Look at the Calendar to Generate Newsworthy Company Stories

by Josh

A common refrain among companies is that they can’t get positive stories from media unless it’s for something really big like a major new product launch or a new facility opening.  They couldn’t be more wrong. 

Sure, big announcements can make great stories.  It’s the small stories where the true PR pros really shine.  The secret for these pros isn’t really a secret. Companies already have an important tool to success that they look at daily. They just need to look at it differently.  That tool is a calendar. 

When we start working with a client, the first thing we ask for is calendars because looking at what the company already has upcoming allows us to start building the PR calendar we intend to follow for the coming months.  Beyond the obvious stuff (like launch dates or major conferences you’re attending), look deeper at the calendar to identify story opportunities.

Hard dates on the calendar.

Start by looking at the dates on the calendar that don’t change.  Halloween, Christmas, July 4th, Valentine’s Day, all of these dates happen every year like clockwork.  You have no excuse to claim you didn’t know they were coming, so the question is, how can you create an event around those hard dates? 

For example, doing a story around Tax Day (April 15) is an obvious opportunity for a CPA firm.  It could be last minute tax filing tips, or a story about how the company got all their filings done early so the entire office went out for lunch together on the filing deadline day since they had nothing to do because they’re simply so great at their job. 

Another idea would be a care facility taking advantage of Valentine’s Day to focus on a couple that met and married at the facility or some other appropriate love story.

Media are always going to acknowledge hard dates on a calendar, and media are often looking for a unique way to talk about it.  Find a way to insert your company within that hard date to increase your chances of generating a positive story for your organization.

Soft Dates on a Calendar 

While the exact date each year might change, school always starts around the same time of year.  The baseball season always starts around the same time of year. High School prom and graduation always happen around the same time of year.  Take advantage of these annual events and identify a tie-in for your company.  

For example, if you work for an air conditioning company, look up what days of the summer are historically the hottest, and watch the temperature.  If you’re in Arizona, have a story ready to pitch for the first time that summer the temperature tops 110 (you’ll notice I didn’t say 100 because anyone in Arizona a few years will tell you that 100 isn’t considered that big a deal). 

Scheduled Dates on the Calendar

Look at the events your company is scheduled to attend in the next year or any travel key staff may be making related to work. Take advantage of travel plans and other events to generate stories.  For example, if your company is exhibiting at an event for disabled Veterans, identify some appropriate involvement stories or employees that are veterans that you can spotlight as part of your acknowledgement of that event.

Made up Dates

It seems like there’s a made-up date for everything.  Talk Like a Pirate Day.  March 14th is Pi (3.14) Day, May the 4th (be with you) is Star Wars Day.  But there are also days, weeks and months for different issue topics. Construction Safety Week is in May.  Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October. Do a search and read through the lists of all the different days, weeks and months.  Identify any that could relate to your company or an issue that is consistent with the company’s values and find a way to be part of that calendar event. 

There are story ideas everywhere if you’re willing to look for them. Start by looking at the calendar. 

by Josh Weiss, President of 10 to 1 Public Relations

How to Use Engaging Video to Land Media Coverage

by Josh

A unique opportunity arose for one of our new clients, Casago which is a leasing and vacation rental company in resort communities across Mexico and the U.S..  While holding a staff retreat meeting in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, news hit of Hurricane Willa rapidly approaching them. Our team took quick action and was successful in leveraging the situation to land several key media placements in local and national markets for our client, including Good Morning America and World News Tonight!

How did we make this happen? The key was dramatic and engaging video provided by the client. This video is from nearby Boca de Tomatlan before Hurricane Willa reached land but after more than 30 straight hours of rain, with flood waters coming down the nearby mountain.https://www.youtube.com/embed/oRgB8AjtZS4

There were a lot of factors that went right (and that we had prepared for) for us to see such success. Here are five tips for how you can leverage engaging video to land national media placement.

