General

Alas, proactivity has never been one of my strong suits (even as I type this blog, it’s at the eleventh hour). Scientists may argue that its nature versus nurture but in my case, it’s definitely because my parents were procrastinating too much on teaching my brothers and I not to procrastinate.

My preclusion to avoid little, preemptive tasks here and there when I was younger always snowballed into last minute stress, late-night study sessions and pushing deadlines to the breaking point. Knowing this, you may ask yourself, “How does this woman make it a day, let alone three plus years in the highly competitive, ‘answers now!’ advertising arena?” Believe me, sometimes I wonder the same thing.

Since there is not a 12-step program for us habitual avoiders to “unlearn” our procrastination issues, as all our potential sponsors are putting off booking a lecture room at the local Y, I’ve learned that facing your postponement demons head-on is the best and only way to keep them a bay.

The first step in my recovery came when I was hired at PlattForm right out of procrastination-prone college life. PlattForm asks every person in every department to answer client’s questions even before they ask them. This does not mean giving the client an all-you-can-eat buffet of meaningless information that they’ll never use. It means that we as marketers need to be dedicated and committed enough to learn our market’s/client’s needs inside out. This way, when a useful bit of information or a new lead opportunity pops up, we can deliver that information quickly, concisely and complete with all courses of action recommended.

Another step on my way to procrastination recovery is realizing that the harder we work, the better our work will be. In the Media department, it pays to study lead flow and continuously report our results. “If you see something, say something” is a motto that’s key to life at PlattForm. For example, if you see lead flow for a certain market tank over a few days, taking the time to study the causes on the front-end before things get even worse will only make your job easier on the back-end. No one, especially clients, like to hear that a market is struggling - but if we’re doing our job correctly, you won’t have to wait too long for things to improve if you’re taking time on the front-end to fix the problem.

I’ve learned that bad news is unavoidable in the advertising world. No matter how hard and efficiently you work to prevent all problems, something will and does pop-up. However, striving to proactively avoid problems is always the best course to take. Over the years, PlattForm has made our clients raving fans of our work, which goes to show how much we all care about doing all we can to complete the job right the first time – and early enough to avoid late-night email chains.

Proactivity is still something I have to work on every day, knowing that in the long run, if I continue to work on tasks ahead of time, I’ll be a less harried person. The good news is that working at PlattForm has put me light years ahead of where I was a few short years ago. Maybe someday I’ll be completely cured, but seriously, what’s the rush? I’ve got at least a few more years before I have to start on that, right? Right?

It’s easy to see that PlattForm loves its employees. Any outsider could take a lap around our halls and tell that we are some very well cared for workers! Well Mommy & Daddy PlattForm have decided to take pampering their PlattFormers to another level. Additional benefits kick off April 1st.

PTO

You’re turning 30 and that makes this your 7th year here at P-Form. Aside from now being older than over 50% of PlattFormers, what, you may ask, does this mean for you? It means 25 days of PTO. Yes, that’s right, 25 glorious days away from the office to do whatever you choose to do. And you better use them, because if you don’t, someone else will (see below)!

PTO Relief Fund

Used up all of your PTO? On your deathbed with yet another round of the flu? Well, in an extreme situation like this, from now on, you may NOT have to choose between dragging yourself into the office and paying your cable bill. Instead, you can apply for additional PTO from the Relief Fund. At the end of each fiscal year the fund will be filled with days from those spoiled little brats who have accumulated so much PTO, they’re not even able to use it all! Then, when unfortunate souls like us are in a pickle, we may be able to pull from the fund (subject to approval and availability).

Maternity Leave

If you’re going to have a baby, wait! Wait, that is, until you’ve worked at PlattForm for at least 3 years. If you do, not only will you get 6 weeks of leave, it’ll be at 100% pay! With time off like that you might decide to have a bigger family than you’d planned on.

Health & Wellness Program

Don’t smoke. Take a walk. Eat a carrot. Get your eyes checked. Earn points. Get extra paid time off (WIP days). Welcome to PlattForm’s Health & Wellness Incentive Program. WIP it, WIP it good.

Flex Fridays

Imagine this. Every other Friday, all summer long (between Memorial & Labor Day), you leave work at noon, and don’t have to come back until Monday morning! Bask in the sun by the pool, hit the mall, or stay at home and catch PlattForm’s latest commercials during Jerry Springer. Do with it what you’d like, just make sure you enjoy your Flex Fridays.

