ARTICULATED

Kinkennon Communications, Inc. (KC) is delighted that the Armed Services YMCA (ASYMCA) is a new client. At 14 branch locations and more than 150 program centers on or near military installations around the country, ASYMCA makes military life easier by providing basic support and services – think food and clothing pantries, childcare and tutoring, etc. – to the nation’s junior enlisted troops and their families.

Most people don’t automatically think of junior enlisted military families as a “vulnerable population” (other than the obvious), but they are because they’re quite low paid, and they’re separated from each other as well as their networks of extended family and friends. Check out this great, brief 30-second spot to get a better sense of what ASYMCA does for those people.

ASYMCA was a client of mine years ago, in a previous life. I’m delighted to be back in that fold along with my regular partner who’s helping me, Scott Warner of Warner Strategies.

And you know I love being around nonprofits that generate lots of impact with a charitable dollar. ASYMCA is a great example of that:

• ASYMCA serves 455,000 junior enlisted troops and their families every year.
• The organization utilizes the help of more than 110,000 hours from 10,000 volunteers every year, drastically expanding its program reach and impact.
• ASYMCA convert 91 cents on every charitable dollar into food and clothing pantries, childcare and counseling, tutoring and other basic life services for those serving our country.

Yay! Good times.

Last summer, Kinkennon Communications was hired to develop and run marketing communications for four nonprofit organizations that were in the final stages of merging into one. I had to help them figure out the merged organization’s new name, logo, tagline, what to tell clients and funders, what to say to the news media, when and how, etc. It was three months of intensive, roll-up-the-sleeves work.

This week I received this lovely thank you note from the delightful woman who’s the organization’s CEO. How lucky am I that I get to work with people like this?

Now that Kinkennon Communications (KC) has been in Colorado for five years, and does an increasing amount of work for Colorado-based clients, I sometimes tell people that I’ve gotten away from the DC-style advocacy and public affairs work that has dominated a large portion of my career.

But then last month, when I looked at the “Top 10 lobbying victories of 2011” as published by a major Capitol Hill newspaper, I realized I was involved in three of them (in a media relations capacity) – including being on the winning side of the top one on the list.

So there’s my belief that the business is trending westward. And then there’s the facts, which sure seem to suggest KC is “Washington” as ever.

Six weeks ago, my client’s perspective on a high-stakes issue being hotly debated in Congress was getting the bejeezus kicked out of it in the media. The opponent, a massive industry spending millions of dollars on lobbying and advertising, was winning the PR war outright. While I’m part of a rather large PR team, the beating was nonetheless painful if not personally embarrassing. I became quite pessimistic.

But when you keep plowing along, sometimes things change. The issue continues to generate news around the country every day. But en total, our side is now getting a fairer hearing. Coverage has moved back toward balanced. Things are trending our way, and it couldn’t come at a better time.

I have a very small but important part of that. All of this could change tomorrow. But at the moment, it feels really good.

Here is a great job with a very cool organization, one that is an on-again, off-again client of KC. I’m a big fan.

Occasionally, I buy into the dire predictions of futurists: that the United States is about to run out of water, or run out of energy, or that our economy is permanently tanked. Or that the singularity will come and kill me by computer. Clearly paranoia comes with age.

I raise this seemingly random point because, if any of these predictions come true, I don’t think strategic communications will be in hot demand. But there will be great NEED – human, environmental, societal – the kind that likely will only be met by massive amounts of creatively applied philanthropic dollars. Someone is gonna have to raise that money. So occasionally when nonprofit fundraising jobs pop up, I wonder if it isn’t time to try to go pick up that skill set forthrightly.

Over happy-hour margaritas recently, my dear friend and wise confidant Lea Ann coaxed from me my candid feelings about a situation that has become one of the largest distractions and sources of anxiety of my career. It has to do with a client that, it would seem, has decided not to pay me. I use the words “it would seem” because I don’t actually know. My contact at the client organization has not returned my emails, voicemails or text messages for months. I received only silence during the project term, forcing me to work in a bubble, often guessing what was needed. And I’ve received only silence since in response to my pleas for payment status.

