We’ve made a point of never forgetting the passion and pride the late Virginia Dandridge “Dandy” Stevenson brought to work every day of her many years serving as my executive assistant at Peppercomm.

In fact, this is the fourth consecutive year we’ve asked our employees to vote for a colleague who best personifies “The Danderoo’s” attributes and qualities, which include:

• A great sense of humor
• A never quit attitude
• A heart of gold
• A passion for living life to its fullest
• Genuine pride for working at Peppercomm
• Unflappable resilience in the midst of our uncertain times.

I’m thrilled to announce that Diandra Binney is this year’s recipient of The Dandy Stevenson Award. Diandra will receive $250 for herself and an additional $250 that she’s donating to St. Jude’s (https://www.stjude.org/give.html).

What makes this particular award so special is that many of her peers who knew Dandy believe Diandra is the reincarnation of The Danderoo. One comment in particular stands out:

“Dandy would have adored Diandra for her no nonsense, get it done attitude combined with a quirky sense of humor. Diandra is extremely caring and really concerned about the people she manages and the clients she serves. She forms really close relationships with her clients. And, just like Dandy, Diandra has two sides: direct, frank and get it done on the one hand and caring, having fun and not being afraid to laugh at herself.”

That observation is eerily similar to pretty much what anyone and everyone who came into contact with Dandy had to say about her.

I’m sure that wherever Dandy is at the moment, she is giving Diandra a well-earned and rousing round of applause (while also telling her to get back to work!).

Winning a record 13 industry awards last year was very special. So, too, was our significant top and bottom-line growth. But nothing means more to me (and to the many Peppercommers who fondly remember her time with us) than in announcing the latest recipient of The

Dandy Stevenson Award.

Well done, Diandra! Now get back to work! 😊

There was quite a bit of hubbub on LinkedIn this past weekend after someone posted a Harvard Business Review article from 2018.

As you’ll see, the author’s alliterative headline calls out the four essential attributes every leader MUST possess.

For those of you without the time to read the article, I will share his 4C’s of leadership.

They are:

– Confident

– Connected

– Committed

– Courageous.

It’s difficult to take exception to any of the C’s, but I would argue those attributes have ALWAYS been essential to any leader in recorded history. 

Can you imagine Alexander the Great, Caesar, Napoleon or any of the great Feminist and Civil Rights leaders of the past achieving the success they attained without exuding the 4C’s in abundance?

In the interests of fairness, the HBR column was written prior to the pandemic and the rise of #BLM, DEI, BIPOC and heightened sensitivities in the workplace.

In light of the time-lapse when I look at the 4C’s, I think, “Yes, and…” which is a prompt that begins one of many different forms of improvisational comedy.

My Yes, and… is to add self-deprecating humor alongside the 4C’s (and to hell with alliteration).😎

Empathy, authenticity and vulnerability are suddenly acceptable (if not cherished) terms in the virtual and physical hallways of Corporate America. 

And in my opinion, we’re already seeing the rise of self-deprecating leaders who are replacing predecessors who placed profits over people and believed demonstrating ANY sign of vulnerability implied weakness.

Here’s the good news: Self-deprecating humor can be learned over time (if a leader is open to change and willing to laugh at her/his faults). 

And a certain firm I know is working with quite a few top organizations as we speak. Each has different wants and needs. But each has a leader who is self-aware enough to be self-deprecating in front of peers and direct reports.

As someone who has embraced his failures and foibles and willingly shared them with my employees as well as audiences at many different stand-up venues, I can attest to the power of self-deprecating humor. 

Final piece of advice to leaders of every stripe: Stop taking yourself so seriously and start embracing (and sharing) your setbacks. 

Yes, and… you (and your direct reports) will be glad you did. 😎

It’s hard to believe it’s been nearly three decades since I borrowed $12,500 from my mother-in-law and older brother and decided to launch a PR firm in my Black Lab’s honor.

Peppercomm entered the business world on September 1, 1995, and, since then, has experienced more ups-and-downs than a yo-yo on steroids…

– O’Dwyer’s twice named us America’s fastest growing firm of the year in the late 1990’s
– PR Week named us Agency of the Year in 2006
– Crain’s New York Business named us best workplace in 2011
– PR Week named us best workplace of 2020 (an amazing achievement considering the mega societal and health woes that brought the entire world to a standstill)
– And we’re once again a finalist for Crain’s New York Business of the year.

We’ve thrived in spite of some serious setbacks:

– The dotcom crash
– The post 9/11 client halt on all PR/marketing spends
– The 2008 market correction
– A vicious Kramer v. Kramer business divorce in 2018.

The reasons we’ve thrived begin and end with great people, great people and, yes, great people.

