Jan Hutchins
Speaker & media consultant | Evangelist for your social
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Monday August 26,
2013
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by Jan Hutchins, CEO of SocialAgenda Media.
My executive coaching recognizes organizations reflect the personality of their leaders. I work with individuals to making improvements in their awareness of their inner processes, beliefs and patterns. We then identify the best conscious choices to replace what we agree is ineffective. We co-create practices to ground the new choices into positive habits and ways of being. From this place of improved inner excellence, the executive’s education, experience and insight can emerge more effectively and productivity and culture in their organization improves accordingly.
My speaker profile with current speeches can be found here.
My executive coaching recognizes organizations reflect the personality of their leaders. I work with individuals to making improvements in their awareness of their inner processes, beliefs and patterns. We then identify the best conscious choices to replace what we agree is ineffective. We co-create practices to ground the new choices into positive habits and ways of being. From this place of improved inner excellence, the executive’s education, experience and insight can emerge more effectively and productivity and culture in their organization improves accordingly.
My speaker profile with current speeches can be found here.
On Leadership Development
10 Jun2013
by Jan Hutchins, CEO of SocialAgenda Media.
I recognize the opportunity and burden of leadership requires individuals blessed with the role become eager students. Learning from case studies, self-study, constant reinvention and careful situational analysis is necessary to support the gift of a natural leadership personality. Our world cries out for more of us to manifest better leadership in ourselves and in the many roles we play in life.
Please find my speaker profile on SocialAgenda Media’s speaker’s bureau.
I recognize the opportunity and burden of leadership requires individuals blessed with the role become eager students. Learning from case studies, self-study, constant reinvention and careful situational analysis is necessary to support the gift of a natural leadership personality. Our world cries out for more of us to manifest better leadership in ourselves and in the many roles we play in life.
Please find my speaker profile on SocialAgenda Media’s speaker’s bureau.
There is No “Solution” to Violence
31 May2013
by Jan Hutchins, a former Mayor of Los Gatos, CA. Recently named a Black Journalism Pioneer for his 20+ years as a television news and sports anchor in the Bay Area. Jan Hutchins is a motivational speaker, a coach for celebrities, now CEO of SocialAgenda Media whose mission is to identify and evangelize the ideas, principles and technologies that positively impact individuals, markets and communities.Todd May, in an op-ed piece for the NY Times online, asked, “Is American Nonviolence Possible?” and then explored solutions to America’s violence problem. I say:
- The answer to the question he asks is no
- The problem is not America’s
- We are better served to see answer rather than seek solution
May’s analysis offers theories for why the events proliferate and then points to our aloneness as a reason. “Others are not our partners, nor even our colleagues. They are our competitors or our enemies. They are hardly to be recognized, much less embraced. They are to be vanquished.”
Europeans, less violent by most measures have an obsession with what we call soccer, a game based on cooperation and acceptance of a difficult limitation (no hands) as a price for being in the game/community.
American football, on the other hand, creates collisions and encourages aggression. That football dominates American television (and not just sports) is no accident. It doesn’t matter which came first the beer or the concussion, it’s a match made in media heaven and resonates with a gladiator culture (celebrated on the covers of ESPN the Magazine, Forbes, Fortune, GQ, Vanity Fair) that increasingly drugs itself to ease the pain at its core. Note: Death from prescribed pain meds is now the leading cause of accidental death in America.
Forty-one years ago, as a naïve, optimistic rookie sportscaster on Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania TV, I was told by my first news director that I should not expect to make much difference in the lives of the audience (At the time, I felt able to, and responsible for, saving the world) because, he said, the average person watching our broadcasts had a third grade education, worked a job he hated, had already had two or more beers and was living in quiet desperation.
Today, chastened by experience, I limit expectation of others and no longer underestimate the challenge of being emotionally intelligent. So it is simple math, comparing the number of solutions I’ve found looking outside to the results from making changes inside, which gets me to the point I’m writing to offer. It’s all an inside game. Gandhi was right, I must be the change I want to see in the world. Or, as mystic Ramana Maharshi puts it, “Wanting to reform the world without discovering one’s true self is like trying to cover the world with leather to avoid the pain of walking on stones and thorns. It is much simpler to wear shoes.” And we can’t leave out the Jungian perspective, “Engage in a relationship with the blind and sickly parts of yourself, perfect them, and you will awaken your hidden divinity.”
In other words, non-violence will occur in our world in direct proportion to the amount of non-violence we experience inside ourselves. Depending on laws, strategies, alliances, campaigns, allies, politics, etc. are rational and real choices but ultimately ineffective, if I, you, we, and they cannot be at peace inside. We must heal ourselves before we try to heal the world, or we’ll just spread the violence we carry.
We are brain-based, trained to try to control outcomes. There is another way, which is embracing events, yes, even the tragic and violent ones, as having been sent into our lives for a greater purpose. To paraphrase the great poet Rumi, “The Great Mind glimpses a lovely hunt going on, where god is hunter and everything else the hunted, That mind sees and tries to quit hunting and completely be prey…. The way to distinguish the true from the false is, Whichever explication makes you feel fiery and hopeful, humble and active, that’s the true one, If it makes you feel lazy, it’s not right.”
