Rocks Are Hard

Check Off These Three Boxes To Get Hired

The fur is flying in recruiting land....lots of people looking for work. Lots of work looking for people (many in the wrong places with the wrong criteria but that's a different post). 

When we started Double Forte, the criteria were a bit different than today:

- 10 years of experience or more?

- Significant in-house position?

- Like -- if not love -- to do the work, not only delegate the work?

Of course, that was 2002 -- we were 2 years into no one new getting hired, tens of thousands of professionals leaving the Bay Area for jobs elsewhere, and a whole slew of other conditions . Now 8 years later, with a revised model, a different economy(where would people go to to find work) - there are no people (yes I generalize) with 10 years of experience -- and there won't be for several more years -- so we hire against a different backdrop.

1. Are you interested in the world around you? Are you consuming news? opinion? questionable culture? yes? move on the next step. Can't tell us 5 or 6 things about what's going on -- thanks for playing.

2. Can you write a sentence. No, really. Can you write a sentence?  How about a paragraph that conveys a strong thought? This shouldn't be tough -- these people have degrees in something where they at one time had to write something down right? But no. This is not a given and must be tested. For even more on this topic read David Brooks' thoughts on humanities majors -- can I hear an Amen!?!

3. Are you a complainer? Whiner? Is everything everybody else's fault? Need to find perfect before you step into the world? Willing to sponge off people around you instead of seeking or taking positions that give you credentials? Think everyone around you is responsible for your success? Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

This weeds out 50 percent without breaking a sweat. Now you have a pool to pull from based on "real" criteria -- skill sets, experience, culture fit and performance.

For a while I thought it was just us. But, in talking with colleagues and competitors it turns out that it's not just us.  So job seekers if you make it past 1, 2, and 3 there is a ton of opportunity out there for you.

Keep It Simple

".....and then on page 42 section 5 paragraph 2 point C you will see how our 14th priority comes to life and really makes the program sing...."

As the creator and consumer of strategic plans, I'm here to tell you that complicated sucks....and seldom works, and NEVER gets remembered.  Boil it down to 1 idea that you can retell over and over again. Take things OFF THE DAMN whiteboard. (My friend Nilofer Merchant calls it "Murder Boarding").    

When you have 1 thing to accomplish, everything is easier -- choosing people, choosing programs, focusing work, getting through the day, putting all oars in the water at the same time....

I must say "Keep it Simple" at least once every day...and ever time I do I hear the song Simple Gifts in my head (it's a Shaker song, but we sang it all the time at my Quaker middle and HS).

'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free,

'Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be,

And when we find ourselves in the place just right,

'Twill be in the valley of love and delight.

When true simplicity is gain'd,

To bow and to bend we shan't be asham'd,

To turn, turn will be our delight,

Till by turning, turning we come round right.

'nuff said.

You Can Do So Much Less When You're Informed

Too often I go to a meeting where I'm bombarded with questions or ideas about how to promote a company, a product, a service, a person, a...whatever.

"What do you think we should do about X?" "Should we go to YYY show?" "I think we should sponsor ZZZ, what do you think?" "When can we start seeing some big hits?"  You get the idea.

I always find it's a good idea to just let this go until the person or people have run out of steam.  Listen carefully and well to substance and intent. Once they pause to take a breath - wait. And then ask:

"What are you trying to accomplish?"

Sometimes the person knows, sometimes they don't. Triangulate until you get a high enough level answer (NOT: "50 promotions on mommy blogs." MORE LIKE: "Dominate the market for non toxic window cleaners" or "Command 45% of the market for jellybeans among women with children who like dogs") -- specific enough, BUSINESS-DRIVEN enough, quantitative enough that you can actually react to it.

Once you have the answer to the question, WHAT to do becomes much simpler to divine -- because in the context of the goal, certain activities that sounded great without the benefit of context will not make sense.  Once you know the resources you have to work with, then WHEN and HOW to do things becomes much simpler to articulate.

You can do a LOT of work in PR and marketing and never get anywhere -- much like a duck paddling against the current.

Too often agencies just move forward without understanding how their work translates to the client's bottom line (or the internal department does not really understand their role in driving the business).

Get clarity at the highest level question possible -- and you'll be able to do a lot less to achieve the goal.

Paddling with the current is always easier.

STOP TRYING! (the same thing)

Here's something no manager or client ever wants to hear: "I'm trying."

Why? Because it means you're not.

Truly - I have countless examples of this, and each time I hear "I'm trying" as answer to a request for an update, I know what I'm going to see once I peel the onion: That person trying the same thing over and over again and getting the same piss-poor result. STOP TRYING! Do Something Different!

