I know you missed me,

I know you missed me

I know you missed me blind

–Culture Club, “Missed Me Blind”

What does that mean, I wonder?

Anyway, I’ve been away from my blog for an embarrasingly long time. But I’ve got the winds of change blowing in my life, and a new year coming up, so I need this platform more than ever. Here are some updates.

PR Job Search: I had my very first official PR firm job interview a couple of weeks ago! I am so pleased to see that the extensive research, networking, preparation and praying that I’ve been doing is starting to create results. In fact, barring getting the job (of course I want it!), just getting the interview was a milestone for me. Changing course isn’t easy, but I’m pleased to say I’m doing it.

Miami: A wonderful trip down to sunny south Florida was had last month by me! At first, I wasn’t feeling the MIA so much–overpriced, a lot of poverty, culture clashes. But as I ventured out and about, I took in the vibrant Design District, the cultural goldmine of food and music, the ocean, and the shopping. I dug it by the time I left and I definitely look forward to returning. I also took the chance and met with a top PR firm owner there, whose gracious advice I took note of.

Freelance Writing: My articles for Karma came out wonderfully! My first national pub bylines–I’m geeked. I successfully parlayed those clips into my first piece for Ambassador, an upscale lifestyle pub based here in Detroit. I just wrapped up an interview with the owner of a new restaurant in Ann Arbor and I feel pretty confident about the way it will turn out.

Summary: I could go on with lots of other little tiny things (like I joined a gym), but I want to keep it brief. It’s great to have good things to report for a change.

 

I get skeeved out when I see gross misrepresentations of hip-hop culture. When I say gross misrepresentations, I don’t mean Dave Chappelle’s The Mad Real World sendoff (although I did find that disturbing at points).

But I definitely think you should check out this gawdawful Smirnoff website promoting their new drink “Raw Tea.” It’s this drawn out, in depth promo surrounding the premise of prepsters as the new gangsters. Just the main page alone is offensive, with the posturing preppies mean-mugging like pseudo rap stars. There’s an e magazine with such snippets as “The beats got to be bumpin if you’re going to have a successful Tea Partay.” Oh yes, I forgot to tell you it’s entitled “How to Represent at a Tea Partay.”

 Partay?

Granted, I must not be the target market for this drink—identifying with neither prepsters nor wannabe gangster rappers. But I’m hard pressed to think of someone who does enjoy a deluge of misspelled words, misused slang and ridiculousness. They even go so far as to provide an illustrated guide to throwing up your sign (as in gang signs) to represent such prep bastions like Bar Habor and Bethesda. Would this entice you to try this drink if it turns you into the type of creative who puts out work like this?

This really could have been cool. Folks like Pharrell and Kanye do a fashionable job of blending hip hop culture and style with old-money nuances and nods. If it had been less buffoonish, I can see them targeting that whole clean-hop segment that’s bringing back the striped pastel Polos and evergreen Air Max’s. So why must we get our swerve on and be told things are the ‘bomb diggedy?”

Diggedy?

I really think the demographic who’ll even get most of the references are in their late 20s to early 30s, and we auto identify any word ending in a z rather than the proper s (boyz, girlz) or words like wack as…wack.

 What fun! Tomorrow seems to be PR Day for me. Based on nothing but self-initiated efforts, tomorrow I’ll be 

 

• Shadowing an SAE at Franco PR  

• Developing the PR Campaign for the Academy of Finance at Tom’s Oyster Bar 
• Planning 2 articles for the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences at

  Union Street

  (one of my Top 5 Restaurants) 

• Stopping off to demand payment from the client I ghostwrite articles for in a national trade publication. 

 

Now, that looks awful PR-ish doesn’t it? And if my Friday can have that much PR in it, and I’m not even in the field, it stands to reason that I should have a full-time job of it. 

 

Off to make it happen… 

Everyone loves great information. When you stumble across an article that speaks directly to a problem you’re having, hear about a party where you can rub elbows with an aspirational friend or mentor, luck into a loan program to help you with your downpayment for your house. If you’re like me, you relish information that is tailor-made to your situations, to answer your questions, solve all your problems. Outside of my blog, I don’t have that custom info source for ‘young black chicks with English degrees trying to get into PR from unrelated fields not in New York or Chicago,’ but no worries—I’ll blaze the trail.

Just wanted to hip you to a great source of custom-tailored information for FREE that I stumbled on. David Meerman Scott is unbelievably giving away a free e-book called The New Rules of PR: How to create a press release strategy for reaching buyers directly. His asserition is that press releases are not just a tool to get media coverage, but a way to engage the end-user or consumers with your product and service. By viewing press releases as a sort of mini-article that’s distributed through services like PR Newswire and listed on your site as well as search engines, we’re able to not just get media hit, but actual sales.

