There are excellent bosses, teachers, encouragers in the world.

If you are lucky in the work force, you will encounter one of them in your lifetime.  Or maybe a couple of them…..or if you are really lucky, there will be many, many sincere people who say the right thing at the right time and make you feel better that day.

Just so you know where I am going with this….I love Alan Herzberger. He is the digital managing editor of NewsOk.  He is an encourager. He makes you feel like you can do whatever you think you can do…..and usually you can.  He has ideas.  They are great ideas and people listen when he talks.

Here is what he said about me on his very popular blog:

An afternoon break with Helen Ford

Wallace, the trendsetter

Helen is a trendsetter here at OPUBCO Communications Group.  And that’s no exaggeration. After getting to know her about five years ago, I gave her the “trendsetter” title much to her amusement.

I wasn’t amused. It’s the truth.

• It started with the blog.
• Then came the podcasts; she was the first to regularly bring in Oklahoma City’s heavy hitters to our podcast studios.
• Then came the niche publications; she was quick to participate and share her ideas for the OKC N Style magazine that we’ve produce over the past few years.
• Then came the videos. You can set your watch by her Parties Extra! video series. Every week, she delivers. Here’s the one from last week:
  .
• She’s made a career of being a hard worker and the ultimate ambassador for The Oklahoman (and now NewsOK.com and wimgo.com). And just to prove her trendsetter status, she was unafraid to shoot her own video and post to her blog I have a hunch we’ll see more of these posts in the future.And I have a hunch they will get better and better.”

Cecil’s 100th birthday from Parties Extra! on Vimeo.

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  After I read this, I cried.  It made me feel like a new person.  I was ready to  re-tackle  the world…..I wanted to write, edit, produce and do all those things he said I could do.

  And for the record, he is one of the people who thought I would write a novel when I said I was going to. Here is what I said about him ( and others) in the credits of the novel that I just finished.

  “Thanks to Alan Herzberger, Ford Sanger, Barbara Beeler, Lela Sullivan,  Linda James, Lillie-Beth Brinkman, Bill Wallace, Bennett Brinkman, Lee-Ann Graham, Carole Kelley, Susan Sigmon for believing that a book was forthcoming.”

  See, he is an encourager.

  One other encourager that I know was my first boss… Joan Gilmore. At that time she was Women’s Editor of The Daily Oklahoman. I had just finished college.

  I wrote feature stories for her. They were long ones at the time. Her editing style for my stories was that she did not change one word. They went into  the newspaper just as I wrote them. In her eyes, they were perfect.

  I became a better writer with that encouragement. If she thought that I could write, then I had better write.

  And I was a public relations graduate.

  My writing and my current production capabilities became much, much better with encouragement.

• And that is… thanks to Alan Herzberger!!