Darshan
Hey everyone, welcome to the DarshanTalks Podcast. I am your host Darshan Kulkarni. It's my mission to help patients trust the products they depend on. As you know by now I'm an attorney. I'm a pharmacist at the Kulkarni, law firm, and advise companies with FDA regulated products. So if you have a think about drugs, you wonder about medical devices, and consider cannabis or even obsess over pharmacy is the podcast for you. If you do all of those things, I really want to know more about why you're doing that I do I think I'm sort of crazy, but I feel I have these discussions because a lot of fun. And because I find myself learning something new each time I have them. So if you'd like what you hear, please like please leave a comment, please subscribe. It helps me helps let me know that you're listening and keep these conversations going. If you want to reach out to me, you can always reach out to me on DarshanTalks on Twitter, or go to our website at DarshanTalks, calm. Our podcast today, our podcast today is really quite fun, because we're gonna be talking to someone who, who I think I think the closest version I have to what she does, is Batman. And the reason I use Batman is if she's done it right, you never know, never knew that she was there. Which, which is the joy of being the being the SVP of Corporate Communications at NPR at CMR. Media Group and compass, which let me tell you are two separate companies and don't have an S at the end of compass and an extra s at the end of compass. So So our guests for today, ladies and gentlemen, I guess what today is, is Carly Cooper, currently so good to have you on. Welcome.
Carly
Thank you.
Darshan
Um, I want to talk to you a little bit about AI and we had a brief or initial conversation earlier we talked about just your role. And the the part that really got me interested in having this conversation was talking about Pr Pr is one of those things that everyone talks about, and it gets thrown around in jargon. And one of the things that stuck out at me is that if you do it right, no one knows that it was PR just organically seems to appear and everyone's magically amazing. But we can see some great examples of PR done wrong, and sometimes their opinions, some actors and actresses and some might argue some royalty is doing it wrong right now. Others others may say that is exactly what we were trying to achieve so so help me a little bit about what is PR and how is that different from corporate communications? Which is your other piece of the job? Sure.
Carly
Um, so I was actually thinking today about Charlotte's Web and how in that story, the spider Charlotte was creating these webs to talk about the pig and how how amazing the pig was. And as a kid I was always like, Why isn't anyone talking about how amazing the spider is the fact that the spider can spin these webs that say words and I think it's probably a pretty good metaphor for PR it's you know, you're right, it's behind the scenes and you're really brand building and it's a really important part of brand building. And I I'm totally okay with not being in the spotlight most of the time. Even now, you know, prepping for this actually really nervous and not totally comfortable. But because I get to talk about what I do and what I love. I'm looking forward to it a lot. So you know, yes, I think PR done right? You don't necessarily see it you just as a consumer or audience member, you just feel really good about that brand. Pr done wrong. And wow, especially today, you get really blasted and there are so many examples of it. And it's fun to you know, Monday morning quarterback and say how we would have done things differently. And the way that it differs from corporate communications is actually there's a lot of similarities and there's differences. So you know, PR is mainly external and it's mainly, you know, shaping the way that that your your consumers, your audience members, your customers are going to see your brand. And then corporate communications internally. There is some shaping there, you know, where you're trying to share positive messages. But Corporate Communications is mainly transparency and trying to make sure that your staff is aware of what they need to know to do their job or to foster a positive corporate culture, things like that.
Darshan
So so what I'm hearing you say is that corporate communications is internal, while PR is external. But you're using often the same techniques. But with PR. If you do it right, I don't even know you did it. So I don't know that that strategic post that was placed in that newspaper was what was paid for. I just assumed that it was a interest story. And I read something and and I start developing a positive image about that organization. Is that a lot harder to do when you're doing corporate communications? Because everyone knows, if Carly's messaging it's corporate communications. And there's a purpose? Or is it more mechanical and and organization driven, if you will. So it's Feel free to sort of jump in.