The challenge/opportunity of improving my behavior, my peacefulness, my compassion feels fiery and hopeful. Depending on getting others to change feels lazy, not right and damn near impossible.
Doing the inner work is a real hero’s journey and requires what my friend, Ray Arata calls the ARATAcode; Awareness, Responsibility, Accountability, Tenacity and Acceptance. Awareness of the early influences that are so ingrained we must become Super Aware to become able to see them, willingness to be Responsible for my own feelings and behaviors and the life they create, courageous enough to be Accountable for the consequences of my behavior (intended or not) and able to do what I say I’ll do, Tenacity to keep going on the arduous path however many times I fail or doubt I can go on, and perhaps hardest of all, to be Acceptance and forgiveness for myself, others and all that is. No wonder we would rather try “solutions”!
Ray wrote a book, “Wake Up, Man Up, Step Up” about how
to do one’s inner work and has dedicated himself to by 2015 getting a million
men the book and other practical guidance, tools and inspiration for emotional
maturity and accountability so they become able to prevent and resolve conflict
in their families, workplaces and communities. Starting May 1st he’s
crowdfunding the money to do it and collecting stories of people from around the
world to include in a second edition of his book by using a crowdfunding
campaign on Indiegogo.If my argument is persuasive and you agree inner work is what will produce outer changes in our world you can support his already successful crowdfunding campaign “Crowd-Authoring ARATACode” and any similar campaigns from other peacemakers.
I’ve just found out I’ve been honored (with several of my favorite “peeps”
who are talented and admirable characters) as a Black Journalism
Pioneer and will receive a tribute Saturday June 22nd along with fellow
honorees Valerie Coleman, Gerri Lange, Barbara Rodgers and Ray Taliaferro at
Geoffrey’s in Oakland. See the announcement here.
The honorary chairs of the event are the Honorable Willie Brown (former Chair of the State Assembly and Mayor of San Francisco), Honorable Elihu Harris (former Democratic Assemblyman and Mayor of Oakland), Fred Jordan, Alameda County Treasurer Donald White and boadcast legend Belva Davis.
The honorary chairs of the event are the Honorable Willie Brown (former Chair of the State Assembly and Mayor of San Francisco), Honorable Elihu Harris (former Democratic Assemblyman and Mayor of Oakland), Fred Jordan, Alameda County Treasurer Donald White and boadcast legend Belva Davis.
“Peace is not a result of victory. The real peace comes when you lose all the battles, and fully surrender to what is. Then there is nothing more to win. Yet then there is no peace to lose…” Olga KostrovaMy wife’s insight opens me to why I think my executive coaching sessions serve clients so well.
I’ve won big and lost big during my lifetime. Life’s Wheel of Fortune eventually spins one out to the edge and anxiety, holding on for dear life; or the spinning pulls one into the center, where, like an axle, the ups and downs and twists and turns can be watched from a place of relative peace. I’ve won and lost enough during these 60 plus years to be reasonably detached from winning and losing. This creates space for the client, room to accept of whatever comes up for the client, a comfort that supports transformation through barriers previously too connected to old fears for the client to step through alone.
I’m surprised to often hear from people that I carry blessing energy and everyone, as a human need, wants to be blessed, seen. Men especially, regardless of their level of accomplishment, at their core appreciate being seen and blessed by an elder. It’s tribal, in our genes.
I’m no longer surprised when clients come to us (SocialAgenda Media) for business reasons – PR, marketing and business development, but soon realize there are internal blocks, old beliefs and protective habits involved in creating the business issues. In sports coaches use the term “take what the defense gives you” that implies there is always room to move forward because the offense controls the ball and gets to choose the play. In sports the cliché is used to keep players from becoming greedy or trying too hard to score and thus making mistakes.
Once clients have done this inner work, it’s easier for us to help them identify their real mission and vision that drive their business.
When we look inside the blocks, beliefs and habits make us greedy, need to prove something to ourselves or others and keep us from taking what the defense gives us. “Few of the very rich credit their success to being smart. They say the keys to success are being honest and disciplined, getting along with people, having a supportive spouse and working hard. They usually work hard, save diligently, and live far below their means. They knew what they wanted, modeled the successes of other successful people, made plans, took action, and stayed the course despite their fears and doubts.”
In other words they took what the defense gave them and depended on the easy to see, hard to believe (if I’m wounded and can’t imagine life is actually wanting me to succeed) basics available to us all.
I find ways to get my clients to see what Rob Brezny wrote about in his book Pronoia, “Pronoia is the antidote for paranoia. It’s the understanding that the universe is fundamentally friendly. It’s a mode of retraining your senses and intellect so you’re able to perceive that life always gives you exactly what you need, exactly when you need it.”
I call my work executive coaching but you needn’t have a title to contact me. I’ll make space for you…
Yours truly, Jan Hutchins
By Jan Hutchins, CEO SocialAgenda Media
I answered the phone feeling great. I was in Hawaii, after all, and the previous call had been to inform me I’d just won election to the Los Gatos, California town council and received the most votes among the candidates. “Jan Hutchins here!” I eagerly answered, “How can I help you?”
