Thank you for inspiring us.
“‘Thank you’ is the best prayer that anyone could say. I say that one a lot. Thank you expresses extreme gratitude, humility, understanding.”
12/15/22
Dear Clients and Friends,
As we prepare to step away from the office for personal reflection and time with family over winter break, we’re reaching out to express gratitude for our powerful partnerships.
You’ve inspired our team.
In 2022, your growth was noteworthy. Some of you expanded your platforms and deepened your services, while others gained clarity and focus. In both cases, your contributions to the field have been substantial and demonstrate remarkable leadership.
Your hard work invites us to reflect on our own offerings to ensure that we’re maximizing our potential and meeting the needs of our shared community to the best of our ability.
Holding firm to our approach of truth-telling as a pathway to restore humanity in marketing, we will continue to do our part to transform the public sector communications field toward truth-based narratives that center dignity and possibility.
Thank you for inviting us to be a part of your work. Your trust is what allows us the honor of making positive contributions to your communications programs.
We wish you a reflective close of 2022 and a smooth transition into the new year. We hope you make time to celebrate all that you have accomplished.
May your spirit be renewed!
Sincerely,
Precious Stroud and PJS Consultants
Some of the exciting work happening in our network:
Boldly Answering the Call
“Things are not getting worse, they are being uncovered. We must hold each other tight and continue pulling back the veil.”
7/12/22
Dear Clients, Partners, and Friends,
What if the ongoing trials we’re facing are invitations and reminders to step more boldly into our calling?
If this is the case, the calls are getting louder. And we must respond accordingly.
There have been other moments in history when consciousness expands as a result of turmoil, and spirit and intuition guide our collective steps forward. Despite the challenges these times bring, the healers among us speak softly to our hearts. They remind us to listen, sing, dance, share, and, perhaps most importantly, they remind us that we are in this together.
In the midst of life’s complexity lives the opportunity for personal transformation and collective healing.
What is your heart singing today? You are a leader and a storyteller whose influence is sought by many in your community. Your ability to be a resource to others relies first on your commitment to taking care of you.
For some of you, summer is the busiest time of year. For others, it’s a time to slow down and be with your family, friends, and yourselves. For all of us, it’s a time to stabilize our roots in our communities of support. This summer, I hope that you find natural refreshment in a desert, forest, ocean, or garden. Whether you do it through relaxing road trips, rejuvenating group outings, or quiet time spent at home, please remember to nurture yourself.
At PJS Consultants, we envision a world in which all people see themselves represented in honest, compassionate, and dignified ways. We are spending time this summer reflecting and planning for the work that lies ahead. We understand that our success is interconnected with yours. We look forward to continuing to work together to elevate your brand and ultimately to transform the public sector communications landscape.
Your partnership sustains us—literally and spiritually— and we will continue to learn from and respond to our current context together, in community, and continue to boldly answer the call.
Respectfully yours,
Precious and the PJS Consultants Team
What if we slowed down instead of rushing to return to the way things were?
11/19/21
Dear Clients, Partners, and Friends,
My spirit is unsettled today. As I reflect on this past year, there is no way to process all of it. I sense a churning happening; it feels like a collective quest for more. These external shifts seem to be mirrored in my personal life, as everything around and within me has been shifting—and I know I’m not the only one. I choose to see the points of tension as invitations to grow, shift, and sharpen my priorities, to reach the next level of spiritual, emotional, physical, and professional wellness. As external realities become more and more uncertain; internally, I seek to create more peace, ease, and love in myself.
While I’m affirmed by PJS Consultants’ unforeseeable growth this year, which resulted from increased demand for our particular approach to communications work, the past 20 months also presented challenging implications for my business, family life, friend circles, and extended community. In the midst of the buzz of change and hope for a brighter future, there’s also been sudden loss of life, with many families experiencing the passing of multiple loved ones. Collective grief alongside heightened financial stress seems to be leading to a sense of hopelessness, desperation, and degradation in a time when we need motivation to keep pushing toward a brighter tomorrow that might not always be visible on the horizon.
