Greetings! I’m Christy Oberley, an Account Executive at Dittoe PR. I started working at Dittoe PR in December of 2007, but I’ve been working with the media since my much-loved college days at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. Majoring in Telecommunications and minoring in Business, as well as Studio Art, my educational back ground is on both sides of the “Creatives vs. Suits” spectrum.

I grew up in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and attended Bishop Luers High School. I moved back to Fort Wayne briefly after my college graduation and interned at News Channel 15 (a CBS News affiliate).  I thoroughly enjoyed writing news stories that aired daily; however, I decided that being a reporter was not exactly what I wanted to do with my talents.

A year after my graduation, I moved to Indianapolis and worked for the Indiana State Bar Association for a little over a year.

In addition to my full time job at Dittoe, I am a spinning instructor. Not only is spinning an awesome workout, it also has proven to be an excellent networking tool. I met my current boss, Chris Dittoe, after one of my strenuous classes, when he came by to thank me for kicking his butt.

While, I have only been with this company for a short amount of time, I believe I may have found my dream job. I have always had a strong interest in public relations and by working for Dittoe PR I’m learning from the best.  

There is always a bit of excitement in the air when starting to work with a new client. I began working for my newest client, CareerScribe, at the beginning of this month and I can feel anticipation building as the launch of the Alpha version of their Web site is quickly approaching. 

CareerScribe is the future of hiring and career management.  It leaps and bounds ahead of any other online job resource site. It has everything you like from other sites but brings the art of searching, interviewing and hiring into the digital age…the ‘YouTube generation’! And it’s launching right here in Indianapolis – recently ranked by Forbes as one of the hottest growing business communities!

To check out this site and/or create your own profile please visit: http://www.careerscribe.com/

If the saying is true that a picture is worth a thousand words, then here is an 11,000 word essay on why Dittoe PR is great.

Lauren Sanders is our hard-working ring leader. Don't let the pen fool you...she don't write no fluff.















Megan Lawler is dedicated to her work. She doesn't let her stomach ulcers get in the way of her success.







Meghan Howard knows that the key to success is staying fueled.














That isn't the only trick that I have up my sleeve.










 Don't let innocent face fool you, Meg Charlebois is as sassy as they come.


Laura Kasenbrock makes PR look good!













 Here is our new intern, Katie Murray. We like to feed her as many diet cokes as possible and throw long research projects at her.












This is the other inter Chris Dietrick. He is the only guy in the office besides bosso. Don't feel bad for him though, he loves it.






The Dittoe Maffia.







Lawler is hardcore. She will cut you.







We are really pretty on Fridays.

We are expanding our office space and adding to our team with two bright and shiny interns (who will surely be dark and demented upon completing their internship in August). Wahoo! This means that I will be getting a new office space complete with a brand-spanking new desk that smells of rich mahogany and enough storage to store my many leather-bound books.

I’m so happy to leave my cramped quarters and stretch out my legs. I’ll even have a window to gaze out while I’m brainstorming ideas for getting coverage for my clients and thinking of blog topics (as you can tell from the direction of this blog, the lack of natural sunlight is affecting my creativity).

As for another expansion within our office, Meghan Howard’s “Kardashian” ripped her jeans yesterday because she stopped coming to my spinning class. I enjoy making fun of her for this because in reality she hasn’t gained any weight and she is one of the naturally thinnest people I know.

Why is it that people with no metabolism (like moi) really enjoy it when thin people have things like this happen? I feel like it is karma’s way of telling me to hang in there because skinny people can rip their jeans, too. Karma is a funny lady.

Anyways, back to the expansion—in the office, that is—I am really excited to have a tasteful and refined area to kick some “Kardashian” and take some names.

Stay classy, Indianapolis!

10.       There is a one in five chance that it is Friday and someone may have brought in bagels for breakfast. 
 

9.         Bosso might get excited about something and kick around the empty water cooler jugs.

8.         Meghan Howard might wear something interesting.

7.         Taylor Strong might come back from the island of Yap in Micronesia.

6.         There might be an after lunch dance off.

5.         The Dittoe’s dog, Lily, might come in to visit and poop in Chris’s office.

4.         Jesus might call Chris and tell him to let us go home early for being such hard workers.

3.         Every editor that I pitch might return my email or call and decide to include my clients in their publications.

2.         Oprah might call to tell me that she wants to put all of my clients on her show.

1.         Oprah might call and ask me to be her best friend.

As a PR professional it is our job to reach out to one the most powerful outlets in the media, the blogosphere.  Like any other outlet, there is a certain way to approach bloggers. Here are some helpful hints:

• Treat them like any other journalist. Bloggers like to get information in a timely manner. Make sure that you send the press releases, product samples, etc. just as you would for any other journalist
• Never begin any relationship by asking for a favor. This is true for all budding relationships. You should try and learn something about the blogger or leave a comment about a certain blog that you read to show them that you are actually interested in what they have to say not just what their blog can do for your client.
• Keep reasonable expectations.  Most of these bloggers have other full time jobs, so be patient with them as they may not be able to respond to your comments or emails right away.