“I’m with the (San Jose) Mercury News and we’re following up on a story,” said the voice on the other end, “Someone’s accusing you of being unpatriotic and against the Pledge of Allegiance.”
Thus began a weeklong adventure and education inside a media shit storm. Constant calls for comment, TV reporters waiting outside my home, an appearance on Ronn Owens’ highly rated KGO radio talk show, and pro-con attitudes in my face everywhere I went.
The facts hardly mattered. I had given the pledge while speaking at a service club during the campaign and, when asked, said I substituted, ideals for flag in the opening phrase describing that I was “pledging my allegiance to the ideals (vs flag) of the United States of America”. It seemed like an obvious improvement to me since my allegiance is not to the piece of cloth but to the ideals it represents. Silly me.
Thank goodness for having enough wisdom not to try to change those who either didn’t understand symbolism or were “triggered” beyond reason. By basically saying only the phrase “I do pledge my allegiance to the ideals of the United States of America and am willing to stand by that statement.” The firestorm blew over in a week, the dispensers of drama had moved on.
The lessons I took from this that apply to crisis response are:
Don’t feel obliged to answer the questions asked. Reporters are after a story; they are not your friends. You only owe them respect.
Crisis can be a time to identify the ineffective habits learned in your past.
Use the opportunity to unlearn any reaction to act from anger, control others, and/or defensively react to feeling emotional pain.
As hard as it might be to believe, have the compassion to recognize that people are usually doing the best they can. Judgmental pricks… (It’s the best I can do, really!)
Resentment is literally heavy to carry; while forgiveness releases energy and frees you.
Flash Forward
Recently a digital discussion of our business model at our company, SocialAgenda Media, offered an opportunity to practice these lessons. See my partner/wife’s blog about it here.
A reporter showed one of our letters, “I supply you with fully developed stories (completed articles) that you can publish under your byline, with or without editing, at no fee.” to an Internet blogger and some of the reactions and opinions about what we do were so harsh my wife shielded me from it. You can read her responses in the comment thread of the article. BTW, She’s got a great skirt for me to hide behind
.
As so often happens the conversation came to be about symptoms, in this case, the not so slow death of newspaper journalism and who’s to blame for the ripples radiating out from the disaster, rather than the core failed business model problem that begs for an open-minded search for solutions, including new ways to fund accountability and investigative journalism in this era of the Internet and corporate media consolidation.
SocialAgenda Media is attempting to support the continued existence of quality journalism using a new business model that will be able to support the work of journalists and viability of newspapers and magazines in new ways as the old ways die.
The prohibition against even the appearance of money being exchanged for information in journalism rests on the concern it will give consumers a bad impression. The implication that association with money automatically makes the content unreliable taken to its conclusion, makes all content coming out of any enterprise suspect. Pew Research statistics show believability of newspapers and TV news and information down to around 50% and falling fast, hardly a recommendation for maintaining the status quo.
For the record, I seek ways to finance getting good ideas, people and products the exposure they deserve in the hope the information will make a positive difference in their and our worlds. It’s as simple, and apparently for some as complex, as that. For more on the topic of paying journalists
I answered the phone feeling great. I was in Hawaii, after all, and the previous call had been to inform me I’d just won election to the Los Gatos, California town council and received the most votes among the candidates. “Jan Hutchins here!” I eagerly answered, “How can I help you?”
“I’m with the (San Jose) Mercury News and we’re following up on a story,” said the voice on the other end, “Someone’s accusing you of being unpatriotic and against the Pledge of Allegiance.”
Thus began a weeklong adventure and education inside a media shit storm. Constant calls for comment, TV reporters waiting outside my home, an appearance on Ronn Owens’ highly rated KGO radio talk show, and pro-con attitudes in my face everywhere I went.
The facts hardly mattered. I had given the pledge while speaking at a service club during the campaign and, when asked, said I substituted, ideals for flag in the opening phrase describing that I was “pledging my allegiance to the ideals (vs flag) of the United States of America”. It seemed like an obvious improvement to me since my allegiance is not to the piece of cloth but to the ideals it represents. Silly me.
Thank goodness for having enough wisdom not to try to change those who either didn’t understand symbolism or were “triggered” beyond reason. By basically saying only the phrase “I do pledge my allegiance to the ideals of the United States of America and am willing to stand by that statement.” The firestorm blew over in a week, the dispensers of drama had moved on.
The lessons I took from this that apply to crisis response are:
- Control the message outside self by controlling the messages inside self
Don’t feel obliged to answer the questions asked. Reporters are after a story; they are not your friends. You only owe them respect.
Crisis can be a time to identify the ineffective habits learned in your past.
Use the opportunity to unlearn any reaction to act from anger, control others, and/or defensively react to feeling emotional pain.
- You can’t control people, places or things
As hard as it might be to believe, have the compassion to recognize that people are usually doing the best they can. Judgmental pricks… (It’s the best I can do, really!)
- Apologize and forgive
Resentment is literally heavy to carry; while forgiveness releases energy and frees you.
