Making Lemonade

In the minds of many pandemic-weary folks, who have been couped up in their homes for what seems like months-going-on-decades, DIY (do it yourself) projects found on sites like YouTube have become an obsession.  Teaching yourself to repurpose has become a “thing.”

Disclaimer: you will NOT find a Tarheel Communications DIY listing on YouTube. 

BUT, we, like other businesses, have learned to “repurpose” ourselves and make a sort of lemonade when there have been no lemons readily available.

Instead of doing two and/or three-day events that sell tickets, draw large crowds and give folks in our area a quality product, our detail-driven group has written speeches. And dealt with local, state and national health department rules when necessary.  And planned noteworthy honors.

We have designed logos, shot video and done the most socially distanced interviews imaginable to add a beautifully human angle to a new school made of brick and mortar. 

We have celebrated the grandest of re-openings of a healthy-menu restaurant which was forced to close temporarily because of COVID-19.  The details of that half-day event revolved around a parking lot full of folks from a local gym who did several distanced, masked “classes” in front of a set of locked doors.  The music blasted.  Obviously, it was great to be outside, even in a parking lot.

We have done a LOT of writing.  When folks can’t gather safely, communication is still a viable way of getting the word out.  We have planned feverishly for large events—only to be canceled two and three times.  We have rolled with every punch sent our way.  We have tried to cushion every bump in the road.

Just like the segment of the population that has resorted to doing it themselves, we have too.  We’ve had to.  Most folks in our business have also.  So far, knock on that piece of repurposed wood, the ideas, new directions and creativity have made us resilient. 

And more determined that ever to make lemonade from whatever lemons you bring our way.

 -NPS

Beating The Odds

While reviewing my 2021 weekly calendar recently, I realized that I had overlooked the 10-year anniversary for Tarheel Communications Solutions.  It’s hard to believe it’s been over a decade since taking the entrepreneurial plunge.  With the exception of last year, the indescribable 2020, which seemed like its own 10th of a century, the time has flown by.

I flashed back to the time we were considering the freedom and independence of having our own business, and remembered Googling the reasons business fail, and found that the Bureau of Labor statistics project 20% of new businesses fail in the first two years, 45% failing in the first five years and 65% failing in the first ten. I’m certain these stats were exacerbated in 2020 by Covid-19 that shuttered thousands of businesses over the past year.  Yet, Tarheel Communications Solutions is still in business, which deserves more than self-centered pat on the back or a cupcake from my favorite bakery down the street.

Unfortunately, in the past 10 years, we didn’t create the next great social media platform, we didn’t find cause to pitch the latest and greatest kitchen gadget on Shark Tank, and we didn’t field any serious inquiries from corporate America to take over our operations, but we are still alive and kicking as a viable small business.  Our success story, besides still speaking to each other, includes wins like having the same anchor clients we started with in 2011, expanding our operations into a separate event company, which owns and operates an airshow and a newly announced Barbecue Festival, and earning a positive reputation built on creativity and a dedicated work ethic.  Like a lot of agencies our general client list has ebbed and flowed over the past several years, and we have never worked harder in our lives, but we are still Tarheel Communications Solutions.  If not always profitable for financial return, then our profits came from the invaluable experience of creating our own destiny.

Tomorrow is the first day of our next ten years.  The statistics on success will no longer be measured by a percentage of failure possibility, but it will be measured by the goals we set and how they are accomplished for the future.  How we get there will be via faith, fate and believing it can be done.  It has been a wonderful journey so far, and we welcome you to come along for the ride.

Happy Anniversary!

-PRS

The Pictures Tell The Story

In March, 1988, I was lucky enough to take these two pictures which hang in our house on opposite walls.  The “busy” one shows a scene from the Old Fisherman’s Wharf (now probably re-branded).  The other one shows the recognizable Lone Cypress on 17 Mile Drive near the famous Pebble Beach Golf Links.

According to Google information, these locations are only seven miles apart in the Monterey, California area, but the similarities could not be more different.

The Gull Picture (my title, anyway) shows SO many things: a minimum of five birds, perched and posing; boats; signs; a beautiful flag; and buildings.  All of those things suggest movement, activity, pursuit and change.  That moment bursts with ideas and suggestions of what Tarheel Communications can provide for companies that want their end-result to be noticed and perceived as on-the-move and forging ahead.

The Lone Cypress, on the other hand, is calming and serene, a picture that has been taken by many, but from different angles and perspectives.  It is just a tree, but a famous one, one that is recognizable and stable.  It has stood for possibly 250 years, in the dense fog, ocean storms and bright sunshine.  It shows stability.  It would certainly be in a tree Hall of Fame because it is KNOWN.  A company or group with this stability who needs small ideas and support would turn to us for anything to support their on-going dedication to established and long-lasting quality.

Busy.  Calm.  The pictures tell the story.

