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Tis The Season For Giving Back by @LUCYrk78

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Tis The Season To Give Back

by Lucy Rendler-Kaplan | Featured Contributor

Many businesses realize that affiliating themselves with charities are not only a great opportunity to get involved in giving back, but it is also a powerful marketing tactic. The business gets to develop a larger network and it helps others at the same time. Consumers like to associate themselves with businesses that support causes – while they may not have the means to donate regularly to a charity (even if they wanted to) it makes people feel good that they are giving back while purchasing something they need.

This idea is nothing new – the idea of companies “giving back” goes by many different names and uses a variety of marketing slogans: Social Corporate Responsibility (CSR) and “Voting With Your Dollars” are the two I tend to hear most often. Simply put, CSR refers to the idea of participating in initiatives that benefit others.

As a marketing or brand manager, it can be confusing and overwhelming to decide what charity to align with. Once you have done your research and found charities that are worthwhile, transparent with where the donations they receive go and have similar views and visions, how do you pick one? When I do this with clients, I tend to choose charities that I am personally drawn to, and also ones that seem to be close to my consumers’ hearts. It is more important that the chosen charity would be one that my current and target consumers would support, than if I would support it with my own money.

The next criteria to choosing a charity from a brand standpoint, is one that gives the brand a broader reach than they would get on their own, and brings a meaningful and engaged community to your brand. This is a win-win for both you and your charity. Charities, like brands, are interested in building their membership base. Partnering with a charity not only brings their community to you, but it also allows the charity to get their message out to all the people your brand interacts with, with the goal being to bring new members to support them, as well as your brand. Cause marketing is actually no different than any other partnership you might form between your brand a for-profit business. You are looking for another like-minded company, where by coming together, you both will have the opportunity to amplify your messaging with a shared voice.

As you build up the relationship between your brand and the charity you have aligned with, you will want to get in front of the employees that work with the charity and explain your product or services to them. Most charities also have people that follow the charity or support the charity in some way. These people are all target consumers by indirect association. As the relationship deepens, you can look to these people to become brand ambassadors, as their charity will also benefit from your brands success. Perhaps you are donating a specific portion of your brand’s sales to the charity- you can invite the charity to help get the message out that they will be the beneficiaries of sales during a specified time period.

While you are working on a charity marketing initiative, it is important to keep your motives clear. I would suggest that the end goal is always helping people, making a difference.

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Lucy Rendler-KaplanLucy Rendler-Kaplan is a marketing veteran, with close to 17 years experience in field marketing management public relations and social media marketing. Both in-house and as a consultant, Lucy has created, developed and managed marketing projects for organizations including: Red Bull North America, ONE Coconut Water, Camel and Ethos Water, to name a few.

Most recently, Lucy has left corporate America to work as a consultant, focusing on small businesses and start-ups to design effective social media and marketing strategies to jumpstart brand growth. In addition to strategic business development efforts, she directs media relations, branding, advertising and website development.

As a social media consultant, Lucy works with companies in auditing their current social media efforts and creating a comprehensive social media strategy that aligns company-wide objectives through social business practices.

With an early background in journalism, Lucy regularly contributes to a number of NFL and music blogs, as well as her own, with a diverse focus encompassing Lucy’s passion not only for networking and marketing but also for fitness. She spends her free time honing her photography skills, running and watching an excessive amount of true crime shows.

Let’s connect! Twitter & Linkedin

Building Brand Loyalty through Surprise and Delight by @lucyrk78

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Building Brand Loyalty through Surprise and Delight

by Lucy Rendler-Kaplan | Featured Contributor

Smart brands know that they are driven by their consumers, that without regular repeat buyers and without reaching new potential consumers, they won’t stay in business for long. Smart marketers know the value of personalized one-on-one relationship building, and that nurturing those relationships requires going above and beyond ‘typical’ customer service.

I’m definitely one of those people that regularly says “I hate surprises!” But that’s not entirely true. I hate the kind of surprises that come from sentences beginning with “I need to come clean about something,” or “(insert deep intake of breath here) We need to talk about ____.” On the flip side, an unexpected surprise can often make someone’s entire day. It can happen in the line at Starbucks when out of the blue, the barista says “This one’s on me!” Or it can occur when a waiter brings you a free dessert just because. It can even happen on social media, after an interaction with your favorite brand.