Flash Forward
Recently a digital discussion of our business model at our company, SocialAgenda Media, offered an opportunity to practice these lessons. See my partner/wife’s blog about it here.
A reporter showed one of our letters, “I supply you with fully developed stories (completed articles) that you can publish under your byline, with or without editing, at no fee.” to an Internet blogger and some of the reactions and opinions about what we do were so harsh my wife shielded me from it. You can read her responses in the comment thread of the article. BTW, She’s got a great skirt for me to hide behind
.As so often happens the conversation came to be about symptoms, in this case, the not so slow death of newspaper journalism and who’s to blame for the ripples radiating out from the disaster, rather than the core failed business model problem that begs for an open-minded search for solutions, including new ways to fund accountability and investigative journalism in this era of the Internet and corporate media consolidation.
SocialAgenda Media is attempting to support the continued existence of quality journalism using a new business model that will be able to support the work of journalists and viability of newspapers and magazines in new ways as the old ways die.
The prohibition against even the appearance of money being exchanged for information in journalism rests on the concern it will give consumers a bad impression. The implication that association with money automatically makes the content unreliable taken to its conclusion, makes all content coming out of any enterprise suspect. Pew Research statistics show believability of newspapers and TV news and information down to around 50% and falling fast, hardly a recommendation for maintaining the status quo.
For the record, I seek ways to finance getting good ideas, people and products the exposure they deserve in the hope the information will make a positive difference in their and our worlds. It’s as simple, and apparently for some as complex, as that. For more on the topic of paying journalists
by Jan Hutchins, CEO of SocialAgenda
Media.
Disaster always sets the stage for opportunity, fresh growth, new perspective. The demise of paper-based journalism threatens to put down our watchdog, weaken the forces that traditionally comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable, eliminate the institutions in our society which enforce civic accountability through their ability to expose and hold other institutions accountable.
How can we create an economic model that supports investigative and accountability journalism? I say we start with beauty and work our way to truth.
I’m here to cut through the problem, disrupting the existing business model, to help media break even or even make money acquiring first rate content.
I’m here to help entrepreneurs rethink their publicity process to obtain guaranteed media coverage where traditional PR can’t. I do it bypassing press releases and media pitches – I investigate, come up with a story that is relevant for editorial and develop articles that media is interested to publish. Both win. Media get quality content – visionaries get their dreams told and gain an audience for their idea.
I help business leaders whose ideas I believe in, build their brand and deepen their relationship with their vision along the way. I enable cash-strapped publications facing increased competition to finance content research and production.
It takes time and resources to get an idea developed into a comprehensive
story that actually has meaningful editorial value. That’s what I offer to my
clients. I want to share with you this different way to obtain media
coverage.
More than ever businesses need favorable publicity and quality content for social engagement, and they need both to cost less. Media outlets need quality content to retain existing and attract new audiences, and also need it to cost less.
Have you ever worked with a PR agency? And how was your experience? Business owners or marketing executives know that your retainer does not guarantee you coverage.
Print media now, and television in the coming years, face the possibility their business models no longer work. Even digital media struggles with low barriers to entry and increased competition. Everyone acknowledges content is King. Publications need to produce better content at lower cost, ideally for free, to hold on until they find a new model.
And we can offer them what want. We give them your story.
I’ll tell you more, but first let me share this… My passion for this was born in 1969 in New Haven, CT. I had just been tear-gassed.
I remember feeling disappointed. My eyes were burning, but nothing like I’d imagined they would after being so close to the “action”. We were gathered in the TV room in our dorm at Yale, still breathless from the dash back from the front lines.
We’d ventured out that day fortified (and pacified) by the brown rice and salad the Yale administrators were feeding to students and protestors. I wen to see the Yippees (Youth International Party) who had come to town to provoke police and put things into perspective with their genius form of street theater.
National guard troops lining the streets of New Haven had fired tear gas to disperse rock throwers there protesting Black Panther Party national chairman Bobby Seale being tried for murder conspiracy. The courthouse was just across a small city park from Yale. Our campus had become the latest stop on the rolling revolution that was the 60’s in America. Our front-row seats to the show were close enough we got a strong whiff of the tear gas.
Now, with the events of the day behind us, adrenaline subsiding, we were ready for reviews of the drama from none other than Walter Cronkite! Uncle Walter as we called him, was the icon of journalism for his generation. It seemed my whole life he’d reassured me each evening by ending his broadcasts with “And that’s the way it is.”
Amazingly our drama wasn’t the lead story. We had to wait until the third segment of the CBS Evening News to see “how it was”. As it turned out it wasn’t like it was. The report of the event we’d just been part of bore only a slight resemblance to my experience and when Uncle Walter confidently ended the broadcast with “And…That’s the way it is” my world had changed forever.
Neither the FBI nor the Black Panthers nor my relationship with journalism was ever the same again; all had lost credibility thanks to the confusion and illusion they were selling.
40 years later, 20 of them spent becoming increasingly disillusioned as a TV journalist, I’m still seeking a way to make Uncle Walter’s words “and that’s the way it is” ring true again. How can I do what I love, tell good stories about people and ideas and feel I’m contributing to the world, rather than reporting mind numbing crap to help sell commercials for some media conglomerate.
