CHAPTER 9

Moving Full Speed

“And the winner is . . . Mitchell Communications Group!”

I was never more stunned to hear those words than on the night of March 10, 2011. Our entire leadership team was sitting in a ballroom in midtown Manhattan with a thousand other leaders at the annual PR Week Awards banquet. This is like the Oscars in our industry. Winning hardware on this night puts you on a very short list of top agencies and corporations in the competitive world of communications. Being named as an Agency of the Year is like winning Best Picture—many want it, few ever get it.

There we were, a group of hardworking public relations (PR) pros who hadn’t slept much in the past few years. We had been building Mitchell and trying to keep our arms around the burgeoning agency. Despite our rapid growth—more than 400 percent in four years, at this point—I had been hesitant to throw our hat in the ring for these sorts of things. But a nearly three-hour breakfast conversation with a key industry leader a year or so earlier changed all that.

I met Julia Hood in late 2009 when she was the publishing director of PRWeek magazine. She’s now an executive vice president and chief content officer for Haymarket Media, PRWeek’s parent company, and in 2015 she added global brand director to her title. Over the years, she has proven herself as an exceptional writer, someone who is straightforward in her analysis of things, and a respected advocate who is always driving the industry forward. In short, there are many reasons why I would want to know her, but in 2009, I wasn’t sure why she would want to meet me.

Michael Lasky, my lawyer since the early 2000s, introduced us. Michael is also a force in the industry. He is cochair of the litigation practice group of Davis & Gilbert law firm in New York, but he is known in PR circles for his deep expertise and specialization in counseling owners of PR, advertising, and other professional service firms.

Michael had been urging me for a few years to become more active in the industry on a national level, but I didn’t think I had the time or, frankly, a big enough firm or good enough story to earn that right. When I finally agreed for Michael to introduce me to Julia, I had no idea how that meeting would change our approach to thought leadership and reshape my personal leadership journey.

Julia and I sat at a small table in Pershing Square, a restaurant on 42nd Street directly across the street from Grand Central Station. After we ordered coffee and introduced ourselves, she asked me to tell her about my agency. I went back to the beginning, telling her how Raye and I had moved to Northwest Arkansas in 1995 and how I had started the agency basically at my kitchen table. I told her about building the virtual network of talent, and how we had acquired Walmart, Tyson, J.B. Hunt, Sam’s Club, and Southwestern Energy as major national clients. I told her about moving into two different offices to accommodate our growing full-time staff, which was then up to about 17 people, and how we had bought a training and facilitation business the year prior. I also told her we were hoping to top $3 million in revenue by the end of that year.

My story went long and included far more details than anyone besides me would really want to know. But Julia’s response was simply this: “How come I’ve never met you before?” She was absolutely surprised to hear our story and pleased to discover an agency that didn’t fit the traditional mold.

Julia told me the industry needed fresh voices and the size of the firm didn’t define its value. She urged me to raise my hand to be a guest speaker and writer when the magazine had opportunities and to enter our work in the PRWeek Awards.

That second suggestion caught my attention, because it was something we could do right away. But to do it, we would literally have to do it right away. When I got back to the firm the following Monday, I told our leadership team I wanted to enter. They were excited . . . until they learned we had only until Friday to get it done! But we all agreed that with the growth and momentum the agency was experiencing, now was the time to try and we would do whatever it took to get the entry finished and shipped to New York before the deadline.

We were eligible for the Boutique Agency category, which was anything less than $5 million in gross revenue. The judges included notable industry leaders, and I knew we’d be up against stiff competition. We would have to tell a compelling story and produce an outstanding entry, and our team did an amazing job.

We found out we were a finalist for Agency of the Year a few months later. Michael Clark and I decided to fly our small leadership team to New York for the event. We didn’t win, but being in the ballroom that night and seeing close-up the quality of work and the level of excellence that other agencies and corporations were achieving only made me want it more. We were thrilled to be there, but I wasn’t satisfied. I set my sights on winning the next time.

Fast-forward one year later to March 10, 2011, and there we sat, surprised and delighted—and winners of the award for Small Agency of the Year. (We had grown and moved into the category for agencies between $5 million and $10 million.) A few minutes later, Mitchell won a second award: honorable mention for the overall Agency of the Year as one of the best agencies regardless of size.

Taking home two prestigious awards that night was a special moment for our team, which had worked so hard for so many years to build a truly exceptional firm in the most unlikely of places. Unbeknownst to us, it was just the beginning of a string of honors the agency would earn over the next few years as we increased our efforts around thought leadership.

