My Modern Media

I was an incredibly shy little girl. I am the youngest of all the cousins in our family so it’s not that I wasn’t used to being around a lot of people. It’s just the way I was around people who were not my family or friends. My mother on the other hand has always been very outgoing and loves to be the center of attention, so she has never understood this about me. I remember as a young girl her pushing me to talk to people and how it embarrassed me so much. My face would turn bright red like a tomato. I would bury my face behind my hair, wishing I would disappear. I think because of this embarrassment at such a young age I became very self-aware. As a little girl I didn't necessarily know what that meant or how to utilize that as a skill, but later as an adult I would be able to use it as a tool to read others body language. A few weeks ago, we talked about personal brand. Part of my personal brand is my ability to ready the read the room. And while I wish I could have pulled off...

  Youngstown State University defines their crisis communication plan as a part of larger set of plans to manage the university’s affairs situations that threaten their operations or safety of their community. Ready.gov defines crisis communications plans as an important component of a business’ preparedness program. They both sound like fancy sentences, but the message is the same. If and when your organization is faced with an expected challenge, have clear steps in place. Be transparent. Mitigate negative impact. It doesn’t matter if you are a big box store, a university, or a luxury vehicle company you should have a crisis communication plan set in place.   Key components of a crisis communication plan often include: Preparation: Identifying potential crises, establishing a crisis team, and defining roles and responsibilities. Response Protocols: Clear guidelines on how to respond promptly, including designated spokespeople, communication ch...

Marketing in Academics I work in student affairs and get to work closely with marketing. I get invited to meetings with the head honcho of marketing at the state level, who I am admittedly not impressed with. As far as I know he does not have a background in marketing or communications. I believe he took a crash course in marketing and throws around words like “digital marketing” and “branding” so that we know he is in fact the marketing guy. But, in the years I have been here nothing revolutionary has ever happened. In fact, my own team has caught some major mistakes. When it comes to any sort of advertising you have to pay attention to every single detail. You also must look at things from every angle and perspective. Last year our school did a photo shoot of one of our fundraisers. We raise scholarship money every year through a skeet shoot tournament. The photographer took a great shot of a man in action and the shot was used for flyers, emails, websites, you name it. There was...

I mentioned a few weeks ago that my husband picked up a side hustle building an app for a local restaurant. We live in a golf club neighborhood and one day I thought it would be nice if a golf cart could bring me some food to my front door. From that thought we started coming up with ideas for a golf cart delivery app idea. From that idea and many meetings and pitches, we landed on the one that is currently in use. The golf cart idea never took off because the club house owners thought the idea of using their employees to deliver food outside of the course was too risky. After reading more about the diffusion of innovation theory, I believe the owners are laggards. They are constantly asking the community what they can do to change and bring in new customers, especially young ones. I know that as a young working professional with two small children that sometimes doesn’t get home until 6:30, take out is my only option once or twice a week. I also love to support small businesses. To me...

My grandmother passed away about three years ago and naturally, I missed a few days of work. When I got home my coworker and good friend sent me a text asking me to call him. He asked if I had a few minutes to walk and if I was at home. I knew by his tone that he was preparing me for bad news. My grandmother had just passed away so how bad could the news be? It was bad. Very bad. Evidentially while I was on bereavement leave, someone at the high school where my office is located decided to make a complaint about me. She was actually just venting, but she was venting to the wrong person. It was terrible timing as she passed away the first week of school, but what was I supposed to do. Ask her to wait a few more weeks? Sorry Grandma. It turns out that while I was gone a parent called and asked this person who shall not be named a question she could not handle on her own. Since I was not there to help answer this question, in the heat of the moment, she complained to a director about my...

Since I started my professional blog for class, I decided to start a personal blog on the side. For now, it is not something I am interested in doing for income. It is more so for journaling and writing practice. But this week as I learned about personal branding, I made sure to take note just in case I change my mind. My husband on the other hand has a side hustle. He created a pizza delivery app for a small pizza shop in town and is currently trying to expand his idea to other stores. I think he could really benefit from building his personal brand to become a more legitimate resource to potential customers. So, what is personal branding anyway? According to BetterUp personal branding is a very strategic and intentional process used to create a public image of yourself. You’ll create this image through various avenues. Not only do you present this image through how you dress, but through your business cards, headshots, business cards, Twitter, TikTok, LinkedIn, personal website,...