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Years ago, a business owner who was a fellow member of NAWBO (National Association of Women Business Owners), said to me, “You are everywhere your clients are.” She was referring to the fact that whenever a client is having an event or receiving recognition or is looking for people to attend something, I always do my very best to be there.

Today, it’s called “showing up” and it’s often used in the context of being successful. In other words, having success (or at least making the effort) is equated with showing up – to work, to life, to your next endeavor. Indeed, people frequently measure others’ success by how many people “showed up” to support them.

Those words – showing up – came to mind recently when I attended a charity event at the invitation of a long-time business colleague. I accepted the invitation because I wanted to support him and his years of dedication to the charity.

When the president of the charity came to the podium to thank donors, sponsors and attendees, he also praised their PR team — one of the well-known, larger PR agencies in metro Detroit. I did not see the agency’s president at the event (someone I have met on a few occasions and even admire for all their professional accomplishments). That observation made me think about this remark from so many years ago about “showing up” for clients. If this charity was my client, I probably would have been at the event to show my support for their organization.

Filmmaker Woody Allen is quoted as saying, “Eighty percent of success is showing up.”

I have really taken this to heart in my business. Granted, I can’t make every client event or milestone, but I think I have easily attended at least 80 percent of them over the years. (And this may have been the case for the other agency’s president  — that their schedule just didn’t allow them to be present at their client’s event.) In certain instances, when I haven’t been able to be there, I have sent other Logos team members in my place. But in the majority of cases, it’s me “showing up.”

So if 80 percent is a benchmark, then I will continue to strive to meet – and exceed it — when it comes to a client’s milestone event, anniversary, celebration, award presentation or other special occasion.

If that’s a performance standard that is important to your business when it comes to engaging a PR team, then I hope you will consider reaching out to me.

–Sue Voyles