60 hour work weeks is the phrase which best describes my May. I didn’t plan it this way (don’t think anyone ever does), but the projects all hit at the same time and I wanted rock it, kill it, crush it, pwn it, work it, make it, do it (this is where you sing “make us harder, better, faster…).
Seriously though, while many of you work much longer days and nights, I’m not used to running to the metro to catch the last train to Virginia…at least not because I was working all day in the office.
With the exception of a few essentials (eating, showering, Pandora, reading the express paper), everything non work related suffered during these last couple weeks. I neglected this blog, hadn’t spoken to family and friends, and let the DVR, email inbox and Google reader get out of control. BRACE YOURSELF: I even took a temporary leave of absence from twitter.
Even though I my general routine was upset a bit, I wasn’t miserable. Those late night metro rides gave me quiet time to ponder all sorts of things: “Why am I working so hard?” “Should I be working so hard?” “Is this what the next few years of my life has to offer?” “Is it worth it?” “If I’m gonna work this hard, maybe I should be doing it for myself..” When others were leaving and uttering those phrases we all hate to hear (”Are you still here?” “Go home” “I hope you’re not staying too late again!”), I just smiled and kept cranking because they were great projects and I wanted to crush them.
It wasn’t until after the end of the second week and a road trip to get this little guy that I arrived at the major conclusion of the month. I was hanging out with my best friend and he asked “so, you think you’ll stay there for a while?” I thought about it for a second and said “I don’t know.”
Probably not the answer you were anticipating, but it’s that lack of certainty that will probably keep me there for years to come. As long as the projects remain interesting and I continue to meet co-workers with amazing experiences and life stories, I’ll continue to say gimme more!
Here’s one for the DC folks. On April 15th, I’ll be on a panel of speakers presenting on social media. The panel is being sponsored by the DC Chapter of the National Black Public Relations Society (BPRS). Here’s the info:
“Strategic Social Media: Engaging Communities, Developing Relationships, Managing Crises.”
The event will be held at APCO Worldwide on April 15th, 2009 at 630pm. Featured panelists include:
We will be discussing the essentials of social media strategy, effective ways to develop relationships online and proven methods for using social media to manage crises.
All attendees are asked to RSVP to bprsdc@gmail.com with your name, company and number of guests. Feel free to share this info with your friends and colleagues. We look forward to seeing you on April 15th!
What can I do to be the most productive in what’s left of today’s cubicle time?
This Thursday was a little different in that I caught a tweet about Penelope Trunk’s podcast Career Considerations and decided to listen in around 330 or 4. In that episode, she was discussing a topic that I’ve been interested in for some time, whether or not it was worth it to get an MBA.
There is a lot of talk online about whether or not it’s smart to get an MBA in this economy, whether or not entrepreneurs need an MBA and whether or not people are getting MBAs for the right reasons (fear of or lack of career success, so automatic response is returning to school).
In the end, I think one of Penelope’s best arguments for not getting an MBA is that you come out of the other side with thousands of dollars in debt. That’s one argument you can’t dispute, but I have a rival feeling, the itch for learning.
While I was certainly not your 3.94 GPA student, I enjoyed college, learning in a group environment, so I was very excited when a former professor of mine extended an invitation to sit in on his class that night. A guy who many many would think of as a highly controversial lobbyist, in a Thank You For Smoking kind of way, was scheduled to speak. I couldn’t miss that, so I wrapped things up at 630pm, headed down to GW and tried to recreate the GW college experience I was beginning to miss.
I was missing my macbook and GW sweatshirt, but I figured that I’d survive.
Unfortunately, the speaker cancelled because of client issues, but I decided to stay for the lecture anyway. I was quickly reminded of why I enjoyed this class so much. In the 2 hrs spent discussing issues and image management, the professor touched on and included supporting video or online material on the evolution of Starbucks, Jack Bauer and 24, Shell Oil, SxSW, and Jet Blue.
One thing’s for sure, I’ve got the itch for learning. I scratched it just a bit last Thursday, and it felt great. Not sure how I’m going to afford it (pointers here are very welcome), but grad school is definitely in my future. Why? Because I’m confident that if I scratch that itch, it’ll take everything (career, dreams, hopes, thinking, accomplishments) to the next level.
Parts of me love new business, but parts of me also hate the new business process. Why? It brings me right back to college, specifically the night before a huge paper is due.
Not sure how many people feel the way I do about writing, but I do my best writing when I’m in the zone. Far too often in college I found myself in the zone less than 24 hrs before the paper was due (No matter the size/length). I have since learned the error of my ways, but to do so, I had to realize that writing was a process, one with many unavoidable, emotional highs and lows. It was full of joy and pain, but in the end, it was a good experience.
