Two Year Anniversary – Year Two: Learn and Grow

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Year two for Polished Nichols Public Relations & Marketing was our time to learn and grow. We planted the seeds for the business in 2021 and spent the next 24 months gaining knowledge in the ever-changing communications industry. We began to understand more of the joys and challenges of running a business while still serving as Chief Mother Officer, Uber driver, chef, and all the other titles.  Together we also learned new things with and for our clients. Some of our favorite takeaways from our second year include the following:

Commitment to Our Clients and Their Missions

As a two-person team, we knew we needed to be conscious of our time and talents. We made a pact that we would move forward by only accepting clients that had a mission about which we are passionate. It was important for us to align ourselves with client contacts who respected us and our work. Through referrals, previous work, and old school word-of-mouth marketing, we grew our client base with eight new accounts. It’s been a joy to work with MANTS, First Fruits Farm, Letts Consult, Maryland HIMSS, Slate Capital Group, Mad Girl Marketing, Peake Physical Therapy, and the Discovery Center at Water’s Edge.

The True Power in Partnerships

The right partners can be the puzzle piece to your success. We realized from the very beginning that you can learn new things, but you may not master everything. That’s ok. That’s why you surround yourself around other powerful players and experts in their fields. We had the privilege of creating, maintaining, and revisiting partnerships that enhanced client events, media relations and social media opportunities, internal communications, and corporate networking. A special thanks to some of our partners including: Sara Warfield Communications, Maria Linz O’Brien Photography, Drumm Digital Media, Ella Pritsker, With Owen, Jennifer McClean, and Pacesetters.

Events and Trade Shows are Back…in a Different Way

We were back at it…planning and implementing in-person events and trade shows. Working on the event management and promotional tactics for events ranging in size from 25 to 20,000 attendees has allowed us to entertain, implement, and experience new ways of bringing people back together for a social, educational, networking, or industry event or function. While some touchless points of communication remain, we’re seeing more handshakes and interactive displays and activities popping up at the events.

Networking – Take it at Your Own Pace

We know that networking is important. We also now know that you must do it when you can. It can’t be forced. We took a step back from organized networking groups this year, and decided to connect with those individuals, organizations, and businesses with which we had the pleasure of working in our previous professional lives. Tapping those contacts has served as our best and most productive way to expand our audience and client base. Cheers to rekindled friendships and professional relationships.

Understanding Our Value

Taking a step back and evaluating our work and the feedback from our clients, we realized that we needed to give ourselves more credit for our finished products and services. We were gaining glowing recommendations from clients, partners, vendor, and media. This second year was time for us to revisit our business goals and stay true to our values. We needed to continue working hard and providing quality work, but we needed to do it within boundaries.

Stop and Focus on The “Good Stuff”

Through all the high-fives, hugs, laughs, tears, and anxious moments, we made this past year one from which we could learn and grow more about ourselves, our business and services, and our families. It’s time to uphold the value of our work in all our jobs – PR professionals, event planners, mothers, daughters, siblings, community helpers, and friends. We’re going to stop and enjoy the good stuff this year!