Ann Barlow, Jackie Kolek and Maggie O’Neill all marked their 20th anniversaries this year. I do not exaggerate when I say that, without their superb client counseling (and having my back when I needed it most), there would be no Peppercomm today.

Then there’s Courtney Ellul, Matt Purdue, Melissa Vigue and Tara Lilien, four other formidable partners, who have made countless contributions over the years.

And I MUST pay homage to a superb middle management cadre, a very cool group of whip smart junior employees and an IT director who contributes more creative ideas on a daily basis than any IT executive anywhere.

Last, and certainly not least, is our humor-driven culture.

Unlike ANY other PR firm, we train employees in stand-up and improvisational humor, tie it into our annual charitable fundraising and now offer three distinct modules to meet the unprecedented needs of client organizations in every conceivable industry.

Peppercomm’s humor-driven culture is our key differentiator and the not-so-hidden secret to our winning so many workplace awards as well as countless best campaigns of the year citations for so many superb clients.

Success is a beautiful thing that grows increasingly beautiful when an organization occasionally stumbles and falls, but gets right back up each and every time and each and every time becomes a little bit stronger, a little bit nimbler and dare I say, a whole lot cooler than ever.

So let me introduce to you the one and only Peppercomm, 26 years young and growing younger (and stronger) every day.

###

One of the keys to winning an interview or delivering a compelling speech is combining facts with authenticity and a genuine sense of enthusiasm. In regards to the latter, I’ve often told a client subject matter expert that if she isn’t enthusiastic about her product, service or organization why should any time-pressed reader, listener or viewer pay attention? 

Sadly, Luis Rojas the beleaguered, baffled and befuddled manager of the rapidly-fading New York Mets is a poster child for sending ALL of the wrong signals.

Check out his expressions, tonality and sense of frustration and resignation as he dissects the Mets loss to a truly miserable Miami Marlins team in a recent post game press conference. The word grim comes to mind. 

Ask yourself this after viewing the video: Would you follow this guy into battle (and that battle could be injecting a little more enthusiasm in the workplace, delighting a client with a totally unexpected creative idea or winning a new piece of business thanks to developing amazing rapport with the prospect).

I sure wouldn’t. 

Everything about Luis Rojas adds up to one word: defeat. 

It’s clearly not his fault that the team has fallen from first to third place in the incredibley weak National League East. But it IS his fault that the team has mirrored his hangdog expression and negative body language throughout their three successive losses to the Phillies this past weekend.

It doesn’t matter if you’re leading a baseball team, a Fortune 500 corporation or a self-proclaimed NextGen digital firm. Leaders must lead. And leaders MUST rise to the occasion no matter how grim the current prospects may be.

I’ve had to rally myself in the aftermath of 9/11, the 2008 economic downturn and, of course, during the ongoing pandemic. 

Through it all I’ve tried my best to project a positive, but realistic, demeanor. 

It’s easy to lead when one’s managing a first place team or is the CEO of health care agency that has more business than it can handle. 

But the true mark of leadership comes when the chips are down and the future looks bleak. That’s the time when great leaders are acutely aware of their words and actions, dig deep and find just the right physical and verbal messages to keep an organization’s hopes up and performance at its very best.

Sadly, Rojas was either poorly media trained, decided to skip the session entirely or believes his words and actions alone cannot right a sinking ship. 

###

How can otherwise intelligent people continue to believe that California’s rampant wildfires, the Midwest (and Northeast’s) tornadoes, excessive heat in places such as Seattle, Germany’s biblical-like floods and every other “worst climactic event ever recorded” is a natural thing that occurs every 10,000 years or so (See: Little Ice Age for more info).

Case in point. My daughter recently attended a wedding whose bride, groom, bridesmaids (save: Catharine) and groomsmen were united in their denial of global climate change.

With all due respect, that was one ignorant group of revelers.

To wit, please scan Maureen Dowd’s superb editorial “Apocalypse Right Now”.

And for those of you who, like me, list Charleston, SC, as among the most gorgeous cities in the country, check out the impact of coastal flooding CAUSED by global climate change.

The Charleston saga hits very close to home (so to speak) since I’ve been a proud member of the College of Charleston’s Communications Department Advisory Council for more than a decade.

Peppercomm and the CofC have had a superb, relationship of long-standing.

Many of today’s superstars (ie Trisha Bruynell and Caroline Mooney in particular) as well as the recently-hired Sierra Buck and Olivia Jebrine have played instrumental roles in our success. And Eternity Hunter, a CofC Summer intern is absolutely lighting it up (Check out her “Day in the Life of a Peppercomm intern” video she posted the other day on IG).

In the meantime, though, I hope and pray that climate deniers will wake up to the realities of what’s happening all around us and, for once, place their trust in science (as opposed to buying into yet another big lie).

