed book in a world where electronic formats are gaining more and more prominence, but the value as well of authors seeking outside help during their publishing journey, and not going it alone.

Her five-year plan is to transition back into the Arizona East Valley RV lifestyle. According to Marion, there is no retiring from her life’s passion, but a continuing commitment to give voice to those who want to be heard at this point in their lives.

To find out more about Marion and her work in progress, visit her website at www.togivevoice.com.

Is there something or someone in your life that you want to give voice to? It’s never too late.

Author Alan Korwin

Book publicity is a talent that a lot of authors don’t possess.  However you feel about the controversial topic of gun laws, (and I’m squarely in the middle), you have to admire someone like Alan Korwin.   Through hard work and a natural promotional ability, he has taken his Arizona Gun Owner’s Guide through 24 successful self-published editions.  

1).   How did you first get the idea for your book, The Arizona Gun Owner’s Guide?

Moved here from NYC, where guns in the hands of the public are virtually unknown, and found Arizonans sold guns and ammo in supermarkets. When I asked,  ”What are the rules?”, the guy at the counter asked me what I meant by rules. I figured there was room in the market for a book on it. I certainly wanted to know. People started making me offers for copies before I had it written.

2).   You self-published your book.   How did you promote it in the beginning?

I secured a book contract with what I thought would be the best publisher in the state, but I could see they had no idea how to handle this project, and even if they did, I wasn’t going to make any money on the deal. So I took my wife out for a walk and told her I was going to do this. Now we’re both in it up to our necks.

How did I do it in the beginning? Just like now. Insane amounts of effort, energy, venturing where I had no idea what I was doing, and learned quickly. Met people, made friends, helped others, zeroed in on the movers and shakers, networked nonstop. Traveled the entire state and went into every gun store I could find. Not bad for a kid from the Bronx who had never been in a gun store. I figured that’s where the customers were. Used copy machines like a demon. This was before the web, 1989. Now I just push buttons, like I’m doing for you Linda. How many people will this reach?

3).  What edition is the book in now?

24th. We put out three editions in one year once, to meet demand (the Brady Law changed the whole landscape, and then the concealed-carry permit did the same again).

4).  Can you summarize all the developments since that first edition two decades ago?

My little firm Bloomfield Press, from that inauspicious beginning of one skinny book (it’s grown 100 pages thicker), is now the largest publisher and distributor of gun-law books in the nation, eight of which I’ve written (and more than 220 products so far — DVDs, buttons, stickers, related topics). I was an invited guest at the U.S. Supreme Court for the benchmark Heller case last year, and joined an amicus brief (my first) in the Chicago gun-ban case coming up in March 2010. Get one of my full-color catalogs, it’s free, request it online.

5) What’s your theory about book publicity?

 If it works, it counts.  If you’re smart, you follow your industry.  If you’re really smart, your industry follows you. You know you’ve written a good news release when they run it verbatim.  If you want to know what I think of reporters, see my newsmedia watchblog, Page Nine http://www.gunlaws.com/PageNineIndex.htm.  Or even better, their record on accuracy and objectivity http://www.gunlaws.com/NewsAccuracy.htm. That’s press relations.

 6) What are some of the PR mistakes you see first-time book authors doing?

• Getting an interview and saying “my book” five times, instead of saying “The Arizona Gun Owner’s Guide” five times.
• Being on camera without your book in your hand, or worse, holding it at waist level or not holding it dead still. It’s got to be right next to your face to get in the shot.  Feels awkward at first. Then it’s second nature.
• Failure to put copies of your books on a table in camera range prevents the camera guy from zooming in for closeups they crave.
• If your cover is bright and colorful (an asset newbies often overlook) camera people love what it does to a TV set when it airs.
• Letting the interviewer control the dialogue, instead of knowing what you want to get across ahead of time and always working toward that. For example, ”So Mr. Korwin, what do you think about gun control?” “Well, that term has become a euphemism for disarming the public, and so it faces stiff resistance. But the public has guns and they’ll be have them tomorrow, so don’t you think it would be good if they knew the rules? That’s why I wrote The Arizona Gun Owner’s Guide. So people could get a copy of the rules — in plain English! It doesn’t make sense to own a gun and not know the rules, wouldn’t you agree?”

 7) What advice do you have for someone who wants to promote their book?

First, recognize that this is show business.  Second, read read John Kremer’s “1,001 Ways To Market your Book.”

