Last year when I was working on a project with Darryl Carter (yes, that Darryl Carter who is in just about every home decor and interior design mag on a regular basis AND in the Benjamin Moore advertising campaign), I *almost* got to meet Tate Gunnerson of Strange Closets who has his own list of interior design-related accomplishments.
As fate would have it, Continue reading “Blogger Follows Interior Design Passion”
Certain client assignments are simply dangerous. And by dangerous I don’t mean the life threatening kind of danger. 
Take for example, when I was interviewing chefs to be featured on the Briar Chapel blog leading up to an Earth Day event. Well, I had to eat the food. At each restaurant. Each time I went there to set up the interview, do the interview, go back for an extra photo. Dangerous.
This week:credit card danger of epic proportions. Do you know what happens when you start messing around with decorating ideas, reading interior design blogs and flipping through the glossy pages of all the best home decorating magazines? That’s right, it starts with an inexpensive little throw pillow. The next thing you know you are knocking down walls, expanding the master and ripping up flooring. Cha-ching.
That’s the downside (if there really is one!) to doing furniture marketing and writing interior design blogs. On Tuesday, I wrote about Mother Nature 
as my favorite decorator in a post for Drexel Heritage about botanicals as an interior design trend. One of my favorite things in the Drexel Heritage showroom at Spring Market this year (now THAT is dangerous) is the sofa pictured in that post with the bird upholstery.
Today’s post for Drexel Heritage, still in the nature theme, focuses on flowers and floral designs. Personally, I do not feel that all florals are created equal and tend to like those that are more whimsical or vintage or just a different take. And so, I’ve fallen in love. I never knew I could love a wallpaper so much.
I love the one I mentioned in the post, and then once I published it, I kept looking on the Osborne & Little site. Somebody, stop me. I think I have to have this foxglove print. I just took a photo when I was in Asheville because I love these flowers so much and now look… I can have them 365 days of the year! And you know that means painting the trim which means replacing the carpet which means completely remodeling the upstairs!
Dangerous blogging. And I love it! What part of your job is dangerous but something you love doing?
What’s on your summer reading list?
I tend to read books in groups, and just started reading four this weekend, including the new one by Brian Solis, Engage. More on that soon. First, I’ve been in a few recent discussions about the books I read when I was thinking about starting Clairemont, and promised to post them here.
I clearly remember the day when I could no longer ignore the thoughts of having my own agency led me to the bookstore where I bought more books than I could carry on starting and running a business. As if the number of books purchased might be related to my chance at success! From that stack of books, here are the top 3 that really helped me the most:
1. The Girls Guide to Starting Your Own Business. Written by Caitlin Friedman and Kimberly Yorio who happened to be partners in — yes, you guessed it! — a PR and marketing agency, this is an easy read that is incredibly instructional and provides helpful checklists of things you need to do/consider when starting a business, sample budgets, business terms you need to know and resources for writing a business plan. Caitlin and Kimberly, thank you! I felt like you wrote this book just for me.
2. The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur by Mike Michalowicz. The theme might seem a bit crude but it’s all about making do with what you have which I think is great for starting a business and for thinking about how to work with clients with small budgets. Thanks to Mike, Clairemont has immutable laws that guide us on our mission that the book helped us to define.
3. The Boss of You. Written by another dynamic female duo, Lauren Bacon and Emira Mears started Raised Eyebrow Web Studios about ten years ago. This is a straight-forward step-by-step guide to getting your business started & set-up, and I love that they give you some very specific thoughts on how you should and shouldn’t be spending money and little things that you would just never think of if you had never started a business before. Thanks to Emira and Lauren, I’m not afraid of talking about love in business (we love what we do for clients we love) or to turn down a piece of business that does not fit with what we do.
How long does it take you to unpack your suitcase after a trip? For me, unless I am leaving for another trip in the coming days, it takes… well, much longer than my husband probably prefers.
There it sits…to me it’s an extension to my too-small closet. To my husband, a toe-stumping obstacle that taunts him in dim light. To me, a wonderfully packaged souvenir of the memories of the trip. To him, a grossly mangled mess of clean and dirty clothes in co-existence. In my defense, I’m apparently not the only one. If having a page on Facebook makes it official (or okay?) then check out the Not Unpacking Your Suitcase For Two Weeks After You’ve Been Home page.
So what it really comes down to for me, is closure. Once the suitcase is unpacked, the trip has officially ended. I know I’ve already done a post about last week’s PRSA‘s Counselors Academy conference in Asheville, but until I blog about the Asheville part of it all, I’m not sure I’ll have closure and be ready for the trip to be considered DONE. And if I don’t get that suitcase unpacked before this holiday weekend ends, I’m afraid I might be asked to take it (and myself) somewhere else to stay. So here goes. Continue reading “When in Rome…or Asheville…”
I’ve just returned from my third year of attending PRSA‘s (Public Relations Society of America) Counselors Academy annual conference — this time at the Grove Park Inn in Asheville. 
I want to share some examples of how professional development for the agency can benefit the agency’s clients. I really see this in two areas of: 1) what I learned that we can implement to help our clients and 2) who I spent time with who can help us better serve our clients. Here are three quick examples of each.
Skills/Knowledge: From the pre-conference session, round tables, general sessions and keynotes…
1. Have an email database? Clairemont can help you determine where those folks are active in social networking and how to best reach them.
2. We now know more about Hispanic marketing and where/how the Latino community likes to receive information.
3. Thinking you might want to try a new tactic? Let us take you through the “Five Whys” to determine the right approach for your communications strategy.
Networking/Connections: It’s amazing what you learn about people when you engage in a game of Sorry at a 60s party, crash a prom together or simply stay up late to talk shop….
1. Sitting next to a new friend, I watched her IM with her close friend, Perez Hilton. Do you know the power of the Perez?
2. Adding to the existing author tour experience at Clairemont, we now have several contacts in book publishing & promo, including a former member of the Harry Potter series marketing team.
3. As a result of being with 120 other North American PR agency leaders, Clairemont has a network of communications professionals ready to partner to provide our clients with on-the-ground support in a variety of markets.
Additionally, there was no shortage of content on how to best manage an agency which means that the Clairemont team is better equipped to provide our clients with exceptional client service. I’m already looking forward to what I’ll learn that will benefit our clients at the conference next year in Vegas. 
