FIRM VIEWS:
Perspectives From PR Agency Owners and Leaders
First, where do you lie on the risk continuum. Are you risk tolerant? Or risk averse? Either way, this doesn’t impact your ability to grow your agency, but the way you do it changes.
Kate Snyder is risk averse and Heather Whaling is very risk tolerant. See how two different scaling agency leaders approach the many challenges.
If we look at the diagram above, there is a cycle to scaling your business from the leadership perspective.
By Rob Biesenbach
As leaders and business owners, many of us speak regularly at industry conferences and other events. If you’ve enjoyed some success as a speaker and want to do more of it, one of the most important things you can do is assemble a visual portfolio — photos and video of you in action.
After all, pictures are said to be worth a thousand words. (You heard it here first.) And video has become absolutely vital. I’ve done more than 50 speaking engagements in the past two years and have found more and more conferences are asking for video clips as evidence of a speaker’s skills.
By George Rosenberg
“Can you help me be a real CEO?”
As an advisor and coach to agency owners for more than 13 years and a former agency CEO, this is a question I hear often. These ambitious and often young agency owners – many of whom typify Counselor’s Academy members -- want to grow significantly, hire and keep the best talent, manage their staffs with excellence, run a profitable firm and feel that they are indeed, successful CEOs. Who wouldn’t want to ? But it ain’t easy!
Building a successful agency is an incredibly tough job – and an even tougher one for owners who must wear multiple hats and try to do it all. But one job is more critical than all the rest – becoming a real CEO and too many owners are forced to learn on the fly and wonder “what does it take to become a real CEO?”
By Patrice Tanaka, Founder & Chief Joy Officer, Joyful Planet
The most powerful thing I’ve ever done in my life, in terms of personal and professional development, was to discover my life’s purpose.
When I shared it with my then-executive coach 15 years ago, it started me on an exciting and unexpected journey that continues to this day. I’ve actually accomplished more in the past 15 years since discovering and articulating my life purpose than I had in the previous 30 years – and I was no slouch in those earlier years!
Discovering the power of purpose is what led me to leave the last of three PR and marketing agencies I co-founded – PT&Co., CRT/tanaka and PadillaCRT (now Padilla) – to focus on helping individuals and organizations discover and live their purpose and unleash greater success, fulfillment and joy in their lives, in their workplaces and in the world.
