This week has been an exciting week of planning for 2008. A former student of mine, Andrew Favreau, who works for Edelman PR Agency in Chicago, shared with me the comprehensive public relations plan he has drafted for my book, The Bite-Size Arts Ensemble and for my work as an artistic entrepreneurial advocate and agent-for-change. The plan includes radio, print, hopefully some television, and of course speaking engagements.
I have a couple of helping hands to shape and execute the plan. They include a small public relations agency, run by a former Edelman PR staff member who is a couple of years into running her own agency and will handle the daily/weekly/monthly plan, and a recent graduate in journalism, searching for her first opportunities writing as a freelance journalist.
Getting press for your business venture can be very expensive. I have worked hard to find the best possible resources that I can afford to help get the word out about my book, speaking and performing. By working with two bright and talented individuals, one in a start-up venture and the other a recent graduate, I not only am offering each an opportunity, but I am able create a public relations campaign that without them, I would not be able to afford to execute at this level.
The next few steps in this process will be to write a press release, which can be sent out once I have a publisher for my book, verify the data from a list of media contacts in the Midwest, New York and Los Angeles to begin to prospect for press, and continue to develop potential speaking engagements from a short list of relatively high profile schools, conferences and events, that still have openings for 2008.
Next year will be an action pack year of continuing to build my blue bike.
With each step I take, perfectly executed and planned or not, I feel more assured and more comfortable with not exactly knowing what will happen.
What I do know is that building my business is a process of action– little steps- that eventually will cumulatively produce major growth, change and increased clarity.
Simply by doing, even with parts of my blue bike still missing, including one of the most important- a publisher for my book- I know that this process of discovery is one of the greatest adventures of my life.
