CKC Public Relations, a boutique public and media relations firm located in Farmington Hills, is pleased to announce an expansion in services for its current and future clients. To reflect this change, the firm has also taken on a new name – CKC agency – which more accurately reflects its new business model.

For the past 30 years, CKC Public Relations has been offering superior PR services for small to medium size businesses and companies throughout the greater Detroit area – primarily focusing on media relations, promotions and publicity. With the company’s recent expansion and merger with an LA-based PR firm, CKC agency is now better equipped to offer a full range of communications services, including brand development and management, marketing, social media, advertising, event planning, photography and photo shoot styling, strategic partnership development and copy writing – in addition to continued PR and media relations work.

This shift in the way the agency serves its clients is reflective of the changing ways the public is interacting and engaging with companies and businesses. Gone are the days of companies issuing press releases and expecting the public to buy in. The public is demanding to be an integral part of the action, the business plans, and communications approaches. Companies are learning that disjointed communications tactics can often hurt, not help them. Now, instead of hiring individual firms to focus on various aspects of communications efforts (an ad agency that handles paid advertisements, a graphic designer creating brochures, etc.), they are instead looking for agencies that can approach communications from a comprehensive, all-inclusive approach. CKC agency’s new direction for communications solutions allows them to become a stronger asset for their clients, and approach communications strategically.

“Public relations has become much more than press releases and creative publicity,” said Carolyn Krieger-Cohen, owner of CKC agency. “It’s really about building and strengthening a brand, and approaching how we talk about your brand in a unified way from all angles. That’s the real difference in whether a brand truly succeeds or just gets by.”

The team at CKC agency is excited about this new structure, and looks forward to not only continuing to help their clients thrive, but also empower them to be even more creative and focused.

My first couple weeks in Michigan have been great, with new adventures and experiences every day – like scraping icy snow off my car and slipping and sliding a little bit while wearing my usually sidewalk-safe Ugg boots. 

It’s made me reflect a little bit on the life I’ve left behind in Los Angeles and realize that I’ve learned a few things living on the West Coast that could be helpful for my life (and yours!) here in Detroit.

Los Angeles is one of the nation’s biggest fashion, entertainment and music cities, where the pursuit of glitz, glamour and being part of the “in” crowd is sought after more than the newest pair of Louboutins. Some of the L.A. stereotypes are definitely true – the swaying palm trees, sun-filled sidewalk lunches on Sunset Blvd., tiny dogs in expensive purses and skinny boys in skinny jeans.  But there are also some really special things about L.A. that I’ll miss – the melting pot of cultures, the Mexican food (that one is really personal for me!), the amazing artists and designers who move from all over the world to come create magic, and the always-reliable warm sun waiting to greet you every day.

That being said, here are some lessons I’ve learned that might apply to folks living outside Hollyweird.

1. Fake it till you make it.  If there’s one thing I’ve learned living and working in L.A. it’s that nothing or no one is really what it seems, and believe it or not – it works! I’ve seen women and men you’d swear had to be “somebody” work the room and have all eyes on them just by looking amazing, approachable and smiling at everyone who passes by. I’ve seen street corner musicians play at The Roxy, a struggling fashion designer dress A-list celebrities and waiter-by-day/actor-by-night types land TV roles. Were they just lucky? Perhaps. Did they fall into the right place at the right time? Maybe. But one thing they all have in common is their belief in themselves, in their craft, and in their capability to achieve what they set out to do. They look the part, walk tall and are their own best publicists – sharing their stories with anyone with an open ear. As cliché as it may sound, the first step to success is believing in yourself. Eventually, everyone else will start to as well.

2. It’s who you know – and who you may already know We’ve all heard the saying “it’s who you know,” but what you might not realize is that it could also be who you already know. Talking to people really is key, and so is sharing your business ideas or ventures whenever and however you can. Your friend may have a friend who has a friend who knows someone. If you’re at a dinner party or event, strike up a conversation next to the most unassuming person in the place. In Hollywood, it’s the administrative assistants, secretaries and Jr. Account Executives who really have the power. They often control who and what make it to their bosses’ desk, so always remember to be nice to the little guys.

3. Sometimes, not getting what you want is a good thing.  After living in a very “yes” city, where empty promises are offered up as easily as a few shots of Botox, I’ve learned not to get my hopes up too much about many things. This doesn’t mean having a negative outlook on life, or even having low expectations, but instead being open to the idea that things that don’t quite work out, well…work out. I’ve seen clients have their hearts set on being featured on a particular show, or partnering with a particular organization – at the risk of having blinders on to other opportunities that pass them by. When things haven’t gone as they’ve dreamed or planned, more often than not the REAL right door opens by what seems like chance, and ends up being even bigger and better than they’ve ever dreamed of.

To read the entire article, visit Carolyn Krieger-Cohen, Metro You Magazine: April 2011.

When it comes to outdoor spaces, Stacy Feldman, senior landscape designer with Four Seasons Garden Center in Oak Park, focuses on the big picture.

“I believe one’s garden and home should be viewed as natural extensions of each other, blending together as a whole to accommodate family life, as well as to provide the ability to retreat in either direction”, she says. “Ultimately, it would be my goal to extend this philosophy throughout an entire neighborhood, blending the individual personalities of each residence into a cohesive environment to be enjoyed by all.”

