Birthdays–at least the ones I have had since turning 40–have a way of prompting deeper reflection and re-examination. Each year brings a reminder of those who did not get to celebrate another birthday or whose chances of reaching their next one are bleak. These are morbid notions, perhaps, but motivational also. These ruminations last week […]
Tag Archives: client relations
When’s the best time to broach a potentially difficult conversation? As far in advance as possible–preferably days ahead of time, if not weeks, months or years. It’s proactive, pre-emptive and relationship-preserving. Every time I go through my bank’s drive-thru a proactive, pre-emptive, relationship-preserving message greets me. In essence, it plants the seed that they may […]
The year was 1992, and I had just written an investigative story laying out the failings of a landlord in Elgin. On the phone, his son was irate, arguing that I hadn’t given his dad a fair shake – that the piece that appeared on the front page of The Courier News wasn’t balanced. I […]
One of my favorite clients is someone who challenges me regularly to explain what I’m up to. Just today, she asked me about the placement of a news release on a user-generated website owned by the Sun-Times News Group. Why, she wondered, was the piece placed on a community page many miles from where she […]