Friday, June 20, 2008

Brainstorming at Bob Evans

Today Peg Allen from Warren County Career Center, Monica Danseck from Penta Career Center and me, Shane Haggerty from Ohio Hi-Point Career Center, met at a central point in Wapakoneta at the Bob Evans for what turned out to be a three-hour meeting about the Ohio ACTE PR Academy. While relatively new, this group's purpose is for professional development, idea-sharing, venting, and bringing a sense of community and professionalism to the role of the career-tech communicator, marketer, recruiter or whatever your title. We just wanted to share some thoughts and ideas about how to increase membership (it's free, by the way!) and to collaborate more often in order to provide a support system. Moreover, the role of the PR person is sometimes lessened in the world of education and by growing this group and its image and speaking in a collective voice, we may be able to enhance how people view our roles and justify the importance of what we do! We shared a lot of things and will be communicating those to you soon!

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Social Media in Plain English

Here's a helpful and brief video explanation of social media from a company called Common Craft.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Podcasting in Plain English

Today I attended a workshop at the Ohio School Boards Association in Columbus on podcasting. The three-hour workshop was conducted by Apple. So, obviously, we learned to do the podcasts on Apple's GarageBand software. Let me just say this workshop was great and the GarageBand software put a complicated process using a PC into the easy category by utilizing this software.
During the workshop the above video was shown to simplify understanding about podcasts.

Monday, June 2, 2008

Career-Tech Communicator Survey

If you haven't already done this, please click on the link below to complete a survey that will porvide some information to other CTE PR and marketing people. It will also help decide when the Fall CTE Communicators Meeting will be held at Ohio Hi-Point Career Center in Bellefontaine, OH.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=I0FDrm8wyyHKs_2fnJNpViIw_3d_3d

PR Academy

Peg Allen (Warren County CC) and Monica Danseck (Penta CC) have been working hard to create the Ohio ACTE PR Academy in order to provide those of us in career-tech with an outlet for professional development and also to connect us in order to share ideas or best practices. While NSPRA/Ohio is a helpful resource, they are very focused on K-12 education, and we all know that CTE is a different animal. Here is an article from an email newsletter I receive regularly from Hoeck Associates, a PR firm in Toledo. It is all about how forming professional groups and meeting regularly with peers is extremely helpful and rejuvenating. Just thought I would pass it along to hopefully boost interest and encourage involvement in the PR Academy and other CTE Communicator meetings!

"I just got back from my Mastermind group meeting in Las Vegas — wow! What a way to get jazzed and rejuvenated!
I’ve found Masterminding to be one of the best ways for me to keep myself stretching and motivated, and have tried to be involved in some type of “group mind” since I started my business 24 years ago.
My first Mastermind was in the form of an advisory board I put together to hold myself accountable for how I ran my business, and although that wasn’t a true Mastermind in that it was only one directional, it worked that way for me. Five years ago, I started meeting quarterly with other marketing communications firm owners, a group from which I continue to get much inspiration and support. And the bunch that just met in Las Vegas is online and information marketing based — something I’ve been really interested in recently — and full of high-powered, successful entrepreneurs who are giving me a real run for my money. I love the challenge of learning new things and being encouraged by others of like mind. And there really is a magic to it!
If you’re not yet doing any Masterminding, I encourage you to find or form a group and dig in!
Marcia E. Hoeck, President, Hoeck Associates, Inc.


Masterminding is not brainstorming. It’s not just a few people getting together and generating ideas and coming out with an action plan, although that certainly has its place. Masterminding isn’t networking, either, although many great relationships can be built through Masterminding. Masterminding is far greater than either of these.
In his book Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill describes the Masterminding principle as having two distinct characteristics:
1. The economic advantages of being surrounded by the advice, counsel, and personal cooperation of a group of people who are willing to lend you wholehearted aid in a spirit of perfect harmony, and
2. The psychic advantage that no two minds ever come together without, thereby, creating a third, invisible, intangible force which may be likened to a third mind.
Magic happens when two or more are gathered in the spirit of sharing, supporting, and receiving support. Masterminding was the secret key to success by titans of business like Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Henry Ford, Harvey Firestone, Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, and others who changed the modern world. And many of today’s business leaders regularly gather in Mastermind groups to benefit from the powerful group synergies.
Here are the main business advantages of belonging to a Mastermind group:
In Masterminding, challenges are shared and participants are supported by the group. Group energy is used to support and propel participants forward toward individual goals more quickly than could be done on their own.
Participants are held accountable for what they say they want to accomplish, in a way that assists in overcoming obstacles and supports what’s important. This accountability alone assures accomplishment at high levels.
Masterminding gives encouragement and builds confidence in a truthful way. Because everyone has the opportunity to both present their own challenges and to listen and assist others, mutually beneficial relationships form.
Participants are listened to in a safe and non judgemental environment. This is so rare in business today!
Participants have more fun making progress toward goals while others cheer them on to greater results. Ditto here about what’s rare in business — often, we see just the opposite.
If you can’t find a Mastermind group you’d like to be a part of, why not start one yourself? It may take a bit of time to find the right mix of members for your group, but the search will be worth the effort. Here are a few ideas to get you started.
1. Look close to home. By that I mean, take a look at the people you “click” with already, those you find it easy to share ideas with. These could be people in your industry, associations, personal acquaintances, or even online contacts. (Online Mastermind groups can work just as well as in-person groups, as many groups meet by phone for many of their meetings.)
2. Find enthusiastic, like-minded, high-achieving individuals. Make sure you ask people who will have staying power and can commit to regular in-person or phone meetings. Try to find a common thread among participants, such as all are marketing professionals, entrepreneurs, at the same stage of business development, or other common attribute. Ask people you admire and respect!
3. Set some ground rules. There are many resources online for Mastermind group start-ups and guidelines. It’s best to get everyone on the same page as to what’s expected of members, how often and how you’ll meet, and how to best assist each other. Many groups have simple outlines they follow for each session, such as: progress since last meeting, major challenge at this time, and what each member wants help with at the current meeting."