Meet the newest Lilja staffer

Since Vlad (short for Vladimir Dracule) seems to have become a more permanent fixture around our office, we thought we'd give him a formal introduction.

 Vlad first came to us on Sept. 13 when he chose to make the area to the right of our main office entrance his new home. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to ask him why because he sleeps all day.

On the second day, Vlad moved up from his original sport a few inches, still sleeping like a baby.

Vlad seems to like this slightly higher spot, as he returned there on Day 3. We're thinking of hiring him as our receptionist/bouncer, but we're concerned he'd sleep on the job.

One wonders why Vlad has chosen to make Lilja Inc.'s exterior façade as his new home - perhaps it is because of the overall batty environment inside its doors lately.

-- Alicia DeMatteo

Reflecting on my father’s lessons

I wrote an article for Minnesota Business Magazine under my own byline, a rare thing for a PR person who is most often behind-the-scenes!

Here’s a link to the digital edition of the magazine (scroll through to page 12):

http://minnesotabusiness.imirus.com/Mpowered/imirus.jsp?volume=minnb10&issue=2&page=1

And here’s what I wrote:

My father’s business was like the fifth sibling around the dinner table each evening while I was growing up. Its successes and failures were discussed and made evident by my father’s moods: a good day and Dad was cheerful, complimenting my mother on “the best meal he’d ever had” or a bad day, he was impatient if we hadn’t done our very best in school.

While I was in elementary school Dad bought a manufacturing company that had lost $46,000 on sales of $25,000 the year before. He turned that company around, and one summer while I was away at camp, he purchased two more failing companies. He turned those around, too, starting another small company and acquiring others along the way.

All of us worked summer stints in the business, either in the shop, stamping out expanded metal or assembling cash drawers, or in the office, typing invoices and paychecks and handling basic filing. Though I thought it boring at the time, I used the same basic filing and bookkeeping system to set up my own small business when the entrepreneurial bug bit me at age 32.

I know my father was proud of me, even though he never exactly understood what I did: he manufactured products; I consulted using my public relations expertise, often to family owned businesses. I was fiercely independent and he kept a respectful distance. I did ask him for advice a couple of times, and he gave it: little gems of wisdom that I followed to solve what seemed to be at the time insurmountable problems.

He died before I could absorb more of his accumulated wisdom, and I regret that I didn’t spend more time with him on business than I did. I asked him several years ago to write up the secrets of his success. His advice seems quaint in today’s terms, but with business ethics at an all-time low, Dad’s old-fashioned advice is still germane.

Run your business with honesty and integrity. I remember all of the times Dad would praise a businessperson he knew, saying, “His word is as good as gold!” I thought: so what? Now I know better: if you really want to know someone’s true character, do business with him or her.

Plan your work and work your plan. Dad was a master at this, including staying in close touch with his banker, which he considered his most important business relationship.

Apply “financial common sense.” This innate quality means you can see the story your numbers are telling you today, and you have the ability to project forward what an investment in machinery or people will yield. It also means managing your business conservatively and meeting your obligations.

Do your own thing and you will be successful. Dad didn’t think it was productive to pay attention to his competitors. Instead, he chose to focus on his own product and do his best, and he encouraged his people to do the same.

Good business is nothing more than good people. He told me more than once to hire good people and let them do their best. At age 19, I was opposed to a proposed change in his office one summer, and Dad listened as I made my case. “But you are missing the point,” he said. “I gave this assignment to ‘Joe’ and he is making the decision; I’m not going to undermine him.” Lesson learned.

Balance business, family and community commitments. My father had strong feelings that business was one part of life; family and community were important, too. There was no honor in building a business if a marriage suffered, or the entrepreneur became selfish and didn’t give back to the community. Dad was admirably present throughout our childhoods – not only to us, but also to our mother, and to the community at large.

He was an unabashed booster of small business, telling me on more than one occasion, “Running your own business is the way that people were intended to live. …Sure, you will have lots of problems such as sales, personnel and finance; but the results of building a successful business greatly outweigh any of the negatives.”

Thanks, Dad, for the lessons you’ve shared. Maybe they will inspire another young entrepreneur in our family. Or it may motivate others who not only want to do their own thing, but recognize how old-fashioned business values still matter -- now more than ever.

-Mary Lilja

Business, the Earth Wizards Way

At Lilja Inc. we are passionate about environmental topics. So imagine our excitement when one of our clients operates a successful business based on a “green” business model.

This month, Todd Nelson at the Star Tribune wrote a profile on Twin Cities-based Earth Wizards – a Lilja client that transforms urban landscapes with a wise, Earth-friendly, and sensible approach.

The company was started in 2000 by Stacy Anderson, who got her start working in her father’s paving company. After a college chemistry class sparked her interest in environmental and water quality issues, Stacy took the paving company one step further and became committed to low-impact development and “greening” of urban spaces.

Now, 10 years later, Stacy and her team of landscape architects, biologists and contractors design projects that effectively balance urban development and water conservation, from permeable pavement to rain gardens and stormwater management systems.