Carly
Yeah, and I don't know if this is what you meant. But it's definitely I hope to think that people don't look at my communication and say, oh, must be spin, because Carly is sending it out. You know, the good thing about our organization is that it's very friendly, you know, organization where everyone kind of knows each other, even though we've grown pretty large. And so I like to think that people know that I'm honest and transparent. And if the news is bad, I'm gonna share it just as much as if the news is good. You know, it's really just amplification, it's making sure that people are aware of what's going on. And so but yes, I think sometimes, you know, if I'm worried that it might seem like I'm just trying to put a positive spin on something, you know, I'll work extra hard to make sure that it comes across in the right way. And with you know, exhale, PR, it's, it's not it, yes, it's definitely true that when it's done, right, you don't necessarily know that it's done, but there's so much to it, it's, we're going to go with the Batman metaphor, which I love, and I'm totally gonna use a lot. Um, it's that utility belt. I mean, there's so many incredible tactics that we have now, excuse the train noise if you can hear that. There's so many incredible tactics that we can use for PR that truly have not even existed. In the early days of my career. I don't really want to mention fax machines that I started out with but um, you know, using social media is definitely better than fax machines. And you definitely as a PR professional, or any type of communications professional need to be up on using social media, how to, you know how to use that to leverage your best communication. It's thought leadership. I think as a PR person, I have always understood that I you have to use your brain a lot, you have to know as much about whether you're in house like I am now, or whether you're working with clients. When I started my career at Weber Shandwick, I had many clients that were in the tech industry, and Verizon Wireless was one of them. And I had to know, everything there was to know about cell phones down to how they worked, I mean, I would get a shipment in of the latest cell phones, and I would take it home for the weekend. And learn to use it until I could pretty much write the manual, because reporters might be asking details about it. So it's always you know, there's a lot to it, where, and that's what I that's one thing I love about it, I get to use my brain, I need to have, you know, a mix of strategic thinking and, and sometimes in the weeds, that that's fun, because it lets you be really passionate about it. And so with with see My Media Group and compass, which is a, you know, great organization with a great story. It makes it a lot of fun, like every day is fun, because I get to really, you know, be passionate about it, and I get to share, you know, really amplifying good news pretty much all the time, which is nice.
Darshan
That sounds like a super fun job. amplifying good news all the time. You know, it reminds me of Apple, whenever they did their keynote speeches that always end with or Steve Jobs would always end with. And just one more thing. And then even bigger announcement. Speaking of Apple, though, I do think it's kind of interesting. You talked about how would Verizon you you spend a lot of time and energy sort of building the PR group and sort of amplifying the message, if you will. The part that sort of is more interesting to me is I read that Apple, at least during the time of Steve Jobs didn't actually spend that much money on sales and branding. And they spend more of their energy on PR because because they actually knew that once the cool people hang, like cool people have their products Anyone else will buy them anyways?
Carly
Right? Early influencer marketing? Yeah, yeah. So
Darshan
So how did how did those lessons actually translate for you when you're helping? But you let me ask you this question do you actually First of all, only do PR for CMI in the sense that do you do it for the company? Or do you do it for its clients as well?
Carly
Well, you know, occasionally clients will come to us for counsel and I'll be pulled in for for PR related things. But mainly, I'm the in house, PR person. And you know, it's interesting being the in house PR person at a marketing agency, because I can tell you, it may not say sound, you know, unbiased, but I can tell you that there is a time for PR, and there's a time for marketing. And you really can't have one without the other and there's a time for sales. I think it's amazing that a company like Apple can have a strategy where they're putting all of their money into PR, you know, I'm a PR person, I'm gonna say yes, do that, you know, and pay me more, you know, like, it's, I'll take it. But I think that, that only works sometimes. Um, it's really important to have that, you know, multi channel, my, my colleague, Susan Dorfman will call it the, the omni channel or she has another word for it. That's escaping me right now. But it's really, it's something we talk about all the time, because you need to have advertising, marketing, with social media, organic, and paid. All of those things are incredibly important. And we use all of those things. I have a partner at see My Media Group at compass, who oversees the marketing side, and we have a team, and we work collaboratively on absolutely everything and could never do any of it without the other.
Darshan
Which I 100% agree. So let me ask you this question. Usually, when you're, if I'm, if I'm starting a startup Life Sciences company, right, and I'm kind of going, I'm going to have this blockbuster product. And who do I need? As I'm getting closer to bringing the product to market? The first thing that comes to mind is I need to bring in someone from marketing and sales, because I'm gonna have to sell this often too late, you'll realize that you probably need to have PR as well, what is what is the right moment for you, too, as a startup, to start thinking about having PR?