The world of advertising is regulated by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) as a way to alleviate deceptive ways within the infrastructure of commerce.

Deceptive – adjective: causing one to believe what is not true or fail to believe what is true (www.dictionary.com).

These regulatory notions should be taken into effect with political advertising. However, they are not. The FTC only regulates advertising within the commercial realm. Presidential elections are not considered commercial; therefore, the details and ideals shared on a candidate’s behalf might not be all they are packaged up to be.

Take into consideration certain status quo of the products we see commercial advertising for on a day to day basis – price, branding, organizational association, expiration date, net weight, the country of origin, not just country of manufacture. Are these all notions that we consider significant in the advertising that we see for the non-commercial items or ideas as well?

Some presidential candidates will pump themselves full of fillers or display awesome packaging based on what they think the consumer will “buy.” It seems to be no different from commercial advertising efforts for other everyday items consumed by the general public. Except! What we listen for or even buy into during the election year effects how we live our daily lives – even if the surgeon general’s warning discourages it.

Some smoke, most pay sales tax, and all of us should vote. Policy-regulated advertising impacts all of is…

I guess that’s why they call it campaigning.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_advertising)

Just call me Joe East Coast – as I’ve been on the road the last few weeks traveling for PlattForm. One of my first stops was in Washington, DC to mingle with muckety-mucks from various career colleges for “Hill Day”. Hill Day is kind of like a meet-and-greet for education industry professionals. Each year around this time everyone who’s anyone converges upon our nation’s capitol to dazzle their local legislators about pertinent things pertaining to the career college sector.

While I was there I had mentioned to several mucketys and/or mucks that I was going from DC to NY to visit Trump University. Did you know “The Donald” has his own career col … er, check that, entrepreneurial college? Well, neither did I. And neither did 95% of the people I chatted up at Hill Day.

Turns out Trump University is a little hidden gem. And while no one I’d talked to had ever heard of it — clearly the school is doing well for itself. According to Trump University President Michael Sexton, the college has been open a little over three years and to date has had over 250,000 graduates. Yes, you read right. A quarter of a million people have either taken classes via Trump’s online classes or at his school located in the heart of Wall Street.

Here are a few more facts about Trump U:
30% of students are from outside the U.S — a majority from Asia. (Apparently, “The Apprentice” is HOT from Bejing to Bangkok. Go figure.)
Their most popular curricula is — duh! — Real Estate Moguling 101. (No, that’s not the program’s real name … but it is close enough.)
Due to incredible market demand, Trump University is rapidly expanding its curricula to include Personal Finance. (Suze Orman better watch her back! Girlfriend’s got competition.)

Read more on my Day at Trump University in Career College Central’s upcoming May edition. In the meantime, keep watching “The Apprentice” … The Donald needs all the viewers he can get now that Omarosa has (mercifully) been voted off.

For the first time in five years, I called in sick yesterday. The dreaded flu had run me down like a Mac Truck. 24 hours ago, even the thought of moving seemed like a challenge. But I managed to drag myself to work today … martyr that I am. Let’s see if I can put a positive spin on any of this …

Well, several people have noticed I’ve lost weight. How could they not? I haven’t eaten in five days. I figure I’m only one bout of salmonella away from my goal weight. On another up note, I’m currently hopped up on so much doctor-prescribed cough syrup that my co-workers have actually gotten better looking.

Hmmm … are there any other silver linings about the flu? Hmmm … let’s see. Well, between fitful bouts of napping yesterday, I was able to catch every single commercial I’d ever produced in the Kansas City market. I had no idea Jerry Springer aired three times a day here in KC. I thought I was delusional.

My officemate Tiffany has taken pity on me. She bought me a giant box of Kleenex and said, “Get away from me, sicko!” It’s the thought that counts.

My boss – who has zilcho bedside manner – thought I was pulling his leg. He wanted to know if I was bleeding out of both eyes and ears yet. I gently reminded him it was the flu, and not Ebola. Color him unimpressed.

I had nine voicemail messages on my work phone yesterday. I don’t think I get nine voicemail messages in a month. Am I on some sort of prayer chain list and not know it? Maybe they heard I died. Lord knows I felt close to it.

And bonus … I’m now so tight with the nurse at my doctor’s office I now call her by her first initial, “J”. “J, it’s M. I need the Z-Pak stat so I don’t get the hep.” She knows exactly what I’m talking about.

All this typing has made me feel faint. I’m gonna sign off lest I should get the vapors – which, as we all know, is INFINITELY worse than the flu … according to my mom.