I believe it was Albert Einstein who defined insanity as "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." You don't have to be a scientist to figure out that this won't work -- you do have to use just a sliver of your brain though!

Get out of the box you put yourself in and find a new way.

If you've tried the same approach on three people with no result (this means three turn-downs, not three not-read emails) - start over. ASK THEM what would work? what they could do?  why it's not interesting? and then ...(here's the revolutionary part) ... ADJUST. Repeat until you get a winner.

If your research doesn't yield what you need - turn the question upside down and ask it a different way. This lesson came home again today when our intern (we are looking for another one if you know anyone) was able to identify 20 potential groups we need to find, by stopping to figure out what they all had in come (drinking after an event as it turned out) - and then searching on bars in a specific region to ID the groups. Hello! Brilliant!

The answer is out there -- your approach may not yield it.

If you find yourself saying "I'm Trying," stop yourself. Breathe. Cock your head 10 degrees to the right or left and look at the problem from a different answer.

You can make it so Number One -- but only if you stop trying.

Number 1 Determiner for Excellent PR Pros: Interest in the World Around Them

If you're not interested in the world around you, please don't pursue a career in public relations or communcations...really, I BEG YOU.

How often do we hear "I want to be in PR because I'm a 'people person'?" Really? If that's why you think you'd be good at this profession/vocation/career - STOP. STOP RIGHT THERE. Stand up and leave the room, because that has nothing to do with it.

The BEST comms people are the ones who are actively interested in the world around them - the ones who read and listen and watch to see how different people act, react, consumer, comment -- so that they can connect the dots from what those people care about to the company they represent (from the inside or the outside). 

Because if you can't find relevance you can't tell a story that is remembered or retold.  Nothing we do in PR or Comms is in a bubble -- we control VERY little. So if we don't understand -- and can't talk about the dynamics of the people we seek to influence, we will have very little success.

So read -- read a lot. To different points of view, in different media, from different types of people. Be interested -- it's interesting! you won't be disappointed.

And then connect the dots....

if you aren't interested enough to find out how to connect the dots, I have a few other careers for you to pursue.

Keeping it all in Perspective - the Benefit of outside eyes and ears

When we're deep into our work, it's sometimes hard to see the big picture -- how our work plays in the context of a bigger story, community, phenomena, trend.  On the one hand -- heads down, nose to millstone (what is a millstone?), everyone into deepend gets the job done.  On the other hand, that job may need some redirecting from people not quite so close to rubbing their nose to a nub.

Working with an agency is a developed skill.  Being a good agency is a developed talent.  On the agency side we want to be all the way in -- taking the work off the client's shoulders, making things happen they couldn't do themselves, helping them move the ball down the field.  Yet we also need to be hovering "over" the work -- getting a larger picture of the work to see how it fits, how much it matters, where the path to success may curve away from the plan.

Stop what your're doing and ask a few questions.

- What will this mean outside people who already care?

- Are you doing the right thing to make NEW people care?

- Are detractors keeping you from your purpose because they are loud, not because they are influential in the big picture?

Make sure you answer these questions with a clear head -- that usually means getting someone else removed from the actual day-to-day work involved, because most of us have a hard time discerning a larger picture when we're so into it.

Keep things in perspective and help others weather a storm or navigate a path to success will make you more useful, more valuable, more trusted -- and more successful.

Telling a Story: What Matters Most

Storytelling -- it's all the rage.

"I love to tell stories," says one junior level candidate, "that's why I want to be in PR."

"I'm a story teller at heart," wrote another in his "cold" email to me.

"What I love about PR is the stories you get to tell," says another one.

Clearly this must be on the curriculum somewhere.

 Unfortunately, when I ask, "what's the most important thing about storytelling for PR people?" I get the blank stare - the deer in the headlights - the "oh shit, now what do I say" glaze.  And here's when we get to how much I distrust the BS or BA in PR -- because it's the rare student who learns the whole thing about this profession in the classroom.

So I'll tell you. The most important thing about storytelling is finding the story that will get RETOLD by someone else who will be heard by someone else, who will retell the story ... and so on.

To that end, boiling down the story (usually someone else's if you work at an agency) to a compelling nugget in right sized bites that are interesting enough to take hold in the reader or hearer or viewer and take time up for them to share with colleagues, family, friends and associates.

And until you can do that, you're not a storyteller we can hire....but we'll teach you.

Good reading on this is Made To Stick by Chip Heath.