  1. Anticipate Trending News – We were aware of Hurricane Willa heading towards Mexico, and based on previous hurricane coverage knew that there would be a decent amount of attention on this story. We pitched our story before Willa made landfall to take advantage of the full timeline.
  2. Shape the Story to be Relevant – Know the audience of the outlet you are pitching. For Arizona media, we pitched the story as Arizonans dealing with the storm in Mexico. For national media, we pitched the story as Americans in the path of Hurricane Willa. We also used the opportunity to help share the good works of our client, who ahead of the storm spent their time helping renters in their facilities get to safer locations more inland as well as sandbagging homes in the community to help protect against flooding.
  3. Stay Up To Date on Your Client’s Whereabouts – Making sure you have a schedule of where your clients will be at what time ensures that you can make the most of opportunities that come up. Had we not known that our client was in the path of the storm, we wouldn’t have been able to identify the story opportunity.
  4. Set Up Systems for Retrieving and Storing Videos – Prepare and train your clients to make sure they understand the importance of video and photos in telling any story. Make sure you have a plan for how videos get delivered to you and stored so that you can have access to them. Without the incredible video from our client, there would not have been a story!
  5. Act Quickly – In public relations, it’s true that the early bird gets the worm. By pitching this story before Willa made landfall, we could bet that we were one of the first ones to be talking about this story idea with local and national media, and were able to generate a lot of interest very quickly.

When it comes to engaging content, video is critical in helping to tell your story. Always have your camera or phone ready to capture video so you don’t miss an opportunity!

Finally, while unrelated to the tips above, let us take a moment to brag: It’s because of strategies and efforts like this, not only did we garner national coverage for the client, but if helped 10 to 1 Public Relations to recently be recognized as a top Public Relations Company on DesignRush!

By Erica Fetherson, Sr. Account Executive at 10 to 1 Public Relations

Why PR Campaigns Should Be Run Like Political Election Campaigns

by Josh

A lot of people are rejoicing that the elections have ended.  Their elation isn’t necessarily about who won, but simply that they’re thrilled that the campaign ads are finally over!  For me, campaign season never ends, because I believe that the best public relations campaigns should be run like a political campaign- and that’s how we set our strategies for our clients. Let me explain.

Some of you may know that in the late 90s I used to work in politics— hardcore Illinois “machine” politics at that– before moving to Arizona and formally starting my career in public relations.   Working on multiple campaigns across the State, I learned several lessons which I still use today.

Plan backwards. What does a politician want when they start running for office? To win!  In order to do that, the candidate needs 50 percent of the votes plus 1 on election day.  Not today, but on election day.  So if election day is 15 months from now, circle election day on the calendar and start planning backwards to reach your goal.  For example, if the vote were held today and you were only at 35% and the vote was 15 months away, if you increase your percentage 1% each month you’ll be at 50% on election day.

When we first engage with a client, we want to know their end goal, and when they want to achieve that goal. We then plan backwards to get them there on time. It won’t happen the first month, but if we do our job right, we’ll get closer to their end goal every month and ultimately achieve our client’s desired result.

Make your negative your positive. Every candidate has a flaw that will be attacked or something which might turn off some voters.  The best politicians can acknowledge the negative and the best campaign managers will prepare a response to an attack in advance and will even work to turn that perceived negative in to a positive.   We view our role as a PR pro as the company’s campaign manager- identifying flaws and dealing with them head-on before they become fatal.  Sharing with media and the public how a flaw was fixed is often a great way to build confidence, gain support and grow a company.

Know what you want people to remember before you start talking. A good politician walks in to any speech knowing what they want to tell their audience before they say a single word.  A company needs to know what take-away they want their customers, prospects and employees to remember and feel before any action they take.  The public relations strategy and wording used needs to mirror the intended take-away.

Be consistent. It’s hard to trust a flip-flopper, so repeat the same message as often as possible.  Only then will people hear it and remember it.

Own it. In the rare cases where you must do a flip-flop, own it.  Explain why the change was the right thing to do.  People are more than willing to forgive a mistake, but only if you own it and don’t hide it.

There’s a lot more I learned working in politics which I credit to how we create strong, effective PR campaigns for our clients.  But, for the rest of this month, let’s all take a deep breath and just enjoy the end of the non-stop political attack ads.  Please?!?!?

Written by Josh Weiss, President, 10 to 1 Public Relations, josh@10to1pr.com

Why You Should Care That We’re Part of IPREX

by Josh

I highlight IPREX on my website.  I have an IPREX icon in my email signature line.  If you weren’t sure, YES we’re proud to be the sole Arizona member of IPREX!

But I was recently asked: What is IPREX?  More to the point, he asked why he should care.

Shame on me for not better explaining why it matters not only to our team, but more importantly why it benefits our clients.  Let me try and do that now.

