BECCI's BLURB

"I think the currency of leadership is transparency. You've got to be truthful. I don't NYC Skyline - view from Statue of Liberty (picture from vacation in 2017) think you should be vulnerable every day, but there are moments where you've got to share your soul and conscience with people and show them who you are, and not be afraid of it."      - Howard Schultz   Over the last nine weeks I shared many stories with you and we have traveled through the world of leadership and communication together.  Although these topics may not have been what I would have thought to write about originally, they have actually given me a little inspiration to get started, or the push I needed to continue writing the personal blog I have been wanting to write for some time now.  I wanted to start a personal blog about my thoughts and share stories, even if no one reads it, so that I can begin to heal.  This leads me to my point this week.  Transparency. We talked some in this

“You can never go wrong by investing in communities and the human beings within them.”  –  Pam Moore (@pammktgnut ) There are many ways in which companies differ from one another.  Some provide services while others provide products, some are large and others are small or simply start-up companies, others are based on a cause.  Literally, the list is endless.  But there is one very important factor regardless the size of the business or what they sell or do, one that many people often forget about.  Something so important that it can take a company or idea and turn them into a huge success or into an overnight failure.  Public Relations or PR!  Every company does it, whether they realize it or not.  Some companies are large enough, and are making enough money to afford an in-house PR person, department or even hire a PR company to do this for them.  Other smaller businesses just getting started may have to do this on their own.  Regardless of how it gets done, PR is so important b

“Losing your head in a crisis is a good way to become the crisis.”   ―  C.J. Redwine,  Defiance When the concept of crisis communication really became a thing , the great communicators and businessmen and women who came up with this concept did so because of issues in relation to their companies and products.  They needed a way to communicate with the public when something had gone wrong, to bring order back to their business and restore their reputation.  Although scholars claim there is no one clear definition of crisis, many use similar features (Kim, 2015, p. 60).  Barton (as cited in Kim, 2015, p. 60) defines crisis as "a major unpredictable event that has potentially negative results.  The event and its aftermath may significantly damage an organization and its employees, products, services, financial condition, and reputation."  I am guessing when they coined the term crisis communication, no one even considered the possibility that our school principals, deans, s

“Doing business without advertising is like winking at a girl in the dark. You know what you are doing, but nobody else does” – Steuart Henderson Britt As someone with a marketing degree, I was taught years ago there is advertising everywhere.   Literally everywhere! 

"The vision must be followed by the venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps - we must step up the stairs."   -  Vance Havner ( Brainy Quotes - VH ) Most children have dreams about what they want to be when they grown up.

  “Ninety percent of leadership is the ability to communicate something people want.” –  Dianne Feinstein, U.S. Senator ( Harkless, 2019b ) Basically since the beginning of civilization, there have been leaders and followers.  So naturally, the leaders formed various types of governments through diverse means over the years, as a way to keep peace and structure, as well as law and order among their people.  People became loyal to their leaders, as some claimed to be sent to rule by the Lord, or Odin, or Allah (or whomever their God was).  Some rulers were born into power, following an order of succession in the blood-line, where others have taken control through combat and defeat of the enemy.  And many are elected by the people.    Portrait photo of President John F. Kennedy, taken in the White House, Washington, D.C. on July 11, 1963 Historically, leaders throughout history have had many things in common.  They speak for their people (charismatic/diplomatic), make hard d

When social media sites, such as MySpace, Facebook and Twitter were originally introduced, they were simply meant to be used as a simpler form of communication between friends.  But as people realized the capabilities of social media, the advancements and fallout since their inception have been far beyond anyone's imagination.  Will social media continue to be a tool we can use to communicate with our friends and family and platform we can use to convey our ideas and products to the public or will it be the breaking point for all of us and what finally tears us apart?

“Great vision without great people is irrelevant.”  ―  Jim Collins,  Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't You always hear the story about the CEO that started out at the bottom and was able to work their way to the top.  We've all been told the fairy tale before; maybe its at a new job orientation, or maybe on TV in an episode of CNBC ®  Undercover Boss .  But often times, people at the top have forgotten what its like at the bottom and that we all put our britches on one leg at a time.

"You've Got Mail"...I can fondly remember those words.  The anticipation most of us felt, as those of us lucky enough to have the internet, the latest and greatest form of technology; as we patiently waited for our computers to turn on and dial-up the internet.  That familiar static sound you heard and the dial tone...then...connected.