At PKE we work hard to provide that exquisite balance of stability and innovation – we have to keep the tried and true while having the courage to try something new.

So as we embark on our 2012 adventure, here is what is happening at PKE to keep us fresh, energetic and ready for a creative, productive and exciting New Year:

New Marketing & PR Coordinator

Kate Walter

We recently welcomed Kate Walter to our firm — she brings great PR and marketing experience, warmth and sincerity, vitality and an openness to new ideas.  Kate has already developed strong media relationships and has successfully pitched and placed several stories on our clients’ behalf.  Plus, Kate has begun developing strategic social media plans for our clients who are new to that arena – she is helping us make the social media aspect a seamless part of our overall planning. We are looking forward to even more fabulous things to come!

New Technology

As part of our plan for continuous improvement, we have adopted new web-based software to provide our clients with even more accurate and thorough month-end reporting.  We want to make sure our clients understand the value we are providing and that we are doing the most that we can with their dollars.

We have also added on new options for media distribution and media tracking to increase exposure of our clients’ news — we are also linking those articles back to social media to complete the circle and to generate consistent messages.

New Literature

At PKE, we are committed to being Lifelong Learners – to that end, we are reading voraciously.  Not only important new books that address public relations, marketing and social media, but also those that deal directly with our clients’ industries.  The Big Thirst, for example, by well-known author Charles Fishman, teaches us about how our lives are integrally entwined with water and how we must focus on this crucial resource to avoid disastrous consequences.  This book has had an incredible influence on one of our clients who is building a sustainable community - and if it impacts him, it impacts us.

New Ideas

Another effort at keeping it fresh requires us to strive for self-improvement in all areas of our lives.  To be at our best, we have re-committed to another year of running longer, working on our yoga practices, reading for pleasure, eating healthfully, and nurturing our family and personal relationships.  While all that may sound a bit self-indulgent, we know that it makes us more creative, positive and valuable to our clients in the long run!

To all of our friends, clients and readers — all the best for a wonderful 2012!

Zumba…it’s described as an exhilarating, effective, easy-to-follow, Latin-inspired, calorie-burning dance fitness-party^™ and today I experienced it for the first time. Since for me the lines between work and play are hopelessly blurred, I can’t help but discover important lessons in this one hour event.  As a matter of fact, there are three things I learned today…Try Something New!

In our field it’s easy to get tied to our computers — writing, planning, phoning — so much of what we do happens while we are sitting at our desks.  But did you ever notice how a brief respite from your office, a walk in the park when you might even stop to smell the roses, can make a positive difference in your day?  It’s proven that learning a new language, preparing a new recipe or trying a new physical activity stimulates brain activity.  Yes, PR people, that means creativity, inspiration and new ideas may be just a Zumba class away!

Listen to the Experts

I went into the Zumba class this morning not knowing what to expect.  And it wasn’t easy following all those steps — especially when it was all happening so fast.  But the instructor at the front of the room clearly knew what she was doing.  I’m quite sure she had her 10,000 hours in to qualify her as an expert – so I had to follow her as closely as possible or else I would have been completely hopeless in that class.  No matter how smart we think we are we can’t be expected to know everything. However, it’s crucial that we know how to find out.  Surrounding ourselves with experts, keeping data on resources for all subjects — that helps us become better.

Don’t Take Yourself Too Seriously

If you’ve ever seen 20 women (and two men) flailing around to the beat of Latin music, you would probably think it was really funny.  And it does take a certain level of confidence to dance around without caring what other people think of you. We spend so much time being serious — meeting deadlines, running to appointments, dealing with serious issues — it may seem impossible to simply have fun.  So if you can let loose for one hour and toss away those inhibitions for just a bit, it’s amazingly liberating.  As a matter of fact, it carries over to the rest of the day — so bringing that fun attitude back to your desk is inspiring and leads to better performance.

And according to SELF magazine, you can also burn 414 calories in an hour – fantastic!