Carly
Yeah, I think every everything at once, if you can, and, and search to, is really important to have from the very beginning, because when you leave any of those factors out, you then have to backtrack, which is going to cost you more and be more difficult, right? So you need all of those things to be part of the launch part of the website, you need the people who create the website, you need the search professionals who optimize it, you need, you know, PR to handle the announcements, but you also need marketing for awareness. All of those things are incredibly important.
Darshan
So just out of curiosity, do you guys call yourselves the four horsemen?
Carly
We used to, but now we're going with the Batman thing. That was very good.
Darshan
Thank you. Okay, so so these lessons, which are for PR, you talked about marketing, sales search, they often work on a more external audience, as you're translating that internally, obviously, you don't have search, and there is certain level of marketing and PR that that means to work together to bring people awareness of the many amazing things that CMI Media Group and companies are doing. But when you're doing that, how do you decide what what channels you're going to use? What are the factors that decide that? Is it the size of the of the news, if you will? Or is it just is this a regulatory thing we just need to tell you guys, so here you go. How does that process work? First of all,
Carly
right? So I can I can speak specifically to how we do it in our company, which is not a heavily regulated company, although we work in that space. But one really huge learning over the past few years has been that our internal audience is also our external audience. So for example, our Instagram, a big percentage of our followers on Instagram are our employees. Because our employees love Instagram, I love Instagram, I follow you know, everybody that I'm interested in on Instagram and our employees are the same so so we have realized that that's a way to reach in place. So we do an analysis of all of the channels available to us. We know who's following us or who we could reach on those channels. And we use them with you know, it's like the the media rules of you know, reach and frequency we use them in line with what that message is and what we're trying to achieve. So we always start with what is our goal, and, you know, so and who is our audience and so therefore, who we can, we can reach. So I actually segments, audiences within our organization. So sometimes it's something is for all staff. But sometimes we're really trying to reach a particular audience, we really prioritize our people, it's very, very important to us that they know what's going on, know what's available to them. So for example, a big thing that we often communicate is benefits. And we have this really incredible HR department, we call it our people, teams department who try to introduce new benefits often in line with what our people need. So with the pandemic, I know you didn't want to talk pandemic too much. But it was a tough, it's been a very tough time for people for many different ways, reasons. And so we, we had the HR team, creating new benefits, and also needing to make sure people were aware of existing benefits. But we also had to segment it, a working parent is going to need different things than a 20 something single person with no kids. And those two individuals are just as important. It's just as important that they are aware of what's available to them, that they're educated that they're happy that they're feeling heard. So there were many, many, many things. I work daily with my PR counterparts to make sure that that is, you know, front and center. So sometimes we did announce something on Instagram, first, that was meant for employees. And it's okay if other people see it. But we just wanted to make sure that we got those eyeballs. Email alone does not work anymore. For everything, it works for a lot of things. And we still use it often. But we we do have to be strategic. And we measure like crazy. We want to know what's working and what's not.
Darshan
Which is, which is really kind of interesting, isn't it? Because I feel like in many ways, in your function, you would have a really good pulse of the organization. because like you said, You're constantly measuring. I guess my question is, as you start looking at new benefits, and you're going you know, we're going to introduce these benefits and like I'm making this up, and I have no idea if you guys have this, but we're afraid to like say something you go, that's a good idea. But let's say that it's childcare for argument's sake, right? Because COVID added new pressures on new parents and parents and childcare becomes an issue. Do you tend to have, like HR come to your St. Paul, call the people's team comes to comes to you? and goes from your information? Is this a benefit that will be well received? Or is that putting the cart before the horse?
