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Volume 7, Number 6 August/September 2007
Publisher: GoalMinds, Inc.

Mailto:condrill@goalminds.com http://www.goalminds.com
Copyright 2007 GoalMinds, Inc. All rights reserved

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Welcome to our many new subscribers from around the world!
Thank you for joining us. You are receiving this either
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"The days you work best are the best days."
Georgia O'Keefe, Artist

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Our thoughts and prayers are with those who have suffered
from weather extremes...flooding in India, the UK, and the
US; earthquake and aftershocks in Peru, and any number of
other events we can't control. May all of us find safety and
the ability to rebuild quickly.

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In This Issue ================================================

1. 5 Tips for Successfully Tooting Your Own Horn

2. Parlay Planning Into Effective Public Relations--By Mary
Ellen Merrigan

3. Crisis PR: How To Plan For The Unexpected--By Debbie
Leven

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FR*EE RESOURCES include a Communication skills self-assessment on
GoalMinds.com. The Fourth Edition of 101 Ways to Improve
Your Communication Skills Instantly is now available in book
and audio CD format. Spanish language Cds are also
available. Order from Amazon.com, your local bookstore or
from GoalMinds.com

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1. 5 Tips for Successfully Tooting Your Own Horn
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Is it okay to toot your own horn, or is that bragging? A
friend of mine who is publishing a Newsletter for Women
asked if she could quote my comments about it,
the-exceptional-woman.com. I think the newsletter is
excellent and mentioned specifically what I like best about
it. After I said "Yes, of course" she could quote me, she
wondered if it would be appropriate or would it be seen as
bragging about herself.

Her mother, like mine, probably taught her a lot about
humility but very little about the value of self-esteem.
Yes, it is okay to "toot your own horn." It is a necessary
fact of life in The work world. If you are an employee and
respond to a supervisor, you need to make sure he or she
knows what you accomplished. If you are a business owner,
your customers, prospective customers, employees, and others
need to know of your successes. Here are five tips to get
you started tooting.

1. Do something worth tooting about. Do more than the
minimum required. Focus on results. Look for substance. Keep
egoism and self-aggrandizement in check. Beware of
exaggerating and embellishing what you did. If someone
helped you on the project, mention their names, too. This
will give evidence that you are a good team player. Give
credit where credit is due.

2. Keep track of your accomplishments. Make it a daily habit
to note what you accomplished. Review your notes monthly and
list five highlights. When it is time for a performance
review, take out your list, refresh your memory with
specifics, and be prepared to mention several specific
accomplishments during the course of the review. Be factual,
not flamboyant.

3. Note good things other people say about your performance
and ask their permission to quote them. If you plan to
publish the quote, it is a good idea to get their permission
in writing. If they hesitate-too busy, offer to write it for
their signature and then follow through. Email works, too.

4. Make a list of people who encourage you, e.g. mentors,
relatives, associates. Communicate with them regularly and
include your recent accomplishments as an update. This will
keep them informed so that when an opportunity arises, they
may comment favorably about you to someone else.

5. Send out News Releases to newspapers, radio and
television stations when appropriate, particularly if you
are an entrepreneur or an author. In a news release, provide
the essential facts: who, what, why, where, when. If you are
available for an interview, say so.

Go ahead; get ahead; toot your own horn! Check out the
newsletter and let Monica know what you think about it.
The-exceptional-woman.com

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NEWS RELEASE

2007 WOW Awards Announced

SAN ANTONIO - Jo Condrill received one of five 2007 WOW
Awards presented by The Ford Motor Company and The San
Antonio Greater Chamber of Commerce to Outstanding Women in
Business. Awards were presented at a Women's Opportunity
Week luncheon on August 22, 2007 in the Marriott Riverwalk
Hotel, Alamo Ballroom.

In presenting the plaque and a $1,000 check, Brenda Vickrey
Johnson, Chairman of the Board of the Greater Chamber, cited
Jo's innovation in overcoming challenges while forming and
managing a successful business.

Jo is founder and president of GoalMinds, Inc., which is
celebrating its tenth anniversary in 2007. She is an
internationally known speaker, author, and consultant who
presents workshops, seminars, and keynote speeches for trade
associations, corporations and government agencies. Jo
previously served as Deputy Division Chief of Logistics
Plans and Operations at Army Headquarters in the Pentagon
where she received the Army's highest award, The Decoration
for Exceptional Civilian Service.

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"I can live two months on a good compliment" Mark Twain

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2. Parlay Planning Into Effective Public Relations

--By Mary Ellen Merrigan
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Public relations - stories, articles and features - enhance
visibility and help establish credentials. Many small
business owners overlook the potential to generate positive
public perception with press releases or stories about their
business that create public interest. With just a little
planning, you can be one of the select few that maximize the
power of public relations.

Think PR and look for ways to enhance buzz, which is about
hearing your name often, clearly and memorably. You don't
have to pay a high dollar for buzz; instead, you must invest
time and energy into your message and use exposure to tell
your story. Traditional PR includes newspapers, magazines,
radio, and television.

In some cases, a business owner might write a monthly column
in his/her area of expertise. A financial services company
might write about the pitfalls of retirement planning, for
example. This type of public relations can create additional
awareness and even credibility. An employment agency might
host a weekly talk show on hiring trends in the marketplace.

