Tesar-Reynes

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A recent story on NPR said the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) most recent report of 10% unemployment may be skewed. According to the story, when you add in unemployed workers who have stopped looking for jobs along with part-time workers who’d like full time jobs, the number of unemployed and underemployed balloons to 17.2%.

I know this is my first recession, but isn’t that number excessively high?

The history reports tell us America’s unemployment rate hit 25% during the Great Depression. 17.2% seems eerily close …

A few months ago, I was fortunate enough to sit down and share a couple of beers with a real story teller. He was the kind that keeps me wide awake and ready to order him another round.

He was talking about his old boss and said, “He looked like Gregory Peck after the whale had pulled him under a few times.” Later he talked about a supplier who reminded him of “that gnome in the Middle Earth who was trying to steal the ring.”

People who make me use my imagination and memory really communicate with me because I am forced to do some of the work. I am truly interacting with the speaker. Unless I am forced to contribute, sometimes I can just sit there like wallpaper, which …

With 2010 around the corner, I thought it was a good time to draft resolutions for the New Year. Judging by how I did in 2009, more due diligence will have to be played on my part. Of the 10 resolutions I set in December of 2008, less than half of them were accomplished.

I took a beach vacation to Santa Barbara (which is gorgeous by the way), figured out Twitter, and built a network on LinkedIn. I did a halfway decent job of keeping a work schedule and working out at the gym. But I failed …

We are still in a period where there is an amazing amount of transition. The market is changing as is the consumer. Clients large and small are continuing to test what works and what doesn’t. They thirst for insight.

As this trail continues, once-trusted suppliers fall by the wayside if they do not contribute to the understanding of the future. This means that agencies have to be truly committed to helping their clients through this tough period. It is one of the few times in a client-agency relationship where firms a have a chance to stand out to the client’s corner office and really make a difference.

In some regards, this is not a new investment or a new initiative, but rather a re-commitment to reading the signs that are out there everyday. The winner is the resource that observes, assimilates …

Last week, my partner Bob and I flew into New York to meet face-to-face with a company that had really impressed us. We wanted introduce them to some of our clients and were driven to their headquarters to see a multi-media presentation on their capabilities.

Here we were in their headquarters and the presentation got wonky and did not execute. Instead of ordering in the techs or crying “poor me,” the presenter had an alternative backup presentation on a thumb drive that he plugged in and it went without a hitch.

Yesterday I was in another presentation where the presenter came over the day before and ran it through on his PC. The next day, the PC conked out and he had a backup on a thumb drive. He tried …

During a whirlwind first few weeks at my new job, I’ve kept one adage in my mind to stay on an even-keel:

It’s not a sprint; it’s a marathon.

On some days, I’ve felt like a chicken with my head cut off. So much information is stored on my company’s shared drive. We have clients in industries I’ve never heard of. Thankfully, my superiors have given me time to learn about the work. At this point, I certainly have a decent understanding and thorough appreciation for the businesses and diverse industries my clients endeavor at.

Looking back on the past month, I realize now that if I had organized my first few weeks with some objectives in mind, I might have had an easier time compartmentalizing all the information I …

Marketing managers are inundated with e-mails, phone calls, and requests daily. Convey your ideas to them in clear and concise words, and not only will they thank you for your brevity, but they’ll think you’re smart too.

That’s how my new boss feels about any client contact we have. At PRSA’s International Conference in San Diego last week, she noted this 3-minute drill for communicating with clients and managers. She shared it with us at a staff meeting:

Looks simple, yes?

Why is it whenever we communicate with our superiors we feel the need for longwinded correspondence and pedantic tactics? I can recall a handful of times as in intern when I sent wordy e-mails in …

My sort of go-to Bible on social media is David Meerman’s Scott’s The New Rules of Marketing and PR. A New York Times best seller, David outlines simple steps a marketer can take if budget is an obstacle. Thanks to the Web and social media, creating buzz around a product stays within the realm of possibility.

One of the chapters involves writing online news releases. David’s thinking is, “Why take the time to pitch the media when you can write a news release that goes straight to the public instead?”

The media will generate good publicity, provided a PR person can make it through the 1,000 pitches a journalist gets daily. That’s a big if. Or, marketers can …