Carly
No, I mean, I think so I want to also say our people team also measure and they're amazing at it, like if they ever, you know, got tired of being on people teams, they could join our data analytics team, no problem. But yes, we talk about it all the time. And we do focus groups of our staff, we serve our staff very often. And we have an open line of communication all the time. That's why we have both, you know, we invite them to, to connect, but we also have an anonymous, like survey that you can take any time. Um, and so yeah, actually, the childcare thing has come up many times, we did determine that people want to choose their own childcare versus having it on site. That's the preference of the majority of staff across our eight offices. And so instead, we offer discounts on childcare. So the HR staff is going out and calling childcare providers and negotiating discounts. And it's it really, you know, it takes that that understanding, they if they didn't measure, or they didn't ask, they may have, you know, created daycare on site, and no one would use it or something. So it's definitely, you know, we see the benefits of keeping that pulse, especially now, because we've grown, and I've been working here for 10 years. And when I started, I think we were like 150 people and now we're something like 750 people. So I really do try hard to get to know each and every person but that's just not possible anymore, unfortunately. So it's more important than ever to use to use what we know about about data and other ways to collect to keep make sure that we're accurate when we're taking that pulse.
Darshan
So this is gonna sound bad, but very early on in that last response, one of the things you talked about was surveys and and as an employee's a concern Before, they're the bane of what you receive all the time. So I'm just curious, how do you do surveys, right? How do you do surveys in a way that they're well received, but it sounds like you actually do get responses and there is valuable feedback. In my experience, I'll tell you that the way surveys were sent to us they were, here's a survey, it's literally like 50 pages long. And we what we hope to do something with it, nothing you've spent all that time doing it. At the end of six months. They're like, yeah, we sent you a survey last time. Here's another one. Like, what did you do with the last one? Yes, so long that thing? Yeah, how do you do it? Right?
Carly
So you may not like my answer, because we have a research department. So we're able to tap professionals who know how to make sure that surveys are going to be accurate. So that is amazing. And not everyone can do that. But then also, you know, we're in the department heads are in constant contact. So if there's going to be a survey going out of employees, but then you know about about it, tools, but they also want to put out a survey related to diversity and inclusion, we would make sure to stagger those so that we're not putting people in overwhelm. Or, you know, maybe we take we will take a fresh look and say, could we achieve this with a focus group or by you know, sending an email and measuring clicks or something instead of doing a survey, so we're pretty cognizant of that. And, you know, we definitely try to keep them really short. I think they tend to be like, more like, you know, if we're doing them and it's, we try to keep it like kind of one topic five questions, surveys on sometimes we do have the longer ones, but then we just try to give people a lot of time try to explain the importance. We'll take the survey ourselves and time it so that we can say okay, this was at, you know, it looks long, but it only takes 15 minutes, that sort of thing. So I think all of those things help.
Darshan
Okay, so. So you talk about sort of building a culture measuring, constantly improving based on the feedback you're getting, which is all awesome. But that then you talk, you haven't said this, you and I had a conversation about this yesterday, actually, when we talked about it. We talked about p corporate communication disasters. And we talked about organizations that in many senses, well, we're totally well meaning. And I'm not picking I think this was Basecamp, who did it a couple of days ago, or a couple weeks ago, where they said we don't want politics in our at our workplace, we want this to be a place you come to work, and that's what we pay you for. And and we welcome that. That did not go well. They had a lot of they had a lot of people leave. My question to you is playing Monday morning quarterback because that's the easy part, right? But how would we have done it differently if you were going to do something similar at CMI? And we're not saying you are? How would you do it differently.
Carly
So you know, in that case, example, um, I wanted to start by saying that this is going to be a bold statement, but that's what happens when you don't have diversity in an organization. When you have representation, then you have someone and you and it's elevated. So it's when you have to diversity at all levels of your organization, then you have people saying Hold up, what you just propose is a bad idea. It's offensive, it's triggering. Um, so you know you can I think it's fair to say look at that example and say clearly the people who were making the decisions clearly the people who have the power there did not have people who were saying to them hold up this is a bad idea. So I would say that if there's an argument for for inclusion anywhere that's a good one. And you know that they really didn't read the room very well. They're the lines are completely blurred right now between personal and work life. They are I mean, here I am in my home talking to you and you're in your home, right? It's, it's like it but it's not just the pandemic. I mean, like it's, it's happened for a long time that those lines are blurred. This is America, there's free speech, like people want to be able, it's part of who we are to be able to share, discuss about the things that are important to you. If I'm being generous, I think that what they were trying to do was say please stop being distracted and You know, there's a time and a place, but then you you shift that conversation to a safe space to allow it to happen. You do you support development of er G's and other initiatives because that the conversations that they didn't want happening was around politics and diversity. So you shifted to a safe space? Should politics discussion happen the office? I don't know, you know, they always say don't discuss politics. You know, but but saying, you know, you cannot discuss this at work is just it, you're waiting for disaster.