Worth It? Or Not?

When you begin to soar as a leader, you often are asked to share your knowledge and expertise. This can be a gratifying part of a leader’s journey, and it’s how you become what is commonly referred to as a thought leader. Thought leaders are recognized for their competence, their passion for what they do, and their compelling point of view. They share their ideas freely and are respected for their contributions to their industry and to the broader business community.

It sounds great, but wading into these waters can be a little scary. When the requests escalate to include speaking, writing, and other more visible engagements, perhaps even on a national stage, deciding what to pursue can become challenging and confusing. This is especially true for those who are unsure about how and why to become more visible in the first place.

Is it worth the effort and the cost (in time and money) to become a thought leader? Or is it just a distraction—something that takes energy away from the “real” work of running a business?

I believe it is worth it, if it’s done the right way. A thought leadership platform works best when it’s carefully planned and implemented. Like anything else, a solid strategy for focusing your resources increases your chances of getting solid ROI. But thought leadership looks different, depending upon several factors, including your personality as a leader, your industry, and the stage of your journey (as a leader and as an organization).

Like the agency itself, our approach to thought leadership at Mitchell developed over time until we intentionally ramped up our efforts following my meeting with Julia in 2009. So wherever you are in your leadership or organizational journey, there are always things you can do to develop your potential as a thought leader.

As a young professional, for instance, I was very active as a volunteer in the PR industry and in my local community. My primary professional efforts were with the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) and the International Association of Business Communicators. I served as a leader in each organization: in the local chapters, on regional district boards, and on national committees. I also served on several local nonprofit and civic boards, usually as the communications or special events chair.

I loved meeting other leaders and learning new skills such as large-scale project management, leading other leaders, and setting and achieving stretch goals. I also had a few unsolicited job offers, which underscored the value of networking and demonstrating your expertise to a broader audience.

When we moved to Northwest Arkansas, I stayed involved with PRSA, spearheading the effort to establish a chapter in the region. I also expanded my involvement to include local, regional, and statewide business organizations, as well as several well-regarded nonprofit and civic groups. I served on boards and expanded my personal and professional networks significantly, earning dear friends and many clients along the way. I also began writing guest columns for the local business journal and speaking at business events.

Expanding Our Efforts

As the agency grew, other leaders on the team started speaking and writing, as well. It wasn’t uncommon for people to call our office looking for any of the talented Mitchell team to participate in a business or civic activity. In 2009 when we put a more intentional and focused strategy behind our thought leadership, things really took off.

Several people on our leadership team drove agency involvement in prominent business and civic organizations by serving on boards or in other key leadership roles. We also joined several national women’s associations in the retail and consumer packaged goods (CPG) industries. And I continued to drive our industry involvement nationally.

In the fall of 2011, I met Paul Holmes, the founder of The Holmes Report and more than a dozen media outlets, events, awards, and recognition programs. Paul is another major force in our industry, and I was delighted to share the Mitchell story with him, but also nervous as all get-out. As it turned out, there was no reason to be. Paul loves a great entrepreneurial story, and he had the same reaction Julia did, wondering why we had never met before.

Over the next two years, The Holmes Report named us Small Agency of the Year and ranked us as one of the ten fastest growing agencies globally (at this point we had grown more than 500 percent in five years). We saw firsthand the powerful reach The Holmes Report had with corporate clients in the industry, as these recognitions were noted by many clients and prospects who talked with us afterward.

Our partnership with PRWeek also continued, and I increased my involvement with industry groups like the PR Council and PRSA Counselors Academy. One of the reasons I loved my leadership experiences with industry organizations was because I learned so much from other agency leaders about the challenges and opportunities they faced. Working with them on solutions not only helped them, but also helped me stay on top of how the industry was changing and led me to think about ways we could continue to evolve Mitchell.

In short, our agency has been able to have a big voice in an industry that had in many ways grown deaf to small and midsize agencies.

“You changed that perspective in our industry,” Julia told me. “So the lesson for other leaders is this: find people in your industry who will listen to you. Seek them out, because they won’t necessarily find you. People have their circles, and they can become echo chambers. Change the conversation by being part of it.”

Creating a Platform

We created a thought leadership platform partly in response to the demand that resulted from our growth and partly as a strategy for continuing our growth. But creating that platform wasn’t easy. It was great that we were growing and that people wanted to know more about our story, but how should we go about it? How could we manage it all and keep the business running?