Journalism as I knew it is gone forever. It’s so bad the cruel and comedic suggest newspapers should title their obit section “Subscriber Countdown.”
There are wonderful insights to be consumed about why and where it all might be headed. Research Clay Shirky’s work!
He says, get ready to live in a world where media that’s targeted at you but doesn’t include you is not worth your time to consume.
I’ve watched the career challenges faced by my journalist and media management friends, and I’ve watched, and been, an entrepreneur struggling to get media coverage without spending a fortune on PR agencies that don’t always deliver results. So I’ve decided to use my passion for discovering and telling a good story to get editors meaningful content at the same time I help entrepreneurs get, at minimal cost, the notice they deserve.
I write with passion and my whole life I have been communicating about the human drama with its dreams, splendid successes and hard life lessons in ways that have produced PR, political and personal brand success. I choose to work with business owners who need someone to help them draw out the passion at the core of their business and get their story told in a way that it gets picked up by the media.
Here’s how I work:
I don’t produce press releases that struggle to be seen in the avalanche of competition. I don’t produce press releases at all, really. How many newsworthy events does your company really have? But… we can tell stories, approaching your distinction and value proposition from different angles.
I uncover the differentiating nuances, add memorable elements to the story about you, your business, industry, the needs you fill, or problems you solve. I write it as an objective but passionate journalism/literature piece, and place it in media relevant to your demographics, generating positive brand perception and public awareness. Often the coverage offers search engine advantages due to inbound links, and provokes relevant social media conversations.
I save businesses money and guarantee results and, at the same time, save publications money and write compelling stories relevant to their audience.
What you get for your money:
See my introductory PR & social media marketing offer and contact to discuss your PR, content development and placement needs.
Basically, you pay $1,000. I research and produce a comprehensive, industry-relevant article about your business or product, and place it in a mass media outlet. If we don’t get it placed within a major publication within 2 weeks I pitch it to bloggers and get it placed in a blog with high page ranking, so you get coverage and an inbound link. In both cases the article then gets shared in various social media, reaching those relevant to your business tribes; my team doesn’t just push the content, we engage social audiences in the conversation about it that leads to positive awareness and SEO ranking (Google’s Penguin likes social indicators).
Moreover, if your first article doesn’t get published within selected, agreed-upon, authority publications, but gets only in 2nd tier blogs (scenario #2 above), you also get a second researched article to cover the half of the original payment intended for the placement. If that article is picked up by targeted publications you pay an additional $500. If it is not, you pay nothing and we again pitch it to bloggers, guaranteeing to you quality inbound links for your SEO as we share it widely in various social media, building tribes around your content.
Many say my approach to media relations is disruptive – forget press releases, forget pitches that fail, let’s get to the point – let’s build a complete story that people care to read, and get it placed. Let’s get it straight, Social Agenda Media is not another PR agency, we are gathering a group of highly skilled journalists with passion for our craft and understanding of the core needs of any business, any marketing department, and any media outlet. We have been on both sides of the fence.
So yes, we offer GUARANTEED PRESS COVERAGE, we uncover the jewel that others can’t and we share your vision, your passion, your dream with the world.
Standard Deliverables:• Story development from multiple angles
• Pitching complete articles to major publications relevant to the client’s industry
• Placing content as guest posts for SEO (inbound link building from high rank blogs)
• Publishing content on the client’s blog
• Promoting content via social media, engaging tribes in the conversation
Additional Options:
Video interviews, video case studies, corporate TV channel development.
Contact me, see if we share your vision and can work together to get you the audience you deserve.
Disaster always sets the stage for opportunity, fresh growth, new perspective. The demise of paper-based journalism threatens to put down our watchdog, weaken the forces that traditionally comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable, eliminate the institutions in our society which enforce civic accountability through their ability to expose and hold other institutions accountable.
How can we create an economic model that supports investigative and accountability journalism? I say we start with beauty and work our way to truth.
I’m here to cut through the problem, disrupting the existing business model, to help media break even or even make money acquiring first rate content.
I’m here to help entrepreneurs rethink their publicity process to obtain guaranteed media coverage where traditional PR can’t. I do it bypassing press releases and media pitches – I investigate, come up with a story that is relevant for editorial and develop articles that media is interested to publish. Both win. Media get quality content – visionaries get their dreams told and gain an audience for their idea.
I help business leaders whose ideas I believe in, build their brand and deepen their relationship with their vision along the way. I enable cash-strapped publications facing increased competition to finance content research and production.
Interviewing Ken Goldman, the new Yahoo
CFO
More than ever businesses need favorable publicity and quality content for social engagement, and they need both to cost less. Media outlets need quality content to retain existing and attract new audiences, and also need it to cost less.
Have you ever worked with a PR agency? And how was your experience? Business owners or marketing executives know that your retainer does not guarantee you coverage.
Print media now, and television in the coming years, face the possibility their business models no longer work. Even digital media struggles with low barriers to entry and increased competition. Everyone acknowledges content is King. Publications need to produce better content at lower cost, ideally for free, to hold on until they find a new model.
