When does anything ever really go exactly as planned? Since the answer is almost never and so many variables are out of your control, it may be easy to think – why bother planning?

Unfortunately, even with diligent, proactive risk management, a crisis can happen at any time (as I’ve said in a previous blog). So, you need to prepare, anticipate and plan ahead – because it’s not a matter of if a crisis will occur, it’s a matter of when.

Although it may seem counter-intuitive, one of the main components of your crisis management plan should be proactive, positive outreach NOW – before the crisis.

Enter PR. Proactive PR.

Even if you’re not looking to grow your company or you feel like PR is “tooting your own horn,” there are many benefits to proactive PR. Positive media and community exposure will help you tenfold down the road. The strongest crisis communication plans also proactively incorporate these PR components:

• Build the Image of Your Key Leaders – It is a major advantage for your company if people regard and respect your leaders as subject matter experts and good people. This is why it’s important for top management to appear occasionally in business media profiles and stories as well as at “good news events” such as philanthropic donations.

• Examine and Strengthen Key Relationships – with local and national media, government officials and the community that you serve. Strong existing relationships will be beneficial in getting the support you need in a crisis and re-building credibility following.

• Review Your Search and Social Media Status – Put the people and the processes in place to continually and proactively monitor your digital exposure – online news outlets, blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, etc. This is the first place you may learn about the crisis at hand, and it allows you to respond quickly to misinformation and accusations. (Of course, having a robust and positive existing presence on all of these channels is a must for so many reasons (and that’s why we do what we do on the Porch).

“Do something today that your future self will thank you for.”

“If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.” – Benjamin Franklin

We agree, Mr. Franklin!!!

Your brand is one of the most important parts of developing or reinvigorating your company. The process of branding examines the emotions you want your customer to feel about your company and its services.

Branding means different things to different people. When working with Clients, we on the Porch serve it up this way:

Simply put, your brand is your promise to your customer.

One of the steps in our branding elaborative is defining brand affiliation. This is done after the vision, personality and positioning are established, because all these factor into the affiliation.

Brand affiliation is best described as what “club” customers are joining when they choose your company. Humans are compelled to affiliate with people like themselves, people they admire or people they aspire to be like. Brand affiliation is what you want other people to think of your company when they learn they are aligned with you.

Once your affiliation is established, you can position yourself in environments that share your affiliation. Say what?

Depending on your company, that might be more complicated than it seems. Here’s an example from our very own Porch:

We want to work with forward-thinking, passionate business leaders and entrepreneurs. We want everyone to have a knock-your-socks off, head turning, register-ringing marketing strategy!

So how do we do that, and maximize our affiliation?

1. We live, breathe and sing marketing strategy and insight with anyone that will join us on the Porch.
2. We provide marketing implementation.
3. We align ourselves with groups and organizations like Vistage, WBENC, NEW, Community Partners and liked-minded business owners.
4. We conduct workshops like our Chief Rocker’s November 4, “Business in a Box” workshop at the Arlington Inspired Women Luncheon.

Your brand is derived from who you are, who you want to be and who people perceive you to be. Define it and Rock It. Every Day. All Day.

Over the last week, I sat down to write this blog at my desk, Starbucks, the library and various other locations, opened my computer and a fresh new Word document … only to hit a blank wall. A very blank wall. I could blame my lack of motivation and inspiration on my lack of sleep due to my toddler’s current sleep regression, or the added stresses now that summer is over, or my ever growing to-do list that just seems to keep getting longer, or a number of life’s other distractors. BUT, in all reality, it’s always something, isn’t it?

And I know I’m not the only one. 

With my deadline looming, I realized that my motivation wasn’t going to just come to me… I had to find it. And ironically, my lack of inspiration turned into my inspiration! Here are some of the ways I overcome creative blocks and tackle tasks that sometimes seem impossible to get done:

1. Focus – Set aside time, sit down and FOCUS. Turn your phone off (or if you need to be reached in case of emergency, turn it on vibrate and turn it upside down), turn off your email and step away from social media and the internet black hole! Hold yourself accountable for that one hour – or however long you need to get started – make the necessary progress, and finish the project.