So what will you do to shake yourself up today?

Should I take some time to unplug? Would it be mentally healthier to cut myself off for a few days from the ubiquitous iPhone and trusty MacBook? The article’s description of a “Digital Detox” vacation where in some cases you even have to surrender your electronic devices at the check in counter certainly sounded appealing.  After all, I might have more time to finish that great novel now overdue at the library (Julie Orringer’s “The Invisible Bridge”). Or I might be newly inspired to get back on track with the book my daughter and I are writing together (I am on it Emily!).  I am nearly seduced by those thoughts when the consequences start creeping into my consciousness.

What happens to the hundreds of email messages that will pile up — will my inbox simply explode?  What will I miss on Twitter – will the latest rules on social media news releases pass me by? And what about Facebook – how will I possibly keep up with community events in Southwest Florida and even more concerning, the barrage of family drama?

While others might find greater relaxation by disconnecting themselves, I think it’s important to understand your own stress triggers – and a huge one for me would be not to know what is going on and not being able to respond in a timely fashion.  So if anyone asks me to surrender my electronic connections to the world, I will politely decline — at least for now.

For me to stay cool, calm and collected, I must remain connected.

I am curious to know how others feel about this issue – please continue the dialogue!

One of these women was Myra Janco Daniels, founder and president of The Philharmonic Center for the Arts in Naples, FL and The Naples Museum of Art.  She regaled us with great anecdotes and sweet memories, but one piece of advice really resonated with me.  She encouraged the audience to “Learn something every day, and teach something every day.” I have been trying to do so ever since…

The learning part comes naturally.  With the diverse nature of my clients’ organizations I am always learning something new:  from geothermal solar arrays to identity theft protection to the antioxidant nature of organic olive oils — we are constantly researching and reading to be able to convey our clients’ messages to their publics. But the teaching part was a different story. Although I am an adjunct professor at Florida Gulf Coast University , and we almost always have a student intern in our midst, I was not attuned to teaching something every single day.

Now I have a new approach:  be conscious of both learning and teaching on a daily basis.  Inspiration came not only from Mrs. Daniels’ words of wisdom, but also from a recent article in the New York Times about The Brooklyn Brainery. Billing themselves as “cheap classes on anything and everything in NYC” they are actually much more than that.

Here they are bringing back the lost arts of tying knots and baking bread as well as offering classes in digital photography, postcard making and lots more.  And people are flocking there, classes are waitlisted, proving that most do recognize that it’s never too late to learn something new. How nice to get out of the routine day-to-day and expand your knowledge with something totally random but certainly not useless.  I find the whole concept very thrilling and hope we can start something similar in Southwest Florida.

For now, I learn from my clients, my associates and my PR peers.  Today, I learned about Quickbooks 2011 from Cheryl Willett who taught a workshop at the Bonita Springs Area Chamber of Commerce and now I know about 10 more things than I did when I woke up this morning.  In turn, I taught my summer intern how to write an upbeat, exciting radio spot that can get the message out effectively in 60 seconds. I am also teaching my husband how to use his iphone.

What do we get from all this learning and teaching?  There are no ulterior motives here, no hidden agenda.  There’s a simple beauty in gathering more knowledge and improving ourselves every day — and equal fulfillment in doing the same for someone else.

What have you learned or taught today?  I would love to know.

The latest trend on campus!

Less than five years ago, gel and acrylic nails were in. From there, false nails faded out and natural nails with plain polish came back. This trend in itself has changed. Going from red to black to white young girls were constantly inspired. Originally, Hard Candy polish started the innovation with their bold color palettes around 1995.  Additionally, girls got the idea of plain white polish from Lauren “ LC” Conrad on MTV’s hit reality series, The Hills.  When black nails were suddenly in, I thought that they were gothic until I tried the usually dull color and loved it. It’s interesting to see how quickly my perception changed. After the French manicure fell off, reverse French and designs quickly replaced the old craze.