I commend Mr. Scott for providing the excellent resource for all of us new PR’ers as well as for the gorgeous design and layout of the e-book. I want an e-book!  

Next post: I’ll be updating you on my fabulous trip to Philly for the National Black Public Relations Society’s 8th Annual Conference and Career Fair. It’s a mouthful now, it’ll be an eyeful when I post!

Recently, I’ve come to know more fully that someone in my life is insane. I had inklings before, I’ve shrugged it off before, I’ve realized and then forgotten–now I’m unequivocally certain.

Always one to make that lemonade from proverbial lemons, I’ve gathered something very important from this.

Crazy people believe in their craziness 100%.
And no, I’m not talking about valid mental health issues; I mean a general garden-variety nuttiness that heeds no common sense or truth. I’m talking about a person who creates their own truth and is unswervingly committed to that truth, and to berating you for your lack of understanding of that truth. And as such, truth becomes relative.

I began to wonder: what would my life look like if I adopted (some of) this mentality? It would be so freeing: to hear criticisms and never look for the grain of truth in them. To simply dismiss them as jealousy, pettiness or cruelty. It would be so enlightening: to know that I alone create my “story.” That I need not be limited by my past mistakes; that my weaknesses and challenges are insignificant; that just by saying so, I’m perfect. It would be empowering: to have the conviction to argue down anyone who doesn’t subscribe to my theories, to not have to take into consideration any contrary evidence or anything remotely negative about me.

This, then, is value. When you perceive your self, your talents, your skills, your worldview as unique and precious and inimitable. People treasure what’s scarce, and scarcity drives expense. If we believed that what we offer to the world is of immense value and refused to see it otherwise, people would treat us like the diamonds we should believe we are. No matter what anyone, sane or insane, says.

It’s one of my favorite questions for passionate, intelligent Detroiters: why do you stay? It either elicits a lament (I wanna move, but I XYZ) or backlash (well, I love Detroit and if you don’t you can XYZ). So today, I’ll answer it myself, both ways.

This is off the heels of a strong post by Eric Cedo over at CreateDetroit. His response to an article in The Detroit News discusses the evidence that there is progress being made to stop the brain drain that statistics say is taking place.

I definitely can attest to the glitzy new lofts (and venerable old ones), the swanky new nightspots, the pristine River Walk–that draw you in and make Detroit sparkle. I’ve had a great time meeting other creative types and getting exposed to different cultures and ideas. But right now, I’m about to intensify my entry-level PR job search, and if that search should take me elsewhere….

Eric states Everyday I meet with hiring professionals in advertising, marketing, media, architecture, and web-based businesses that are struggling to find talent. I wish I could meet them, too. I will acknowledge that I need to rub even more elbows than I do now, apply blind to places I want to work even when there isn’t a posting, and continue to pick my mentors’ brains on ways to further my search. But I also don’t see creative employers reaching out to the community and trying to seek their talent. One colleague has her Master’s in PR/Org Comm and is still interning and looking for that first full time job. What’s up with that?

I don’t expect for employers to come pick me up in the limo and take me to my dream job. I do expect to be met halfway in terms of creative firms presence at career fairs (haven’t seen any for PR/ Comm jobs), diversity recruiting tactics, and relationship building in the community if companies really are trying to attract and retain talent and ensure strong ties with my city.

Because I have a secret: truth is, I’m really in love with the ATL. Its sunniness, the abundance of trees and hills, the clubs and restaurants and cultural events. The schools (I was almost a Yellowjacket instead of a Wolverine), the people. That city has my heart and I’ve been talking about moving there for YEARS. If I love it so much, why don’t we get married you ask? I’m not sure if it’s the sheer faith it would take to move someplace alone and try to make a go of it that’s intimidating me. Or my sheer tenacity at holding onto Detroit like an abusive but beloved boyfriend, just to prove a point.

Either way, I know that ultimately my choices will come down to my priorities. Is it more important for me to go where I’m welcomed to do work that I love? Or to stay and struggle in a place that I’m comfortable?

Seeing as how I’m a little hardheaded headstrong, it always suprises me when I finally “get it.” What with the recent birthday and all, I’ve been getting it a lot more than usual.

Had a couple of important career lessons reinforced for me recently.

• It’s not just about building relationships, it’s about maintaining them. I was myopic in letting my relationship with one of my clients wane. I’m busy, he’s busier, we couldn’t (or didn’t) make time to connect. As the universe so often works, someone asked me about him and voila, later on that day I get a call from his assistant to set up an appointment. Once there, he was not only gracious but made calls on my behalf to help me land other writing opportunities. Moral: ALL relationships you initiate need to be carried to fruition. Networking is a marathon, not a sprint, and just because a relationship ceases to be fruitful doesn’t mean it will always be barren. Sorry if I sound a little biblical/Aesopish.