"Young Frankenstein" 1974

The PR blogs are abuzz with differing opinions on how Tiger should have handled his 2:30 a.m. car fiasco.  Fraser Seitel, a crisis management expert and author of “Practice of Public Relations,” wrote an open letter to Tiger on Nov. 30th listing 5 critical PR moves Tiger should make right away.   Seitel represents one side of the PR debate, one with which I agree:   Go public, do it yourself, do it Tuesday, get it out, learn from your mistake.

Another view, represented by elite PR specialists such as Brian Solis, feels that Tiger should take time to compose his response before going to the media, and has a right as a private citizen to do so.

A third perspective is that Tiger owes no one an explanation, has committed no crime, and by coming forth he is “breaking into jail.”  You can see a good rundown of differing opinions on my fellow blogger Len Gutman’s post, The Trouble With Tiger.  

Well, as we all know today, he finally spilled the beans, and our worst fears were confirmed.   He admitted to “transgressions” without going into detail.     So what’s my armchair quarterback analysis?

I think David Letterman is a good example of how to handle a really bad situation.    When his affair with the intern came to light, he went public immediately.    American culture in particular seems to be more forgiving of the sin when the admission of guilt comes early, rather than being withheld.    When the celebrity retreats and dodges questions from the media, we become like the wild pack of villagers storming the walls to find Frankenstein.   We’re almost Monty Pythonesque in our quick ability to forgive and forget if the culprit steps forward and takes his beating.   Can’t you see it?   Frankenstein steps outside the wall, tells the crowd, “Hey, I did choke a few people to death, and maimed a few others, but I was feeling really bad that day and I’m going to take a sabbatical and get in tune with myself.”  And the crowd murmurs, “Oh well, in THAT case…” and fades away.   

Handling public relations crises means understanding human nature and human behavior.  It means realizing that no one who conducts an activity or profession under televised scrutiny, whether it’s politics, sports, or movies, is truly a “private” person.    It’s completely disingenous to claim otherwise.    The fame and fortune tied to those careers have the downside of 2:30 a.m. mistakes that become widely known.  

We wince for Tiger.   We know he has played the game with sportsmanlike character.   The least that someone of his stature owes us is quick acknowledgement so that they can tell the story their way, as best they can, in a 24×7 world.  I’m rooting for you, Tiger.   Today’s announcement was a step in the right direction.   A tad slow, but a good step.

,

Found “The Savory Grape” in East Greenwich, Rhode Island, by accident.   What a great find!   Wine organized by flavor, not region.   

Talking to the owner, Jessica Granatiero, I discovered that she had previously been in public relations.   She seemed a lot calmer and happier than some of my fellow PR professionals, so I wanted to share her story with you.   The Savory Grape opened its doors in April 2006.

You’re originally from Delaware – how did you end up in Rhode Island?

In 2004, I became engaged to be married. This led to a move to Rhode Island at which point I became an account supervisor for Feinstein Kean Healthcare, a division of Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide, based in Cambridge, Mass. I specifically targeted this company for a career because of its work in the mental health field. It was a natural fit as I was able to successfully integrate my education in psychology to help decipher and communicate the often complicated mental health rhetoric. At Feinstein, I was handling communication campaigns for clients including Novartis, Reckitt Benckiser and Dey Pharmaceuticals.

What made you decide to change careers?    

I wanted to pursue something about which I had great passion – the natural fit for me was food and wine. I decided that I would rather work long hours creating a business related to wine that I loved and getting other people excited about it too. I love wine and food and I wanted to create an atmosphere where people could come in and buy and taste wine without feeling intimidated. A majority of the population doesn’t know anything about wine, but they know what they like. I wanted to create an environment that shared my excitement, passion and knowledge of wine with others. 

What skills from PR have you found helpful in the wine business?

I would say it’s a combined ability to appeal to public interest, to juggle multiple projects at once, and to distill sometimes complex information into a format that people can easily understand. 

Are you in business with your husband?  What was he doing before he got into wine?

My husband has a full-time career with a multinational corporation.  He does, however, consult on financial matters for The Savory Grape. He shares my passion for wine and we often travel together to discover new vineyards and products.

What PR strategies have you used in launching your wine business?   