Through it all, I’m leaning into the vibration of change, and looking in new directions to embark upon new journeys; your ongoing commitment to your work in this context is a great source of inspiration. Our collective contribution to the community and society that we share make a difference, and together we are reshaping our reality with every life we touch, through careful design and implementation of people-centered projects.
This energy of shared responsibility and action is the champion of this moment. And each of us is a vessel carrying this energy through these rapidly evolving times.
At PJS Consultants, our contribution is the help we provide our clients in telling stories through an asset-based lens, supporting them to honor themselves, their constituents, and the young people they serve as they shape more honest narratives that bring about more just conditions. From providing educational services and tending to fundamental human needs to writing and implementing policy change, you are writing our future as you live a life of service in our present. Thank you.
The artistry and action that such historically significant periods yield are masterful and inventive. Your work is part of the story helping us to understand where we’ve been, where we are, and where we’re headed. If you haven’t already, I encourage you to take some time to reflect and document what you’ve accomplished this year. The effort and energy that this moment has propelled you to invest in the communities you serve is worthy of acknowledgment and celebration.
I’m hearing the call of this time of year for comfort, clearing, and attending to self. While it can be hard to quiet the static coming off of pulling together budgets for 2022 and racing toward end-of-year goals, now is the time to reflect and relax. I’m embracing the fact that I simply cannot do more before a rest and reset. I feel called to sit, make my living space more cozy, and focus on grounding myself in preparation for the new challenges that the new year is sure to present. We know that this period and the years ahead will be studied for decades to come relative to mental health and other secondary impacts of the disorienting changes we continue to experience.
As you sustain your service to grantees, clients, and community, I invite you to remember that in order to persevere and keep showing up for them, you have to replenish by showing up for you. Consider adding this gentle stretch led by Dr. Phyllis Hubbard into your day: Spinal Stretch for Sheltering in Place.
Respectfully yours,
Precious and the PJS Consultants Team
Read/Access our entire email series: PJS Consultants is here for you.
Move to End Violence: 21-day Self-Care Challenge Packet
Learning and Leading Together
“I have great belief in the fact that whenever there is chaos, it creates wonderful thinking. I consider chaos a gift.”
5/26/21
Dear Clients, Partners, and Friends,
Much like 2020 did, 2021 has offered countless opportunities to be preoccupied and dismayed. The alternative to the numbing effect of getting carried away by the news, though, is the opportunity to turn inward. To focus in on joy, truth, and presence. We have the chance to continue learning and healing by growing our self-awareness.
The chaos around us can illuminate the path to clarity by bringing attention to the unwanted and inviting us to imagine something new.
For me, the work I do with BlackFemaleProject is helping me to stay anchored in the power of committing to our collective well-being. In the midst of so much distraction, I encourage you to remain focused on what you stand for and the better world that you imagine.
This time of year offers some aids to our ability to imagine a different future: renewal, blooming, and the excitement of summer just around the corner. As an academic year like no other comes to an end, some of you will be supporting graduates who will be starting new adventures, while others use the summer to refresh and prepare for new learning in the fall. Start to give yourself more spaciousness by removing just one task from your list today. Set aside time to nurture yourself.
The work ahead is full of as many opportunities as it is of challenges, and we need to be well to meet them all.
In support of your well-being and leadership development, I invite you to journey with BlackFemaleProject by way of our leadership tool, 8 Weeks of Self-Discovery. The purpose of this offering is to increase self-awareness and continued growth among leaders. Learn more and download the guide today for you, your team, your loved ones, or students and families you serve: 8 Weeks of Self-Discovery Guide.
Respectfully yours,
Precious and the PJS Consultants Team
“I come from servant leaders, and I know that there is no end to my capacity to learn or lead.”