###

At long last sports teams are waking up to the very real dangers of online sports gambling and gambling addiction.

According to a recent report by Caytoo, British sports teams are turning down the mega sponsorship dollars they’ve always received from gambling firms. They’ve also cut down on the amount of sponsorship money they’ll take from gambling’s evil cousin, alcohol.

I’m not sure how or why, but compulsive gambling has somehow flown under the media’s radar as society has awakened to the need for societal change at all levels.

But gambling’s pernicious impact should not be underestimated. The Caytoo report said one percent of adults identify as compulsive gamblers. That may not sound like much, but one percent of 300 million Americans amounts to three million souls. And, get this, SIX to NINE percent of children say they’re addicted.

Happily, gambling’s precipitous decline in the British sports establishment is akin to having a very bad night in a Vegas casino. In just two years, gambling’s sponsorship of rugby, soccer and cricket has been cut in half from 15.1 percent of all major sponsorship bucks to just over 8 percent this year.

And if it’s happening in the UK, you can bet the house that US sports teams will be pressured to follow suit. And Caytoo cites four reasons why…

• 50 percent of compulsive gamblers commit crimes.
• Families where a parent gambles compulsively are more likely to experience domestic violence, including child abuse.
• Over 80 percent of problem gamblers were at risk for alcohol or drug use dependency.
• More than 60 percent of compulsive gamblers said they wanted help, but only 25 percent actually sought assistance.

I take these statistics personally because I lost a beloved uncle to compulsive gambling. The guy was addicted to betting on baseball and the horses. And he’d gamble the full amount of each paycheck on one or both sports. Needless to say, it didn’t take long for him to lose his shirt, turn to drinking to ease the pain, ask his siblings for financial support and end up dying a lonely, penniless and broken man.

Sports gambling is evil. It killed my uncle. And while it may not kill a member of your family or circle of friends, it can trigger all sorts of other calamities.
So three cheers for the British sporting establishment in forcing gambling companies to spend their ill-gotten gains somewhere else. I just hope our country’s sports franchises do the same thing. And soon!

###

I was in the midst of a much-needed Spring cleaning of my home office when I stumbled across a true relic: a book called, “F’d Companies: Spectacular dot-com flameouts.” The book was published in 2002 by someone named Philip J. Kaplan.

I wouldn’t waste your time (or mine) except the handbook included a particularly nasty review of a one-time Peppercomm client called Quepasa.com. It also triggered an of-the-moment cautionary tale I thought might be educational (stay tuned). In his magnus opus, Kaplan skewered QuePasa.com, which he described as “…a portal and community site for Spanish speakers.” And that it was.

And, as was the case with about 45 or so other dotcoms we represented, Que Pasa paid us northwards of $40k per month to issue a press release a day to incite market interest. And it worked.

Que Pasa raised a staggering $68 million in their IPO.

But as Kaplan pointed out, Que Pasa offered “…free e-mail, news feeds, even chat rooms!” and, as he added: “….just about everything you needed $15 and a free Geocities website to accomplish.”

Ouch! Needless to say, when the technology bubble burst in April of 2000, Que Pasa said adios amigos to the business world.

Fast forward to today: start-ups are back in a big way and popping up more often than yet another laughably absurd Qanon conspiracy theory.

And truth be told, I fell prey to the very same circa 1999 dot-com double talk that a travel insurance start-up recently laid upon me.

The 2021 “version” put us on a microscopic retainer, but “promised” they’d raise massive amounts of money in their second round of funding and immediately increase the fee to $20k per month.

Not.

They never raised the money.

Instead they sent one of those classic “Dear Agency” e-mails in which the CMO stated in an impassive, impersonal note that “…..moving forward, we’ll be handling social, media  and influencer relations in-house.”

I was tempted to respond by asking, “Que Pasa?”

Alas they would ‘t understand the inside joke and I was too busy kicking myself for believing the same faux hype I’d heard 20 years ago.

So, caveat PR agency owner: Many of today’s start-ups aren’t very different than their dotcom predecessors.

Kick the tires. Be sure they do indeed have funding and, whatever you do, don’t buy into the lie that “…once second-round funding comes in, we’ll dramatically increase your fee.”

Trust me, you will NOT enjoy reading a Philip Kaplan follow-up. The inaugural was chock full of truly offensive, misogynistic and F-bomb laced prose.

And if there’s anything I despise, it’s an individual (or a firm) using the F bomb for pure shock value.

###

I received my vaccine booster this past Saturday and, within 12 days, will be 99 and 44/100th percent immune from the ravages of COVID-19.😅

And while I’ve personally bid adieu to the scourge of our lifetime, I fear the ignorant, uniformed and belligerent will trigger a second wave of the deadly virus within the next 30 days (or sooner).