Sometimes an alliance can be formed to generate more
publicity. All of the businesses in one neighborhood, for
example, concentrate their efforts to get recognition. They
create ongoing team exposure with signage and banners that
include all logos. Press releases discuss the venture and
detail its progress. The story is the cooperation; or, the
story could be a specific event.

Getting consistent publicity involves networking your
contacts to penetrate the media. Business is not about being
coy or recalcitrant. If you are helping the community, do
not be embarrassed to have it noted. The story may inspire
philanthropy in others and improve your locality. Further,
"helping" not only makes you feel good, it makes the people
who patronize your firm feel good about their choice. These
are also great stories that will often get on the news ahead
of "revenue boasts."

Other great story and PR ideas might look like this: a local
veterinarian posts a review of the latest pet foods on his
web site as well as behavioral training tips for cats and
dogs; a financial planner writes a monthly column on
retirement for a magazine; a painting firm donates excess
paint to a charity who then reports that information and
it's aired on the local TV news; a restaurant receives a
community award for employing the handicap and the local
newspaper covers the story in its business section. Get the
idea?

Still stumped about what you could do to generate publicity?
Have coffee with a local reporter and ask for their input.
Talk with other business owners who have been profiled and
find out about their experience. Read blogs, listen to
podcasts and review online media. Situations like these
force you to be a bit vulnerable. Certainly, rejection will
occur. However, be persistent and thoughtful creation of a
good story will overcome this hurdle.

© Mary Ellen Merrigan, 2007, Merrigan Group, LLC. Mary Ellen
Merrigan consults with small businesses on marketing and
public relations; she maintains a marketing strategy blog,
profitmeister.com/blog and a free monthly newsletter,
ProfitMeister at profitmeister.com For more information
email Maryellen at profitmeister dot com or see
myconnectingpoint.com

Article Source:
http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mary_Ellen_Merrigan
http://EzineArticles.com/?Parlay-Planning-Into-Effective-
Public-Relations&id=696420
================================================= Radio
Publicity Expert Alex Carroll will show you how to promote
your book with radio interviews from your home or office.
Get a database of US radio stations with producers and hosts
contact information http://tinyurl.com/4shap
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"Shallow people believe in luck. Strong people believe in
cause and effect." Ralph Waldo Emerson

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3. Crisis PR: How to Plan For The Unexpected--By Debbie
Leven
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You can never plan for every eventuality but putting a
crisis PR plan together will save you time and effort when
the unexpected happens. It will enable you to do the ground
work and define and develop systems, processes and briefing
information that can be used straight away. You will have
your arms full with dealing with the incident, so you need
to know that your communications can go into action at short
notice.

When you are considering writing a crisis plan its worth
considering six core elements:

1. An assessment of the risks faced by the company.
Potential risks might relate to any of the following areas;
staff, service/product provision, legal, financial,
corporate, economic, political, technological, customers,
insurance

2. The policies, procedures, systems and practices that are
in place to minimise risk regulations that the business must
adhere to - set down by law, by governing bodies and
membership associations

3. Readiness - the process in place that provides warning of
a potential crises and ensures that it is recorded, reported
and managed swiftly. This should be accompanied by up-to-
date background briefing information and essential contact
details that will be needed should something happen

4. Response - managing your PR so that so that your
stakeholders and key audiences are kept informed - staff,
shareholders, clients, industry associations, representative
bodies, financial analysts, etc

5. Recovery - you may need to take steps to rebuild part of
the business, once the crisis has been dealt with. It's
important to think about who you need to communicate during
that period

6. Review - learning from a crisis is invaluable. You should
review your plan after a crisis to assess its effectiveness
and how improvements can be made.

The aim of the crisis plan is to enable you to make
decisions and take swift action rather than being bogged
down with tasks and research that will distract you from
managing the crisis itself. Assume that an incident comes to
light in about ten minutes' time - if that happens then you
need the following:

- - contact details for local hotels should you need to hold
a press conference at short notice

- - a checklist for all the items you would need for a
crisis meeting with senior staff

- - up-to-date briefing material on the company to make
available to the press and media within the hour

- - clarity around the key roles needed in a crisis and
responsibilities for each member of the crisis team

- - contingency plans for responsibilities should someone be
away on holiday out of hours contact details for senior
staff

- - a listing of your stakeholders so you can check who you
need to communicate with

- - access to your office out of hours

- - contact details for press and media should you need to
issue a statement

- - facility for a customer helpline

- - facility to update your website out of hours with
important information for customers

- - contact details for the person you need to contact
should you need to halt advertising.

Never assume that because all crises are different you
cannot put in some planning to make handling easier. Often,
you can enhance your reputation with key audiences in the
way that you handle a crisis. Handling a crisis can be
stressful and fraught with difficulty - a crisis PR Plan
will help to take some of the pain out of handling the
incident and help put you on the front foot.

Debbie Leven [mailto:info@profilematters.co.uk]
info@profilematters.co.uk [
profilematters.co.uk/resources.php Visit the Profile Matters
website for more free tips and resources

Debbie Leven has more than fifteen years of experience in
PR. She set up Profile Matters to help small businesses,
charities and not-for-profit organisations make the most of
PR opportunities.

Article Source:
http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Debbie_Leven
http://EzineArticles.com/?Crisis-PR---How-To-Plan-For-The-
Unexpected&id=682903

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"The highest reward for a person's toil is not what they get
for it, but what they become by it." John Ruskin

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Jo Condrill
GoalMinds, Inc.
P.O. Box 100903
San Antonio, TX 78238