Surprises can show people that they matter to you, that you are listening to them. For brands, these surprises are often a way to create immediate emotional connections with consumers, leading to a deeper sense of brand loyalty and advocacy.

While turning this into a marketing tactic might sound a bit off putting, smart marketers understand what is behind the idea of “surprise and delight.” Brands are employing surprise and delight strategies (also known as “Random Acts of Kindness”) on social media, through sponsored events, in-store demonstrations, advertising and more. “Surprise and delight” is going one better. Taking customer service a step further, anticipating the needs of your consumers and offering them a solution before they even realize they have a need. Not only is this a great way to create buzz and brand loyalty with current fans and consumers, but it’s also a great way to build, find and create new consumers, thanks to social media and the fact that most people, when delighted, will share their experience.

It might sound funny to hear adults excited about receiving stickers in the mail, but that is just what happens when people receive a handwritten card and stickers from companies like SproutSocial and Buffer. Innately, we all like to be recognized, and turning away from technology to taking the time to write out a card, stick it in the mail with a couple branded stickers and give consumers an offline experience is meaningful. Adding elements of surprise and delight to your marketing efforts might take a bit more time, but it is a strategy that pays off in deepening consumer connections, creating long-term customers and brand advocates.

Social listening is the best way to find the people in your community that would be the best receivers of a surprise and delight experience, and delving deeper into their Twitter streams or Facebook pages will give you a glimpse of the best ways to employ this tactic. Not everyone wants stickers. Not everyone will wear a t-shirt. When you truly know the people you are looking to reach, you will find the best way to reach their hearts, and what ‘gifts’ they will find most meaningful.

Personal Real World Examples

I have mentioned that receiving stickers and handwritten cards in the mail are one of the ways that some online brands are using “surprise and delight” within their online communities. Here are some ways that I have personally done it:

  1. Brunch: As a marketing consultant, I travel a lot on behalf on my brands. For one of them, after engaging with a few people in the Chicago area for quite some time on Twitter and Facebook, I had an upcoming trip to the area. I reached out to 4 of the people I had gotten to know the best and invited them to brunch with me. I paid for brunch and brought them a little gift bag filled with product. I have continued to do this in the form on Tweet-Ups in other areas. When I know I am heading to a certain city, I will post about it on Twitter, tagging some of the members in that brands community that I have engaged with the most, and scheduled a tweet up with them. Not only does this give me the opportunity to show these people that I want to get to know them further, and that they are important to our brand, but it also gives them a chance to meet other people in the brands community. Odds are that they will have more in common than a love for my brand, and it can open them up to making new friends and developing relationships with people in their own city they otherwise might not have known.
  2. Experiences: As a CPG marketer, I often have the opportunity to work with artists and celebrities, and will occasionally receive tickets to their shows or backstage passes. I will take those gifts offered to me, and ask the artists if I can pass them along to members of the brands community, using them for contest prizes or simply surprising a random member of the brands Twitter followers. This gives that person an experience from the brand they otherwise could not have gotten on their own.
  3. Make My Day: I have a marketing program I call “Make My Day.” In cities that I have a dedicated street team, I will scour social media posts from people in that city and find someone that is posting about having a bad day, or that is upset about something that has happened. I will then reach out to them on that same social media platform and showing them that I’m paying attention, say something like, “I hear you’re having a rough day because of _____. I’d love to try to brighten it with (and then insert the name of your brand and their product)!” I will then see if they are at their office and send a member of my street team to their office with some free goodies, or if I cannot discern where this person is, I might ask them “Can you meet my team in one hour (so they have time to get there) at the corner of _____? We’ve got a little something for you!”

Things that might seem like not a big deal can often be a huge deal to someone else. These little things are often the difference between a good brand and a great brand. They might take a bit more time to organize, but it’s the people and brands willing to take a chance, try some different tactics and spend a bit more time showing their consumers how much they mean to the brand that can differentiate your brand and help you stand out.

What are some ways brands have surprised and delighted YOU? Tweet me @lucyrk78 and share those experiences!

