courtesy of the Tallahassee Democrat

Business & Professional Women/Tallahassee took home five awards at the annual BPW Florida State Conference recently in West Palm Beach.

• Most new members under age 35
• Best overall public relations program
• Best public relations for a single event (Divas and Desserts Holiday Marketplace 2009)
• Most members attending spring training
• Most well-rounded overall programming

The Tallahassee chapter also has installed new officers.  The new president is Deanna Mims, owner of consulting firm MarketDone.  President elect is Marcy Collins; vice president is Liza Barber; secretary, Cathy Hopkins; treasurer, Necia Little.  All will serve for the 2010-11 year.

The group recruited 53 new members during its annual membership drive.

“I am very honored to have been elected President of BPW/Tallahassee this year,” said Mims. “This year’s theme is ‘Commitment to Connection.’ Not only will we continue to develop our personal, professional and political lives, a BPW tenet, we are committed to engaging with each other as friends, colleagues, mentors and resources.”

Congrats to the President of BPW.

Today’s blog entry is a guest blog from one of my very favorite sources – Lateral Action. It addresses EXACTLY what i’m working on right now.

MarketDone’s focus has shifted a bit, some large and small clients have been transitioned on, reflecting a shift in business practice and philosophy as I enter into my third year.  I am instead doing alot more copywriting and marketing training.  I’m working on my business more and less IN my business as is any entrepreneur’s goal.  I have taken the advice of some valuable mentors and am using some key blocks of time in June for MarketDone and TEN (Tallahassee Entrepreneurs Network) executive and long range planning.  In addition, I am collaborating with Christy Crump and Administrative Professionals Services and Solutions (APSS) for all types of human capital enhancement training, as well as classes on genuine networking, marketing, CEO of you and other offerings.

I am entering more of a mentoring, management stage for my clients and am proud to say I’ve helped 3 small businesses get launched in the last 6 months – my favorite!  I’m coming out of a phase of performing very detail oriented work for clients, and it is exactly what the doctor ordered.

Click the link below and enjoy reflecting – if you haven’t reached this point in your biz, you will.
Lateral Action – How to Create More by Doing Less

Today’s guest blog is courtesy of IttyBiz, one of my very favorite sites, as they are keeping it REAL. I have had a similar situation happen recently with a client I provided over 3 mos. service to, was paid for 1, and now they want me to prove – by reciting the dates we met and emailed – how long I provided service. As if they weren’t also in the meetings and on the phone calls. I won’t lie, it’s been demoralizing for me AND a good lesson and the upshot is that I am choosing to work with a different level of client, for a different fee these days. Ah, small business maturation. This is well worth your read…

Be Careful What You Rant About: A Story with 4.2 Morals

Posted: 08 Jun 2010 05:15 AM PDT

(Posted while I’m in Cuba, through the magic of the interwebs. Please feel free to talk amongst yourselves.)
To celebrate Victoria Day weekend, Jamie and I took Jack to Niagara Falls. I left my iPhone and my laptop at home and just hung out with my family for a few days.
We tried to make it one of those vacations that kids appreciate while they’re actually experiencing it, as opposed to years later. We splurged on a room with a view of the falls, with floor-to-ceiling windows so we could watch fireworks right from bed. Instead of walking down to the falls, we bought tickets to take an elevator that called itself a railway and tried to get Jack squealing “This is REALLY FUN!” on tape.
We let him get tacky toys and one of those awful light-up blinking necklaces. We stayed up late and ate ice cream. We read a bedtime story from a Thomas magazine Nana sent specially from England. And then we watched fireworks from our bed.
In the morning we bought $19 omelettes at IHOP instead of eating canteloupe like we normally do because IHOP is Jack’s favorite place on earth. We went to the butterfly conservatory. We got a carriage ride around 100 acres of botanical gardens. The horse’s name was Regent. (We could’ve taken Princess, who was faster, but Jack decided “when you go slower, you see more stuff.”)
We had three days with no child care and not a single meltdown. It was 85 degrees all weekend and nobody got a sunburn. Even the traffic was good. It was just that awesome.
Then I came home to this, from a client I’ve worked with before, sent through a series of direct messages on Twitter:

Hey Naomi, we had a phone meeting scheduled for 1 p.m. today. I know you’re super busy, but so am I, and I would have appreciated knowing if you couldn’t make it. I also know $600 probably isn’t a lot of money for you, but it is for me, so it “stings” me a bit more when you don’t show up. I hope to hear something back from you or one of your ninjas later on today.

