CEO at Ditto

Trey's Journey: Why Yours Matters

"Do what you are good at. Do what you enjoy."

That mantra has served me throughout my professional journey, and it has brought together the best group of talent I've ever seen at a PR firm.

From Dallas to Austin to DC to New York, the harder I worked, the more I learned, and the opportunities presented themselves to me. But I had to do it almost all on my own. No one taught me PR because my bosses were too busy to bother. 

On paper, my career was flourishing, but something was missing every step of the way. Each place I worked, I felt something was missing. I didn't like what I saw, how I was treated and how my colleagues were treated. But my bosses didn't listen to me, when I said things like, "Hey. We are on too many accounts." or "Is there a strategy behind just getting this client media coverage?" 

What was I missing? Being seen, listened to, heard, acknowledged and validated. 

Why was this missing? PR firms care more about profits than people, even though if you take care of your people, the profits come!

So, I just kept thinking that there had to be a better way. And I founded Ditto PR over 11 years ago under a simple vision that you take care of your employees first. 

Our Playbook really lays it out there: https://dittopr.co/playbook. 

But there are a few things that matter to me:
1. Don't hire jerks. Toxic employees ruin culture. Hire kind people that are willing to work hard. 
2. Don't chase new business. It's a distraction to your employees and impacts their work on current clients.
3. Listen and make changes. When your people say they need support or help or there's something wrong, make changes. 
4. Reward people for amazing work! We have monthly and quarterly performance bonuses. 
5. Give your people the time and space to do good work. They can't do that if they are in meetings all day and on a ton of accounts.

If this resonated with you, I'm at trey@dittopr.co. Let's chat!

Trey Ditto

Journalist, editor, and photographer with more than twenty-five years of experience covering technology, finance, entertainment, media, and other industries while quickly growing an audience. I have reported on the proliferation of artificial intelligence, cloud migration, startups, digital transformation, and the market dynamics that drive these changes.

Joao-Pierre Ruth

Obligatory Monday morning blizzard footage.

Now that I have your attention, let's have another chat about why your pitches get shot down.

Automated emails are nothing new in public relations. You're trying to hit those targets, get your clients featured on high-profile news sites, deliver on outreach.

Here's the problem.

You think you're pulling off a slick, no-look pass to a journalist when actually you keep chucking bricks into the bleachers.

It does not matter how much AI glazes up your email if you continuously pitch the wrong stories to the wrong outlets.

We are all under pressure to show we're doing our jobs better and faster than our peers. And unfortunately there's an assumption that AI delivers that like magic.

In practice, the pitches I have seen lately have gotten worse. 

A lot worse.

I aim to speak very clearly on what I look for in terms of stories or guests on the podcast. I am blunt so we can all focus and target our respective goals.

These days, I have to assume AI told folks it would be a good idea to pitch me without reading our stories or watching the podcast/vodcast.

So let me reiterate: Generic tech profiles are DOA. Just stop. We don't do that here.

End-user use cases where CIOs discuss what did and didn't work with their IT strategy? Please move to the front of the line.

Since I am snowed in today, I might record something later to further this conversation, but let's agree that AI glaze will not land you story placements. You still have to pay attention to who you pitch and why.

I am looking for guests for the InformationWeek Podcast this week on March 5.

Remember, the first rule of the podcast is that vendors CANNOT be guests on episodes that focus on products or services they offer.

The topic: "Governance, AI and BYOD"

How have you updated your data management and governance to accommodate AI and bring-your-own-device within your organization?
 
Recording time: 12 pm ET. 
 
Seeking one CIO, CTO, CISO, chief AI officer, or chief data officer, and one business-operations executive.

Potential guests, please email me at joao-pierre.ruth@informationweek.com

Wanted ASAP: Guests for this week's InformationWeek podcast.

Reminder--vendors cannot be panelists on episodes that speak to the products or services they offer.

Recording time: Feb 19. 12 pm ET.

Topic: "Re-engineering your supply chain to be resilient."

Seeking one CIO, CTO, CISO, chief AI officer, or chief data officer, and one business-operations executive to discuss what they need/have done with AI, blockchain, and other tech resources to make their supply chain more resilient vs external issues (weather, anything unexpected).

Ideally, share how a project to build up resilience benefited your company.


Potential guests, please email me immediately at joao-pierre.ruth@informationweek.com

Good morning. I am tweaking tomorrow's InformationWeek Podcast topic -- still need panelists, so reach out ASAP!

New topic: "How are you safeguarding your organization and ecosystem from external inputs in the face of AI?"

I am looking for CIOs, CISOs, and CTOs to speak on what they are doing to be on guard for AI "shenanigans" when weaving in external ecosystems AND other inputs, including hiring.

How do you make sure AI from a partner company doesn't reach where it shouldn't in your ecosystem? What are you doing to screen for AI fakery in potential recruits (remember what North Korea was able to pull off?) How do you stand watch for external AI shenanigans?


Remember, vendors cannot be guests on episodes with topics that relate to products they sell. 

Also, PR contacts, please confirm the availability of potential guests before you pitch.

Recording time: March 12 -- 12 pm ET

Please email me ASAP at joao-pierre.ruth@informationweek.com

InformationWeek Podcast schedule for March
 
Recording time for each episode will be 12 pm ET. 
 
Seeking one CIO, CTO, CISO, chief AI officer, or chief data officer, and one business-operations executive for each episode.
 
March 5
Governance, AI and BYOD: How have you updated your data management and governance to accommodate AI and bring-your-own-device within your organization?
 
March 12
CIO as Orchestrator: How are you integrating external ecosystems via startups and partners?
 
March 19
Quantum Slumber: Is quantum computing still part of your long-term IT planning, or has attention shifted to other tech?
 
March 26
New Architecture: Has the combination of edge, cloud, and AI accelerated the transformation of your architecture?
 
 
Potential guests, please email me at joao-pierre.ruth@informationweek.com

Before we escape to the weekend, a reminder about the InformationWeek podcast:

Vendors cannot be guests on episodes that speak to a product or service they offer.

Keeping comments vendor-neutral is not enough.

The conversation is aimed at CIOs, CTOs, etc., discussing how they address IT topics within their organizations as END USERS — not as vendors discussing what their customers might think or need.

The topic for Feb. 26 (12 pm ET): "Where did smaller AI models make sense for your organization?" 

Let's talk about how and when you (CIO, CTO, chief AI officer) used smaller models and why it made sense for your organization.

Potential panelists, please email me at joao-pierre.ruth@informationweek.com

taplio

The Battle

Trey Ditto

Joao-Pierre Ruth

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taplio

The Battle

Trey Ditto

Joao-Pierre Ruth

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Joao-Pierre Ruth's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreJoao-Pierre Ruth's LinkedIn Performance