In college, I went through all the ups and downs in one night. The only difference I am finding with the new business process is that the joy and pain is spread out in stages over a few days.
Stage 1: The Brief
This can come via email or be conveyed during a short meeting with handouts. Key points to cover: the client, issue, current position, thoughts on strategy, potential budget. Really this stage is answering one simple question. What’s the 411?
Emotion: Pretty excited.
Stage 2: The Brainstorm
Normally, the brainstorm means an unusual gathering of minds (across practice and experience level) for the sole purpose of being creative and sharing ideas. This part can actually be very fun. You can be a little bit over the top with your ideas, and depending on the client, open with “If I had a million dollars….”
Emotion: Relaxed. Content.
Stage 3: Research
Believe it or not, this is the part I love. Research means dusting off my delicious page and searching for some of the campaigns that I thought were truly amazing to find out what has been done, what worked and what maybe wasn’t so effective when it came to generating buzz and/or the desired outcome in terms of real action. This is where some of the hardest work is done. Just when you think you’ve got almost everything, some new link pops up and leads you down another long path. By the time this stage is over, you feel like you’ve walked to the end of the earth, or at least 500 miles.
Emotion: Weary. Hanging in there.
Stage 4: The Deck
This is without a doubt my least favorite stage. The slide deck doesn’t like me. I don’t like the deck. We know how we feel about each other, but put our feelings aside to do what’s best for everyone. Okay, if you’ve read this far, you probably think I sound crazy. Well, when I hit this stage…it’s possible. Endless revisions, theme shifts and formatting changes can do that to a person. No surprise on the song here….
Emotion: CRAZY!
Stage 5: The Pitch
Haven’t had a whole lot of experience here, but I do know that anyone who makes it this far should feel a sense of accomplishment. You should celebrate! Why? Because for that small moment in time you’re a champion (Remember, I’m still coming off of that crazy feeling. Indulge me here.)
Emotion: Joy. It’s over!
Stage 6: The Regroup
This usually occurs after the moment of truth. Yes or No. Win or Lose. Great show or it fell apart. No matter what, it’s great to go through this process to look at what was done well, what can be stepped up the next time around and what should be erased from both short and long term memory.
Whether or not you’ve won the account, the regroup brings things full circle. If you’ve made it through all the stages, you are without a doubt STRONGER!
Emotion: Recharged. Ready for the next new business cycle. Stronger!
Tech Crunch recently posted a piece on the latest update from ComScore on worldwide traffic stats for social media sites. Interesting to see how the top 20 panned out. Here’s the rundown:
Blogger (222 million)
Facebook (200 million)
MySpace (126 million)
WordPress (114 million)
Windows Live Spaces (87 million)
Yahoo Geocities (69 million)
Flickr (64 million)
hi5 (58 million)
Orkut (46 million)
Six Apart (46 million)
Baidu Space (40 million)
Friendster (31 million)
56.com (29 million)
Webs.com (24 million)
Bebo (24 million)
Scribd (23 million)
Lycos Tripod (23 million)
Tagged (22 million)
imeem (22 million)
Netlog (21 million)
Some were expected for me (Facebook, MySpace, Flickr). Others not so much (Yahoo Geocities, Lycos Tripod). Are you a part of communities on more than 5 of these sites? Seeing this is making me think I may need to be a bit more social…
We’ve all heard them get overused and abused, and I think I’ve reached my carrying capacity, as far as these terms are concerned. People love to toss them around, and I’m now finding that they rarely ever resemble what they are supposed to represent.
How many times has your “top-line” summary become extremely detailed? Or that “quick and dirty” presentation turn into the slide deck from hell?
I don’t really have any thoughts on “Synergy”…I just hate it, and the minute I hear someone describe something as “cutting edge,” it ages and immediately loses whatever cool factor it may have had.
These words and phrases really do make me cringe. The only appropriate place for them is in Business Guys On Business Trips comic strips.
There’s another word that should be up there: “bucket”. It gets used so much at work now that I am starting to become slowly desensitized. Four months ago, there would be no question about how I felt about the use of “bucket”, but since then, it has joined the list of PR/Business terms I’ve come to appreciate like “re-purpose”.
I need your help in putting a stop to the problem we have before it gets worse. I am calling for a 90 day moratorium on the following phrases:
In that time, PR/Business people will have to work on saying exactly what we mean. I know it will be hard, and it may get worse before it gets better, but we can do this!
Anyone with me? Any words that should be added to the list? Let me know.
People often look at the current presidential election and marvel at the groundswell of Gen Y support for Democratic nominee Barack Obama. Those attempting to understand his support and this new generation entering today’s workforce do not need to look any further than the three simple words he began with: “Yes We Can.”
