The Good News and the People Making it Happen

Have you ever talked with someone in a professional setting, and they say, “No, I’m not busy.”

Even if they are stressing about slow business they still are “busy.” I have started using “good busy” or just busy.

If I am “good busy” then business is good, and I am taking care of my advertising customers, readers and radio listeners. When I am busy it usually means I am doing the things I have to do but that are not so fun. Like taxes or paying bills or one of the MANY reports for music licensing organizations.

Premiere Award season is certainly a very “good busy” time and this edition is proof of that! I have been selling advertising since 1991, so that means I have survived 34 award seasons at three different media companies. From “Best of Muskogee” to “Hometown Favorites” to “Premiere Awards,” celebrating small businesses’ success has been some of the most “good busy” in my career.

Top of Mind Awareness, or TOMA, may sound like old school but is as relevant today as it has always been. Branding practices get new wrapping and gorilla marketing includes internet functions that once were flyers on car windows but it all boils down to making an impression on the consumers so they think of you when they need your goods or services.

We do Premiere Awards the way we do with the intent of showing TOMA. We drive readers (and radio listeners) to go online and write in who they use or think of when they read each category. Then we tally in an Excel spreadsheet and get the winner. There are easier ways to do this, but we believe this is the most relevant way.

We hope you remember to use the list throughout the year (it stays on our Archive) whenever you want advice on goods and services you can buy locally and support your hometown businesses.

Congratulations to all our winners and let’s all get “good busy!”

-Dina Mason, General Manager & Publisher

May seemed so far away when we started my youngest son’s senior year at Greene County Tech, and yet here we are days away from his graduating and starting the next chapter of his life.

Our May edition celebrates local makers who use their talents in unique ways, and while Colter claims to not have an artistic bone in his body, he does enjoy making magic on the soccer field. For those who are not familiar with soccer, or football in most of the world, it is referred to as “The Beautiful Game” because of the formations, techniques and strategies used to advance the ball as a team.

I loved the fact that even some of our makers didn’t necessarily consider themselves to be artistic, but they found something they enjoyed and were talented at and embraced it. Perhaps for you that is something that produces a creative end result, or perhaps it is a hobby of a different sort.

No matter what, it’s a good time to find something you love and embrace it. High school graduates don’t have to be the only ones starting new chapters. We can all look for ways to plug in or ways to stand out. In the meantime, we hope you enjoy reading about some of our area makers and what got their creative juices flowing.

-Gretchen Hunt, Content Manager & Graphic Designer