I’m a sucker for a good martini. I’m also a sucker for my bartender friend Sean, who likes to play “guess what’s in this drink” in order to make me better as a bartender and to try out his new combos. I have recently become a huge fan of the conversations that my roommate and I have after a few of these test-drinks.

We are toying around with the idea of starting our own creative ad agency (firm?). I know my strengths, what I can do and what I am capable of. Roomie knows her stuff too. So why not? We’re making decent money at the restaurant – we’re supporting ourselves and have some wiggle room. Working at the restaurant allows us to have ample time to think about getting this company in the works.

Where do you start? I’m up to my eyeballs in articles about this and I have a couple of mentors who have successfully launched their own companies. I don’t want to sound like a moron when I go to these people for advice. I need to know enough of the lingo to be dangerous. I need to sound like I know what I’m doing – when in fact I have no earthly idea.

This idea is great and it’s killing me at the same time. Does the “starving artist” lifestyle apply here? Penelope wrote a great article about how to be an artist, and that you shouldn’t quit your day job, etc. Does that same philosophy apply? In my case, I’m about to graduate, I’m starting to build my relationships with people who could some day employ me. Do I keep moving forward in the job search, accept positions so you can get experience and learn, and then whenever you get around to starting your own business, you do it? Or do you drop everything (except a source of income… like bartending) to start it?

My roommate and I will both be at SXSW from the 13th to the 18th. If you know anything about business, how to start one, or just want to have a couple drinks with us, we’re totally game to listen and learn from your successes and/or failures.

So the PRSSA National Conference in Detroit was an experience and a half. I learned a lot, dealt with some drama reminiscent of high school, and explored a new city and a new country (Canada). More on that later, and probably not here.

The thing that struck me as odd however, is the man next to me on the plane on the way home. He was older, bad teeth, borderline smelly and was on his way back from Philadelphia. Great – as I don all of my Rays gear on the plane. We skipped right over baseball and talked about how happy we were to get back to the Sunshine State (which I called home with no hesitation this week, but again, more on that later).

The man asked what I was doing in Detroit and I said, “Oh, a conference,” not really wanting to get into it. But he probed on. I explained it was with PRSSA and PRSA and we had some joint events and separate ones. He said to me, and I quote:

“Isn’t that a bit redundant? A conference about … conferencing?”

Apparently, as a future PR practitioner, I am redundant, and a conferencing guru. I told him, “no, not really, it was a lot about networking and getting to meet people from all over the country and learning about different areas of PR,” to which he replied,

“a redundant conference for a redundant profession.”

First of all, may I please copy and paste a definition of redundant? Yes? Okay well here it is,

1. characterized by verbosity or unnecessary repetition in expressing ideas; prolix: a redundant style.
2. being in excess; exceeding what is usual or natural: a redundant part.

If you’ll refer back to Hazelton and Long’s definition of PR as a communication function of management, I’m not seeing anything redundant about it.

For the first time, I was annoyed about the perceptions of PR. Then, I woke up and I didn’t care about what they think – because chances are this guy cleans porta-potties and his opinion doesn’t matter anyway.

I am not going to be a bitter PR person and try to prove myself to everyone that what I do is meaningful. You’ll see that it’s meaningful when I save your company (porta-potties or something more … important) from a major crises or when I get that celebrity to endorse your new product or whatever, or when I go overseas to promote your company globally.

On a lighter note, I met Penelope Trunk this weekend, and if you know what’s good for you, you’ll check her out: blog.penelopetrunk.com

Her speech changed my life. Seriously.

DO IT, she’s my hero.

xoxo Sydney