Jesus. What the hell happened?
I don’t know, exactly, but somewhere along the line, a system broke. I thought I asked the ninjas to make sure our scheduling software marked today as a national holiday, but maybe I didn’t. Maybe they clicked X when they meant to click Y. Maybe it got changed in my personal calendar but not my work one.
Who knows? All I know is that I screwed up BIG TIME.
I called and only got voicemail, so I sent this email back:

Dear [redacted],
I am so incredibly sorry to have missed our consultation today. I had no idea we were scheduled for it. Today’s a holiday here in Canada and I SWORE that was incorporated in the scheduling software so nothing would get booked. I’ve been in Niagara Falls all weekend without a computer and it never even occured to me that something would have been scheduled there.
How can I fix it? We can reschedule ASAP, and we can either use the scheduling link or if that’s too booked, we can sort something out manually outside of the hours that are normally open for consults.
Again, please forgive me. I never meant to screw with your time like that.
Naomi

I felt horrible. Here I was, mooning around in Niagara Falls, and someone was waiting for me. Ick. The $600 comment was a little weird — I’ve worked with this person before and she liked me enough to sign up for more consulting, so I would’ve thought she’d think a little more of me than that. But whatever. She’s disappointed and angry, and hey, I’ve said some dumb stuff when I’ve been disappointed and angry.

Lawyers, Marketers, and Marines

You ever notice how there are certain professions we just love to hate? (Google “lawyer jokes” if you don’t know what I’m talking about.) Lawyers, sure. Apparently shrinks get no love, either. Used car salesmen. Marines. Telemarketers. Parking enforcement. Somehow, it is socially acceptable — even funny sometimes — to take whole groups of human beings and label them negatively and interchangeably. All lawyers are the same, after all.
Being in marketing, I get this a lot.
Usually I understand it. People have preconceptions. They’re hurting. They’re scared. I know that trusting me is a big risk, so I try to make it as non-scary as possible. We have lots of cheap products you can try before you buy the bigger stuff. We have over 400 posts of free advice, plus the free marketing courses. I give interviews and try to keep an active social media presence so that I’m accessible and accountable and reasonably transparent.
Still sometimes people want to hate me because of my job. So it goes, I guess.
After I sent the email, I went onto Twitter and found my client had tweeted this:

I’m done with social media and marketing gurus, shamans, and experts. Just done. Everyone’s a con artist and everyone’s running a scam.

Everyone. Chris Brogan? Con artist. Seth Godin? Running a scam. Gwen Bell? Havi Brooks? Jon Jantsch? Scams, scams, scams.
Even the ones you’ve worked with in the past, so successfully that you’re doing well enough that you can drop another 600 bucks on them. Scamming con artists.
I later found out from the ninjas that this woman launched a PayPal dispute within the hour. She still hasn’t resolved it, even four days after we worked it out. Pretty quick on the trigger finger to say I’m a scammer. Not so quick to take it back, I guess.
Ouch.

What do we learn from this?

I’m not angry at this woman. I’m frankly glad I didn’t spend an hour of my life talking to someone who hates marketers. What concerns me is that we are teaching our clients and raising our children to believe that what this woman did is acceptable.
Let’s take what her friends and colleagues publicly replied to her and apply them to a less Fun To Hate demographic.
Me: “I’m done with Jewish people. Just done. Everyone’s a con artist and everyone’s running a scam. ”
You: “I totally agree! They are out to make money for themselves, not you.”
Me: “I’m done with black people. Just done. Everyone’s a con artist and everyone’s running a scam. ”
You: “Hey babe. Why so blue?”
Me: “I’m done with lesbians. Just done. Everyone’s a con artist and everyone’s running a scam. ”
You: “Don’t get your pretty little panties in a bunch, my dear. Just keep on being the bright and shiny you! You rock.”
Me: “I’m done with women. Just done. Everyone’s a con artist and everyone’s running a scam. ”
You: “Sounds like a rough day – sorry to hear it ”
Nobody said “Goodness, gracious! What an incredibly prejudiced, stereotyping, bigoted thing to say!” Nope. “You rock.”
Some thoughts before I go back to doing things far more fun than writing about this:

Sweeping generalizations make you look melodramatic at best and completely out of control of your emotions at worst.
When you say “all men are pigs”, you’re the one who looks like a pig.

