Hey, I’m not sure if you have the time right now, but it would be great if you can read my latest column. Is that OK?
…said the weakest communicator ever.
Confidence is a powerful tool to gain respect and get stuff done.
As you compose emails/documents (and in conversation too), remove these words/phrases from your vocabulary. They make you look weak.
The laziest verb in the English language, in my opinion, is “get” (or “got”).
Why lazy? We use “get” for so many scenarios that the word now lacks any character. Instead, we should get a more descriptive verb.
See? There I go again with “get.”
Let’s try the sentence again.
Instead, we should choose a more descriptive verb.
Much better.
Here are three more uses of “get” and how to fix each one.
Get my drift? 🙂
We were proud to help our client, Habitat for Humanity of South Hampton Roads, stage its “Home Builders Blitz” from June 5-9.
During the “Blitz,” hundreds of volunteers from the community came together and built a house from scratch in the Lake Kennedy neighborhood in Suffolk.
And did we mention Habitat built the home in just FIVE days!
The “Blitz” event was a great opportunity for local builders to invest in their community and provide a deserving family with a place to call home.
During the week, we encouraged media in Hampton Roads to cover the build. We were able to obtain coverage from WAVY, WTKR, WVEC and The Virginian-Pilot.
WAVY: Habitat for humanity building Suffolk home in five days
Photo gallery: http://interactives.wavy.com/photomojo/gallery/44041
Video: http://wavy.com/2017/06/06/habitat-for-humanity-building-suffolk-home-in-five-days/
WTKR: Fast paced construction builds Suffolk home in five days
Photo Gallery: http://wtkr.com/2017/06/10/habitat-for-humanity-welcomes-five-families-into-suffolk-homes/
Video: http://wtkr.com/2017/06/07/fast-paced-construction-project-builds-suffolk-home-in-five-days/
The Virginian-Pilot; Habitat for Humanity blitz in Suffolk builds an entire home in five days
In addition to the “Blitz,”, Habitat for Humanity held a dedication ceremony on Saturday, June 10. At the ceremony, Habitat welcomed the Williams, Jackson, Armstrong, Steward and Boone families to their new homes.
How can we generate positive news coverage for your events? Contact us to start the conversation!
It is probably counter intuitive that a city as large as Virginia Beach (over 450,000 in population) would still rely on volunteers, a fairly rural tradition, to provide emergency medical services.
But if you’re injured or sick in the resort city, the odds are an ambulance manned by regular citizens, well trained to administer life saving care, will arrive at the scene. Today more than a thousand men and women, ages 18 and up, answer the call, many “running” a weekly 12-hour shift that they incorporate into their otherwise busy work or family schedules.
Shouldn’t someone thank them for this sacrifice of their time and energy? (more…)
I’m often asked a tricky but important question about business communication:
“When should I be formal or informal with my business emails?”
When we learned a young couple planned to become engaged after a skydive at our client, Skydive Suffolk, we jumped into action.
What a perfect opportunity for media coverage, we thought.
By Joel Rubin
One reason I started this business in 1991 was the opportunity to be on the ground floor of big things. As a reporter, you generally know little about a new idea, a big event or an amazing product or service until some PR type tells you about it. Being there on day one to shape the story, or conceive it, is exciting and that’s what keeps me going at age 63.
So do the younger people on my staff whom I have the honor to mentor and lead. Sometimes they laugh at my suggestions, but other times, they say “great” and off we go. It works the other way too. We are now in the midst of formulating a big project that we created out of thin air, “Rock the Squads!”, next May 7 to call attention to the amazing and selfless work done by our volunteer EMTs in Virginia Beach. I thought of it, Jennifer named it and Ashley, who works year round on behalf of Kitty Schaum and the Virginia Beach Volunteer Rescue Squad Foundation, will be in charge of it. That’s how we roll at RCG.
By Joel Rubin
Every city in Hampton Roads, in partnership with the local Chambers of Commerce, conducts a State of the City event each year.
It typically features an uplifting speech by the mayor, a PowerPoint with lots of pictures and a feel-good video. Some are better than others (often based on the mayor’s speaking ability), and most are typically a bit too long for the audience of business people who are looking at their watches, wondering when they can get back to work after lunch. Still, they are popular and well-attended programs, which is why city staff invests a great deal of time in producing them.
I’ve attended lots of these state of the city events but rarely have had an opportunity to be consulted about the content. Hampton changed that this year, thanks to their dynamic economic development director Leonard Sledge and city manager Mary Bunting. They wanted some creative ideas because Hampton has a new mayor, Donnie Tuck, and they wanted to help him make his first State of the City memorable. (more…)
We can’t seem to get enough of “Coast Live.”
RCG clients like Diamonds Direct, Access College Foundation and Skydive Suffolk have already been guests on WTKR’s weekday show since its premiere in September 2016.
We knew the video that Joel Rubin and JPixx Video in Virginia Beach produced for the Southeast Maritime and Transportation Center (SMART) was good. But when Brad Mason of AMSEC, a national firm which provides technical services to the Navy and commercial maritime industry, told us that “every high school in our area should see” it, we knew we had hit the spot.
The approximately three-minute piece, which profiles four former apprentices who are now employed at local shipyards, was the latest in a series that Rubin Communications Group has produced. Most can be viewed at www.maritime-technology.org and several are now on the Department of Labor’s website as well. Called Make the Smart Choice, they tell high school students, career changers and veterans separating from the services why they should consider pursuing an educational path to job opportunities in the maritime trades and transportation logistics at the nation’s ports. (more…)