Currently, for all of you fashionistas and trendsetters, there is a new way to wear you nail polish. OPI recently came out with a shatter polish from their Katy Perry Collection. All you need is any regular polish and this magic in a bottle. At first glance, it’s ordinary black polish. However, after one coat is applied over another color, parts of the black start to turn clear, revealing the color underneath and forming the scattered pattern.  Whether you decided to shatter all of your nails or just your ring finger, it’s a unique way to express the new nail fetish. For those of you who have gone through all of these trends, this is a way to get away from the ordinary red and plain black and really make a statement with ease.

Buying College Textbooks on a College Budget

Guest blog by Marie Kennedy

You can save nearly 50 percent or more on textbooks!

At the beginning of each semester, you may find yourself standing in long lines at your campus’ bookstore impatiently waiting to buy overpriced textbooks. You will finally arrive at the cash register only to discover that you’re about to spend this month’s rent money on four textbooks. But there’s no need to crack open that piggy bank and dump out your savings just yet. With the right amount of patience and time, you could be saving nearly 50 percent or more on textbooks and even get some money back if you wish to sell them. Here are a few tips to follow when wanting to save money during textbook season.

Consult with your Professor

Email your professor before the semester starts, and ask if he or she plans on using the required reading material for the course. Sometimes the required reading material is not personally chosen by the professor, causing your $150 textbook to stay closed the entire semester. If your professor disregards the textbook and tells you not to worry about buying it, you could save a decent amount of money.

By selling your textbooks, you may earn a considerable amount of money back.

You may also ask your professor if you could purchase an older edition of the required textbook. Older editions are significantly cheaper than the current one, and the material hardly changes. Because of this, some professors will even encourage you to purchase an older edition. You just have to contact them prior to the semester in order to receive such information.

Bye-Bye, Bookstore

A new book at the bookstore may be $120; the used version will be about $95; and it will cost you $75 to rent it. Fortunately, you can possibly find the same book on Amazon in a like-new used condition for the price of the bookstore’s rental or used version.

It’s never smart to buy a brand-new book at the bookstore because more than likely you’ll never get even a quarter of what you paid for it. A used book seems like a decent option; however, you can end up with a rainbow of highlighting inside the book or sloppy notes scribbled along the pages. Considering the price, rental books are sometimes the best option, but you can’t sell them back. A like-new book from Amazon, however, can be sold, allowing you to make a considerable amount of money back, sometimes making a profit. Keep in mind that like-new books hardly ever have writing or highlighting inside, making them more sellable to future buyers.

Buy Early, Sell Later

Order and purchase your textbooks at least three weeks before the semester starts for two reasons: First, you want to make sure you receive them on time before classes begin. And textbook prices usually increase, even on Amazon, as soon as the semester begins; therefore, you want to buy early while prices are low.

When prices are incredibly low, you want to buy, but when prices increase at the start of a semester, you want to sell. You may be able to sell your textbook for more than what you paid for it, or you could compete with other sellers who have increased their prices, and sell your books for less. You’ll be selling them fast and still make some money back.

Sell, Sell, Sell

Keep your books posted even if you don’t sell them right away. Even if a new edition of the book comes out, there may still be people out there who prefer the edition you have. It’s important to check on your posted books often and possibly change the price accordingly in order to get a buyer.

And don’t worry about not knowing how to ship a book. Amazon is extremely user friendly and properly guides you. When you’re ready to go to the post office to ship a book, tell the cashier you’ll be sending it ‘media mail.’ Media mail service is a cost-efficient way to mail books and other types of media. This will put a few extra bucks back into your pockets just as the rest of these textbook tips will. Happy textbook season!

Even the "best laid plans" can sometimes take a detour

Take this week for example.  After a quiet holiday break, I headed full force into the first week of 2011 filled with the energy, enthusiasm and eagerness that only the promise of a New Year can bring.  Fresh binders, crisp new folders and my brand new date book beckoned, and I could not wait to get started. To pump up the energy even more, I began the day with a four-mile run, well on the road to training for my next half marathon.

