sYou wouldn’t build a house without a blueprint so why do you communicate without a plan?
 
Communicating without a plan is risky business.
 
When you throw up post after post to see what sticks you’re playing social media roulette. It’s an ever-changing game where the algorithms are always stacked against you.
 
Like a house, a strong foundation lays the groundwork for success. For a business or nonprofit, the foundation is their story.
 
A solid foundation is built by diving deep to excavate, craft and share the story behind the organization. Today, that story is trendily referred to as the ‘origin story’.  Too often organizations want to launch a website, attract attention on social media and ask people to sign up before the foundation is built. This can do more harm than good because your first impression will be one of confusion and instability. A well-crafted story, shared on a website with valuable content, speaks volumes about you and your organization. At minimum, a good website needs to include:
 
            • A Homepage that is inviting, uncluttered and showcases the purpose of your                                                          
              company or nonprofit
            • An ‘ABOUT’ page that clearly communicates the story of your organization                              
            • Bios of the Founders that read like a highlight reel of their life, not a regurgitation of a
               resume
            • Services/Products page that clearly defines what you offer to whom and why you are                 
               the right choice for the clients you want to work with
            • Testimonials of satisfied customers and employees that showcase how you made them                 
               feel, solved specific problems and what it’s like to work with you
 
Like a good story, a solid foundation is unable to support a weak structure. Having a good product or service is merely the price of entry. Ensure what you offer is backed by actions in alignment with core values, customer service and policies/procedures that reinforce your stories because actions speak louder than words.
 
Core values are your framework. They rise as an extension of the foundation to embrace your organization and serve as guideposts in all decision-making.
 
Policies and procedures provide the insulation to protect you inside and out while ensuring a comfortable atmosphere for all working in and doing business with your organization.
 
Core competencies are the walls. They house the talent and expertise that shape the structure of your organization, making room for products and services that support your core competencies.
 
Once you’ve built a strong foundation and the structure is in place, you’re ready to put out the welcome mat and open the doors.
 
A strategic trail of stories, placed throughout the right social and real neighborhoods, reinforced by consistent and congruent actions create the curb appeal needed to attract your ideal customers, employees, volunteers, donors and the community to your doorstep.
 
Constructing a house requires a plan and is done in phases. The same is true for creating a solid communication plan. Clear, consistent, strategically planned and placed communication is key to realizing your organization's goals.  A well-designed communication plan can help you:

• Build your brand
• Position you as a leader in your industry and community
• Connect with clients, employees, volunteers donors and the community
• Create customer evangelists
• Communicate effectively through targeted media channels
• Provide clear direction in a crisis
• Establish you as a valuable and reliable resource for the media and your industry

 
Contact me today because communicating without a plan is risky business. 

I should know, for years I was the in-house marketing department for a hospital. It didn’t matter how clever the tagline, how heartwarming the ad campaign or how many wonderful, feel good stories were appeared in the press. If the patients, visitors, families, employees or volunteers weren’t treated right the image of the hospital was toast in their minds and the minds of everyone they told.
 
Everyone markets you. Your employees, customers, volunteers, donors, vendors . . . . even your children!. Anyone who talks about you is marketing you. From the way you answer the phone to what your office looks like to how it feels when someone walks through the door to the way you make everyone feel, you leave an impression that impacts your brand.
 
Make sure you make a good impression.
Building a brand takes time.
Ruining one only takes a minute.
 
Give people something good to say about your business or charity.
 
For more insights, ideas and inspirations to help you share your story and build your brand, visit http://www.1bluecube.com.

​​In stories we trust.
​
People believe people, not ads.
 
Every time someone tells a story about an experience with a product, service or organization it’s called word-of-mouth.
 
Word-of-mouth remains the best form of advertising.
 
Testimonials are one of the best forms of word-of-mouth because they showcase your organization’s products, services and solutions through stories. These stories help build your brand by providing new perspectives in the minds of customers, employees, volunteers, donors and the community.

