Pie Champion Has All the Ingredients for Success

Who would have thought biscuits would have anything to do with a career, but they do.

Just ask Francine Bryson, a national pie champion, mom, homemaker and self-proclaimed redneck. Her award-winning desserts have won the hearts of bakers everywhere when she appeared on CBS’s “The American Baking Competition.”

Francine Bryson remains true to herself and excels on the baking circuit. (Photo by Cynthia Price)

Francine Bryson remains true to herself and excels on the baking circuit. (Photo by Cynthia Price)

I recently heard her speak, and she demonstrated to the audience how to make biscuits. Many of the step involved in making biscuits also relate to creating a successful career.

The first lesson is to follow your passion. For Francine that’s baking. As a 4-year-old she made a lemon meringue pie. “I’m not sayin’ you could eat it,” she told the audience. Over time, though, she developed her skills and now knows that if it “comes out of an oven,” she can make it.

When it comes to ingredients, Francine said she uses self-rising flour.  “This lets you skip baking powder and baking soda,” she said. “Who has time for all the extra ingredients?”

Another way to look at that is to make sure you have the right ingredients. In the case of work, do you have all of the information that you need to create a PR plan or the elements to write a great story?

Once she had the right ingredients, she put a whisk in the flour to lighten it up. “Sometimes you just need to give it attention,” she said.

That’s good advice, especially, if I apply it to a project. For a project to succeed, I need to give it the appropriate attention.

20140905_091907As Francine mixed the ingredients for biscuits, she emphasized, “Don’t overwork the batter,” adding, “Let the ingredients become friends.”

I realized that sometimes when I’m working on a project, I make it too complex. Listening to Francine I realized I should not overwork or overthink a problem.

As she gently mixed the batter, I thought about challenges I have had at work, and how sometimes I overthink them and fret about them instead of simply quickly addressing them. The advice also holds for making friends with colleagues, even those with whom you don’t directly interact on a daily basis. You never know when you might need to mix in additional knowledge.

Her final advice was to take time to play in the kitchen because “it’s cheaper than therapy.” I admit that I enjoy whipping up a storm in the kitchen to unwind. But even if you don’t like to cook, the point is to make sure you have fun in life.

Now that’s a recipe for success.

Former POW Shares Life Lessons

I recently had the privilege of being in an audience listening to Col. Leo Thorsness, U.S. Air Force (retired), who was a prisoner of war in Vietnam. He received the Medal of Honor for extraordinary heroism.

Woven throughout his life story were several valuable life lessons.

Learn to focus. When he was flying his aircraft and attempting to avoid the surface-to-air missiles, he said, “I really learned to focus. I only had two things I needed to do.” The first, he said, was to not let his plane hit the ground. The second was to not hit the surface-to-air missile.

Teamwork matters. Col. Thorsness said that while he was the one flying the plane, it was the guys on the ground who made it like new each day so that he could fly his next mission. His wingman and others in the air with him also were invaluable.

“If each level of the team did their job that day, we were successful,” he said. “If they didn’t we were dead or POWs.”

Communications means survival. When Col. Thorsness was confined to prison, the only way to communicate with other prisoners was through a tap code they had developed. That tap code allowed them to share valuable information. “My ability to survive tomorrow,” he said “was all because of communications.”

Know what matters. To keep his mind sharp, Col. Thorsness, who like the other prisoners had no paper or pencils, kept track in his mind of the topics discussed among the prisoners. Work, he said, was at the bottom of the list. At the top were family, friends, faith and fun. “Those things are what make life,” he said. “You put those in your life and near the end, you can say that was a good life.”

Don’t take freedom for granted. Col. Thorsness said, “If the doorknob is on the inside, it’s a good day.”

 “If the doorknob is on the inside, it’s a good day.”

7 Ways to Help a Reporter

When Terry Cole began her reporting career, she covered the water commission. She admitted, “I didn’t get it.”

She was fortunate, though, because the commissioner spent time with her explaining about water and how the water commission worked. His taking the time to do that helped ensure the accuracy of her reporting.

Today she is the Communications Practice Director for Jacobs Engineering with more than 25 years of experience implementing strategic communications programs. Along the way, she’s learned some ways to help other reporters, which she shared during the 2014 NFPW conference in Greenville, S.C.

