Clothespins still hang from a line at Aunt Nora’s house.

H Squared Communications Value #1 – Authenticity
We will ensure your company’s or organization’s communications are true to your brand, and we’ll also maintain a relationship with you that is dependable and genuine.

A rather odd-looking key dangles from my key chain. It’s an old skeleton key that unlocks the door to a somewhat abandoned house on my parents’ ranch. In its day, it was a beautiful farm house, freshly painted white with a picket fence and hollyhocks out front. Now, the fence sure doesn’t keep much out, the paint is peeling off every possible thing, the grass is often tall, and who knows what’s inside anymore.

But when I was growing up, I spent a lot of time in that house with my great-aunt and -uncle, a third set of grandparents who were always around adding piles of love. I knew right where the cookies were kept, where the cats would hide, and where to place all the bases in the yard when my aunt volunteered to be the pitcher in our ball game.

Some time ago I asked my dad if any of the keys to the house were still around, and he gave me one. Since then, it’s been a reminder of the little curly-haired girl trying to hit the baseball over the fence for a home run. It’s been a piece of my past seen every day as a reminder to stay grounded in what I know to be true. It helps me remember where I am from.

As I began to organize my thoughts around what I wanted this new business to feel like, I decided I needed to be clear about my personal values, and how those would translate to this business I was starting. More than anything else, I personally value authenticity, and that needed to be at the forefront of how I would work with my clients.

Authenticity is a buzz word as of late, but what does it mean? Based on fact. Not false or imitation. True to one’s own personality, spirit, or character. Sincere. To me, it means remembering where you are from.

How does authenticity translate into action at H Squared Communications?

1. The work I do for you will not be the same as the work I do (or did) for another client, because you aren’t another client. You are you. Although I have a variety of already completed items to pull off the shelf to get me started, each project and deliverable will be unique to each client and true to your brand.

2. You are never going to have to guess what I am thinking. I generally wear my thoughts all over my face, and my heart on my sleeve. I try to be deliberate and thoughtful with my words, but often my face says something before my mouth is ready to talk.

3. You can trust me to tell you the truth. If something is bad, I am going to tell you that. I don’t sugar coat. I don’t exaggerate.

4. You can count on me to follow through with what I have committed to do, and when I said I would have it done. My goal is to provide realistic expectations―never over promise, always over deliver.

5. I care deeply about each individual client, and each person with whom I interact. H Squared Communications isn’t just a business to me. I know behind every company logo is a real person who needs my services and my understanding.

6. Nothing I do is not carefully thought through. I have always wished I was better at spontaneity, but it’s just not a part of me. I plan, strategize, and analyze and am no longer trying to be anything other than what I am.

7. For communications to be trusted, they need to be consistent, and I will be consistent in my interactions with you as well.

8. I strive to be truly present, whether that means leaving my cell phone at home when my husband and I go out to dinner, or making sure to give each client my full attention when you need it.

9. I have vowed throughout my life to be true to myself and do what I know is right. H Squared Communications is an extension of that deeply held belief, and if a project just isn’t a good fit for the services I offer, I will be honest about that. If a project could benefit from my knowledge base and skill set, I will fight for your business.

10. I remember where I came from, what I have accomplished since then, and how all of it makes me me. There won’t be any pretense with me. In the beginning I was just a little curly-haired girl playing baseball in the sunshine of the Black Hills. And she is still a big part of me.

The peak of the old farm house is steep and tall. While all the grown-ups were talking after Sunday dinner, my sister and I would sometimes try to get the baseball to roll up one side of the roof and down again on the other side. And even though I have been working to get rid of a lot of things in my house, I still have that baseball, too. Some things are worth hanging on to as a way to keep track of your past self, to ensure that person never gets lost. That’s what real authenticity is.

We’ll explore the other three values of H Squared Communications in future blog posts, but they are gratitude, passion, and honesty.

Trees cracking under the weight - April 2013

You’re in a fight to the death, my friend.
Fight like you’re chained to the wheel.
You’ve got the past on your breath, my friend.
Now name all the monsters you’ve killed.
Let’s name all the monsters you’ve killed.

