Success Archives - Nikki Little

Think back to your first week after you successfully landed a new job. You were probably some combination of excited, nervous and anxious. You were so ready to get started and show off all those skills that landed you the job in the first place. But at the same time, you were worried about making a good impression and not making mistakes. You wanted your team and boss to know they made the right decision by hiring you, and you couldn’t wait to prove yourself.

Sound familiar? I know I was in that exact position when I started at both the PR agencies I’ve worked for. I was eager and excited to tackle every task that came my way, but I was also a bit apprehensive about vocalizing my opinions and thoughts because I was “the new girl” (I was WAY too apprehensive for too long, but that’s a topic for another post!).

If you read this blog even semi-frequently and/or interact with me online, you know I’m part of the Help a PR Pro Out (HAPPO) initiative (I’m the Michigan Champ) that aims to connect job seekers with employers in the communications field through online efforts. If you’re in Michigan, you may want to subscribe to my HAPPO Michigan Report (please and thank you!). Part of my duties as a Champ is to share advice for job seekers. While this organization caters to people in communications industries, I try to share advice that can apply to any field – so don’t tune out if you aren’t in PR!

Lately, I’ve been thinking about what a new hire should ideally do and not do when first starting a new job. After talking with a friend (not in the PR industry) who is experiencing some challenges with a new team member fresh out of college, I realized problems can quickly arise if a new hire is too zealous. You have to find the right balance between being a proactive and hard worker, but also not pushing the boundaries too quickly when you’re new at a company (unless of course you’re hired to fix something that’s broken – then you have all the right in the world to disrupt and rebuild!).

So, if you’re new to a company or will be joining one soon, here’s my advice on how to find that ideal balance:

Be an efficient worker, but don’t plow through your tasks too quickly just to impress your boss. Every manager loves an employee who can complete tasks before deadlines and produce great work at the same time. What you don’t want to do is focus so much on getting things done quickly that you compromise the quality of the work. If you finish a task/project quickly but it’s riddled with grammatical errors or is missing certain components that your manager asked you to include, then the speed in which you finished the task is completely irrelevant.

Speak up, but don’t try to change something when change isn’t needed. I think it’s so incredibly important for someone new at a company to voice his/her opinion, ask questions and offer up new ideas. But, don’t cross the line of trying to change processes/procedures that existed long before you came on board simply because you feel like you need to spice things up. I’m all for change when change is necessary, and a manager shouldn’t be afraid to implement new ideas from his/her team members. I don’t buy into the “We’ve done things this way all along, and there’s no reason to change” mentality because you should always be thinking about how you can do things better. However, new hires have to recognize when disrupting the system is and isn’t warranted.

Learn the ropes before offering new solutions. This goes along with the above point. When you’re new to a company, you should be a sponge that soaks up as much knowledge and information as possible about the company, your coworkers, the culture, the products/services and the clients/customers. Once you’re through your training, have a strong understanding of how everything operates and have the opportunity to get your hands dirty with some real work, only then should you start having discussions about how things could be done differently or better. If you simply go off what’s being shared with you and assume it’s the wrong strategy without actually testing the water, you’re making a big mistake that could jeopardize your relationship with your manager(s).

Put in enough effort before determining something won’t work. Again, building off the point above. Maybe you immediately realize you’re going to have communications challenges with a coworker or client because your personalities clash. Or, maybe you’re assigned to a client in an industry you have absolutely no interest in and assume you’re going to hate every second you work with this company. Don’t immediately complain to your manager. Give it some time, and see if you’re able to overcome your challenges. I can’t give you a specific time period because it will be different for each person/situation, but if you feel like you’ve tried your hardest and you’re still having the same problems, then it’s time to have a discussion with your manager. Remember to always come to the table with solutions rather than simply complaining and waiting for someone else to solve your problem for you.

I know I’m missing some things, so I would love to hear your feedback. How can new employees find the right balance between being proactive and too eager too quickly to make their mark at a company?

