Lisbeth Wiley Champan
Principal, Ink & Air
Author, "Get Media Smart!"

Portions of the following reprinted with permission from Solo Act, a monthly column about PR practitioners working solo, from "News& Views" a newsletter of the Boston Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America

A former vice president of public relations for Putnam investments, Chapman had over two decades of PR under her belt before joining the Boston investment giant, where in the 1980s she handled national media relations for an investment staff of 130. But commuting and the glass ceiling were not to her taste. In 1991 she took her Rolodex and left the firm, making a beeline for plum retainer opportunities with independent investment advisors. She knew that market well from a previous stint at an Ohio company. Public speaking engagements and publishing --Chapman is the author of 'Get Media Smart,' a multimedia guide to marketing PR for financial firms -- also helped bring in clients.

She invested in technology to launch her new business, but also bought a new pink hat! "I'm no slave to fashion," she says, emphatically. "But my hats get me recognition everywhere from the security desk at the Wall Street Journal to producers' offices at CNBC. Clients love that on a media tour." Her "hat trick" and skills honed over 3 decades in PR have won her clients, plenty of valuable print exposure and national air time. Financial planners, investment advisors and money managers across the US turn to her for PR counsel.

Beth calls her sole practitioner's practice Ink & Air, but for those who have visited her Cape Cod home office, a better name might be "Heaven On Earth." Her home office is perched on the brow of a pine-covered sand dune in Wellfleet within the National Seashore Park. Chapman's field of view from her desk (the financial markets aside) includes a pair of red-tailed hawks hunting in a nearby marsh, wild turkeys in the driveway and a host of raccoon, deer and fox.

When not distracted by the wildlife, Chapman's monthly "Trends" newsletter carries great story ideas to a precisely targeted 200 plus reporters and editors at trade, consumer and business financial publications, plus broadcast outlets and Web sites.

from "No Better Place For A Sole!" by Peter Golden