From her start paving the Earth, Stacy is now saving the Earth… one project at a time!

http://www.earthwizards.com/

-- Alex Cook

Trash and ticks: It's all in an Earth Day

In honor of the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, the Lilja team picked up 12 bags of trash yesterday around our office.

We worked nearly all the way around this little gem of a pond this year, realizing in the process it's fed by natural springs. The water was gin clear, as my Dad would have said. So it was satisfying work to beautify such a wonderful place (the Lilja office is in the left-hand corner).

Because we are close by a major highway, we find some unusual things, from construction debris and signage to abandoned clothing and remnants of fast food packaging. Most of what we find is plastic – bottle caps, tops for cups, etc. Each of us picked up cigarette butts before finally giving up. That work was endless and disheartening. Alex kept count and reached 1,000.

Among our most unusual finds: A rusted out button for the “29th ANNUAL WOODTICK RACES.” We experienced a few of our own: Alex ended up pulling off 30 ticks, Kadee, 5, Alicia 4, Mary & Mike, 0.

- Mary Lilja

Richard Murphy makes a business case for “greening your grounds"

On this, the 40^th anniversary of Earth Day, the main argument for “going green” is often because it is simply the right thing to do. While acting on a moral imperative is easy enough for the individual, businesses typically look at the bottom line before making an investment in going green.

Richard Murphy, president and CEO of Murphy Warehouse Company – a Lilja client – makes the case that going green can save businesses money, and the best way to do so is to make changes not just inside your facility, but outside.

In a column titled “The business case for greening your grounds” published today on MinnPost.com, Richard describes the green investment his company has made installing a stormwater system and native prairies at their Minneapolis headquarters. How much has Murphy saved, you ask? $500,000 in costs so far – with their largest cost savings still to come!

If you are interested in learning more about what Murphy has done to “go green,” visit the company’s YouTube Channel.

Happy Earth Day!

-- Alex Cook

GameInformer.com Nominated for Best Games-Related Site in the 14th Annual Webby Awards

With all the talk about the intersection of the traditional news media and the Internet on Lilja Ink recently, exciting news came out this week that long-term Lilja Inc. client, Game Informer magazine, is among the nominees in this year’s 14^th Annual Webby Awards.

GameInformer.com has been nominated for Best Games-Related Site.

The Webby Awards is the leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet – think the Oscars of the Internet.

Apart from my own professional interest in this news, I am a big fan of Game Informer and the website, which offers a well-designed, intuitive online experience. But more important, I enjoy the fact that the website welcomes gamers, like myself, to join the action and review/discuss gaming alongside the magazine editors.

As a nominee, GameInformer.com also is eligible to win a Webby People’s Voice Award, which is voted online by the global Web community. You can help by voting for Game Informer here.

Congratulations, Game Informer!

-- Alex Cook

Chasing Tails: The Most Ironic Blog Entry Ever

How many times have you heard: Social media is EXPLODING and it’s only a matter of time before it takes over traditional media.

Well yes, social media has grown rapidly as people discover new tools for sharing information and keeping in touch. As newsrooms everywhere shrink, right along with their readership, people are turning to these new tools as a news source.

But consider these stats recently released by Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism:
• American legacy outlets like newspapers and broadcast accounted for 80% of all items linked to stories on blogs.
• Three outlets alone provided two-thirds of bloggers’ linked news articles: The New York Times, CNN and BBC.
• The favorite subject matter for Tweets on Twitter? Twitter itself, which accounted for 10% of all top stories. Apple products garnered 8% of top stories, Facebook received 7%, and Windows 7 got 5%.

Interestingly, the study also noted that many blogs were rooted in providing opinions, not facts, a la talk-radio.

My point (and I do have one): Social media is great. It lets everyone have a voice and democratizes our national conversation on all matter of topics. But by in large, bloggers are not doing the investigative work and fact checking of reporters at traditional media.

If you’d like an example of this in practice, please hit your refresh button and blink.

-- Alicia DeMatteo

Patrick Dougherty reads from his new memoir, A Whole-Hearted Embrace

I recently attended a very well attended book launch event for A Whole-Hearted Embrace, written by noted St. Paul psychologist and Spring Forest Qigong teacher Patrick Dougherty.

Patrick told us how he combined the two major stories of his life – the first of death and trauma, the second of healing and love – into his book. One night he says the two stories came together in his mind, and his new spiritual memoir is the result.

Lilja was involved early on. We introduced Patrick to Editor Gordon Thomas, who worked with Patrick on his early manuscript. More recently we have helped promote the finished book, including arranging the launch event at Magers & Quinn in Minneapolis.

A Whole-Hearted Embrace is a dramatic account of Patrick’s journey to health and healing after witnessing death at an early age, including his tour of duty as a Marine in Vietnam. He experiences a variety of spiritual traditions, as well as the practice of Qigong.

