It’s easy to blurt out complaints… so easy that customers are MUCH more likely to leave a negative review over a happy customer who had a great experience with a brand.

According to an article I read on Inc.com, it takes 40 great reviews to combat the damage of 1 terrible review.

HOLD UP. Did you hear that? People do not generally publicly praise the good but rush to complain. This led me to think about my own contributions in this arena.

When I do not receive an experience I feel I deserve by a brand / company / service provider, my immediate reaction tends toward that of the general populous. I want to complain… out loud. I do share my good experiences but thinking back, I don’t think I so immediately feel the need to react with vigor the way I do when I have a negative experience. …

I love my country. There is nothing that reminds me of that more than going away for a lengthy period of time, especially to a country that is not as wealthy as the U.S. At the same time, because I love my country, it saddens me to see the inequities that exist for basic human services back home.

Next door to my beautiful home city of San Diego, California, is my other home, Mexico. …

It was perfect. Our youngest had moved into a new stage of her life. She had just returned from a semester abroad after graduating high school and now she was off to start college away from home. Our eldest was already in her last year of college away from home and would be starting her career immediately with a job already secured.

We, like many parents, determined our living location on the school systems which meant we did not necessarily live where we wanted but where we thought was best for the kids. (More on the pros and cons of that decision another day.) We saw now as an opportunity to to take our time in deciding what we wanted to do next. We no longer were tied to our neighborhood or our city for that matter. …

The most common complaint I hear from companies is that their communications / PR firm “just isn’t doing anything”. Clearly, if a company or individual is feeling this way it is just plain frustrating. I get it. No one likes to watch their hard-earned dollars go down the drain.

BUT CONSIDER THIS…

I love to help companies find their voice and create a persona for their brand that is relatable and relevant to their audience. Generally, that is what a good communications professional does. There is one element that often gets forgotten from the equation of good communications strategies. …

How could we have put you in this treacherous position? You have grown up and ventured out into the world with all the confidence of a strong human without any of the experience of true defeat and discipline.

WHAT WE SEE

You stride into the workplace, usually run and organized by those who have already had their hard knock lessons. You, with your worldly, albeit intangibly digital, insight as to the way things should be done, forget that it takes time to earn respect and power to speak to people in a way that commands a listen.

You have somehow not been given the tools that buzz at your brain before your mouth opens. You show your inability to control your emotions out loud and ON FACEBOOK and in EMAILS. (Have you not heard “NEVER PUT IT IN WRITING”?) You have not been prepared with one simple concept; professionalism. …

GET YOUR HEAD IN THE GAME

All that mumbo jumbo about work life balance is a crock of shit, corporate cool aid. Stop chugging it down and understand that the scale is BROKEN. There is more competition out there than ever before with communication to masses being accessible by nearly everyone on the planet.

It used to be that anything you wanted you generally got from your local vendors and purveyors. Your customers were local. They found you in the yellow pages. (Remember those?) Or maybe, they heard about you from a neighbor.

THE STRUGGLE IS REAL (I hate this saying but it’s…

When I was seven years old, meeting a new person was an excruciatingly, painful experience. As an extremely shy kid, the anxiety that haunted me comes back as a clear reminder that I generally just wanted to close my eyes and pretend no one could see me.

As with most parents, mine wanted me to make a good impression on complete strangers all the time. …