Blog Archives
Keep My Passion Alive
The Communications Consultant’s Master Plan outlines the steps that people should follow to have a successful career in public relations. Why was this an important book for you to write?
To clarify just a bit, this book is definitely intended to help people have successful PR careers – but it is also more focused on independence, and building, operating, and even selling one’s own shop. Since finding my way onto this career path, I’ve felt very fortunate. What exactly did I learn that allowed me to become self-employed, land clients, build success, and enjoy the many rewards that make up what many people call a dream career? My goal was to put everything that seemed essential on the table, in the hope that it would work as a blueprint others could follow to blaze their own trails and build their own businesses.
I want to add – together with its companion volume, “The Communications Consultant’s Foundation,” these two books give readers everything I had in mind to share, and a lot more. Many of the brightest people I’ve ever known contributed content for the greater good. Importantly, thanks to my PR industry mentor and former boss Michael Terpin, book two also contains invaluable contract language that can be used to establish win-win relationships with readers’ own clients. It took me over a decade of exploratory diligence after college graduation to gain access to this particular key to the kingdom. Thanks to Michael’s generosity, everyone who reads “Master Plan” has direct access to it, and all the other information they need to know to land and manage accounts successfully.
What is one piece of advice someone gave you that changed your life?
In a letter I still hold onto, our dear family friend, Mrs. Gay Henderson, made a very big deal over something I wrote back in 1995. In that, she urged me to “keep my passion alive in my writing.” A little of that kind of encouragement can go a long way, and I am still able to warm myself at the virtual bonfire she made for me, to make me feel like my writing was important and worthy of a larger audience.
What do you hope is one thing readers take away from your book?
With book one, I wanted to illuminate a new way of working and provide the guidance and toolset to help anyone exploit it. With “Master Plan,” as mentioned, readers have everything they need to launch their careers as independent consultants, build a business according to their ambitions and passions, and plan out the rest of their career in extraordinarily fulfilling ways. My hopes are being achieved each time someone proceeds on this path, due to what I’ve written.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
Yes. More extended writing projects are in the works, and I appreciate you asking about them. I hope your readers will visit my website, sign up for my mailing list, and keep in touch with me. There is a great deal shaping up, and I am seriously looking forward.
Author Links: Goodreads | Twitter | Facebook | Website
Going beyond the basics of a communications consulting business, this book parses and distills the knowledge of top business management luminaries, helping readers build and expand their expertise to heighten their opportunities, and maximize all aspects and phases of their businesses, from start-up through to succession. It discusses essential topics including:
• The business of running a PR agency, with emphasis on landing clients and honing expertise to remain exceptional
• Advanced PR practices including investor relations and strategic planning
• Agency expansion, addressing growth and exit strategies
Working PR professionals, entrepreneurs, students, and recent graduates will appreciate high-level insights from a seasoned business owner, as well as templates for proposals, campaign planning, and more. Read with The Communications Consultant’s Foundation or on its own, this book will lead readers on life-changing journeys and help a new generation of smart communicators take their professional pursuits to the highest levels.
The Communications Consultant’s Master Plan
Roger Darnell has a master plan for you if you are looking into public relations and communications. This book is all you need to know how to navigate the appealing and sometimes challenging waters of communication, especially if you run an agency. The Communications Consultant’s Master Plan: Leveraging Public Relations Expertise for Client and Personal Success has the basics, the crucial information, and essential tips on being a better communicator whether as an individual, running a business, or as a representative in the corporate world. You will enjoy reading this book as the author shares the knowledge he has acquired over the years most subtly.
This book’s most important topics touched on winning and managing PR accounts, the right marketing plan, the art and craft of presentation, and agency management. Anyone running, heading, or planning to start an agency should focus on part two of this book, as it has every cheat code to manage a successful agency.
The author does a superb job breaking down his points into manageable chunks for the reader. When discussing subjects like Agency business, for instance, the author gives both hypothetical situations and real-life examples to drive his point home. Reading Roger Darnell’s work is a delight because of how engaging he is. Also included is his personal story; sharing this information will give readers an insight into how challenging and fascinating the PR life can be. Roger Darnell is not only great at explaining but also giving examples. Sharing his highs and lows in the industry was a fantastic concept as the reader can connect with him to a certain degree.
