Tell us a little about yourself? Hometown? Family?

Volunteer Chapter PRSA President-Elect Chelsey Riemann, APR, (L) presents a PRSA Award of Excellence in April 2012 to Amy Schwinge (R)

I am a hometown girl; I was born and raised in Knoxville.  With the exception of living in Atlanta for about nine years, I have lived in Knoxville all of my life.  I am married to Guy, and we have two young children:  our daughter, Jade, and our son, Levi.  They are my world!

What was your first job?

My very first job was working for one of my favorite uncles in a concession stand at the UT football stadium.  It was a lot of fun; we all would take turns watching the game too. Nepotism was not an issue as most everyone who worked there was a member of the family—mostly cousins and my brother too.

My first PR job was an unpaid internship for the East Tennessee Special Technology Access Center; this experience helped me obtain three other internships during my undergrad college years, including overseeing the newsletter for the Public Relations Student Society of America chapter at UT, East Tennessee Children’s Hospital and Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Did your collegiate life prepare you for your current job?

Yes!  In addition to the great curriculum, the required internships definitely prepared me for my career, including my current job. When I was at UT in PR, a minimum of two internships were required to graduate.  My internships proved invaluable to me.  I know they put me a step ahead and helped me land a communications position at Boeing in Oak Ridge right after I received my undergrad degree. This was my first “real” job after I graduated.

How long have you been with MBWC?

I started performing some project work for MBWC in late fall of 2006 after I left the General Motors Southeast Regional Communications office in the Atlanta area.  I served as MBWC’s satellite office in Atlanta for almost two years.

Why did you join MBWC?

After GM moved the Southeast Regional office 26 miles north of Atlanta, it took me an hour and a half EACH WAY to get to and from work.  I just couldn’t take the drive and missing that time with my family and young daughter at the time.  That is when I started doing project work for MBWC while I was still in the Atlanta area.  Then, after my husband was offered a job in Knoxville, Mary Beth offered me a position at her office in Maryville.

What is your biggest pet peeve?

I just don’t care for fake people; just be yourself.  The truth will come out sooner or later anyway…

What was your favorite tradition during your childhood?

I loved to picnic with family and friends in the Cades Cove area of the mountains.  We also would ride horses and drive around the loop.  Wonderful memories!

What is your favorite quote?

Today is a gift; that is why it is called the present.

What do you like most about working at MBWC?

I enjoy the people—both at MBWC and the clients we work with.  I also love the flexible work schedule, which helps me achieve better work/life balance.  There is never a dull moment.  I like performing work for a variety of diverse clients.  No two days are the same!

Who has had the greatest impact on your professional career?

My parents who instilled in me that I could do anything that I wanted to if I just tried hard enough.

If you could give any professional advice to someone who is graduating this month, what would it be?

Never give up or burn any bridges with friends, professors or co-workers! It is amazing how you will cross paths with various people throughout your career. Always, continue to learn as much as you can!  Embrace lifelong learning; consider an advanced degree, technical training, accreditation or training/seminars offered through work.  Keep up with trends and new technology as it becomes available. Most of all, enjoy every minute of it; it goes by fast!

Holy tofu and organic black beans, Batman – The Tomato Head is leaving Downtown Maryville!

 The announcement of The Tomato Head’s Maryville closure in favor of plans to build a West Knoxville location at the Gallery Shopping Center hit all-things-social last night, and, to say the least – the Maryville Tomato Head faithful are none-too-happy.  Some of the comments via FB and the News Sentinel website (apart from the “Yeah Baby!”s of our West Knoxville friends): 

• “Maryville has completely supported TH, and their presence has helped jumpstart revitalization in downtown Maryville. Notice they didn’t say they were losing money (the restaurant is always busy).  I will drive past the Gallery, and I will take out-of-town guests to Cafe 4 and Latitude 35 on Market Square.  The whole vibe of TH can now be transferred to a suburban sprawl location.  Maybe their ‘unattainable’ 3rd location could open at Turkey Creek? They can close the Market Square location when space becomes available in Farragut.”
• “Really disappointed in @thetomatohead decision. Quite illogical. I’ve eaten my last meal there.”
• “This is not right!! I cannot imagine that this location hasn’t been successful. . . .what a crock.  Seriously.”
• “Crazy.  I’ll not be back.”

And my personal favorite:

• “Booooooooooo!!!”

In this economy, The Tomato Head’s visionary founder, Mahasti Vafaie, and business partner Scott Partin have achieved a brand with legions of followers in both the Knoxville and Maryville downtowns.  Great atmosphere.  Great vibe.  And absolutely delightful food. 