** Side note: The first HAPPO Twitter chat of 2013 will take place Monday, February 18 at 9 p.m. EST. The topic is: “How to build and sustain a mentor relationship.” All you have to do to participate is follow the #HAPPO hashtag on Twitter and share your answers to the questions, or ask your own. Join in for advice from some amazing pros all across the country!

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Last year, I decided to trade in New Year’s resolutions for a bucket list, thanks to inspiration from a few of my PR pals. I’m sticking by my commitment for 2013 and every year moving forward.

Everyone operates differently. If resolutions work for you and you actually stick with them and achieve them each year, then good on you. Keep up the trend.

But, if you’ve determined resolutions aren’t your cup of tea, I highly suggest making a bucket list. Rather than creating new resolutions each year, you can slowly chip away at crossing those items off your bucket list. Some you may achieve the following year. Some you may not achieve for decades. That’s OK. At least you’ve established a list of important things you want to accomplish in life. Keep that list close by, and make sure you’re making as much progress as possible each year.

Looking back at 2012 and where I’m at with items on my bucket list, I’m happy to say I’ve made some good progress. Here’s the initial list I created and the progress:

1. Visit my Chilean family again. This is one that won’t happen in the near future, but I continue to stay in touch with them, particularly through Facebook.

2. Pay it forward, but in a really big way. I’ve paid it forward in several small ways this year. My big “pay it forward” moment will happen in the future.

3. Travel to Hawaii and Italy. Not this year! MAL and I did finally make it to Boston to visit his brother and his family. We also took our first trip to Lake Tahoe for a wedding and San Francisco.

4. Attend Wimbledon. Not quite yet.

5. Establish a yearly scholarship in my name for a student in the integrative public relations program at Central Michigan University. Not there yet. But, I did launch the Help a PR Pro Out (HAPPO) Michigan Report for communications pros in Michigan. There may be more, but I know of at least two people who found jobs thanks to the HAPPO Michigan Report, which is awesome!

6. Be part of a fashion designer’s photo shoot and/or be featured in a fashion publication, website or blog. Not yet.

7. Provide PR/communications services to a major retailer, fashion designer or anything else fashion related. Not yet.

8. Have children (ideally two). In progress and will be complete some time in February 2013! I thought one child in 2013 was a definite possibility, but two at once never crossed my mind. If you missed the news, MAL and I are having identical twin boys (dubbed the #littlebabies).

9. Receive some type of PR/communications award or honor. My social media team at Identity is a finalist for a PR Daily Digital PR & Social Media Award for our work on the 2011 BRU Fest Michigan event on behalf of client Children’s Leukemia Foundation of Michigan. I was the lead on that campaign. We are up against some big players for Best Social Media Campaign, and regardless of whether we win or lose (winners are announced in late January), I’m so proud that we were chosen as a finalist.

10. Continue contributing articles and blog posts to sites/blogs I’m not affiliated with in any way, and keep aiming higher. I continued writing guest posts, including for Heather Whaling’s blog, prTini, Spin Sucks (which was also featured on Ragan.com) and the3six5, among others. A contact on the digital team at Crain’s Detroit Business asked me to be part of a new blogging initiative. My first post about building a social media response plan went live last week.

I’m more than happy with the progress I made this year. Aside from my personal bucket list, I accomplished several professional goals I set for myself. And, as I noted in my bucket list post from last year, I stuck by my new motto: I will not commit to anything new unless I receive as much value from it as I’m providing.

2013 is going to be an interesting/exciting year with some big changes and adjustments, mostly due to the #littlebabies coming into this world. Am I completely ready for all the changes? Absolutely not. Will I tackle everything one day at a time, learn from my mistakes and find a way to balance it all? I’m sure as hell going to try.

Thanks to everyone who continues to read, comment on and share these posts! I truly appreciate you being here. If you haven’t already, please subscribe via RSS or email (top box in the right column or the big pink box below) to stay updated on my posts.

I’d love to hear from you. Do you do resolutions, goals, a bucket list, or some combination? What are you hoping to achieve in 2013?

