“To be clear, your services are no longer needed.”
Gasp! Shock! Horror! How did this happen, wondered Trixie, the marketing and PR maven who leverages her 25 plus years of experience with Fortune 500 companies to bring value to clients? The professional who has delighted clients since starting her business in 2007, who is currently buried in work and enjoys a varied client mix including law firms, energy services companies and an international asset integrity corporation?
Easy. She lost her way.
Trixie’s tale of woe is not unusual. Like other savvy sole practitioners, she started out with a well-crafted business plan laying out, among other things, a marketing strategy to reach her target audiences as well as a fee structure for worked rendered. From there, she created her brand through online and personal interaction; the latter of which included association participation, lunches, dinners and topical speeches at numerous organizations. In the beginning, she took any work she could get, lowering her fees to build her business and gain credibility in the local market. In time, things got rolling.
What Trixie did NOT do is adjust her business plan to embrace growth. She didn’t consider how to continue offering quality services to new clients while already at full capacity, or how to say no to people who wanted something for nothing, or next to nothing. Next to nothing was fine–although not great–in the beginning, but she didn’t stop to realize that it was impossible now.
So, when Trixie found herself across the table from a friendly, prospective client at a quaint coffee shop, she kindly agreed to help the client out by writing a multi-page web site for the cost of, well, a short blog post. Was she smoking her hair, you ask? No one knows for sure. Either way, the stage was set for failure, and any consultant can recite the rest: Trixie unintentionally pushed the low-paying project aside for clients who payed her full rate. She couldn’t outsource the work because she wasn’t charging enough to begin with. She asked for extensions. The quality wasn’t there. She made the client angry. The client said bye-bye.
This being the first tarnished mark on Trixie’s otherwise sterling reputation, she was mortified. And although some people would say good riddance to a low-paying project, Trixie wrote a list of reminders to ensure this would never happen again. If you’re a consultant or small business owner:
- Revisit your business plan once per year. Adjust your marketing strategy and fee structures to embrace growth, or other factors impacting your business. Be in touch with where you have been, and where you want to go.
- Charge what you’re worth. Trixie decided after this unfortunate affair that unless she’s starving, she will never again offer something for next to nothing. She meant to help the client, but by offering an unrealistic discount she could not sustain the project in light of higher paying work with tight deadlines.
- Ask for half your fee at the outset of a project. Many consultants ask for half the estimated fee up front, which requires clients to have some skin in the game. By the time Trixie’s client told her to take a hike, she had already spent 10 hours on the project. Trixie can pretty much kiss those hours goodbye.
- Remember that a reputation is a terrible thing to waste. Just like a major corporation’s reputation can be destroyed by one, single, bad incident, a consultant’s reputation can be negatively impacted by one frustrated client. The word “no” is much easier than rebuilding what is lost when you make a bad impression.
I hope Trixie’s tale of woe may be useful to you as you interact with clients of all sizes and needs. Who really is this Trixie, you ask? Hmm, I’ll never tell.
Filed under: Marketing
I just returned from one of the grandest cities in the world: Dubai. While memories of desert safaris, camel rides and dinner atop the Burg Al Arab fill my head, something else lingers: the Muslim women I met along the way.
During my time there, I had the opportunity to go on private tours of mosques, local homes, and even a charity center for women and children. In each and every scenario, rich or poor, young or old, every Muslim woman during every organized tour repeated the same six things:
- We are happy.
- We are independent.
- We are not oppressed.
- We are honored by our husbands and our children.
- No one forces us to cover ourselves with an abaya; it is tradition.
- Don’t believe what hear from the media. They’re wrong.
Dubai is the second largest emirate in the UAE. It ranks as the UAE’s most important port and commercial center. Spurred by oil production and vast property development, prior to 2009 the city boasted GDP growth rate of 21.9 percent. With the recent global recession, though, Dubai has taken an economic hit. It would make sense, then, that Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai, has encouraged his citizens to present a positive public image to western tourists and investors whose opinions have been shaped by 9/11 and the media.