Testimonials go beyond recommendations to tell a story about an experience. The best testimonials:
 
            • highlight how you met specific needs
            • showcase how you made someone feel
            • share stories that showcase all the products and services your organization provides
            • include employee, volunteer and board member stories about their experience:
                        - why they like working with your organization
                        - their favorite story about helping a client
                        - how they make a difference and contribute
 
Testimonials, like stories, are made for sharing.
Post them on your web site, as social media posts, video stories on appropriate channels and case studies for blogs and reports.
 
Testimonials are powerful stories to help:
            • build your brand
            • establish your expertise
            • communicate your value through memorable, relatable and repeatable stories
 
For more insights, ideas and inspirations to help you share your story, build your brand and connect with the hearts and minds of  your customers, employees, volunteers, donors and the community, visit http://www.1bluecube.com.

​The most effective communication starts from the inside out.
Everyone inside an organization needs to be on the same page.
Ensuring every manager, employee, volunteer, board member and intern is clear on the Mission, message and purpose of their company or nonprofit is crucial to building a brand and the bottom line.
 
Before I launched my own Public Relations firm, I worked in-house at several companies - a religiously-sponsored nonprofit hospital, a newspaper and a public education foundation in addition to serving on several nonprofit boards. Being responsible for communications meant I was charged with delivering a consistent message to every department and audience through a variety of mediums.
 
Getting everyone on the same page can be like herding cats. Too often, departments operate in silos with their own agenda, perspective and priorities. Each audience listens through their own filters. The key to true communication is to deliver messages in a way that breaks through the silo walls to highlight how each department’s piece of the puzzle is crucial to unveiling the big picture. Of course, first this meant listening to each department’s position, issues, goals and opportunities.
 
The way we talk to ourselves is also filled with a virtual cacophony of voices, each competing for attention. Orchestrating the voices into a single symphony in tune with our desired destination takes a lot of practice, patience and persistence. It also involves listening to the message behind each voice. First we must figure out if it really is our voice or someone else’s recording we let inside our head.
 
Stories are interesting beings. Yes, they are alive and as active as our imagination.
We need to excavate the Truth from the many sides of each story so we can re-solve, re-member and re-write our stories.
 
You see, our reality is shaped our perceptions. Our perceptions are shaped by the stories we tell ourselves. This internal communication dictates how we show up and travel through the world.
             • Do we see a friendly or hostile environment?
            • Do we perceive people as kind and helpful or out to take something from us?
            • Do we believe our good will come back to us or is life always unfair?
 
When I speak to college students about the power of storytelling to shape brands, I remind them that the most important story is the one they believe. Their first job, before any offer is accepted, is to get clear on their story. This builds a solid foundation that communicates who they are, where they’re going and, most importantly, why.
 
The most important story is the one you believe.
Make sure it’s True.

For more insights, ideas and inspirations to share your story to help build your brand visit www.1bluecube.com. 

​Everyone tunes into gratitude this time of year, sharing thoughts and lists of blessings.
Hopefully we remember to give thanks for the good every day instead of taking it for granted.
 
It’s easy to be grateful for the good things in life, though.
 
What about gratitude for lessons learned?
After all, it is through tough times, failures and diversity that we grow.
 
Today, take time to acknowledge and celebrate the times you lifted yourself up. The times you met diversity face-to-face and prevailed. Give yourself credit for making it through. No matter how messy the journey, you emerged on the other side wiser, more empathetic, stronger and still standing.
 
Everyone encounters trials. The key is how you handle the bumps and detours along the road.
 
You have a choice. You either fall victim to or rise above your circumstances.
Rising above doesn’t mean you handle everything with grace and perfection. It means you made it through, learned a lesson and are willing to move forward.
 
You see the most important story is the one you believe and how you frame that story makes all the difference.
 
Every story has many sides:
            • the facts
            • what we think happened
            • what others think happened
            • what we think it means - the stories we tell ourselves about what, how and why it happened
            • how we choose to remember what happened - victory, lesson, tragedy, etc.