Training for half and whole marathons is an integral part of my work/life balance

I rounded the corner heading into my neighborhood, spotted a friendly looking gentleman taking his perky friendly looking dog out for walk and got set to call out a friendly “good morning” as I ran by.  From out of the blue, the leashed dog lunged out, sinking two really sharp canines into my shin.  It hurt, yes, but it was more the shock that stopped me in my tracks.

Getting bitten by a dog is not one of those things you can anticipate

At first there didn’t seem to be too much damage and not wanting to create “drama,” I  limped home to check (not lick) my wounds.  It wasn’t until I arrived at my front door that I saw the blood running down my leg and into my shoe. Long story, but the week that started at a fast and graceful stride ended with a pathetic limp, a tetanus shot, antibiotics and a 10-day waiting period to find out if the dog has any horrible diseases.

Moving on, I decided to be undaunted and get ready for a quick two-day trip to NJ to see my Dad who is recovering from knee replacement surgery.  I cleared my calendar for Friday and Monday, packed an overnight bag and my laptop and was set to leave this morning only to wake up to a 3:47 a.m. voicemail telling me my flight was cancelled.  Why?  They said it was weather related but no weather related event actually occurred.  It was just cancelled.

A cancelled flight can change the direction of your day.

After calling disappointed family members up north about the change in plans, I headed (or limped) to my office for a regular work day.

Here I am, thinking about this slightly “off” week when I have been twice diverted from the path I set out on.  As a planner and an organizer, it’s not always easy to see scheduled events fall by the wayside.  I guess I am understanding John Lennon’s lyric, “Life is what happens to you when you are busy making other plans.”

So what happens next?  In a few minutes I will pack up some work to take home over the weekend, nurse my dog bite, check my calendar to reschedule that flight and remind myself to always expect the unexpected.

Do you have any experiences when your plans went awry?  Would love to hear your story!

Visit me anytime at www.pkecreative.com

New Business Relationships

The best part of our business is building relationships

Even in the face of a challenging economy, we recognize that the key to a thriving, vibrant, evolving business environment is creating new relationships.  Yes, we love our existing clients for being the foundation of our firm, but garnering new clients is what keeps us growing.  In 2010, we were fortunate to welcome five new significant  and diverse clients — inspiring us to be even better and reach new heights for ALL of our clients in 2011.

Enhancing the Team

New staff members add vibrancy & new talent!

Adding a new member to your team will keep you energized – plus, training and mentoring a new person can bring the existing staff closer together. To continue to provide quick, responsive service, we hired one new staff member in 2010 and will build our team as we need to, but we have learned that we all do better when we are “hands-on,” not removed from the daily client and media contact. Practice smart growth, but stay connected!

Being Part of the Community

Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure SW Florida: 2010 & 2011 PR Chairs

We love living and working in an area where being part of the community is so important.  We live among some of the most giving people I have ever encountered — people who donate time, money and heart to help others where they are needed most. Whether your community is large or small, working to improve the lives of others is fulfilling –both personally and professionally.

Inspiring Fresh Ideas

We love to learn and share new ideas!

With years of collective marketing and public relations experience, it might be easier for us to rely on what we already know, and what has always worked before. But as lifelong learners, we strive to learn more about what is relevant for our clients in their businesses and in the world. It’s so important to keep in touch, connect with newsmakers and experts, and allow your mind to open to new ways of thinking. Try and think of at least one fresh new idea to jumpstart your business in 2011.

Keep your mind open to new ways of thinking!

For us, even though we are trained in traditional marketing and PR tenets, we also allow our imaginations to take flight with all that’s new in technology and digital communications. We will continue to expand our writing services to encompass our clients’ blogs, web content and even their social media posts — they rely on us to tie these links all back to their overall vision for their businesses. And that’s just one example.

What did you do in 2010 that you plan to do even better in 2011? Please send us your feedback!