Not every opportunity to speak, write, or participate was the best use of our time. Plus we were all working nonstop to take care of our clients, which was always our first priority. How should we make choices about what invitations to accept and which ones to say no to? How should we decide if and when to get involved on a national level? And what practical steps did we need to make to ensure we got a return on our investments of time, energy, and, of course, money?

As we began to craft a strategy, we kept in mind some fundamentals that any leader can apply when thinking through a program. Here are some of the valuable lessons we learned as we created and implemented the strategy.

Study What’s Out There

One of the first things you can do is figure out what other organizations are doing in your industry and in your community and how well they’re doing it. In other words, do some homework. Look at the issues in the marketplace and what’s on the minds of your clients. Study other successful thought leadership programs and identify what is working.

At Mitchell, we determined what types of influencers we wanted to reach and we put a master list together. It included not only clients, but also prospects, elected officials, leaders of business and industry associations, key reporters and contacts in the media, members of many important nonprofit boards, and other select agency friends.

Your research will help you set specific goals for a thought leadership plan. Ours included goals around greater visibility for the agency, a desirable positioning in our areas of expertise, a stronger ability to attract top talent to work for us, new clients and a more diversified revenue stream, and increased morale among the entire team.

Identify Your Spokespersons

Who on your team has a passion and a point of view worth sharing, as well as the credibility to back it up? Often, of course, this is the founder or CEO, but you can have spokespersons at all levels. Look across your leadership ranks to find those who can authentically and boldly share new ideas and can engage stakeholders in meaningful discussion about business-impacting issues.

Refine Your Message

Armed with a clear idea of what you want to accomplish, you need to develop the core messages you want to consistently communicate. For Mitchell, this included our expertise in PR, the story of our company’s growth, and our commitment to advance our industry and our community through giving back.

We also developed a specific messaging strategy for me. I worked closely with two of our senior leaders at the agency, Sarah Clark and Michelle Nelson who both had great experience in developing thought leadership platforms for executives. They were the driving force behind our overall strategy, but they also strongly encouraged me to tell my leadership story. I was a little unsure how that could help the agency, but they knew an authentic and accessible leader who is willing to share her story and the lessons learned along the way would help draw additional positive attention to the company.

We developed key messages that focused on things I was most passionate about and could speak to with credibility: entrepreneurship, leadership, and building a compelling culture. This is when I first began developing the concept of the journey and the destination to describe all that had happened in my life personally and professionally.

Inspired by my newfound love of motorcycling, my inaugural talk on a national stage was in June 2011 in another midtown Manhattan ballroom to several hundred industry leaders from across the country. It was titled “Looking Through the Turn: On the Journey of Life and Leadership” and told the story of the agency I loved and what I was learning as a leader who was lucky to be on the ride of her life.

Tune Into Your Channels

Each organization is different, but nearly everyone has access to multiple channels for sharing their story. You have your website, of course, but there are tons of other earned and owned media opportunities. You just have to identify them (that’s the research) and use them to connect with your key audiences.

We started by carefully selecting several national business and industry organizations we wanted to get involved with, including a few women’s business groups. Sarah and Michelle developed this list, and their thinking was very valuable, particularly on the latter point. It would further refine our focus on women’s entrepreneurship, a space we were obviously well suited for and had already earned some credibility. In 2007, we had become a certified women-owned business through the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC). That same year, we hosted a luncheon for about 70 women business owners to raise awareness for certification with WBENC and the regional organization, the Women’s Business Council of the Southwest (WBCS). We won three different awards from WBENC and WBCS between 2008 and 2011 for our work to encourage women’s entrepreneurship in the region and also for our own company’s growth.

We broadened our focus to include five highly respected national organizations: Women Impacting Public Policy, the Women Presidents Organization, Enterprising Women, the National Association for Female Executives, and Working Mother Media. Michelle and I met with each organization. Our hosts were warm and welcoming, curious to hear our story, and just as encouraging as Julia and Michael had been about seeing us get involved. As we did that, we reaped the benefits. We expanded our national network of corporate leaders and entrepreneurs, gained greater visibility by speaking at various conferences and leadership events, wrote articles and blog posts for these organizations, and received several awards.¹

In addition to our positioning and engagement plan, we put together an editorial calendar that set topics and timelines for content creation throughout the year. For example, we prepared case studies on our best work (being careful to observe client confidentiality restrictions) and launched a digital portfolio for clients and prospects to take a virtual tour of our work. Blake Woolsey and her team at our training center created monthly webinars that were offered for free to give prospects a taste of our training capabilities. Our creative group shot a series of videos featuring our agency leaders offering insights on their areas of expertise, and we posted these on our website and the agency’s YouTube channel. We drafted numerous social media posts and blog posts for our website, as well as the websites of organizations that we were members of. One year we brought in a speaker for a client summit on social media. We also drafted and distributed a few select email announcements to agency clients and friends when we had news to share or a special resource to offer.

