Focus: Curley & Pynn’s 2024 Word of the Year
December 12, 2023
By Dan Ward, APR, CPRC
I began 2023 with reflections in our Taking Aim blog on my “word of the year”: Forward.
Despite economic headwinds, we leaned into this year as an opportunity to look forward – in building on the legacy of our co-founders, how we partner with clients and how we serve our community.
I’m glad to say that we have maintained that forward focus throughout the year. We continue to grow at a double-digit pace, we began work with some amazing new client partners while expanding our work for others, and as a company and individuals we have stepped up our game when it comes to serving in our profession and in our community.
We also looked inward at how we can run our business more efficiently and effectively so that we can be even more productive and impactful in the work we do for clients. Based on feedback from industry peers and local business leaders, our leadership team embarked on an exciting journey with the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) that has already helped us become more effective leaders and counselors. And we invested in ourselves with new strategy and tools to improve how we communicate, serve and grow as we enter our 40th year.
Wait? 40 Years?!?
Yes, Curley & Pynn in 2024 will reach its 40th year as one of Florida’s leading public relations firms, and we’re planning a year of celebration to thank the teammates, clients and community partners who have helped us along the way. I’ve never been more excited and optimistic as I am now in looking at what this anniversary year holds for us and our clients.
If 2023 was all about looking and moving forward, 2024 will be a year of focus.
This is not only a nod to our Five Steps to Professional Success, the philosophy that has guided our firm and its work for four decades, but also to how we’re going to approach the year ahead.
We will focus more than ever on what we do best and who we best serve, as we fine-tune our scope of service. We have never been a firm that tries to be all things for all companies. Nor have we been a firm that specializes in one aspect of PR or one specific industry.
What we do best is counsel. We are a business consulting firm that provides high-level advice and counsel through the lens of public relations and strategic communications. And we provide that service for organizations with big challenges, the solutions for which better our communities. Our goal is nothing short of elevating the practice and purpose of public relations for visionary leaders tackling complex issues.
From nonprofits that create meaningful opportunities for those who learn differently and those with autism and related disabilities, to organizations working to change the economic landscape of Central Florida, to energy companies making a positive impact on our environment, to associations protecting everything from consumer rights to critical infrastructure, the clients we serve are doing important work that improves lives. And our job is to provide them with caring candor, telling them what they need to hear even when the advice is tough to share. That is our focus.
Keeping that focus, and that promise to our clients, requires counselors, not just publicists, and we have some of the best counselors in the business. Graduates of LeadershipFPRA, former presidents of our FPRA and PRSA chapters, trusted advisers who time and again hear from our clients, “we couldn’t have done this without you.” Many clients have partnered with us for decades, and the reason is our focus on what keeps them awake at night, on what truly moves the needle for them, on what we can do through public relations strategies and tactics to make a lasting impact for them and for the missions they work to achieve.
The employee partners I’m proud to serve as president are serious people doing serious work to tackle serious challenges, in an environment that never loses sight of the need for fun and for each of us to have a fulfilling life outside of the office.
Celebrating them, celebrating our client partnerships, celebrating 40 years of service to our communities and industry – that’s my reason for going to the office every day. That will be my focus as we leap forward into 2024.
