A couple of years ago, I discovered Hilary Rushford. Ever the devoted, always-learning entrepreneur, I was instantly drawn to Hilary’s business and style tips. In 2020, I’ve been using the Elegant Excellence Journal to help me streamline my goals and objectives while giving myself the grace to adjust my aspirations if needed.
Read Mores public relations practitioners, many of us already know to not use buzzwords, overly fluffy language, and tone-deaf messaging. Even if you happen to be the most seasoned PR pro, you can always learn something new as you write content for organizations, clients, and yourself. What do you need to consider as you write for public relations?
Read MoreCharacter development is how your protagonist and other characters respond to internal and external obstacles. Depending on your story’s theme, you will also want to consider how that, as well as the rest of your story’s trajectory, affects your character’s growth throughout his or her journey. Here are some tips to ensure that you’re developing your character in myriad ways and doing your story justice.
Read MoreIn last week’s blog post about self-publishing, I mentioned in the last point to not let fear stop you. I wish I could bottle even just a drop of that little-girl fearlessness. There are times I really need it and have to still push myself past the corners of a suppressed envelope in order to reach my writer’s potential. I’ve written millions upon millions of words at this point personally and professionally, but I still struggle with a lack of confidence in certain writing realms. Here are three ways you can work on overcoming your fear of sharing your work.
Read MoreHappy #NaNoWriMo! If you’re en route to writing a book this November, I commend you for your efforts and wish you the best on your journey! I have completed the #NaNoWriMo challenge once, in 2017, and I know what an amazing feeling it can be to finish 50,000 words or more! Here are five things to remember if you decide to self-publish your own works.
Read MoreIf you have that deep desire burning in your heart to start your own company -- or at least a part-time side venture -- I have some tips that helped me carve my path along the way. Here are three qualitative questions you can ask yourself to see if you’re ready to take the plunge into company ownership.
Read MoreAs a recovering perfectionist, I still have many moments of unhelpful thoughts. In this Mental Health Moments blog post, I will outline three of my most unhelpful thought processes to give you an inside look at my brain. I write these posts to help others struggling with perfectionism, anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues reach at least a small form of clarity. Unhelpful thoughts are old friends who rear their heads at the most inconvenient times. They are part of the confines of my comfort zone, and I have to be diligent in thwarting them before they wreak havoc on my productivity and general way I feel about myself.
Read MoreA few months ago, I came across this article about empathy mapping from Shopify. While I lead Hourglass Media with an empathetic heart and mind, I used empathy mapping to revamp my customer avatars. You may want to use an empathy map to learn more about a target audience and really get inside their minds and emotions. You may know about your audience, but perhaps an outside factor has influenced how they think and act now (just like the pandemic and racial injustices have done in 2020).
Read MoreIn March of this year, Hourglass Media turned five. Five years of blood, sweat, tears, sleepless nights, wins, losses -- and everything in between. Five years of this crazy ride I started as an official LLC side venture to protect myself as a communicator. To celebrate these five years (well, more like five-and-a-half at this point!) and to share more of my story with you, here are five insights I carry with me from each year of business.
Read MoreThis week, I wanted to talk about my own foray into curated imperfection in this blog post in order to shed light on how I was duped into believing in these tactics. Here are some ways curated imperfection can cause more harm than good to our mental health.
Read MoreI wanted to give you my own version of how to say “no” to an MLM, both from a customer and a consultant standpoint. (I am a PR practitioner after all, and I’ve written a great many scripts.) If you’re uncomfortable with supporting an MLM, these scripts, tailored to your own messaging as well, will hopefully help you be able to say a firm-but-fair “no.” The goal isn’t to hurt someone’s feelings or to lose a relationship in your life, but you have to remember that your thoughts and feelings matter, too. Always speak up for yourself!
Read MoreYou’ve seen that crazy-in-love couple on your social media newsfeeds who always post about how great their S.O. is. They may even have a combined Facebook account. You see influencers on exotic vacations, using expensive products, and collaborating in dream partnerships. You see the milestones, success stories, smiling selfies, and inspirational quotes; however, what you don’t always see are the hardships, missed opportunities, regrets, and other negative emotions. Even if you’re not in an MLM, how can you live a more authentic life and then portray that in your real and digital lives?
Read MoreI spent all of 2020 to this point with a little human growing inside me, and now, he’s here. My husband and I are over the moon in love with our son. Anyone who knows us knows that fact. Before we grew our family, we made a decision not many millennial parents in the digital age make: we decided to keep our future children off social media.
Here are four reasons you may want to keep your children off social media.
Read MoreWelcome to our third and final case study for the month of September! This time around, I’ll be discussing the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA)-River Cities’ Chapter’s 2018 Tribus Awards Call for Entries. It’s no secret that I love mostly anything involving public-relations awards.
Read MoreWe’re on our second installment of our case studies series. This is a series that has been a long time coming, as I really have wanted to share our work and behind-the-scenes magic for award-winning Public Relations Society of America award entries and case studies. This one centers on Hourglass Media’s Storied Legacy Graphic, created in 2019 after my trip to New York City. This graphic earned a Tribus Award for a Billboard and Other Signage Tactic in 2019 for this graphic and its implementation in Hourglass Media’s overall use of the graphic.
Read MoreIn the hustle and bustle of everyday life, managing overwhelm can feel like the most daunting task in the known world. Trust me when I say this: I know what it’s like to feel overwhelmed. There are times in which I manage it like a pro, knocking down negative thoughts as they arise while plugging away at my growing to-do list. Other times, I feel as though I want to crawl into the fetal position underneath the covers and sleep away the problems. I can’t eradicate the negative thought processes growing exponentially in my brain. Here are three ways I tackle overwhelm.
Read MoreEarlier this year, the Kids’ Dental Health Month Electronic Press Kit brought home the 2019 Tribus Award in the Electronic Press Kit Tactic category, as well as the 2019 Best Tactic in the Tri-State. (Just a note: When you win the “Best Of” award in a PRSA category, your score from the judges is the highest out of all of the entries.) Needless to say, we were honored to be highlighted amongst communications professionals and amazing work going on in our 15-county radius.
Read MoreAs a business owner, you should always think about how you can scale your company and build wealth. Work smarter and not harder, right? Why should you think about diversifying your income in the first place? Here are some benefits of diversifying your income streams.
Read MoreAs a public relations practitioner -- or a communicator in general -- you are initiated with the expectation that you MUST deliver everything on a silver platter to everyone at all times. That makes total sense most of the time. After all, as PR pros, we want our clients’ and organizations’ messages to be heard and seen exactly how we released them to our target audiences. We don’t care to go that extra mile to ensure that a newspaper has a photo to run with the story or if a reporter from a news station calls us at the last minute for a soundbite for the 6 p.m. broadcast. But, when are you being TOO accessible?
Read MoreI try to focus on positive stories and life lessons (both positive and negative), but I wanted to give you more of an inside glimpse on what I do work-wise that may not fit into a “normal” routine. There is give and take with everything, and here are some work quirks I have learned to accept over time.
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