  1. Find the sizzle in the technical stories. If it’s too technical, audiences won’t be interested, which means reporters won’t be interested.
  2. Avoid jargon. This goes without saying.
  3. Break down the challenging concepts. Taking the time to do this leads to more accurate and interesting stories.
  4. Provide a list of acronyms. These are also good to share internally so there is no confusion.
  5. Think of visuals. Cole noted that sometimes spending time with a photographer or videographer to get the right shot may be your only opportunity to tell your story, so use the time wisely.
  6. Don’t let people start from a place of panic. Most companies have a reason for the processes they have in place, Cole said. Too often, though, when a reporter asks a question about the process, people panic. “You have a reason for doing what you do,” Cole said. “Take the time to explain.”
  7. Provide media training. She wasn’t referring to media training for executives, but rather to those on the front line. At a minimum, the training will prevent them from saying, “I can’t talk to the media.”

And if all of those techniques fail, Cole reminded the audience that most of us now have resources at our disposal for telling our stories.

A company website and social media platforms immediately come to mind, but she also encouraged the use of community events. For example, Spartanburg, S.C., has held a Paddle Fest the past three years as a way to help connect the community to its reservoirs and increase the stewardship of water resources.

Five Years of Cynthia’s Communique

Five years ago and more than 500 posts later, I’m still writing Cynthia’s Communique.

It’s a labor of love, and one that I started when I was elected president of the National Federation of Press Women. The blog goal was simple – to engage with NFPW members and start a conversation.

Readers have commented on the blog, liked it on Facebook or read it on LinkedIn. Now they can even learn about it through my Twitter account.

When I grow weary of researching and writing and when I think I should quit, a reader will tell me how much she enjoys it or what he has learned from it. And that keeps me going.

Along the way, I’ve learned what to do and what not to do. And I’m still learning. The blog, as I said, started out mainly for NFPW members and now I don’t even know most of the readers. I do have readers in mind, though. I write for several audiences, including:

  • NFPW members
  • Those in career transition, whether it’s transitioning from newspapers to public relations or into a management or supervisory role, and
  • Those just starting their careers in communications.

I tell people my blog is about communicating in today’s frantic world so I focus on communications, leadership and balance.

As for what’s next, I will continue the blog, at least for now. In 2015, I will most likely scale back to once a week because I’m going to see what happens when I take the best of my blog posts and create a book. That means you will probably see some blog posts about how to publish a book.

When I succeed in publishing the book, I also will need to market it, which will bring about another series of blog posts, and my need to create a website.

For the foreseeable future, I’m not going anywhere. I hope you as my readers will continue the journey with me.

Doing What It Takes to Pay the Mortgage

Tiffany Ervin calls herself the “queen of self promotion.”

She has to be if she is going to pay the mortgage.

She has cobbled together a series of positions to do just that. She has worked as a morning radio show host, a keynote speaker, a sideline reporter, a TV host and even a commercial spokesperson. She also owns a clothing boutique.

Those positions came from her passions – speaking and giving back.

As a preacher’s kid, Tiffany listened to her dad in the pulpit and came to understand how to use words to move people. She also was active with the Miss America organization where she learned the value of community service and further enhanced her public speaking skills.

Tiffany Ervin speaks to NFPW members at the 2014 conference. (Photo by Cynthia Price)

Tiffany Ervin speaks to NFPW members at the 2014 conference. (Photo by Cynthia Price)

She followed a fairly traditional path except that instead of working in broadcast journalism she went into public relations and marketing. She oversaw marketing for a hospital. During that time she worked for three CEOs in four years. Tiffany decided it was time for a change.

That’s when she began co-hosting a morning radio show. Next thing she knew, she was doing an infomercial for South Carolina. Other jobs presented themselves, and she became involved with Rotary, which also helped grow her public speaking. She now offers talks called “Breakfast with Tiffany.”

She told an NFPW audience at its recent conference in Greenville, S.C., that “to be a freelancer you have to be constantly evolving and reinventing yourself.”

Part of succeeding, Tiffany stressed, is to find your passion. For her it’s public speaking and giving back. “I’ve had so many great mentors,” she said. “I want to do that for someone else.”

Along the way, she has learned that sometimes she has to make difficult decisions. “You have got to be doing things that give you forward progress,” she said. For her that meant giving up a radio show that required a long commute that cut into other opportunities.

Once you know what you want to do, Tiffany encouraged audience members to network and use social media, both of which involve building relationships.

“Social media is an opportunity to network with people who may be looking for you, and you didn’t even know it,” she said.

Tiffany uses social media to share short clips from her speeches. “It’s great for when someone wants a sample of my work,” she said.

Facebook is good for demonstrating the breadth of what she offers. She finds Twitter helpful for meeting people in the long-term.

At the end of the day, when she has finished all of her jobs, she also knows she has paid the mortgage.