A great class...a great semester

As I upload my final grades for the Fall semester, I realize how much I am going to miss this class and each student in it.  In my third year as an adjunct professor of Public Relations Strategy at Florida Gulf Coast University, teaching this course is a real highlight of my career. Not only do I have the opportunity to share my “real world” experiences with an eager group of budding professionals, I have the great pleasure of seeing the students absorb and process new information, and then demonstrate their new found knowledge.

PR Strategy students at FGCU demonstrate their knowledge during a final presentation.

This semester has proven to be more rewarding than ever.  Most teachers will find in every class a few standouts, a larger group of average hard working students, and the remaining few who do not fulfill their potential.  I expected the same when the semester started in August with 64 eyes staring at me from one mass of faces. However, I soon discovered that I was engaging with 32 very unique shining stars.

While not every student is perfect and not everyone achieves an A, each of these students had that “spark,” a glimmer of pure interest and passion refreshingly unmarred by cynicism. It was a pleasure and a privilege to get to know these students on an individual basis and to learn more about their goals, their outside interests and their upcoming plans.

PR Strategy Students with a bright future ahead

Yes,  I am a little sad to see them go, but also very optimistic about their futures.  This was a class that as a whole, shared curiosity, enthusiasm and passion — qualities that will serve them well in whatever they choose to do next.  I hope they have learned some valuable lessons in our class — about PR Strategy and maybe even a little about life — that will help them later.

As for me, I learned a lot through their very fresh eyes, and they have left me very hopeful about the future of the Public Relations profession — can’t wait to see what Spring Semester brings!

Visit my website to learn more about my dual roles as a PR Professional and Adjunct Professor!

A country general store in the NC mountains offers an interesting encounter and a new perspective.

Although we need not wait until Thanksgiving to reflect on gratitude, the impending holiday season brings those thoughts to the forefront. And sometimes, those little reminders come upon you when you least expect it — during a visit to a little country store for example…Yesterday, while taking a few hours off from my Beech Mountain “office” in northwestern North Carolina, we took a ride to visit some of the local hot spots — the historic towns of Crossnore and Spruce Pine, a few hidden away antique shops, and Linville River Mercantile and Bakery, a tiny general store located on the side of the road between Crossnore and Linville.

Linville River Mercantile & Bakery has a cozy ambience and features home accessories, hot chocolate and coffees and delicious fresh baked breads, cookies and pies.

The shop is small with lots to look at, and owner Jennifer King shares a few tidbits of local history while she takes fresh baked country sourdough bread out of her oven.  She tells us that her breads have been selected by “Homemade in America” and will be featured in their upcoming TV show, so of course we have to buy some and eat it before it even gets into the bag.  Both the aroma and the soft, crusty tastiness make it totally worth the calories, and we appreciate it even more knowing its “story.”  Everything up here has a story.

Freshly baked country sourdough bread baked by Jennifer King at Linville River Mercantile & Bakery -- yum!

I always find our forays into local culture delightful and enlightening. Perhaps because I grew up in suburbia and started my career in NYC, but I can’t get enough of the mountain lifestyle’s storybook charm and cozy appeal.  When people here “visit,” they actually have lengthy conversations about their day to day lives.  When they enter a shop, they pause to take a look at each item, comment on it and share an experience. And don’t forget about nature — literally surrounded by “purple mountain majesty,” shaded trails and dense pine tree forests, those who live here really do stop to take it all in.

What kind of an effect can this have on those of us with crazy deadlines, five-page to do lists and 200+ daily emails? I will tell you…these moments allow you to breathe. Sitting back for a few minutes to gain some perspective does not mean you have to be unproductive, or lazy or boring.  On the contrary, it’s actually the perfect setting for long term planning, thoughtful writing and yes, real thinking.

So what am I thinking about today?  Gratitude, of course.  Grateful that I have a few minutes to really think about what it means to me:

Thinking about my family fills me with gratitude