A direct, no fluff message that empowers you to take action on your own success. Marsha will provide ideas that can be immediately applied to help you reach your goals. The discussion will also cover survival tactics to manage and lead people that suck the life out of business. Learn how to neutralize the Backstabber, Needy Weenie, Steamroller, Know-it-all, Whine and Cheeser, and more! All attendees will receive a complimentary e-book and listening skills CD.

When: 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., April 18

Where: Tulsa Country Club, 701 N. Union Ave., Tulsa, OK 74127

Fees:

• IABC members: $25
• Non-members/guests: $35
• Students: $15

About Marsha:
Marsha Petrie Sue is the Muhammad Ali of personal development, leadership, communications and managing change. She can dance and look pretty and she uses the entire ring, but she knows how and when to land a knockout punch. Think of her presentations as charm school with live ammunition. She challenges every morsel of your beliefs while entertaining and enlightening. She dares people to take personal responsibility for their choices, success and life. Marsha is an original and one-of-a-kind professional speaker and author. Whether Marsha is dealing with employee relationships, increasing productivity or pumping up sales, her guiding principles bring energy and fun to any meeting or event.

Her clients include small and large corporations, associations, healthcare institutions and multilevel marketing companies. As a former corporate executive of Fortune 100 companies, Marsha understands what it takes to improve productivity and profits.

She is a best-selling author of Toxic People: Decontaminate Difficult People at Work Without Using Weapons or Duct Tape and also The Reactor Factor: How to Handle Difficult Work Situations Without Going Nuclear. She is also the author of several other resources including the award-winning book The CEO of YOU: Leading YOURSELF to Success.

Register Now

by Megan Patterson, IABC/Tulsa President

It must be awards season. From the Oscars, to the CMAs, to the Bronze Quill Awards – news is buzzing of trophies, fancy dresses and controversy. Admittedly the Oscars have somewhat stole the show, but if you keep reading, I think you’ll see that a couple of other awards programs are creating some local buzz of their own (minus the controversy).

Three of your IABC/Tulsa board members recently attended the 2017 IABC Chapter Management Awards (CMAs), where IABC/Tulsa received awards for its professional development, communications and financial management. Congratulations to all of our board members! Our board is a hardworking group of dedicated volunteers, and they truly deserve this recognition.

I’d also like to give a shout out to the 2017 International Chapter of the Year: “La La Land.”

Sorry, I couldn’t resist. Actual congratulations go to our friends at IABC/Calgary for taking home this honor.

Another fabulous awards program, IABC/Tulsa’s annual Bronze Quill Awards will be held March 30. I hope you’ll join us for a fun night of celebrating local communications professionals and their achievements. We’ll also announce this year’s Communicator of the Year and Professional of the Year. Whether you’ve entered an award or not, this is an event you won’t want to miss. RSVP by Friday, March 24. 

For any non-members looking to learn more about IABC, this is a great event to attend. And remember, March is Member Month, which means great savings for new and renewing members if you join this month (see below for additional details). Consider joining, and help make IABC/Tulsa an even stronger organization.

For any members looking to get more involved with IABC, we’re accepting nominations for the next IABC/Tulsa board term, which begins August 2017. See more information below about board opportunities, and please reach out to me if you’re interested.

by Megan Patterson, IABC/Tulsa President

When a crisis occurs, who do you call? For me, even now, my go-to is still my mother. Now granted, that’s in my personal life. If I called mom with a work-related crisis situation, we’d have an issue. But whether personal or work-related, we know all too well that “stuff” happens.

The silver lining is that through crisis situations, leaders often emerge – sometimes likely candidates, sometimes unexpected. These people help guide the situation, lend stability and steer an organization in the right direction.

In last month’s professional development meeting, Joe Williams talked a lot about leadership – what it means to him and what it takes to enact change. Many of the stories he shared resonated with me, but two leadership-related quotes in particular have stuck (full disclosure here that I’m paraphrasing these).

On leadership, Joe’s definition gets to the point. He says, “A leader is someone who can move people’s feet.” How true is that? You don’t have to be the CEO of an organization or even a manager of people to be a change-maker. All a leader really needs is the ability to influence.

In a different story, Joe described another man’s thoughts on sailing. The man said the reason he sails is because he “loves being surrounded by water and having complete control of a boat, moving it forward, in an environment that he has no control over.” I keep going back to this and can’t help thinking how closely this resembles our lives as communicators. I have to admit though; I don’t always feel like I have complete control of the ship. The point is, no matter the external factors, we can still control the message, control our delivery and lead others to do the same.

Join us next week, as we learn more about crisis communication planning from Deb Hileman, president and CEO of the Institute for Crisis Management. We’ll learn how to plan and prepare for potential crisis situations and how to lead an organization during and after a crisis. And if all else fails, just call my mom.