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I am not a judgmental person, and it takes a lot for me to not like someone. There are two types of people who irk me the most – people who are snarky for snark’s sake and liars.

Let’s focus on the liars. My dislike for someone goes deeper if I see them benefitting (personally and/or professionally) from their web of lies. At my very first PR agency internship, I learned quickly that the owner was a chronic liar. I learned even more about the lies she told to gain business from my friend who worked for her years after I did. It made my blood boil.

Here’s what we all need to remember: Success is that much sweeter when it’s created and earned through genuine, hard and honest work.

We’ve all seen people get ahead in life and business in not-so-honest or trustworthy ways. Sometimes, they can run with their deceitfulness and get by without getting caught for a long time. Other times, they’re caught immediately. Failing can be good and can teach us many lessons, but this isn’t the type of failure you should want to face.

Look at all the recent examples this year alone of prominent public figures getting caught in lies. These people experienced enormous amounts of success in their lives. Yet once the lies were revealed, it was all taken away. All that hard work, just to have reputation and success destroyed from lies. It couldn’t have been worth it.

I’ve been thinking about this more due to a recent experience at my agency, Identity. Back in June, we discovered we had a brandjacker on our hands. A “marketing professional” in metro Detroit had decided to start her own agency. At the time, she was friends with one of my coworkers on Facebook. She was talking up her new agency and how excited she was to launch the website. So, my coworker decided to scope it out. Thankfully he did, because she had completely stolen elements of our brand and service offerings. Long story short, our partner handled it, and she removed everything on her site and her company’s social media channels that she had ripped off from us.

Fast forward a few months. My coworker decided to check in to see what our friend the brandjacker was up to these days. She had launched a completely new website and direction for her company (marketing/PR services for emerging music artists). After a little Internet sleuthing, he discovered all her “clients” were not real people. She made them all up, along with the testimonials of her work she had on the site. One would think she would have learned from the experience with us. Clearly, she didn’t.

I find this so unacceptable and appalling that I’m pretty sure my blood pressure has risen just from writing this! So, here are two things I ask of you:

1. Do not lie to get ahead in life, personally or professionally. It’s not worth it, and it will come back to haunt you…even the smallest lies.

2. If you know of someone who is engaging in any type of unethical behavior or lying about who they are as a professional to make money and gain success, advise them to stop. You can’t force anyone to listen to you, but if you feel it’s appropriate to step in, do it. Think of the people who are giving them money for what they think are quality products/services. It’s not fair to them, and it’s not fair to those of us who are ethical and who are doing great things in business without deceiving our clients and customers.

This deviates a bit from my typical posts because it’s more negative in nature, but the point I hope I get across is a positive one. Let’s all commit to being ethical in business and working to achieve success through honest practices.

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Agree?

We live in a world of immediacy where the crazy busy phenomenon has become the normal way of living. There’s no arguing that. We expect things now, and we put pressure on ourselves to move at warp speed. Being the first (or one of the first) person to do something is an accomplishment.

Being a pro multi-tasker and able to react quickly in a professional setting are two desirable qualities. We all want to work with and hire people who can juggle multiple responsibilities and deliver in a timely manner with great results. We need people on our teams who can move at lightning speed (especially those of us who work in the social media/digital world) with enough precision and attention to detail that they rarely make a mistake…and if they do, it’s a minor one.

It’s an art to be able to manage multiple tasks, projects, clients, campaigns (the list goes on) and consistently deliver success without letting things slip through the cracks…or completely burning out. If you’re one of these people, or can train yourself to become one, you’ll find yourself in high demand in both your personal and professional life.

Here’s the problem with reacting quickly: When you don’t take enough time to fully comprehend and digest the situation, you make mistakes.

Sometimes, these mistakes are minor and have minimal negative effects. Other times, they’re more drastic and could severely and negatively impact whatever it is you’re attempting to do.

Let’s look at a recent situation that is a perfect example of reacting too quickly without taking time to read the details:

At my agency, Identity, we’re hiring a social media strategist for my team. We posted the job opening on LinkedIn. Along with wanting a cover letter and resume, we noted in the job description that we were looking for a case study that included specific details. We were very clear on what interested candidates needed to do in order to apply for this position.