4/2/2021
Dear Clients, Partners, and Friends,
We will not soon forget the circumstances that birthed this email series, which ultimately created a space of shared reflection and gratitude among our extended community over the past 12 months. We consider this platform a gift, and we look forward to continuing to engage and serve in this way throughout 2021.
As we close out the first quarter of this new year, our team at PJS Consultants is acknowledging your sacrifice, commitment, and leadership. You knew that your team, family, and community needed you. You remained focused on the big picture and met the moment in several ways, like designing new strategies to serve youth; identifying creative ways to mobilize funding for those most in need; coordinating the distribution of resources and information; and bringing people together for virtual events. And when it was necessary to do so, you let go of ideas and approaches that were suddenly no longer viable in order to make way for new innovations demanded by rapidly shifting realities.
Today, we hold with you the cumulative grief of the past year—the combined impacts of experiencing loss on a personal level while also experiencing a massive collective transition that has insisted on new and different ways of being. And we see and honor the courage and adaptability your work has required.
Despite facing unprecedented changes for over 12 months, you know exactly where you stand. This does not mean that there is no pain or questioning, but rather that when your doubts and fears arise, you trust that an answer or direction will be revealed. Your calling has been affirmed and your commitment deepened through these multiple crises and the opportunities they present for refinement, reflection, and change.
In our research, we discovered these 10 Leadership Resolutions for a Successful New Year from the Center for Creative Leadership, and we’re sharing them for your consideration. At PJS Consultants, 2021 is and will continue to be a year of expansiveness. For us, success looks like creating mental and emotional space for recovery, clarity, and growth.
Respectfully yours,
Precious and the PJS Consultants Team
Imagining the World Anew
“Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next.”
2/2/2021
Dear Clients, Partners and Friends,
The need for spaciousness, breathing room, and expansive imagination is growing more urgent as we continue to navigate various complex transitions.
In 2020, PJS Consultants worked hard to stay focused, to stand strong in the face of whatever might come next. We were determined to live into the moment and to take advantage of the gifts that these times offer. History teaches us that during the toughest of times, voices that were previously silenced might be heard; innovation might be sparked; and true change might occur.
Throughout 2021, PJS Consultants will continue to lean into our calling while tuning into and deeply honoring the influences of this time—the COVID-19 pandemic; the ongoing pursuit for justice for all in the face of white supremacy; and the evolution of our outdated economic system, among other factors. As we find our way through this time that will surely be analyzed for years to come, an opportunity for transformation lies before us, if we listen and allow ourselves to be guided by our deep truths.
We believe that your story and your written brand—guided by your truths—light the path forward for your clients, partners, and supporters. PJS Consultants is here to support you as you brighten that light by continuing to tailor and adapt your brand.
As we support you, we also consistently work to refine our brand in service of our own truth: the importance of liberating stories and elevating voices. Our vision to restore humanity in marketing has not been interrupted by the surprises of 2020 and early 2021, but rather sharpened. We will continue designing integrated marketing campaigns and narrative change agendas to shift mindsets both inside and outside of organizations. We invite corporations that made grand statements in June and July to now do the work of implementing inclusive narratives and marketing communications strategies and practices that do not recreate—but rather interrupt—the harm caused by dominant industry practices. If you know of a company that is ready to step forward, please direct them to our website and/or make an introduction.
Today we release the final installment of our 5th anniversary video case study collection. PJS Consultant dana e. fitchett reflects on our internal culture and talks about how our organizational values guide our practice and client engagement strategy. Click here to watch and listen.
As we journey forward, know that you are not alone and that with every challenge is the gift of learning.
We support you in answering the call to fulfill your purpose.
Respectfully yours,
Precious and the PJS Consultants Team
Savor Joy This Season:
“Once we recognize we can feel deeply, love deeply, can feel joy, then we will demand that all parts of our lives produce that kind of joy.”
Dear Partners and Friends,
PJS Consultants is keeping our season’s greetings communication light with a few strategies from the Center for Creative Leadership for cultivating joy. We send our best to you and yours!
