Why EOP?
The genesis of the name EOP Media is a very personal story. When I began marketing my services locally, I believed – erroneously – that people would accept just initials without question; but I was incorrect. So, in the spirit of being adaptive, I am including this tribute to my grandmother to explain what EOP means and why it is important to me. More importantly, I will explain why it should be important to you.
Pearl McCoy Mason was born in 1912 and at the time of this writing, she is 95 years old, living with her daughter and working three days a week, teaching arts and crafts at a nursing home. It is her essence that I share with you in each engagement. I use the word essence because she didn’t raise us to be identical; she raised us to be better, therefore, we don’t live out her likeness but her spirit.
Understanding the true Essence of Pearl (EOP) requires a brief introduction to her life. Pearl McCoy was born in Arkansas in the midst of the Jim Crow era. Her skin was very fair and she had long silky black hair. This appearance gave her an advantage others of that time period longed for; she could have chosen to live her life as a, Caucasian, American Indian or Hispanic woman but she choose to take the more difficult road. This choice was based on her love for family which was important to her even at a young age.
Family doesn’t seem to be an essential element of good marketing but choosing to forgo an opportunity to escape the hatred of Jim Crow is an act of selflessness. It is in this spirit of selflessness that I learned to respect the needs of others. Understanding is almost second nature once you learn respect. The ability to understand the perspective of others is what enables me an helps me create marketing and communications plans that speak to different people on different levels.
Many, many years ago, Momma Pearl (as we lovingly call her) married Fred Mason and moved to Chicago, IL to raise a family of eight children. My first remembrance of her is from the family home on Sawyer Street. Ordinarily, the home itself wouldn’t be important but in this instance, that home became the center of our family; a place we would all call home, even when we lived somewhere else.
It is in this home that I learned the next two lessons that would impact my ability as a communicator – acceptance and hospitality. Everyone we brought into the house was accepted as family and treated as such. Acceptance is core to adaptability and is the reason I can easily accept new ideas. I don’t have to think of the idea for it to be good but I can recognize a good idea and develop a strategy to make it successful. As a matter of fact, EOP, wasn’t my idea. It was first given to me by another member of the family but I recognized it as special and made it my own.
This is where hospitality comes in. When you can take a person you have never met and treat him or her like family; that is true hospitality. My foundation in hospitality is how I am able to take ideas presented by others and care for them as if they are my own. Most importantly, I know how to usher the idea back to its rightful owner once it is fully developed and operational.
Momma Pearl taught many lessons but these are the only ones I wish to share. More importantly, these are the lessons EOP employees draw from every time we sit down to develop a marketing strategy or communications plan. When you are a client of EOP, you do not invest in services only; your real investment is in the spirit in which those services are delivered. You are investing in the Essence of Pearl. We promise our firm will be true to her essence in every engagement.