A clear vision helps drive your career decisions and events

By Robert Wheatley

Here’s the next installment falling from an insightful and engaging conversation with Ron Culp and what can be gleaned from his experiences and path which represent guidance for anyone with some ambition to excel in the PR world.

As we segue to talk about his career moves and key moments along the continuum that opened doors and built opportunities, the “get involved” theme is pervasive. And it is a reference point for the entire conversation, so we will revisit it here.

Ron’s first piece of advice: be willing to make a geographic move. To be sure there’s some natural pull to stay close to home and family. But openness to a move also opens possibilities and doors. In Ron’s case his college experiences had brought to the front an intense interest in the political game. And his willingness to make a move from home territory in Indianapolis to Albany, New York for a post with the New York legislative assembly — It created the launch pad for the political experience he wanted and inevitably would need.

“I would not have been on Eli Lily’s radar screen if I hadn’t done it. So back to Indianapolis for a time. Next up was a big jump in title and responsibilities again by being open to a move to Connecticut with Pitney Bowes as PR chief and a chance to rub shoulders with New York-based media,” he said.

There’s an underlying condition here that should be flagged: a willingness to step outside your comfort zone and take some risks. No great thing can ever be accomplished without doing so.

The Pitney Bowes stint turned out to be mission critical for the next move – to Sara Lee. Critical because the search criteria Sara Lee was working off called for finding someone from the East Coast with New York media experience. “I was the perfect fit for them – a mid-westerner with New York credentials.”

Choices, choices, choices – time and how you spend it…

Lots of people – probably most people – go into careers with no network. In Ron’s case his “get involved” philosophy started early and became foundational for a life well spent. It is paying dividends 20, 30 years later. What’s the action step? Say yes. Raise your hand. Get involved. Seek out opportunities for extra-curricular activity.

“I’m on the Lincoln Park Zoo Board sitting together with the captains of industry here. These relationships matter now and will again in the future,” he reports. It is this eye always on the future ball that helps bring shape to decisions and steps and moves. What’s going on underneath all this is a larger goal – we’ll get to the reveal of what that is shortly.

From Sara Lee to Sears and then a complete departure from this client-side focus to agency life at Sard Verbinnen. Why you ask? “Because you need the experience of a consultant in order to become one,” Ron says. You see Ron wants to walk ultimately in the footsteps of another person he has known, respected and held in high regard: Jack Raymond – a business consultant who during the course of his storied career helped organizations understand the barriers to their success and how to make better decisions.

The move to the agency world provided that inside dig into the life of a consultant. We are advisors, strategists, soothsayers, analysts, creatives, idea people — also builders of programs and campaigns aimed at improving and growing the business and reputations of those we represent. Ron wants to be Jack. And now he has the pedigree to do it with substance and horsepower.

If we can distill Ron’s recipe into its core elements, a few key ingredients bubble up to the surface:

o      You need to approach your choices and time decisions with a healthy dose of ambition

o      You need to construct a thoughtful and considered path that is always forward looking

o      There is an absence of fear here — A willingness to go outside the comfort zone

o      Thus an ability to make the moves that will accommodate the purposeful path

o      And supremely important, involvement in outside activities that leads to relationship creation

Keep the involvement going. Keep adding. Keep fueling. And keep your eye squarely on the target. As Ron can now say definitively: “Yes, I am now Jack.”

What’s your story?