How to Savor the Holidays By Maximizing Your Joy
Science suggests that these four strategies can help you savor the joy of the season and the last days of the year:
We hope you'll savor your joy today and all the way into and through the new year.
Joyously,
Precious and the PJS Consultants team
Self-Preservation as an Act of Service:
“Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.”
11/3/2020
Dear Clients, Partners, and Friends:
As the U.S. election is upon us and the overwhelming impacts of the coronavirus pandemic become more widespread, PJS Consultants is staying anchored in the power of our commitment to our collective good. In the midst of so much distraction, we encourage you to stay grounded in the legacy of where you come from, who you represent, and what you stand for.
An affirmation: We are not faint of heart and we will not be swayed by the headlines of the day.
The intensity of what it means to be a leader in this time is complex and demanding. And while the need for rapid problem solving, decision making, and revisioning is motivating and even exciting at times, it’s important that you keep your holistic well being as a top priority. You can’t take care of anyone if you’re not well enough to do so—and that requires taking care of you.
We encourage you to continue to commit to wellness. Stop. If you haven’t, just rest. Do nothing. Restore yourself.
We will continue the work we’ve inherited—work that confronts, challenges, and dismantles the intersecting and overlapping systemic oppressions that we face—in order to realize our missions and uplift humanity and dignity for all.
Sometimes this work involves undoing the internalized oppression that lives in each of us. Sometimes it’s helping young people identify strategies for navigating society. Other times it’s caring for an elder, taking food to a neighbor or friend, volunteering at a local organization, or making a donation that serves the needs of your community.
And sometimes it’s about sitting still and taking care of yourself. Finding calm, joy, and laughter.
We encourage you to stay focused, but also to honor the gifts that this time of year brings: a natural slow down and time for introspection. Many of you have finished creating your budgets and plans for 2021, so closing out 2020 can be about nurturing you. Consider pushing one of your projects into the new year or removing one thing from your list today.
Although the fall equinox has passed, we continue to find helpful reminders in Dr. Phyllis Hubbard’s Fall Back Into Self-Care blog post that includes a powerful breathing exercise.
Our vision is clear. The work ahead is full of as many opportunities as there will be challenges. Let’s go together.
With care,
Precious and the PJS Consultants team
A new report from BlackFemaleProject.org, Reflections 2020: Our First Five Years
Fulfilling Our Purpose:
“Your very existence is wrapped up in the things you need to fulfill”
8/31/2020
Dear Clients, Partners, and Friends:
Leading up to 2020, organizations and individuals had grand ideas for what the year would bring. We knew great innovation and change would happen, but we had no idea it would happen in the midst of the unprecedented complexity and social change we’re now experiencing. History has taught us that when chaotic situations arise, the path clears for new voices and stronger visions to emerge.
We are inspired by the confident commitment of leaders like you who listen to the whispers of your destiny and take action accordingly. You who are motivated by spiritual fortitude and sharp vision to work hard for the greater good. This type of leadership requires immense awareness, courage, and skill. We see you.
The PJS Consultants vision is to restore humanity in marketing by leading narrative change initiatives that shift culture inside and outside of organizations. We accomplish this through our partnerships with you. While we’ve had challenging days over the past five months, they do not define us. We are focused and clear, staying encouraged by our belief that we are called to live into our destiny.
We continue to look to our folks who are fulfilling their purpose, not because it is easy or effortless, but because they hear the call.
Sheryl E. Davis and the San Francisco Human Rights Commission have—at the direction of Mayor Breed and Supervisor Walton—led community sessions and drafted the first report to lead San Francisco's reinvestment of City funding to support the Black community. Learn more about the initiative here.