Which brings me back to the six key messages. “I’m not buying it!” said a fellow American on our tour of the charity center. “They’re wrapped in black cloth and they don’t like to have their photos taken. How can they be happy or independent?” Further discussion ensued by the pool of our five-star resort, but I debated that we were not in the position to judge a culture we didn’t understand. I also pointed out that our hosts were careful to differentiate themselves from Muslim women of Afganistan and other regions, where oppression and abuse detailed in books like Infidel, by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, exist.
If anything, as a marketing person I respect the strategic thinking behind the government’s branding efforts: utilize the voices of women to combat the western world’s primarily negative view of Islam. What’s more, some of the women were themselves westerners who converted to Islam, and our Italian tour guide–who was not Muslim at all–spoke sincerely of the love she has for her adopted country.
My marketing/PR blog is not the place for philosophical debates over religion and politics, but without question, the Muslim women of Dubai appeared honest in their convictions, so I am convinced that their six messages are true–at least to them. This in itself proves that whether people “buy it” or not, the Dubai government has visitors pondering a religion and culture previously shaped for many of us by burning towers and frightening headlines. This, in my mind, hints at successful messaging, no matter what our culture or faith may be.
Wrapped up: In front of a mosque in Dubai
Filed under: Marketing
The new executive called me to talk about his marketing vision for the company. Seeing as this is my largest client, I was all ears. I wrote copious notes, asking in-depth questions and impressing him (hopefully) with my marketing prowess. Until he said it: “We must eat our own dog food.” Being the owner of three dogs, my mind immediately went to the fact that our geriatric spaniel is out of Hill’s Science Diet for Seniors. At the end of our talk, he said it again. Just for fun, I decided to put his phrase on Facebook to see if my cyper-buddies knew the meaning of the term. Among the answers:
- “Not a clue. Please enlighten.”
- “It’s a dog eat dog world and I’m wearing milkbone underwear.”
- “This is loosely (very loosely) related… to something I heard recently: You can spray Febreeze on dogs**t, but it’s still dogs**t. You can’t make a crappy product or service good just by marketing it better.”
- “Microsoft uses the term meaning they must use their own software in their offices. No Macs in Redmond!”
- ” It’s also called dogfooding. It shows confidence in your product and also increases product awareness. It’s supposedly taken from ancient Lorne Greene commercials, where Greene pitched Alpo and said he feeds his own dogs Alpo.”
Other than the first two jokers, everyone got it right. But I wonder: Do we get it right every day? How quickly do those of us who communicate for a living take a product or service, assess points of differentiation, and start marketing without considering true brand loyalty? And, given the unsavory Febreeze reference above, is the brand even worth embracing?
For those who are asked by employers or clients to craft marketing strategies and implement measurable tactics, the first question might be: Do your employees embrace your vision in a manner that makes them advocate for your brand? If not, there is serious work to do. At a recent American Marketing Association/Houston Chapter event, Will Trout, the Director of Internal Communications for BBVA Compass, spoke about the vital nature of employee loyalty when building a brand. Just a few ways to get people walking the talk:
- Work closely with business areas and internal support units to determine areas of differentiation, including specific businesses, products and technology, and formulate your marketing and PR around these areas to increase [internal] brand awareness.
- Deploy proof points of the brand story internally, increasing employee understanding of the direction of the organization and excitement about the future.
- Leverage community and corporate responsibility initiatives to enhance brand awareness, instilling a sense of local community support and increasing visibility.
My 10 cents? People are smart. A brand is a brand only if you live it and advocate for it. If not, prospective and current customers will take notice, and your reputation–be it the quality of your services or the integrity of your products–will be negatively impacted.
Call it what you want: Walk the talk, advocate for your company, believe in the brand…either way, you better do it or you’ll find yourself in the dog house. Woof to that!