When we are able to step back and look at what happened from a different perspective, we are able to re-solve the story by re-membering the pieces and re-write the True story.
 
As we count our blessings, let’s add a dose of gratitude for the multiple lessons we’ve sowed, reaped and harvested.

For more ideas, insights and inspiration on how to share your story visit www.1bluecube.com.

Tips to adhere your brand to the hearts and minds of your customers, employees, volunteers, donors and the community.
 
I’m going to let you in on a little secret.
You don’t own your brand.
 
It’s not your logo, your tagline or who you say you are.
Your brand is a perception held in the minds of your customers.
 
The good news is you can help shape their perception by the stories you tell.

“A great brand is a story that’s never completely told.” 
                        - Scott Bedbury, Founder and CEO of Brandstream

What’s your story?
 
Every time you text, answer the phone, send an email, post on social media, blog, give a speech or meet face-to-face you are making impressions that contribute to your brand’s story.
 
Are the conversations you’re starting meaningful to your customers, employees, volunteers, donors and the community?
 
Do you take time to help and endorse others in between promoting your products and services?
 
Are you engaging in conversations on other’s pages or just posting in hopes of securing conversions?
 
How often do you ask for feedback and from whom?
When was the last time you listened and implemented feedback?
 
Finally, are you including relevant stories from your customers, employees, volunteers, donors and the community?
 
Your brand is not about you or what you sell. Your brand is shaped by the stories you tell.
 
 
For more insights, ideas and inspirations to help you share your story to build your brand and bring people into your funnel visit http://www.1bluecube.com.
 
 

You’ve heard of Public Relations.
You think it might be beneficial to help market your business or nonprofit but you’re still puzzled about what it is and how it fits into your Marketing Strategy.

I can help.
 
As an award-winning Public Relations professional with 30 years of experience, I can solve the Public Relations Puzzle© by showing you how the pieces fit together.  All the pieces need to be in place in order to see the big picture.
 
 Learn the many ways Public Relations can help you:
          • share your story
          • build relationships
          • shape your brand
          • create conversations
 
No hype, no hacks, just common sense solutions you can start implementing today.    

For more insights, ideas and inspirations on how I can help you share your story and build your brand visit www.1bluecube.com.

Do You Believe In Ghost Stories?
 
I’m not talking about Psycho, The Shining, Nightmare on Elm Street or Halloween.
Have you ever thought about why Hitchcock, who created movie before today's special effects, was such a master at suspense and horror? It's because he left it up to the audience’s imagination to fill in the scene.
 
Just like the movies, we script narratives in our minds that haunt us down to the bone and paralyze us with fear.
 
Our ghost stories can turn into beliefs that block our path to success, sabotage loving relationships and erase our peace of mind. Like ghost stories, the characters aren’t real. They are fictional phenomenon brought to life by imagining our worst fears. Even when our ghost stories are based on real events, our imagination hijacks our train of thought to ride the rails on an endless track of terrible scenarios.
 
                               Don’t believe everything you think.
 
People often say they are afraid of the dark. It’s not the dark that is scares me; it’s what’s hiding there that I can’t see. Once your thoughts are lured into the light, their grip will loosen when you find an escape hatch. You see, by dissecting and re-membering the story, new perspectives can suddenly appear right before our eyes.
 
When I was in elementary school, my vivid imagination brought to life ghost stories I read. One night, I was so terrified that I changed the ending of a haunting story so I wouldn’t meet a deadly demise. That began my writing career.
 
A few years later, I traded in ghost stories for poetry in an attempt to understand love, life and relationships. It’s no mystery why I ended up telling stories for a living as the founder of a Public Relations agency.
 
Over the years, I’ve told a lot of stories . . . from entrepreneurs to entertainers, from CEOs to charities and from survivors to inspirers. While each story is as unique as the individual who owns it, they all have something in common. Every one of them told themselves a story that got them through their scary, worst case scenarios to realize success. Rest assured that no nightmare lasts forever.
 