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Lucy Rendler-KaplanLucy Rendler-Kaplan is a marketing veteran, with close to 17 years experience in field marketing management public relations and social media marketing. Both in-house and as a consultant, Lucy has created, developed and managed marketing projects for organizations including: Red Bull North America, ONE Coconut Water, Camel and Ethos Water, to name a few.

Most recently, Lucy has left corporate America to work as a consultant, focusing on small businesses and start-ups to design effective social media and marketing strategies to jumpstart brand growth. In addition to strategic business development efforts, she directs media relations, branding, advertising and website development.

As a social media consultant, Lucy works with companies in auditing their current social media efforts and creating a comprehensive social media strategy that aligns company-wide objectives through social business practices.

With an early background in journalism, Lucy regularly contributes to a number of NFL and music blogs, as well as her own, with a diverse focus encompassing Lucy’s passion not only for networking and marketing but also for fitness. She spends her free time honing her photography skills, running and watching an excessive amount of true crime shows.

Simple Ways to Build Trust on Social Media by @LUCYrk78

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by Lucy Rendler-Kaplan  | Featured Contributor 

Every day on social media you see people talking about the importance of brands learning how to engage with their consumers, be more “human” and above all, be honest and transparent. Think about your life – how long would you stay friends with someone you didn’t trust? Would you continue to keep working on building that relationship? The same goes for brands. In order to grow their consumer base, they must build relationships. And those relationships must be based on trust.

Social media has leveled the playing field, opening up the opportunity for small brands to have the same chance of reaching as wide an audience as larger, more established brands. Trust goes a long way in cutting through some of the “noise” on social media, helping even start-ups gain attention and interest of existing and potential consumers.

Here are 7 ways brands can begin to build trust with their consumers using social media:

  1. Quick and Responsive Communication: If I am happy with a company or a meal or customer service I’ve received, I am more likely to go straight to Twitter with my comment. I am less likely to fill out a comment card. I have my phone with me at all times, so it’s much more convenience to simply pull it out and type out a quick message to the company. Studies show that if someone has a bad experience, they will take to social media first to communicate their complaint. If brands receive a complaint via one of their social media channels, that is a great opportunity to quickly address the consumer, take ownership of the complaint and see what they can do to remedy the situation. I believe that most issues can be resolved and less consumers will be lost if brands do this in less than 5 hours from the time they received the message. This also shows on a larger scale to more people that the brand is listening and concerned with what people are saying. If handled correctly, a well handled complaint can often turn into a great testimonial for the brand.
  2. People Buy From People: People often talk about being the same online as they are offline. In my opinion, that’s the only way to be. You are only one person, and if you are the face behind a brand, you are trusted to be for a reason. There is nothing I can think of that would make a good case for making a different persona online. If you want people to trust your brand as they would a friend, you have to speak with them as if they were your friend. Being yourself on social media also helps in keeping a consistent voice. If you are friendly and engaging one day and the next day you are simply selling your product with every message, people are going to be confused by your messaging and confusion leads to mistrust.
  3. Create More Often Than You Curate: People who are looked at to be thought leaders have many people that trust them. While sharing posts on social media that you have not written is very common, if that is all you are doing, you are essentially showing that your brand has no original ideas of its own. You become more of an echo than someone to be looked to for answers your consumers are seeking. If you aim to truly gain respect and trust, you will need to show you can post timely original content that is relevant to your audience.
  4. Be Transparent: This does not mean you should reveal company secrets, but the more you show you have nothing to hide, the easier it will be for people to trust your brand. A good example would be, if someone posts a complaint on your brand’s Facebook wall, do not simply delete it. Address it, and leave it up on the timeline to show that you have nothing to hide and no matter what, you will listen to what people are saying and will address it.
  5. Be Accountable: We all make mistakes. You may have forgotten to send something out on a certain date, making a shipment arrive late, or you may have tweeted something that perhaps offended people. Don’t ignore or make excuses for these occurrences. Acknowledge that you understand what you have done wrong, and do what you are able to, to right the wrong as quickly as possible.
  6. Be Helpful: Remember, this is not about YOU. This is all about your consumer. By being a member of the community, and using social listening, you will find out what your consumers are seeking to find out, or what questions they may have. This is what should drive your content. Being someone’
  7. Do Not Auto-DM on Twitter: Just don’t do it. No. Matter. What.