Your gurus, shamans and experts make mistakes.
Acknowledging this possibility with grace might not be a bad idea. Like, when a big shot doesn’t show up for your interview? Maybe it’s because he’s an arrogant jerk who let his popularity go to head. Or maybe he’s lost on the side of a highway with two carsick kids and a wife nagging that he should’ve brought a map but he’d sworn he didn’t NEED a map because they’ve got GPS but then he forgot to charge the battery.
(Jamie’s take on this: “Never attribute to malice that which can be equally explained by stupidity.”)

You can never take back the stuff you say when you’re mad. Never.
Never, ever, ever. You never could before social media and you certainly can’t now. (See how to avoid running your mouth off online for more on this.)
After I wrote this post but before I published it, this woman wrote me back and said “Thank you for apologizing. Just hearing you say that makes me feel sooo much better.” Well, I’m glad she feels better.
Maybe if SHE apologized, I’d accept that. Probably not, though. I’ve never been into the “sorry I hit you… I just got so mad cuz you were hugging that guy and I didn’t know he was your brother and I have a hard time trusting because I’ve been hurt before” line.

Most important: You are under no obligation to accept money from people who treat you badly.

This woman called me a con artist and my life’s work a scam. I’m sure as hell not going to spend hours of my life dreaming up ways to make her lots and lots of money. No, thank you.
You are not a prostitute. You are under no obligation to accept people being prejudiced or mean to you, just because you’re getting paid. (Scratch that. Prostitutes shouldn’t have to put up with it either.)
We sometimes have this belief that we have to tolerate anything a client puts out. No. You don’t. Be understanding if you want to be understanding and forgive if you want to forgive. But don’t squash down that part of yourself that says, “HELL NO I’m not going to get treated like that” because you’re afraid of losing clients.
You are worth far more than that. Please remember this.

Bonus tack-on 0.2 point moral:
Walking around assuming the whole world is just waiting to screw you over is probably not very good for your health.



In 7th grade, my English teacher went around the room and told each student her idea of what we were going to be when we were older.  At the time, I wanted to be a math teacher, so I was shocked when I was told I would be a CEO.  As a teenager, I was like, “What in the world is a CEO?” I had no idea what that meant or what they did, but it sounded cool.  As a senior in college, I finally figured out why my teacher said that.

I was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia where I took dancing lessons, played tennis and loved doing arts and crafts.  I found myself maturing way before my peers. In high school, I was very involved in the yearbook, tennis team, and had leadership roles in many clubs and organizations in school. I found myself taking on the role as a leader in any group. I graduated high school as an independent young woman who wanted to challenge myself by doing something different than everyone else.

I dove into a life-changing adventure my freshman year of college when I decided to study abroad for a full year.  I spent my fall and spring semesters in Florence, Italy and the summer semester in London, England. During my year abroad, I learned about relationships, working as a team, and different cultures.  While all my other friends were at football games and parties, I was traveling to Spain, Switzerland and France exploring history and culture.  Did I miss out on the typical freshman year of college in Tallahassee? Yes.  Did I experience something that people just dream of experiencing in their lifetime? Yes.  My time in Europe was priceless; however, coming back to Tallahassee my second year was not
an easy adjustment.

The first thing I had to tackle was a major.  I had an idea that I wanted to major in Advertising, but nothing was set in stone.  Advertising just seemed like a good fit for me.  However, I had to apply and compete with 100’s of students that also wanted to be an Advertising major.  I had no idea what I would do if I wasn’t accepted, and of course, I had no Plan B.  During Spring Break of 2009, I was accepted to the limited access Advertising Program at FSU.  It was the happiest and most accomplished I have ever felt.  Being accepted meant that all the hard work I put forth was worth it.

My classmates have become my friends and all of my teachers have given me real world experiences.  My next step was to get involved and gain more knowledge of the industry. Through interning with Deanna Mims at MarketDone and taking hands-on classes at Florida State, I have been exposed to the networking and creativity that is in the business.  Each day I learn something new and experience is the most important tool in the business.  With each assignment I develop a better understanding for the direction my future needs to go.  I have a wonderful opportunity of growing through observing Ms. Mims and how much hard work she exerts everyday to accomplish goals and further grow her business.  I am inspired by her and I hope to be as successful as her one day.

Now I know why my seventh grade English teacher told me I would be a CEO. I am hardworking, independent, passionate, creative, and I challenge myself. I take on tasks that others may deem impossible and I explore the world one day at a time.  I am Allison Chait and I am driven to succeed.