Little Things Can Make a Big Difference

Adrian McIntyre: 00:00:04

We all know that the little things can make a big difference, but knowing that and doing it consistently aren't the same thing. And sometimes it's easy to forget, as we get caught up in the hustle and the bustle of our always-on digital lives, that doing the small things and doing them consistently really can have an outsized impact. This came up recently for you, Abbie, in your business. What's on your mind?

Abbie Fink: 00:00:31

Yeah, so Casey and I, one of my coworkers and I just got back from a trip on behalf of a client. We were going into Kentucky for a new business or an event on behalf of one of our clients.

And we decided while we were there, since one of the things we do for this client is media relations, that we should reach out to some of the local media in the market and introduce ourselves, as opposed to just sending emails and such. And so we put together some press kits and handwritten notes and we drove around the state of Kentucky making personal visits.

It's a little more difficult to do that today as newsrooms aren't as open as they once were in terms of just being able to walk right in. A lot of folks working from home and such, but there is a human being in everyone's office if nothing more than to answer phones and take packages being delivered from those of us that are making the rounds.

But it got us kind of talking about the fact that, you know, so much of what we do in our daily lives is about positioning our clients as knowledge experts and as go-to resources. And part of the way we do that is elevating them to be top of mind. And first when someone thinks about needing a source for a particular topic and the little gesture of just taking an extra few minutes to stop by and actually drop some information off to a media outlet really can make all the difference.

And we proved it to be true because during those visits we were able to have a couple in person conversations. We did get a few follow-up phone calls while we were still driving around, thanking us for taking the time to come by the office. And so that got us thinking about, well, what are some of those other small things, little things that you can do in your business life that really can set yourself apart. And they're kind of common sense. But not all of us think about doing them on a regular basis.

Adrian McIntyre: 00:02:34

You've got a whole list of ideas and suggestions here and I want to go through them because there's some really good reminders and maybe even some people haven't thought of. But before we do that, when you proposed this topic, it reminded me of something I do in communication workshops -- business communication, interpersonal communication -- when I'm trying to get people to think differently about how they interact. Sometimes the focus is on collaboration, sometimes the focus is on marketing, but in all cases we're talking about how human beings communicate. Right?

So I have a section that I'll often put in where we start building a model of communication. Now, if you've studied communication, if you went to school for any of this, you will have seen something like this before. There's usually two heads facing each other in this kind of diagram, right? And I said, "let's just start to fill this in. What is communication? What is a conversation?"

And we usually end up somewhere along the lines of the classic sort of message, medium, channel, you know, the sender, the receiver, all these things from communication theory. But what's really interesting is when I ask people, "okay, great, now is this complete? What's not here?" And we start to think about what real life interaction involves and what's missing from this model. And someone will say, "oh, I know, I know! Nonverbal. That's not there." Okay, great.

So we can add that. Eye contact, body language, mirroring your posture, things of that nature, right?

"Okay. What else is not here?" And they don't know where I'm going with this. So eventually I have to tell them. What's missing is context. The historical context, the context of your relationship, the physical context, where you are. Context really matters in communication, and how you create and nurture that context is often done outside of the message itself.

So where am I going with this? Well, what you're talking about here are things that maintain a context of connection, appreciation, a sort of mutual understanding and knowing. And that's what facilitates communication when it happens. These things do communicate something, but what they communicate is not the classic thing of a message in a medium, et cetera, et cetera.

So I love this because when the context is a real relationship and you create and maintain that context through the kinds of activities that real relationships entail, you're really bringing a humanness to your profession. So for me, I just wanted to weigh in and say, I love this because it's something we don't often think about, but it's so important.

Abbie Fink: 00:05:04

Well, and we're not thinking about it as, you know, in a way of, you know, to extend the relationship, to take it beyond a transactional thing to something more meaningful and a little bit more give and take. And you know, the obvious one to me is, is the very simple handwritten thank you note. The idea that you're going to handwrite anything these days seems a bit off to a lot of folks.