In order to enhance customer knowledge and appreciation of our product, we provide an educational platform to the buying experience through workshops, seminars, in-store presentations, and sharing product news through e-mail. We’re always looking into interesting barter arrangements with like-minded vendors that result in a more distinctive product or service offering for both parties. In this time of widespread financial need, we seek and partner with local charities to demonstrate our commitment to giving back. We also communicate with local business and community leaders to let them know we exist as an active member of the community at large.

What would you advise other PR professionals who want to change careers?   What would you do differently?

Take the risk and pursue your passion, but also do your research to ensure your passion can be a profitable business.  I can’t really say I would do anything differently.  All experiences have you learning and growing. 

Why do you think PR professionals often change careers?    

I think that PR professionals, by the nature of the business, are exposed to so many different industries and career opportunities that it is tempting to make a change.  I’m not sure what would make the profession easier to stay in – if you have a true passion for PR, you’ll stay.

What helped you take the plunge? 

I credit my parent’s influence on me for the passion and commitment it took to become a successful entrepreneur at age 37. I am also thankful for the loving support and inspiration I receive from my husband, Nino.

 Today’s guest blogger is Steve Shu, a management consultant and business development professional with over 17 years of experience.    Steve holds an MBA from the University of Chicago and both an ME and BS in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University. He is also an Assistant Professor of Marketing at Irvine University with specialty interests in brand management, social media, and business strategy. He maintains one of the earliest and widely-recognized blogs on management consulting, which may be found at http://steveshu.typepad.com.

Last week when I saw Linda’s post on “Don’t brand yourself into a corner”, it triggered some thoughts that personal branding is not a widely understood topic. To me, personal branding is not simply about surface “image” and “an eyeless game” (an anagram adapted from drummer and famed lyricist Neil Peart) – one’s personal brand affects how deeply other people understand, remember, emotionally connect with and engage a person.

So why is it important to be able to know how to stretch and influence your personal brand? In today’s ever-changing environment I find increasing numbers of people that either feel trapped or constrained on professional dimensions. For example, some people feel like they are doing the same thing on the job day-in and day-out. Others may find themselves unemployed and feel a need to reinvent themselves. Additionally, there are those that have taken a static view of personal branding. Yet one of the dangers of overspecializing and failing to evolve your personal brand it that it can lack resilience. If market or external conditions change enough, your personal brand, while differentiated, could gradually become irrelevant or crowded out by others.

This is not to suggest that personal branding should be all over the place. There should be an aspect of fortification. That said, just as managers for companies help to stretch and improve brand associations, the connections that people form in their minds about products and services (e.g. quality, positive attributes, emotional feelings, functional use areas, substance), people can seek to influence and stretch their personal brand associations.

Consider Apple’s iPod. While the original core identity had been around enabling users to create their own music environments on the go, the company invested in innovation (process and meanings), technology (assets), and marketing (outreach & feedback) to gradually stretch people’s mental associations with the iPod. Now the company has created associations like “There’s an app for that.” Memories gradually fade about the original, more constrained personalized music environment – it’s now much more about having what you need to make your mobile life more exciting and having solutions at your fingertips. The new incarnations of the iPod are dramatically new, yet the process to get there was connected to a strong foundation.

People can similarly make investments to stretch their brands over time. Here are some examples:

• Process and meaning investments – A person may start to think about himself as more than an engineering specialist by working towards problem-solving views and/or outward-facing activities. Individuals may try to get involved with consulting projects to develop end-to-end experience.
• Asset investment – A person may want to develop more skill and knowledge about how to develop teams and foster innovation. Some possibilities may be to attend training in either organizational behavior or design courses. As another option, a person may seek to provide probono consulting services to specific organizations on the side to gain experience in new sectors. Alternatively, others may get involved with projects outside their own organization but within the same company.
• Outreach and feedback investment – Find ways to gradually influence how you think about yourself and how others think about you. Consider giving lunch talks on specific subjects, creating tutorial presentations, starting a blog, teaching courses, and leveraging the networks within all of those areas. Learn to help others in the network, and your brand image will be influenced positively and perhaps stretched in significant ways.

This post has just scratched the surface on personal branding, but I like to think about it in terms of stretching and reinforcing brand associations, and then making investments in the three areas of process and meanings, assets, and outreach and feedback. For those interested in exploring more about personal branding, I would recommend Dan Schawbel’s Personal Branding Blog as a destination point on the web.