The bottom line is that you should treat bloggers the way you would like to be treated.

Working at Dittoe Public Relations is quite an experience.  It’s so different from any other job I’ve had in that we have an extremely open office always bursting with energy, telephones ringing, laughter and some times the occasional dance-off.   

Creativity runs rampant here.  We don’t just do PR… we specialize in event planning, graphic design and branding in many cases as well.  Our team is focused, intelligent and very hard-working – qualities all of our clients appreciate because our results are phenomenal. 

In any scenario that's full of hard working executives, there is a high level of stress – sometimes good and sometimes bad.  The trick is how you deal with the stress.  Here we’re able to get away from our desk and take a walk just to be away from the phone and our email accounts.  Usually a new idea will pop up on such a stroll and we’re typically back at our desks in minutes.  We also blast an old school jam from someone’s computer speakers and take a moment to show our inner M.C. Hammer, Vanilla Ice or Paula Abdul (FYI: I rock these sorts of stress-relievers). 

I haven’t had too many jobs in my lifetime but I do know that most aren’t this laid back.  We know how to get the job done without giving ourslevs heart attacks.  Where else can you be working multiple client relationships, watching a client on an exclusive Good Morning America interview, hear about your boss meeting Diddy and still secure an interview with Wall Street Journal for next week? 

Bad press will happen from time to time. It is an inevitable part of being in an industry’s spotlight. Occasionally, people will post negative comments on your site, blog, or forum. In the world of social media this is all preordained. The question then is how should one cope with negativity?

These are the basic realities that need to be faced:

• C’est la vie. Simply put- negative comments are a fact of life. You can’t make everyone happy and some customers will post their criticisms online. 
• If I close my eyes really tight, it will all go away. Unfortunately, life doesn’t work that way. Deleting negative comments will only make things worse.  
  As a kid, I once went against my parent’s rules and decided to throw around a ball in the living room. Needless to say, I broke my mother’s favorite vase and instead of telling my mother, I hid the pieces in my neighbor’s trash bin. Somewhere in my little head, I was convinced that by making the vase disappear I would avoid getting in trouble. Ask me if I got spanked.
  If a client or customer is upset enough to post something negative on your website, you better believe that by deleting the comment you are only enraging them further. This will cause them to voice their frustrations somewhere else. At least by keeping the negativity on your site you can monitor what is being said. 
• It’s a red flag. Negative feedback can be beneficial. Use these negative comments as an alert system. Feedback from customers is important. It gives you the chance to improve and grow as a company.   
• When life hands you lemons, make some lemonade. You have received some negative comments. So what? This is an opportunity to show your leadership and take charge. Generally speaking, great leaders are always remembered for how they handle conflict. Be proactive and address the negative comment head on. If customers see that you are doing something to correct a mistake, eventually you will regain their trust.

Our lives are not determined by what happens to us but by how we react to what happens, not by what life brings to us, but by the attitude we bring to life. A positive attitude causes a chain reaction of positive thoughts, events, and outcomes. It is a catalyst, a spark that creates extraordinary results.

-Anon

My kind-hearted boss thought he would be nice to his staff and bring three colossal bags of mini candy bars to work. The rest of the staff thought that this was a very nice gesture, but for a person like me this is equal to giving a crack addict a bag a crack and a glass pipe.

Eight Twix bars later, I wake up from my sugar coma and tell my co-workers about my minor accomplishment. They were completely flabbergasted. They could not believe that I had managed to eat that many mini candy bars in such a short amount of time.

Really? This is not that big of a deal. Plenty of people can eat this many mini candy bars. After all, they are mini. These people are acting like I should be the next Kobayashi.

To prove my normalcy I looked at the serving size on one of the evil colossal bags of chocolate crack and read that a normal serving size is five candy bars. Ha! This means that I only ingested 1.6 times the normal serving.

Things are not always quite what they seem. This is a lesson that can be applied to all avenues of life, especially the world public relations. Journalists referred to as business reporters may seem like good contacts as you are pitching a new high tech client, but you may find out that they only really cover the coal mining business in eastern Kentucky. Suddenly, they do not fit the mold of a good contact anymore.

It takes a little bit of research, just like I had to research the caloric composition of my chocolate crack, to ensure that you are pitching the right people. Just because an editor’s name is Tracy Smith, you should never be so bold as to assume that Ms. is the correct prefix.

On Wednesday, the bosso and I traveled afar (not really) to visit one of our clients. We were headed to Chicago for a short day trip. The goal was to finally visit one of our long time clients on their turf and to learn about some of their new and very exciting products that they will be launching in 2008. It all sounds simple enough.

