• I met and exceeded my goal to maintain a schedule allowing me to start articles three days ahead. During the past six months, I worked on articles a week in advance.

• I met my goal to evaluate assignments the day they were posted to Asana. Each time, I paused work and sent questions the same day if needed.

• I met my goal of exploring personal branding by creating a pitch for Otter. Dave Purdy and I collaborated to pitch a guest piece about how writers overcome writer’s block.

Upcoming Goals:

• I will use my LinkedIn account to promote any articles I have gained from my pitch on overcoming writer's block.

• I will strengthen the positive feedback loop and engaged culture at Otter PR by writing 5 specific and timely messages each month when I spend my Otter bucks to express gratitude.

• I will explore professional development through Udeme Academy’s Content Marketing Certification Course

• Eric Brown, Imperio Consulting

• Clark Lowe, O'Connor Company

• Samantha Karagianis, Perfect Hands Sports

• Joe Schmitz, Peak Retirment Planning

• Alex Mario, Carter Mario Law Firm

• Herman DeBoard, HUVR

• Dr. Tiara Moore, Black In Marine Science (BIMS)

• Paul Bramson, Paul Bramson Company

• Dr. Kyri Mosley, Kyri’s Kookies

• Artie Dannunzio, CEO of Dannunzio & Company Jewelry

• Michael Merrill and Joe Judge, authors of Leadership is Overcoming the Natural: 52 Maxims to Move Beyond Instinct 

• Aristofane Banaye, founder of   Ricordami

• Neeta Murthy, founder and CEO of Rekindle 

• Dr. Kenneth Kim, medical director of the plastic and reconstructive surgery practice at Dream Medical Group

• Scott Dow, president of Heroic Game Day

• Asha Tarry, founder of Care for Caregivers

• Salil Sethi, founder of ProsperCircle.com

• Brett Markowitz, founder and CEO of Age Rejuvenation Medical Clinic   

• Nikolaos Spiridellis and JoAnn Fitzpatrick at RealValidation  

• Jessica Krueger, Senior Marketing Manager at Ziwi Pets

• Eshed Doni founder and CEO of GiftCrowd

• Percy Pitzer , founder and CEO of The Pitzer Family Education Foundation (PFEF)   

• Anthony Purcell, co-founder of Walking With Anthony 

• Ashlee Dickson of Console Vault

• Alexander Bowser, CEO of Gonna Be Ok

• Woojae Jung, founder and managing partner of Embarc Advisors

• Justin Draplin, founder & CEO of Eclipse Cottages

• Josh Firestone of Bearbottom Clothing

• Dev Rangarajan, founder of Agrarian Design

• Mathew Rotenberg, founder of Dashboard Legal

• Alex Viola, Marketing and Communications Coordinator at emeraldecovations.com

• September 49

• August 30

• July 47

• June 43

• May 48

• April 41

• March 37

• February 57

• January 41

• December 33

• November 35

• October – 38

Grand total:

• 457 articles in 2023.

• Alex and Jenny – Gonna Be OK: "The article looks amazing!! Thank you so much for this wonderful work!! Alex and I reviewed it, and we are very happy with it. Everything looks great!"

• Asha Tarry — Care for Caregivers: “Thank you for capturing my voice so well in your writing!”

• Scott Dowe – Heroic Game Day “Wow! That was a masterful piece of writing!”

• Tom Reed – America’s School: “ABSOLUTELY AWESOME!! Yes, I am shouting in all caps.”

• Paul Charette — Charette Cosmetics: "So good - I love how y'all write!”

• Charde Hollins — Relevant Connections: "Aaaahhhhh! Omgeeee! I F***ING LOVE IT!!!!! IT reads AMAZINGLY!!!!!”

• Ray Sheehan — Old City Media: “Looks great! Whoever cleaned up my quotes did a fantastic job. Please pass that along to the appropriate people. Nice work! Let it rip!”

• Sarah Otto — Linked: “Fantastic! All in all, well written!”

Accountability in Education Is a Matter of National Security

I’m proud of This article in particular because:

• The client wrote to say it captures his voice and vision

• Sean complimented the piece after editing it

• It’s lengthy word count and controversial topic presented challenges that I was able to rise above

Example of a piece that can be improved:

Embracing Upcoming Summer Trends With BearBottom

I feel this article could be improved because:

• The highly promotional topic came off a bit fluffy

• The client was too busy to share his perspective on summer trends and his new summer lines

• During editing, I noticed that Sean revised client quotes to read less repetitively

During my three years at Otter I have seen rapid growth. Otter listens to employee feedback to drive progress, implement positive change, and  streamline procedures. Its new  policies benefit both employees and clients.

Idea for Improvement

I see the connection between clients and initial pitches as an opportunity for improvement. I wonder if clients would feel more empowered and connected if they knew the pitch and titles of upcoming articles before the pitches went out.

To standardize this procedure, Otter could implement an approval process for pitches similar to the approval process for final drafts.

Benefits:

• Clients would feel more connected to the PR process.

• Writers would have ample information to begin research on every article.

• Clients would not be surprised by articles that do not align with their preferences.