And we can offer them what want. We give them your story.
I’ll tell you more, but first let me share this… My passion for this was born in 1969 in New Haven, CT. I had just been tear-gassed.
I remember feeling disappointed. My eyes were burning, but nothing like I’d imagined they would after being so close to the “action”. We were gathered in the TV room in our dorm at Yale, still breathless from the dash back from the front lines.
We’d ventured out that day fortified (and pacified) by the brown rice and salad the Yale administrators were feeding to students and protestors. I wen to see the Yippees (Youth International Party) who had come to town to provoke police and put things into perspective with their genius form of street theater.
National guard troops lining the streets of New Haven had fired tear gas to disperse rock throwers there protesting Black Panther Party national chairman Bobby Seale being tried for murder conspiracy. The courthouse was just across a small city park from Yale. Our campus had become the latest stop on the rolling revolution that was the 60’s in America. Our front-row seats to the show were close enough we got a strong whiff of the tear gas.
Now, with the events of the day behind us, adrenaline subsiding, we were ready for reviews of the drama from none other than Walter Cronkite! Uncle Walter as we called him, was the icon of journalism for his generation. It seemed my whole life he’d reassured me each evening by ending his broadcasts with “And that’s the way it is.”
Amazingly our drama wasn’t the lead story. We had to wait until the third segment of the CBS Evening News to see “how it was”. As it turned out it wasn’t like it was. The report of the event we’d just been part of bore only a slight resemblance to my experience and when Uncle Walter confidently ended the broadcast with “And…That’s the way it is” my world had changed forever.
Neither the FBI nor the Black Panthers nor my relationship with journalism was ever the same again; all had lost credibility thanks to the confusion and illusion they were selling.
40 years later, 20 of them spent becoming increasingly disillusioned as a TV journalist, I’m still seeking a way to make Uncle Walter’s words “and that’s the way it is” ring true again. How can I do what I love, tell good stories about people and ideas and feel I’m contributing to the world, rather than reporting mind numbing crap to help sell commercials for some media conglomerate.
Journalism as I knew it is gone forever. It’s so bad the cruel and comedic suggest newspapers should title their obit section “Subscriber Countdown.”
There are wonderful insights to be consumed about why and where it all might be headed. Research Clay Shirky’s work!
He says, get ready to live in a world where media that’s targeted at you but doesn’t include you is not worth your time to consume.
I’ve watched the career challenges faced by my journalist and media management friends, and I’ve watched, and been, an entrepreneur struggling to get media coverage without spending a fortune on PR agencies that don’t always deliver results. So I’ve decided to use my passion for discovering and telling a good story to get editors meaningful content at the same time I help entrepreneurs get, at minimal cost, the notice they deserve.
I write with passion and my whole life I have been communicating about the human drama with its dreams, splendid successes and hard life lessons in ways that have produced PR, political and personal brand success. I choose to work with business owners who need someone to help them draw out the passion at the core of their business and get their story told in a way that it gets picked up by the media.
Here’s how I work:
I don’t produce press releases that struggle to be seen in the avalanche of competition. I don’t produce press releases at all, really. How many newsworthy events does your company really have? But… we can tell stories, approaching your distinction and value proposition from different angles.
I uncover the differentiating nuances, add memorable elements to the story about you, your business, industry, the needs you fill, or problems you solve. I write it as an objective but passionate journalism/literature piece, and place it in media relevant to your demographics, generating positive brand perception and public awareness. Often the coverage offers search engine advantages due to inbound links, and provokes relevant social media conversations.
I save businesses money and guarantee results and, at the same time, save publications money and write compelling stories relevant to their audience.
What you get for your money:
See my introductory PR & social media marketing offer and contact to discuss your PR, content development and placement needs.
Basically, you pay $1,000. I research and produce a comprehensive, industry-relevant article about your business or product, and place it in a mass media outlet. If we don’t get it placed within a major publication within 2 weeks I pitch it to bloggers and get it placed in a blog with high page ranking, so you get coverage and an inbound link. In both cases the article then gets shared in various social media, reaching those relevant to your business tribes; my team doesn’t just push the content, we engage social audiences in the conversation about it that leads to positive awareness and SEO ranking (Google’s Penguin likes social indicators).
Moreover, if your first article doesn’t get published within selected, agreed-upon, authority publications, but gets only in 2nd tier blogs (scenario #2 above), you also get a second researched article to cover the half of the original payment intended for the placement. If that article is picked up by targeted publications you pay an additional $500. If it is not, you pay nothing and we again pitch it to bloggers, guaranteeing to you quality inbound links for your SEO as we share it widely in various social media, building tribes around your content.
Many say my approach to media relations is disruptive – forget press releases, forget pitches that fail, let’s get to the point – let’s build a complete story that people care to read, and get it placed. Let’s get it straight, Social Agenda Media is not another PR agency, we are gathering a group of highly skilled journalists with passion for our craft and understanding of the core needs of any business, any marketing department, and any media outlet. We have been on both sides of the fence.
So yes, we offer GUARANTEED PRESS COVERAGE, we uncover the jewel that others can’t and we share your vision, your passion, your dream with the world.
