Career Advice

Navigating Your Financial Future: Q&A with New Pros Brown Bag Speaker Jim Beverley

Heather Sliwinski Leave a comment

You have, or are looking forward to, one of your first jobs in public relations—and your first steady paycheck. So, how can you take steps now to ensure you are building a strong financial foundation?

Join New Professionals Section members for a free brown bag teleconference “Navigating Your Financial Future” on Thursday, April 21, hosted by financial advisor Jim Beverley.  Beverley is a financial advisor with Partners Wealth Management with more than 15 years of financial planning experience.

PRSA New Professionals Blog Co-Chair Heather Sliwinski spoke with Beverley to get a preview of some of the topics he will be covering on Thursday.

Heather Sliwinski:  In regards to their finances, what are the biggest challenges facing new professionals in today’s economy? 

Jim Beverley: These days I hear quite a bit about paying off student loans as a significant challenge to new professionals.  The cost of education required for getting a job and the recent investment landscape has made debt-free education a rare situation. 

HS: Another crop of seniors is graduating this spring.  What is a tip you have for those who are about to face their student loans? 

JB: Shop for the best available repayment strategy, pay every time on time and if you can pay more, do so.   Getting beyond these loans will help you get to saving money earlier in your life.  It also helps you build your credit for when you are ready to buy a home or car.

HS: Do young professionals often seek out your council? If not, why do you think that is the case? 

JB: Young professionals do not typically seek my council.  In most cases, I have the feeling they would rather spend their money on buying fun things for their life.  Cars, electronics, clothes and eating out seem to get the priority over paying for financial advice.  On the one hand, I understand that motivation, and yet if they would spend their first dollars saving for their own future, they would soon be able to afford all the clothes, dinners, cars and electronics they desire. 

HS: In your 16 years of experience, surely many of your clients have told you about financial regrets. What is the most common regret, and what can new professionals do early in their careers to prevent it? 

JB: By far the most common regret my clients share with me is that they did not start saving early enough, and when they started, they wish they had saved more of their income.  While there are many regrets, it is amazing to me how often I hear this response.

HS: If you could give just one piece of financial advice to recent graduates, what would it be?

JB:  Whatever your income is, live as if you earned 10 percent to 20 percent less than that, and get in the habit of saving money from your first paycheck.  Do not get into the mindset of, “as soon as I get x, then I’ll start saving”.  Save some of EVERY paycheck you get, and do it right away. 

So how do we start saving?  Find out by registering for the brown bag today!  Among the general topics, Beverley will discuss:

  • A sample budget based on an average entry-level public relations professional’s salary
  • Managing your credit, including what affects your credit score (and how it affects what you can do with your money)
  • An overview of available student loans, and tips to make the repayment process as painless as possible
  • Planning for retirement (clearly, you are not too young)

Jim BeverleyJim Beverley, CLU, ChFC, CFP®, has 16 years of experience as a financial advisor. Beverley offers Securities and Investment Advisory Services through NFP Securities, Inc., member FINRA/SIPC. NFP Securities, Inc. is not affiliated with Partners Wealth Management.  Beverley empowers clients by eliminating conflicts of interest, taking the time necessary to understand each client’s financial situation and educating clients on the solutions available to help accomplish their objectives.

Intro to Independent PR: Part One with Robert Udowitz

Heather Sliwinski Leave a comment

According to the 2008 PRSA Membership Value Perception and Satisfaction Study, 6 percent of PRSA’s members are “independent practitioners”. This month’s “Intro to” series features two such professionals who once worked in agency, corporate and association PR and have since joined the ranks of independents.  Robert Udowitz, Principal at RFP Associates, LLC, spoke with Mike Greenberg of the New Professionals Section about life as an “indie”.  Check back on Friday, February 25 for part two of the series with Susan Rink, Rink Strategic Communications, LLC.

 

Mike:  What was your PR experience like before you decided to practice as an independent?

Robert:  I am entering my seventh year as an independent. Immediately prior to going out on my own I was working at a trade association as its director of communications. Before that I had been in corporate communications and at a couple of PR agencies in Washington, DC, and New York City.

Mike: What do you offer clients that an agency doesn’t?

Robert: In most cases I offer my clients equal if not more experience through a more economical and efficient model.  I’ve done crisis counseling, community relations work, media relations, analyst and investor relations, writing and event planning.  I have even created an animated video—from concept, to writing the script and directing the shoot!

Mike: What is your work environment like?

Robert: My work environment is as professional as it was when I had an employer. With all the modern technology I use, the only disadvantage I have is the lack of an office tech support team at my beck and call. 

Mike: What types of non-PR abilities and interests are needed in order to succeed as an independent practitioner?

Robert: You must possess some simple financial management and business skills.  In particular, when you start out you need to determine how much to charge clients. Then you need to tabulate your monthly expenses so you know how much money has to come in to afford your lifestyle. From there it’s critical that you devote time each month toward bookkeeping and billing your clients. Your business skills are critical to building a client base, marketing yourself, and maintaining a steady income.