All one has to do is follow what’s happening in countries such as Brazil, Italy and France to see that the virus is absolutely delighted to perform an encore when safety precautions are ignored.

We can easily avoid what’s happening overseas but, as the ubiquitous Dr. Fauci warned Americans yesterday, we need to “mask-up” and continue to social distance. Good luck with that.

Thanks to our former president and his cultish followers, some 45 percent of Republicans say they will not wear masks.

To make matters worse, the “Immortals” (aka college kids on Spring Break) are partying hard sans masks and social distancing in what are obviously super spreader events.

Yesterday Fauci asked Trump to step up and ask The Base to wear masks.

That’s akin to asking New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to voluntarily step down in light of the ever-increasing number of sexual and workplace harassment suits he’s facing.

Neither Trump nor Cuomo will do the responsible thing.

So who will take the heat when, like Italy, Brazil and other parts of the world, we soon see wide swaths of Texas, Alabama and other bastions of The Base forced to shut down for a second time? The answer is obvious: Fox, et al, will concoct a number of ersatz reasons to blame Biden, the Democrats and the Left-Wing media.

I yearn for the day when I can say good-bye to COVID and ignorance alike but, alas, the latter’s become firmly ingrained (and enabled) by a Republican Party that has no moral compass whatsoever. And, like a rapidly spreading virus, it will only get worse.

###

I’d like to claim credit for those insightful words but they belong to Tina Fey. And they’re just one of countless astute observations made about the tremendous power of humor in business in a brand new book.

Fey, along with other comedians, as well as some of America’s best known CEOs and leadership gurus all contributed pithy comments to the book, “Humor, Seriously: Why Humor is a Secret Weapon in Business and Life.”

The authors are two Ph.D’s who teach a REQUIRED course about the importance of humor in the workplace at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

They’re doing so because, based on their extensive research as a behavioral scientist and leadership guru, respectively, the authors have proof positive that comedy not only differentiates an individual, it’s also a key attribute of the very best leaders of today and tomorrow.

I’ve known this stuff for years since, as a highly mediocre stand-up and improvisational comedian, I’ve seen laughter help me in business to build rapport, increase creativity and, yes, even help close deals.

It’s also why we’ve trained our employees in stand-up, tied it in to our charitable fundraising and, hold for shameless self-plug, provide comedy workshops for clients of all kinds.

In fact, self-deprecating humor has been proven to make ALL leaders who embrace it seem more empathetic, vulnerable and, get this, intelligent (I’m an obvious exception to that rule).

But don’t take my word for any of the above.

Jennifer Aaker and Naomi Bagdonas, the co-authors of Humor, Seriously say, “Humor charms and disarms (in a business setting). Even small gestures of levity are powerful in negotiations.” (note to self: Try your New Jersey Transit material the next time you negotiate with a procurement officer). “That’s in part because they (humorous words and phrases) spark human connection — and when we connect as people, we often get more of what we both want.”

I dare say we all want to spark more human connections as we battle our way through this horrible period in history.

But the words comedy, laughter and humor actually scare many uptight business executives who take themselves and their work far too seriously.

I can think of one head of internal communications at a global corporation who, in response to my suggesting we conduct comedy training for their fast trackers in order to combat anxiety, depression and poor morale, said, “I’m just too afraid that, in this cancel culture world of ours, someone will say something during the training that would trigger a lawsuit of some kind.”

Possibly, but not if the proper parameters are established in advance. When we comedy train everyone from rocket scientists and lawyers to bankers and oncologists, we take a deep dive into each organization’s culture to determine what is, and isn’t, appropriate before any training occurs. So, to borrow the vernacular du jour, we make the training a “safe place to be.”

The results can be game-changing, especially for Gen Z and Millennial employees who have either been sheltering alone in an 800-foot studio apartment or moved back into the same bedroom they had in high school (which HAS to be brutal).

I could go on, but must insert another pearl from the authors: “Research PROVES that humor can be one of the most powerful tools we have for accomplishing serious things. Humor makes us APPEAR more competent and confident, strengthens relationships, unlocks creativity and boosts our resiliency during difficult times.”

I will end with a most excellent application of humor that was used by President Obama during a State of the Union Address (btw, just try to imagine the off-the-charts anxiety you’d be feeling in the moments leading up to delivering a speech of that magnitude). Here’s what Obama said when explaining the need for heightened government efficiency:

“The Interior Department is in charge of salmon while they’re in saltwater. But the Commerce Department handles them when they’re in fresh water.” Obama took a long pause and then added: “I hear it gets even more complicated when they’re smoked.”

Republicans and Democrats alike laughed out loud (and when’s the last time that happened?).

# # #