We immediately received applications via LinkedIn and email once the posting was live. Only a handful of the 40-50 people who applied followed the instructions the first time and submitted a case study along with their resume and cover letter. If we wanted to be really harsh, we could have completely disregarded everyone who applied without following directions. However, we took the time to reply back to everyone who didn’t submit a case study and let them know we wouldn’t consider them as a candidate without it.

Would every prospective employer do that? Absolutely not. In many employment situations, if you don’t follow the rules the first time, you won’t even be considered for the position. I won’t even get into the grammatical errors and other dumb moves people made when submitting their information to us (no, college senior, you are not a “social media guru” and you are not qualified for a position that clearly states 3-5 years of experience).

So, how can you avoid the negative side of reacting too quickly? You have to find the balance between moving fast and slowing down.

Always take the time to read thoroughly, and proofread before you send anything.

Take a moment to let it sink in, particularly if it’s something that hits a sore spot or gets you fired up. Don’t allow yourself to react simply on emotion. You may regret it later.

Ask someone else for his/her opinion or to proofread. You can build in enough time for this step.

Remember when you make mistakes from moving too quickly, and catch yourself when you’re in a similar situation in the future. You succeed from failure when you learn and improve from those failures. Don’t let yourself make the same mistakes over and over again.

It’s not worth being the first, or one of the first, to do something if you move too quickly and make a big mistake.

What are your thoughts? Have you been in a situation where you moved too quickly and made a big mistake? How do you balance moving quickly without making mistakes?

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I am not a quitter. I think long and hard before I make commitments to ensure I’m making the right decision. I find ways to make things work so that I don’t have to give up. A fresh perspective or getting input from someone not as intimately involved can do wonders. Quitting for the sake of quitting is too easy.

I bet many of you feel the same way. Do you think, though, that there are times when quitting is appropriate? How do you know when to quit? I think it makes sense to move on when:

You’ve poured your entire heart and soul into something for a significant amount of time, yet you’re seeing no results.
Your priorities, wants and needs have shifted.
You no longer love what you’re doing.
Your mental and/or physical well being are in danger.

We avoid quitting for several reasons, but I think it’s safe to say that we associate quitting with negative thoughts. Quitters are losers. Quitters are weak. Quitters choose the easy route. You may find this to be true in some cases, but would you use those labels on someone faced with one of the above situations?

Sometimes, not quitting can actually keep you from success. Take the first example. If you keep trying to make something work when you know deep down that it’s not going to happen, put your pride aside, step back and come up with a new and better plan – one that is more likely to succeed.

I’ve been thinking about the topic of when to quit because I’ve had to give up things I love doing (tennis and running) earlier than I expected due to the #littlebabies doing a number on my lower back. Luckily, I only have to quit these for a limited amount of time.

One of my goals for 2012 was to focus on less to do more (this line of thinking contributed to me writing my bucket list, which I highly suggest you do!), so I decided to give up some commitments that I had really enjoyed for the past few years. It wasn’t easy, but I knew it was going to be the best decision in the long run and would ultimately help me achieve my goal (and it did). Still, I had a hard time giving them up, and I allowed myself to feel like a quitter for awhile.

Are we really quitters if our lives change and we therefore have to shift priorities and commitments? I don’t think so. I stand by the four points I outlined above. You know it’s time to give up on something if you can identify with at least one of those scenarios.

I’d love to hear your thoughts. Did you give up on something and feel like a quitter? Do you disagree and think quitting is quitting…no matter what the cause and effects may be?

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Do you hate being in front of a video camera? Does the phrase “video blogging” instantly bring on the nerves and anxiety.

I’ll admit – I used to hate being in front of the camera. Thankfully, I’m much more comfortable with it now. While I’ve dabbled with video blogging in the past, both in front of (check out that short ‘do and old school Twitter handle!) and behind the camera, I definitely don’t take advantage of it as much as I could/should.