Filed under: Crisis Communications
Say what you will about Tiger Woods. In fact, don’t. We’ve said it all over the past three months, and it’s not my desire to condone or condemn the man. I’d rather assess something closer to my heart: communication. More specifically, how he has chosen to communicate with the public (or not) since the now infamous moment in which he fled his home in his SUV.
I was prepared to be annoyed or dismayed by this morning’s press conference, in which Woods addressed the public for the first time since the November 2009 incident. I didn’t even watch his press conference this morning, but I’ve seen the clips and I read the transcript word for word. Go figure, but I find myself amazed. In awe. Fascinated. By his behavior? No. By his control. And when I speak of control, I’m talking about every aspect of his personal crisis management. Let’s assess his media relations actions and apply them to situations closer to home:
- Control of timing: Woods chose to avoid public communication for three entire months. In crisis management, each scenario must be considered individually. In the case of Toyota, media interviews and press conferences had to occur much sooner, and in most corporate crisis situations should occur as quickly as possible. With a celebrity, perhaps not so much. I felt he should have spoken immediately, but now I think he was right to wait; to let things calm down a bit, to allow the initial shock of his fans to settle, and so on. The message here is not about waiting a long time before communicating, but about determining when is the right time for yourself, or your company, to address the public.
- Control of environment. Although reporters and golf fans alike sniffed at Woods’ very selective group of onlookers for this morning’s media address, he clearly made his choice based on who he trusted. Corporations do not have the luxury of picking and choosing media during an incident like a pipeline eruption or workplace violence, but they do have the right to determine when and where they will speak. By selecting a location away from dramatic backdrops like fires or angry crowds, a spokesperson can focus on the message and avoid unnecessarily negative footage on the 6 p.m. news.
- Control of message. Tiger Woods knows, and pretty much stated, that there are many questions people have about more personal aspects of his situation, such as when he cheated, and with whom. He declared that this information belongs between him, and his wife, and that is where it will stay. He instead focused on his humiliation at having let down family, friends, business partners, and children who have benefitted from his foundation. Similarly, when an organization comes before the media to describe an incident or a developing situation, not all information must be shared. You can select the content you will communicate; it doesn’t need to be based only on what the media is asking. On the other hand, keep in mind that if your goal is to build community trust where you have a facility, you may not get there by being tight-lipped about a fire at your plant site.
Mr. Woods, despite his human weaknesses, may be much more in control than I’d ever have imagined. At least when it comes to communication and media relations! What are your thoughts? Weigh in by leaving a comment below.
Filed under: Government Affairs
“Really? You did that? They let you in?” Such was the response from a wide-eyed friend after I described my latest visit to Washington D.C. to meet with legislators for tuberous sclerosis complex research funding. Her comments reminded me of how I used to view the hallowed halls of our elected officials before I had a child with an unknown disorder that wreaks havoc with all the vital organs, causing a variety of really bad things. Despite the fact that members of congress are elected by the people and I am indeed a person, connecting the dots between my child’s disease and lobbying for research funding never entered my mind.
That was 17 years ago. Since then, hundreds of us–doctors, parents, specialists, educators and others–come together in Washington D.C. each spring to let our voices be heard in an organized, respectful and results-driven way. The result? Well, not everyone knows about tuberous sclerosis, but we’ve moved the dial considerably from “How do I pronounce it?” to “I think I’ll support your request.” And while our initiative has far to go before we find a cure for TSC, we are indeed receiving funding for grants that will impact not only those with the disease, but others with related disorders such as epilepsy, autism, kidney disease and even cancer.