But, I remember when I was a little girl and my grandmother, for birthdays and such -- we were living in Arizona, she was living in Minneapolis, eventually in Florida -- she would send us a birthday card with a check in it. And we would endorse the check and deposit it in the bank, but not until we wrote the thank you note to tell her that we got it.

And you know, "well, mom, if the check clears the bank, she's going to know that we got it." And she said "yes, but that's not what you're trying to convey. You're trying to tell your grandma and grandpa that you appreciate that they remembered you, that they was very thoughtful, that they sent you something, and maybe you, you can share with them what you plan to do with this check, the money that they've sent you." So it became very much a routine and we weren't really allowed to spend that money till we acknowledged that we had received it.

And I use that example, and I share the value of a thank you note when I do informational interviews with up and coming professionals or those that are looking to re-career into public relations. We talked in a previous episode about mentorship and the idea of doing that, which is also, you know, doing one of the small things. But you know, if you're in, you're in competition for a job with, especially if you're coming fresh out of college with every other person that's graduating. How you set yourself apart is as much about what you do in the interview and in the conversation, but really what you do after you've made that initial connection and to the extent that you can take an extra few minutes and write a thank you note, that isn't email. I'm not opposed to email, by the way, but something that's gonna set you apart is one that actually comes with a stamp and is in the mail because it isn't going to be a commonplace activity anymore to receive that.

And I believe that our colleagues, those of us in communications and public relations that rely on others to help us do our jobs, media outlets, journalists, reporters, et cetera, are also going to be appreciative of that extra step. Yes, I have a job to do. Yes, they have a job to do. But we all like to be appreciated and told how grateful we are for the nice story that you did or the coverage, whatever it might be. And so I remember, you know, I regularly encourage those thank you notes. We have nice little stationary cards that we have with everybody with our logo on them. Right. Simple to be able to do that. But not everybody, you know, thinks about how that's received.

I still have and will continue to have what I refer to as the happy file. And those are notes that I've received over the years, handwritten or in the mail, even if they were typed. Oh, I just dated myself. A typewritten letter. But a printed letter versus a handwritten letter that were a little bit more personal or said something really nice or shared an insider or something that I imparted onto them that they really found to be helpful and was important to them. And if I'm having a crappy day, sometimes all I need to do is pull something out of that file and say, huh, it's not as bad as I thought it was. There are still some people out there that can appreciate what's going on.

But there's all sorts of things in the business world that, or in our personal lives that we think of that can apply, you know, in the business world to just take it one step further, just do something a little bit differently that sets you apart from, you know, the others that might be by doing the same thing. And again, I think it's the small things that matter in this. You know, as you said, in terms of context, it really does make a difference.

Adrian McIntyre: 00:09:30

And when that context is genuine appreciation, rather than trying to get an unfair advantage or manipulate someone, or trying to knowingly use the principle of reciprocity to create a sense of obligation from the other. Intent matters. And when the intention is genuine and open and the appreciation is real, that communicates. It really does come through.

I just want to mention in this context, a wonderful book people may be familiar with Giftology by John Ruhlin. The subtitle is, "The Art and Science of Using Gifts to Cut through the Noise, Increase Referrals, and Strengthen Retention." Some of that's a little bit on the tactical side. John tragically died at the young age of 44 just last year. But his thinking on this topic still resonates and has a big impact. So if you're interested in looking further into, well, how do I go about doing this? And what are some of the ways to think about gifting as a strategy for relationship building? That's a great resource.

Now you do other things as well. What are some of the ... you've mentioned informational interviews, mentoring, what else?

Abbie Fink: 00:10:42

Yeah, so those have always been something that I, again, I've always done them, not necessarily thought about them other than just someone asked. You know, we regularly host students from the universities for, you know, their agency visits. They come, they have their list of questions.

