Rhudy & Co.

Tuesday

May142013

• What LinkedIn Doesn’t Know About Kim Farlow … And I Do

Tuesday, May 14, 2013 at 10:52AM

LinkedIn asks a lot of questions.

On Sunday, it asked me about Kim Farlow, a friend and professional mentor I’ve known for 18 years.

Here’s what the popular social media site with some 225 million users wanted to know.

Little did LinkedIn’s algorithmic-driven coders know that this UNC journalism graduate is one of the country’s top PR pros and that on May 15 she will receive Virginia’s highest PR honor. At The Jefferson Hotel in Richmond, Kim will receive the 2013 Thomas Jefferson Award for Excellence in Public Relations.

“Winners of the Thomas Jefferson Award for Excellence in Public Relations exemplify the best in the profession,” according to the Richmond chapter of the Public Relations Society of America.

About Kimberlie J. Farlow, APR
Kim, director of public relations at Big River Advertising in Richmond, is just as at ease developing a communications plan for a Fortune 500 client as she is organizing an office party that would make Martha Stewart envious.

Kim knows how to engage senior leaders. She is a champion for employee communications and understands how to connect with consumers. Did I mention she has a killer music memorabilia collection, a wicked sense of humor and fervently expounds on the merits North Carolina BBQ?

Unfortunately, LinkedIn can’t capture all of her impressive attributes.

What I learned from Kim
I first met Kim in June 1996 on the 19^th floor of a high-rise building overlooking the James River. I was fresh off a year-long tour of America driving the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile, and Kim was the head of advertising for Virginia Power (now Dominion). We clicked immediately. She got me, and I got her.

A few days later, I started working in employee communications. Kim was right across the hall and always there to answer my questions.

A few weeks after I started, Kim taught me a valuable lesson about public relations that I’ve carried ever since: anticipate the clients’ needs before they have them.

Here’s what happened.

Kim recruited me to help with a public event at the Science Museum of Virginia. There she stood with a walkie-talkie, a fanny pack filled with provisions and an endless supply of energy as she coordinated the setup of a massive stage along Broad Street.

Minutes before the event started Kim saw something she didn’t like: a scuffed floor on the black stage. She pulled me aside and said, “Run, and I mean run, to Pleasants Hardware and get me four cans of black spray paint.”

Luckily, I was 22 and could run a mile in about 6:15. I took off sprinting like Forest Gump in coat and tie and returned in just enough time for Kim to paint the stage before a bunch of suits took their seats. Kim quietly reinforced for me that details – even the smallest ones – matter.

Kim Farlow has defined her career by anticipating clients’ needs across a wide variety of businesses, organizations and nonprofits, including FeedMore and the Fan Free Clinic.

Congratulations and thank you, Kim!

We all can learn from you.

Jonathan Rhudy recently learned how to transform a run-of-the-mill folding table into a work of art thanks to Kim Farlow.

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Tuesday

Apr162013

• What Goes Through Your Head at the End of a Marathon?

Tuesday, April 16, 2013 at 9:18AM

Photo by Tom ManningI call it runner’s amnesia.

I’m one of the many long distance runners who feels a temporary brain freeze when we battle mental, physical and sometimes intestinal demons that test our resolve.

You temporarily forget what you’ve seen and where you’ve been. It’s a strange, out-of-body-like experience. Fortunately, it doesn’t last long. I believe it happens when your body is depleted of glycogen and your brain temporarily transfers a little energy to your muscles to get you through the dreaded runner’s wall, usually around mile 20.

The .2 miles of the 26.2 miles that are the modern-day marathon are both the hardest and the easiest.

It’s a battle between your brain and your muscles. For the runners, your legs are heavy with lactic acid. Your skin is raw and chaffed. Your feet are blistered and swollen. Your mind wanders as blurred faces flash before you.

Photo by Tom ManningIn most marathons, I teeter on the brink of vomiting. For a split-second, I question why I’m putting myself through this self-inflicted torture. The next, I remember my months of training, and that I’ve done this before. The following second, I’m hallucinating about a cold beer and a cheeseburger. Everything is a blur, but I push on thanks to my fellow runners and the enthusiastic crowds. At this point, the end is very near.