IPREX is a global network of 65 independent public relations firms across the world.  As a group, we have 1,600 employees and the annual billings of several hundreds of millions of dollars.  Size-wise, the agencies range from around 15 employees up to 200.  The expertise of the group spans multiple industries (like healthcare, technology, crisis communications, consumer, etc.) and various service lines (traditional PR, digital media buying, graphics, public affairs, etc.).

A little more than a year ago, 10 to 1 Public Relations was accepted in to the network.  In addition to being the exclusive agency member in the greater Phoenix area, we’re currently the only partner in Arizona and the entire Southwestern U.S.   Other agency partners are in New York, L.A., San Francisco, Boston, Hong Kong, Australia, Finland, and beyond.  (To see the entire list of IPREX members, check out the map on the IPREX website.)

While we are committed to each other’s success, we all remain independent and make our own decisions for our own companies and clients.  As an exclusive group we don’t view each other as competitors.  That’s why most partners are the only one in their primary market unless they allowed another agency to join, often because their target clients are different.  Instead we view one another as resources and allies.

When I sought to join IPREX I wasn’t 100% sure of what to expect, but I did have high expectations. Both of how it would help my agency, but more importantly how it would help our clients.  I can confidently tell you that our participation is paying off.

Our current clients are benefiting without even realizing it. If we have a client launching a product or holding event in another city or country, we may reach out to the local partner agency in that area for specific feedback and advice to ensure we achieve the maximum success for the local effort. We can even bring in other agencies for specific tasks or projects when needed, just as we’ve been introduced to some projects by our IPREX Partners that we otherwise would not have even known about.  IPREX also allows its members to team up on proposals and RFPs where they may not qualify on their own, allowing for more business opportunities. Our involvement with IPREX gives our clients endless resources and access to global and industry expertise.

The professional benefits of IPREX membership to the 10 to 1 Public Relations team are excellent as well.  All 1,600 employees of IPREX agencies have access to a private members-only website where we can ask questions of one another and review best practices.  There are also several (more than 125) case studies, samples and resources that are openly shared.  The website also holds several recorded (and live) webinars led by different partner agency staff, which provide great opportunities to learn best practices from one another.  Topics vary but an example would be tools and techniques PR and social media pros can use to improve outreach to social media influencers.  As an owner, IPREX also provides me an informal network of business advisors and mentors, giving me even greater confidence as 10 to 1 Public Relations goes through our current period of growth.

Participation in IPREX is not just about connecting remotely through online platforms.  IPREX has several face-to-face meetings each year. I recently returned from Raleigh, North Carolina, where I attended this year’s conference of agency owners from across the Americas (I also was at last year’s meeting in Dallas, Texas).

There are other meetings yearly for other global regions like Asia and Europe. IPREX also holds a global meeting for all agency owners. A couple months ago it was in Dubai—no, I didn’t go–but next year’s global meeting will be held in Washington, D.C., which I do plan to attend. There are also special leadership training meetings for different staff levels at various locations around the world. This global network allows 10 to 1 Public Relations to have a unique advantage over other Arizona-based PR firms.

I can’t tell you how much I’ve enjoyed getting to know these other agency leaders from around the world.  I’m very proud that our small yet growing firm has earned our seat at the table and that we’re fully contributing to the discussions. IPREX is making our company stronger, and our clients are seeing the benefits.

by Josh Weiss

Business Lessons from Watching a 10-year-old Play Basketball

by Josh

A couple of weeks ago, I witnessed the cutest things and I can’t get it out of my mind. During my 10-year-old son’s basketball game, one of the smaller, less athletic kids on his team got the ball and reluctantly took the shot – making a basket.  The pride and excitement was obvious on his face.  A few minutes later during a time out, the coach sent in a new player to replace him in the game.

As he was running back to the bench, the referee was standing and waiting to let play resume and was in a stance where one arm was up in the air with the other pointed to the spot where the ball would be in-bounded.  As the boy ran out he thought the referee was offering him a high-five so he jumped to slap it to the surprise of the referee which started smiling too.

I’m not sure who else in the stands saw this, but it’s an image I can’t stop smiling about even weeks later.

It’s a great reminder that everyone judges accomplishment on their own terms.  For this kid, a routine basket in a game where his team was way ahead in the score was a big deal.  Giving him confidence, pride and a memory that he accomplished something outside his normal expectations.