We regularly, and we're in the midst of it right now because students are getting ready to finish their year-end reports before graduation and now they've got to interview five professionals before they graduate. But sure, I'll be happy to spend 15 minutes with you and tell you my career journey and my advice and what's a typical day, all the standard questions. But. And I do that, and I'm happy to do that, and I willingly do that.

A couple weeks ago, we were interacting with one of our clients who has just hired a new development director. And when she introduced herself to my coworker Alison, she said, "oh yes, I'm very familiar with HMA Public Relations. I did an informational interview with Abbie 32 years ago when I was first getting out of the ..." And Alison said, "wow, that's amazing." And I know this gal. We've stayed in touch. I mean, it wasn't that there hadn't been communication, but a conversation that I had 32 years ago, which is probably the same conversation I've had with dozens and dozens and dozens of up and coming professionals since that time, made an impression and put this young woman, now a professional of 30 plus years, on a path. And the fact that she remembered it, acknowledged it, even to this day was like, well, hey, that's pretty amazing, right?

And in my mind I didn't do anything out of the ordinary or anything terribly spectacular. But we all have the ability to lend our knowledge and expertise and to those that are asking for it and to those that are wanting to hear from us. We are giving you of our time and our energy, and that's valuable to us. And we hope that you appreciate it in the way that it's meant to be.

Gifting is a tricky one, right? There are certainly ethical considerations from our perspective, from a PR professional to a journalist. We are not allowed to gift them.

Adrian McIntyre: 00:13:13

They're also not allow to accept. So it's both sides.

Abbie Fink: 00:13:17

Correct. And there are some nuances to that, you know, depending on the type of reporter they are. If they're a travel writer, they don't accept the airfare and the hotel accommodations, but they have to go. So there's some, you know, there's some things there.

But an acknowledgment in a way that is, you know, whether that's a physical gift, here is something, if it is a donation to a nonprofit that's meaningful to that individual to show your appreciation, or let's meet for coffee and you just pick up the tab, right? It's, it doesn't have to be a full and or expensive way to be able to do that.

But I think about what we do in public relations and in communications and wonder if the same applies to other industries that might be serving clients. You know, I am doing it for a lot of reasons. I want to maintain good relationships. I want to show, certainly show my clients that I appreciate them. I certainly want to show appreciation to my colleagues on the journalism side. But are other industries doing the same thing? Are they acknowledging that there's an opportunity?

I think about those that are my providers of service. So, you know, my financial planner who regularly sends me, after a meeting or a particularly challenging conversation that we have, will send a note thanking me for trusting her with my life savings and how important that is. At the holidays, they will always, they do it at Thanksgiving, they work with an organization and they buy pies for all of their clients and you can come by and pick out your favorite pumpkin or apple pie for the Thanksgiving holiday. Small gesture. Probably a good percentage of the people don't bother to come by. Like, you know, that's just not something they're going to do. But the effort to make the offer goes a long way and shows me that she values my business and values what I'm trusting her with. And it matters.

And what it matters is I refer her now when people ask, do you have a recommendation for someone that does financial planning? It's a no-brainer. I'm going to recommend her. And it's, yeah, she can do a good job for me. Probably not a significant difference between what she does in it and maybe another financial advisor. But I feel valued. And that's really why the small things matter, is to show value and demonstrate that value and gratitude to the other.

Adrian McIntyre: 00:16:05

You know, that reminds me a lot of one of our earliest episodes, Episode 3 of this podcast, Copper State of Mind, when we talked about community relations and how giving back is good business. There's a lot of really great thoughts in that episode, published back in 20 21, about how doing good and doing well can really go together. And it just has me think a lot about ways that organizations show that they care. The way that they demonstrate their values in action, or in some cases, how they leave people to guess what their values are because their actions don't speak. There's a gap, there's the silence there.