I’m guessing many of you don’t, either. That’s why I wanted to share some stellar vlogging tips from Meredith Sinclair, the guest speaker at the recent Girls Lunch Out Chicago event (I attended on behalf of client Verizon Wireless, who sponsored the event). Vlogging can be a powerful form of communication and can really help mix things up for your blog readers.

If you want to get started (or get smarter) with vlogging, follow these tips from Meredith (with some additional commentary from me for an extra kick):

Use content you’ve already created as inspiration. If you already blog, dig through your archives and find content you can turn into a vlog. Take your most popular posts and build off of them, or add new insights.

Have great lighting and sound. Don’t record a vlog with dim lighting, and don’t stand in front of a window. Make sure you have good lighting so your video doesn’t look grainy. If you’re going to sit at your computer and record yourself, you shouldn’t have any problems with sound. But if you start to experiment with how far you stand from your computer, or if you want to ensure you sound loud and clear all the time, invest in a microphone.

Give yourself a two-minute warning. If it’s just you talking in front of the camera, try to keep it short and sweet. People will tune out after two minutes if you drone on and on. If you start doing more complicated videos with edits, you can go longer than two minutes.

Imagine your best friend is on the other side of the camera. This trick should help if you get really nervous. Imagine your best friend is on the other side of the camera recording you and you’re having a casual conversation with him/her.

Learn basic editing skills. iMovie and Final Cut are two good editing programs to use if you want to learn how to edit video. I know how to use iMovie, and I promise it’s relatively simple if all you want to do is slice together different shots and add in some music and text.

Those are some tips on what you should be doing when vlogging. Here’s what you should avoid:

Writing down what you want to say word-for-word and/or memorizing a script. Don’t do this. It’s going to be obvious that you memorized it, and you’re going to sound robotic. Practice having a casual conversation with your viewers. If you drop a few “umms”, “likes” or pauses, it’s not the end of the world. But keep those to a minimum, too!

Recording too many times. Sometimes, it’s just not your day. Don’t drive yourself crazy trying to perfect a vlog. Take a break for a few hours, or pick a different topic if you’re struggling.

Talking continuously with no pauses. Don’t talk in one continuous stream of consciousness without pausing. It’s going to come across as babbling, and your viewers will quickly lose interest.

Forgetting you have a delete button. If all else fails and you absolutely hate your vlog, pitch it and start from scratch.

Let’s say you get all awesome with vlogging and you want to take things to the next level. Thanks to Meredith’s experience with vlogging, local and national media frequently call on her to do interviews on various topics. Here’s what you need to do if you want to become a media resource (aka, PR 101 knowledge):

Know the show. Do your research. Figure out which media outlets would make the most sense for your specific topic and area(s) of expertise. Don’t blindly reach out to a reporter or producer without doing some research upfront.

Know your niche. What do you bring to the table that’s unique and different from others who have been interviewed on the show? How can you make the segment/topic more interesting and relevant to viewers? Make sure you communicate that clearly after you’ve identified the best person to reach out to.

Know the need. This is very much related to the above. How can you help the show fill a void? If they recently interviewed someone on an area of your expertise and you have more insight to add, find the right person to contact and say you’d love to be considered as a source for the next segment related to that topic because you would add (fill in the blank).

Hopefully this advice helps if you’re ready to tackle vlogging.

If you’re already an avid vlogger, I’d love to hear your tips! Leave them in the comments.

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Say you’re a business or organization that needs to get the word out about an important initiative, and the success of said initiative is totally dependent on how you can activate your community to support you. What do you do?

While the following advice isn’t a magic formula that will work in every instance, here are three things you could do to accomplish the above goal:

Tap into your already developed network of customers/clients/supporters/advocates, and motivate and inspire them to act.
Spoon feed the info to your community, meaning you need to tell them exactly what you need them to do.
Utilize social media.

Now, I realize the first bullet means you need to have already created raving fans of your business or organization. Hopefully, you have! And if you haven’t, then it’s time to take a step back and figure out how to make the people you’re trying to reach love your company/organization so much that they become natural brand ambassadors. That’s another topic for another day.

