That Solo Life: The Solo PR Pro Podcast

Episode 12: Professional Politics (No, Not Those Politics)

In this episode of That Solo Life we discuss one of the aspects of work-life we might think we leave behind when going solo: office politics. People are complex and all business is based on relationship so  However, as savvy PR pros, we have the advantage of our communications tactics to put into use in these situations.

Ideally, we try to steer clear of whatever might be causing static within your client organization. When that’s not possible, pull out the good old artful redirect when in conversation.

Overall, the goal in any client relationship is moving the work forward in a way that is beneficial to them, and to you.

How do you deal with the internal dynamics of a client when the office politics begin to affect your projects? We’d love to hear your experiences. Visit us at soloprpro.com or contact us online.

Episode 11: Taking Your Solo PR Pro Show on the Road with Daria Steigman

Solo PR Pro life provides flexibility in our daily routines, but it’s often not until life hits hard that we truly appreciate being our own bosses. In today’s episode our guest is Solo PR Pro member Daria Steigman, founder of Steigman Communications. She shares how she took her show on the road earlier this year as a means of processing and recalibrating following the loss of her parents within a short span of time. We discuss how you can prepare for when crisis hits, how to maximize your productivity while traveling, and why it’s important to have a change of scene now and again.

Daria Steigman is an entrepreneur, business owner, and writer. Daria is also a senior marketing communications and digital strategist who helps organizations communicate effectively with employees, members, customers, the business community, policymakers, and other key stakeholders. She is a leader and team-builder with a 20+-year record of crafting data-driven strategies to support core business goals. Daria’s diverse clients have included Fortune 500 companies, universities, associations, government agencies, and international organizations.

She is a frequent speaker on topics related to both business strategy and marketing communications and digital media. She is also the author of a blog that focuses on the business of running a business, entrepreneurship, marketing communications, social business, social media, strategic thinking, and what she calls Independent Thinking.

She’s been a contributor to Workshifting.com and to Overdrive, the blog of the Entrepreneurs’ Organization. She also created and wrote a monthly business column for IABC’s CW Bulletin. She holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Chicago, and masters’ degrees in industrial and labor relations (MILR) from Cornell University and liberal studies (MALS) from Georgetown University. She wrote a book of poems as part of her MALS thesis.

In her spare time, she loves to hike and run half-marathons. And she’s a huge baseball fan.

Episode 10: PR and Tech - 2019 Trends

There’s no doubt that technology continues to have an impact on the PR industry. So much so that the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism issues an annual Global Communications Report based on survey results from PR professionals and students and, new this year, CEOs of small, mid-size, and large organizations. In this episode of That Solo Life, we discuss their findings and what they mean for our industry and the way we do our work. Look for more takeaways from this report on the Solo PR Pro blog.

Episode 9: The Economy of Time

A recent Money.com article by Laura Belgray, I Spent $300 on One Uber Ride (And Would Do It Again in a Second). Here's Why I Don't Regret It, led to a discussion here at That Solo Life about what aspects of our work and lives in general cause us significant stress and how can we offset it.

In the article, Belgray shares about her experience as she prepared to attend a writing retreat. The destination was accessible by train but the more she thought about getting to the train on time, switching trains mid-trip, and the rest of the journey, she knew this mode of travel would completely stress her out and have a negative impact on her experience at this event. She decided to spend $300 on an Uber ride to the retreat and hasn’t looked back.

As solo business owners (cliché alert), our time truly is money. An expense that might not make sense at first – outsourcing laundry, grocery delivery, massage to combat our time at the keyboard – could be the very thing to buy you productivity and peace of mind.

What is the one necessary “extravagance” that helps you most?

Episode 8: Take a Break

Have you taken your vacation? If your response is “No,” you are not alone. Taking time off is a challenge as a solopreneur. Sometimes it’s because we’re too busy to get away. Often we’re either reluctant to step away from our business or simply never get around to making the plan to take time off. 

It is important to take time off because we need to regain perspective, get inspired, and simply rest. These summer months are the ideal time to plan a getaway. Corporate life tends to slow down in the summer, so take advantage of this dip in activity. 

• If a real deal vacation isn’t possible, take a working vacation. Set the expectations with your clients, advising when you’ll be working. The rest of the time is for you and your family.
• Plan a retreat to work on your business. Pick a cool new hotel or nearby locale you’ve been wanting to visit.
• Get help from a virtual assistant while you’re away. You might realize you like it and choose to continue working with them, which could lead to expanding your business. 

What is your ideal way to make sure you take time off as a solo business owner?

Episode 7: PR Pros - Stop Annoying Journalists

Today’s episode was inspired by a recent MuckRack article pointing out the two major ways PR pros can be annoying to journalists: PR agencies requiring staff to use pitching techniques that no longer suit the current journalism landscape and client expectations focused on producing call logs over long-term results.

Rather than become another barrier to journalists doing their jobs, how can we improve on this?

Education: help clients understand the value of moving away from a focus of activity for activity’s sake. Journalists are outnumbered by PR people so constant contact to show “productivity” will not achieve the actual goal.

Results: together with the client, decide on the desired, measurable goal and work toward achieving it.

How do you balance client expectations with maintaining good relationships with your journalist contacts? We’d love to hear from you.

 

Episode 6: How Not to Manage It All

The secret to managing it all? Don’t. 

