October 16th is National Boss’s Day, a chance to celebrate the people who direct, supervise, manage, guide, and mentor us at our places of business. “Boss” is also a slang term to describe something cool or excellent, so a great boss can be referred to as a boss boss.
Celebrated on October 16, or the closest weekday if that date falls on a weekend, National Boss Day is a day when appreciation is shown to bosses. The day was thought up by Patricia Bays Haroski, who registered the day with the United States Chamber of Commerce in 1958. Haroski worked at the State Farm Insurance Company in Deerfield, Illinois, and wanted to create the day to show appreciation for her boss and other bosses. She also thought the day could be useful in improving the relationship between bosses and employees.
The founder and CEO of NRPR Group, Nicole Rodrigues is a terrific boss who cares about her agency, clients, employees and industry and how to keep everyone at the top of their game. Nicole on her recent Beverly Hills Boss YouTube program told the audience that those with whom you do business care about who you are and where your ideas come from. Nicole’s inspiration has come from her life journey and some quotable quotes.
One of the first mobile entertainment publicists – ever, her first professional PR job was at an enterprise software company, Portal Software in 2000, until she decided to leave tech, briefly, to pursue a PR role with the Oakland Raiders—which is a step she credits as molding her into the consumer tech publicist she is today. As the future saw entertainment merging with technology, in 2006 she became the PR manager at MOBITV, the Emmy-award winning global technology company responsible for the first live mobile video experience on mobile phones. Post-MOBITV, she worked as a Senior PR Manager at Voce Communications, with accounts such as Dolby, Yahoo!, Sony Playstation, and others. Nicole served as VP of digital entertainment at Bender/Helper Impact, until founding NRPR Group in 2014. Nicole has leveraged every position held, prior to starting her own agency, as an opportunity to build expertise needed to succeed in the role of CEO and head honcho.
Her favorite quotes include:
There’s always tomorrow and always an opportunity to do better
When Nicole was a cheerleader, there were days that the Oakland Raiders would be losing. Keeping a positive perspective and attitude helped her to remain smiling on the field. Being a cheerleader taught her to not look at losing as losing, but rather look at it as an opportunity to learn and develop. At heart, Nicole is still a cheerleader and will always encourage anyone with whom she works to do his or her best and to never stop learning.
You can have anything you want if you are willing to work for it
This quote came from Nicole’s mother. Nicole was the first of the nine children in her family to graduate college and worked hard in high school to earn scholarships. She held three jobs during college to pay for her own education. This dedication to success in reaching goals continues today as does the belief that one needs to create one’s own path in life regardless of the circumstances into which one is thrown. Nicole believes that the universe rewards hard work, and the more hard work you put in, the better the results will be. This includes work both in and outside the office. There’s only so much you’re going to learn between 9 AM and 5 PM. The work that you do outside of that time will help you stand out and grow quicker in your career. Your success is in your own hands.
“Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some hire public relations officers.” – Daniel J. Boorstin
It is the role of a PR person to work closely with CEOs, executives, and internal PR/marketing teams to uncover specific passion, vision, and differentiators, and share those stories with appropriate key audiences. The company executives are generally too busy and too close to the day-to-day to see the stories that will resonate with media, customers, partners and other influencers. Nicole works to find client and product strengths and stories and can see the most effective, productive strategy for sharing them and using them as tools for growth. It is also important for the PR pros to educate clients on what PR can and cannot accomplish for them.
Nicole views each day as another opportunity to help others and do things the right way. She is a strong believer in the need to evolve to stay ahead of changing times and circumstances or risk being left in the dust. Whether it is staff, clients, or the kids she mentors, Nicole works to find each one’s strengths and stories and can see the most effective, productive strategy for sharing them and using them as tools for growth. She is a “boss” boss. Happy Boss’s Day. Feel free to share comments below about your favorite boss.