It's been quite an up-and-down week in the M&C dog department. You might have seen the post early this week about losing our dear friend Larry. He was a wonderful companion here in the M&C offices.
We share a suite of offices with other creative professionals in the DTC, and Larry belonged to our friend and graphic design partner, Can of Creative. Larry shuffled his way through the day, checking in with everyone to see how their day was going, patrolling for tasty bits of lunch that might have gotten dropped, and getting us out of the office and into the fresh air a couple of times of day for breaks. Larry took his job of "being there" seriously. He was a very good boy and we will miss his gentle daily check-ins.
At my house lives an incredibly energetic Boston Terrier named Bingo Pyjama. He takes his job of protecting our home very, very seriously. He sounds like 150 pounds of unbridled fury when the doorbell rings, one of the qualities I'm looking for in a dog.
Plus, he looks great in our kitchen as he patrols for crumbs. Bingo is also gentle with our kids, another quality I look for in a dog.
At the end of the week, Ziggy popped by the office to say hello. Prepare yourself for some serious cute...
Ziggy belongs to another officemate, and being distractingly cute is his current job description. Everything ground to a halt in our office when Ziggy showed up as everyone took a quick break to get some puppy love. Nothing brings an office together like puppies.
Out With the Old, in With the Fresh New PR Strategies
I'm thinking a lot about our work this week, at the end of another incredibly productive and successful year on behalf of our clients. At M&C, we don't believe in resting on our laurels. This is the time of year when we look back at everything we've done and make plans to do it better next year.
What insights can we glean as we prep end-of-year reports and use to refine our strategy as we head into the new year?
How can we take what we've learned through experience and professional development and put it into practice to deliver more for our clients next year?
What changes and challenges are on the horizon and how can we help our clients prepare?
This kind of deep-think time is incredibly productive. At M&C, we're constantly learning, refining, thinking through what we do and why and questioning how it can be done better. For us, public relations is a practice, something we do- and strive to do better- every day.
Which brings me to the phrase that inspired this blog: Don't keep a dog and bark yourself. Isn't that wonderful? It means you shouldn't pay someone to do something and then do it yourself. In other words, put the right team in place and expect them to do a bang-up job using their skills, expertise and the latest best practices to get the job done, and done well.
That's the lesson from Larry, Bingo, and Ziggy this week: cultivate a single-minded focus on what needs doing and 110% commitment to getting it done. Woof!
What about you-- how are you prepping for the new year and new challenges?