Brady Media Group

We had hot dogs and apples tonight for dinner.
The whole family.
My wife Wesley and I, our three kids, and the two dogs.

Hot dogs and apples are some of Chesty’s favorites.
He’s our English Bulldog and as cute as a furry fireplug can get.
Imagine a brown ottoman with big brown eyes, white shoulderpads and a fierce underbite. That’s my Chesty.

Our other dog’s a gorgeous Golden Retriever named Belle.
We try not to feed either dog from the table very often, but tonight we ignored every dietary boundary the vet recommends.
Tonight was special.

And no, this blog entry really doesn’t have to do with YouTube or Twitter or Vimeo or the brave new world of emerging and evolving media. I decided not to capture tonight’s solemn and silly dinner on video. It’s just a slice of life frozen in my mind and conveyed here. Shared for the cathartic healing that our family needs tonight.

You see, Chester has been my trusty sidekick for the last ten years. He weathered many moves, many homes, many episodes of my life.
The challenges and the setbacks. Victories and parties. Grief and delirious joy. He’s been right in the middle. Yes, he snores and slobbers. Most bulldogs do.
He’s almost ten and a half now. That’s about retirement age for a bulldog. Like any family pet, Chesty’s always been faithful. Always loving. Always eager to be by my side… and hear my side of the story.
He tolerated and withstood so much. Fiesty, loveable Chesty.

But this tumor is something he just doesn’t seem able to tolerate.
It’s rendered him immobile and incontinent. He can only get around by scooting his rump across the floor. And that’s causing blisters and rashes. He’s a trooper, but this is hard. Even for a taciturn English Bull.

It’s a big one.
We had Chester take an MRI last week in Irving.
The radiologist calls it an ‘intramedullary mass’ in his L3 vertebrae. Most consistent with neoplasia, the doc told me. That means Chester’s tumor is actually growing inside the bone, wrapped around his spinal column. It’s pretty big, evidently, and inoperable. Radiation might help, but it would burn the tissue and weaken the bones around the tumor. We don’t know if it’s malignant or benign, but it’s getting bigger. And it’s likely to make Chesty more and more immobile. It’s already caused the dog to lose control of his hind legs and his bowels. It’s not a pretty sight.

But tonight we had fun.
We all talked about Chesty and the good times. We fed him hot dogs.
I sat on the floor and said a prayer to thank God for ALL the members of our family – including the 4-legged ones. Chesty also ate grapes, offered by my daughter Savannah, plus two apples and an orange popsickle left behind by Bo – our 1-year-old son.

I remember getting Chesty ten years ago in San Antonio. He was born on Christmas Day, 1998. I wanted a bulldog because of my days in the US Marine Corps. He’s named after Chesty Puller, the larger-than-life Marine Lt. General of WW2 fame. During my bachelor days, we were inseparable. We rode around in my red 4-Runner. He made friends easily. Chesty was always the celebrity. Everybody wanted to pet him and talk to him and get to know him. He’s just always had that kind of star-power. Me? I’m just the guy with the bulldog.

In Dallas, we enjoyed the dog park at White Rock lake. Wes and I took him on long walks around the edge of the lake, and we would always finish with a romp in the water. Chesty would have spent endless hours there, barking at the waves and snapping the water. Odd, but fun to watch. I never figured out his fascination with the lake, but he was certainly a (shallow) water dog.

Tonight, we’re remembering those days. Those warm summer days at the park and the lake. I’ll give him a warm bath tonight, to clean him up before the vet comes tomorrow. I’ll hand wash him just as I did when he was a puppy. He doesn’t fit in the kitchen sink anymore, but we’ll make do. We already have a catheter in his foreleg. The vet is doing us a tremendous favor by making this housecall. I’m certain it’s the most unpleasant kind. And yet, so many caring friends and fellow dog-owners have told me this decision – when done right – is the most humane and loving thing a pet owner can do. I hope so. No, I know so. But it’s really, really hard.

I know Chesty could survive a few more months if we invested in diapers and a wheeled cart of some kind. But that just seems to be a onerous, unpleasant act to comfort me, not Chesty. The fact is, he’s suffering and he will get worse, and there is virtually nothing we can do to avert the progress of the tumor.

