We’re words people here at P&G. And yet, when it comes to talking about ourselves, we don’t always do the best job of using our words. We get caught up in telling the story (NOT A BAD THING) or we focus on the impact and the collective contributions, but never really isolate our role in a public relations project (kind of a bad thing). I’m a fan of humble pie. It’s a lot more comfortable for me to say we than I.
But there’s value in helping people understand what it is we (ugh, I did it again) bring to the table at Piper & Gold Public Relations. That we’re more than just nice, or helpful, or even lifesavers (three things we love hearing from our clients). In our #ThisShitWorks Slack channel, we’re continually sharing emails and text messages from clients.
Thank you is important to us. “Thanks for everything you guys are doing for us!! You all rock!” “Thanks so much. You guys are a lifeline of support.” “You and your team at P&G have been so wonderful to work with on this project.” These are real emails and texts (yes, we text with our clients on the regular). Each of these notes bolsters morale, builds that real and true bond with our clients that motivate us and helps us better understand each client’s habits and preferences.
But the texts and emails I really love? “You guys are always great, we know that whatever we do together will be successful and we trust your guidance.” “I like Piper & Gold’s energy and enthusiasm… and the quality work, too! J” “We all felt that it was a huge success but of course await the analytics and your assessment.”
^^^ THOSE messages. Those messages tell me we have moved beyond nice, helpful, organized, dedicated, hard-working. Those messages tell me we’re smart. We’ve focused on solutions. We’ve contributed to the organizational goals. We’ve gotten results.
We pride ourselves on our culture here. And it’s easy to talk about culture and build a reputation as a great place to work with hot pink walls and lots of swears.
But our team is smart as hell. We complement our solutions with sophisticated processes and tools to allow us to marry great ideas with great execution.
And we suck at talking about that.
Enter Beyond the Bling. Last week we racked up an armful of Central Michigan Public Relations Society of America PACE Awards, the local public relations industry’s opportunity to be validated by our peers and spend an evening celebrating our successes.
Every year we bring home a stack of hardware, and subtly add them to a growing collection on the shelves in our nook.
This year, we’re going to do a bit more. We’re going to get uncomfortable and talk about ourselves. Our role. Our PR solutions. The research, planning, execution and evaluation. We’re going to go Beyond the Bling on our favorite award-winning projects over the last few years and help you understand what we do. Beyond the Bling will be a series of posts bringing you the challenges our clients have faced and walking you through how we helped them get to the other side.
It’s time we go beyond nice and talk about smart.
