Mentoring Accelerates Career Success

MP&F StaffBlog

As a friend and former longtime client of MP&F, I was always impressed with the company culture. There is an ingrained sense of service to the community, a desire for personal and professional growth, which is encouraged, and a great camaraderie among all levels. Part of that culture stems from its two complementary mentoring programs, one of which I now spearhead on a volunteer basis. There is a “formal” program for all entry level employees, known as staff associates, and an “informal” one available to everyone. Formal Program for Staff Associates: During the first week or two at the firm, …

Nashville Public Education Foundation’s Project RESET Road Show Gathering Input From Around The City

MP&F StaffNews

The Nashville Public Education Foundation’s (NPEF’s) RESET Road Show, an interactive traveling display for Nashvillians to provide input and share ideas, has seen great response from the city so far. In addition to RESET Saturday, the traveling station has made stops at Casa Azafrán, the Main Library downtown, the Madison Branch Library and Looby Branch Library. Although some neighborhood- or school-specific ideas have arisen, Nashvillians are consistently highlighting the following top three citywide priorities: • Addressing early childhood challenges (i.e., pre-K, early literacy, etc.) • Need for great teachers (i.e., recruiting, retaining and growing highly effective teachers and making sure …

NSCC Adult Scholarships Provide Path to Acquiring New Skills

MP&F StaffNews

For an adult thinking about retraining in STEM or culinary arts, it is possible to get a degree virtually free at Nashville State Community College, thanks to a special scholarship program. The NSCC Foundation Adult Scholarship program will cover the cost of the first six hours per semester up-front, and reimburse up to the next six hours for any adult age 25 or older seeking to pursue a degree in science, engineering, math, technology or culinary arts. “The Foundation scholarship is a last-dollar program, meaning that it pays after any other financial aid, scholarships or tuitions discounts have been applied,” …

Memories of Mike

Mark McNeelyNews

The Gerst House. Nov. 8, 1988. Election Day. Mike Pigott’s 34th birthday. George Bush was elected president that day. It was the day and place Mike and I sealed the deal to go into business together, therefore one of the scariest days of my life, but also one of the best days of my life. They buried my friend and partner Mike last week, and the grief and emotions have been nonstop, igniting hundreds of memories, good and bad, but mostly the wonderment about how successful Mike was, what a huge impact he had on the community, and the outpouring of …

MP&F Wins Silver Anvil Award

MP&F StaffNews

MP&F hits trifecta with prestigious national Silver Anvil Award for its work on the Red White and Food campaign to allow the sale of wine in Tennessee retail food stores! At the annual Public Relations Society of America award show tonight in New York, MP&F Partner Alice Chapman accepted the award on behalf of our client, the Tennessee Grocers & Convenience Store Association. It was the second national award for the seven-year effort, and came after the work won Best of Show at the Nashville PRSA Chapter award competition in April. Last month, it won in the Public Affairs category …

Spring 2015 Intern Class

My Six Tips for Being a Valued Intern

MP&F StaffBlog

When I arrived at MP&F four months ago, I had absolutely no idea what to expect. Would I be handling some mundane or important tasks? Would I be sitting at a desk doing research all day, or would I be driving around doing errands for clients? While I did do each of these, my internship was so much more fulfilling than I could have imagined. Instead of doing “intern” tasks, I was able to do meaningful work that I actually saw come to fruition. I saw client tweets I had drafted pop up on my Twitter feed, I saw my …

MP&F’s Digital Evolution: One Website at a Time

MP&F StaffBlog

We’ve been working on a website refresh for the last few months. Google’s announcement about the mobile-friendly algorithm change scheduled for today added fuel to our fire. As Search Engine Journal reports, “mobile-friendliness will be a ranking signal throughout mobile search results.” In plain English, if your website isn’t easy to use on a smartphone, it will rank lower in search results than one that is. And mobile usage is only expected to grow. The Cisco® Visual Networking Index™ (VNI) Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast for 2014 to 2019 reports in 2014 nearly 59 percent of the global population (7.2 billion people) were …

Handshaking 101

MP&F StaffBlog

Your handshake could potentially make or break someone’s first impression of you. When networking, a handshake can either send the message that you’re confident and sociable, or say the opposite. Check out this vlog for some do’s and don’ts to avoid the latter.

If We Had Known Then What We Know Now

MP&F StaffBlog

MP&F professionals share advice for college students “If you could go back to college, what would you do differently while in school?” This was one of the many questions college students asked panelists and me during the University of Tennessee’s biennial PR Day. I was thrilled to participate and be invited as an alumna. After I finished talking with the students about the lessons I had learned so far throughout my professional journey, I was curious to see how my colleagues at MP&F would respond to the same questions. Here’s how they responded to the most popular questions students asked …

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Lessons Learned from Record-breaking AT Hiker

MP&F StaffBlog

We sometimes learn the most important life lessons in situations we least expect. More often than not, these same life lessons can be applied to multiple aspects of our lives, including our careers. When Jennifer Pharr Davis, an author and record-breaking thru-hiker, came to speak to the MP&F staff, it was clear that her takeaways from her time on the Appalachian Trail could relate to our personal lives and even business. “We can’t control our environment or other people; however, we can control how we respond to it or them, in both the good times and bad,” she said. The …