The Hidden Genius Project ended their academic year with the highest attendance ever, just months after moving their entire program to virtual learning in April. They also staffed up for what’s become their biggest summer ever, as they serve Black male youth on a daily basis across the state of California, in Oakland, Richmond and, now, also Los Angeles. But they didn’t stop there. With partners in London, United Kingdom; Johannesburg, South Africa; and across the United States, The Hidden Genius Project hosted a month-long series of youth-centered webinars and conversations that connected youth, professionals, and educators from around the globe. Register today and attend their End of Summer Celebration to learn more.
Black Vines - A Toast to Black Winemakers and Diverse Art® - is the longest standing Black wine festival in the country. Founded in 2011 by Fern A. Stroud, the festival was recently recognized by USA Today 10Best Readers’ Choice as one of the top three wine festivals of 2020. Motivated by a commitment to building and sustaining a thriving Black economic and cultural ecosystem, Fern decided to tap into a billion-dollar industry that has for too long excluded Black communities. Learn more and sign up for a Black Vines® membership to access incentives and earn discounts on wines, restaurants, and wine shops made and/or owned by Black winemakers, vintners, and artisans from all across the country.
We are encouraged by work that is happening all around the world, but we never want to overlook the people in our city, region, neighborhoods, and immediate networks who continue to make a difference every day. You keep us encouraged and we give thanks for you today!
In the midst of loss, transition, and change, may you continue to seek the light that gives you the strength to serve so brilliantly.
Respectfully yours,
Precious and the PJS Consultants team
We are growing! Please share:
PT Project / Program Manager, contract to perm
PT Account Manager, seasonal contract
Creating the Future:
“Leaders will be buffeted, but they need not allow themselves to be overwhelmed, depressed or immobilized. Leaders must do more than just respond to the whirl of events, though respond they must. They must be positive change agents in the midst of chaos, creating the future. Some things can get better, even as other things get worse.”
7/22/20
As the PJS Consultants team continues to support our communities, families, and one another in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic and the heightened surge of energy charging against longstanding anti-Black racism in America, we are also navigating the tumultuous political, social, and economic landscape in which our organizations and businesses exist. We know that a new paradigm is necessary and that our future is dependent on our ability to create it—to see beyond the headlines and work together to ensure that the best interests of our communities are served.
I want to encourage you to remember that taking time to reflect on the reasons why you do the work that you do and remaining authentic in your leadership is crucial. What is your heart leading you to? What is your intuition telling you? Are you called toward a big change that others might deem impossible? (That might just be the right choice.) Trying times both demand and inspire innovation.
PJS Consultants is choosing to focus on the unique opportunities that exist right now. We know where we want to go: we are on the path to restoring humanity in marketing. Even if the path forward seems less certain than before, we continue to move toward our vision.
We support you as we work alongside one another to create a future more brilliant than we can even imagine.
COVID-19 Resources:
We’re continuing to add helpful content for communications professionals to our website’s COVID-19 Resources page. Those of you who appreciated child psychologist Dr. Barbara Stroud’s video might also appreciate her more recent interview we’ve added to the resources page. In the interview, Dr. Stroud talks with Dr. Chandra Ghosh Ippen about her new children’s book which helps young children and families talk about their experiences and feelings related to COVID-19 and the need to shelter in place. You can find the book, Fighting the Big Virus, available for free download from Piplo Productions.
COVID-19 Email Series: PJS Consultants is here for you.
Respectfully yours,
Precious and the PJS Consultants team
Holding space for you to breathe:
“My vision and my idea was always to share the achievements and contributions and beauty and talent and artistry of Black people with the world...To help to change the images that have been perpetuated about Black people through mass media. By omission; by downright, you know, lies; by historical inaccuracies. All of the above...And to do it as honestly and with as much integrity as I possibly could.”
6/5/20
Dear Clients, Partners, and Friends:
At PJS Consultants, our lens is clear, and this time is sharpening our focus even more. We work to restore humanity in marketing and help organizations design campaigns that do the same. Narrative change and speaking truth to power—in the U.S. and globally—is more and more crucial with each passing day.
When I interviewed BlackFemaleProject story contributor and public media professional Mable Haddock, she asked me, “What is your revolutionary statement?”