They may be perfectly competent, but if you have the choice between a service provider who knows you and appreciates you and communicates to you that they appreciate you, and one who's just as good at doing the thing they do but never shows their appreciation, shows that they care. Of course the goodwill flows in one direction more than in the other.

So as we wrap this up, what are your thoughts about this more generally? We've been very specific and tactical, like thank you notes and phone calls and following up and keeping in touch and all different kinds of ways. At a higher level of abstraction, what should business leaders think about? Of course, those things, but about this idea of how the way they show up in the world, in the community, in their relationships with their teams, et cetera, really establish a culture or a set of values at the company. Is there a connection there?

Abbie Fink: 00:17:53

A hundred percent, there's a connection. And interesting that you would pull that episode out. If it was done in 20 21, we were not really interacting in a face to face environment. At that particular point, we were still in the midst of a highly charged pandemic around the world, and we were acknowledging people via screens and such.

But yeah, absolutely, how a business presents itself to its public is a strong indicator of how they feel and how they invest outside of the profit margin that they're trying to do. All of us are in the business and want to make money. We want to provide for our teams. We want to. Clearly, even nonprofits need to make money. They're just not motivated by making money.

But what we do and how we extend that to the communities at large and whether that is in a full scale community relations program where we are volunteering for nonprofits, we're sponsoring things, we're making donations, we're buying tables, dollar for every sandwich purchase, whatever that looks like. That there's the investment being made in demonstrating that you are a good company, but you are a good community citizen and that there is responsibility in that to acknowledge and to participate in those things that are important to the community that you're doing. The work in and that can be through all of these other things, you know, financial contributions, volunteering, et cetera.

But we know, and studies have shown, that consumers want to do business with businesses that are doing good, that align with their values and align with the things that are important to them. And the only way we know that from a consumer perspective is the demonstration of that behavior, right? So it's where do they show up? Where are they investing? What are they doing to show you, the consumer, that they are the type of company you want to do business with?

Now, large corporations are not going to be sending thank you notes to every customer that buys something from them. But there is likely a mechanism to demonstrate to you that you are valuable to them. And whether you are a large organization, small, nonprofit, entrepreneur, however you fit into that, your own description, your way of showing up and proving to your customer base, to your client base, that you are human behind the business and that you have taken the time and you want to take the time to invest in those things that are good for the community, are good for your business. I believe go a long way.

And so I can do an informational interview with someone 30 years ago. Fast forwarding to is now a client of mine making decisions around the kind of work that we're going to be doing together. My hope is that she has paid it forward along the way because it was so meaningful to her. We now have a different kind of relationship than we might have had because we're now coworkers and colleagues and proving that the, you know, the longevity of the relationship, the longevity of what we're doing does have an impact and that we've lived by those principles all this time. Nothing has changed. We will be hosting students for as long as we have the ability to do that. We will be making contributions to organizations that are important to our team and to the clients that we support. We will, where it is appropriate to do so, send gifts.

These are just built into our agency's culture and our recommendation will always be to our organizations that we work with is what does that look like for you? And can you figure out a way to take that handwritten thank you note philosophy and make it fit for the business that you're in.

Adrian McIntyre: 00:22:09

Thanks for listening to this episode of Copper State of Mind. If you enjoyed the conversation, please share it with a colleague who might also find this podcast valuable. It's easy to do. Just click the "Share" button in the app you're listening to now to pass it along. You can also follow Copper State of Mind in Apple, Podcasts, Spotify, or any other podcast app. We publish new episodes every other Friday.

Copper State of Mind is brought to you by HMA Public Relations, the oldest continuously operating PR firm in Arizona. The show is recorded and produced by the team at Speed of Story, a B2B communications firm in Phoenix, and distributed by PHX.fm, the leading independent B2B podcast network in Arizona.

For all of us here at Speed of Story and PHX.fm, I'm Adrian McIntyre. Thanks for listening and for sharing the show with others if you choose to do so. We hope you'll join us again for another episode of Copper State of Mind.