I’ve long been an avid reader of presidential history. One of my favorite historians, Doris Kearns Goodwin, wrote a book about Abraham Lincoln titled, “Team of Rivals”.  Throughout the book, Goodwin dives into how President Lincoln filled his Cabinet with former foes in order to ensure he had every perspective at the table.

This idea made an impression on me to always consider who you surround yourself with in order to get perspective and insights. Now most of us don’t get to organize an official cabinet, but we do get to create what is often referred to as a “kitchen cabinet”—a group of trusted friends and associates. Those in my kitchen cabinet don’t even know I consider them as such, but they’re a group of people I have met along the way in both my personal and professional life and I value their opinion.

Your kitchen cabinet should be made up of a handful of people you can call on at any time to get advice. They can be personal friends or professional colleagues and if you’re lucky, your kitchen cabinet includes people whose strengths play to your weaknesses and challenge you to think bigger and bolder while being true to yourself.

Throughout my career, I’ve been fortunate to have a kitchen cabinet whom I can rely on to bounce ideas off of and get varying viewpoints. They have guided and encouraged me to challenge myself and step out of my comfort zone. At times, they offered a new perspective and changed my outlook on certain issues and ideas. 

With each advancement in my career, the individuals in my kitchen cabinet have shifted a bit as I’ve lived in different cities and held different jobs. But the lessons I learned from them have always stayed with me. A former boss used to always say she surrounded herself with people smarter than her. Turns out, she was the smart one to recognize her own shortfalls and make sure she built a strong team who would complement her strengths and weaknesses and ultimately work well together.

I challenge you to consider who is in your kitchen cabinet. If you identify a missing piece, make this the year you surround yourself with people who make you the best you can be.  

In just four years, TikTok has stormed to the front of the social media landscape – amassing a billion monthly users worldwide with a staggering 138 million in the U.S. alone.

TikTok’s short-form platform and personalized feed has become so popular that Meta revamped Facebook and Instagram to keep pace. Those videos keep users on the app for 95 minutes a day. But is TikTok right for your organization?

With so many users spending so much time on the app, it seems like an easy question to answer. But any organization will need to ask itself – who is my audience? TikTok’s users are overwhelmingly young, with more than 60 percent of users in the U.S. being under the age of 30. And half of those are under the age of 20. If your target audience isn’t Gen Z, TikTok might not where you want to spend your time and money.

Any organization will also need to weigh the pros and cons of creating content for TikTok and what comes with it. Your traditional ads might not work in the fast-paced world of a TikTok feed. Short-form videos require their own mindset to produce and aren’t just a shorter version of a traditional ad. The key to TikTok success, much like many ad campaigns, is partnering with the right people. In TikTok’s case – an influencer.

A traditional celebrity partnership isn’t needed on TikTok with some teen influencers holding followings in the millions. Organizations need to consider who is in an influencer’s following and their engagement when looking for a partner.

However, the Chinese-owned app is also not without controversy.

There have been bi-partisan efforts to ban the app in the U.S. over concerns the Chinese can use TikTok to spy on its users and push certain narratives. In December 2022, TikTok was banned from federal government phones with state governments, including North and South Carolina, in order to keep the app off state-owned devices. South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster said the ban was to help protect critical cyber infrastructure from foreign and domestic threats. The app has also been banned at Auburn University and the University of Texas.

While the pros might seem to outweigh the cons on the surface, any group should always measure the weight of each factor before committing time and resources to TikTok.

There are many reasons why you should hire a specific public relations firm. They may specialize in a particular area, like crisis communication or media relations. The firm could be on the cutting edge of producing engaging digital and graphic content or they might have a successful blueprint, and they stick to it. Wash, rinse, and repeat. From a budget perspective, knowing these skill sets may help with efficiency and the maximization of the ROI for your budget.

However, in public relations, the blueprint often needs to be customized. As a client, you may have new requests that change the timeline of important projects or impede the efficiency and efficacy of a project roll-out.

There is a small moment in time between when we are asked to complete a project or task by our clients and when we’ve all agreed to move forward. Within that gap lies the most significant asset a public relations firm can provide you: the opportunity to be a strategic advisor.

In addition to executing our outlined scope of work, it is incumbent upon us to be your advisor, see around corners and monitor both the forest and the trees. We want to be a partner that advises and executes to achieve your goals. Sometimes that may mean telling a client something they don’t want to hear or providing guidance that is different from an initial conversation.

We live in a fast-paced world. Information moves quickly, and decisions are made rapidly. Yes, we have quotas and KPIs to meet and promises to keep, but when the overall goal is to serve our client’s best interest, sometimes the smart first step is to slow down before giving a definite “Yes!”

Your PR team should take the time to think through what they are being asked to do. It may be the right thing to do, and they may even need to get it done quickly!