I woke up at 5:30 a.m., which is not an easy feat for some one like me who slaps the snooze button as many times as she can possibly get away with. Begrudgingly, I dragged my tired body to a 6:00 a.m. yoga class (don’t judge, I am doing a 30 day yoga challenge- which is another story in itself.)   My overly ambitious self left class 10 minutes early and headed over to my co-worker’s house to take a shower before I had to be at my boss’s house at 7:30 a.m. Of course, I was late. That is just the unintentional way I roll.

On top of being late, my bosso realized that our flight actually left at 8:45 a.m. rather than 9:00 a.m. Then he threatened my employment, by saying “If I don’t get to eat breakfast before we take off, you’re toast.” Chris is a very sarcastic guy. Sometimes I can’t tell if he is joking or not….probably due to the lack of expression in his face and the lack of inflection in his voice.

We made it to the airport on time and Chris was able to grab a slimy turkey and bacon wrap that he kindly offered to share with me. I politely declined.

The flight there was a white knuckled, Hail Mary praying, nauseating flight. As we landed at O’Hare I noticed a lovely blanket of snow on the ground. Then I found out that before 6:00 p.m. we were supposed to get another 10 to 12 inches. Greeeeaaaaat.

We left the airport in a car with a driver named Jeb. We were facing a 50 mile drive to Woodstock, IL and the snow was a fallin’. Chris and I  used this time to figure each other out. I learned quite a bit about my ginormous boss (he is like 6’ 5” and kind of intimidating). He used to play football for the Detroit Lions and then went to Europe to play American Football over there. He has a ton of interesting and random friends. His wife, Liza, and he have been together since college. His kids all have very distinct personalities and all excel in different areas of life. They even have a well trained little dog that never pees on anything.

Finally, after an hour and a half in the car listening to Chris and watching Jeb drive through the endless falling snow, we made it to our client’s office. The meeting went well. I got to put some names with faces and learned quite a bit about what 2008 holds for them. All in all, it was a good meeting.

As we left their office, there was another ten inches of snow on the ground. We almost died in the car and on the plane. And I somehow managed to make it back to Indianapolis.

Have you ever started telling a story and realized that there was no point? I am sure that there is an interesting blog in here somewhere, but it is late Friday afternoon and my creativity is as abundant as my energy which seems to have gone home early today.

Have a great weekend!

In my spare time I instruct spinning classes at two local gyms. I do it mainly because I enjoy the workout and my participants’ good humor. As an instructor, you start to gather a following of dedicated individuals that come hell or high water will be at your class eager to work hard.  Some of these dedicated individuals are my co-workers (and on occaision my boss) here at Dittoe PR.

Seeing their smiling faces in the front row of my classes gives me the positive energy to motivate them to do their best for those 45 minutes. These girls are my cheerleaders. They inspire me just as much as I motivate them.

Last night, I instructed my third "Mount Everest Ride". This is a two hour ride that consists of two long and grueling climbs and other interval activities that build endurance and strength.

Even though some of the girls doubted that they could make it through an entire two hour ride, they eagerly signed up anyway. Lauren Littlefield came down with a horrible sinus infection so she couldn’t make it, but Meghan Howard’s upbeat personality helped set a cheerful tone for the class.

After 2 hours of great music, fatigued hamstrings, burning quadriceps, tired calves and aching glutes, we ended class with elated clapping and delirious cheering. The room was full of positive energy and feelings of pride and accomplishment. The participants smiled and took pride in what their bodies had just achieved. I smiled and took pride in my participants strength and willingness to overcome such a intense workout. 

Knowing that I am supported by my co-workers in everything that I accomplish is an awesome feeling. Whether I am looking for new press contacts, pitching the media for one of my clients, or instructing a room full of sweaty, spandex-wearing cyclists, I know that I have a team of hardworking, hard-playing young women who have got my back. We ain't no hollerback girls!

“Time Bomb”, “Britney’s Insane” and “Britney’s Mental Illness” are the titles displayed on the covers of my favorite celebrity magazines this week. The legendary Miss Britney Spears is receiving the worst press to date, and yet she is more famous than ever. What is our obsession with watching talented celebrities act truly disturbing and pummel their lives straight into the ground?

Britney Spears is the prime example of a fallen star; where we love to build her up and then relish in her downfall. We focus on her because she mirrors our own fears of failing. You could compare our fixation with watching Britney’s demise to the Ancient Romans' fascination with the gladiators being fed to the lions.

Even respected media outlets are cashing in on Britney’s bizarre and dangerous behavior. “Now and for the foreseeable future, virtually everything involving Britney is a big deal,” Frank Baker, the Los Angeles assistant bureau chief for the Associated Press, wrote one week ago, days after Ms. Spears was released from the hospital where she had been admitted due to her mental breakdown.

There's no such thing as bad publicity. Right? As long as they spell your name right. Providing that you are getting magazine covers, and you're in the public eye it doesn't matter whether your you are showing off your private parts or being carried out of your Hollywood mansion and being placed into an ambulance wearing a straight jacket. Any publicity is good publicity. Right?