Join us for an informal session with our chapter’s own Joe Williams, where he will share what he has found to be true in his 40-plus year career.

Joe will share snippets, stories and truisms from his varied career and life experiences in a sit-down, intimate and up-close setting with chapter members and guests. Over a cup of coffee.

This isn’t a boring, historical recount of events in his life, but rather sage advice and thoughtful perspectives for anyone seeking greater clarity and application to their own professional and personal growth.

RSVP now to fill your cup on Jan. 25.

• When: Wednesday, Jan. 25 from 7:30 to 9:30 a.m.
• Where: Foolish Things, 1001 S. Main St., Tulsa, OK 74119
• Fee:  Free to attend

About Joe
Joe Williams is a communications consultant to leading firms around the world. He began Joe Williams Communications in 1985 in Bartlesville, providing research, training and consulting services to world-wide clients ranging from General Dynamics to SaskPower (Canada), from Butterfield Bank (Bermuda) to Wake Forest University, from McGraw Hill to Cirque du Soleil.

He holds more than 125 national communication awards, including 12 Gold Quills from the International Association of Business Communicators, scores of Bronze Quills, several ADDY’s, and numerous awards for his writing and design work from organizations such as the Art Director’s Club of Tulsa, the New York Art Directors Club, Chicago Communication Collaborative, PRSA and others. In 2009, IABC named him a Fellow, the highest honor that organization bestows.

He is the recipient of the Allied Arts and Humanities Council award for civic and humanitarian service and was awarded the Mayor’s Award as the outstanding citizen of Bartlesville, Oklahoma. He has been an adjunct lecturer at OSU Tulsa and has served on the Director’s Advisory Board of the School of Media & Strategic Communications at Oklahoma State University and the Dean’s Board of Advice for the Sydney Conservatorium of Music in Sydney, NSW, Australia.

Joe holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism and advertising management and a master’s in mass communications from Oklahoma State, where he was a Paul Miller Scholar and named the outstanding graduate student in the School of Journalism and Broadcasting.

Join us Feb. 15 as veteran crisis communication expert Deb Hileman, CMP, shares the latest trends in crisis communication planning and preparedness. In this fast-paced presentation, Deb will talk about how to identify issues and address them before they go public and best practices to mitigate and manage crises when they do go public. Learn about the most common crises faced by companies today and how to develop strategies to protect the brand when (not if) they occur. She also will share insights from the most recent crisis management research conducted by her firm, the Institute for Crisis Management, where she serves as president and CEO.

• When: Wednesday, Feb. 15, 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
• Where: Tulsa Country Club, 701 N. Union Ave., Tulsa, OK 74127
• Fee:
  • IABC Member fee $25
  • IABC Non-Member/Guest fee $35
  • Student fee $15

About Deb
A business leader and certified communication management professional (CMP) with 30 years’ experience in public and private companies and non-profit organizations, Deb has led high-performing communications teams in health care, manufacturing, insurance and financial services and higher education, among others. She is a FEMA-trained Incident Commander with experience as a national EMS public information officer during Hurricanes Katrina and Rita (2005), Dean (2007), Ike and Gustav (2008).

Known as a voice of calm in the midst of chaos, Deb has earned a reputation as a trusted strategist and advisor to C-suite executives, operations and other organizational stakeholders. She has successfully managed strategic communications for business issues including natural disasters, labor strikes, criminal prosecutions and federal civil investigations, social media attacks, workplace violence, executive malfeasance, investor litigation, wrongful death and patient abuse investigations, mergers, acquisitions and corporate bankruptcies, among others.

Deb is a longtime member of IABC, where she served as a chapter president and regional director-at-large. She is Vice Chair of the Global Communication Certification Council and a member of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA).

To learn more about Deb and the Institute for Crisis Management, visit http://crisisconsultant.com.

by Megan Patterson, IABC/Tulsa President

Happy New Year friends! I hope your 2017 is off to a great start and is full of all the excitement and promise that new beginnings bring. Keeping with the New Year’s spirit – I’m kicking the clutter from this letter and keeping it short and sweet. Please take a few minutes to read the remainder of our newsletter; it is jam-packed with information about upcoming IABC/Tulsa events, international conferences and ways to make the most of your IABC membership in 2017.

To kick off our programing this year, we’re offering a fantastic free event on Jan. 25 with IABC/Tulsa’s very own Joe Williams, founder of Joe Williams Communications, recipient of more than 125 national communications awards and an IABC Fellow (the highest honor given by IABC). Grab “A Cup of Joe with Joe” and gain valuable advice and perspectives learned from his diverse 40-plus year communications career.

Don’t forget to turn in your Bronze Quill Award entries by Jan. 16 to get recognized for your hard work in 2016, and join us in February to learn more about crisis communication planning and management.

We have great events lined up this year and hope you will join us as we all work to improve our communications skills and expand our professional networks in 2017.