On the one hand, it’s an enviable position for any brand to have such a fan base that an announcement like this one evokes such a strong reaction (West Knoxville: “Yayyyyyy!”; Blount County: “Doh!”). 

What’s unenviable: the backlash itself.  And for The Tomato Head, they’re about to get backlash-whiplash from Blount County in a big way, I fear.

As a business owner, I understand and fully respect that many valid factors can play into a company’s unpopular decisions, made for the greater long-term good of the business.

However, as I put on my public relations hat (and let’s face it, it’s always on), I have to question whether The Tomato Head’s handling of this announcement – and of course, the very decision itself – presents far more damage to the brand in a significant enough geographic area to nullify the gains of greener pastures elsewhere.

I have a lot of West Knoxville friends.  Love ‘em.  But as a Blount Countian, it’s more than a bit irksome watching some of them take that deeply inhaled drag from the stogie of geo-economic superiority here.  They’re sympathetically patting us Maryville folk on the back at our culinary loss, then two seconds later gently closing the door and breaking out into a full-on Church Lady Superior Dance (and I don’t mind aging myself with that comment; it’s gotta be said). 

A few tips for companies considering a controversial decision:

• Don’t take your fan base for granted when making decisions that are personal to those fans.  For The Tomato Head, it’s not just that they’re politely asking their Blount County diners simply to drive across the river to West or Downtown Knoxville instead.  The exodus feels far more personal than that.  And what’s more, in the initial news reports, The Tomato Head apparently isn’t politely asking their Blount patrons for anything.  They didn’t express anything to Maryville verbally – only through its actions of abruptly leaving.  (Note: a Facebook post by TH in recent hours explains the decision and shares stronger personal sentiments about the departure, but one wonders if it’s coming too late.) 
• If the tough decision must be made, put thought into how it’s announced by anticipating the feelings it will elicit and demonstrating some level of sensitivity toward those impacted.  It probably would have been far less damaging to The Tomato Head in Blount County if the Downtown Maryville closure had been announced prior to any mention being made of the West Knox plans.  Yes, there still would have been deep disappointment about the loss, but at least there wouldn’t have been the feelings of an overt snub factor involved.      

As for myself, I wish The Tomato Head well, and I’m going to miss their presence, their people, and most especially, their southwestern salad with organic blue corn chips and southwest vinaigrette.  I’m also going to miss what they brought to our Downtown and the way Maryville felt about the people in that nice yellow building on West Broadway.  

What was your first job?  What did you learn from it?

Working in the shoe department of my hometown’s local department store. 

I learned that everyone should have some type of work experience early in their lives that is directly customer-facing.  It’s a big eye-opener to how people really tick, and it creates a level of appreciation for any person in a customer-service job. 

Did your collegiate life prepare you for your current job? 

Absolutely.  The University of Tennessee College of Communication & Information provided a terrific foundation.  It so happens that everyone in my company is a product of UT-Knoxville as well.  We’ve stayed very involved there.

Why did you choose public relations as your career?

I knew at age 16 or 17 that a career in communications was where I wanted to be, but I wasn’t sure of the exact path.  I later learned that among communications professions such as advertising, broadcasting, journalism, speech communications, etc., public relations appealed to me as holding the greatest game-changing potential in society . . . the idea of being able to apply communications in a direct way to help people, businesses and organizations achieve success.  That’s what PR is all about.

Who has had the greatest impact on your professional career?

My parents.  They made my college education possible, and they demonstrated by example the commitment of being a business owner.

If you weren’t in this field, what else could you see yourself doing?  

I would enjoy being a writer – maybe a political columnist.  Politically, I’m a weird bird, which makes for interesting writing as well as audience reactions. 

What is your favorite quote?

Margaret Thatcher:  “Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren’t.”

If you could have one superhero power, what would it be?

The ability to be in five places at once would come in handy.  As a rule, I would love for one of those places to be cuddled up with my kids reading stories and taking naps. 

What is your biggest pet peeve?

Poor editing, especially when I’m the one guilty of it.

What was the funniest thing you have ever experienced?

Back in college, I took a conference trip to New York with a bunch of my PRSSA friends, and we made the obligatory trek to the top of the Empire State Building.  In the gift shop, they had these foam Statue of Liberty crowns and silly sunglasses, which I stuck on my head and raised up my right hand stoically as if I were holding the torch – and we all got our picture together, just goofing off. 

