When we started our agency, one of the most important goals was to create a fun, positive, and supportive work environment for anyone who came through our doors. The second, to build our playing field where gender didn’t matter in the least. As a result, we would be equals in every sense of the word - with each other and those we work and do business with.

Today, we are just that. Equals. Internally, we spend our days dividing, slaying, and conquering. Externally, we stand together with our team, doing much of the same. Yet, outside of our self-made bubble, there are still micro-aggressions we notice and endure regarding gender stereotypes and discrimination.  While we are beyond excited to see a world that has gotten so much better with gender equality by leaps and bounds, the work is hard. The hours are long. There is still so much more to do.

We are still paying attention and setting our stage nearly two decades later. Now, more than ever before. It’s important. We vow to keep our agency equal. Celebrate the differences. Break the bias(es) that deter growth and forward movement.

Collectively we can, but as entrepreneurs and working Moms, we want the generation we are raising to witness firsthand there should never have been a bias, to begin with. But if there is, BREAK IT.

Despite the letters ‘P’ and ‘R’ in our agency name, we have evolved light-years beyond those two letters. The work we do 100% affects whether someone buys or gives or volunteers or stays loyal, but we use more than one mere part of the puzzle to get clients there. The PESO model takes all the four media types (paid, earned, shared, and owned) and merges them together for an integrated, measurable, and solid communications program.  Once the content is created (owned), a true pro will use shared media to distribute it, paid media to amplify it, and earned media to qualify and endorse it. Following is a very brief overview of what PESO stands for which hopefully encourages how it can be used.

Paid: Media one pays to have delivered to specific audiences, an example of this is sponsored posts but is also inclusive of the following: social media marketing (ex: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, or Twitter ads and boosted content), landing pages, qualified leads in an email marketing database, new fans or followers who come from reading sponsored content and finally leads and conversions.

 Earned: Earned media got its name because results are garnered from relationships earned with influencers, journalists, and bloggers. It’s what the PR industry is typically known for because it’s one of the few tangible things done until recently (8-10 years give or take). Quality content marketing, SEO, and various PR strategies are all superlative drivers of earned media which is a critical supporting element in PESO.

Shared: Falls under social media and user-generated content tenet. It includes not just social networking, but community, partnerships, distribution, and promotion. Popular platforms include Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and TikTok.  Shared media on various social platforms is an essential part of a robust marketing plan, and its importance continues to grow by the minute.

Owned: Self-created content such as blogs, digital mailers, videos, webinars, and websites and completely integrates with the other three media types.  An organized owned media program is likely distributed through email marketing which provides a wealth of analytics and KPIs including unique visitors, bounce rates, downloads, shares, and yes, the almighty sale.

2020-Two is still not far enough away from 2020 to safely, confidently, and accurately be throwing out trends, so let’s call them cornerstones or tenets of our agency that all agencies should be practicing yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

Digital Storytelling is something if one isn’t already doing, they should be doing it now in spades. While some agencies are better at it than others, the current and most popular path to brand building, awareness, and sales start here. The combination of illustrative points made in many forms (audio or visual or both) across multiple platforms (Instagram, TikTok, YouTube) is an organic way to narrate, grow engagement and eventually increase sales or check averages (we have a lot of hospitality clients).

Covid has ensured we take on shorter-term projects from time to time, but for the most part Food Shelter prides itself on being a natural and necessary extension of internal marketing teams. Always has. Always will. Having this mindset breeds the necessary collaborative process over the agency hire and fire at-will vendor scenario. If this sounds more like a luxury than reality, it isn’t. We’ve fired many a client and struggled at times living this truth; but believe us when we say this paradigm lends itself to a by-far richer, long-standing, trusting, and happier relationship than the latter of the aforementioned.

The year of infamy made us aware as an agency we needed to initiate a few things. At the top of the lengthy list?  Developing an internal, ready-to-go crisis plan for our own agency to use as a starting point while at the same time understanding there may come times when clients need plans too… say maybe, in tandem and extremely quickly. While focusing on different needs. When the entire world is on fire. 

 A crisis is something we (as the optimistic bunch we usually tend to be) don’t care to think daily about, but really should. Like yoga, it should be considered a practice and it should be thought of often enough so everyone is fully prepared for Armageddon-type situations should they arise. A preventative and prepared thought process will never, ever go out of style, and it should be at the top of best practices for agencies.

So, there we have it. Although it may not be earth-shattering, or trendy, it makes a whole lot of rational sense. We should change the title of this post … if we didn’t have to proactively read an internal crisis plan or digitally tell a story for a client who has been with us for years!

Life is too short to work with people who do not share the same mindset or goals. Many times, over the course of our careers, both of us have labeled those people as non-believers and moved on.

We started this firm for two reasons: one, create an environment where women aren’t forced to choose family or career and two, enable us with the power to choose our clients as much as they choose us. Despite us loathing the story of Cinderella for infinite reasons, we agree on one thing and that’s the perfect fit is needed to move forward.

Food Shelter has been around for 16 years. Throughout those years, we have learned many things. The most important being that we should be a collaborative extension of the client as opposed to mere hire and fire disposable vendors. When the client grows, so do we. When the client pivots, so do we. When the clients enjoy the highs and endure the lows, so do we. We do it together and in tandem. This is not just critical for us, it is mandatory. 

Because we choose our clients wisely and keep our client pool small purposely, they stick around for multiple years. Some we have been with since they themselves opened their own doors. Some leave their posts in their respective marketing department to go on to another marketing department and hire us as one of their first items on the to-do list. Some do end up leaving but never because they aren't satisfied with the work, which makes parting a tad sorrowful.

We are as proud of this reputation as we are of our client base. We believe while the back page is important for sure, there are by far more important factors in a working relationship many of which don’t focus on that page at all. We consider our clients family and in turn, many think of us in that way as opposed to merely their agency of record. Just go through our website, pick any one of them and ask.

Thank you to all of you (you know who you are). Thank you for the rewarding careers regarding the entire team powered, in part, by you. Thank you for the opportunities you bring us daily. Thank you for being the believers we know you are. We are believers too. 

Equal pay for equal work. It’s a simple concept, and it’s a drum we beat daily as women business owners. We want to lead by example and be the change we want to see in a world where women-led businesses should be valued in every way the same as men.   

We make 82 female cents to every male dollar for the same job with the same hours in this country. In Iceland?  87 cents.  South Korea? A deplorable 65 cents. Globally? 77 cents. The gap is even wider for women of color (61 cents) and mothers (71 cents). Those numbers are unbearably and incredibly grim.

Not. Good. Enough.  Frankly, this day insults us for its mere existence because it reflects the need to bring awareness and, more importantly, change. Women's Equality is not a celebratory day. On the contrary, we should be universally shocked and embarrassed that it has to exist in 2021 (same with ‘top women’ lists).

 Sign a petition, donate what you can, learn more about it or share this with everyone you know. It may get us one step closer to closing this ridiculous, discriminatory gap.  Maybe one day, we’ll make the same (2059, according to the internet), and we won’t have to pat ourselves on the back for a mere token of a day.

We’re aware of the tone and controversy of this post. That’s the point; we should all share in this outrage. We may even be labeled and disregarded as angry bit*@!&es. But ask yourself this. How much would they earn if two men owned Food Shelter and regularly ran home to pay the sitter, kiss their kids, throw a load of laundry in, and start dinner while on a conference call? As business owners and working mothers, we are both lucky enough to have supportive partners who share the responsibilities of home and childcare but imagine if we didn’t. Then imagine if we also got paid the same.