Valley PR Blog

Using PR skills to adapt to and initiate change

By Linda VandeVrede on October 20th, 2009 In Social Media

The church I attended growing up in RI was built in the 1700s and was where the final vote on the RI state constitution took place

Can you adapt to change easily?   Or are you set in your ways?  I can’t imagine a better contrast than my life the last two months, flying back and forth from Arizona to Rhode Island.

On the one hand, I have my life in Arizona, where change comes rapidly, everything is new, and the public relations community is a thriving social media haven. 

On the other hand, I have my world in Rhode Island, where I’m getting my ever-resistant-to-change mother settled into assisted living, and driving streets that haven’t been altered all that much since I first drove them in the 70s.

Do you ever wonder what your life would have been like had you not moved to Arizona and changed your life, as much as we transplants have?   Don’t know how deeply I would have gotten into social media if I had stayed in RI.  My fascination with social media is what prompted me to tweet a few weeks back to find PR pros whom I could connect with while I’m here.   My mother’s neighbor saw the tweet and put me in touch with a neat public relations agency owner, Jennifer Bogutt of The Jenn Lee Group in East Greenwich.

We met for coffee this week and I took the opportunity to ask her about her impressions about working in PR in Rhode Island.   She offered some interesting perspectives, because her background is in design and visual arts, and she had spent time in NYC before moving back to the “homeland.”   As T.S.Eliot wrote, it’s only after travelling that you can return to where you started and recognize the place for the first time.

“Rhode Islanders are used to things being the same,” she said.   “They enjoy knowing where things are.   Look even at how we give directions – we reference the building that USED to be there — like ‘take a right where the old Almacs used to be.’”    Returning to Rhode Island, she commented, felt “familiar yet foreign.” 

I honed in on that phrase.  That’s exactly how it feels – familiar yet foreign.   Do we change that much when we move away?   Jenn asked me if my husband and I planned to move back.    I think we could do it, given our ability to adapt.  And since there’s no clothing tax here, we could afford the new coats and boots we’d have to buy to weather the winters.

What kinds of clients did she have, I asked, wondering what the dominant industries were on the east coast these days.    “We don’t have a typical client,” she told me.  “We have medical, diocese, hospital, condos, special events.   Our team is made up of 11 people and we cover RI, Connecticut and southern Mass.”

They are doing well despite the economy and despite Forbes’ recent ranking of the state as the worst in 50 states in which to do business.   “I’ve hired in the last year, givien pay increases, and my team is motivated.”   The recession has kept employees from bouncing around as much as they might do in a flush economy.

What’s the best thing she likes about Rhode Island?  “The beach, and the woods.   It’s easy to get to skiing, or go to Block Island.   It’s the quality of life.”

One of my friends who relocated to northern Mass. said once, “Bloom where you are planted.”   I hope my mom can learn that, even at age 85 – she’s never been one to handle change really well.   Jenn had such a great attitude about RI that I know she’d be a role model if I ever did move back here.   Being in PR, you have to deal with so many market changes.   It’s a good skill to hone.

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