While I didn’t take much time off (Christmas Eve Day), the convenient placement of Christmas and Boxing Day preceding the weekend was quite enough. Enough time in fact, to actually sit down and read a book. Sometimes, this takes a while, but in this case, Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers had me picking it up every chance I got. I’d recommend it to anyone and even talked about it so much my mom asked if she could read it (Mom doesn’t normally have time for reading and usually prefers to watch Oprah if she has spare time).

Anyway, in Outliers, Gladwell discusses all of the factors he feels contributes to a person’s success in life. I’ll let you read the book to find out all of the factors, but the gist is that all of the factors combined, often equal success – although not always.

So with the New Year approaching, I started thinking about the factors that have led to my success (let’s not forget that success is relative to each individual – I’m merely looking at my accomplishments compared to my goals). As I really started thinking about how I got where I am, it occurred to me that it is a result of one long and twisty web of circumstances. In short, one opportunity led to another. Or, in some cases, I wanted something and I created my own opportunities.

In my time since graduating high school alone, I have been involved in student politics and leadership development, worked as an Employment Counsellor/Workshop facilitator, freelance writer and a Marketing Coordinator. Now I’m a PR Account Coordinator. It’s quite the mish-mash of experiences, but I have to say each and every one helped me get where I am today. That, and a little bit of interest in social media which came completely out of the blue.

So, after reading Outliers, and considering my own path, I’ve come to the conclusion that success is a combination of personal drive, opportunity and coincidence.

Am I wrong?

What’s your success story?

I can’t see out my office window.

Usually, I have a wonderful view of downtown. I can see the skyscrapers, the CN tower and normally, a pretty snazzy sunset. Today however, I see white. Lots of white. We all knew it was coming.

The weatherman all told us to stay home today, Environment Canada issued their Winter storm watch, and somewhere along the way this storm started being referred to as ’snowmaggeddon’…which has now also shifted to ’snowmafriggenggeddon’. In fact, Air Canada even offered travellers the option to switch their flights before the storm hit.

Twitter is a blur with talk of the storm (#snowmageddon) The National Post is live blogging it and there’s sure to be an awesome collection of YouTube videos cropping up. (Here’s a few so far)

All of this craziness makes me wonder if we’re really as Canadian as we think. It’s just snow people. Okay…a lot of snow. But in reality, I think we’ve just been spoiled the past few winters. I still know that at the end of the day, I’m going to zip up my parker, put my scarf and mitts on, then I’m going to go home like any other day. On second thought, I may feel differently if I get stuck on the TTC for 3 hours, I’ll keep you posted though.

The end of the world is not here – just the end of grass and cement until Spring…might be a nice change.

Let’s just hope Miller doesn’t call in the troops.

Even though I’ve only been with TFC for a mere 3 months now, I have to say, there’s been quite the learning curve. The biggest thing for me has been learning about media relations. Given my background in Journalism, I think I had ‘some’ idea how it all worked, but considering the last month especially has been all about holiday pitching, I think I have a lot better understanding now. Here’s a little bit about what I’ve learned:

Do some research – If you have the time and your budget permits, do a quick scan for similar articles or writers who have covered the topic before. It helps to be able to pitch a writer and say “I noticed you’ve written items on this topic before and I thought this might be of interest to you…”

Media Lists – Before the pitch is even written, it is extremely important to have a good media list. And by this I mean, making sure that you have the right people on your list, their contact information is up to date and it includes everyone you think you message will appeal to.

Know your audience – When you’re making up the list, one of the key points to think about is: Will my pitch suit their audience? For instance, an assignment editor at CBC might not be all that interested in the newest beauty product your client is launching. It might be better to focus your efforts on outlets where you’re more likely to receive coverage.

Writing the pitch – From what I’ve seen so far, the most effective pitches are short and sweet with a descriptive subject line. Given the number of emails journalists receive everyday, something needs to stand out and make them open it first. Then your wonderful words will hopefully persuade them you have something they want to cover. Oh, and bullet points are good to – gives them a glimpse of what you have to offer, quick and easy.

Following Up – This is probably the most nerve-whacking part of the job. Picking up the phone and calling up the journalist only to hear them say “Sorry not interested.” But, then you get the “Oh ya, I saw that, I was meaning to get back to you…” and jackpot, your client’s in Saturday’s paper. Key pointers for following up: Be confident, be cheery, know your pitch and don’t feel get down if they say ‘no’ – it’s nothing personal.

Relationships – Last but definitely not least, remember that all contact you make with the media is about relationships. Building a rapport with media takes time and patience, but eventually you’ll be able to write or call someone and say “Hey, I know you wrote about this before so I thought you might also be interested in this…” If you offer good story ideas and follow through with them, you’re off to a good start.

So, that’s what I’ve learned so far – Does anyone else have thoughts I might have missed? I’m sure there are LOTS more out there.

This post is inspired by a number of events but is applicable to all facets of our lives whether it’s the social media realm, the employment world, our own emotions or even the salad dressing we choose. That’s right folks; this post is all about choices.

A few days ago, I read Ed Lee’s post about Setting Goals and Expectations. He links to this video of Barry Schwartz speaking at TED about the Paradox of Choice. Considering my own life lately, this presentation was quite thought-provoking, and left me pondering the choices we make and how we feel about those decisions once we made them.

One of Barry’s basic points (if you have 20 minutes worth of time, it’s an interesting talk all around though) is that because of all the choices we have, we are actually less satisfied. But shouldn’t we be happier now that we have so many options to choose from? Instead, he suggests that it is because of the vast amount of choice we have, that we will almost never be happy with our decisions.

His logic is this: Since we have so many options, there is much more room to regret the choice we didn’t make. Even though what we choose may be good, we are often left wondering if maybe there was a better one – a perfect one.

He suggests this could be one of the reasons for high depression rates. We’ve now gotten to a point where our expectations are so high as a result of so many choices, that anything less feels like a failure. And because we had a choice and made the decision, we are left with no one to blame but ourselves.

Given the few weeks I’ve had, this logic makes good sense to me. Maybe not perfect, but pretty good. But now that I see this logic, maybe it’s a chance to turn it on its head – no regrets, just be happy with what I’ve got.

Are you happy with lots of options or do you wish things were a bit more simple?

Side Note:

Schwartz mentioned that there are over 175 choices of salad dressing in one supermarket. Wow…decisions, decisions.