Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Chuck Reece Session summary

Checkered past of Chuck Reece

Chuck Reece breaks down his steps to owning his own business.
• Journalism: Reece first interned with Advertising Age and with AdWeek.

From this, he learned how to write, which is the most important skill to have, and the art of checking and double checking facts. He also learned how to interview. He emphasizes that being able to listen and talk to people is important and that also leads into telling a good story, events tell stories and these stories have elements.
Once upon a time- the beginning
Then suddenly- a turning point
Fortunately- what we can do to help
Happily ever after- positive results

• Politics: He then worked for Georgia governor Zell Miller for three years.

Here he learnt:
1. Media relations: How to deal with reporters, dealing with people he used to work with.
2. Strategy: Businesses do not communicate out of goodness of their hearts, they do it because they have to.
3. Political Communication: It’s about changing the attitudes of people, influencing them to vote etc.
4. Speechwriting: Ties back in with knowing how to write. We need to write for clarity, Journalists needs to understand, general public needs to understand.

• Corporate Communications: Director of Global corporate communications for Coca-cola
1. Politics: Inside politics of a corporation, who approves what? There is a definite hierarchy and we need to become familiar with how it works.
2. Corporate finance
3. Print-web mixture: Print frames, web spins. Be careful what medium you use for what message.
4. Info architecture: This focuses on the way a website is organized and how easy it is for the consumer.

• Agency: Reece worked for GCI a global communication firm, owned by a global marketing/PR company. It is important for a college student for come into an agency job with exceptional skill.

1. Consulting: Telling clients’ things they haven’t thought about yet, as students, we need to show our brilliance.
2. Variety: Brings versatility.
3. Management: Knowing how to work with people and doing it well.
4. My own value: PR is a billable business, knowing your worth and understanding your value.

What smart clients want
-skills
-judgment
-value
-and Reece is cheaper than an agency
You can be an entrepreneur when you have all 3.

Things you forget when you become an entrepreneur
-Insurance
Disability
Life
Health
-Info technology
Viruses
Networking

Concluding thoughts and questions:

• Read “The World is Flat,” it may be boring but it is very important for college students.
• Got where he is by building skills and taking a leap.
• To build a client base, you start with one client, mostly always stolen.
• To set yourself apart in an agency, it’s more about who you are and how well you work with people.
• Reece recommends that you find someone to become your mentor, be careful when you make that decision.

2 comments:

LEL said...

I was also in Chuck Reece's entrepreneurship group. He was surprised at the number of students that wanted to hear about being an entrepreneur. You will have 10 or more jobs from the time you are 18 to 35.
Our age group will be moving around a lot because of the economy.

A few other things I found interesting:

Reece was weary to come and speak because he didn't know if you could teach entrepreneurship to college students. Most people do not successfully start companies when they leave school. Duffy Communications is the exception.

Businesses don't have hearts. We like to think they do, but only the people that work for them. They do not communicate because of love, but because in the end it will help meet their business objectives.

Lastly, learn how to play politics if you work in a corporation. Know who has the power to say yes and no.

I definitely enjoyed hearing Reece speak. He's passionate and brutily honest.

Lizzie Azzolino said...

From the looks of the blog AND the student evaluation forms, Chuck Reece was a favorite. We plan to have him back to speak in the spring! I'll keep you posted.