• The extra step you don’t want to take is the one that pays off. I’m just figuring this out in the last 4 months or so. It’s the networking event I want to blow off, the meeting I have to work my nerve up for, the class I have to turn my pockets inside out for– that yield the most results for me. Case in point: I wasn’t really feeling the recent Detroit chapter mixer for the Black Public Relations Society. My transportation is an issue at the moment—it would have been such a hassle to go. What if I didn’t know anyone? What if I had nothing to say to them, or they to me? All of that. As it turns out, I did know people, I did say things, I made some valuable connex and got great info. I had a wonderful mojito. The extra step is the one most people decide to sit down and kick their legs up in order to avoid. That’s the one that usually takes you over into success.

With that being said—I’m still pressing onward, sometimes limping, rarely sprinting.

Henessy is one of the premier Cognacs for Detroit’s urban male. Unfortunately, many people mix the spirit with coke (Henny and Coke) or bastardize the name (Hen-Dog), but so what? You might have the tendency to loosen your collar after a few too.

I think LVMH (the megacomglomerate parent company that’s home to like, every luxury brand) is quite clever to launch Manifest XO : a cofee table book that reads like GQ on speed.

While the manifesto on gentleman’s style is not well written (”Manifest XO is a beacon to the modern gentleman and a homage to classic taste and style. An aura manifested and exhibited without doubt, in the gentlemanly qualities of a man in control of his destiny and the world around him”), rife with typos (I guess taste and grammatical aptitude are mutually exclusive)–I would snatch it up if it were free for the cache that comes with non-liquor products from liquor manufacturers.

I’ve scored the coolest stuff at liquor promos: shirts, rhinestone temporary tatoos, a light up rubber ball, a light up pen, keychains. But the higher end stuff (I’m fiending for a Bacardi muddler to make mojitos) is the holy grail for us luxury lushes.

From the PR standpoint, I think that Manifest XO is a great way to solidify the mystique of fine cognac, to package a position and help brand yourself as stylish tastemakers. As a value-added attraction, they offer a free chapter on the website.

The chapter on drinking, natch.

Here’s some updates on the Jay-Z/Cristal boycott.

Thanks to Byron Crawford, I located the link to actually read the article for myself. I’m attaching what I perceive to be the most relevant part:

In fact, the attitude of the house of Roederer to the unexpected popularity of Cristal among rappers is considerably more circumspect. Frédéric Rouzaud, who took over from his father as managing-director of the winery in January, says that Roederer has observed its association with rap with “curiosity and serenity”. But he does not seem entirely serene. Asked if an association between Cristal and the bling lifestyle could actually hurt the brand, he replies: “That’s a good question, but what can we do? We can’t forbid people from buying it. I’m sure Dom Pérignon or Krug would be delighted to have their business.”

Both Dom Pérignon and Krug have had their share of unwelcome attention, too. 

And like the good business people I expected them to be (with proper PR counsel), the House of Roederer has backed away from the backlash and I also found the link to their press statement in its entirety.

Big Cliche of the Day: There are always two sides to every story.

I’d like to think that the people who were drinking Cristal from the get-go who were affiiliated with hip-hop were drinking it a.)because they liked it and b.) because they could afford it. Now if they choose to stop drinking it, let it be because it no longer tastes good or they can’t afford it, not because Hov said to do it.

But then maybe that’s why some people started drinking it in the first place.

 

Last night I met with the Create Detroit Advisory Board. CD is a collections of Metro Detroiters who are vested in preventing the loss of the creative class to other cities where the perception is that they’re more artsy. To that end, they’re doing startegic planning on how best to retain and engage this creative community in Detroit, which they feel is the true capital of the city.

Our talk turned to diversity and a former Campbell-Ewald employee stated they had challenges finding minority candidates.

. I was interested in whether other companies found this a challenge and turned to the trusty net where I found this gem, written very honestly by the masterminds at Edelman.

And honesty, for me is the beginning. If the companies just haven’t taken the time to implement a diversity initiative, they need to admit it. If they really don’t see why there should be more people of color in their ranks, fine. If they have tried to get people of color in the officeplace and they’re not qualified, that’s okay too. Because when you admit these issues and problems honestly, you can address them and the areas where changes are needed.

Personally, I’m not really sure what the stance on diversity it here in Michigan’s PR. I don’t have any PR friends of color to tell me the real deal in agency. I have it on good authority though that diversity in the Detroit Metro marketplace is a goal of firms and they are having a problem getting qualified candidates.

Well, they haven’t met me yet. But I can’t be the only one, can I?