So tonight, it was apples and hotdogs – for a very special dog. No fancy media. No recordings. Just a quiet celebration of a life well-lived. And in a little while, he gets a warm bath. And a long, deep hug. And maybe one more apple. For my favorite ottoman with a loveable underbite.

Spring is all about symbolism, if you think about it.

The Christian cross represents rebirth and an eternal conquest,

The Seder Meal of Passover represents the Jewish exodus from slavery.

Easter Eggs and the Easter Bunny represent children’s games today, but began as fertility symbols among the Saxon peoples of Northern Europe many centuries ago.

We enjoy the rebirth of the land – as flowers bud, bees buzz and rabbits give birth.

We also have the perennial spring cleaning, spring break, spring showers and spring fever. Baseball begins again. Trout season starts. In Texas, we have another season of bluebonnets to celebrate. All symbolic of a fresh start.

That’s what this business is for me – a new beginning. Brady Media Group – hold on, I know this will sound pretty sappy at first – is a fresh start. A new chapter for me personally and possibly for the kind of media available to our clients. My “new start” in media can be considered a metaphor for this new era in publicity and media relations. Maybe it’s time for the journalists to lead the way. Instead of a traditional ad buy, maybe one client starts a blog. Instead of producing a conventional TV commercial, maybe a different client starts taping and posting a streaming video segment of FAQs on a pertinent topic. Or maybe another develops a compelling storyline to pitch – and we get some traction in a big newsroom.

The journalists at Brady Media Group can help lead the way. It’s all about thinking and seeking new opportuniites to communicate with the world. From a more transparent, balanced point of view. The public is more media savvy than ever. So I am convinced that our clients need to be more authentic than ever. And it’s easier now… with so many media platforms available. Some of these channels have been around for a while. Others are brand spanking new.

And that’s really what I hope our clients and strategic partners recognize. It’s an exciting dialogue now, folks. Everybody should ask themselves what they have to offer the digital marketplace. What unique service? What valuable insight or industrial knowledge? Why not showcase it online? We are starting something that I consider profound.. on many levels. This is not just a small PR firm. This is an agency that is poised to help re-write the way commercial entities communicate with the world. No barriers. No spin. No actors or teleprompters. Just an open window and an opportunity to be authentic and to offer your wisdom and value.

In a sense, we are trying to re-write publicity. It’s symbolic. Like the mythical phoenix rising from the ashes. This old bird is giving media relations a new birth. I know I know it’s terribly corney, but it’s how I feel.

It’s a passion for doing something well. With a unique new flavor. And a fresh start.

OK. Alright. Time to fess up.

Yes, the two Jeffs are actually working together.

Many of you may already know about my good friend Jeff Crilley, who stepped away from KDFW Fox 4 last May to launch Real News PR. His agency has already realized extraordinary success and he has broadened the RNPR brand to include the services of several other ‘expatriot’ journalists who have their own – and separate – publicity or consulting agencies. These affiliates include Robert Riggs, Rebecca Rodriguez, Cliff Caldwell, and now…me.

Here’s how it works:
Each of us has a unique, prioprietary consulting company, with a distinct expertise and clients of our own. Rebecca focuses on latin or hispanic clients. Robert has developed a crisis communications service. I am concentrating on new and emerging media content for clients’ online or digital footprints. But together, we often marshall our talents to pitch a larger client who may need the services of more than one small agency. And we are building a much more potent PR, advocacy and content development agency than any of us could offer alone.

In fact, my gut tells me this agency will grow quickly to become something larger than a standard PR or consulting agency. I think we are building a powerful new hybrid group that will be able to offer some advertising expertise, some graphic design talent, some media coaching and a tremendous amount of publicity know-how because we all have roots as journalists. We know the language of newsrooms. We know the cycle, the pace and the barriers to overcome when soliciting coverage or pitching a story. We are all professional story-tellers.