Standard Deliverables:• Story development from multiple angles
• Pitching complete articles to major publications relevant to the client’s industry
• Placing content as guest posts for SEO (inbound link building from high rank blogs)
• Publishing content on the client’s blog
• Promoting content via social media, engaging tribes in the conversation
Additional Options:
Video interviews, video case studies, corporate TV channel development.
Contact me, see if we share your vision and can work together to get you the audience you deserve.
Book Jan to speak at your event.
by Jan Hutchins, CEO of SocialAgenda
Media.
One of effectiveness “guru” Steven Covey’s gems is his recommendation that communication works best if one seeks to clearly understand the “other” before seeking to communicate one’s ideas or information to the “other.” People like to feel heard and understood before being comfortable giving their full attention and trust to someone. It’s at the core of all marketing.
Since words have meaning, or at least are intended to, let’s consider what prospect engagement seems to mean today as opposed to what at least Covey and this threory say it really means.
When I goog-learn about the topic I get:
• Building engagement is really about improving the quality of the buying cycle
• It’s the delivery of consistently valuable marketing interactions across the buying cycle.
• Nothing builds relationship better than two-way communication.
• You must create a steady stream of useful, relevant information.
• Becoming the go-to resource for information and educational materials that keep your prospect at the top of his game
• Collaboration occurs in forums, discussion boards and group sites
• Create interesting, compelling content, people will likely come back for more.
• You must trust your audience as much as you’re asking them to trust you.
• Prospect Engagement Outline is a sales technique of the Value Forward Selling approach and enables you to be “professionally blunt.”
• Catch a prospect’s attention with compelling content
• Engage to convert a prospect into a customer
• Give them multiple reasons to grow their business with us
• Deliver outstanding value and foster customer loyalty
• Re-engage and reactivate high-potential former customers
• Rescue customer relationships on shaky ground?
Ask any marketer about whether it’s important to know the customer and the answer will be yes. Yet just as we know selling is about the pain/problem, we often find ourselves talking more about the wonderful solution we have and losing the sale. In the same accidental way, we too often find ourselves thinking about the customer like he, she, they are objects to be manipulated rather than people actually needing to be understood. Understandable considering the pressure to perform we’re all facing, yet still fundamentally wrong.
Looking back at the Goog-learn list above, only the one in bold seems to fully adhere to the Covey theory.
Questions:
• When you look at your prospect engagement strategy are you REALLY seeking to understand, empathize and communicate with them about their problem before trying to get them to hear your wonderful solution?
• Do you REALLY know their buying process and where they are on the buying cycle so you know how to tailor your marketing to them appropriately, or are you losing sales by pushing too soon or not identifying early enough?
• Would drip marketing better nurture your sales cycle process?
• Are you trying out enough small tests to know when to take the big shot at your market?
• Are you doing the math so you REALLY know how many opportunities and how many leads it takes to generate a sale and building your plans accordingly?
•
The list above does acknowledge the importance of good content as the currency driving marketing today, but are your selections REALLY targeting the customer you’re seeking and leading to the brand you’re trying to build?
Forgive me for asking so many questions; I’m only seeking to better understand you so we can have a more effective conversation.
One of effectiveness “guru” Steven Covey’s gems is his recommendation that communication works best if one seeks to clearly understand the “other” before seeking to communicate one’s ideas or information to the “other.” People like to feel heard and understood before being comfortable giving their full attention and trust to someone. It’s at the core of all marketing.
Since words have meaning, or at least are intended to, let’s consider what prospect engagement seems to mean today as opposed to what at least Covey and this threory say it really means.
When I goog-learn about the topic I get:
• Building engagement is really about improving the quality of the buying cycle
• It’s the delivery of consistently valuable marketing interactions across the buying cycle.
• Nothing builds relationship better than two-way communication.
• You must create a steady stream of useful, relevant information.
• Becoming the go-to resource for information and educational materials that keep your prospect at the top of his game
• Collaboration occurs in forums, discussion boards and group sites
• Create interesting, compelling content, people will likely come back for more.
• You must trust your audience as much as you’re asking them to trust you.
• Prospect Engagement Outline is a sales technique of the Value Forward Selling approach and enables you to be “professionally blunt.”
• Catch a prospect’s attention with compelling content
• Engage to convert a prospect into a customer
• Give them multiple reasons to grow their business with us
• Deliver outstanding value and foster customer loyalty
• Re-engage and reactivate high-potential former customers
• Rescue customer relationships on shaky ground?
Ask any marketer about whether it’s important to know the customer and the answer will be yes. Yet just as we know selling is about the pain/problem, we often find ourselves talking more about the wonderful solution we have and losing the sale. In the same accidental way, we too often find ourselves thinking about the customer like he, she, they are objects to be manipulated rather than people actually needing to be understood. Understandable considering the pressure to perform we’re all facing, yet still fundamentally wrong.
Looking back at the Goog-learn list above, only the one in bold seems to fully adhere to the Covey theory.
Questions:
• When you look at your prospect engagement strategy are you REALLY seeking to understand, empathize and communicate with them about their problem before trying to get them to hear your wonderful solution?
