Aug 24 2009
The power of personal PR
By
- Linda VandeVrede & Lili Stanford
Personal PR. Do you have it? Lili Stanford did.
I first met Lili five years ago when we purchased a second home in Payson, Arizona. She lived across the street, and my first impression of her was just amazement at her comings and goings all the time. For a woman in her early 80s, she had an unlimited amount of energy.
Over the last five years, my husband and I got to know her much better, and she became closer to me than family. When she passed away last month from cancer discovered too late, it hit me hard.
In all the discussions of PR 2.0 and the value of conversations online, we often forget the value of personal public relations. The face-to-face. The generous gestures between neighbor and neighbor, friend and friend, family member to family member. These are what make up a legacy.
The latest correspondence from Cheryl Richardson, a life coach who lives in New England, includes a previously published essay on “Saying Goodbye.” It’s good food for thought when we take time to think about what our personal legacy will be, and what we will be remembered for:
Saying goodbye is a process not a destination.
Whether you’re saying goodbye to a relationship that’s ending, a child who’s gone off to college, a pet who has passed on, or a job you once loved, it takes time to fully acknowledge and appreciate all that has occurred. When we say goodbye, we never say goodbye to one person, one event, or one thing. We say goodbye to many experiences – the lessons learned, the challenges won and lost, the unfulfilled promises, or the unexpected joys. This takes time, patience and a willingness to sift through an experience all of our feelings.
Lili Stanford never went to college, never took a business class, never used a computer. But she instinctively knew the power of personal PR.