It all started with one gentleman, whose heartbreak over his twin granddaughters made him reach out to congress. More on that another time, but here’s the point of this post: Is there something you feel very strongly about? Would you like to communicate with your elected official on the matter? You won’t believe how easy it is! Consider the steps below:
- Call the offices of your two senators and the representatives for your state, to make an appointment. (You do NOT need to go to Washington D.C. to meet with your officials. You can do it close to home.) Find out who your Senators are at www.senate.gov. In the upper right hand corner there is a menu entitled “Find Your Senator” and then select your state. Local representatives can be identified at https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml.
- Once you are on the page for your congressional representative, there should be information and instructions on the best way to schedule a meeting with them. You can also call their Washington D.C. office and to speak with their scheduler. They may ask you to email or fax the request. If so, please ask the scheduler for the appropriate email address.
- Expect that your visit will only be 10 or 15 minutes long.
- To prepare for your visit, reach out to others with the same cause. Ask them to write a letter about how the cause has affected their lives. If possible, compile photographs. This is especially important when you are meeting with representatives from districts other than your own.
- Don’t be disappointed if you don’t get to meet directly with your senator or representative. Key staff are very important and can convey your message effectively (no matter how young they look).
- Even if you are nervous, remember – you know much more about your issue than they do.
- Tell the person, as succinctly as possible, what you are seeking .
- Tell your personal story. Bring the letters and photos you collected to show.
- If you are unable to answer their questions, don’t try to fake it. Tell them you will get back to them with a response. This is actually a good thing because it gives you an opportunity to have even more contact later.
- Ask for a commitment. Listen carefully to the response.
- Bring a camera and ask to get a picture with them for your local paper.
- If you meet with a staff member, please make sure you ask for that individual’s business card. Make sure this card includes the staff member’s email address. If it is not printed on the card, ask the staff member to provide it to you.
- Send a follow-up thank you note.
- If your local paper prints a story about your visit, send that along with another thank you note.
- Remember, it’s all about relationships!
Our annual trek to Washington D.C. is this February 24; wish me luck! In the meantime, I wish you luck in considering causes that are worthy of your time, energy and outreach. If outreach includes government lobbying, remember it’s easy to get started. Follow the steps above and you’re on your way!
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- L to R: Anne Reilly, Lucy Martinez and MJ Mudd; Texas parents paving Washington D.C. pavement for a good cause
Filed under: Marketing
Thank goodness I have a sense of humor.
The crisp, white, formal-looking letter, written to “The Parents of Mackenzie Mudd,” made me sit up and take notice. But a quick perusal of the subject matter brought a familiar needle prick to the heart: This was the second such letter in a month from the same organization, imploring us to use its college admission consulting services for Mackenzie’s collegiate pursuits. The needle prick gave way to amusement, and I pulled out my laptop to write this e-mail:
Dear Friends at Vernon, Brookwhite and Peters,*
Thank you for your letter regarding college admission consulting for our 17-year-old daughter, Mackenzie. I have received two such letters from you over the past few months. However, please remove me from your list since Mackenzie suffers from a disorder called tuberous sclerosis complex, which, among other things, causes varying degrees of mental retardation. I’m sure you didn’t know this, so there is no offense taken. You can keep us on the list for our other children, though, who will soon be 13 and 10, respectively. I’m sure that whatever database supplied you with Mackenzie’s name will supply you with theirs as well. Thank you!
I figured I should be nice. There’s no point in ranting and raving. Plus, I may hit them up for a donation at the next walkathon. (“Remember me? You sent a college admissions letter for our special needs child? Don’t you feel just horrible about that? How about $100 for our cause?!”) With a smile on my face, I hit “send.”
Their snafu fascinates me. Knowing your audience is as foundational to marketing as bricks and mortar to building a house. Could these people really be that stupid? Probably not. They were just victims of DME: Direct Marketing Embarrassment.
How else can you explain it? The people at Vernon, Brookwhite and Peters are probably a well-meaning bunch who just want to make an honest dollar. They purchased a school district mailing list, culled it for families with 17-year-olds, and distributed their letters accordingly. All done, right?
