Tap into your Network!

When pursuing your dreams, you cannot do it alone.  Sometimes it’s who you know and not what you know.

Social media is a great place to connect and network with people that share your same career interests.  I told some of my network that I was relocating to the NYC area.  After 24 hours of living in NYC, one of my associates invited me to Cassie’s listening party for her new mix tape “Rock A Bye Baby.”  It was the first time I actually met my associate in person.  At first I wasn’t going to go because I commute to the city and I didn’t feel like commuting back.  After second thought, I decided to attend because it’s a chance to grow my network.  I’m so glad I did that!

I met a lot of people in the entertainment industry.  People from Global Grind, Blogxilla, Def Jam, XXL Magazine, Concreteloop.com, DDotomen.com and so much more.  My associate’s friend then took me and my associate to the 40/40 club to watch the NCAA championship.  The club’s owner even came by to watch the game, Jay-Z!  It was the best Monday night I’ve ever had and to think I was going to stay in and watch television!

Have you tapped into your network?

I can’t believe I met THE Ty Hunter. If you don’t know him, he’s Beyonce’s stylist.

 

Briefly saw Jay-Z as the 40/40 Club.

Note to: Self

The following is a note I had written when I was 18 (so don’t judge of improper grammar lol)  to myself when I decided whenever I decide to look through my high school yearbook.

“You have done it. You are finally done with high school. Now it really gets real. You are about to experience the real world. The opportunity has arrived to further your education. Another door is about to open. You must always no matter what happens, put your love and trust into God & your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. If you put your faith in Them, you’ll be worry-free. Never give up and put your best work in EVERYTHING you do. Don’t settle for less. Give the best and you will receive the best. Don’t forget where you come from. If you remember your roots you will not lose yourself. Never forget who and what has shaped you into becoming the woman you are today. If it wasn’t for them, you would be lost. Most importantly, HAVE FUN !! “

My 18-year-old self reminded me of where I started from and where I will be going.  Fascinating out your former self can put things back into perspective and reassure you.

6 days to NYC!

A New ChaPteR

For a while I’ve been miserable….miserable doing something I felt like I HAD to do instead of doing something I truly LOVED.  I’ve always been unsure of myself when making a huge decision (and sometimes even small ones such as choosing a place to eat for dinner) but I’ve come to MY realization in regards to my career.

Until recently, I was the Marketing Manager of a small company, handling the company’s entire marketing efforts from social media, to public relations, to trade shows and everything in-between.  I’ve gone through so many changes in the company’s management/executives without any real training or guidance that I was burnt out.  I loved my job in the beginning.  No longer did my job duties entail public relations anymore and that really made me sad because that company introduced me to public relations.  I had to decide to continue to be miserable, or make a change…and boy did I make a change!

For the past twenty something years, I’ve been a resident of North Carolina.  NC is my home and I’ve known nothing else.  But now I will get the chance to follow my dreams.  I’m so thankful for the opportunities my previous employment gave me but when your heart is no longer into something, everyday it gets harder and harder to be enthusiastic about your work, even when you put your all into your work.  That is why I decided to resign from my position to pursue my dreams as a full-time public relations professional.

This is the scariest moment of my life thus far: to quit my job and up-and-move without securing a job.  The worst part is being over a thousand miles away from all of my family and friends.  This move will be nothing like my college move, in which I’m only a couple hours drive from my closest relative.

If college taught me anything, it’s to make sure that you can survive on your own.  I grew up  with limited means in the poorest county in North Carolina.  That’s why I made sure I could finance my college tuition by working all four years, just in case for some reason my grant or scholarship money didn’t come through for me.  I always have a backup plan just in case a plan fails. I will always have a Plan A, B, C, and D and if I really want to go after something I will make it to Plan Z.

So yes, I’m randomly moving to New York without any current job offers and limited funds. No, I do not have a friend’s couch I can crash on and yes, I would be lying to you if I said I would not think twice about moving back home if I was offered another position in NC.  I’ve only known NC and that’s my barrier right there.  It was after seeing @Iamnecole tweet on March 22, 2013 that really made me decide to take a risk and move to NYC.  Her tweet was right on time for my situation.  She tweeted: “It’s okay to be scared. Just know the greatest things that will ever happen to you in life are on the other side of the wall of fear.”  I am fearless.

Like I said earlier in this post, I have a backup plan.  Well, one of my plans include actually winning my dream entry-level job in the public relations industry.  Affect is actually giving people the chance to win their dream job, after a thorough interview of course!  The top three finalists will get Skype interviews and also get the chance to fly to New York for in-person interviews and one lucky winner will win a full-time job with Affect!  I need your help by getting votes for my entry.  You can only vote once but by sharing my profile with your friends after you have voted, they may just vote and also share and so on.  I started a Twitter hashtag to go along with #teamaffect: #cassandraforaffect.  Please vote and help get my hashtag to go viral so that the judges will notice and hopefully each give me all of their 200 votes (wishful thinking because there are also some other amazing candidates.)  To vote for me and to read my story click on my picture below. Make sure you are logged onto your Facebook account so that you can vote that way or you will have to create an account.  Then click on the “Vote for this entry” button below my picture.  I thank you in advance and please help me get my big break into public relations!

#cassandraforaffect

ApPReciation

Be grateful for how far you have come & have faith in how far you can go!  I saw @FashionWeekNYC tweet this and it made me reflect on my journey throughout my career thus far. I recent just got back from New York.  I didn’t plan on staying in New York long, just for the day.  I was determined to meet my family that lived there.