This year marks the 30th anniversary of Four Seasons Garden Center, owned by Glen Goldberg.  Though Feldman says the current trend in gardening is going with a a purpose, experienced gardeners will say it’s always been that way.  But each gardener’s purpose can be as unique as the garden.

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Open a newspaper or visit a news website and you’re bound to find stories about food safety, food recalls, or other food-processing issues.  The food industry is continually searching for food-processing techniques that result in great-tasting, safely prepared foods with a long shelf life. Enter high-pressure processing (HPP), or pascalization, a unique method of sterilizing and preserving foods that is making inroads in this country.

Jack Aronson, owner of Garden Fresh Gourmet, the largest all-natural salsa company in North America that uses HPP in it’s processing, believes the benefits of HPP are plentiful.  “HPP allows companies to make all natural-products that have an extremely long shelf life and maintain the integrity of the product’s flavor,” Aronson says.  “With HPP, there is no after-taste from preservatives or negative health effects of preseratives.  The drawbacks mainly have to do with expense.  To purchase and set up one HPP machine, it costs nearly $3 million. Plus, once you have the machine, you need a 24-hour support team for maintenance.  Every night there is a two-hour breakdown for maintenance – oiling valves and such.  It’s expensive, but we think it’s completely worth it.”

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Growing up, Danielle B. Mayoras was inspired by how her father helped people as an attorney.  She knew from an early age that she too wanted to use the law to aid people in getting the results they needed.  In her own words, however, “I was more of a hand holder than a debater.” It was her idealism that would carry her to law school and help her become a successful attorney.

In the last five years she’s set aside her client practice to take on more of a teaching role, educating professionals, businesses and the general public about estate planning, special needs planning and elder law.  Along with her husband, probate Attorney Andrew Mayoras, she authored, “Trial and Heirs: Famous Fortune Fights!”, a look at high-profile celebrity estate battles and how everyday people can avoid the same pitfalls.

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When you’re reigning atop your music field, you’ve got two ways to go. You can keep playing it safe, trying not to disrupt a good thing. Or you can use your leverage to take some risks, hoping to pull fans along on your adventurous ride.

If you’re in the latter camp, you’ve got a friend in Dierks Bentley, the platinum-selling country radio fave who’s decided to take a dramatic detour.

Bentley’s upcoming sixth album, “Up on the Ridge”, is a collection of real-deal bluegrass and Americana music, peppered with covers of tunes by Bob Dylan and U2.  Due in stores June 8, it includes guests such as Alison Krauss, Miranda Lambert and Kings of Leon’s Angelo Petraglia and features the instrumental work of top-shelf roots musicians such as the Punch Brothers and Del McCoury Band.

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Rachel and Chris Hulen had their eye on a house. Rachel, who grew up in West Bloomfield, met her husband, Chris, from Bradenton, Fla., when they were both attending medical school in Miami, she studying radiology and he, spinal surgery.  After their daughter, Phoebe, now 5, was born (son Jack is 2), they returned to Rachel’s native Michigan and took a rental in Huntington Woods until they new if their relocation was permanent. In the meantime, they often would admire a sprawling window-lined Cape Cod going up in their neighborhood that happened to be for sale.

Confirmed to be Michiganders for good, the couple called the builder. “We purchased the home when it was nearly complete and had the chance to be involved with many of the interior finishes – and, of course, the landscape,” says Rachel.

Their first step was to call Four Seasons Garden Center, in Oak Park and Birmingham, as they had admired the company’s designs on homes throughout their neighborhood, and began work with master gardener Stacy Feldman.

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In April 2001, the Detroit Jewish News published a cover story on a 24-year-old psychic medium named Rebecca Perelman, a transplant from Omaha, Neb., who working out of a coffee shop on Orchard Lake Road in West Bloomfield, delivered messages from energies on “the other side”, hoping to “bring peace of mind, comfort, healing and direction” to clients who had lost their loved ones.

After that article – and it’s client testimonials about her specific, spot-on messages, all delivered in a loving manner- “the phone rang off the hook”.

“That story changed my life,” says Rosen, who married her husband of 8 1/2 years, Brian Rosen, just two months after the article appeared. “It was a launching pad that gave me the platform to come out and share my gift, demystifying the paranormal.”

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When you are a self-professed psychic medium and you hear dead people, sometimes you just have to turn down the volume. Rebecca Rosen says she’ll be in line at the grocery store when she is mentally bombarded by spirits, specifically the deceased loved ones of the strangers in front of her.

“If I’m standing in the checkout line behind them, and I hear a name over and over again, the only way to know if it is real is to ask the person in front of me, ” says Rosen, a 33-year-old mother of two who first started delivering psychic readings in a West Bloomfield coffee shop 10 years ago.  “But then I ask myself, ‘Should I cross that line?’, and ‘Are they ready to hear it?’ And I usually hear a ‘no.’”

There are plenty of people, however, who are tuned in and ready to hear what Rosen says dead people are telling her. She is booked nearly three years in advance for readings – $275 for a half hour or $500 for an hour.  On Monday, 800 people will pay $30 to $60 apiece to attend a group reading at the Rock Financial Center in Novi.

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