I confessed to Lea Ann that the situation has rocked me, that I am at a loss as to why, and that I am oddly embarrassed that I am so disrupted. (I mean, no one’s life is on the line, after all.)  I have even neglected this blog for fear of revealing the negativity born of this adversity.

You see, my point of contact at the client organization, the person who has ignored me for months, is a close professional friend – someone with whom I have worked regularly and for whom I have considerable affection.  Upon hearing all of this, Lea Ann was instantly able to explain.  “You are a relationship guy,” she said.  ”You create and cultivate them; it is your trade and currency. To have that compromised by someone you trust, particularly in the form of deafening silence, is a high offense to your worldview.”

The light bulb came on instantly. This client owes me $15,000, according to our written agreement. That’s ample money to grouse over. But I’ve already piffled away far more than $15,000 in hours of static bewilderment and sleepless nights.  At least now I understand why.

In Kinkennon Communications’ five years of existence, this is not the first time I have dealt with unpaid invoices. It’s not even the first time that the person on the other end was a friend. But in that past example, the friend was swift and sure in dealing with the unwanted turn: “The company has run out of money. If you are to be paid at all, I need you to accept a settlement. This is beyond humiliating for me. I offer no excuses for my contribution to this unfortunate predicament. I am simply, terribly sorry.” It was painful, but the friendship survived.

In this current situation, I’ve received no such courtesy. Is the organization out of money? Are they somehow dissatisfied with my company’s work? I’ve said repeatedly that I’m willing to hear any of those things and work diligently toward a solution. But I hear only silence.

What all of this has revealed are the trials associated with the defining characteristic of a career that is focused on relationships first.  That characteristic is trust.  And it would seem it should not be doled out lightly.  It’s a rattling and probably overdue lesson.

I’m continuing to try to collect what is owed. At the same time, I am intensely focused on staying grounded. Payment issues are part of doing business. They will always sting. But what I am learning is that it is downright poisonous to take them personally.

Dollar sign photo courtesy of Nedral via a Flickr creative commons license. Handshake photo courtesy of Mark Ireland via a Flickr creative commons license.

I took a break from the blog for a whole month. It wasn’t by design, necessarily. But this past fall brought Kinkennon Communications three big new clients and big new projects, plus a host of volunteer obligations. Sometimes one has no choice but to put one’s head down and work.

And work I have. I’ve even “wErQed,” as the crazy kids say:

• On behalf of my great partners at The Herald Group, we drew every local TV station in Austin, TX, to the unveil event for a new eco-commerce center and airport in Central Texas. (See one of those local TV stories here.)

•  Literally last night for the Retail Industry Leaders Association on the topic of forthcoming regulations on credit- and debit-care swipe fees, we secured a one-hour segment on the nationally syndicated Jim Bohannon Show that ended up pushing on the fly to two hours. The producer said afterwards that in that time slot, the phones never light up like they did last night.  (You can listen to part of that here.)  This is with my regular business partner and drinking buddy Scott Warner of Warner Strategies on behalf of Public Strategies Washington.

• For my new client the Hope Street Group, Warner and I just convinced Reuters to do an exclusive feature story on the release of a big report this Friday calling for a national strategy to reinvent primary care, the health care that people receive on first contact with the medical system. I absolutely love this project.

• With my oftentimes boss / leader / mentor / friend Mike McCurry at Public Strategies Washington (where I serve as something of a regular), I’ve developed and presented a multiyear campaign plan to a category of some of America’s most beloved institutions for proactively telling their great story.

• I’ve just taken on a short-term project to help a major industry group in Washington whip up a plan for building relationships within the LGBT community.

• I’m having a phone conversation today about a potential project that would be one of the coolest things I’ve taken on in years.

And I’ve been on fire with my volunteer obligations, including finding some success in uncovering substantial corporate sponsorships for the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund & Leadership Institute.  This volunteer fundraising stuff is a big learning experience.

All that said, I intend to get back to regular posts to the blog. Onward.

Back in March, I confessed my regret over a posture I maintained through most of a recently ended client relationship. I named my guilt for doing something fairly unlike me – keeping quiet some potentially disruptive ideas about where the client really should have been investing its marketing resources. In the name of avoiding conflict with my primary contact at that company, I maintained silence. As it turns out, that did none of us a bit of good. I said never again.