Wrong! What they did not do is scratch beyond the surface of their data. They did not apply statistical techniques to truly assess the names and profiles of the teens they were pursuing. They certainly didn’t employ software programs designed for marketing purposes. They might have requested a school district special education list and compared it to the general list they were using, but alas, it’s unlikely this happened either. The result: Dreaded DME. If you read it like it’s on a license plate, DME isn’t all that far from “dummy.” After all, DME doesn’t just happen on its own–marketers let it happen.
Vernon’s mistake is forgivable, and I might even use their consulting services some day if they stop sending those confounded Mackenzie letters. On the other hand, what if the Vernon gang was a law firm, sending invitations or article reprints to a deceased general counsel at a large corporation? I’ve seen this happen, and trust me, it isn’t pretty. If you were the new general counsel, would you be interested in the services of a firm that won’t take the time to get your name straight? How about the invitations to association events based on jobs we had a decade ago? Annoying, let alone a waste of the association’s time and marketing budget. The list goes on.
What to do? Consider thinking beyond just buying and using a bulk list; instead, apply the principles of database marketing. Put simply, database marketing is a form of direct marketing using databases of customers or potential customers to generate personalized communications. According to the Direct Mail Association, “Database marketing is at the core of all client relationship marketing efforts and an increasing number of companies are tapping into the power of their databases to enhance profitability.”
Serious direct marketers should join the DMA or a similar association and take advantage of courses and conferences on acquiring and analyzing lists to drive revenues. They should read blog posts on the subject as well. Here’s a good one by Robert Bly of Marketing Today, called The 12 Most Common Direct Mail Mistakes…And How to Avoid Them.
At the very least, ask yourself a few simple questions before you launch your campaign:
- Who am I trying to reach and what am I trying to accomplish?
- Have I compared my current list to previous mailing lists, ensuring it is up to date?
- Have I researched my list, perhaps with the aid of a list provider, to the best of my ability to avoid mailing errors?
- What could possibly go wrong with this mailing list, and am I prepared to accept the fall-out?
If you can adequately answer #1, say yes to #2 and #3 and have a plan for #4, you’re on your way to a successful campaign. More than that, you may be able to avoid DME with the very customers you’re trying to impress.
Hopefully, Vernon, Brookwhite and Peters learned a thing or two from my e-mail. As for me, I’m making a paper airplane out of their letter so Mackenzie can fly it. I hate to see marketing dollars go to waste.
Mackenzie and a friend are laughing at Vernon, Brookwhite and Peters.
*Not true name of the firm.
Filed under: Public Speaking
I shifted in my seat, crossed my ankles and then my legs. I started to reach for my iPhone, where e-mail and Twitter awaited. Meeting etiquette loomed large in my mind, though, reminding me that relief from boredom would have to wait until the end of the talk.
The other parents and I had come to the middle-school auditorium with the highest of hopes. We looked forward to acquainting ourselves with Renzulli, the new online learning system for school-age children and their parents. It had been heavily promoted and we were ready to get cracking. That is, we knew everything about this magnificent learning system but how to use it—during this presentation, we had been told, we would learn how.
The school district speaker was an amiable guy, chatting up the parents and eating cookies long past the originally scheduled start time. After I raised my hand (I was in a school, after all) and respectfully informed the speaker that some of us had a clock to punch, he decided to begin. I immediately regretted my actions.
Mr. School District was a rambler. A monotone rambler. The type that conjures visions of the unbearably boring teacher in the movie “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.” Not only was the delivery exhausting, the content was all wrong. First, he droned affectionately about the history of education in our country. Not facts applicable to the day’s subject matter, but information regarding the advent of the corporate model and various teaching methods employed by schools since the 1920s. My mind wandered. After the leg-crossing and a few tweets (okay, I succumbed to a little temptation), I pulled out a notepad and wrote my grocery list: eggs, apples, bread, milk…
About 25 minutes into the history lesson, my ears perked up at the mention of Renzulli. Renzulli!, I thought. I sat with my pencil poised, but alas, instruction was not to come. He instead prattled on about the reasons we, parents of middle-school children, should appreciate this fine learning tool. We already knew this or we wouldn’t have been there. Half an hour later, we still hadn’t opened a link or learned how to register.