Those words resonate so deeply with me and those I know that it is almost as if it is our generation’s rallying cry, especially in the workplace.
During the spring of my senior year, I interned at a company that I loved, and after three months had been offered a full-time position. Over the span of two weeks, I went from being solely on the receiving end of projects to being the one assigning them, and when the new group of interns arrived, I had one overarching goal: Do it better than those who came before me. Remembering what it was like on the other side, I set out to:
* give realistic deadlines
* minimize stress levels
* be firm, yet understanding
* be an unofficial advocate for the interns with senior staff
* teach them something that I wish I knew when I was in their shoes.
With all this in mind, I gladly jumped at the opportunity to join the team of intern coordinators that fall. At the first coordinators meeting, I was tasked with developing a final project for the incoming group. At that moment, I don’t think anyone, including myself, could have guessed that I would have come back to the table with the program I did.
I sat and thought about how we could really improve the internship experience. What I came up with was a professional development series that would help the interns get closer to mastering public relations basics, encourage them to start a dialogue about industry innovation and really prepare them for their first full-time position.
Gen Y’ers are often viewed as this overly idealistic group of people who think that we can and will change it all and we receive lots of criticism from those more senior than us because of it.
Honestly, I believe that there is a part of our rallying cry which goes unspoken. When we confidently go after that new position, that raise or the opportunity to manage the difficult account, we say “yes we can” and in our hearts, we follow that up with “at least we can try.”
I truly am glad that I was able to experiment in the workplace; I’m glad that I tried. My program was adopted and went so well that I was even approached by a senior VP interested in making the program company-wide.
I have since transitioned from that company to my second job, but I was pleased to learn that the program is still being carried on. Though it won’t be called the “James S. Walker Public Relations Professional Development Series” (it was company branded), I am very proud that at 21, I was able to conceive, successfully lobby for and spearhead a great program that will help other Gen Y’ers enter the industry, and ultimately, demonstrate to others the intelligence, insight and capabilities that our generation has to offer.
Three days into my new role and I’m glad to say the transition is going well…thus far. I am really comfortable with the process. So, you’re probably thinking what’s the problem?
Here’s the thing: I expected the transition to be rough. I left behind some good friends, went to a company much larger than what I was used to and switched career focus a bit. In describing my new post to friends and former co-workers, I got everything from “That sounds great” to “You know how those big firms are; I hope they don’t treat you like an underling.” Great words of encouragement, right?
Anyway, the journey’s just begun and it’s off to such a good start that it had me thinking all day: “Why am I so comfortable?” I think I’ve figured it out. It’s my network.
Lately, I’ve been feeling like the Verizon guy, with a great network of people nearby if I need them.
My college network led to several great internships, including the one that led to my first job after college, and when the time came to move on the next chapter of my career, I had several people to call on for references, advice and perspective on the company I considered moving to.
The most surprising thing and the most comforting was the fact that when I arrived, I discovered that I already knew two people here. One from GW days (someone who lived across the hall from me freshman year) and another I met through blogging and the Brazen Network. Like the Cheers song, sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name. I know its not a lot of people, but when you’re new, two is enough to get you going.
My network, from freshman year straight through, has been a tremendous help. How’s your network these days?
For quite some time now, I have been deep in thought. I’ve pondered my goals, passions, principles… where I am, where I intend to go and where I’ve been.
Whenever I’m mulling something over, you usually can tell. I am extremely quiet, my preferred playlists include a WHOLE LOT of gospel and smooth jazz, and I write blog posts with a tiny hint of that which is to come. I’m glad to say that I have come out of that period of deep thought with some clarity and a new direction.
So here’s the official announcement: In a few short weeks, I’ll be transitioning from my current post and joining the Online team at APCO Worldwide!
I’m a little sad to be leaving some awesome co-workers, wondering how the transition from job 1 to 2 will go and extremely excited about working with a great team of people on some amazing online projects!
For anyone currently lost in thought, here are a few quotes that may help you find some direction:
“You cannot change your destination overnight, but you can change your direction overnight”
- Jim Rohn
“If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.”
- Lao Tzu
“If one advances confidently in the direction of one’s dreams, and endeavors to live the life which one has imagined, one will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.”
- Henry David Thoreau
“There is nothing wrong with change, if it is in the right direction”
- Winston Churchill
“Goals allow you to control the direction of change in your favor.”
With the exception of a few essentials (eating, showering, Pandora, reading the express paper), everything non work related suffered during these last couple weeks. I neglected this blog, hadn’t spoken to family and friends, and let the DVR, email inbox and Google reader get out of control. BRACE YOURSELF: I even took a temporary leave of absence from twitter. 
Posted by jaywalk1 
Posted by jaywalk1 
Posted by jaywalk1 