These are just a few of many ways brands can build trust on social media. Remember that without your consumers, you don’t have a brand! Focusing on gaining the trust of your community as well as expressing gratitude for that trust will help you develop and deepen relationships, ensuring your business continues to grow.

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Lucy Rendler-KaplanLucy Rendler-Kaplan is a marketing veteran, with close to 17 years experience in field marketing management public relations and social media marketing. Both in-house and as a consultant, Lucy has created, developed and managed marketing projects for organizations including: Red Bull North America, ONE Coconut Water, Camel and Ethos Water, to name a few.

Most recently, Lucy has left corporate America to work as a consultant, focusing on small businesses and start-ups to design effective social media and marketing strategies to jumpstart brand growth. In addition to strategic business development efforts, she directs media relations, branding, advertising and website development.

As a social media consultant, Lucy works with companies in auditing their current social media efforts and creating a comprehensive social media strategy that aligns company-wide objectives through social business practices.

With an early background in journalism, Lucy regularly contributes to a number of NFL and music blogs, as well as her own, with a diverse focus encompassing Lucy’s passion not only for networking and marketing but also for fitness. She spends her free time honing her photography skills, running and watching an excessive amount of true crime shows.

Let’s connect! Twitter & Linkedin

Building Your Personal Brand by @LUCYrk78

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Building Your Personal Brand

by Lucy Rendler-Kaplan | Featured Contributor

Until recently, the word “brand” only referred to companies, to businesses. However, in today’s world, we are more aware that every one of us has our own personal brand. I liken each of our own brands to what we used to call our “permanent record.” Remember how scary it was to hear “This will go down on your personal record?” With the internet and especially with social media, that personal record is no longer a mythical list of our wrongdoings – it’s searchable and at anyone’s fingertips at all times. Your digital footprint is available to future bosses, spouses, trolls…

Whether or not you are actively building your personal brand, it is still being built up with every tweet you post, every selfie you take, how you dress, what faces you make when people speak to you and every email you send. It’s up to you if you choose to nurture your brand, or let it be defined for you, without you. More and more your reputation is the most important part of you, and your personal brand can craft, to an extent, how people see you.

Here are a few of my own suggestions on how to positively contribute to the growth of your personal brand:

  1. Start with an audit: What is the current perception of you? How do people feel about what you share, how you act, what you say? Before we can begin to better strategize on how we’d like to be seen, we have to understand how we are seen right this second. What comes up on the first page of a Google search for your name? Ask other people how they would describe you, what they think are strengths you possess, and what they would suggest are areas you could work on.
  2. Figure out what you stand for: It takes a long time for some of us to truly “find ourselves” and perhaps even longer to really understand ourselves. You have undoubtedly seen people on social media that seem to change their views often, seemingly to gain favor from thought leaders, or garner attention from people they look up to on social media. You want to have a strong understanding of what YOU believe in, what you stand for, and be confident enough to publicly make those views known. Your beliefs will guide your action.
  3. Be YOU! Authenticity is the key to each of our personal brands. This isn’t something we can fake our way through, nor is a personal brand a persona. In time, people will see through that, and you will have a pretty steep mountain to climb to change perception. The essence of your personal brand is all the parts that make you, you. What do you like? What don’t you like? Where do you like to eat, shop, spend time on weekends? Authenticity also means that you do what you say you will do. You walk your talk.
  4. Identify your goals: What are you goals in your personal life? In your professional life? What is it you would LIKE to be known for? Once you define your goals, you can develop ways to then go out and grab them!
  5. Find ways to add value: Social media is often referred to as “noisy” but have you ever found someone that helps you annoying, or talking for the sake of talking? I haven’t. I try to be of service both online and off, and would like a big part of my personal brand to be someone people can rely on.
  6. Show people what you’re good at: The best way to do this is through content marketing. Write blogs or articles, or use Twitter to become a trusted resource within your community on topics you have expertise on. When people want to find information on something, rather than immediately going to Google, they go to people that they trust and those people that have helped them in the past…become that person for at least one other person! What differentiates you from everyone else that studied the same topics?
  7. Take it offline: We don’t all live solely online. When I see someone that has a strong personal brand, it is because they are the same online as they are offline. There are always ways to network offline – all industries have meet up groups you can attend, and if you can’t find one, you can host your own Tweetup. I find Facebook Groups to be the most meaningful parts of that platform for me and my own personal brand, to meet more like-minded people.