The most important story is the one you believe.
Make sure it’s true.
 
For more ideas, insights and inspirations to help share your stories and build your brand, visit www.1bluecube.com.

Did you play Hide and Seek as a child?
 
As you carefully snuck into your hiding place, you did your best not to be found.
After the seeker, aka ‘IT’, found someone they called ‘Olly, Olly Oxen Free’ to let the remaining hiders know it was safe to come out and play another round.
 
As we grew up, we took the game of hiding to new heights. No longer do we hide in trees, boxes, under beds or inside closets. We found a much better disguise for ourselves.
 
Today we hide in plain site behind masks crafted to camouflage our flaws and put our best face forward.
 
We perfected this mask charade to the point of no longer being able
to recognize the person behind the mask.

Over the years we have assembled a magnificent collection of masks:
            • the family member
            • the employee, manager or entrepreneur
            • the spouse
            • the parent
            • the friend
            • the volunteer
            • the mask to fulfill society expectations
And one of the most dangerous:
            • the mask we create of our own perfect perception
 
We spend countless hours adorning our masks with fictional facades we believe are necessary to fit in and succeed in the roles we play every day. In turn, we assign expectations and rules of engagement for others’ situations and roles. Our expectations unravel in disappointment and distress when someone acts out of character. Not only does this pull us apart, hidden personal agendas compound our distrust.
 
It’s time to unmask the imposter and unveil your authentic self.
Olly, Olly Oxen Free!
 
The most important story is the one you believe.
Believe in yourself.
 
For more insights, ideas and inspirations to help you build your brand and share your story, visit www.1bluecube.com.

Are you a thought leader?
 
Think about that for a minute.
 
Hopefully, you are the leader of your thoughts.
 
If you don’t listen to yourself, how can you expect others to listen to you?
 
Of course you don’t know everything. No one does, not even the self-proclaimed ‘Gurus’,  ‘Experts’, ‘Influencers’ and yes, ‘Thought Leaders’.
 
While it is wise to continuously listen to and learn from those who know more than you, it’s important to make up your own mind.
 
Choose to listen to those who have already accomplished what you want to accomplish, not someone who proclaims to have answers for a path they have not yet traveled. If you let the thoughts of others outside your path lead you, you may end up at an undesirable destination.
 
Remember Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich?
When did thinking give way to hacking?
There is no substitute for learning and common sense.
 
Earning a degree or certification does not make you an expert or guarantee success. Real education begins when you start doing the work. Gaining knowledge helps form a foundation but execution is where the rubber meets the road. Thinking, testing, failing and trying again solves problems and creates success, not mere application of theories. Think about how many times it took Einstein to figure out the light bulb.
 
The next time you’re ready to follow a new thought leader, take a step back and ask yourself if you truly want to walk in their shoes. 
 
Since we were children we’ve been programmed to answer the question: “What do you want to be when you grow up?”
 
YOU ARE NOT YOUR JOB.
 
I learned this lesson years ago while attending Fast Company Magazine’s Community At Work conference in Colorado. We weren’t allowed to bring business cards. We had to create an un-business card to announce who we were by the difference we make. The timing was perfect, as I was in between jobs.  We are human beings, not human doings. Who we are is defined by how we show up in the world.
 
By all means do what you love - write, music, sing, dance, art, help people. Work is a means to an end. We work to get and do what we love. Too often, work takes us away from who and what we love.
 
Instead, we should be asking our children and ourselves: “How do you want to live?”
Think about that for minute.
 
What does living the life of your dreams look like?
Do you know anyone who lives that way?
Find them and ask if they can teach you how to create that kind of life.
The kind of life where you can do what you love with those you love all the time.
 
It’s been said we’re the sum of the 5 people we hang out with most.
I disagree.
I believe we’re the sum of the 5 people we listen to.
 
Who is leading your thoughts?
 
Be your own thought leader.

For insights, ideas and inspirations on how to share your story, visit www.1bluecube.com.