Darshan
Okay, so so what I'm hearing is the first step is, don't even don't read the room have the room talk to you first. Because apparently, they did a terrible job at reading the room. But but that's kind of interesting to me, right? It sounds like, as a concept that sounds like a great idea that come for, but like you said that just reading the room becomes more and more difficult. So So now, if you if you're entering this world, actually, I'm noticing that we're getting a little farther on time, but I thought we were because you're just fascinating to talk to. Um, let me before I let you go, I want to talk a little bit about what you just raised, which was corporate culture. And especially and I'm, I know, I said that I'm not a huge fan of talking about COVID, and the pandemic, but during COVID, and the pandemic. One of the one of the big things I had Susan on earlier, and she talked about the importance and value of corporate culture. And you reiterated the importance of that, because we saw in the in the Basecamp version, corporate culture was very well established. But apparently senior leadership didn't see the same corporate corporate culture that existed. How do you go about defining corporate culture, redefining it in the age of a pandemic? And then the defining it, once we come out of it, what does that look like and structure that?
Carly
Well, so you know, corporate culture is incredibly, incredibly important to us, we, we really prioritize it invest in it, we did start by listening. So when we were really small, we didn't have to do a lot to foster culture, because it was incredibly organic. And across our different offices, the culture is different, it feels different, if you spend any amount of time in those offices, you see that, you know, in our, you know, South Jersey office, there's always a plate of cookies for people to take that, you know, people are baking versus like, in our Philadelphia Office, people are always, you know, running out to lunch with the hot new restaurants. And it feels a little more urban. So, you know, definitely we started with making sure that we had an understanding of what the culture was like in each of those offices. And many years ago, we developed our core values, and the core values touched on really who we are, and making sure that we maintain that it had a lot of reflection on our culture, and then we invest in it. We have fun committees that consistently that our employee run that create events. And so when the pandemic hit, those fun committees continued to be funded by the company and continued to be supported. And we, you're really encouraged them to try to find things that they could do to, you know, have virtual events and things like that adapt wasn't perfect, it was really hard. You know, all this has been really hard for everyone. But I think that they did a really, really, really good job in keeping people connected, we had something like 200 new employees hired during the pandemic. So that's, you know, yeah, quite a number of employees who've never been stepped foot into any of our offices. And so we wanted them to know who we were. Also, during the pandemic, we did kick off some new args. And so that was a big deal. Because that is completely employee run and corporate supported, and is very much about what our culture is. So it's kind of like a setup of, you know, we're going to support we're going to guide from that corporate perspective, we're going to fund it. But we're really going to ask the employees to lead it so that it it's real, so that it's genuine, and it's in line with what people want and need.
Darshan
So you talk about that. But your target, let's talk about those 200 new employees you hired in the last year or so. What sort of strikes me is they literally haven't left their house. We haven't left their house, but they're not part of an organization that's 700 people strong. And in the end, those people are now hopefully in many ways Part of that culture do how do you, you talk about core values, but how do you onboard someone into a culture and into a feel that makes them feel like this is their new home. You talked about the virtual events in the life, but I don't quite think I think that, that adds to it. But there's a central sort of common goal. And that's got to be one of the hardest part of being in corporate communications and being defining corporate culture as
Carly
well, I'd love to take credit for it. But it really was mainly our people team that came up with a lot of the ideas, so but we're constantly brainstorming, and my team and people teams and a greater group of people across departments, we have a weekly meeting where we talk about our staff and how to just make sure that you know, things are great for them good, good, are great for them. And our people team has have instituted along with our leadership team, a number of things, mental health days, we're having one tomorrow, the whole office is closed that was not on our original calendar, I'm really looking forward to you know, some time with with my daughter's, um, and we had a day where everyone got a gift card to doordash, like, dinners on us everyone, it was it's just, it's a mix of like, the little things. And the big things of it's not just about fun, although that's of course, a big part of it. Um, it's about continuing learning, investing in development and training is a big part of who we are, we made sure that that was continued, um, it's about continuing to measure, as