Inspiration Archives - Write Approach Marketing

Back on track

A little over three months ago, I made a promise to myself (and on here so that I was accountable) that I would try to publish something once a week on my blog.

A little over a month ago, the first week of ‘too much else going on’ happened and I let it slide. Then, the next week something else… and the next… Each week, something was happening. I made excuses (in my head) for not posting.

And now, here I am feeling like I’ve let myself down, wondering whether after all these weeks it’s worth it. I’m wondering how to start again and feeling like I’ve failed.

Then I came across this quote – or perhaps more appropriately, it found me at just the right time.

It's not too late. Keep going. Be kind to yourself. kindness quote

So, rather than continue to berate myself for this one thing I’ve not done to my own rather strict standards, I thought I would take heart from this message and take stock of the things I’ve managed to achieve, even though I didn’t do this one thing.

In the last 5 weeks I’ve:

Hosted a wedding on our farm
Spent time with my children on school holidays
Completed a rather large amount of customer work
Supported friends going through some tough stuff
Taken some photos I’m really proud of (my creative outlet)
Planned some future business activities
Volunteered at my kids school
Taken some down time

I could go on, but even this list is making me aware that there is so much more to life than work and business, and that is not a bad thing.

What I’m attempting to do is to learn to be kinder to myself when things don’t go to plan and acknowledging that other things also hold tremendous value.

Back on track

Even though I recognise that my time ‘away’ has not been wasted, I am still keen to get over any procrastination that’s happening and get back on track with my goals.

There’s no time like the present – and obviously since I’m writing this – it is something I’m getting onto NOW. It’s going to take some time to get this habit on track, and it has to start soon.

There’s not much more I have to say this time, except that if you perhaps have not been meeting your goals or hitting those targets, be kind to yourself. Everyone is on their own journey. Don’t judge yourself against others. Don’t be negative about your own achievements when you may have missed one goal, yet accomplished many other things.

Have a good one, and see you next week.

PS. Next week I’m going to give away the book I promised to give away months ago. Stay tuned and consider getting in the running by reading this post and commenting at this Facebook post.

Change a culture

Video credit to the amazingly talented Nic from The Baking Tray –
changing the world one cookie and cake at a time.

It seems somewhat appropriate on this #InternationalWomensDay to talk about how we can change the culture.

Listening to a panelist on the radio this morning, her figures indicated that if we continue at the rate we are going, gender balance might be achieved in 200 years time.

I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t seem soon enough for me. I’d quite like to see it while I’m alive, to be honest. If we can’t get it right for my daughters before they move into a workforce I’ll be very upset.

But how can we change the culture?

Firstly, let’s acknowledge that there isn’t ONE culture. There are many. Pick the battle.

Then find the others who believe in the culture you want to see. If we’re talking gender balance, we have to find the people for whom it matters. Whatever the change you want to see, find the others who want the same thing.

Culture in motion

There are two things needed to make major change. Strategy and action.

It takes an understanding of what culture is, where we would like it to go and what actions we can take to change it.

And if we think of culture as ‘who we are’ rather than something we do, it’s about our collective ‘us’ taking action.

Pick one thing. Do one thing. Change one thing.

The collective ‘us’ all doing that one thing will make a difference. The word will spread. A culture will be created, changed or renewed.

We can teach our children to do things differently than the way we learnt them. That it’s healthy for young boys to show emotion and not bottle it up. Teach them what to do with their emotions.

What if we teach our young girls that to be strong, fierce and independent does not mean you have to be a bitch. That gossip is different to friendly chatter. That kindness and empathy are not character flaws.

Teach all of them that there is always more going on for others than our limited perspective allows us to see. Help them to see others with empathy.

One bite at a time

If we imagine that we have to teach the whole world how to be kind, it looks like a massive task. If we believe we have to tackle all bullying, rather than the one example in front of us, we’re defeated already. If we imagine that to achieve gender balance, we have to have the whole business/town/country/world in agreement, we’ll probably never get started.

Start with one child, one person, one colleague, one friend… make a difference to one.

The networking effect takes place as those we cared about enough to make this change, pass on the new ‘culture’ that they see as normal.

If we care enough to change a culture, we might just change the world with just one little thing we do.

How do you eat an elephant?