My revolutionary statement is PJS Consultants’ service to our communities. To our clients—Black-led and Black-serving organizations—and peers, including Black executives and leaders and many others fighting for change: we are thinking of you and praying for your strength and clarity as you support your clients and networks. We know that you are the sustainers. You are the ones others are leaning on after the cameras are gone, for guidance, support, and hope. I also want to thank those of you who are organizers and acknowledge the long legacy that your courageous service continues. We see you.
And at this time, we offer all of you the reminder that we are still breathing. We empathize with the often-repeated last words of our brothers George Floyd and Eric Garner before him as they resisted their murderers: I can’t breathe. Yet as experts in the power of language and narrative change, we understand that words carry energy, and we must remain connected to our breath—our life force—as we weather the storms around us.
I want to offer a few reminders to take care of yourself as you navigate your day:
Stay hydrated.
Eat plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables.
Take a multivitamin.
Rest and allow your body to restore and repair.
Get outside. Vitamin D is crucial to well being.
Breathe.
I invite you to share this resource from The Communications Network with your communications team. They’ve compiled thoughtful and effective examples of foundation and nonprofit communications focused on recent protests for racial justice. I hope they’ll help as you work to find the right words for the times we’re in
In solidarity,
Precious and the PJS Consultants team
Moving Forward Together:
“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”
5/7/20
Dear Clients, Partners, and Friends:
Since I sent my first email responding to the COVID-19 public health emergency on March 23, a lot has changed. Many of us are working from home; some have been laid off; some are out everyday providing essential services; others are now homeschooling their children while others suddenly face more severe life-altering realities.
Over the past few weeks, we have been contemplating how our expertise can be leveraged in support of our collective wellbeing. In addition to the COVID-19 resources page that we added to the PJS Consultants website, we’ve launched a centralized and collaborative Coronavirus Resource Guide to ensure that the communities served by PJS Consultants and by our clients—in Oakland and beyond—can access rapidly evolving vital information. Our goal is to amplify impact by joining forces with like minds to populate and broadly distribute the guide.
This guide will live within the Love Action Reaction initiative, co-founded last year with Adrian Henderson of Kingston 11 Cuisine, and focused on information-sharing to support the mental, physical, and financial wellness of individuals and of our community as a whole. Learn more at www.loveactionreaction.com.
CALL-TO-ACTION
Given your connection to communities of color and your unique ability to get information into people’s hands, we’re hoping to work in partnership with you on this effort. First, we hope that you’ll submit resources you’re aware of that will support the wellbeing of our collective communities; second, we invite you to share the Coronavirus Resource Guide itself with your networks and the communities that you serve. You can access the submission form here, and the guide here. Finally, please use the hashtag #loveactionreaction when promoting community activities and sharing resources. This will help to establish and deepen virtual community around these efforts.
Love—for you, our clients, and the broader community alike—is what inspires us to take action in this time. While we focus some of our energy on supporting our communities more broadly, we remain committed to being of service to you, our primary partners. As you keep up with the demanding work of responding to your constituents’ needs, please continue to call on us.
We are here for you.
Respectfully yours,
Precious J. Stroud and all of us at PJS Consultants
Love is the Action:
“The true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love.”
4/28/20
Dear Clients, Partners, and Friends:
At PJS Consultants, we believe that in order to achieve meaningful and long-lasting results, love must be at the center of all that we do. This belief guides us to prioritize honesty, humility, and integrity in our internal and client-facing work alike. We don’t always get it right, but when we falter, we persevere by reminding one another of our values and trying again.
Today, our love is being tested by angst, uncertainty, true need, and chaos. You are not alone and you do not have to have all of the answers. It might be time to take a few deep breaths, seek clarity by stepping away from the computer—laugh with a child, smell a flower, or feel the sun on your skin. You are a child of nature; let nature take care of you.