The last .2 miles, or 1,056 feet, of the marathon course is a sea of humanity with cow bells ringing, toddlers hoisted on shoulders and lots of screaming. It is celebratory path of crowd barricades, sponsor logos, handmade signs and amateur photographers.

On Monday, this path along Boylston Street near the John Hancock Tower in Copley Square was a crime scene at the 117th running of the Boston Marathon. The terror and pandemonium surrounding the two blasts will be etched in our minds like many other horrific acts of violence.

"What was intended to be a day of joy and celebration quickly became a day in which running a marathon was of little importance.”
Statement by the Boston Athletic Association at 8 p.m. ET on April 15, 2013

For the elite runners who finished Monday’s Boston Marathon, congratulations.

For those maimed by the shrapnel or couldn’t finish in Boston, may you heal to run another race.

For those who stopped to comfort a fellow runner or assist a spectator, thank you.

For all those affected by Monday’s tragic events, may you experience a little bit of runner’s amnesia. I hope the good parts of the race – the cheering fans, the friendly volunteers and beautiful Boston course – be what you take with you.

Keep calm and run on.

Jonathan Rhudy loves the marathon. He’s completed 18 since 1999, including marathons in Richmond, Las Vegas, New York and Washington, D.C., but he’s still just a little too slow to qualify for Boston.

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Monday

Apr152013

• Is Someone Spying on You? Plus, Why ‘Digital Big Brother’ is Here to Stay

Monday, April 15, 2013 at 7:46AM

This is the second in a series of blogs looking at the worth of words.

I recently had the need to spy on my neighbor. I’m talking binoculars and all. I was washing dishes and looking out my kitchen window when I spotted someone doing something on the lower roof of my neighbor’s home.

I was curious. Who wouldn’t be? Since squinting failed me, I broke out the binoculars, which I honestly keep on a high shelf in my laundry room cabinet. Far away from my kitchen window. I promise.

About an acre or more of land separates my home from my backyard neighbor’s home. And the land is fairly wooded. During the spring and summer, the full trees offer a densely veiled wall of privacy. Not so in the fall and winter.

As I spied on my neighbor’s home, I was struck by the thought that no one there had any idea I was a mere inches away. They didn’t know I was watching their every move.

Yet in today’s world (albeit not in your own home), we should assume that we are always being watched. We should assume that we are just a mere unlock slide away from a starring role on YouTube or Facebook or Twitter.

“Every great and original writer, in proportion as he is great and original, must himself create the taste by which he is to be relished.” – Poet William Wordsworth

While we can’t live our lives in fear of Big Brother, we can live a life more measured. We can think before we act, before we speak, before we write or post or tweet or …

In the past, we had to pull from our memory and clips and portfolios to craft our resumes. To pull together computerized representations of ourselves that we would then print out, mail out and hand out to the select audience we wanted for viewing. Now, our lives – for better or worse – are being chronicled at every moment and by anyone.

Each post we make. Each word we write. Each photo we like. Each person we friend. Each tweet we share. Each reveals a little more of who we are and what we are.

And our next employer, our next client, our next teammate could be just mere seconds away without us even knowing.

Just like my neighbor was unaware of me.

So what happened there? What I saw with my naked eye made me think my neighbor’s teenage daughter was on the roof of their home. Out of concern for her safety, I had to take a peek.

Thankfully, what the binoculars magnified was a young woman having a snack and doing her homework in the warmish fading sunshine (albeit in a strange location). I felt a bit creepy, but I thought I had a responsibility to ensure her protection.

And now through this experience, I feel a stronger need to ensure my own character’s protection … and worth.

Nicole van Esselstyn only has used her binoculars on previous occasions to get closer to the action at a sporting event or concert or in nature. She promises. Stay tuned for the next installment in our blog series, Words Worth.

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Sunday

Mar172013

• Is Our Love Affair with Facebook Fading? Maybe We Just Need a Break.

Sunday, March 17, 2013 at 5:39PM

If you’re like two-thirds of Americans, you use Facebook to some extent or another. Some of you love it, some barely like it — and many of you are taking breaks from it.

According to a Feb. 5 report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project, “61 percent of current Facebook users say that at one time or another in the past they have voluntarily taken a break from using Facebook for a period of several weeks or more.”

Most of those (21 percent) say they take little vacations from Facebook because their schedules just get too busy. But there were many other reasons cited, especially “drama” among friends (9 percent) and just not liking it (10 percent).

