Q. Tell us about CarryOn Communications - how it got started, how long you've been in business, who your clients are and the size of your agency.

CarryOn has been in the communication and branding business for about 10 years; our clients are primarily established consumer brands, but we’ve done a lot of work introducing new products and brands, as well. We tend to be non-traditional and entrepreneurial in our approach to the work we do—perhaps because I’m a bit of a non-traditional practitioner myself. In many respects, I’ve always been an entrepreneur and that has likely influenced the work that we’ve done on the corporate side.

I started in healthcare PR, which is conservative compared to the work CarryOn does for most of our consumer brands today. But even in my earlier healthcare days, I tried to be innovative. After about ten years I decided I would try applying what I had learned in the first chapter of my career to something new and what I thought would be less conservative and more creative – consumer products; in particular alcohol and spirits. I learned that what appears to be non-traditional and more creative can still be very much corporate and somewhat conservative. From consumer products I moved into the agency world where I was sure I was going to fly free – but of course I found that even agencies can be conservative, it’s simply the nature of the business and the types of clients we serve.

At CarryOn we try very hard to show our clients a unique approach to executing PR and brand strategies for their business. Over the years our clients have included Google, Yahoo, New Balance, Nature Made Vitamins, Mattel, Coors Brewing, Hansen Soda, Clorox, Symantec, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, IHOP, Jacuzzi, and a hundred others. In every case we encourage the team to focus on possibility -- what’s unique and what can happen for the client, as opposed to what’s traditional and why perhaps something can’t happen.

CarryOn is made up of a few different arms that serve the client, including the PR agency, a branding company, an event and promotions company, and a social media and interactive arm. Altogether, there are about 100 employees.

Q. And the name, CarryOn? I immediately thought of the old British film series.

Definitely people think of CarryOn many different ways, including the slapstick film series or the baggage you take with you on the plane. Even in the early days some of the team members would say “If you hire this agency, you can CarryOn with your other responsibilities while we do your PR and branding work.” Fact is, CarryOn represents a unique agency that tends to think out of the box and be a little wild and crazy. When I was forced to come up with a name quickly after I got a call from a friend of mine who needed some work done, I wanted a name that represented this unique attitude. And I remembered When I was growing up, if I was doing something a bit off the wall that my Mom didn’t like, she would say, “if you continue to carry on like that, I’m going to beat the #$@! out of you. Hence the birth of CarryOn. Today the name has come to mean behaving a bit non-traditional, not how I’m supposed to. That’s what I wanted to bring to our agency and to our clients.

Q. Your latest new client is Coors Brewing – how did you go about getting their business?

It was a competitive search as is the case with most large consumer brands. We made their short list – and our approach was the same as with any potential client. We gave them an aggressive plan that represented their aggressive approach to business. So much of success depends on how our client and we work together. It was a good match.

Q. Do your communication strategies differ greatly for each client depending on their core business?

The fundamentals of PR and communication are what they are, but they do need to be tailored to each client. A client with global outreach, for example, is handled differently from one without. Communication protocol is different for a public client than that for a privately owned client. There is consistency in all programming, however – integrity, honesty and focus on outcome.

Q. Here’s a general question. Some agencies have public relations as part of their name, while others use the word communications, such as you have. Is it all the same business?

This leads to the broader question, what is communication - a more global term for what it all is. It’s my opinion that PR plays a unique and significant role under the marketing umbrella. Even though my foundation is PR and marketing, I did not want to paint myself into a corner, and communication tends to be a much broader term that represents all of the elements of marketing. I tend to believe that everything we do as communicators is meant to influence our audience – to get someone to think a certain way—which for the most part is all a part of marketing.

Q. There’s a lot of change taking place in not just the U.S. economy, but the world economy. What do you see on the PR front over the next few years?

Yes, absolutely. We represent clients that go well beyond U.S. boundaries and there needs to be a global approach to many things we do. We h have become a global marketplace almost over night. Even within just the last ten years, we have seen how global communication has been affected by digital technology. Additionally, and perhaps more importantly, is that as we all work toward this global communication integration, that we develop, police and enforce a standard protocol or platform from which we all operate. We are far from being on the same page as communicators globally, and there are different methods, standards and styles that often make it very difficult to do our jobs.

Q. CarryOn has received numerous awards for various and sundry, but the one I want to ask about is receiving an award twice for being the best agency to work for in the United States. What makes CarryOn Communication such a great place to work?

I am grateful for all of the awards certainly. I can honestly say, though, that out of all the many we have received, that best agency to work for is the one I am most proud of. I’ve learned, if nothing else, how difficult it is to keep teams strong and workers happy; and how important it is to encourage people to do good work, no matter what the objectives. From the beginning, I’ve tried to take a thoughtful approach to building the agency. An approach that seems to work well, is to treat everyone equally. An example is a six month employee will receive the same amount of vacation time – three to four weeks – as a Sr. V.P. who’s been with CarryOn for the same amount of time. Higher up in the organization doesn’t mean more important. Everyone needs to be treated equally and to be treated respectfully. It’s created an environment where people feel comfortable working with each other and respect each other. And this has to come from the top. If leadership isn’t making decisions based on how the team, this unique employee focus will never be fully integrated. The leader has to make it happen and encourage this type of environment. If we make our team’s happiness a big part of our motivation, business success follows.

Q. What do you like most about what you do?

What I enjoy the most is what I hate the most – the constant evolving and the constant changing, the crisis of the second, the grinding issues of the day. PR people are the people behind the scenes, the influencers. I believe that our job is to affect brands, and so I like to watch work come to fruition and to see how brands have been influenced by our work.

Q. You’re developing a foundation for children in rural communities to have some exposure to opportunities outside of their environments. Tell us a little about this, and how you came to do this.

This is still in the development stage, but it’s how I plan to spend the second half of my career. I grew up in a rural community, and felt it was limiting professionally. Today, as I travel and speak, I get to see children and young adults who are bright, but who are encouraged to do what’s always been done. They do not know what is possible. They are not exposed to other opportunities. Ultimately I want to give kids a glimpse of what’s out there – a glimpse at the possibilities.

Q. What advice do you have for fledgling PR professionals?

I was just talking with my niece not so long ago about this. Essentially, don’t take it too seriously. Don’t be so concerned about that first step out of the gate—just take the step; don’t be afraid to take a risk. It’s all about learning and then taking the next step, and then the next. Eventually, you will find the path that is right, and that fits. With every step there is an opportunity for something to go wrong—that’s the risk part. But it’s also an opportunity for innovation and to create your own unique destiny.