Your personal brand isn’t going anywhere. Just like you yourself are, your personal brand is ever evolving. Building your own brand takes time, but it’s infinitely worth it. The more I stay mindful that everything I do contributes to my personal brand, the more I find I learn about myself.

What are some additional items you would add to this list? What has worked for you in building and nurturing your own personal brand? Tweet me @lucyrk78 and let me know!

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Lucy Rendler-KaplanLucy Rendler-Kaplan is a marketing veteran, with close to 17 years experience in field marketing management public relations and social media marketing. Both in-house and as a consultant, Lucy has created, developed and managed marketing projects for organizations including: Red Bull North America, ONE Coconut Water, Camel and Ethos Water, to name a few.

Most recently, Lucy has left corporate America to work as a consultant, focusing on small businesses and start-ups to design effective social media and marketing strategies to jumpstart brand growth. In addition to strategic business development efforts, she directs media relations, branding, advertising and website development.

As a social media consultant, Lucy works with companies in auditing their current social media efforts and creating a comprehensive social media strategy that aligns company-wide objectives through social business practices.

With an early background in journalism, Lucy regularly contributes to a number of NFL and music blogs, as well as her own, with a diverse focus encompassing Lucy’s passion not only for networking and marketing but also for fitness. She spends her free time honing her photography skills, running and watching an excessive amount of true crime shows.

Let’s connect! Twitter & Linkedin

Unplugging Isn’t The Key To Happiness by @LUCYrk78

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by Lucy Rendler-Kaplan | Featured Contributor

unplugIt was around 1995 that I first logged onto AOL and within the first two years, began finding people to chat with in online groups. I found people that lived in Chicago, or that played Scrabble, and occasionally flirted with some flirts that most likely were the original Catfish. I would spend hours talking to these stranger-friends. I hadn’t been all that popular in high school but online, I had a fresh start to meet people that weren’t already in unbreakable cliques.

I went to college, had a busy life filled with theatre, work, studying, new friends and family and didn’t spend much time online. There was so much to learn and so many new people to meet and new experiences to be had and I tried to take advantage of as much as I could.

Then came Facebook, and I was back to spending much more time online. In 2008 I joined Twitter and while I didn’t delve in nearly as much as I do currently, I was spending a considerably more time online.

My favorite times are when I go to a city and leave feeling like I know everyone there. Chicago, although it’s my hometown, has always felt like that to me – welcoming and friendly and much smaller than it appears. With all the people I’ve been able to meet in over 20 years online, when I travel, I am able to recapture that feeling as I meet my online friends offline and the world continues to shrink.

Do I spend so much time online that I neglect my friends and family and offline relationships? I have never had someone come to me for an Internet Intervention. I can put my phone down and focus on people I am with (for the most part) and not feel an overwhelming sense of #FOMO. At the same time, do I ever go a full day without at least one Twitter chat? Actually, I do. Most Fridays I don’t attend any, but I certainly see everyone in my groups with multiple chats on other days. I don’t lose sight of the people that are important to me, my family, my dog…but I also know that I have extremely close friends on social media that are just as dear to me, if not even more so, than some people I spend time with offline. So what is the difference really? Offline, when you want to see friends, you meet them at a restaurant or a coffee shop. Online, you meet them in a chat or a DM or a group. Either way, we are still going where we need to be, to keep up the relationships that are important to us.

On a professional level, I can’t imagine going a day without checking my email. I’m not sure that anyone that runs their own company or works at an executive level in any company truly ever unplugs or “goes off the grid.” To me, that is irresponsible. I believe that the stress of wondering what you might be missing negates any freedom or imagined peace of mind you might be attempting to regain my turning off all electronics for an extended period of time. How many times have you gone on a vacation and come back to more emails than you can possibly answer your first week back? How serene does that make you feel? Exactly.