What’s your business or professional “high-fiving the referee” moment?

To do something unexpected, you need to actually do something unanticipated.  I’m not talking about doing something crazy.  It can simply be bidding on a contract or applying for an award that you’re not expected to win.  If you don’t get it, no one will hold it against you, but if you do get it, it’s a big deal.

Here’s an idea. How about in addition to pitching media outlets that you expect will cover a story, that you also pitch your idea to the biggest, most important media outlet you can think of — even though you know it’s unlikely to get covered.

It’s that unexpected action that can result in your biggest point of personal pride or success.  It’s the unexpected that creates a lasting memory and thus a great story worthy of sharing and repeating.

By Josh Weiss, President of 10 to 1 Public Relations

Why Companies and PR Pros Should Think Small to Make a Big Impression

by Josh

Have you ever heard of the 10 to 1 rule? It’s the idea that it takes 10 good things to be said about a company to make up for one negative story. And since it’s only a matter of time before somebody says something negative (regardless of if it’s true or false), it’s essential to build up a good will bank to protect and inoculate your reputation.

Luckily, every company has lots of good stories.  Unfortunately, few of these stories are recognized internally or shared externally.  The real error or threat is in the mindset that many of these stories are too small or unworthy of your effort. Failing to take advantage of smaller story opportunities is one of the most common, and most negatively hurtful things a company can do to their long-term success.

Think of each small news story as a drip out of a faucet. If you collect the drips, you can use the water any way you need it going forward. Compare that to doing one big story where it’s like taking a shower. It feels great when the water’s running but as soon as you turn it off the water goes down the drain.  Before long you dry off and forget the experience.

Need a more direct example?  Let’s say a new restaurant opens in your neighborhood.  If the first thing you hear is negative- like that the food was bad or the service was terrible- you’re never going to walk in the door. But instead at first you hear lots of positive comments from various friends and neighbors (that they liked the food, enjoyed the ambiance, had good service, etc.,) before hearing about a negative experience, you’re still open to try the restaurant out yourself. Granted, it may not be the first restaurant on your list anymore, but you’re still willing to walk in the door.

How about a sports metaphor?  Too many PR Pros are constantly trying to hit home runs.  I get it, I love hitting a home run too.  But the problem with home runs is that even the best players strike out far more often than they knock it out of the park.  Change the strategy.  Instead, focus on hitting lots of base hit singles.  Play “small ball” and run up the score.

Or how about a more selfish reason:  Would it be better for you professionally, as well as for your company, to have multiple stories listed on your website? Even if those stories are from smaller and mid-sized media outlets spanning six months? or would you prefer one story link from a prime media outlet during that same time period? Oh, and don’t forget the benefit to your sales team.  Multiple articles gives them more examples to add to collateral materials and sales kits providing more third-party validation of your company.

To be clear, I’m not saying to avoid big story efforts.  Big stories are great and should absolutely be part of your PR goals.  They just shouldn’t be your entire PR goal.  Stop ignoring or minimizing the importance of small stories and the power and protection they provide companies.  The added reach and frequency small stories collectively provide your company will create the desired echo chamber for your target audience.

So think small, to make a big impression.

Part 4 of What Companies Should do During a Media Crisis: Communicating with (and through) the Media

by Josh

Part 4 of What Companies Should do During a Media Crisis: Communicating with (and through) the Media

In some ways, talking to customers and the public through the media is the easiest part of a crisis.  It’s also one of the most risky as it relates to protecting your company.  The job of media outlets is to share the information of what’s happening with the public, but not necessarily to share that information in the way you want.

Assuming you’ve already read through Part 1 of this series and already have your simplified and clarified message finalized, let’s jump right in to some best practices for talking to media during an emergency.

Six best practices for talking to media during a crisis: 