Fast forward to recently, when Kinkennon Communications received an RFP from an organization I’d love to work for. Unfortunately, my thoughts about how the prospective client should approach its public relations challenge, and the approach suggested in the RFP, were a bit out of synch. The modus operandi in these proposal situations is to say the right things so your firm gets hired. But with “never again” fresh on my mind, and a general distaste for hypocrisy, I decided I’d better go ahead and say what I think … even if I was pretty certain it would result in Kinkennon Communications’ proposal going directly to the trash.

Wouldn’t you know it, they’ve called me in for the next round. I may find myself in front of a firing squad. But it would be an honor to help this group, so –- at the moment -– I’m feeling pretty good.

Scott Warner of Warner Strategies, a trusted partner of Kinkennon Communications, writes occasionally for this blog. This is one of those posts. To the left is him in a downtown-DC nature setting.

I’m amazed we still see news stories with the phrase “So-and-So did not return calls for comment.” It happens all the time, even from large, high profile, mature organizations and companies that certainly should know better.

In an example the other day in The Washington Business Journal, a respected D.C.-area business had clearly opted not to respond to a reporter writing about a legal matter involving the company. I appreciate the sensitivity and internal tension around complex legal issues. But refusing to answer questions in an age of 24×7 communications and pervasive citizen journalism is an entirely outdated modus operandi. PR101 instructs us to get out ahead of such stories. Be upfront and proactive. If communications strategy does not match legal strategy, then both are at risk of failure.

In the case of this particular company, the unreturned phone calls had the same negative consequence as they always do. Other people were sought out to comment in the vacuum left by the company’s silence. The narrative was set by the media and random third parties. As a result, the story did no favors for the company nor, I’m guessing, its legal position.

If your company or organization finds itself in a legal predicament, figure out a communications strategy other than silence. Find a way to put forth your side of the story. Craft and communiate your legal messages in a timely manner. No matter how sensitive the material, your reputation is on the line, and silence will never, ever help you.

Photo courtesy of bitzcelt (http://bit.ly/aijJnR)

My partner Warner Strategies and I recently wrapped up work for a client that is doing some important if not particularly sexy work. It is a good little company with a very relevant mission. We were hired to generate news stories about it.

Early on in the arrangement, I could see the indirect benefit to the company of the media placements we were generating. But I had a nagging suspicion that, based on the company’s stated goals, there were higher-value activities to which it could have been allocating those marketing dollars. In time, I wanted to articulate my private assessment. Of course, the fact that the company had chosen media relations was helping me pay my mortgage. I kept my mouth shut.

My principles are a powerful motivator in my business dealings. As a consultant, I feel compelled to speak the plain truth as I see it, even when such recommendations might make my client uncomfortable, and even when they might not be the smartest thing for Kinkennon Communications. I believe it’s what is “right” for me. I’ve taken the risk plenty of times in my career. Sometimes it’s rewarded in spades. Sometimes it’s not.

At the same time, I love revenue, more rather than less. I have an obligation to myself and my family to keep my infrastructure amply funded. I recognize that letting one’s opinions get in the way of that objective is self-indulgent, at the very least.

By and by, we secured some pretty good national news stories for the client. But we never quite generated what the client or we had hoped for. It’s a new company trying to create an entirely new market niche. There were just too many ingredients still unmixed for a media-relations program to cook. Personally, I thought that instead of pursuing news stories, the company should have been investing in a comprehensive go-to-market strategy, more direct in approach, mixing some very different and precise tactics to uncover and qualify new-business leads.

In a meeting, the client CEO unexpectedly popped in, and I had the perfect opportunity to make my case. As a team we are very qualified to do the kind of work that I believed would have generated greater ROI, so it was not a foregone conclusion that we would get canned if I spoke my mind. The CEO asked for my opinion! My candor might have resulted in an all-new, higher-revenue project!   But I allowed media relations and its underwhelming results to dominate the conversation once more. We lost the client the next day.

That client paid us pretty well, and I never really offered the best of my brainpower in return.  Now the client is gone.  If I had foregone what was clearly smart in the name of doing what, to me, was obviously right, might I have saved the account?   Might I really have helped that company? I’ll never know.  But I’ll be even more thoughtful, and possibly more courageous, in how I strike that balance in the future.