Over the past few weeks, we have been contemplating how our expertise can be leveraged in support of our collective wellbeing. Love—for you, our clients, and the broader community alike—is what inspires us to take action in this time. Next week we will share what we have been working on.
Respectfully yours,
Precious J. Stroud and all of us at PJS Consultants
COVID-19 resources page
Step Up: Your Calling Awaits:
“I believe there’s a calling for all of us. I know that every human being has value and purpose. The real work of our lives is to become aware. And awakened. To answer the call.”
4/21/20
Dear Clients, Partners, and Friends:
This is a challenging time. As loss of life and financial distress begin to touch more people more intimately, the collective weight of this shared experience and the disparities we all see is taking its toll, and it is inviting change. This is a moment in time and—albeit a heavy moment—it also presents an opportunity to step into your calling.
PJS Consultants came into existence to fill a void: over and over in my professional work, I encounter consultants who cannot empathize with my life experiences and are thus unable to effectively or holistically represent my voice. In 2014, when the hardships I faced at work came to a head, I decided to become the consultant I always longed for, with the intention of addressing my own need while also responding to a gap in the marketplace concerning the representation of African American communities. I stepped into my path and took on the work that I am uniquely positioned to carry out.
I believe that every individual—including you—brings a unique viewpoint to the table. The combination of your natural talents and lived experiences makes your perspectives distinct from those of anyone else. What are your gifts? What is your purpose? What is your calling? Now is the time to answer the call and encourage others to do the same. At PJS Consultants, we are even more clear today about our shared passion for restoring humanity in marketing, to ensure that all communities are represented with dignity.
For us, representation is a core value. Because we believe in the power and importance of representation, we prioritize having a diverse team to expand our collective perspective, and so that a broad portion of our client base might feel seen and reflected in our work.
We are regularly updating our COVID-19 resources page and will continue to refine the listings. We remain committed to being of service to you as you keep up with the demanding work of responding to your constituents’ needs. Please continue to call on us. We are here when you are ready.
Respectfully yours,
Precious J. Stroud and all of us at PJS Consultants
Uncompromised Quality - Greatness is at our doorstep:
“Bad companies are destroyed by crisis. Good companies survive them. Great companies are improved by them”
4/14/20
Dear Clients, Partners, and Friends:
As we close in on a full month of shelter-in-place and stay-at-home orders in the Bay Area and across the country, the impacts to our rites of passage ceremonies and rituals are some of the most difficult changes to navigate. The ways that we acknowledge birth, death, religious holidays, and other major milestones have come to an unanticipated and inflexible halt, tasking us with the challenge of swift adaptation.
None of our lives are immune to these shifts. We at PJS Consultants are taking this time to examine how the expertise we’ve cultivated over the past several years can best support your urgent needs and position us all for the anticipated and unanticipated future.
At this time, we all have an opportunity to refine and deeply examine our personal practices; for us, this opportunity carries into our work. Our core value of quality remains at the forefront: we do not want to be good enough; we want to provide stellar support for you at this time.
When we think about quality, we are most interested in exceeding expectations and creating rewarding experiences that challenge all of us to rise to the best version of ourselves. This isn’t to say that we don't have hard days; we are human. But we do not dwell in our lows. For us, quality work involves examining areas of opportunity and improvement, and using our values—collaboration, integrity, quality, representation, and love—as a guide post to our vision of restoring humanity in marketing. We are currently remaining focused on coronavirus-related communications, rolling out additional supports to clients as needed. Please reach out if you see a community need that we can help with or if you want to talk through an idea or strategy. We are here with you, and we are here to help.
Respectfully yours,
Precious J. Stroud and all of us at PJS Consultants
COVID-19 Resources for Communications Professionals and Community
Integrity Requires Courage Over Fear:
“One of the truest tests of integrity is its blunt refusal to be compromised.”
