MissingWordSolutions.com specializes in public relations, journalism, corporate thought leadership, marketing content development, website development and content management, social media strategies, and podcast development.

We are not an advertising agency or a marketing group. MissingWordSolutions.com is a creative-services brokerage with the capability to provide a broad range of scalable options designed to meet the marketing and communications needs of businesses and organizations of any size.

Principal Points

By: Greg Thompson

In the more than 30 years I’ve worked in the field of communications, I have literally written thousands of biographies on everyone from high school all-star team honorees to CEOs of publicly held companies. Yet, in all that time, I cannot recall taking the time to write what I would consider to be my own “corporate biography.” And I don’t plan to break that long streak in this space.

From my perspective, a person’s corporate biography is not simply defined by the various positions within a career path. The more telling aspect of a person’s career story is examining the impact you made while doing the job. How did you make the most of the opportunity? How did you make a difference for those you served?

Over the years, I’ve had countless opportunities to collaborate and connect with many wise and talented people while working in a variety of disciplines within the field of communications. Whether it was journalism, corporate thought leadership development, public relations, marketing, website management, social media strategy, or audiovisual production work, I’ve always valued the chance to work with people and focus on taking various pieces of the puzzle to assemble a strategic approach designed to deliver results.

Through MissingWordSolutions.com, I plan to play to my strengths and experience as a communicator while utilizing the talents and abilities of the professionals associated with our network. By focusing on my strengths in various disciplines and serving as an agent for creative-service providers collaborating on client projects, MissingWordSolutions.com is seeking to take a different approach to marketing communications.

As we begin to test the waters and roll out our services, our philosophy is simple and familiar: Understand the value of staying in our lane. Do what we do best. Play to our skills and experience. Dedicate ourselves to bringing value to our clients. Make a positive impact through our work by delivering a meaningful difference to our clients.

When called upon to seek out and develop new solutions, we will work to be innovative in finding the right answers. In addition to producing great work, we want to have fun along the creative journey.

At the end of the day, or at the end of an assignment, I hope our work through MissingWordSolutions.com leaves a lasting impression of excellence. I believe that every day is an audition. One of the thoughts that keeps me humble is that you are only as good as the next thing you do.

I have spent many years working within the transportation industry, with a particular focus on trucking. Transportation companies are measured by their ability to deliver.

Once, when I congratulated a CEO on an award his company had won for on-time delivery in a highly time-definite sector of the trucking industry, he said that while he was glad the company had been recognized for its 99.6 percent on-time success rate, he was still looking at how the company could close the remaining 0.4 percent gap.

In the world of marketing communications, public relations, journalism, and production work, one of the most significant measurements of effectiveness is how well you connect with your audience. Did you take them somewhere new? Did you take them somewhere familiar in a new way? What impression did you leave? Given the opportunity, did you take an approach that had never before been tried in that particular way? In other words, did you leave your audience with a “wow” moment?

Many years ago, a friend let me borrow a book about the life of Little Richard, one of the pioneers of rock and roll. In the 1950s, as Little Richard, Chuck Berry, and Jerry Lee Lewis began to achieve success, a promoter decided to put the three future Rock and Roll Hall of Famers on the same tour.

Each performer played for about 30 minutes, and they took turns in the order of appearance. The most coveted position, of course, was closing the show.

As the book related, the tour was preparing to visit St. Louis, Chuck Berry’s hometown. Unfortunately for Chuck, Jerry Lee Lewis was scheduled to be the final act because it was his turn to close the show. Chuck asked Jerry Lee whether he would consider trading positions so Chuck could close the show in his hometown. According to the book, Jerry Lee hesitated before agreeing.

One provision of the trade allowed Jerry Lee to play in the second position that night. Jerry Lee had a surprise for Chuck and the hometown audience.

During Jerry Lee’s finale of “Great Balls of Fire,” he reportedly pulled out a can of lighter fluid and sprayed it across his piano. At the perfect moment in the song, he struck a match, and the piano became a literal ball of fire.

The crowd reportedly went wild, and the auditorium had to be cleared for safety while the piano was extinguished. Talk about a “wow” moment. No one had seen anything like it on stage at that point.

The best part of the story occurred when Jerry Lee walked off the stage and saw Chuck waiting in the wings. With his guitar strapped on and ready to perform, Chuck could only watch as the auditorium was being cleared. Jerry Lee reportedly walked up to him and said something along the lines of, “Okay, let’s see you top that.”

From my perspective, the challenge is not simply whether you can do good work. There are countless excellent practitioners in marketing communications and in the disciplines MissingWordSolutions.com has chosen to serve.

The real challenge for those of us working in marketing communications, public relations, journalism, and production services is the ability to answer these questions: Given the opportunity, did you leave a lasting mark? Did you perform work or provide a level of service that no one had seen before? Did you top what you accomplished on the previous assignment?

To bring it back to our 1950s rock-and-roll story, did you provide the kind of performance that had the figurative ability to set the piano on fire and wow your clients?

Everyone involved with MissingWordSolutions.com seeks to be that kind of memorable performer for our clients.

Well, my record of not drafting a corporate biography for myself remains unblemished. To review my career experience prior to founding MissingWordSolutions.com, please click here.