We are in the midst of a new economy that is still being defined.  A new economy where years of wealth have been lost, where a debate on Fox News I saw this weekend asked if all banks should be government operated, and where bailouts are the most popular form of financing.

I had breakfast yesterday at The Loews Regency, one of my favorite NYC breakfast locations and a 5W client.  An older couple there, playing with their grandkids, told me that in 28 years of owning their own business, they had never before had layoffs.  But now, they’ve already had two rounds, and they’re worried about whether or not their business will survive.  In the gym that afternoon, an entrepreneur who rented a new, 6,000-square-foot office six months ago told me he’s closing his company and giving his landlord back his keys.  Scary times.

5WPR’s answer?  We are looking at many new hires and ways in which we can invest in our clients’ businesses and our business.  We’re looking at items (and people) that don’t require ramp up time.  We’re demanding more from employees.  We’re delivering more to clients.  We’re conserving cash, but investing in the future as we believe we will be one of the few PR agencies to emerge from this recession stronger than we went into it.

We also continue to look at PR firms, or one- or two-person PR consultant operations, that may want to stop running their own business and be absorbed by a larger agency.  We have had many discussions, made some offers and will emerge stronger.  Are you a small PR agency with a client base?  Let’s chat. Email me directly at ronn@5wpr.com

It’s a new economy, and the rules have changed.  As an employee, look around and realize what needs to be done today.  As an entrepreneur, it’s war.  And I only continue to learn what this new economy means: the unemployed financial executive who just accepted a 200k job, even though he previously earned in excess of 700k, or my countless friends in real estate who aren’t doing even 10 percent of the deals they used to do.

It’s a new economy, and the rules have changed.  Without knowing when it will change back, everyone needs to adapt to the new rules and change accordingly.  I continue to be focused on continuing to grow and hopefully change the PR industry.  The line from The Notorious B.I.G. movie (which I saw this weekend) epitomizes it: “You can’t change the world until you change yourself”.

Ronn Torossian

5WPR

I attended a major movie premiere last week and found it to be amazingly well organized. Between the after party and the attention to detail, the event must have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars – a major spend for a studio. I enjoyed myself because I had the chance to view influencer marketing at its finest. They really reached key people.

I am a huge proponent of influencer marketing – talking to people who talk to people –for consumer brands, B2B and many additional purposes. Clearly, influencer marketing varies when it comes to Facebook and other forms of social media, but little compares to being in front of someone who talks to many others. It is worthwhile on many fronts.

That said, while I was at the movie premiere, I couldn’t help but wonder why public relations gets the short end of the stick. Events are held costing tens of thousands of dollars, advertisements are placed costing hundreds of thousands (or even millions) of dollars, but in general, the largest companies in the world don’t spend more than $1 million a year with PR agencies. It is a fact that ANY PR firm in the U.S., regardless of its size, would chase after a $500K RFP like there was no tomorrow.

Such an RFP would be front page news in every PR trade magazine. For any PR firm, a major budget is considered to be $15-$25K a month. That’s considered next to nothing to ad agencies. Time and again, PR seems to get short shrift. Because the industry is relatively immature, despite talk to the contrary, it is not given enough financial share or deserved emphasis. Too many companies fail to see the true value of PR, and that is to their detriment. I am sure my colleagues share this viewpoint with me.

Ronn Torossian

5WPR

Saw a good and interesting movie this weekend – Like many other cultural experiences, I found lessons applicable to life and work…. Movie is called:

“A Guide To Recognizing Your Saints”, and was a movie about a kid who grew up in a tough neighborhood and was a little bit of a troubled kid… and then one day picked up and left – Just left without saying goodbye.

The movie started and ended and throughout the movie had references to the quote: “I Left them all but they never left me.”

Of course this was a reference to his friends and family he felt he had to leave physically… but in his head they were with him.

Lesson:
Let every experience in life stick with you and learn from it. Let it help define you, but always look forward, not backward. Learn and absorb every step of the way.

Now, back to work…

Ronn Torossian

5W PR

As a student of pop culture, symbols and quotes (and a sappy sentimental at times), I believe that entertainment is often a parallel for life, and business. As such, over the years I have gone through stages of routines immediately before I enter my office of things I do to prepare for work…

Growing up in the Bronx, one of my favorite movies ever is “A Bronx Tale” (I have yet to meet someone of my age group who grew up in the Bronx and hasn’t seen this movie 10 times). As such, I used to watch a certain scene in the movie every day before I went to work.

It’s the biker scene… For those of you who arent familiar, a group of bikers show up in a Mafia owned bar. About 10 bikers walk into the bar very loud and rude and dressed poorly. The big boss (Chazz Palminteri) walks in and tells them: “Guys you aren’t dressed right, please leave.” The head biker tells Chazz – “Sir, please we’ll only have a few drinks and we’ll be on our way.” Chazz says “OK, no problem – I’ll buy the 1st round enjoy.” The bikers then take the 1st round of drinks and spray the bartender with beer and act like animals. Chazz comes back and tells them to leave the bar as they didn’t obey the rules – “Now you have to leave.” They tell him to screw off… and they will tell him when they are leaving. He responds by going, locking the door and saying “No problem. Now you can’t leave..”… and his buddies come from the back of the bar and go on to beat the hell out of the bikers. In the Mafia movie it taught the bikers a lesson about respect.

Lessons learned: Words have value… Actions have consequences, and if you say something, do it. I respected it greatly because it taught the value of giving, and of taking… all of which are necessary in business. I used to watch it before going to work because it motivated me to work harder and to never back down – All values I believe are important as an entrepreneur and running one’s own business… and if you give a finger to a competitor, they will take the hand (and its similar to my political views)… Anyway, that was 5 years ago or so I used to watch that every day.

These days for at least the last month or so I have been listening to the same 3 Jay-Z songs prior to entering the office in my 15 minute or so commutte to work “Can I Live ?”, followed by “Lucky ?”, followed by “My 1st Song”. Jay Z for me is a self-made great entrepreneur who understands the importance of struggle and hard work and extreme self sacrifice to succeed and make money – His lyrics motivate me prior to working.

“Can I Live” talks about Jay Z “Not sleeping”, and him growing up and developing into a leader and successful person… “Lucky” talks about how one can never understand something completely from the outside and to never assume something to be the case… and about how its not just being lucky… but luck is a part of it…

… and the last song I listen to before entering the doors of my office (or wherever I am traveling throughout the world) is: “My 1st Song” which essentially talks about the value of starting each working day anew and how every single day needs to start anew… and to never take your success for granted(As a recent great quote I read said self-made entrepreneurs can’t stop striving, driven by anxiety that they could lose everything they so quickly gained.)… Some of the quotes from “My 1st Song”: Work “It’s my joy and my tears and my laughter and my everything”… ‘When you thought back you never thought you would make it this far”….

“Treat my First like my last like my everything”…. (Which for me means don’t rest on your laurels – Even though I have nearly 70 employees after starting the business single handedly and the fastest growing PR firm 2 years in a row, I still feel far from successful and want to keep growing)…

Entertainment is certainly a parallel for business… and that’s whats motivating me before I enter work these days… just wanted to share the stage I am at these days…

Ronn Torossian

5W PR