Mike: What are the greatest challenges an independent faces?

Robert: The work will always find you, but there’s never enough time to market yourself for those times when you need more work. As long as you stay networked and are always talking to your colleagues and meeting new people, you will find work the moment you have the time to take on something new.

Mike: What has surprised you the most about being an “indie”?

Robert: How capable I was. In the confines of office work there isn’t much time to create opportunities that go outside of your assignments. And, sometimes you observe that the decisions that are being made aren’t as productive as they should be. As an indie, you have an ability to accomplish more and there’s a degree of pride when you are able to look back and see all that you have done.

Mike: What advice would you give a new professional who wants to work as an independent?

Robert: You have to have experience, and preferably a diverse amount of experience.  The more you’ve exposed yourself to professionally before you go out on your own, the more of an asset you’ll be for your clients.

Robert UdowitzRobert Udowitz, Principal, RFP Associates, LLC

Over the course of his 25-year career, Udowitz has worked at public relations/public affairs offices, corporations, and trade associations. He recently began RFP Associates, LLC (www.rfpassociates.net), a PR agency search firm specializing in the request for proposal process for companies seeking a public relations agency. Prior to creating RFP Associates, he operated RUdowitz Consulting, a PR/PA consultancy based in Washington, DC, where his clients centered in the financial industry but included commercial real estate companies, trade associations, a magazine publisher, and government contractors.

Udowitz has been a member of the Board of the Public Relations Society of America’s National Capital Chapter for the past four years and on the Board of the Independent Public Relations Alliance for more than five.

Take a risk to get out of the rut! by Brianne Bromberek

Heather Sliwinski 2 Comments

Think you’re in the minority when you dread going to work on Monday morning? Think again. In fact, a recent study shows that nearly 84 percent of Americans are unhappy and restless at work, itching to find a new career for more money, more responsibilities, or mere satisfaction. And just a few months ago, I, too, was grouped into that statistic. In fact, I wouldn’t even call what I was feeling unhappiness or restlessness – I would call it downright disgust. Disgusted that I had worked my butt off to answer calls at the reception desk and remind my boss that he had a 2:30 conference call with someone who would later refer to me as the “nice girl who answers the phone.” Sure, every company needs an administrative professional, I thought, but that’s not me. In college, I was the girl who skipped class – but not to participate in homecoming festivities or get a head-start to the tailgate party. I spent my time networking with the Women in Business leaders, attending professional luncheons and talking to pretty much anyone that would give me 10 minutes of their time. So when I finally walked across the stage and headed out into the “real world,” I received a nice slap in the face when I landed a fancy position answering phones and making coffee. Let’s just say I started my job in July and was already looking in the wanted ads by mid-September. 

I spent two long years not only dreading my 9-5, but also making excuses – “everyone hates their job, I’m not a quitter,” or the infamous “quitting now will look bad on my resume.” What I didn’t realize was that my dissatisfaction wasn’t affecting just me – it was spreading to everyone and everything that surrounded me. People got sick of listening to my story, sitting on the other end of the line while I complained about how unfair the world was. I became cynical about the professional world and even started to resent anyone who actually enjoyed their career.  How had I become such a negative person? It’s only a job, I thought to myself. Why am I letting it affect everything around me? And that’s when it finally hit me. I wasn’t looking at this as a career, but merely a job. What’s the difference? The mindset of a job holder is focused on security and money while the mindset of a career person is focused on development and risk-taking. So instead of complaining about my job, why wasn’t I taking any risks to secure a real career?  Simply put, I was afraid.  

“Fear is a double-edged sword,” says Barbara Stoker, author of Positive Risk: How Smart Women Use Passion to Break Through Their Fears. “On the one side it keeps you safe, but it usually holds you back from doing those things that really matter.”

I was afraid to take a risk and open myself to new opportunities for the possibility of, once again, being disappointed with the outcome. So when I finally realized that making progress often involves taking risks, I not only had a new outlook on life, but I had a new found confidence in my ability to succeed. Aside from the uncertainty that comes with taking risks, there’s a certain satisfaction in knowing that you went for your dream, whether you achieve it or not. The regret of never trying can often be harder to live with than tying and failing.

How many of us can say that fear has limited us from achieving our fullest potential? We spend years exploring our options, talking with guidance counselors and taking specific steps to map out our future. And although this approach is a good way to find a career that suits us best, it’s not the only way.  Sometimes taking a risk is exactly what we need to do to figure out what we want – or don’t want. We might take a huge risk and fail…or just maybe, taking the biggest risk of our lives, can often lead us to opportunities we never knew existed.

So when I finally took a risk and left my position, I realized that life is really all about taking risks. Each and every day we all take risks that could great affect our future – moving to a new city, beginning a new relationship, or in my case, quitting a job to start a new business. Think about every great success story you’ve ever heard – nearly every one involves a little risk-taking.  