4/7/20
Dear Clients, Partners and Friends:
As we at PJS Consultants are beginning to adapt to sheltering in place and the uncertainty of the moment, we hope that you too are finding ways to stay grounded. I find it helpful to remain focused on the lessons that I learned early in life: be honest and treat people with respect; care about my neighbors; and consider the greater good. The integrity with which we approach our work is also a product of these central life lessons.
Integrity is most challenged when we find ourselves under pressure. Integrity requires our courage over fear, and while it may be easier or more convenient to abandon principles and adopt a reactionary approach in stressful situations, we prefer to find solid footing on the foundation we’ve worked hard to establish—a foundation that honors reliability, trustworthiness, honesty, and positive relationship.
In an effort to be a reliable partner to you, we have continued to update our COVID-19 Resources page. Please let us know if there are particular resources you’re seeking that we might be able to help you find.
Respectfully yours,
Precious J. Stroud and All of us at PJS Consultants
Commitment to Collaboration:
“we can only be a force together, we can only be together with trust, we can only trust if we are authentic with each other – and we can only be authentic if we can admit we don’t know our way out of this. let this be a verbal toast to more questions, more collaborative ideation, more doubt, more experimentation, more releasing that which isn’t working, more listening to unlikely voices of leadership, more caring and connecting with each other in ways that will prepare us for whatever is coming.”
3/30/20
Dear Clients, Partners and Friends:
As we continue to learn and grow in response to the global public health emergency that we are navigating together, we at PJS Consultants remain inspired by your commitment to the important work you do to care for communities and individuals. During these incredibly challenging times, we want to do all that we can to continue to support you.
While so much is being called into question, creative solutions are all around us. I feel affirmed by the timeliness and relevance of the organizational values that we practice and prioritize in our daily interactions: collaboration, representation, quality, integrity, and love.
Today, I’m thinking about our value of collaboration, and how crucial it is in this moment. We value collaborative partnerships and believe that the best work gets done by leveraging a group’s particular energies and expertise. We invite each other and our collaborators to bring perspectives, strengths, and full selves to the table. This all remains true as we charter this new territory, and I look forward to leaning into the spirit of collaboration to ensure that we can all serve, learn, and grow as we navigate.
As we become aware of them, we are adding new resources to our COVID-19 Resources page. I encourage you to check it out and see what might be of use in your work.
Yours respectfully,
Precious J. Stroud and All of us at PJS Consultants
PJS Consultants is here for you...
“The progress of the world will call for the best that all of us have to give.”
3/23/20
Dear Clients, Partners, and Friends:
During this public health emergency and the complex circumstances surrounding it, we are reminded of the need to take care of ourselves and our families, team members, clients, neighbors, and communities.
PJS Consultants is here for you, and we wish you and yours moments of peace and joy as we head into the uncertainty of the next several weeks.
PJS Consultants Compiled COVID-19 Resources
We know that you are working and already thinking through the possibilities and opportunities that are being born of this time. Human ingenuity is great and not to be underestimated. Albeit too early to consider for some—maybe even most—we will get to the other side of this pandemic, and we at PJS Consultants want to support you in being prepared and ready.
As we settle into new ways of operating in the immediate short-term phase, we hope that you will lean into opportunities to laugh, dance, and rejoice. When you are ready for us to join you in thinking and strategizing about how you will communicate in a new way with your clients and broader communities, we are here awaiting your partnership.
In the meantime, like you, we are taking the necessary time to manage our health and strengthen our immune systems, spend time with family, and connect virtually with friends near and far.
Are we working? Yes. We are currently focused on coronavirus-related communications and rolling out additional supports to clients as needed. Most of you have received a call from Precious or Cathy. If you have not, expect one in the coming days. We want to check in and find out how you and your team are doing and what you might need from us at this time.
Our core beliefs are intact and maintain their relevance in this changing time:
We envision a marketplace where marketing campaigns uplift humanity.
Early investment in communications has a long term payoff.
Make the commitment, execute well, and measure often for best results.
Respectfully,
Precious J. Stroud and All of us at PJS Consultants