And quite honestly, journalists have never needed this kind of supplementary help more than now. Every newsroom in the country is being squeezed for personnel, time and resources. Budgets are tighter. And deadlines are shorter. We offer a lifeline to time-starved reporters who are being pulled four directions at once. We’ve already researched the story. We’ve already vetted the source. We’ve already done the research. Yes, some of our pitches represent paying clients. But in the end, a story is a story. And if it has journalistic merit, it should be reported. If not, it should be ignored, right?

We won’t pitch story ideas that don’t stand on their own and we won’t suggest interview subjects who don’t know their topic. In a way, we’re doing a lot of the legwork – so that the working journalist can ‘hit the ground running’ and provide quality content to the paper, website or newscast at the end of the day.

I know, I know. It sounds like a lot of self-inflated hooey.

But if you ask our clients… Or if you ask the working journalists who have used our story ’suggestions’, you might think twice.

Or you might think about calling the Two Jeffs yourself. We have a few more openings for clients who need media help.

Anyone?

Finally.

The Hairy Dinosaur speaks… again.

It’s taken a while for this “evolving media guy” to make another entry.

And that’s a problem:  a blogger needs to blog.

But the Herculean tasks of a media startup are… well… big.

Anyway, this Brady Media Group thing has taken off like wildfire.  People want to hear what this old media guy has to say. And what I’m preaching. And here’s why. We’ve touched a nerve.

Content REALLY IS KING.

Organizations of all kinds – retailers, big manufacturing, medical practices, schools, non-profits and a lot more – are finally realizing they can create their own digital content!  

And we at Brady Media Group are helping lead the charge.

Old advertising and hierarchical PR is giving way to a new generation of marketing and publicity on-line.

Whether a blog, e-book, white paper, podcast, video blog or narrative streaming video, the revolution is gaining momentum.  

What revolution? It’s the movement AWAY from top-down, one-way, autocratic broad-based big media content – toward more unique, niche-based, on-demand, dialogue-format media in which providers actually try to educate, inform, entertain and engage a smaller, highly-focused digital audience.

How?   By providing great, original content with a benefit up front, free of charge and on-demand.

And clients can do it themselves. In fact, it’s probably BETTER if not homogenized by a bureaucratic media “spin” involving several layers of PR-speak.  At Brady Media, we just help guide, coach, instruct and format the content. And the more authentic, informative and use-friendly the content – the more interest it attracts.

Honest.

If you don’t believe little ol’ me, just pick up a copy of David Meerman Scott’s bestseller “The New Rules of Marketing and PR” – available at www.Wiley.com.

His new rule mantras include:

·         People want authenticity, not spin.

·         People want participation, not propaganda.

·         Instead of causing one-way interruption, marketing is about delivering great content at just the precise moment your audience needs it.

·         The internet has made public relations PUBLIC again, after years of almost exclusive focus on media.

·         Companies must drive people into the purchasing (or donating or volunteering or whatever) process with GREAT ONLINE CONTENT.

Now of course, there is still high demand for the BIG AGENCY campaign with the BIG AGENCY branding effort and the BIG MEDIA buy. Budweiser needs it. So does Universal when a big movie comes out.     But more and more of us are realizing that the internet offers an unheralded platform for bypassing big media and big agencies altogether.

Scott cites Jim Peterson, President of The Concrete Network, who says “Businesses will live or die on original content. If you are creating truly useful content for customers, you’re going to be seen in a great light and with a great spirit – you’re setting the table for new business.”

Think about it. When you start to think about buying a new hand-made Texas hill-country dining room table, what do you do?  Fire up the desktop and search for “Texas hill-country dining room table,” right?  So if a local manufacturer or distributer had a free white-paper on “What to Look For When Buying Authentic Texas Hill Country Furniture,”  or better yet, a short video demonstrating the difference between quality manufacturing and the cheap stuff, you’d certainly download and watch it, right? And more importantly you’d consider that vendor to be a) knowledgeable, b) helpful and c) accessible, right?

So what’s stopping you from using this kind of powerful, contemporary, direct marketing machine for your product, service or non-profit? If you need a coach, I’m right here.

It’s the future. Available today.