Brianne Bromberek is the owner of Studio 213, a full-service graphic design firm in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She also works as a marketing coordinator at the Schlitz Audubon Nature Center in Bayside, Wisconsin.  Before launching her business, Bromberek graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and Mass Communications and a Certificate in Women’s Studies.  She can be reached at bri@studio-213.com.

career advice… Ticking Through Last Year’s To Do List Before January by Janet Krenn

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I’m big into lists. I write them. Re-write them. Revise. Lose. Re-imagine.

I wrote myself a “to-do by the end of the year” list last week, and it’s horribly intimidating. I’m not embarrassed to admit that it’s full of things that have been sneaking to the bottom of my “to-do” lists since April, and although I know I have a long month ahead of me, I’m propelled to get through it and start January with nothing hanging over my head.

Imagine! Only having to do the tasks and jobs that are new! (It does sound like a dream, doesn’t it?)

As PR professionals, we can’t control the speed at which new projects and responsibilities fly at us, but we can make sure we’re ready to take them on.

For me, this means I’ll be buckling down. I’ll be more focused at work, checking my Facebook page only when it’s work related or when I’m at home (shuddering with pre-emptive withdrawals). I’ll be a dynamo, or like some kind of well-trained PR Kung Fu master executing tasks with quick, deadly precision.

The list is long. Writing articles, sidebars, upcoming press releases. Then there’s video transcribing, scripting, editing. And then there’s the stuff that I don’t even know about yet, but will undoubtedly make its way to my desk, just as the clutter’s starting to clear.

But I know with my trusty list in hand, I’ll tick through the tasks of soon-to-be yesteryear, and when 2011 rolls around, I’ll be ready to take on the new challenges and rewards without fretting about projects fermenting on my desk.

So who’s with me and ready to write down, then take down, that to-do list of 2010?

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Janet Krenn is the 2010 Chair of the New Pros Section. She’s optimistic about closing out a successful 2010 at work, even though she has 23 things on her to-do list, and 3 days into December, none are checked off!

entry level… Networking: How I Got the Job by Lauren Gillaspey

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For many of us, May has come and gone, and, diploma in hand, we find ourselves wondering, ‘now what?’ With a college degree comes the expectation that we have been magically granted a dream spot at the dream company, but more and more recent graduates are finding they have to work twice as hard to get the job than they did to get the degree. Regardless of if you can walk the walk and talk the talk, you can find yourself talking and walking in circles unless you learn to utilize the number key for securing a job—networking.

After graduating in May, I was more than ready to take the summer to relax and unwind. Instead, I pursued a recently acquired contact before too much time had lapsed. As a result, I ended my summer with not only an internship, but also an entry-level marketing position that has shed a lot of light on what I want out of my career.

How did I manage this?

It’s all about meeting the people that matter through the people you already know. And my story starts with my final presentation for my senior advertising course at Northern Arizona University. At the end of the semester, my group and I faced our final stepping-stone—the presentation of our semester-long advertising campaign on Perrier Sparkling Water. To up the ante, our professor invited guest judges to critique our campaigns and presentations.

Following our presentation, my fellow group members and I had the opportunity to speak with the judges about our futures in the industry and any recommendation and advice they had. They all stressed the importance of networking and how useful LinkedIn is as a networking tool. That evening, I made it a point to thank each of them for their time and to request a connection through LinkedIn.

By following their advice, I successfully completed the first step in using networking as a job-hunting skill. I proved that I was determined and that I did actually listen to what they had to say. As a result, one of the judges offered to critique my resume and help me with my job hunt. And, boy, did he follow through!

Within two weeks of my graduation, I had already secured an interview at Gadabout SalonSpas for their Social Media and Public Relations Intern position. An opportunity my networking contact had heard about through his association with the Tucson chapter of the American Marketing Association (AMA).

With a little hard work and determination, I proved myself once again by being offered the internship. But, my newly acquired networking contact didn’t stop helping me. Periodically, I would receive job notices and career update questions from him. In June, he informed me that he had passed along my resume to another contact of his through AMA and a few days later, I received a phone call from a company I had never heard of requesting that I come in for an interview.

This time, the interview wasn’t for an internship; it was for the real deal. And sure enough, I was offered a marketing position with the company—my first real job in the industry, a mere couple of months post-college.

Since graduation, I’ve had to learn how to stop being a student and start being a successful and noticeable 20-something in the ocean that is the working world. Although I have drive and determination, I would be nowhere if I didn’t stop to talk to the people I meet along the way. They are your hidden jewels and missing pieces that make up the puzzle of life. Prove yourself to them, and sometimes they will bend over backwards to help you get from point A to point B.

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LAUREN GILLASPEY is a freelance public relations specialist who recently graduated with Bachelors of Science in Advertising and Public Relations. Lauren continues to network with new and seasoned professionals through PRSA, AMA and AAF.