Blast From The Past
As the owner of a small business, sometimes it feels as if everyone wants something from you ALL. THE. TIME. It’s definitely not always easy. It’s definitely not always fun. But sometimes your team gives back to you, and when they do so, it can be in a way so big it makes your week, your month…even your year!
Celebrating our 15th anniversary last month, my team wowed me with an amazing book they created from photos since the company began. Some of the photos were so old, I questioned where in the world they even found them. Apparently we had some old CD-Roms laying around from 2004. Lucky me 🙄
As much as I LOVED the book and, more importantly, the sentiment behind it, later that month I got something that may have made my decade…which came in the form of an unexpected email from a former employee named Hannah Laverty. marlo marketing was Hannah’s first job out of college and she ultimately left us to move to LA with her boyfriend Rory (yea true love!). With her permission, I’m sharing her email in full, below. Sometimes, especially with junior staff, you wonder whether you’re making a difference in their lives; whether they’re really hearing the wisdom you (hope) you’re imparting. Well, it may take seven years or so to find out, but when you do, it provides enough juice to last a really long time and truly make the journey worth it!
Before I let you at it, HOTW = Hit of the Week, which was something we used to award in our staff meetings to encourage strong media placements. #braggingrights
So for all of you small business owners who try every damn day to do the right thing by their clients, their colleagues and their community…this one’s for you!
From: Hannah Laverty
Sent: Saturday, April 6, 2019 10:41 AM
To: Marlo Fogelman
Subject: Happy 15
Hi Marlo!
Wishing you an incredible 15 years and wanted to send some blasts from the past.
It really does feel like yesterday that I was reading between 2 – 5 newspapers (or general print) a day, looking for placements. Inevitably, I would miss a mention of a Grafton or ESK restaurant buried deep in a finance article I was sure I could skim. I could not. I would have to scan the whole article and import to photoshop, edit it, and send to Amelia with a write up, for one word. I got good at photoshop.
My first HOTW was a calendar listing for FPZ I think in the Jamaica Plain paper. I was SO proud, and Brianne and Alyssa were so nice about it. That faded fast and I quickly learned to bring more to the table. But it took a while haha. When I finally did, I got a NYT profile on John Linehan, but it didn’t get HOTW. I could. Not. Believe. It. And then I got another profile on him in Entrepreneur (came out after I moved to LA), I think I asked Alyssa or Brianne the outcome, and still no HOTW. I mean honestly. The CEO of the zoo!!!!! I didn’t understand.
Now I do – whoever got HOTW that week, it wasn’t HOTW. They’d been working on the story for months and months with the writer, and client, and you. I got kind of lucky for my two pieces, and then unlucky that they came out at the same time as I think Amelia’s big Esquire piece or something insanely impressive. Looking back, HOTW was much more than I understood!
I will never forget during one of those meetings you saying that at some point, we’d all move on to new jobs, and we’d look back at mm/c and think “wow we had it good.” While I’ve been fortunate, you are so right. I mean for the obvious starter, the amazing trips to NWF. The ICOB opening. My first day of official work, my birthday, was also the holiday party, at Morton’s. Or that time you gave me a raise when I really needed it even though I’d only been there a few months.
While at times crazy, you brought together smart, talented people whom I still seek out and carry professional and personal friendships with. I could not have moved to LA without you, Brianne, Alyssa, and everything you guys taught me so early on.
So THANK YOU and congrats! Also here is my formal submission to HOTW. This took a few months and lots of relationship building, I promise! https://www.esquire.com/style/mens-fashion/a26990688/dstld-leather-bomber-jacket-endorsement/
xoxoxo
Hannah
PS Rory and I are still together 😊
—
Hannah Laverty