2. Make the Extra Time – It’s not ideal to work outside of your regular work hours, and it’s important to unplug for personal and family time. But sometimes, you just have to invest the extra time to meet your deadline. Whether it’s waking up early, eating lunch at your desk, or sitting back down at your computer in the evening after you’ve had dinner and a chance to unwind. Personally, that’s one of my favorite times because my creative juices really flow with a glass of wine!

3. Change Your Environment – Working at Starbucks provides energy that can be contagious, but at times it can be too loud for me to concentrate. The library is a great place to go to find a nook and hunker down, but it can also be too quiet. Depending on your project, find a place that will fuel your inspiration.

4. Step Away – Even with a deadline looming, it’s important to step away (but NOT during your set aside time mentioned in #1). If you’re like me, sometimes you return to find that your work is even better that you thought! And, other times, you return to find it’s terrible. Either way, you’ll be in a better place.

5. Just Do It! – Procrastination is not a good habit, and I don’t recommend it. But, at times, it’s necessary and even beneficial. There’s something to the saying “Nothing makes a person more productive than waiting until the last minute.” If the last minute is all you have, just make it count!

There! I did it! Motivation found. Now, what’s next on my list?

I love my kids. They are the coolest, funniest, most interesting people I know. And I love all the extra time with them that the summer provides.

But this summer almost killed me.

Striking the perfect balance of down time (important for kids), time with friends, physical activity, intellectual stimulation, and family time for them is hard enough … trying to juggle it all while working myself and trying to maintain our household and my own sanity was extremely difficult. Working Moms, you know what I’m talking about.

My kids went back to school last week. And although I’m sad that the summer is over, as I reflect on the past three months, I have to give a shout out to these five things that allowed me to keep my sanity in check:

1. Other Moms. There is no doubt, Moms need other Moms. I can’t count the number of times I needed logistical help, a place for a child to hang out for a few hours, or someone to have a laugh and a drink with. I’d be lost without my group of Moms.
2. Summer Camp. Whether it was the month-long camp that my daughter attended (and loved every minute of), or the shorter weekly camps that my sons popped in and out of, we all needed the activity that they provided.
3. Amazon Prime (and Prime Now). Knee deep in laundry and ran out of detergent? Need required summer reading books? Don’t want to brave the lines at Staples for school supplies? Enter Amazon Prime and Prime Now, where everything is delivered right to your door in a matter of hours. Heaven.
4. Me Time. Tennis. House of Cards. Bubble baths. Me time. I didn’t get much of it, but when I did, it recharged my batteries and gave me some much needed escapism.
5. Gratitude. Yes, I felt like I was burning the candle at both ends for three months. But focusing on all that I have to be thankful for helped me keep things in perspective.

I’m lucky. Here on the Porch, we are all in the same boat and our Chief Rocker has built her business into something special that lets us all have our cake and eat it too. I am thankful for that.

So long, summer. Until we meet again.

As my senior year in high school approaches, the big question that virtually everyone continually asks me about my future can no longer be deferred. It’s time to face that big question – where do I want to go to college?

In trying to answer it, this summer I have focused on two things:

* What major/career do I want to pursue?

* Where is the best place to spend my college years?

I spent countless hours researching colleges and began taking college tour road trips while keeping up with my internship and summer jobs. Our mailbox is full of clever brochures, and every night the phone is ringing with some admissions telemarketer asking to speak to Sarah Krueger.

Interning at Front Porch Marketing has given me an interesting perspective – I am noticing how colleges are marketing to ME. By learning about marketing first-hand here on the Porch, I recognize why many college tours and visits seem so similar. There seems to be a shared formula for colleges trying to sell their school to potential freshman.

I find myself getting a little weary with the tours because they are all so similar:

• SAME questions posed to students on the tour
• SAME highlights and stories of surprisingly similar campus traditions, and
• SAME rehearsed answers from tour guides.

Speaking on behalf of my generation, we are a difficult bunch to market to because we have high expectations and we are looking for new and unique. We also can see through the bold, big and bright letters and slick pictures.

If I were giving these colleges presentation marketing advice, I think it would sound very similar to what we would tell our client partners:

Don’t Sound Rehearsed. Now, I’m not saying that you should wing your entire presentation, but don’t fall victim to make it sound exactly the same every time you give it. Mix it up. Hearing and presenting the same sales pitch not only bores your audience, but it bores you too, and it shows.

