Last year (ha, last year!) when I announced we are no longer doing the Inquisition, a few of you were incredulous (cough, Bob LeDrew, cough).
But don’t worry!
We have something to replace it that will involve more than one of you every week (and not require me to put on makeup and do my hair for the camera).
I know, I know.
Video is the next big thing.
Blah.
We have plans for video, too. But that’ll be once a month, not every week.
Trust me when I say this: Doing video every week, with another person—and our combined schedules, is no easy task.
Introducing…The Big Question!
I wasn’t kidding when I said we are doubling (maybe even tripling or quadrupling) down on your professional development this year.
And when I say that, I don’t just mean you are going to hear more from me.
(Though, that would be great, wouldn’t it?)
(Clearly I’ve been around Laura Petrolino too long.)
We’re focusing on helping you learn from each other, and bringing you the brightest minds in PR and communications to help you become a PESO-proficient, modern PR pro.
(Say THAT five times fast—PESO-proficient, modern PR pro.)
When we introduced the Spin Sucks Slack community, we hoped to see you sharing your expertise and recommendations with one another.
We’ve been absolutely blown away with how much of that is going on both in the public channels and in private messages.
We want to harness this collective brain trust and take it even further by crowdsourcing great ideas from all of the Spin Sucks community members.
That’s why, every Friday, we’ll be coming to you with The Big Question—the one thing we (and your peers) want to know that will help us all get ahead, and help each other to do so.
Every week, we’ll go through and curate a selection of the responses and share them here with all of you, along with my thoughts on the topic.
But that means you have homework (see below).
The Spin Sucks Fireside Chat Series
The Big Question will happen the first three (or four, depending on the month) Fridays of the month.
On the last Friday of every month, I will host the Spin Sucks Fireside Chat Series.
You see, as much as I hate the actual process of traveling, I do get to spend in-person time with some incredible minds.
In September, while in Cleveland for Content Marketing World, I was at dinner with some of the most powerful brains in marketing, advertising, and communications.
I looked around the table and thought:
Wow. How incredibly lucky am I right now?
My next thought was:
How can I transfer these brains to our community?
We’ve figured out a way to bring those minds to you so you can learn directly from them.
I’ll sit down with one expert every month, for 30 minutes, and go in-depth on a topic I feel we all need to better understand.
This month’s Fireside Chat will be with Jay Baer on January 27.
We’re going to discuss why customer service is the new marketing and how that affects a communicator’s role within the organization.
And don’t worry, in addition to the brain food of the conversation, I promise you’ll come away learning something new about our guest, as well.
Stay tuned for more on this!
Your Homework
Now I need your help!
The Big Question won’t work without your involvement.
So you have some homework—I need you to answer next week’s The Big Question.
It is:
What is your professional development goal for 2017 and how will you make it happen?
Please share your response in the comments section below, in our Slack community, or on social media.
If you do share, though, please note it could be included in next week’s blog post.
So, if you’d rather it not be included, please let us know that when you share it.
And, if you have ideas for questions I should ask Jay Baer on the 27th, let me know that as well!