PS. International Women’s Day coincides with my son’s birthday. Every year on this day I am reminded of the balance issue. That ‘one’ thing I can do is raise him in a culture of balance, respectful of women, while ensuring that he is also respected and valued. It is about balance, not raising one up to push the other down.

The inner critic returns

I knew it would happen, and I’m not surprised that it’s sooner rather than later.

It’s Wednesday. I’ve created a routine of posting new stuff on my blog on Thursdays, so as I started thinking of what to write this week, a nagging voice in my head started at me.

“Ohhhhh! You’ve got nothing to say! Already! And we’re only a few weeks in. I knew it wouldn’t last.”
Nasty, nagging little voice in my head

Well, excuse me nasty nagging little voice in my head, but since WHEN have I not got something to say? Plenty of people I know would say I’m never lost for words...

Taken aback with my instantaneous comeback, it started on the deeper, crueller taunts:

“Yeah, but who are you to say that stuff? Why would people read what you’ve got to write? You’re no expert.”
Bitter, twisted, cruel inner voice in my head

My resolve was not so strong on this one. I’ve had this inner argument plenty of times before. Not matter how much I try, it doesn’t want to let go.

That’s the tough bit. It’s a story I’ve believed for a good while – that I’m not good enough. There are others out there better qualified, bigger, more successful, higher up the food chain or whatever. And of course, there are.

But it’s not the point. This inner critic of mine comes from the past, and surely I can grow past this (and – of course – in some ways, I already have).

So, I fought back…

Maybe you, nasty inner voice in my head, don’t get to dictate to me what I can and can’t do. You’re not the boss of me!

In fact, those who have known me for a long time would say that a surefire way to get me to do something is to tell me that I can’t. Tell me something is not possible and I’ll do my darndest to prove you wrong. I can be an obstinate (some might call it determined) so-and-so when I’m inclined.

And I AM inclined.

You know why? Because you’re wrong. You, cruel, taunting, inner voice in my head ARE wrong and I need to stop giving you so much credit because you come from the past. Things have changed. What you’re saying is not true and you’re not just undermining my confidence, you’re trying to take stuff away from people who might actually find it quite useful.

I know people are reading what I write. And even if it’s not lots of people, there will be one. (Her name is Sarah, and she’s my greatest cheerleader! xx)

And even if it’s only one and just one person gains an insight, gets a giggle or takes a leap into some new adventure or challenge, then that is going to be perfectly okay with me.

So, there you go, nasty inner voice in my head. You don’t need to tell me that I’m not enough, or that what I do doesn’t matter.

Because I don’t believe you. I am enough. Helping people matters.

The inner critic skulks off to the corner. I’m not naive (or brave) enough to believe her gone forever, but for now I’m standing tall in the belief that what I share here is authentic and real and done so with the hope that we can all DO and BE better when we share what we know.

PS. Take that, inner critic, you’ve even motivated me to get this blog post done ahead of time.

PPS: This one’s for any of you who may not quite be feeling good enough.

To be or not to be … a jerk

Couldn’t have said it better. Thanks Seth Godin for articulating it so well.

Read this:

The jerk fallacy

Damage control

There’s a lot of damage control going on lately. Cambridge Analytica blames the media as they move towards bankruptcy.

Closer to home, AMP Limited is likely wishing they’d never heard of the Banking Royal Commission, whilst Executives ‘remove themselves’ from the scene.

Whether proven ‘guilty’ or not, the damage is done.

Damage to those businesses, but also to something I consider much greater.

Damage to trust.

It’s a long road back once trust is lost.

So, how can we ensure that we don’t end up losing trust?

Empathy.

Seeing the other side

If we put ourselves in someone else’s shoes, we view things from their position, it’s different. It’s perspective. It’s enlightening.

When we lose sight of how the people around us view things, that’s when things can get really tricky. We risk becoming insular. We take the risk that we only have input from our own (often limited) worldview. We can learn plenty from those around us.

Imagine being a customer of one of those big entities now – perhaps you are one – how does it feel?

I imagine I’d be angry (class action kind of angry, perhaps)…

And on the other side of the coin, imagine participating in a meeting, office cram packed with staff, and being the one brave enough to put your hand up in front of all these people and say:

“Actually, no… We can’t do this to our customers – we can’t charge for stuff we don’t do, we have to find a better way to deal with it. Let’s stop charging them fees and let’s help them deal with this change in circumstances. Our integrity is on the line here…”

That sounds simple enough, but tough to do. It’s tough to have the courage to stand up to your peers and supervisors (over and over again).