I said, and make sure that we're doing okay, and connecting with people and making sure that they have the support that they need. And, you know, it's, it's also about like, giving our managers the tools that they need to have difficult conversations, raise the flag, if an employee seems like they need help, those kinds of things. And it was like, even the impromptu things like Susan sent my daughter's books as a gift, because that's like, who she is, and but it like meant the world to me like that, that my co workers would do do things like that, and I have my co workers all the time, texting, I'm just checking in. And I think that that's kind of part of the core values. Um, and we've also been able to continue a lot of our philanthropy, which is a big part of our corporate communications, we just sent out to staff and I guess I'm announcing it externally now that we, during the pandemic, we're able to fundraise and also do a corporate donation to fund the building of a library at a school called ligori Academy in Philadelphia that we have partnered with for many years. And so we were able to fund everything from the books to the furniture to new laptops, for the students, it was incredibly satisfying to be able to do that. And that was something that came that came from every single employee he was involved in that you know, some people donated one book some people donated a shelf full of books, like it was incredible and sometimes like I always feel that like when I'm you know, when things are not going right for me like stuck in the house all the time, you know, that sort of thing. Doing something good for others, feels really good. And we got this really wonderful thank you from the the students and the Dean of the School, showing us the library, you know, over video and the kids are back there back with masks on and they're using the library, and that literally did not exist before. So it really it felt good. So I think it's like it has to be a lot of things. It can't just be one and done. Check the box, you have to be constantly constantly constantly working at it. But it is really, really worth it.
Darshan
I definitely need to have you back on to talk a little bit more the role of charity in in giving in corporate communications. The funny part is that when you talk about giving to a school and stuff This has nothing to do with CMI. This has to do with the fact that I'm in that I'm an office afficionado. So did you I don't know if you ever watch the office.
Carly
But yes. All right. are you leading me into this? Do you know what we did for our staff?
Darshan
No, I have no idea.
Carly
Okay, you tell your thing and I'll tell you what we
Darshan
know I was referring to Scott's talk.
Carly
Yeah, we don't have that. Yeah. Our CEO Stan Woodlands is the opposite of Scotts tots. He he doesn't talk about it, but he really supports his kids in many ways. It's wonderful. No, we're what I was gonna tell you that we really I promise you, we donate money to the school.
Darshan
I was one of those situations where you made all these promises you guys actually delivered. You're doing video and thanking and stuff like that. Yeah. opposite of what you should do. But yeah,
Carly
well I'll tell you, we do love the office and I love that we love the office because it was on a long time ago, you know, but you know, in my, you know, middle school age daughter and my kindergarten age daughter love that show. And it's back, it's got such a resurgence. So our fun committee on Halloween held an office themed zoom, and people dressed up as the characters and there's a trivia. I happen to have, through a friend a contact to Kate Flannery, who played Meredith on the office and I spoke with her I spoke with Kate and she agreed to come and surprise everyone and they so she came onto the zoom like it was like two minutes after the zoom started. And then she shows up but she doesn't say anything, you know, for a second and then someone says a word that is not a safe for podcast word and, and that's when I really okay people see your now and, and it was incredible. She is truly I've gotten to meet her a few times because of this connection, that shared connection when we have and she's always, you know, wonderful and kind, and you know, everything and True, true to her real spirit and real life. She's nothing like the character. She stayed on for a while she did trivia, she played a song on the piano because she's incredibly talented pianist and singer, and it was a blast. And after she left the zoom, everyone was like, whoa. And one of one of my co workers said that she'd invited a brand new employee, it was her first day to come on to the zoom. And the employee was saying to her, is this is this every day does this. But now that was literally the only celebrity that I know. So that's done, I got nothing else up my sleeve. But it was really, it was a lot of fun. And you know, I will really, I am truly the rest of the leadership team. We will do anything that we can to make our people smile, we will. And that was so cool. That was extreme. But it was really fun. And it was like a highlight for me
Darshan
that that is such a high five moment, right? Yeah. I am well beyond what I thought our podcasts would take. But you were super, super fun. So I have a couple of questions for you, though. Before I let you go, if that's okay with you. Sure. First question. Based on our discussion, what is one question you'd like the audience to answer for us in the comments?