Make It More Personal. I want to hear more personal perspective from these college representatives. Find a way to personally connect with your audience. Find a happy medium between striking an emotional chord and being informative.

Don’t Oversell Yourself. If you’re trying too hard, it’s apparent. Don’t. Your product should be doing the talking. Focus on the key points of your product/presentation, and then let your audience explore the details.

Don’t Talk Down to Your Audience. Treat your audience with respect. Nobody wants to be spoon-fed information.

No matter what college I choose, I know that my time at Front Porch Marketing will serve me well in the next phase of my life. Rock on!

Sarah Krueger is a rising senior at Ursuline Academy. As our summer intern, she blogged, grew social media networks, assisted with research and worked on marketing projects.

Throughout this summer, I realized that I have had to use skills from of my entire high school curriculum – English, Math, History and Performance Art. Yes, I said that I have even used skills from my Performance Art classes in Marketing. Specifically, Improvisation.

While Marketing and Improvisation seem like two classes that would never intertwine; believe it or not, I have found the similarities between the two are very prominent in the business arena. Improvisational techniques used in marketing can change one’s skills for the better.

As a marketer, your job is to promote your client’s brand and help them succeed. Initially, you listen to the client’s vision for their company and create your plan for their business. The tricky part is deciding how and what will please both the client and their audience. With some improvisational skills, you can reach that happy medium and succeed as a marketer!

Here are two key lessons in improvisation that can be used in marketing:

1. Never Say No

The motto “Never Say No” applies especially to the building stages of a business plan (meetings, phone calls, emails, etc.). No idea should be shut down without ample thought. Every single idea should be written down and taken into consideration to create the draft of the plan.

How to do this in your office:

When given a project, have each of your partners draft a plan for the company. In a meeting, you can discuss each person’s plan and highlight the best features of each one. With discussion, you can use everyone’s ideas to draft something everyone approves of and enjoys.

2. Put Yourself into the Perspective of Others

Through the design of an ad or a website, the key is to attract the intended audience’s eye. Whether it be with an image, a video, or just text, the material must be catchy and relatable. This can be difficult if you are not interested in the product. To do so, one question must be asked: If I were the audience, would I be interested in this ad? You must make yourself think and see as the intended audience would.

How to do this in your office:

When reviewing an ad, website, app or flyer, consider if you’d click the link or take the flyer out of interest. Ask your partners to ask themselves the same question. If the answer is “yes,” then you are prepared for a submission. If not, make the changes.

I never thought that I would be able to incorporate these two simple mottos into my internship this summer, but I use and see them everyday. The Front Porch Marketing crew never says, “no,” to anyone’s ideas. In meetings that I have observed, they are always very open and listen closely to their clients’ needs/wants! They have had to put themselves into the customers’ and clients’ perspective and remain flexible throughout the process to help complete projects to the best of their ability! Witnessing their keen ear to their clients’ desires and adaptable nature and applying these skills to my own projects have been extremely beneficial as I consider the business world as a future career.

We. Are. So. Feeling. It.

Our five year business anniversary of making branding and marketing rock for our amazing clients has made us totally mad about the number five. FIVE. 5. Cinco.

And so, in keeping with our five obsession, we present Five Rockin’ Things We are Doing for Clients:

1. Development of the Todomodo Website: TodoModo is a consulting and investment firm. We were able to get in on the ground floor with them – we started with the branding process, defined their brand strategies and then translated it to this site. We loved working with them on this and are continuing to be the company’s marketing partner! We wrote and ran this release on the wire for them among other things.
2. Ellen Hoffman Designs at the Accessories Circuit: Ellen, the doyenne of Ellen Hoffman Designs, is a wildly talented jeweler that we are privileged to work with. We promoted her at the Accessories Circuit at the Javitz Center in New York.
3. The Gem Yelp Event: The GEM welcomed elite Yelpers to a mini “Day in the Life” event. Yelp promoted the program as an educational “how to” series.
4. Feizy Rugs Shows at High Point Market: At a champagne brunch at High Point Market, Feizy Rugs and the finalists in its Haute Trends^TM design competition revealed the initial designs for the collection. Each designer’s initial Haute Trends designs are featured on the Feizy website.
5. Vistage: For the past year and a half, our Chief Rocker has been a member of Vistage, which is a fantastic organization that brings together successful CEOs, executives and business owners and groups them into private peer advisory groups guided by expert executive coaches. These peer groups and coaching sessions help members solve their most pressing business opportunities.