-NPS

A Love Affair With Words

My longtime love affair with words began when my great-grandmother, the part-time librarian in my small town, was my caregiver after school.  The ornate ceilings were high, the lighting was dim and the space was very limited, but it was a library nonetheless and the children’s books were on a lower shelf where I could sit on the floor, hidden, and read to my heart’s content.  Lost on me now is the title of my favorite book, something about oversized animals in a bright green jungle, but I recall the book size and the pages…and the words.  At the time, they belonged only to me.

I advanced to Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, and anything I could find in the county bookmobile that came within walking distance to my house every summer. I was in heaven because I was also allowed to buy some of those yellow, hard-plastic bound Nancy Drew books; I figure after the number of times I re-read them, based on my cost, that I invested well!! There was a least one or two newspapers around that I found time to read.

Fast forward from the seventh grade days of our mimeographed (purple) in-class “newspaper” to the 8th grade where my love of words sorta paid off.

We had all been warned about Mrs. Thaine, and surely everybody reading this had one of “those” teachers. Her fingers were arthritic like crinkle-cut fries, but they never kept her from holding the chalk and pounding on that green board.  I can’t describe her eyes; like mine, her glasses were so thick, her eyes were well-concealed. Her hair was in a messy bun each day.  None of that mattered.  That woman knew English and grammar like a college professor.  And it was her fiendish pleasure to transport that knowledge to us innocent 8th graders.

She took her daily newspaper, found short complicated sentences or long demanding sentences, put them on the board, sat at her desk with an evil-type smile and waited for us to pick apart mainly nouns, verbs, adjectives and pronouns, make lines and boxes to separate them and turn in our papers.  Sometimes she timed us.  Sometimes, based on our knowledge, she moved desks around to show who was competent and not competent at the diagramming drill.  She was also known for giving us vocabulary words to define and spell that would “choke a horse.” None of us knew at that time just how much of a debt of gratitude we owed her.  By golly, we learned…and we LEARNED.

I’m still very critical that the art of diagramming sentences, as taught by Mrs. Thaine, is lost in education today.  And , bless her funny heart, I am now the office proof reader. I’m not saying I catch everything or know everything, but I try.  That love for words and reading, coupled with having the perfect 8th grade English teacher, is now my “thing.” My little great-grandmother Sallie would be so proud.

-NPS

The 2020 Redemption

Written by Peter Stilwell

A sign hangs over my office door on which is written a quote from a favorite movie that simply says: “Get Busy Livin’, or Get Busy Dyin’.  Never have these words been truer than they are today as we continue to muddle our way through a global pandemic that seems to be on a perpetual quick-moving treadmill with no end in sight.  Records of all types have been shattered almost every day with the eb and flow of COVID-19 cases, once-thriving businesses are shuttering, and our nation is caught up in a web of political “BS” in advance of the end of this never-ending year.

Tarheel Communications, like the majority of small business around the world, was forced to hit the snooze button in the spring months, as we watched our list of valued clients dwindle—equal to the day our business started over 11 years ago.  Projects were put on indefinite hold, events were canceled and agency relationships like ours were the first to be sacrificed as businesses faced the “non-essential” approach for their operations.  Our company’s largest-owned event, scheduled way back in April 2020 was on track to be the bast ever, but we were unfortunately impelled to table the event in anticipation of the COVID tsunami that was beginning to overtake the world. I think we have all aged five years since the spring of 2020.

Like thousands of other businesses, we took advice and direction from the scientists and government leaders to shelter in place and hunker down until the storm passed.  As a truly small business, it was painful to advise my two employees, who happen to be my sons, to seek unemployment assistance, and my time at the auxiliary office in our kitchen was spent trying to shore up any money or support available to stay in business.  I learned how fragile our business model was, that having all of our “eggs” in a singular basket was not a wise strategy. 

When I finally was allowed to move back in our “real” office, that sign still hangs there, albeit dusty.  Get Busy Livin’, or Get Busy Dyin’.  The new buzz term ‘’reinvent” quickly became the mantra for most small business that were trying to hang on.  In fact, over 95% of all small businesses that are still in operation today have be reinvented due to the pandemic.  Fine dining became fast food, retail flipped from store front to laptop, and Zoom became the new boardroom.  The “new normal” took hold of everything we used to do and has caused everyone in business to basically “fish or cut bait.”  The incredible loss of lives is beyond tragic.  The unfortunate loss of business is something we will never forget, nor should we. But there will be a future after this unprecedented year.

It may take tunneling out from the “cell” we have been living in, but patience and perseverance will eventually overcome the painful lessons of 2020 if anything will.  The drive for success and creativity will return. Events, when they are safe, will be both needed distractions and reward for hard work.  People and businesses will adjust, and to borrow from another classic film line, “life will find a way.”  Andy Dufresne (The Shawshank Redemption) had it right: we need to live with plans and should not live away our life without doing anything.  We need to continue working for our future.

Get Busy Living, or Get Busy Dying!