AHA

There has been a great deal of coverage on the acquisition of online retailer Zappos.com by Amazon. I had the privilege of hearing Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh speak earlier this year at the Ragan Social Media Conference in Las Vegas.

I have to admit that when I saw Tony’s name on the program as a keynote and realized he was speaking about corporate culture, I wasn’t that excited about it. However, you can’t deny that Zappos.com has a great reputation as does Tony, so I went to see him speak because, well – he was there and so was I.

His keynote changed how I view the world.

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I am a big fan of David Henderson and look forward to his blog posts. He wrote a piece recently that stimulated some strong discussion here at AHA and pretty much everywhere I have brought it up. With the headline The Very Broken PR Agency Model, you know right away that David is going to touch some nerves. In his post, he says that the agency business is singularly about billable hours and that the focus of most PR agencies isn’t on the work or the client.

I think he has some valid points and I strongly believe that as an industry, PR is in a time of huge change and the world we live in is now different. Not everyone is embracing this evolution and I think that some agencies are going to suffer because of it. David does admit that there are exceptions and that there are some generally smaller to mid-sized PR shops that “are flourishing because they are darn good at what they do.” He also says that is “the exception, unfortunately, in a large industry dominated by the money hungry big agencies.”

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Let’s hear from Maryse Cardin, Communications Strategist/Writer, on the get to know you questions.

Tell us a little bit about yourself.
I’m motivated, grateful and excited about my life and the opportunities that are forever presenting themselves to me. I’m a lifetime student, always learning, always growing. I love to work with people and help them succeed.

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Today we’re asking the get to know the AHA Crew questions to Paul Holman, Principal.

Tell us a little bit about yourself.

I admit, I am a bit of a workaholic (probably because I love my job) who also enjoys spending lots of time with Ruth and our two dogs. I really like spending Saturdays with them. We hit garage sales, go to the beach, and work in our garden.

What do you see as your communications strengths?

I listen and pay attention to the details. From brainstorming a campaign concept to writing and editing to media outreach, everything at AHA is well thought out.

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