Suddenly – out of nowhere – every tourist in the gift shop swarmed over to get their picture taken with me posing as the Statue of Liberty . . . most of them speaking foreign languages.  At least a dozen strangers had their picture taken with me, most of them insisting I hold my arm up like I was Lady Liberty bearing the torch. 

Twenty years later, across the globe, there are probably pictures of me in people’s scrapbooks with the caption (translated to English): “Visiting Empire State Bldg with weird American chick wearing WAY too much red.”  If smartphones had been around back then, I would have had my 15 minutes of fame in 1993.

Any embarrassing professional moments you’re willing to share?

Apart from the Statue of Liberty thing, no.

Our team experienced the bittersweet newsflash this week that one of our own, Joe Bogardus, has decided to enjoy the rewards of retirement.  And yes, we’re a little bit jealous!

Our gratitude goes out to Joe for his nearly four years of service with MBWC, where he helped lead many client projects and campaigns with award-winning success. 

I met Joe about a year or so after he and his terrific wife, Mary Kay, had moved to East Tennessee from Chicago, where Joe served as national executive director of brand marketing communications for Blue Cross & Blue Shield Association.  Prior to his work at BCBS, Joe had spent the majority of his career in marketing communications with Eastman Kodak, from the company’s home base in Rochester, NY, to other outposts worldwide.

Despite his global-brand corporate background, Joe demonstrated a real passion for the smaller-market agency business in Greater Knoxville that served our team well.  Joe loves the work of strategic communications and brand development, and his enthusiasm and expertise have made an impact here that will long be appreciated.

We send our best wishes to Joe and Mary Kay . . . and we know we’ll be seeing them soon!    

In my early career, I worked in corporate communications for a highly successful company that managed private-sector prisons, jails and detention facilities for local, state and federal government agencies across the U.S. – and even some facilities internationally.

The experience provided my first front-line experience with seeing just how complicated controversies and crises could be.  

I remember one occasion in Florida where the company was seeking to site a county jail facility in a fairly rural area.  The local Chamber of Commerce decided to host a community forum for the public to discuss the issue with elected officials. 

Off I was sent to Florida to help represent the company, where I fully expected to hear diverse points of view.  In my naiveté at the time, I had no idea the level of raw emotion I would see thrown in the company’s face – or mine – from picket signs and near-tearful opposition testimonies to venom-eyed stare-downs by people I’d never met before.   I left the event that night with local law enforcement escorting me to my car and my hoping that no one followed my co-workers and me back to our hotel.

That was in the mid- to late-1990s.  Our company didn’t even use external e-mail at the time.  To that point, I certainly didn’t know what I didn’t know back then . . . that in terms of complicated, I’d seen nothing yet. 

Interestingly, though, in the area of staging protests, many of the same tactics of yesteryear remain firmly entrenched in the toolbox of people who wish to organize around a common cause and state their case in as big a way as possible.

When a company or organization is confronted with a protest movement of any sort, there are several rules of thumb:

• Take it seriously, even if it’s small or seemingly disorganized.  Controversies can morph into crises quickly, and you never know how it might evolve and gain steam quickly. 
• Get at the heart of the matter.  Establish a point of contact within the group’s leadership.  What is the protest about, and does it have legitimacy?  Identify all of the protestor messages that involve your organization, its performance, its policies, etc. . . . whatever the situation involves. 
• Engage legal counsel.  While PR and legal experts sometimes disagree about certain aspects of responding to protest movements – particularly how communications should be handled to avoid liability issues – it’s still important to have all voices at the table for the full management team to make informed decisions. 
• Determine if there are indeed issues that need to be addressed publicly.  If the protest organization is small, contained and/or seems to be operating with a logical mindset (which sometimes isn’t the case), it could be prudent to work with the group on a one-to-one basis to address their issues, which in rare instances can nip the whole issue in the bud without a public spectacle.  At the opposite end of the spectrum, however, “fringe” groups can pose risks completely apart from the apparent issue at hand.  Be aware if security or law enforcement needs to be contacted.
• If the protest movement has little to no legitimacy with regard to the validity of its claims or otherwise includes protestors who behave unreasonably or erratically, be careful about interactions or communications that inadvertently lend credence to the protestors where none is deserved.
• At the same time, maintain a consistent undertone of respect, restraint and control – particularly with media communications. 
• Keep your message simple, direct and above all, honest.
• Avoid public “forums” for discussing the issues at hand – harkening back to my Florida experience.  Generally, the only winners of those things are the protestors.  In areas of government, it’s often difficult or impossible to avoid these situations resulting from sunshine laws and governance requirements – in which case, the critical factors are detailed preparation, clear messaging and as much control over the venue as possible.