  1. Designate One Spokesperson. Answers and statements to media are best when they funnel through one person to ensure consistency.  When it comes to the media quoting the company, you’ll be much happier in the end if the same person is quoted in every interview. That said, every media outlet will contact your company separately for a comment.  If you’re planning a press conference, let other communications team members answer calls and emails, and tell reporters to attend the media briefing for more information. The more time the spokesperson can spend doing interviews instead of scheduling interviews the better.
  2. Acknowledge Questions Quickly. You don’t need to know the answers, the public just needs to know you’re working on getting the answers.  Failure to respond to media quickly and acknowledge an issue implies the company doesn’t know, doesn’t care, or doesn’t know what to do.
  3. Respect Their Timeline, Not Your Own. Reporters have deadlines and they don’t work for you. During a crisis, think of it like you work for them. You can’t make a bad story go away, but you can make it less severe. If you make the reporter’s job harder, why would they give your company any breaks?  The easiest way to stay on a reporter’s good side is to ask them what time they need an answer by, and if at all possible get them an answer before the time they request. If you know you aren’t going to have an answer in time, tell them.  They will understand it takes time to get answers and it won’t always be possible by their deadline but they still have a story to write or tell regardless. If you tell them late it makes it harder for them to write or tell the story, and you run the risk they’ll take that extra stress out on you and your company in the story they tell.
  4. Don’t Let the CEO or Other Key Leaders Speak. This recommendation will be a surprise to many, but I believe that a company leader should never be the one to explain what went wrong immediately as a crisis is occurring.  Let your hired PR firm be on camera as the bad guy explaining the problem (that’s one of the services we offer for our clients to help protect them).  Only after we have an answer and a solution should the CEO or leadership talk to reporters, so they can take credit for fixing the problem instead of being seen AS the problem.
  5. Crow Tastes Better Warm Than Cold. Mistakes happen.  If you’re going to need to accept blame eventually, apologize for the mistake quickly. Why suffer extra news cycles of damage when you can shorten the window and focus on fixing the problem.
  6. Show how you fixed the problem. In the days and weeks after the crisis, share your story of how you’re fixing the problem and how you’re making sure a similar mistake never happens again.  If you have new technology or equipment to avoid a future problem, announce it and add it to your website so people know the issue has been resolved. Post “thank you” notes and comments from once unhappy customers demonstrating your commitment to making things right.  Highlight employees that went above and beyond to fix the problem and protect customers. Create a case study showing your commitment and ability to make changes that protect and help your customers and the public.  You won’t be able to erase the initial mistake, but you can celebrate your efforts to fix it.

Finally, I would argue that during a crisis you need the media a lot more than they need you.  They’re telling the story whether you help them or not.  If you want them telling the story in the least damaging way, you need to respect them, and use them to share the message you want accepted by your employees, the public and your customers.

-written by Josh Weiss

Should your company hire a PR firm or do it yourself?

by Josh
Yes or no decision symbol represented by a forked road with a road sign saying yes and another saying no with arrows for turning in the direction that is chosen after facing the difficult dilemma.

I’m occasionally asked by companies why they should hire a PR firm instead of simply hiring someone to do the work in-house. The truth is, not every company needs to hire a PR firm, but when a company does the math and evaluates their potential needs, hiring an agency is often the right call.  Here’s why:

Expertise:  When you hire an individual to work in-house, you’re hiring their personal experience.   It’s hard for any company to find a PR professional to be an expert in everything, especially when the list of needs includes media relations, internal employee communications, crisis management, and social media.  When you hire an agency, you’re getting an entire team and their collective expertise in multiple verticals.  It doesn’t matter if that knowledge comes directly from your industry, all that matters is that they can evaluate a situation and identify a solution benefit your company.  It doesn’t matter to Pepsi if the PR firm is using an experience learned from Toyota to solve their problems, but if an in-house person can only references the experiences their personal experiences at Coke it decreases the company’s options.

Objectivity:  An outside PR firm can also be more objective.  I don’t just mean the scenario of a mid-level employee afraid to tell company executives they disagree with a decision and unwilling to suggest an alternative action (we’ve seen that happen).   When anyone is too close to what’s happening, it’s easy to underestimate the opportunity some stories create, or overestimate the appeal of others.   PR firms deal with lots of situations and story opportunities every day.  They also work with media and the public in different scenarios all the time so it’s easier to predict, and influence, how they will respond.  That understanding allows them to evaluate options differently, and see more variations and options to generate results for a client.

Cost:  Hiring an experienced PR professional to work in-house will cost you more than it would cost to simply hire a PR firm.  Plus, you don’t pay taxes, benefits or vacation time.

Imagination:  PR firms are constantly working to identify and share compelling stories and present them to reporters in a way that generates results.  More experience working with different industries is actually a benefit to companies.  For example, if a PR firm finds an interesting angle for a story for a technology company, that same angle might also work for a healthcare company (yet they’re approaching each story to different reporters and publications letting both stories work and not compete against one another).