Can you adapt to change easily?   Or are you set in your ways?  I can’t imagine a better contrast than my life the last two months, flying back and forth from Arizona to Rhode Island.

On the one hand, I have my life in Arizona, where change comes rapidly, everything is new, and the public relations community is a thriving social media haven. 

On the other hand, I have my world in Rhode Island, where I’m getting my ever-resistant-to-change mother settled into assisted living, and driving streets that haven’t been altered all that much since I first drove them in the 70s.

Do you ever wonder what your life would have been like had you not moved to Arizona and changed your life, as much as we transplants have?   Don’t know how deeply I would have gotten into social media if I had stayed in RI.  My fascination with social media is what prompted me to tweet a few weeks back to find PR pros whom I could connect with while I’m here.   My mother’s neighbor saw the tweet and put me in touch with a neat public relations agency owner, Jennifer Bogutt of The Jenn Lee Group in East Greenwich.

We met for coffee this week and I took the opportunity to ask her about her impressions about working in PR in Rhode Island.   She offered some interesting perspectives, because her background is in design and visual arts, and she had spent time in NYC before moving back to the “homeland.”   As T.S.Eliot wrote, it’s only after travelling that you can return to where you started and recognize the place for the first time.

“Rhode Islanders are used to things being the same,” she said.   “They enjoy knowing where things are.   Look even at how we give directions – we reference the building that USED to be there — like ‘take a right where the old Almacs used to be.’”    Returning to Rhode Island, she commented, felt “familiar yet foreign.” 

I honed in on that phrase.  That’s exactly how it feels – familiar yet foreign.   Do we change that much when we move away?   Jenn asked me if my husband and I planned to move back.    I think we could do it, given our ability to adapt.  And since there’s no clothing tax here, we could afford the new coats and boots we’d have to buy to weather the winters.

What kinds of clients did she have, I asked, wondering what the dominant industries were on the east coast these days.    “We don’t have a typical client,” she told me.  “We have medical, diocese, hospital, condos, special events.   Our team is made up of 11 people and we cover RI, Connecticut and southern Mass.”

They are doing well despite the economy and despite Forbes’ recent ranking of the state as the worst in 50 states in which to do business.   “I’ve hired in the last year, givien pay increases, and my team is motivated.”   The recession has kept employees from bouncing around as much as they might do in a flush economy.

What’s the best thing she likes about Rhode Island?  “The beach, and the woods.   It’s easy to get to skiing, or go to Block Island.   It’s the quality of life.”

One of my friends who relocated to northern Mass. said once, “Bloom where you are planted.”   I hope my mom can learn that, even at age 85 – she’s never been one to handle change really well.   Jenn had such a great attitude about RI that I know she’d be a role model if I ever did move back here.   Being in PR, you have to deal with so many market changes.   It’s a good skill to hone.

Meg Weaver

Meg Weaver of Wooden Horse Publishing analyzes magazine markets and trends, and provides this perspective on the state of magazines today:

Gourmet, Southern Accents, Vibe, Nickelodeon, Today’s Christian Woman, Portfolio, Pink, Spirit of Aloha, Hallmark, Memory Makers, Canadian Home & Country, Best Life, Western Interiors & Design, Blender, Pink – all magazines gone just this year!

What is going on?  Are we seeing the end of the American magazine?

No – and yes.  Many million-and-more circulation mass market magazines are, or will soon be, gone.  Interesting, well-edited magazines, which give us a “good read,” will survive.  Humans have always been suckers for a good story.  Some publishers have already figured this out.  National Geographic, The Economist, Consumers Reports, Smithsonian, Cook’s Illustrated, and others – to some degree even People magazine – have found that great content, targeted at smaller audiences of really interested people, make money.

Others are thrashing about for something – ANYTHING!  – to bring in money.  They’re desperate to stop the bleeding and are closing magazines while manically squeezing their remaining publications, loading them up with even more marketing partnerships, product line extensions, variations on charging for Internet content (which they trained readers to demand for free) or projects like MagHound, MagCloud, and the yet unnamed “Hulu-like service for magazines.”

