Archive for March, 2009
40 Days and 40 Nights – Give Up or Give Back?
Posted by: | CommentsLent is a Christian tradition that stems from the 40 days that Jesus fasted prior to his crucifixion. Beginning Ash Wednesday and concluding on Easter Sunday, observers of Lent are to celebrate and recognize the sacrifice which Jesus made for his people. Growing up in an Italian Catholic home my family observed the Lenten season by not eating meat on Fridays and attending mass every Sunday. Another tradition in the Catholic Church is to give up an item or habit that is often times abused or over consumed. For example, when I was younger I gave up chocolate for 40 days. As time passed I continued giving up things like soda, cursing, alcohol and most recently eating out.
This Lenten season it was my goal to give up spending money dining out…allotting me three outings a week. Some might say I am cheating the system because I’m giving myself a “cushion” of three outings. However, on a weekly bases I was buying a bagel and coffee every morning at a local muffin shop, getting a sandwich, soda and chips for lunch and then heading out every now and again for dinner. So, I set my goal to be as realistic as possible by allowing myself this “cushion.” One day I sat down and calculated what I was spending weekly on my little “dining adventures” and I averaged $100 a week, which means I was spending about $400 a month on food outside of the groceries that I bought for my house. Oh, and these totals did not include nights out with friends on the weekends.
People automatically assumed I was giving up dining out for health reasons, but I was actually more concerned about my wallet and bank account than my health. As I thought about what I was giving up I realized how selfish what I was doing, sounded. In fact it brought up a number of different questions: 1) Are my spending habits affecting anyone but me? No not really, except that now the muffin shop and delis are losing a small profit. 2) Is what I’m giving up really a sacrifice or is it something that should be practiced regardless of the Lenten season? 3) Is it fair that I am totally benefitting from this? According to the Bible Jesus sacrifice himself for us. My giving up spending money doesn’t directly affect anyone but myself. I debated with a co-worker about these thoughts and she brought up the argument that sometimes it’s okay to do something for yourself and that sometimes we don’t focus enough on ourselves. While I think that is a valid argument, I still feel like I am doing something wrong.
Giving up chocolate as a child, practicing not cursing as a teenager or giving up alcohol as a college student is just fine when you’re that age. However, as a grown adult who now has the opportunity and means to give back, I’ve decided that, I will no longer practice the Lenten season by giving up an abused or over consumed item or habit, but I will do something for someone else. I will donate my time, my knowledge and my experiences with those who can benefit from them. Throughout the year I will do my best to recognize my abused habits and fix them as I go, so when the next Lenten season rolls around I will be able to focus on someone other than myself.
Old school tools – they’re still effective
Posted by: | CommentsWe often times talk (a lot) about the impact of social media on what we’re doing in public relations and how it’s leading the way for the future of communications. But there are still a lot of cool tools that have been around for a long time that are effective and provide results. Enter the Media Visit.
Media visits come in all shapes and sizes, from 5-day tours for 25 people to weekend trips for just one journalist. We work on media visits on an ongoing basis for tourism and festival clients bringing the media in to tour the entire region, or just to check out one festival performance. Seeing a location, enjoying its attractions and amenities and just feeling what it’s like to be there can speak volumes about a client’s product that no press release or YouTube video could ever convey.
This week we have a journalist coming in from New York City on a winter tour of Reno-Tahoe. Her 6-day trip (which includes two travel days) has her dining at two of Tahoe’s finest restaurants, skiing two days at premier Tahoe ski resorts, dog sledding, snowmobiling, touring Reno’s arts and culture scene and getting an exclusive spa treatment at the area’s newest spa. The trick to a media visit is this: plan it as if it’s your vacation. If you treat it strictly as a sales opportunity for your product (using site tours, meetings or demonstrations to fill your itinerary) then you’re doing yourself, your product and the media person a disservice.
It’s a whirlwind trip for sure, but the thing is if I could’ve planned a vacation to Reno-Tahoe this is the itinerary I would choose. And it’s an itinerary full of activities her readers and viewers might choose too. That means the potential for great coverage and a pleased journalist who’ll remember Reno-Tahoe the next time winter travel enters the discussion.
My First Week as a New Mommy!
Posted by: | CommentsA little over a week ago I became the mother of a beautiful blonde haired, brown eyed Golden Retriever named Cooper. While most people adopted puppies when they’re around eight weeks; I got Cooper at just six (finding out that those two weeks can make quite the difference). In the last eight days I have received an average of six hours of sleep a night, cleaned up about 27 different piles of puppy pee with trailing puppy paw prints, five steamers and have, luckily, only stepped in one pee puddle.
With warnings coming from family, friends and co-workers about the time commitment and responsibilities that come along with getting a puppy, I refused to believe that I couldn’t handle it. Well, one morning after cleaning up the kennel for a third time between 3 and 7 a.m., I thought I was going to lose it. I called my boyfriend nearly in tears, telling him how much I regretted getting Cooper. After about five minutes of my boyfriend calming me down and reassuring me that I didn’t make a mistake, it was then that I realized my frustrations stemmed from fear. Not only do I have to worry about bathing, feeding and exercising myself (which can be a difficult task at times), I now have puppy to look after and keep alive. Who would’ve thought that at the ripe age of 23 I, Emily Stratton, would be a college graduate who has successfully started my career, bought a house and is now a mommy?! If it scares some of you, don’t worry because it scares the heck out of me!
I Get Paid to do This?
Posted by: | CommentsMy husband always says there’s a reason why so many people want to be in public relations and marketing: because it’s fun. And that’s true if you wind up working on clients that you enjoy. Just today I got to research restaurants and summer activities at ski resorts – the former for planning a media visit and the latter for pitching a writer. I listen to music and surf YouTube so I can enrich blog posts and understand what I’m writing about in event releases. This week I’m even heading to Reno eNVy to film their t-shirt making process for a client so we can post it to the blog. How cool is that?
Don’t get me wrong there are days when it’s really tough. We can put in long hours nitpicking every last detail of a 25-person, 5-day tour of Reno-Tahoe. We wake up at the crack of dawn to drive artists to a TV station for interviews. We get back press releases that we’ve slaved over with so many edits a re-write is often the only option. And yes, the media do ignore us sometimes. But if you weigh all of these things against all of the fun things we also get to do, they’re really not that bad. Secretly, I even like those early morning TV interviews!
Interning without a doubt
Posted by: | CommentsAfter spending the last four years studying public relations at the University of Nevada, Reno, my professors always told me “public relations does not mean press releases.” However I had a hard time understanding that because it seemed that the majority of the things I did in my public relations classes were to practice writing press releases. Don’t get me wrong, I definitely learned A LOT more than writing press releases in college; I just never gained a true understanding of how public relations worked until I started interning at RKPR Inc.
I regretfully admit that I thought it was a little silly that an internship was required in order to receive my B.A. in Journalism. I thought to myself, “Why do I have to register and pay for a class when in all reality I am going to work rather than sitting in a classroom and learning?” That is a thought I threw out of my mind after my first day interning at RKPR.
In the month I have been here I have gained and learned so much more hands on experience than I have or could in a classroom. If anyone is reading this and has the same thought I did about interning, my advice would be, DO IT! It is definitely worth it. And yes, you still write a lot of press releases, but they are actually fun when you are doing them for real, not mock clients.J