Somewhere between doodling Christmas trees and praying for a fire drill, I decided I could take it no longer. More than an hour had passed and we hadn’t acquired even one nugget of applicable information. I discreetly exited through the back door while bleary-eyed parents looked at me with longing in their eyes. They were undoubtedly wondering when they too could make a break for it.
I wish our Renzulli speaker had employed a few audience-centric thoughts before addressing our group. For example:
- Don’t just know your audience, REALLY know your audience. Think beyond gender, age and occupation. Part of understanding your audience is the ability to determine why they are there; what has made them block the time on their calendars and place themselves before you. Even though delivery is king with public speaking, poor or irrelevant content can confuse and frustrate.
- Craft your content to meet audience needs. Do your homework before you develop your speech. For example, Mr. School District spent a chunk of time selling Renzulli when we were already sold. A few phone conversations may have helped him shape his talk in a manner more appealing and useful to those of us in the room.
- Respect people’s time. If a starting time has been communicated, stick with it. At the very least, don’t act like you don’t care about it by eating cookies and making small talk. Not only did our speaker do this, I later learned that he presented for two and a half hours when we were told the talk would run no more than 90 minutes. Disinterest in punctuality on either end of your presentation is simply a way of saying you don’t care about your audience’s time.
- Brush up on your speaking skills. School District guy’s monotone delivery was the nail in the coffin of an otherwise disappointing program. If you are uncomfortable speaking before a group, consider a short tutorial or online course. Practice in front of a mirror or an empty room of seats to become comfortable with the material and your ability to communicate it. Try out your talk with colleagues, your spouse or a friend. Even my dog perks up if my speeches are worth a listen. Practice—it’s worth it.
Just the other day, I received a flyer from my youngest child’s elementary school, saying it would soon be holding “an exciting, one hour presentation on the new Renzulli learning system!” Then I read who the speaker was. Exciting and one hour, my foot. I’ll skip it this time and do what I should have done in the first place: turn on my computer and learn about Renzulli online.
"Bueller? Bueller?"
Filed under: Work/Life
“Where’s my laptop? My PowerPoint slides? My stuff?!!,” I croaked, as I helplessly watched conference goers file into the room, ready and enthused to hear me speak about social media. Yes, a digital marketing presentation without the benefit of colorful slides, photos or online demonstrations to make the information pop. Just little ‘ol me, myself and I.
I glared at the empty podium as though it would grow arms and hand me a laptop, but alas, it was not to be. So I silently cursed myself. After 25 years in the communications industry, it’s the most basic of rules: Before giving a speech, make absolutely certain you have checked out the room and that all equipment is working. But I had been too busy to check out the room at Houston’s Omni Hotel, and too focused on client work and family tasks to see a tiny e-mail floating between hundreds of others sent a few days before.
A little note from the Texas Business Alliance’s “One Woman” Conference organizers informing their speakers that plans had changed; “Please bring your laptop after all,” it said.
I turned and faced the audience, secretly thanking God for my knowledge of the subject matter, love of public speaking, and more than anything, my lifelong ability to use self-deprecating humor when in a bind.
After an hour, attendees were laughing, shaking my hand and thanking me for the talk. Whew, that was a close call. Which got me to thinking: Why has it come to this? I’m a true-blue Type A, as evidenced early in life. “No one can clap erasers and work on their math facts at the same time,” wrote Sister Irmita on my fourth grade report card.
I admit I’ve always prided myself on juggling as much or more than others. I even dressed as Wonder Woman for a Halloween party a few years ago. My energy has always defined me, but with the advent of home, hearth and a consulting business, things have gone a tad awry.