The Communications Consultant’s Master Plan: Leveraging Public Relations Expertise for Client and Personal Success will help you grow your business, attract clients swiftly and become more professional in your craft. Anyone that needs public relations in their professional or personal life will find this book beneficial.
Pages: 209 | ASIN : B09LBB8RJR
Infidelity: A Personal Story
Author of 50 Shades of Truth, Josef, takes some time to discuss his personal life and the book it spawned.
50 Shades of Truth seems like a very personal story for you. How hard was it to put this story out in the world for people to read?
Incredibly personal and very hard. Writing about my infidelity was the hardest part and it ripped my heart out. I still cannot think about my wife without a regret that burns like a hot knife. She loved me deeply and the stupid thing is that I loved her too, but living as a slave to a life of sex made it impossible to be with her. I can only wish and pray that she finds true happiness now with someone. But just having the book out there seems even harder in some ways (than writing) because everything is so different now. It’s confusing. I have a completely new life and am exploring feelings that I never thought possible. But in the end it’s all very positive because now I can live my life like the person everyone always thought I was for 60 years. Waking up in the morning and not having to live that secret life is an incredible relief, and I feel a massive weight has been lifted from my shoulders.
Do you have any advice for people who might be going through the same things that you have?
It depends how they feel about it. If people are going through the same things but don’t have any “life search” conflicts or infidelity issues, I would tell them to take the brakes off, and enjoy it. The beautiful world of BDSM, trannies and sex is delicious, and looking at it just on it’s own merit I love it. If someone is going through the same things I did, and living in a prison of guilt like I was, I’d tell them to find someone they can trust, and start to talk about it. They need to be 100% ready, and wishing more than anything to let it all go otherwise I don’t see that doing any good, but if they’re feeling like I was, then they are definitely ready. Finding the right person to talk to is the hard part, and it’s not as easy as looking up a therapist in the phone book. Some therapists are worse than useless, and could do more damage than good. I know that from experience. The first therapist I spoke to needs some serious couch time herself before she should ever be let loose to talk to someone about their problems. It only takes one session to know if you’ve made a bad choice, and when someone starts seriously looking for a way “out” they need to trust, and listen to, the voice in their heart that made them pick up the phone in the first place. It takes courage.
This was originally an assignment from your therapist. Did you know that you would eventually publish the story or was it something that you decided later?
It was something I decided later, although the idea surfaced before I finished writing. If I had thought about it sooner, and looked at it from a commercial perspective I may have written some of it differently. I mean differently mainly in terms of the language that is used in the book. Less profanity might have given the book a wider appeal but that would have changed the experience of writing it. I even thought about going back and rewriting it for publication after I finished but I couldn’t do it. That just felt dishonest, and doing that would have made writing it pointless. I needed to stay true to myself, which is an ironic thing to say, considering the lifetime of lies and deception I have lived.
What advice would you give to your younger self?
Don’t get married until you sort it out! But I don’t know if that is “possible” advice. It’s just that I would have loved to find a way around the pain I caused to some people close to me. Seriously, I would tell myself to be gentle about whatever is happening, and not listen to fear. Being guided by fear and standing in judgment of ourselves is the most ridiculous situation imaginable, considering how very little we know about life’s purpose. But laughably, our lives are driven by fear, which serves no purpose but to undermine and destroy life’s beautiful possibility. Not listening to fear is easier said than done, but I’d tell my younger self to have a crack!
Who do you think would be the perfect audience for your book?
Anyone who has a secret that makes them afraid. If we can dissolve the fear that breeds loneliness and find a sense of ‘aloneness’ instead, we empower ourselves to begin to properly live our lives and find true freedom, so anyone with the courage to look at fear would be a good audience. The problem of fear comes up a lot in the book. The sad thing is that most people will never realize that their lives are ruled by fear, and the prison this creates, because they are too scared to look at it. That is an incredibly cruel irony of life. A very wise man once said that mankind has to overcome four enemies to find enlightenment. We’re told that first enemy is fear. Unfortunately most of us are taken out by fear before we finish Elementary School.
Follow Josef on Facebook and his website www.fiftyshadesoftruth.net
LITERARY TITAN 