Translation: PR firms, bluntly, are often better at translating a company story into one that normal people (including reporters) can digest and understand.  Yes, people inside the company might think the PR firm simplified a story leaving out some “interesting tidbits,” but most of the time those “interesting tidbits” are only interesting to company employees or others that deal with it every day.

That’s not to say that a company shouldn’t have someone internal that’s responsible for coordinating with the PR firm—and that person doesn’t need to be a company Executive or the owner.  As an agency owner I find the greatest partnerships and successes occur when there’s an internal go-to person that knows a lot about the company overall, is responsive to PR firm questions and tracking down answers, and able to recognize story opportunities and then share those stories with us.

Looking for more considerations when hiring a PR agency?  Give us a call and let’s talk about it.  We aren’t going to try and convince you that you need a PR firm.  Frankly, we don’t want to work with companies that are going to have buyer’s remorse soon after signing an agreement.

InFLUence is Contagious says the Perception Engineer

by Josh

It’s that time of year when everyone seems to be getting over a cold or the flu. Recently I came across a quote that Influence and influenza are the same root word because influence is contagious. I like the idea of your influence- your flu- being contagious.

That led me to think back to one of my favorite blog posts that I wrote back in 2011 as a guest blogger for one of my peers.  The assigned topic was “what is public relations.”  I thought I’d share it again so that you could take a look.  Here it is:

We’ve all sat around a room as 30 or more people introduce themselves and their professional titles one-by-one. Most people are comatose by the end, barely paying attention.

For fun, and to see who’s still awake, I occasionally introduce myself as a perception engineer.

After a long pregnant pause, a fellow PR flack in the room usually audibly chuckles or gives me a knowing glare.

Do you agree that the term perception engineer is an appropriate description of public relations? Ultimately, the goal in Public Relations is to influence what others think about a company, product, person or topic.

While the target audience may be unique, the overarching goal to influence what people think remains the same regardless of the tools we use (social media, pitching reporters, newsletters, etc.,). The effort to influence also remains the same regardless of the communication need (crisis, pro-active, reactive, internal, etc.).

Notice that I didn’t offer the term “influence peddler.” Being a perception engineer is significantly different. We engineer strategies and creatively implement how we will influence each target audience. Forget about thinking outside the box, we, as perception engineers, reshape the box. In contrast, an influence peddler simply pushes the same wallpaper messaging from the box to everyone in sight.

Perception engineers understand that there are 100 different ways to accomplish a PR goal, but that there are also a million ways to fail and hurt the intended beneficiary. It’s that personalization of the message and risk of failure that keeps public relations fun, challenging and vital.

The original posting of this was on HMAtime on May 4, 2011.

7 Tips for Better Business Storytelling

by Josh

Every business has a story. As the owner of a small public relations firm, it’s our job to first recognize that story, and then help you share it.

It’s human nature that people love hearing stories, and they’re more likely to remember a story. So the better your business story, the more successful and memorable your company or organization is likely to be.

Here are seven strategy tips we use when helping a business share their story.

  1. Put the person before the numbers. Stats and numbers are great, but a story focused on an individual and why those stats and numbers matter is always going to make a better story angle.
  2. Start your story in the middle. It’s easy to lose your audience in the lead up to the action, so jump ahead a few pages and start with the really interesting part of the story. Then you can quickly go back and give the necessary context before explaining the result.
  3. Keep them hanging on every word. If it’s not imperative to your story, don’t include it. You need to keep interest from start to finish.
  4. Highlight obstacles and how you got past them. If it were easy, everyone would have already done it and they wouldn’t need you or your solution. Be honest about the obstacles you faced and how you got around them.  People love hearing how you overcame a problem, especially one that they themselves have faced.
  5. Identify the hero. Is the hero someone at your company or the product or service itself? It needs to be the star of your story that people remember and refer to later.
  6. Less braggy more huggy. If you want your audience to embrace your company or solution, you can’t be untouchable.
  7. Be bold but be realistic. Not every story is a best-seller and that’s okay.  Tell each story as best you can but don’t oversell it as Pulitzer-worthy.  Even simple stories should be told as it will help you build into a bigger story in the future.

In short, every business has a story.  It simply comes down to recognizing it and finding an interesting way to share it. It’s why I love my job and the challenge of first identifying a story opportunity and then coming up with a memorable way to tell the world about it.