Friendship Circle is an organization that does an amazing job of the three things I outlined above. Friendship Circle is a nonprofit organization that provides programs and support to the families of individuals with special needs at more than 80 worldwide locations. Bassie Shemtov and her team at Friendship Circle in metro Detroit are some of the most passionate, creative and all-around awesome people I’ve ever met. The network of supporters and advocates they have created over the years is truly astounding.

When they were in the running to win $1 million dollars from the Chase Community Giving Campaign, they put together a super smart strategy that followed the three-pronged approach I discussed above:

They inspired their loyal community to vote and to get people in their extended networks to vote.
They spoon-fed the info to them to make it really easy for them to help Friendship Circle win (things like telling them exactly what to say in tweets and Facebook posts and creating badges they could put on their websites and blogs).
They heavily utilized their own social channels and reached out to influencers in the Jewish community through social media to get them on the voting bandwagon.

Friendship Circle ended up coming in fourth place and winning (if memory serves me right) $25,000. So, not quite the $1 million, but still very impressive.

I always use Friendship Circle as a case study when I’m talking to companies about the importance of building a community of passionate supporters, both online and offline, before you actually need something from them. Imagine if Friendship Circle didn’t have that passionate community already established, or a strong presence on social channels, before they attempted to win the $1 million from Chase. Think their campaign would have been as successful if they were trying to activate people who knew a whole lot of nothing about them? Definitely not.

Hopefully you can take a few cues from Friendship Circle and think about how you can apply these concepts to your own organization and business.

Side note: A very cool documentary about Friendship Circle called The Circle Never Ends is debuting on metro Detroit’s ABC affiliate, WXYZ Channel 7, on September 23. If you live in the area, I encourage you to watch it to learn more about Friendship Circle and how they create important bonds and friendships between people with special needs and the community at large. See all those calls to action on the documentary’s landing page? So smart.

Kudos to you, Friendship Circle! Keep doing what you’re doing and inspiring others to follow a similar path to success.

Disclosure: I worked with Friendship Circle on a pro-bono project through my agency, Identity. in 2010. While I provided some pro-bono consulting to them on their documentary campaign, I was not compensated in any way to write this post. I simply love the work they do and think others could and should learn from their success.

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I’ve been involved with the Help a PR Pro Out (HAPPO) group as a champ for about two years now, and I’m looking forward to hosting my first HAPPO Twitter chat coming up on Thursday, September 13 at 9 p.m. EST. As I’m getting more ingrained in my role as social media manager at Identity, the topic for this chat is very relevant for me: How to nail the interview.

Yes, people can look awesome on paper and perform well during the interview and then completely suck it up once they’ve been hired. I’ve seen that happen. However, the interview is your biggest opportunity to show a prospective employer what you’re all about. You may come across as stellar through your resume and online footprint, but if you bomb the interview, it’s highly unlikely that you’ll remain on the consideration list. Continue reading “September 13 HAPPO Twitter Chat: How to Nail the Interview”

Forewarning to all the guys reading this: This post is very geared toward women. I still think you’ll find it an interesting read and would love your input, so hope you stay with me.

If you’re a woman who is career focused, I know you’ve read your fair share of stories about how women are treated differently in the workplace, or how it’s impossible for women to strike the perfect career/life balance. Recently, former Google exec Marissa Mayer announced she was taking over as CEO of Yahoo. That’s huge news, and media widely reported it, but the stories quickly turned to focus on the fact that she’s pregnant. Various news organizations wrote about advice they have for Marissa on taking over a fledgling company while handling the stress of being a first time mom.

I agree with everything my friend Gini Dietrich talks about in her post questioning why we’re still having this conversation. Have we stepped into a time warp? Sure seems like it with how Marissa being pregnant took the focus away from the real news – her stepping up to hopefully turn around Yahoo and make it a successful company again. Continue reading “One Critical Skill Women Need to Succeed in Business”