Personal


Five lessons from starting a new PR firm

Firebrand is now a month old. We’re signing up our first clients, hiring our first team members, and getting the systems in place. Agency life is a rollercoaster, so right now after the big climb to launch, we’re accelerating into the drop, hands in the air while screaming something joyously incoherent a few octaves too high for respectability. We’re having fun, so I thought I’d share five lessons learned so far.


Leaving LEWIS after 20 years

After twenty years, I am leaving my PR agency, LEWIS. That’s a long time to work with one firm, especially in an industry where average tenure is about three years. So I thought I’d take this chance to talk about two things – the importance of tenure, and what’s next for me personally.





Broken chain

The power of routines

After six months (count them) of silence, I’m back publishing here. I hope you’ll forgive the lack of communications and content. I’d like to say it was a deliberate plan to recharge the blogging batteries after seven years, but the truth is simpler. I became over-committed and something had to give



Thank you note

Thank you, thank you, thank you

Most of us don’t say ‘thank you’ enough. We breeze through our days, letting people help us without taking the time to recognize those efforts or reward them. It’s almost as if there is a finite amount of gratitude and recognition we can give, and we want to eek it out over time. As if by thanking people liberally we demean its value.