Let me pause for a moment and address something you might be wondering: How did we find the time to get all of this done? As I mentioned in previous chapters, we had always been stretched pretty thin and had to be wise about the time and effort we were putting toward anything new. Whatever we decided to take on had to be worked in to our schedules after clients’ needs had been met first.

Here are a few things that helped us pull it all off.

•   Having a focus was critical so we didn’t get pulled in too many directions.

•   Setting some allocations for the amount of time helped prevent scope creep.

•   Our staff and capacity had grown as an agency, too, so we were able to divide the workload among several of us.

•   I looked for windows of my own time I could redirect toward this effort, too—for example, late in the evening after the family was settled in, getting up an hour or two early a few mornings a week, or while I was sitting on an airplane. While this might not be something you are willing to do for the long haul, taking a quick inventory of your schedule will likely reveal some “found time” you can repurpose to get an initiative like this off the ground.

Take a Stand

Look for the areas where your organization has deep expertise and differentiating capabilities, especially around issues that are important to your stakeholders. The goal is to stake out a space where you can establish a clear platform that isn’t already effectively claimed by others.

If you want to stand out in all the noise that’s clanging throughout the world these days, you can’t waste the spotlight on the predictable. You need to find ways to challenge conventional thinking, push new ideas, and position your organization as pioneering. You can’t force the issue, of course. People can easily spot a phony. But when you identify your passion points, and those shared by others in your organization, you’ll find causes to adopt and champion.

For instance, as a female entrepreneur, I’ve always looked for ways to encourage and support other women who own their own businesses. So one of the biggest wins for our thought leadership strategy came when I testified before Congress in the summer of 2012, thanks to my work with Women Impacting Public Policy (WIPP).

The U.S. House Committee on Small Business was holding a full congressional hearing titled, “Tales of Resilience: Small Business Survival in the Recession.” The committee asked WIPP to suggest a company that had succeeded despite the challenging economy of the past few years. I was on WIPP’s national board at the time, and Barbara Kasoff, WIPP’s founder, and Ann Sullivan, the lead lobbyist, recommended that I share the Mitchell story on this national stage.

I was deeply honored when the committee formally invited me. I used the theme “looking through the turn” and focused on the key messages we had developed in our new thought leadership strategy. My testimony² included an overview of our firm, clients, and the region we call home; how we have achieved growth; ways other companies can grow in spite of a still uncertain economy; and what Washington can do to help small businesses succeed.

Before and after the hearing, I met with various congressional representatives and shared highlights of my testimony. Without exception, I received tremendous support for our firm, for our industry, and for the important role the private sector plays in driving our economy.

I was the only woman testifying at the hearing and proud to represent other women entrepreneurs who are working hard to build their businesses. Women are the fastest-growing group of entrepreneurs in the United States. A report commissioned by American Express OPEN estimates there are 11.3 million women-owned firms, or 38 percent of all independent businesses in the country.³ It was also an honor to bring positive recognition to the PR industry, and I was asked to write a blog post⁴ on my experiences for the PR Council and an article for PRWeek.⁵

But the greatest benefit of testifying was the pride our firm’s employees and clients felt by having their story told. The hearing was televised live and we had TVs on in the office so employees could watch. Many clients told us how proud they were that their agency was receiving such positive attention nationally, reinforcing their decision to place their trust in us.

This specific opportunity underscored the value of increased visibility to the firm, particularly when you can focus the messaging on those who helped you achieve success—namely your employees, your clients, your community, and your industry.

Monitor and Measure

Establishing meaningful metrics can demonstrate how thought leadership helps build your business. You can monitor indicators such as greater engagement from stakeholders, higher quality new business inquiries, requests for thought leaders to speak at preferred venues, heightened awareness of key messages and understanding of your platform issues, and ultimately, of course, a desired behavior change motivated by a call-to-action.

Our plan included measurable objectives such as the number of speaking engagements we wanted to do, the size and types of audiences we wanted to reach, specific publications we wanted to be featured in, how frequently our core messaging was included in their coverage, targeted client prospects we wanted to meet, important business and industry influencers we wanted to build relationships with, and new organizations we wanted to work with that would enable us to meet and connect with their communities.