―Jason Isbell, “Chaos and Clothes”

These words entered my life at just the right time―a time when I needed to be reminded of all the monsters I had already killed. Isbell’s song is about struggling with sobriety and one friend encouraging another, but to me it was a confidence booster of a different kind. I took a piece of paper and wrote “The Monsters I’ve Killed” at the top. Then I underlined the title and underneath it started to list all the calamities, acts of nature, political power struggles, public controversies, and heartbreaks I had already managed through with my head held high. In recognizing these events and situations―these monsters―I knew I would have what I needed to thrive through whatever came next.

The first on the list was the ice storm of April 2013. I had worked for the City of Sioux Falls for only six weeks when a thick layer of ice covered every surface in the community. Six inches of snow was in the forecast. I was told to go to the EOC at the LEC, and I had no idea what any of those six letters stood for. Soon I was sitting at the PIO table (three more letters) writing news releases to keep our community safe, from both the weather and the con artists who would be swiftly coming to town to cut down trees.

Another item on the list of monsters I had killed still hurts. You might be surprised by that word “heartbreaks” above. Those of us who consider ourselves professional communicators try so hard not to let anything we encounter reach the heart level, but sometimes we face monsters that are very personal. We have to publicly define and defend tragic events. We have to stand up for things that others don’t agree with. People we know―and thought we knew really well―let us down.

No one ever, ever saw coming what was succinctly explained in a text message to me one day. Thankfully I did get that text message before reporters started calling―maybe five minutes before, but at least before. Of course, five minutes is not enough time to draft a thoughtful news release. It’s not enough time to get all the facts. It’s not enough time to formulate an intelligent response. It’s not enough time to make sense of the emotions running through your body. Not after you read a text message like that.

Even when you work in crisis communications, you absolutely cannot predict the future, but you can rely on the communications that worked in the past for any number of situations and apply it to the new fire. Even when a hydrant isn’t nearby. The next time the adrenaline kicks in and you must rely on your training to know what to do next, remembering the monsters already dead and conquered helps. It’s a somewhat harsh and brutal way to cope, but it’s what got me through the weeks of communications following that text message. The words I didn’t want to help communicate but had to, on a subject that hit too close to home.

Next week is Halloween, the one day we aren’t afraid of the monsters that appear on our doorstep. We are expecting them that one evening each year. But that’s not the way monsters usually show up. They come at the most unexpected times, when you already have too much on your plate. Oftentimes you don’t know you need crisis communications expertise until you do, and then you need it in a hurry. It might be a natural disaster or other act of God, and information―quickly!―is what will maintain public safety. It might be an employee’s very personal failing made very public, and a genuine response will help turn the tide of public perception. H Squared Communications can help. I’ve been there, slaying monsters and keeping track of their names to give me confidence for the next one.

Today my list doesn’t look so scary. The events of our pasts just become part of you, like it or not. The least you can do is name them and keep fighting to the death, my friend.

I couldn’t resist capturing my husband’s silhouette in this photo of the Fiery Furnace, Arches National Park, Utah.

Social media is a valuable tool for marketing large and small businesses alike, communicating important information in an interesting way, engaging with your audience, answering questions where people already are, and reinforcing your brand. Social media is a valuable tool for individuals as well, connecting with family members and friends in ongoing conversations and interactions. But managing accounts, posting content, and following others on social media also can be an all-consuming timesuck if you let it. Many of us have to actively strive against living inside our phones.

Case in point:

Utah is one of the most intriguingly beautiful places I have ever seen. The topography and terrain are beyond varied, and each time my eyes opened to a new scene on our recent trip, I couldn’t believe what was before me was real. At the destination of several of our hikes in the five national parks there, I sat down and just tried to take it all in. From arches spanning between huge rock formations to steep canyons to green rivers to rock spires reaching toward the heavens to majestic mountains cast in shadows of drifting clouds, Utah made me feel like I could not still be on the earth. Once, at the sight of Mesa Arch in Canyonlands National Park, tears even welled up in my eyes. I just could not believe this place existed and I was there to see it for myself. Forget about taking pictures when your eyes are filled with tears. Eventually, when I could start to feel my body again, it became possible to snap a few photos of this place so that I could remember this trip in a visual way. On the way back down the trail again, it was impossible not to pause after a few steps, turn around, and look at it one last time.

That was my experience at least. On these types of trips, I also often find myself watching the people around me. In the national parks especially, you can find people from all over the world, and from every part of the United States. They, too, are an intriguingly beautiful thing to see.