If I’m a customer and having problems with something or need to reach a company, I’m going to be pretty put off when I receive an out of office reply, more so if it doesn’t offer me an alternate person to reach in the first person’s absence. In an age where transparency and immediacy has become the norm, why would you make your company unavailable to it’s consumers? The very people that make up the sole reason you still have a company?

I’m not suggesting you stay tethered to your laptop and phone 24/7. The beauty of today’s increasing world of remote workers is that your time is taken into consideration. I understand that you, like me, may be working remotely and therefore your time really is your own. Do I still expect replies to my correspondence in a timely manner? Absolutely, and I will offer that to you as well. But I may take an extra hour during the day to walk the dog AND have a leisurely lunch, and might only check my email twice during both of those times.

me on phoneI tend to believe that if you can only find moments of serenity when you are entirely removed from any and all thoughts of your job, perhaps you are not in the right position. Personally, I can find many other things besides email and social media to distract me, if I’m not truly in the moment, no matter where I am. Similarly, I am also able to find peace when I need to. And that doesn’t mean I take off for my own Walden Pond, ignoring everything around me. Peace for me comes in learning to live in the real world, which is made up as much by people online and off. It means accepting my life as it is and me for who I am, and not seeking a technological black hole to hide in, away from all of you. And the irony? Where to people come first, to tell everyone else about their time “unplugged?” Ah yes. Twitter. Facebook. Text messages. How many times have you seen someone unplug, just to come and immediately ask, “Who missed me?” You know you’re coming back. We know you’re coming back. Is the break one big ego trip?

We live in a digital society. New technology pops up every day. Would it not be better to find the best way to live in the world we um, live in, than to pretend we’re somewhere else? Or not try to escape our current lives and learn to find the balance?

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Lucy Rendler-KaplanLucy Rendler-Kaplan is a marketing veteran, with close to 17 years experience in field marketing management public relations and social media marketing. Both in-house and as a consultant, Lucy has created, developed and managed marketing projects for organizations including: Red Bull North America, ONE Coconut Water, Camel and Ethos Water, to name a few.

Most recently, Lucy has left corporate America to work as a consultant, focusing on small businesses and start-ups to design effective social media and marketing strategies to jumpstart brand growth. In addition to strategic business development efforts, she directs media relations, branding, advertising and website development.

As a social media consultant, Lucy works with companies in auditing their current social media efforts and creating a comprehensive social media strategy that aligns company-wide objectives through social business practices.

With an early background in journalism, Lucy regularly contributes to a number of NFL and music blogs, as well as her own, with a diverse focus encompassing Lucy’s passion not only for networking and marketing but also for fitness. She spends her free time honing her photography skills, running and watching an excessive amount of true crime shows.

Let’s connect! Twitter & Linkedin

 

Having The Courage of Your Convictions by @LUCYrk78

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by Lucy Rendler-Kaplan | Featured Contributor

8.24.14 me in mirrorWhen I was 17, I started smoking. I was afraid that my parents would find out and be upset with me, so I hid my cigarette pack under the driver’s side seat in my car. Perhaps one of the most obvious hiding place, my mom found them. Her response wasn’t what I expected – rather than being upset with me for the act of smoking, she was more upset with my hiding it. I’ll never forget what she said, “Be who you are. If you smoke, say you smoke.”

I wish I could say that from then on, I always had the strength of character to be “who I was,” but as I’m sure we can all relate to, that’s easier said than done. We still live in a pretty judgmental world. And I believe that as long as we do, we will care or worry what others think. Perhaps we don’t always suffer from those feelings of wanting to be liked or fit in more than we feel we do, but I don’t think anyone could honestly say that 100% of the time, they never think about it.

Personally for me, it has taken over 30 years to get to a point where I’m not afraid to stand up for what I believe in, or share honest opinions and thoughts when asked a direct question. For a long time as a child I was really shy and didn’t want to share strong opinions. I’m not even sure I allowed myself to form them, content to just agree with the majority in hopes that would make me look like I was “one of them.” Trying to be “one of the crowd” has brought me through some experiences that were nothing if not learning experiences – of what NOT to do my life. I allowed myself to be led astray almost exclusively each time I tried to do something simply to fit in. That has played a HUGE part in shaping the Lucy of today. How do we build more of that self-confidence and self-esteem? My answer? By doing esteem-able things. And the more you stand up for yourself, the more I find your self-confidence and esteem grows.