In talking to friends and doing a little research, I’d like to share a few other reasons I think our love affair with Facebook and its countless "likes," posts and comments may be fading.

By the way, why is there no "dislike" option on Facebook?

Emotional multi-tasking
A wonderful communicator (Michele Rhudy) first pointed this out to me —something I found troubling but couldn’t quite articulate. And since, I’ve noticed it every time I get on Facebook.

It’s the jarring juxtapositions between posts in my “Newsfeed.” I’ll see tragic news about one friend’s child battling cancer next to the exuberant birthday pictures of another friend’s child. One post about Superstorm Sandy devastating the Northeast next to another post from friends in the South having a great time at the beach.

While this is the fabric of life, it’s difficult to so quickly shift gears emotionally. Call it a rapid re-deployment of attention and feeling. But it makes it more difficult to process and invest in deeper emotions. You see this on news sites all the time, but Facebook is different. These are people I know, people I care about. I don’t want to just read right past a friend’s pain. Yet, I do because in the next instant I need to celebrate another friend’s joy. It’s exhausting.

Perhaps in the future, Facebook will devise some way to change up its “Newsfeed”, create buffers between stories. Create different streams for more serious news. Create a different place for things that need reflection.

Keeping up with the Joneses — in hyper speed
There was a time when our moms and dads looked to that family that seemed to have it all together and felt a little frustrated with their own lives. This probably happened once a week at church or once a month at the PTA meeting.

Today, in about 10 seconds, you can compare yourself to a whole myriad of awesomeness:

The friend who just made a gourmet meal for her family and posted an Instagram of her beautiful presentation
The friend who just got a promotion
The friend whose children just made honor roll — again, because they always do

One of the problems and, I guess, advantages of Facebook is we get to construct our own identities. We can post the parts of our lives we want everyone to see and keep the rest to ourselves. It can provide a false sense of reality. And make it all the harder for those friends dealing with a lost job, a failing child, a house that is falling apart.

Perhaps we could all think a little more about that struggling friend and process our posts through their eyes?

The new norms
Finally, I find myself struggling with what the new “rules” are. What’s socially and relationally correct? Facebook and social media are generally less than a decade old. No one seems to really know how to handle the many questions of how we relate to each other through this new media.

When I see a friend I know only peripherally, should I be responsible to remember that two months ago she posted that her father died? Should I feel badly when she brings it up and I have either forgotten or never saw it at all? Because I do feel badly.
When I run into a friend who posted her child’s birthday photos on Facebook but she didn’t invite my child, should I say anything or nothing at all?
When I am talking to a friend, do I bring up something I saw on their page, even though I didn’t comment on it? Do I seem like a lurker if I say, “Looks like little Sam really hurt his ankle when he rode the clothes basket down the basement steps”? Is that creepy or concerned?
Who should I “friend”? If we barely talked in high school, should I 20 years later feel guilty that I didn’t accept their friend request? Do I seem like a snob or am I rightfully cautious about my privacy?

Maybe we need some formalizing of these new social norms. Certainly, over time we developed rules about letters, phone calls and even somewhat for emails. Maybe I should write a little guide.

Or maybe I just need a break.

Donna Dunn loves Facebook, but feels a break is in order.

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Thursday

Feb282013

• Secrets of Some of Virginia's Best Companies to Work for and How They Get Noticed

Thursday, February 28, 2013 at 9:26AM

Becoming an award-winning workplace with organizations and publications like AARP, Fortune Magazine, Working Mother magazine, Virginia Business, and HYPE Richmond doesn’t just happen.

It takes careful planning, creative thinking and an investment of resources, said four panelists at the Public Relations Society of America’s Richmond, Va., chapter meeting on Feb. 27, 2013. Panelists moderated by Natalie Smith, APR, with CRT/tanaka, included:

Jim Godwin, Bon Secours Virginia Health System
Ryan Smartt, Capital One
Tina Lambert, Virginia Society of CPAs
Deborah Slayden, VCU Health System

The four detailed how their organizations approach these sought-after workplace awards and the important role the visibility plays in recruiting, employee engagement and community relations.

Review these tweets from the PRSA luncheon attendees. Plus, check out this panel recap by Work It, Richmond.