Undoubtedly, on the very same hike in which I could no longer feel my body because of the scene before my eyes, were other tourists, and sometimes these people were equipped with selfie sticks. As I was sitting in awe, just staring at an incredible sight, they would come, stand with their backs to the beauty, snap a photo of themselves, and keep walking. The goal, I am sure, was to post a selfie on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. of them in this famous place. My husband and I did that a couple times, too. But our ultimate goal in taking this trip was not to tell other people where we were but to enjoy the nature there waiting for us. For some others, I am not sure they ever actually turned around even one time to face the place they came to see. Maybe a slice of it will peek out from behind their heads when they look through all their selfies someday.

We saw people driving around with GoPros taped to their car hoods. A couple had GoPros strapped to their foreheads. Keep in mind we were not skydiving here. We were not repelling down mountain cliffs. We were just walking through the woods or the desert seeking beauty, which in the end was all around us. Some others wanted to document each step they took or each mile they drove for all the world to see. Whether or not they saw any of it themselves is not really for me to know or judge, but watching these people did make me pause, take a breath, and look through my own eyes instead of just through my camera lens at the landscape around me.

If you are not a full-time social media coordinator or communications professional and your social media program or habits have overtaken your work or your life, it’s time to rethink their importance. Social media is an integral component to any communications strategy, and in some cases social media does need to be the highest priority. In crisis situations, especially during public safety emergencies, natural disasters, or significant weather events like flash floods or blizzards, social media is how people expect to communicate with their local governments, businesses, and personal contacts. Engaging regularly with your customers on social media is paramount to staying relevant in the business world. That’s when you let social media work for you.

But if you are working for your social media program or if you are allowing your personal social media accounts to keep you from enjoying the real life around you, that’s when it’s time to take a step back. Will every photo from your recent trip be of your own face, or will you look back on your vacation and remember the sights, smells, sounds, tastes, and aches and pains of every hike?

If your business or organization’s social media program has gotten out of hand and you can’t remember why you started these accounts to begin with, H Squared Communications can help you get back on track. To create an effective, individualized social media plan and content strategy, we will start with your organizational or project goals and make sure that subsequent work aligns with those goals so that you aren’t wasting any more time on activities that aren’t benefiting your customers or business.

In the end, there won’t be much evidence to prove that my husband and I were in very many places in Utah. We took just enough photos of ourselves to have at least one good one to put on our holiday cards. And I am okay with that.

Canyonlands National Park, Utah

Cairn: a pile of stones stacked by a person to mark a trail

My husband and I just returned home from 10 days hiking in the five national parks in Utah. It certainly is a beautiful world. Many of our hikes were on well-marked, well-utilized paths. A few trails, though, weren’t as obvious. In some cases, the destination was well disguised and out of sight. The path to it was sometimes over huge rocks or through water, so we couldn’t see other people’s tracks. On those trails, we were grateful to find cairns every once in a while along the way.

A cairn says:

You aren’t the only one.

Someone else has been here before.

This is the way.

You are on the right path.

So many challenges in life could be avoided if we placed more cairns on our path for others to follow! It’s too easy to become information hoarders in our work or in our relationships instead of being willing to share insight and wisdom with the people around us. Being the knower of important things makes us invaluable, or so we think. But sometimes the people in our lives don’t even know that we know anything at all because we never tell anyone else what we know.

This also is one of the biggest challenges to successful communications initiatives: getting the right people in the room, breaking down the barriers that separate them, and helping them feel comfortable enough to spill their guts. What information is housed in their beautiful brains? How do we start at the beginning of what they know, take others through the path of their knowledge, and help the public reach the same destination of understanding?

Cairns―markers to guide others all the way to the end―can help. Information needs to come in small enough chunks to digest. Sometimes an aerial map of the whole path isn’t as helpful as simply knowing you have reached another milestone on the journey. And it is a relief to know that others have made it through and left you some encouragement to keep going.

Let me help your organization or company make it through to the end of a path I have already been down. When it comes to a crisis you are facing, I have undoubtedly been in your shoes at some point, and unfortunately needed to announce it publicly. When it comes to a project that seems too big or too long to break into chunks small enough for the average person to take in, I have already been there, too. If you’re trying to get a social media program off the ground, yes, I have done that before. Together we can chart a path, step by step, to help you reach your communications goals.

That’s really what communications consulting is. I am here to leave cairns on your path so that you can reach your destination more quickly, more smoothly, and with fewer sprained ankles than someone else without a guide. Next time, you’ll know the way, too.