This may be why I rammed my car into a bank pole the other day—another first. I was minding my own business, simply racing at record speed from lunch with a friend to a client meeting while thinking about the kids’ summer camp, all the while tapping my fingers on the steering wheel and cursing the traffic. I succumbed to line rage (yes, I have line rage) and took the first shot at a parking lot to get around the congestion.
I found out all too soon, though, I was stranded at a bank which was cornered on every side by big orange construction barrels. So I tried to turn the vehicle around, only to get completely stuck in one of the now-abandoned drive-through lanes. I sat in my Volvo SUV, all alone other than the girl in the bank window who counted money with glazed eyes.
Can Yoga save this woman?
Fuming at myself as well as the glazed girl who didn’t feel compelled to guide me from behind the window, I shifted gears from forward to backward, over and over. Drive-reverse-drive-reverse-drive-reverse. Assuming I had paid enough front/back penance to finally be in the right position to proceed, I gunned the gas to straighten the car.
Who knew there was a pole on the left, just waiting to rip out a chunk of metal? I posted the event on Facebook, much to the guffaws of friends who wrote about incidents of yesteryear, going back to the 80s. Talk about kicking a girl while she’s down. Well, $1,500 in car repairs later, I won’t be cutting through abandoned parking lots any more.
I know I’m not alone. With the juggling act of work and life coupled with digital media making us available 24/7, these things happen. And as covered at the recent One Woman Conference, ladies are still taking on the lion’s share of child rearing activities. What to do? Well, don’t come to me for advice. But there are a few things I’m considering before mistakenly leaving one of the kids at the mall or forgetting a speaking engagement altogether:
Breathe. Upon hearing of my recurring stomach pains (long story and a little gross) my doctor prescribed Yoga. Yoga! Who has the time to stretch? But I succumbed to her demands and just signed up for a class. My 12-year-old is taking it with me so we can have some mother/daughter time. I suppose that’s another way of clapping erasers while doing math problems, but I’m looking forward to it.
Prioritize. Last time I checked, there are only 24 hours per day. Include sleep, eating, exercise and a few other necessities and there is very little time to manage home and work activities. There are hundreds of courses by endless consultants on how to do everything from writing personal mission statements to using large and tiny rocks as a metaphor for prioritization. Me, I’m shooting for simplicity. I will take about two hours and redefine top priorities for my family, life, and business. After that, I will spend 30 minutes every morning and base the day’s activities on the aforementioned priorities. When surprises occur, I will apply the breathing activities learned at the aforementioned Yoga classes.
Don’t question yourself. I dislike disappointing people, but one of the joys of being over 40 is that I’m caring less and less. For example, I left a recent awards dinner about a half hour early to be with a sick child, only to be lambasted by a woman who caught me tip-toeing out with my goodie-bag in hand. I chose to keep walking, feeling confident that my decision was based on my values. Consider another situation…many, actually…in which I was criticized by some well-meaning people for choosing to work outside the home after having children. Their comments made me question myself for years, but no more! If I didn’t work then I wouldn’t have my consulting business now, and I love what I do…as long as I can keep all the balls juggled.
Find someone who “gets it.” I have an eclectic taste in friends—if I put them all in a room they wouldn’t know what to say to each other—but there’s nothing like a friend or colleague who really walks in your shoes. Social media like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter can make it easy to find a group of people who do what you do and feel the way you feel, be it professionally or personally. I rarely reach out to others for advice, most likely since I’m short on time and just a little proud. Still, I may consider it now and then. We can always learn something new from someone else.
And if none of this works, there are life coaches and other professionals to help us get the most out of life. Remember, you’re not alone. At the Texas Business Alliance One Woman Conference, there were hundreds of accomplished professionals who must also remind themselves to breathe, prioritize, avoid questioning themselves and find common experiences with others.
I wonder if any of them have tried Yoga.