Patrick reminds us that simply opening our hearts is a major step. Doing so does not just transform trauma and grief, but also brings love and joy. Reading his book reminds me that the journey we make from our heads to our hearts is the longest, most arduous journey we'll ever make -- but also one of the most rewarding.

Spring Forest Qigong, an organization that develops and provides educational tools to help people heal and improve the quality of their lives through Qigong, an ancient Chinese practice using breath and movement, published the book.

-Mary Lilja

Author Robert Glennon Speaks at U of M

On Feb. 22, Robert Glennon (pictured above with Deborah Swackhamer), author of Unquenchable: America's Water Crisis and What To Do About It, addressed the “urgent water crisis" in our country in a free public lecture at the University of Minnesota’s St. Paul Student Center Theater.

The lecture was sponsored by local nonprofit, and Lilja client, Freshwater Society, celebrating 2010 – The Year of Water, a yearlong series of activities organized by the Freshwater Society to increase public awareness about water issues.

Among the media outlets that covered the event, the U of M student newspaper Minnesota Daily wrote an excellent piece that gives us at Lilja hope for the future of journalism.

With the news media in a state of disarray and budget cuts stretching today’s reporters (who, make no mistake, are excellent in their profession) thin, it seems that journalism would be an unattractive job for the future. But we are happy to see that is not the case, with young capable journalists-to-be ensuring the survival of the free press into the future.

-- Alex Cook

When Bad Publicity is Actually Good

PR professionals have debated if there really is “no such thing as bad publicity” since time began (or at least, since the profession began).

In the spirit of a healthy point/counterpoint to my colleague Alex, I am going to assert that bad publicity can be good – it all depends on how the situation is handled.

There really, truly are situations where bad publicity can help achieve the goals of an organization or person. While we instinctively think a bad situation would draw negative visibility, a bad situation handled properly and with good, solid communications, can actually increase positive thoughts about that person, product or organization.

One may point to Toyota and their handling of faulty brakes as an example of bad publicity being bad. While this isn’t the first time a company has dealt with a product safety issue, others have pulled it off gracefully and with their reputation intact. In contrast, Tylenol’s handling of cyanide-laced caplets in the early 1980’s is the classic example of good crisis management.

Amazing: something dubbed the “Tylenol Murders” by media actually helped Tylenol reinforce its dedication to product safety.

Every issue has two sides. It is the responsibility of the organization in question to react and present their side of the story in a swift and responsible manner. The question is not will communication take place – the question is how you will manage it.

-- Alicia DeMatteo

Two-Way Communications

We have been working on internal communications projects lately, which delight me: it is one of my first loves in the communications field. I like to think of the process as one big conversation that never ends.

I started my career as an intrepid reporter/editor of a company newsletter at a local manufacturing firm. It was my business to report the company news, so I had ongoing conversations with folks on the manufacturing line and in the executive suite. My news came out once a month in a printed newsletter that stayed in employees’ hands (who else would be interested in our news?).

In today’s world the lines between internal and external communications have become blurred. What you communicate internally is likely to be external, as well – now more than ever – so we keep that in mind.

But some things have not changed. Like most conversations, employee communications is a two-way street. A message is sent to an intended audience, and then it is received or not received, for a variety of reasons: pre-existing opinions and attitudes, format preferences, style issues, etc.

As we develop communications plans, we try to take that into account: how the messages or vehicles are likely to be both perceived . . . and received.

That’s why feedback loops of some kind are essential as communications plans, strategies and messages are set, and later as messages are sent.

If you don’t have a feedback loop in your organization, you could just ask employees what they think. And, most important, then listen to what they have to say.

Sometimes you’ll agree. Other times, you won’t.

What’s most important is that you listen first, and communicate back, second. And keep the conversation going in your organization.

-- Mary Lilja

There Really IS Such a Thing as Bad Publicity

With a New Year upon us, what is the number one lesson we learned in 2009?

In short, we discovered that the old maxim, “There is no such thing as bad publicity” was false. As evidence, I need only to invoke the names Tiger Woods, Falcon “Balloon Boy” Heene, Jon and Kate Gosselin, the Salahis… dare I go on?

In each of these cases, we see people who believe that they can navigate or control the media onslaught and come out with a restored image, a TV show, or a level of celebrity earned without any discernable talent.

But in the end they become lambs led to the altar of public opinion, ready for slaughter. Certainly, these people take their punishment in the form of lost sponsorships, freedoms, marriages, etc., but real blame lies at the feet of a news media willing to point their cameras at the target and a public eager to watch the drama unfold.

I won’t try to construct some argument that these media shenanigans never occurred in the halcyon days of Murrow or Cronkite, but when the latest newsmaker lands their live interview on a late night talk or morning show mere hours after their story breaks, are we truly better for it?

I don’t think so. After all, it seems that when we ought to trust the news media to inform us on issues related to our economy, health care and world affairs, all we hear about, or care to pay attention to, are plain Scottish spinsters who have a hidden ability to sing.

I hope in 2010 we expect more from the media and ourselves.

-- Alex Cook