Do I worry that people won’t like me for some of the things I believe or say? I’d be lying if I said I didn’t think about it prior to sharing or admitting certain things, but worry isn’t the word I use. I hope that people feel like I do – I respect people more FOR sharing their beliefs and thoughts, whether I agree with them or not. Obviously there is a caveat to this – I wouldn’t respect someone if they said something in the vein of “I think we should kill all the people that _____,” but those people aren’t in the communities I keep myself in, so it’s a non-issue. I have friends of different ethnicities, religious beliefs, that work in different industries and that grew up completely opposite the way I did. How boring would life be if everything agreed with you? Would you not be a bit mistrustful of those people? I mean, how can anyone honestly think the exact same things you do? And if you were to find that 1 in a million person, what you could you possibly talk about? I find that discussions or debates, even arguments, always lead to my looking at things through a different lens. Does that mean I’m then swayed to their way of thinking? No, but sometimes.

When you know that someone speaks their mind and is constant in their thoughts and their actions and way they conduct themselves in life follow those thoughts and beliefs, it’s much easier to know how to engage with that person. You don’t have to worry about which “side of them” you’ll be dealing with, and you’ll know what people to have what conversations with. These are the people I find myself looking at as my “influencers,” those that I know are strong enough in their beliefs that if I want an honest opinion or thought or piece of advice, I can go to those people and not have to wonder if they’re just saying what they’re saying to appease me, or to make me like them more than I already might. I find it exhausting when people seem to “go both ways” on topics – it’s confusing, one day they say one thing, and the next time we talk about the same topic, they suddenly seem to have flip-flopped into thinking something else. I understand that feelings change and grow and that’s FINE, but I’ve seen it happen mid-sentence and that just makes me feel the person is saying what they THINK I want to hear. How well does that ever work out? For me? Never well. I’m not a mind-reader, and I don’t want to be one.

Does this always work in my favor? Nope. But because I have the courage of my convictions, I recognize that I might face disapproval, but I’ve gotten to a point in life as an adult that I believe in myself. I, as much as I can, surround myself with other people that are confident in who they are, and people I can trust and believe when they talk. Does this make me arrogant? I hope it’s not seen that way. Just because I believe in myself, that doesn’t mean I’m right all the time. Haven’t we all had a situation we thought was 100% one way, and it turned out it wasn’t at all? I don’t find that confidence = arrogance, unless ego is involved. If you come from a pure place, ego doesn’t generally enter into it, right? Am I like this every minute of every day? Nope. I am not sure that’s even possible as humans. Of course I have self-doubt at times. But I work on it. Is it sometimes easier to just “go with the flow” and not express yourself or your differing ideas? Sure. We’re human, we make mistakes and sometimes it’s easy to take the easy road.

Have you ever experienced a time that you stood up for yourself and your beliefs and it wasn’t taken well? I’d love to hear some of your experiences with this….

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Lucy Rendler-KaplanLucy Rendler-Kaplan is a marketing veteran, with close to 17 years experience in field marketing management public relations and social media marketing. Both in-house and as a consultant, Lucy has created, developed and managed marketing projects for organizations including: Red Bull North America, ONE Coconut Water, Camel and Ethos Water, to name a few.

Most recently, Lucy has left corporate America to work as a consultant, focusing on small businesses and start-ups to design effective social media and marketing strategies to jumpstart brand growth. In addition to strategic business development efforts, she directs media relations, branding, advertising and website development.

As a social media consultant, Lucy works with companies in auditing their current social media efforts and creating a comprehensive social media strategy that aligns company-wide objectives through social business practices.

With an early background in journalism, Lucy regularly contributes to a number of NFL and music blogs, as well as her own, with a diverse focus encompassing Lucy’s passion not only for networking and marketing but also for fitness. She spends her free time honing her photography skills, running and watching an excessive amount of true crime shows.

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