May 22nd, 2016
Unforgettable? Allegedly!
It’s a little weird for someone to tell you that you’re unforgettable because every time they look at a football shirt they remember you! However, it’s also a huge compliment and I’m remarkably grateful that they do, as it’s allowed me to engage them in an initiative for a client that will be the most ‘mainstream’ ‘thing they’ve done, delivered across 178 branches, located across the country.
Now, I haven’t had any acknowledgement or thanks for this yet, but one can live in hope. One has made that an art form! What I have been thanked for, on the other hand, is taking the time to visit a new client, offering him an attractive PR rate, because he is a start-up, and coming up with some great ideas. It was truly refreshing to hear him say that he regarded this as part of a long-term relationship, as that’s what we want to build with clients. This is the reason we bend over backwards to get results and are known for living and breathing clients campaigns. That’s why we attract clients the second and third times around, when they’ve moved on to new businesses and dreams, but still remember that we helped forge those.
I have to say that I did rather enjoy being called a client’s ‘best asset’ by a third party, minus the fire and theft! I don’t agree, because I know who the best asset actually is, but the point is that I work extremely well with the best asset and that inspires me to come up with great ideas and thoughts, nay, even observations and astounding attention to detail in client meetings! In return, I get lots of praise, free sandwiches and cups of coffee and even – wait for it – recommendations. What more can an easily pleased girl ask for?
On that note, I feel we fall down in publicising our recommendations, as we get them all the time, quite literally, but do very little to push people into signing them off for use on LinkedIn or our website. In a way, I quite like that, as we’re busily accumulating clients on the back of word-of-mouth (our biggest new business generator by a calendar mile) and far too busy working for clients to be badgering people for testimonials.
It is exceedingly busy here at present, which kind of makes me want to gee up people who haven’t yet been in touch regarding proposals, as there may, in a very biblical way, be no room at the inn before long. People seem to assume they can let things dangle and drift and I’ll still be here for them whenever it is they decide to act, but life certainly isn’t like that at the moment. It does make me realise that we should use the boutique hotel analogy more, as people recognise that these highly desirable places to stay are frequently full and can’t take any more visitors. It’s exactly the same here, at times.
However, there is currently capacity, as we have the lovely Katie stepping in to take some of the strain and work with myself and the current team on some really exciting projects. We’ve been working together for a while now and that’s really important, as chemistry is everything to me, along with trust and respect.
It’s fair to say I’ve been eyeing up some offices lately. From the outside, they look like the loveliest place a PR girl could find a modern and handy office. The trouble is that they’re in Warwick Bridge, between Carlisle and Langley Castle (my favourite castle in the world). Now I do have the means, motive and motivation to get out of the rut around here and move, but I also have the goal of driving from Italy, top to toe, in a few years time – a mission I’m well on target to achieve. Being shackled by an office and other commitments probably isn’t the way to go.
It’s been clear, of late, that money can’t buy you happiness, as there’ve been some really really stressful days, but when you start new things, I think that comes with the territory. It would be easy to turn out bog standard PR campaigns and get mediocre results from mediocre ideas, but I can’t do that. I’m the girl that was tutored by the amazing Anil Seal at Trinity College Cambridge and I seem to remember being given some words about mediocrity during one of our amazing one-to-one tutorial afternoons. Without him, where would I be? Drowning in mediocrity, selling my soul to the highest bidder, or well and truly stuck in the rut. Thank the Lord that I requested him as my tutor – which must have been the rebel in me, at the time, as ‘Rogue Elephants’ readers will appreciate.
The last few weeks have been eye opening and, at times, very depressing, through a combination of having to listen to delusions, barked orders and lack of gratitude. However, hearing how a client in Italy can’t wait to get back over here to see you again and getting thank yous from clients that you’ve helped breathe their own business, makes up for some of that. For the rest, the compensation is fee income, or rather, as it happens, the appreciation that growth actually means that you will have the ability to devote more time, not less, to writing books and the huge buzz that this brings. Having now got a fantastic idea for an adult fiction book eating away at me, I can’t wait to seal a few more deals, bring in my lieutenants and get on with it. My chance to do that is looming fast & I can’t wait.
This week, I wrote an e-shot related to Marilyn Monroe’s 90th birthday, which would have been June 1. I wrote about the need to no longer focus on what could have been, or what should have been, as you can’t change history, circumstances, or other people’s stupid points of view. All you can do is control your own destiny and make every second count, filling it with fulfilment, dreams to hold in the heart and accomplish and hopes of finding people who share your vision along the way. There was a lot of me in that e-shot. There’s a lot of me in Marilyn’s quotes, if you scan Brainy Quote. That must be why it got a “Bloody brilliant” comment from the client. I truly loved that, but on the projectory I’m on, the best is yet to come.