I contacted my family member via telephone a week prior to my visit to let him know who I was and that I was visiting for a short period.  I invited him to lunch, just excited to meet  this person that came from my humble beginnings living in the big city, the same place I aspire to work.  After my appointment, we walked through the Lower East Side to Chinatown for some Thai food. I enjoyed walking the Big Apple while getting to know about my relative, occasionally getting lost for 5 seconds before my relative realizes where we are at again. (By the way, I love how all New Yorkers talk out loud trying while using hand signals trying to figure out all the stops or the best train to use when asking for directions.)

I found out that he has been through some close encounters.  My relative works in construction in downtown New York, working specifically underground building new subway systems.  He was underground working or “in the hole” as he calls it while the entire east coast experienced an earthquake two years ago.  Luckily, him and his crew walked away unharmed.

But there was one particular story of my relative that I had a hard time fighting back tears to.  My relative has been in New York for over 30 years at this time.  On the day of September 11, 2011 my relative was on the 99th floor of the South Tower when the planes hit.  He ran down all 99 floors before it collapsed and then walked 12 miles to the Bronx.  After speaking with my dad, we learned that it took hours for my relative to call his wife to let her know he was fine.  It’s crazy how fast the love forms after just meeting your relative.  After getting to know more about each other, and after returning to North Carolina, I got a voicemail from him checking to see if I had got back safe.  At the end of his call, he said “Love you, talk to you later.”  It was so unexpected but it didn’t feel weird at all.

I’m so blessed with the people in my life, old and new.  I thank God for that day of getting to know my relative while walking around New York City.  It was one of the most beautiful experiences in my life. I’m now more determined to meet other family members as well as research my family history.

Get Emotions Out of the Equation

When it comes down to it, business is business.  A relationship between a PR pro and a client can be a rocky one.  There will be bad conversations and discussions along with great ones!  A client may want to do something and their publicist may advise against them doing it due to possible damage to their brand or just plain nonsense.  That client could potentially get offended if their publicist does not like their idea.

This could cause the client to feel some type of way about their publicist.  They may even consider firing them because their publicist is not a “yes man.”  A publicist job is not to tell you what you want to hear or to agree with everything you do.  Clients can hire a “yes man” to hype them up and agree with everything they say but a publicist will not do it if they have the client’s best interests at heart.

The most important thing is to emotions get in the way of potential business and potentially more exposure.  If an opportunity arises where it could help a client’s business dramatically and they are hesitant to take it because of your previous conversation, one in which a publicist did not agree with their views, then this is a huge problem.  Not only does it show that the client and publicist need to sort through any tension you have going on, the client is getting in his own way of furthering their business.  When that happens and continues to happen, it is best to let that client go.  There is no need to continue on a bad relationship in which the client hardly ever listens to their hired guidance.

I’m Obsessed: Personally and Professionally!!!

BEYONCE!!!!! AAAAAAHHHHH! Ok, now that I’ve got my excitement out of the way, I wanted to blog about my favorite singer/performer/entertainer right now.  Beyonce is back and she shows no signs of slowing down.  I’ve been a fan since Destiny’s Child.  Her music is empowering and she inspires me to have confidence in myself.

Ever since my marching band days back in high school, we’ve always had a Beyonce dance feature, except that one time when we had a Whitney Houston feature.  Her music is something you can not only dance to, but relate with as well.

Professionally speaking, I also look up to Beyonce as an amazing business woman.  She knows how to plan well in advance.  Her Super Bowl 47 performance was absolutely amazing, so much so that she literally brought the game to a halt when the lights went off!  I love how she is in charge of her business.  Her offices in NYC is set up with cameras everywhere and she has her own personal cameraman to follow her around so she can document almost every second of her life.  Did you see her videos on her website leading to the big Super Bowl show?  Yep, that’s all her doing.  Singer, actress, executive producer, songwriter, dancer, and so much more, I look up to her as a person that goes on to accomplish all of her goals, no matter what!

I plan on working for her one day, whether it be on her team of publicists or one of her backup dancers   Will you be attending her Mrs. Carter World Tour?

Is Bigger Always Mean Better?

Working in-house public relations for my company has it’s many ups and downs.  Recently, we had a sales meeting in which all of our sales representatives flew in from their respected hometowns.  Due to my previous boss obtaining another position with a different company, and due to the many duties she was responsible for, I was able to get not only a raise but also most of her duties as well as her office.

Now her office just so happens to be the largest office at our company’s headquarters.  Going from assistant to manager in eight short  months with no training was a drastic change.  I needed her office for her computer with all the important files but her office was used for storage and as a mini-photography studio.

One of the sales people has been into my office multiple times before and has never said anything to me about the size of the office.  As soon as another sales person walks in to ask a question the first salesperson, who are both men by the way, the first person makes a comment about having the biggest office.  I smiled but assured them that I didn’t care about this size and yet, the other sales person commented “Yeah we know but it’s ALL about size.”

This is the question I pose to you.  Does bigger always mean better?  I would say not in all cases.  I went from having a nice private desk, where I was rarely visited to having an office full of things where people rudely walk in without knocking to see if it’s fine to come in.  I could be on a conference call with the door shut and co-workers would just walk right in, even though my door is always open 99% of the time.  Maybe it’s their way of showing that even though I have the biggest office, I have little power and it’s nothing I can do about it.  Even though I could care less, it still doesn’t change the fact that I have the biggest office and to them, size does matter so who has the last laugh?