That’s the person I want working for me though.

That’s probably the person that your customers want working for them too. The person who can see things from their point of view, who has empathy for their situation.

Taking the time to do this, working ethically, considering others, communicating even when it’s uncomfortable, building relationships that are valued, is hard work.

Building trust is hard work.

Losing it takes a lot less effort, so much so that it can happen without us even noticing.

The building of trust

To future proof our business, to protect our customers (who are, let’s face it, the reason we can be in business) we have to be deliberate about acting with integrity. Our marketing is an essential part of this. If we offer a service, that’s what we have to do. If things go wrong with those plans, we must be accountable for them and communicate openly and honestly. How would OUR customers feel if they were paying for a service they didn’t get…

We may be on a smaller scale than those in the news, but we are not so different as we might think. We face similar challenges, risks and everyday things that can go wrong, and it’s our choice to behave in a way that is deserving of our customer’s trust.

If we want to build a resilient business that serves our clients/customers and has them as its focus, it’s time to start damage control now.

Damage control starts at Day 1 by showing up and being worthy of trust, and it goes on every day until it’s natural.

Go, be inspired. And inspiring…

Heather x

Make it personal

To make a difference, make it personal…

If you want people to engage with what you’re sharing, build a connection to it.

If you’re sharing it, you are the connection.

So, if you’re connecting others to something (a story, a page, a cause, a fundraiser, a blog or a friend) tell them why you care enough to share.

If you don’t want to share your connection perhaps that’s an opportunity for reflection … why ARE you sharing it? Are you sharing out of obligation? Has sharing just become habitual? If you don’t want to be personally associated with it, why not? Why don’t you want to be connected to it? What has you feeling that you SHOULD share but you don’t want to commit your own words to it? Does it put you ‘on the hook’ for something, making you accountable? Perhaps it’s that you don’t really believe in it… The reasons are likely to be as unique as you are.

“Without strategy the content is just stuff, and the world has enough stuff.” *

Our strategy is our reason why… If we don’t have a reason for sharing something, should we? Isn’t the world already full of “stuff” … aren’t our news feeds and our emails already overfull with things we may not actually care about?

So, you’re saying Don’t Share?

Don’t get me wrong – I’m not writing this to discourage you from sharing, I’m writing it to admonish you to make what you share meaningful in a trifecta of ways – to you, to the person you’re sharing for and to the rest of the world. Your personal connection may just be the difference between people scrolling on by or stopping to check it out.

If you’re not sure what to write when you’re sharing ask yourself: Why am I supporting this cause/friend/whatever? What is important to me about this? What is it about this thing I’m sharing that means something to me?

Chances are if it means something for you, it might also mean something significant for those who you are sharing with. Chances are people will care BECAUSE you care, and even if they don’t, that’s OK. It’s not for everyone.

Be generous. Make it personal.

I, for one, am always keen to know what’s important to you and why.

Heather x

PS. To clarify, I’m talking here about sharing other people’s posts, pages, causes etc, because I see so many of these pass me by without a note of explanation as to why people are sharing them. That said, it applies to whatever you write/post/share really… 🙂

*I’ve seen this quote attributed to many different people, and I don’t like using quotes without crediting the author, however I’ve not been able to pin down the true author. I’ve seen it credited to Arjun Basu, Seth Godin and others. I’ll thank each of them here.

The Lorax spoke to me

My kids begged us to watch “The Lorax” movie the other night…

I was reluctant at first (having bad recollections of other movies they’d asked me to watch – a la Chipmunk movies).

This movie (and the book it was based on) was surprising to me on a few levels. Firstly, how long ago it was written and that I’d never read/remembered reading it, and then again about how “current” it felt.

After stuff has gone horribly wrong (not wanting to go all ‘spoiler alert’ if you haven’t seen it) there comes this line, referencing a word that has been left as a statue…

“But now,” says the Once-ler, “now that you’re here, the word of the Lorax seems perfectly clear. UNLESS someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”

And there goes the deep ‘ker-thunk’ moment of the movie… I sat mulling it over for a bit.

As I thought about it, I realised how grateful I am that so many people I know actually do CARE an awful lot, and that gives me hope that lots of things are going to get better.

Whatever it is you care about, keep caring. What you’re doing to make things better, keep doing it.

And thank you. x