Carly
Oh, great question. Um, so I think, um, how about let's keep it positive? Like how about what do you wish that your company offered employees, and then maybe that could give us some ideas for new things we could offer to our people?
Darshan
I like it. So So what is one thing you'd like the company to offer to your employees? I tried to make an effort to, to answer those questions. For me, I think one of those things would be more face time with with leadership, I think is always a good thing. Because it tells you that you can you can at least inform people by the things that make a difference to you. which you may not have the same opportunity sounds like in your case, you actually do have those opportunities more often because you guys will use surveys, not the 50 page plan but but so there's some some opportunities there you actually land up meeting people as well. But that informer job that would have been a nice thing to have. So that would be mine. Um, I do have two questions for you that are rapid fire. Okay, what what challenged you this month?
Carly
And it has to be work related? Because the work related? Um, I think I'll answer work related. I think that the big challenge for me is as our office reopens different people feel different levels of comfort with coming into the office and just making sure that we're doing right by everyone. It's a huge challenge. You know, we're taking it on and I'm happy to do it, but I wish I could just like wave a magic wand and make it you know, make the big COVID go away and make it all okay, so I'd say that's, that's a big one, and it continues.
Darshan
And last question is, what was the best part of your job this week?
Carly
Oh, That's a good question. Um, okay, so I would say that, um, the best part of my job with sweet is that so I write a daily newsletter for our clients, it's a briefing that tells them what news happened that relates to them, that they should be aware of over the last, like 24 hours. And I do it every day. And as part of that, we do a lot of thought leadership and just having we just finished a big round of media, like upfronts new friends, we had a lot of analysis that I was able to share in the newsletter, and we got really positive feedback from clients on that. So it's incredibly satisfying to get to write it and to get to share to, again, use my brain and to get to share these insights with clients. And so I would say that that was a big part of my week, and probably the best part of my week all the time, because I love writing it.
Darshan
Good for you. Okay. Um, so let me do a quick summary. During this conversation, we talked a little bit about brand building, and we talked about how to avoid how people associate PR with spin, but it's often just amplification, as opposed to, like total and obvious spin. We talked a little bit about corporate communications and PR in both cases, the goal is transparency. What I thought was really interesting is, as part of that you talked about knowing people knowing their biases, and sort of bringing out and informing them on the things that matter to them. And an example you gave was the single person versus the Married with Children person and how they might have very different goals. And and we talked a little bit about tools you use to do that. You talked about segmentation. You talked about surveys, you talked about social media, you talked about the four horsemen, if you will, marketing, sales, search and PR. We've then got into corporate culture, you talked about core values you talked about using virtual events, onboarding new employees and new core corporate culture and the new er G's. We then talked about how you work closely with your benefits team well, specifically your peoples team and and how you support each other. You talked about some of the cool things you guys are doing like mental health day you have tomorrow, so very jealous about that. And and the charities you guys support, including the the the anti Scott's talks, if you will. Based in Philly, and as someone who lives in Philly, thank you. Um, and, and you talked about the amazing thing you did with the office, a Halloween party, which I thought was definitely a something that you can put on your, on your resume for the rest.
Carly
It'll be the only thing on my resume
Darshan
on there. What's the flat 30? I forget what her first name was actually Kate Flannery. Yeah, um, but I think that covers it. Did I miss anything?
Carly
I don't think so. That was a lot. We talked about a lot. Yeah.
Darshan
This was so so wonderful to have you on. Probably How can people reach you if they have questions? I'm
Carly
so sorry, john. Thank you. This was really fun. People can email me at C Cooper ck up er at CMI compass. And that's with oneness.com. But I'm also my team and I are also behind our social feeds. So feel free to follow us on any of our socials and messages there.
Darshan
That's awesome. And if you liked this podcast, please leave a comment. Please subscribe. You can find me on darsan tops on Twitter, or just go to our website at DarshanTalks.com. Probably this. This was awesome. Thank you.
Carly
Thank you. This is the DarshanTalks podcast, regulatory guy, irregular podcast with hosts Dr. Shaun Kulkarni. You can find the show on twitter at DarshanTalks or the show's website at DarshanTalks.com