Above all – you need to remain proactive enough that you’re staying in control of your own organization’s actions and communications and not being manipulated by others.  By being responsive from the onset, these issues potentially can be contained and, hopefully, successfully concluded.

In real estate, it’s location, location, location. 

During a crisis or controversy, it’s preparedness, preparedness, preparedness. 

Most people know in their specialized fields of work the majority of the possible crises or controversies that can occur. 

Have you or the leadership in your company ever sat down and listed all of the possible crises and controversies that you can think of possibly happening at your organization? 

If so, congratulations – you’ve completed the first step in creating a crisis communications plan. If not, start planning and getting prepared for a potential crisis by thinking through possible scenarios.

Whether it is a true crisis or a minor controversy, public relations plays a huge role.

In my career, I have participated on crisis preparedness teams for a couple of different corporations.  The role of the public relations professional was to communicate about the crisis to both internal and external audiences, which can be very tricky, especially in this day and age of social media and smart phones. 

You want to get your key message out internally and externally before someone else takes a photo or video from their smart phone and posts it on Facebook or YouTube, for example.

The key is being prepared with all of the possible scenarios, then plugging in the related information if and when a crisis or controversy occurs. So, your organization is as ready as it can be.

Check out this link for some case studies and tips for using technology during a crisis.

It is never too late to get prepared!

Last week, Mary Beth West outlined in the first installment of “Crisis or Controversy? Understand the Difference in PR” a series of actions every public relations practitioner needs to take when confronted with a potential company crisis.

Those key points are worth repeating here: 

• “Think through a Top 10 list of things that have happened or could happen to your company, along with their likelihood of happening in the future.  Don’t forget to look at competitors’ past crisis situations and resulting media coverage as well.
• Evaluate each scenario by the laws of cause-and-effect.  If X happens, then who is impacted?  What are the stakeholder numbers, and how large are their spheres of influence? 
• Which scenarios have the greatest possibility to damage reputation and brand – not just operations and infrastructure?  Good insurance can cover a factory fire in a matter of months; brand damage can last decades.”

A key element of executing the above actions is in making sure you have the facts. Often, this aspect is the greatest challenge of all in your analysis.

Whenever I was thrust into a company crisis situation, I recalled the words of a former journalism instructor: “The facts and nothing but the facts.” This same instructor was a stickler for preaching about making sure you had a second – and sometimes, even a third – corroborating source.

Gathering this information in the face of a burgeoning crisis adds to the stressfulness of the situation, but it is critical to guide you through the three steps Mary Beth recommends.

Without the proper information, a potential controversy could actually explode into a crisis.

Ever work for a company that went into the whole Chicken Little routine whenever a minor incident or perceived criticism occurred?

At the opposite end of the spectrum, most public relations professionals’ worst nightmare is a real-deal crisis unfolding (or on the cusp of unfolding) and the decision-makers go into deer-in-the-headlights mode or “paralysis by analysis.” 

It served me well to learn early in my career the differences between a matter that was just an annoyance (a customer with unrealistic expectations complaining about my client’s company) and one that rose to the level of a true crisis (that same customer with a four-minute audio tape of the company’s call center rep lashing out with expletives over the phone in frustration). 

However, the realities of today often cancel out the crisis-assessment criteria of a decade ago.  Social media has magnified the panic that can unfold when something bad happens, largely because control over communications can become a wild card in a matter of seconds. 

How managers evaluate a situation and its impact – and then react accordingly – says a great deal about a company’s ability either to stay focused through the day-to-day or, to the latter point, survive a potentially chaotic and damaging scenario. 

Some quick tips:

• Think through a Top 10 list of things that have happened or could happen to your company, along with their likelihood of happening in the future.  Don’t forget to look at competitors’ past crisis situations and resulting media coverage as well.
• Evaluate each scenario by the laws of cause-and-effect.  If X happens, then who is impacted?  What are the stakeholder numbers, and how large are their spheres of influence? 
• Which scenarios have the greatest possibility to damage reputation and brand – not just operations and infrastructure?  Good insurance can cover a factory fire in a matter of months; brand damage can last decades.

And most of all – if your company operates within any public realm that avails it to high crisis potential, consider engaging a qualified public relations expert to help your whole team undertake a meaningful planning process . . . one that remains “live” and visible within the company 365 days a year, so that when it’s most needed, it can be put into quick action.