PR professionals should be asking these questions to benefit their clients:

• Does this project work towards the client’s overall goal?
• Is this project strategically worthwhile for the client?
• Is the timeline realistic?
• Does the firm have the capacity, or the skillsets, to take on this project?

The PR firm may decide there is a better idea or approach. In this case, they should be thoughtful and advise you by offering an alternative approach and explain the whys and why nots. It is vital to deploy our strategic radar on your behalf and pick up on things that you might not otherwise see. In the end, saying “no” or “maybe let’s look at it in a different way” might be the best thing that happens and strengthen the client relationship.

While doing so, PR firms must act with an abundance of professionalism. Prepare to present a well-reasoned position and respect the client’s current situation and their final decision.

Ultimately, we are your partners. We are here to serve you, our clients, and perform our duties to the best of our ability – by showing our value through thoughtful advising and careful execution.

January 5, 2023 

Friends,

I wanted to be the first to tell you about an exciting new chapter for our parent company, Nexsen Pruet, and what it means for NP Strategy.

The partners at Nexsen Pruet have decided to merge with Maynard Cooper & Gale– a national law firm headquartered in Alabama. Together, they will be known as Maynard Nexsen effective April 1, 2023. This newly formed firm will have more than 550 lawyers, serving clients in 23 offices located from coast to coast across the United States.

NP Strategy, a wholly owned subsidiary of Nexsen Pruet, will be owned by Maynard Nexsen. Our name will remain NP Strategy, but we hope to add several more talented professionals across our new markets in 2023!

You can read the full news release for the merger and watch a video here. The Associated Press also wrote an exclusive story about the merger and that can be found here.

NP Strategy has had the pleasure of working with clients across the country since our group’s inception, but now with a national network of offices, our quickly growing team will be able to offer services to an even broader footprint and meet new partners where they are.

If you, your company or any related connection could benefit from working with us, please reach out to me or another member of our NP Strategy leadership team. We stand ready to help with any strategic communications needs.

Thank you for your partnership over the past several years. NP Strategy’s success and growth are due in large part to our network of wonderful partners and colleagues like you.

My Best,

Heather Hoopes Matthews

CEO, NP Strategy

Learn more about the Maynard Cooper & Gale and Nexsen Pruet merger announcement.

When your flight encounters turbulence, have you ever looked to see if the flight attendant appears concerned?  In turbulent times, it’s normal to look for help from people in leadership positions. They will generally have the facts and be able to cast a vision forward. To do this, leaders need to be prepared.

If you are a leader, or support a leader, be sure to pause and respond, not just react.  How do you do that?  Here are some first steps.

Get the facts. It’s easy to listen to the first account of a situation and start to plan. Don’t do it. Request information from every member of your critical response team. I have been in multiple situations where the first account of a crisis was just a slither of what actually occurred. If we had not worked to get every side of the story, our client may have felt compelled to take an unneeded action.

A Critical Response Team (CRT) is responsible for, trained and committed to working together during a crisis. Teams should have the authority and/or expertise to guide your organization through a crisis. If you don’t have a critical response team in place, establish one immediately.

Circle up with your CRT. Once you have the facts – or at least a solid understanding of the situation – swiftly assemble your crisis response team, brief them on the situation and gather their feedback.  This should take place within the first hour of the crisis. Your team will provide various points of view that will be critical in determining a path forward.  For example, human resources professionals will offer insight from an employee perspective, risk managers will seek ways to mitigate financial risk, operations will pursue ways to minimize operational impact, legal will think about liability and communication professionals will consider the brand’s reputation. Each of these perspectives is important and your job as the leader is to find the balance between the sum to determine your next actionable steps.

Determine immediate next steps. Every crisis is unique, so the immediate next steps must be determined when your CRT gathers.  For example, if you have a major accident on site, do you close down manufacturing for the rest of the day?  If a scandal is about to break in the media, do you decide to notify the board and employees to try and mitigate fears before they read the story (and hear the rumors)?

Communicating is one of the keys to weathering a corporate storm. So after you have determined immediate next steps…

Identify three key message points and a spokesperson. These key points will be the basis for your initial messaging, including items such as an email to the board, a notice to employees or a media holding statement. If you have a crisis response plan in place, your spokesperson should already be identified and trained.  Otherwise, determine who is best suited to calmly, stay on message.  His or her demeanor can say more than the actual words out of one’s mouth.

NOTE: If your crisis is a “bet-the-company” situation, the person at the top must be the spokesperson. Do not lay blame, do not lie and never say “no comment.”

In closing, like death and taxes, a crisis is coming.  The challenge is preparing in advance, long before a storm is on the horizon and your plane encounters turbulence.  As a leader in an organization, we encourage you to make crisis response preparation a priority.  Will preparing ensure a Hollywood “happy ending”? No.  But, doing nothing is a great foundation for failure.