Wait, what?

It’s true. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, it’s a signal to stop and do an evaluation. You may even want to schedule a business retreat so you can truly focus on your business.

You may have too much on your plate. Take a look at whether your clients are profitable. Is it time to raise your rates, expand your team, or turn away business?

As a business owner, you get to choose. Choose what is best for you.

Some tips to keep your work life in check: 

• Create or update your lists
• Practice self-care
• Shift your focus from Time Management to Energy Management

We’re not saying you should miss deadlines or leave projects unfinished. It’s likely that the same drive that motivates us to be solos is also the culprit when we are hard on ourselves. We need to learn how to balance that drive.

Episode 5: Cringeworthy PR

In this episode of That Solo Life we discuss the situations where it would have been wise to take the time to think things through and seek feedback from colleagues before moving forward with an idea. We get it, life moves fast in PR and in the business world, but maintaining credibility – yours and your client’s – is key.

 

Episode 4: Holiday PR Mania

Does it feel as though every holiday is used as either a branding opportunity or an excuse to sell something? A recent article in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, How Earth Day Became Public Relations Day, prompted this question. Newsjacking or creating a promotion aligned with a holiday isn’t necessarily wrong but as PR practitioners we want to be mindful that it is the most authentic way to have a voice within the context of the particular holiday. Join us as we discuss how to best navigate the temptation to hop on the holiday promotion bandwagon.

Episode 3: Wholeness in Entrepreneurship with Dr. Glenn McElhinney

Today we’re joined by our guest, Dr. Glenn McElhinney. He is president and CEO of Transformed 4 Life, a company helping people to experience wholeness through change in mind, heart, and behavior. He brings over 35 years of experience in counseling and consulting individuals, couples, families and organizations. Dr. McElhinney was an associate professor of psychology for over ten years, holds a Doctor of Ministry in Pastoral Counseling from Westminster Theological Seminary and a Master of Divinity from Grace Theological Seminary.

His work with Transformed 4 Life is based on the belief that people don’t have to be stuck where they are. There’s always the opportunity to transform your situation, becoming better and different at what you’re doing. This comes by learning what true wholeness is and using that as the lens to view all aspects of your life.

Me, An Entrepreneur?

Dr. McElhinney came to entrepreneurship “through the back door.” It began when he was doing his graduate work. His internship required that he complete 900 counseling hours, but the clinic available to the students only had two hours per week available for the program’s interns. As a result, he contacted organizations to find out if they needed someone one hour a week to provide counseling services.

Thirty years into his career, after budget cutbacks at his employer, he once again he started making contacts, seeking people and organizations who might need his services. He also worked with a coach, who advised his assessment showed he was an entrepreneur. He hadn’t thought of himself as an entrepreneur but soon realized that his behavior of immediately seeking solutions rather than waiting for the opportunities to come to him was, well, entrepreneurial.

Wholeness. What is it and why does it matter for an entrepreneur and their career?

Our culture thinks of wholeness as this ideal of perfection. Dr. McElhinney views wholeness as a sense of contentment with who you are and who you’re designed to be, and not trying to pursue being someone else. The moment you start comparing, it becomes an enormous distraction from relying on and going deep with who you are as a person. Wholeness does not mean there will never be sadness, betrayal, or injustice, but it does mean we have the opportunity to transform the more we dig deeply into who we actually are.

Focusing our full energy on developing who we are frees us from the distraction of trying to be something we’re not. When a person knows what their core theme, their core value, is, then the environment is irrelevant. Wholeness gives us a clarity into our competency.

The reason a lot of people get stuck or feel like they’re spinning their wheels in work and life is because they spend a lot of time working on who they’re not and trying to improve that, which is never going to accomplish anything. If you think you need to be, or that you are, a complete package in your work, you’re hurting yourself because you’re not open to the notion that there are other people who could help you excel to accomplish your goals.

Embrace the Lies You Believe about Yourself

What?

Dr. McElhinney’s work has shown that internally, people know who they are, but they end up believing the lies about them. One of the exercises he does is to have people list the lies they believe about themselves. The reason a person believes these lies is because there’s often some element of truth in it. They then need to identify the kernel of truth and not let it define them in life.

For Solo PR Pros, this can mean that we use these areas of weakness and design our businesses around it, by not offering a certain service or by building our team to fit those needs.

From Assessment to Wholeness

Dr. McElhinney uses the Pro-D Assessment. It takes into consideration:

• Your Mission (passion),
• Your Competencies (aptitudes, abilities, strengths)
• Your Styles (behaviors and characteristics that make you unique)

 The Pro-D Assessment converges the three to give you a uniquely complete profile, including: 

• Career value areas
• What work culture you’re best in
• Educational areas to help you continue to grow
• Caution areas
• Who you are when you’re a team leader and when you’re a team member.
• Core Theme of your passion

When you can look at this profile every day it and know it’ll never change, there’s great freedom to move forward, embracing what you’re not good at and to let that go. The assessment prevents the second-guessing. Doubt is the greatest destruction of any entrepreneur. This removes the wasted time and energy of asking “What if?”

As Dr. McElhinney says, “Solopreneurs are transforming the culture with what they’re doing. It’s exciting to come alongside people who are really interested in success.”

Visit www.transformed4life.solutions to learn more.

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