If you’re not familiar with these last three, here’s a quick overview: 

MagHound (www.maghound.com) is a subscription service with a twist: The customer can switch between magazines – even in the middle of a subscription period.  MagCloud, at www.magcloud.com, allows anyone to publish a print magazine in a matter of days and have the company take care of the printing, binding and distribution.  The “Hulu for magazines” will be a joint venture between as many magazine publishers as Time Inc can sign up, and will offer subscriptions for digital magazines to be read on any e-reader, whether it’s an Amazon Kindle, Sony Reader, iPhone, Blackberry or Apple’s rumored tablet.  More e-readers in development abound, including those from Time Inc and Barnes & Noble.  The first two are already available and the “Hulu-like” service is estimated to be ready in 2010.

Will it work?  If the publishers are lucky, it may work for a while.  But innovations in subscriptions or reading methods don’t address the need readers have for a good story.

But smart publishers will eventually figure it out – and we will experience another golden age of American magazines and darned happy to have all those inventions to help us acquire and read them.

But today we are in a Never-Never-Land of uncertainty.  How do PR professionals navigate these tumultuous times?  How do you get your client, or client’s product, into successful magazines?  Here’s how:

1) Search out magazines focusing on great content.  They’re out there and their numbers are growing.  One by one, publishers will begin to discover what made magazines successful in the first place.

2) Discover the story behind your product and use it in your pitch. 

3) Break the habit of using “spray-and-pray” distribution methods and work with magazines one-on-one.  Why?  See point 4.

4) Know each magazine’s editorial positioning.  When magazines stop using cookie-cutter content (“lose 5 lbs in 5 minutes!!”), you need to know how they plan to be different than their competitors.  Only pitches supporting this positioning will be considered.

No, we’re not in the dying days of magazines; this is just a course correction.  Good words – even if not necessarily on paper – will always hold a fascination for people.

You can reach Meg at mweaver@woodenhorsepub.com and sign up for her e-newsletter at www.woodenhorsepub.com.

If OJ was the crime of the 20th century, Lizzie Borden was the female equivalent for the 19th century.   In 1892, she took a hatchet and killed her father and her stepmother, presumably so she could escape her father’s tight grip on the family finances and live the life she craved in high society in Fall River, Mass. (and no, that’s not an oxymoron). 

If you’re not familiar with the story, the amazing aspect of it is that the police never checked Lizzie’s clothes for blood (it was considered improper at the time to examine female suspects), and they bought her story that she had purchased hydrogen cyanide (a deadly chemical) to clean a seal coat.   Uh, doesn’t that sort of indicate you have ill intentions? 

Not only was Lizzie lucky that she was female, she had the added benefit of being a Sunday School teacher.   Great spin for a murderess.  

My mother’s house is not too far from Fall River, and I may have to visit the Lizzie Borden museum again soon.  I saw it last summer in the heat of July, and the upstairs bedrooms were closed to visitors because of an A/C flooding problem.    So I never did get to see all of the house.   It’s actually a bed and breakfast (only in New England can they turn the macabre into a profit center), but I think just a tour is enough for me.

You may remember the 1970s Lizzie Borden movie that Elizabeth Montgomery (the actress from “Bewitched”) starred in.    The movie’s theory was that Lizzie committed the acts in the nude, so that was why there were no bloodstains on her clothes.   Lizzie’s older sister was conveniently out of town when the murders took place, and the family’s Irish maid claimed not to have seen or heard anything.

I became fascinated early on by Lizzie because of her ability to escape such damning evidence unscathed, save for public disapproval of her after she used the money to immediately buy a much larger and expensive house .  My father’s ancestors all grew up in the Carver/New Bedford area, so for many generations we had the New Bedford newspaper edition that came out the day after the murders were committed.  Unfortunately, my absent-minded mother left it in the family room downstairs in plain view, and it appears some workman over the years stole it, no doubt to get some money off eBay.   So the family’s prized possession is gone.

But my memory isn’t.    To me, Lizzie is the ultimate mystery.  The ultimate queen of spin.

How would Ted Kennedy’s reputation have fared if PR 2.0 had been in existence in summer 1969, when the infamous Chappaquiddick incident occurred?

No cell phones, no camera phones, no Internet, no social media, no citizen journalists.  Just a quiet dirt road on an isolated part of Martha’s Vineyard.  

It’s a part of history that will always remain a mystery.    To his credit, Ted Kennedy went on air to acknowledge his shortcomings.   But so many questions linger…

The methods to convey information and initiate conversations are different now.   But the PRSA ethics code is always a good guideline to follow.   There can be as much deception in omission of key information as there is in slanted information.   I’m a Ted Kennedy fan.   But this is one part of his past that continues to trouble me…