Not every negative thing that happens is a true crisis.  In the event you’re hit with one, though, it’s critical to be prepared.

A favorite saying in the South famously goes, “Get out of the kitchen if you can’t take the heat.” 

For my great-grandmother, who for decades prepared from scratch three hulking meals daily for about a dozen farmhands with all the modern conveniences a 1930s/40s kitchen would allow, it indeed got hot from the relentless burn of a wood-fired stove.  Way hot.  Especially in the Middle Tennessee August growing season with no AC or ceiling fans. 

Whoever wanted to bend my Grandmother Butler’s ear with a complaint, a request or any other idle chit-chat that could waste her valuable time generally had to venture to the kitchen to do it, and hence her love of that old expression.

Fast-forward six or seven decades: the kitchens of the modern world are much cooler and calmer places these days, but the heat still burns in a more figurative application of the phrase, in the forum of public dialogue. 

The kitchen (of sorts) is still there: our interconnectedness through media of vastly diversifying forms provides a place where all kinds of news-reporting and idea-sharing are cooked up – though some not even half-baked, I might add –and served to a global population. 

Thermal heat has been replaced with the heat of emotionally charged opinion, often hitting fever-pitches that stoke feelings of anger and hate between entire populations of people.   

The lines between genuine fact-focused news reporting and unapologetically opinionated editorial are blurred beyond much hope of their sponsoring media organizations ever getting a grip on reality.

The heat is on alright, and often times – I must admit – I can’t take it.  The thumb hits the “off” button, and I’m back to calmer places, back to sanity.  

It’s a real downer.  This isn’t the way it has to be.  With all the potential that media offer today to educate, enlighten and inspire, what most consistently rises to the top are the most shrill, most  misguided and most purposefully destructive voices, viewpoints and personalities. 

A retired Knoxville, Tennessee educator, Sandra D. Cannon, wrote an insightful op-ed piece in The Knoxville News Sentinel this past weekend, describing in an exceptionally well-balanced way her disappointment in how public debate has evolved, from the formats of traditional media to the likes of Limbaugh and Maher.  Read it.  

As a substitute teacher now, Ms. Cannon sees the vitriol in today’s classrooms daily, not only in students arguing among one another but also in arguing with her. 

The outcomes can be seen every day.  Neither many students nor the grown-ups who should know better seem to care about learning or embracing the tools of a thoughtful, productive and well-measured point/counterpoint exchange – one that doesn’t quickly decline into mudslinging of the worst Jerry-Springer kind.   

Amid the muck, the public relations profession represents two faces: first, as part of the machine that’s positioning and protecting the voices that are most contributing to the madness; but then secondly, as a professional discipline that offers an abundance of methodologies, creativity and know-how to make education, enlightenment and inspiration surrounding critical issues a reality.

Toward that second point, the power of organizations like the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) and its tens of thousands of individual members offer a great deal of talent and expertise.  While a wholesale shift in the status quo probably can’t happen, many folks would agree: the quality of debate in this country has fewer places to go but up. 

They say that a kitchen make-over always contributes back the most value to a home. 

Across the spectrum of public discourse, the public relations profession should turn up a different kind of heat in the kitchen – one generated by a full-on makeover that helps brings out better communication for better outcomes – and in the process, increases the value of the media home we all inhabit.

Good media relations coverage doesn’t just happen – it’s planned.

All right, all right . . . is this the case every time? No, but it certainly makes things a whole lot easier for PR professionals and journalists when the message is a good fit for both that specific media outlet and the PR firm’s clients.

Simply put: media relations is a two-way street.

It’s one of many public relations strategies used to communicate client messages. Sure, it’s simple enough to throw together a quick media campaign, but without the proper research, thorough dialogue with the client and goal-setting initiatives to reach specific outcomes and target audiences, what’s the point?

Media relations messaging should be purposeful and beneficial for every client, every time. Why?

At Mary Beth West Consulting, we will advise a client if we have reservations about pitching a certain story angle. The last thing our media relations team wants to do is send a potentially weak pitch or a “not-so-newsworthy” release to local journalists with whom we’ve developed a trustworthy relationship to simply “get the client’s name out there.” 

Media contacts do not like their time wasted, and weak content put forth by a client (or their PR firm) does exactly that. 

It is, however, absolutely necessary to dig deep and find the best hook possible to tell each client’s story, which in the end is a win-win for everyone involved.