We love our clients. We live for our clients. And there’s nothing more gratifying than helping clients rock their businesses!

Our oldest son plays baseball in the North Arlington Little League. Last year, his team, the Pirates, had an undefeated season and won the championship game. Of course, we celebrated the win.

Players moved up and on, but we returned for another season. It started out smoothly enough – the games were competitive, but the team was winning. Then we had a tied game. Then we lost.

No big deal, right?

Wrong.

We celebrated the wins, we worked for the wins, we appreciated the wins. However, we neglected to prepare for the possibility of a loss. For two years, the team was coached and played to win. We should have also been coached and prepared to lose.

There is value in the lessons we learn from losing and sports give us a good arena to teach these lessons to our children.

These are valuable lessons that can be applied in parenting, business and life:

• Respect.
  For every winner, there is a loser. You have to respect both. Period. Respect your team, respect the other team. Act accordingly.
• Resiliency.
  It’s ok to be disappointed or upset after a loss. But the quicker you put a loss behind you, the closer you are to the next win. Fast recovery serves anyone at any age well. Vince Lombardi said, “It’s not whether you get knocked down, it’s whether you get up.” Recover and move forward.
• Review.
  If you review the why in your losses and strengthen your weaknesses, new opportunities will arise. In sports no game has ever been lost the same way.
• Humility.
  Losing challenges us and keeps us humble. It teaches us there are others who are better. The emphasis should be motivated to be better.

Preparing for winning and losing is critical. It is far better to lose and learn than to always win and not learn how to lose. If winning and losing were not important, we would not keep score.

If you are a business owner, an employee, a student or a teammate, what do you have to lose?

An account, a promotion, an employee, a score, a game? The answer is yes, all of these and more. But the bigger question is – what are you learning and how are you improving?

So what about the 2016 Pirates? Well, they are heading to the championship game. They earned their spot with three consecutive wins in a double elimination playoff. Regardless of the outcome, valuable lessons will be learned. Go Pirates!

Everybody remembers the “make a wish” tale – you must choose wisely, as you only get three wishes, and the wishes must all be considered wisely. From this tale, we learn that we must be careful what we ask for.

I like to ask questions. Maybe too many, but questions always provide answers..unless you ask the wrong question. Have you ever asked the wrong question? Yes. You. Have. I have too!

Get it right! Ask the right question.

Good question asking is a skill and can be applied to all relationships – spouse, children, employee, employer, friends, customers, etc. The applications are endless. Every question can deepen our understanding of a topic or person. There is no such thing as a stupid question, but there are ways to ask a question that are better than others.

Here are some examples:

• Q: How was your day? A: good, bad, great, awesome, etc. This closed-ended question doesn’t really give you much, so follow up with what made your day _______? Now we are getting somewhere! Tip: Dig deeper with follow-up questions. Follow general questions with specific ones. 
• Q: How are sales? A: Great they have doubled! This general question can elicit an answer that can be misleading – sales doubled from what? Better question: How are your sales compared to this same timeframe last year? Tip: Make sure to ask for context and reference to give the answer meaning.
• Have you ever been asked if you want “anything else?” I hate this question. The answer is, of course I do, I have a long list of else, but you don’t sell them here. Another egregious offender: Did you find everything ok? Tip: Specific questions will garner more insight. Try to avoid yes or no questions unless they are truly satisfying a simple purpose.
• Recently my husband called me and informed me that he grounded the kids. I asked, “What does grounding mean in our house?” We figured out our definition of grounding because of an open-ended question. Tip: Have a purpose for asking and a desire to know the answer. Every question you ask should help you gather either facts or elicit an opinion. Know which kind of information you need and frame your questions accordingly.
• What if someone asked you if it was it sunny on the day you were born? I don’t know if it was sunny when I was born – does it matter? I can’t think of one thing someone would do with this information. Tip: Ask questions only if the information elicited is necessary. If you don’t really need the answer, don’t ask the question. Be respectful of people’s time and attention. Answer this – what will you do with the answer?

We ask questions because that is the way we improve, learn, connect and tell stories. Ask away, friends!

“Successful people ask better questions, and as a result, they get better answers.” ~ Tony Robbins