• Do you REALLY know their buying process and where they are on the buying cycle so you know how to tailor your marketing to them appropriately, or are you losing sales by pushing too soon or not identifying early enough?
• Would drip marketing better nurture your sales cycle process?
• Are you trying out enough small tests to know when to take the big shot at your market?
• Are you doing the math so you REALLY know how many opportunities and how many leads it takes to generate a sale and building your plans accordingly?
•
The list above does acknowledge the importance of good content as the currency driving marketing today, but are your selections REALLY targeting the customer you’re seeking and leading to the brand you’re trying to build?
Forgive me for asking so many questions; I’m only seeking to better understand you so we can have a more effective conversation.
by Jan Hutchins, CEO of SocialAgenda
Media.
I do have something important to say about new media, and, I’ll admit right up front I don’t claim to actually KNOW shit about social (or anti-social) media. All my insecurities about not being as smart as the next genius be damned, I’m not convinced anybody really does KNOW, regardless of the delightfully dense techno-dialect they speak to one another.
I’m not claiming to be a thought leader, expert or futurist. My wife, who is “all that” describes me as a cave man when it comes to technology. I’m reasonably fluent in the experience, I offensively smart phone everywhere but in the car (have you paid one of those f-ing texting-while-driving tickets?) and spend most of my waking hours each day on the computer.
I bow in respect to the pervasive influence the Internet has on nearly every aspect of my/our lives. But I’m an immigrant on this plane, brought here from the dim, dark past before bits and bytes and I’m not convinced that science in the form of this imperfection based, ever changing world of connectivity is superior to truth, love, and conviction. Not convinced that the spinning realities, the analytical overlays that keep us up at night and plugged in all day are superior to the original, unchanging, primordial, self-contained intelligence of what Hindus would call Brahman, the underlying cosmic consciousness.
The intelligence of science is by definition imperfect, always being improved and all. Constantly changing, it is the ultimate shiny object and though incredibly interesting to play with, still but a distraction by comparison.
So much influence mixed with so much money being made calls to mind the material wealth, greed and injustice ascribed in the Bible to Mammon and produces in me, and perhaps you, some powerful urge to not miss out, be part of, get my share. I’ve described social media marketing with its seduction scenarios, affiliate schemes and SEO sorcery as a present day gold rush. “Hurry, grab your sacred tablets and let’s go make a golden calf sized pile of money!”
And then something magical and a priori (from the earlier) happens, something like a sunrise or rain, something transcendental, intrinsic to being human, existing before even the awareness of experience, as Kant would describe it something based on the very form of all experience not on the content of the experience and I recall truth, love and conviction.
If I can, I turn to my love, touch the truth of her
being, share the conviction that comes from feeling the truth of my love for
her, turn off the tablet, pause the plasma 3-D, put Siri on stun and fall into
something based on the very form of existence and beyond the content of the
experience. I choose to use this part of myself in my social media strategies as
well. How about you?
I do have something important to say about new media, and, I’ll admit right up front I don’t claim to actually KNOW shit about social (or anti-social) media. All my insecurities about not being as smart as the next genius be damned, I’m not convinced anybody really does KNOW, regardless of the delightfully dense techno-dialect they speak to one another.
I’m not claiming to be a thought leader, expert or futurist. My wife, who is “all that” describes me as a cave man when it comes to technology. I’m reasonably fluent in the experience, I offensively smart phone everywhere but in the car (have you paid one of those f-ing texting-while-driving tickets?) and spend most of my waking hours each day on the computer.
I bow in respect to the pervasive influence the Internet has on nearly every aspect of my/our lives. But I’m an immigrant on this plane, brought here from the dim, dark past before bits and bytes and I’m not convinced that science in the form of this imperfection based, ever changing world of connectivity is superior to truth, love, and conviction. Not convinced that the spinning realities, the analytical overlays that keep us up at night and plugged in all day are superior to the original, unchanging, primordial, self-contained intelligence of what Hindus would call Brahman, the underlying cosmic consciousness.
The intelligence of science is by definition imperfect, always being improved and all. Constantly changing, it is the ultimate shiny object and though incredibly interesting to play with, still but a distraction by comparison.
So much influence mixed with so much money being made calls to mind the material wealth, greed and injustice ascribed in the Bible to Mammon and produces in me, and perhaps you, some powerful urge to not miss out, be part of, get my share. I’ve described social media marketing with its seduction scenarios, affiliate schemes and SEO sorcery as a present day gold rush. “Hurry, grab your sacred tablets and let’s go make a golden calf sized pile of money!”
And then something magical and a priori (from the earlier) happens, something like a sunrise or rain, something transcendental, intrinsic to being human, existing before even the awareness of experience, as Kant would describe it something based on the very form of all experience not on the content of the experience and I recall truth, love and conviction.
If I can, I turn to my love, touch the truth of her
being, share the conviction that comes from feeling the truth of my love for
her, turn off the tablet, pause the plasma 3-D, put Siri on stun and fall into
something based on the very form of existence and beyond the content of the
experience. I choose to use this part of myself in my social media strategies as
well. How about you?
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