The Extra Mile

     My boss at J.CREW told me to always “make myself valuable” for the company I work for; whether I am the CEO of some large corporation or the ditch digger on the side of the road, making my self valuable will not only show those around me that I can do my job and be the best at it but that I am dedicated and that someone can count on me. This was his secret to a successful career. I suggest you use his secret to transform your life now so that you can one day find yourself living the life you have always dreamed of.
  
WAY TO SHOW YOUR VALUE TO YOUR BOSS AND CO-WORKERS:





1. Arrive early to prepare yourself for the day (metally or task wise)

2. Cleaning/straighting up the work space (This is applied when there is no cleaning person assigned)

3. Volunteer to do extra assignments (Taking into consideration you must do the assignment in the highest quality, even if that means staying up late to finish it)

4. Offer to help others around you in their jobs, aka teamwork for the overall betterment of the company.

5. Show enthusiasm for the job. You may have gone to college and have great credentials but in "Big Girl World" that also translates as you are back at ground zero. Because that means you also have little to no experience in the actual work force for which you want to be successful at and you can always learn a thing or two from someone whos been there and made it.

Location and Why Are You So Special?

     Step one in the PR Book for Dummies: location. It’s all about the location. Your success in the area of public relations you pursue depends on this key detail. It you want to go into politics you do not go to Belmont, Indiana, you go to Washington, D.C. If you want to climb that corporate ladder you do not choose to live in Rutherfordton, North Carolina. I know this sounds trivial but I made the mistake in choosing my location not based on what I really want to do with public relations. I find my self in a state of “UN-“. Unbundled from myself, possible unhappiness because this was not my choice but the choice of someone else, and unsure of wait I can do here. I am not saying I am miserable, but I am saying that I have no goal or direction here and it’s a little nerve racking.

     I've moved to Asheville, North Carolina. Asheville is the biggest city in Western North Carolina and is home to around 400,000 residents, a superb collection of art deco-styled buildings, the largest home in America (the Biltmore Estate), it's the gay capital of North Carolina and has a creative bustling environment that is waiting to be discovered. Fashion PR and/or Wedding Planning are the two career options I am looking into. Wedding planning is my first option to look into.

Though this city is not known for its fashion, like New York, it does have a competitive and thriving wedding industry. I begin my travels with an internship with a lady named Janet Frye who runs a successful florist business called The Enchanted Florist. She deals primarily with weddings but is apt to accept offers for arrangements for other special events. I also have accepted a job offer with the Biltmore Winery and I start training Tuesday, May the 18th. Both jobs will help me to see what goes on back stage for weddings and will teach me a little bit about different aspects that are part of a wedding.

     This is how I am going to set myself apart. I am going to know every thing I can about a wedding, not just the planning and consulting but every little detail that makes a wedding something to remember. To those who has read down this far, when you decide what field you would like to take in PR you need to decide what elements would help set you apart from everyone else. What makes you so different and what makes you so special to where clients would choose to hire you over your competition?

The Right of Passage

     Graduation, a ceremonial right of passage that for some signify the next step of a promising future. However, others deem it as a mourning period. To them it represents the death of their college existence and the birth of a struggling life in the big bad world. In the world of event planning PR, a young woman has big dreams of a life filled with glamour, excitement and parties (the event itself). Those young women who have daddy and mommy’s connections, have a better chance at experiencing this lifestyle right off the bat, but for those lucky few who do not, they get smacked across the face with their wake up call. No glamorous apartment, no steady job, no fun parties. 
     I am that girl. Over the next few years I will take you on an in-depth adventure of the life into the world of PR. The PR shows you see on Bravo and MTV is the representation the life of a woman who has already made it in this business and is only in one line of public relations, Fashion. There is many paths to take in this challenging art, corporate, non-profit, fashion, wedding planning/event planning, and political, and I will show you as many pathways as my intuition leads me to try. You will hear every up and every down to this career and maybe the business school will finally give the communication school the credit it deserves. 
     As of now, my intuition is leading me in three public relation pathways: fashion, corporate, and wedding. I my goal is to write at least two blogs a week on no particular day and to relay as many life learned lessons that pertain to this business as possible. Stay informed because this first lesson, and one that will manifest itself over and over again, is that a PR girl is too busy to be tired or hungry.