New York City… they say if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere. Looking back, I think about my very first business trip to New York and how far I’ve come. I need to preface this by saying, I’m a California girl, born and raised. I love flip flops, jeans and my lean green beach cruiser machine. I enjoy smiling and letting a person with one item go in front of me in line at the grocery store. What I quickly realized during my various trips to New York is my “laid back” attitude won’t always cut it in the east coast public relations world.
Mia and Krista exhausted after a long, yet successful day!
As an outsider looking in, New Yorkers seem aggressive, they always get what they want and they are unnerved by strangers smiling at them on the street. I remember how anxious I was during my first east coast trip. The crowds, the craziness and the Condé Nast building can be quite intimidating your first time around. Plus, I didn’t even know how to work the credit card machines in cabs. However, this San Diegan decided that if I could travel the world for a year with just a backpack, a few dollars to my name and only knowing the English language, I could figure out NYC. And after our recent trip to the city, which seemed like our millionth, I think I finally saw a little “New York” in me…
During a Gavin DeGraw concert in Central Park for Petco, we had to work with multiple partners, all of whom we assumed were pulling their weight. But sadly the old analogy rang true: we all know what “ass”ume spells. Well, the West PR team isn’t one to rest on our laurels and let things happen (or not happen), so it was time to let go of that laid-back San Diego attitude and get a little “New York” on everyone. The gloves came off and all niceties and protocol went out the window when we were about to lose interviews with MAJOR press because our “partners” were completely checked out. Let’s just put it this way, we made things happen and somehow I became Gavin’s personal handler during the event despite having never working in the entertainment industry. Not to mention, having to entertain his bandmates in a barely there backstage area. In the end, the event was a huge success and Gavin’s manager thanked us for a job well done, but not before telling me a little story first. Apparently, his first impression of me was that I was a bitchy, smoker who was overweight and about sixty-years-old. Although others may take that as an insult, I took it as a compliment. I think it meant that I finally let that inner “bad ass New York chick” out. Fortunately he said was, “pleasantly surprised” when he finally met me in person, which I think means I got the job done. However, you can bet that I did it with a San Diego smile.
Lights Out,
The Lamp (aka Krista)
Gavin DeGraw Playing in Central Park for Petco's National Adoption Reunion.
Keep working ,splendid job!