Be patient, of course, when it comes to the results. It takes time to create and refine a compelling message and build the relationships with the right people who want and need to hear it. Building a thought leadership platform is a marathon, not a sprint. But the time and effort you invest will produce results for you and your organization over the long run.

Reaping the Rewards

So let’s go back to that question I threw out earlier: Is all of this worth it? Well, we at Mitchell invested wisely in a more strategic approach to thought leadership, and I’m confident it paid off in significant benefits to the agency and to me personally. Here are few:

•   Revenue growth: Our growth continued at a strong pace. In 2011 our revenue was $11.5 million, and by 2014 we had grown to nearly $16 million.

•   Talent: We successfully attracted significant new talent to join the agency, including several senior-level professionals who helped us launch new practice areas. Many of these employees said the same thing in their interview: they had been watching Mitchell Communications and wanted to be part of a highly regarded and fast-growing company. The “careers” page on our website gets more visits than any other page, and when it launched in 2012 our applications went from a couple of hundred to more than a thousand in less than a year.

•   Clients: Our client roster continued to expand with major national accounts such as Hilton Hotels & Resorts and Procter & Gamble. These would have been much harder to land without a reputation as a nationally respected agency.

•   Trends: Networking with colleagues and talking with industry leaders and observers gave us a more detailed view of how the PR industry was changing. We heard what others were experiencing in terms of changing client needs, where budgets were shifting, and how new influences such as procurement were impacting the agency-client relationship. These insights confirmed some of our thinking about how we wanted to grow Mitchell and stay ahead of the many changes that were coming at us.

•   Recognition: We’ve won more than 40 national, statewide, or regional industry and business awards,⁶ not including many other honors for our work. We’ve been selective about the things we wanted to win. While we haven’t won everything we’ve tried for, we have benefited from the awards that have come our way. The media coverage and credibility enhanced the agency’s reputation and brought valuable awareness to our team.

•   Greater visibility: During the time frame when we ramped up our approach to thought leadership, articles on the agency appeared both online and in print for PRWeek, The Holmes Report, Arkansas Business, and the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth and many other outlets. The exposure from articles, speeches by members of our team, and awards we won all contributed to greater visibility. For instance, visits to our website more than doubled: from 22,364 visits in 2011 to 46,497 in 2014. And engagement on our agency Facebook page nearly tripled.

•   Desirable positioning: By listening to clients and our up-close observations of changes in the industry, we evolved our expertise in key areas such as digital and social media, Web technology, consumer insights, and content marketing. Importantly, we positioned the agency through a brand refresh in 2015 with unique expertise in three core areas: consumer marketing, hyperlocal activation, and brand reputation. This positioning led to a strong uptick in prospect inquiries and conversations with existing clients about new ways we can expand our work with them.

•   Employee morale: While recognizing individuals for their work is important, so is making everyone feel they’re a part of something bigger than themselves. When we survey our team, they overwhelmingly agree that Mitchell has a good reputation regionally and industrywide. In 2012, 93 percent of them agreed or strongly agreed with that idea, and it was up to 96 percent in 2013. And 96 percent of our team agrees or strongly agrees that they are proud to work at Mitchell. We’ve always had good morale at Mitchell, but I believe our thought-leadership efforts have drawn us closer as a team and allowed us to connect as we accomplished things together.

Personally, I have benefited far more than I could have imagined from our enhanced approach to thought leadership.

I met other entrepreneurs who had been hard at it like I had been for years. These leaders became some of my best friends in the business—and in life, really. And their experiences benefited us greatly. I was able to gain valuable insights and share those with our leadership team. Together we could identify ways we might apply those learnings to our situation.

While it enhanced my personal brand and profile as a leader, that really was just a side benefit. More important, I found pure joy in sharing the story of our company, my leadership journey, and the countless lessons we have learned that have made us wiser, stronger, and better. Thought leadership helped me find my voice and bring some sense to all that had happened to me. In doing so, I developed more of a journey mindset, which I desperately needed to find during the craziness of these hypergrowth years. This book has also been a part of that process. Throughout the writing of it over the past year, I have rediscovered many events that have brought back memories I will always treasure, and I am hopeful my experiences will help others.

Finally, our thought leadership led us to realize one of the most valuable opportunities an entrepreneur can have: the opportunity to consider selling your company, an experience that would put me squarely in the friction zone.