Farming

FarmingA friend asked me how my day was going and I told him it was one of those days when I had accomplished nothing of “value”.

And then realized that simply wasn’t true.  I spent the better portion of the day putting together quotes for new business and following up with prospective clients.

To which he said, “Oh, you’ve been farming – you have to plant seeds in order to have something to harvest later.”

And he’s right – everything I did today had value.  And putting it in that perspective made me happy with the day.

Without the seeds I planted today, nothing grows.

Sometimes it’s as simple as a new perspective.

 

Living With Messy

MessyI’m not talking about doing a poor job.  Or living with actual mess.

I’m talking about being able to head in a particular direction creatively or in business or life only to realize things aren’t turning out the way you’d intended.

I used to make myself wrong, (or refuse to admit the error which made it that much worse to recover from) and that would make it even harder for me to take a chance the next time.

What I’m finding is that giving myself permission to be “messy” is giving me permission to experiment and expand.

It’s giving me permission to be bigger.

As a friend of mine said earlier today:  “Messy is the new beautiful.” ~ Randall G. Cauley

Are you giving yourself permission to be messy?

Up Against It . . .

And then there are times when life and business twists and turns til you almost don’t recognize the day you planned, and you know that all there is is continuing to maintain focus and forward movement.

How do you stay inspired?

Resistance

ResistanceResistance was the topic last night in a class I am taking – how to recognize resistance from a clear “no”.

I love this quote by Leonardo da Vinci:  “It is easier to resist at the beginning than at the end.”

It’s always made me think that one way to know when I’m unsure is to move forward and see how it feels – if it feels better, keep going – if it feels worse, stop.

What I’m realizing is that it may not be an accurate assessment – what if the “worse” is simply more resistance?

 

Commitment

KeyYou probably wouldn’t even have noticed.  I mean, there are how many daily blogs out there . . . (we both know – a bunch).

And I only told myself.

What I realized is that I’m the most important one.

I can tell myself it’s more important for me to commit to you, and that looks really good and really admirable on the surface.

The truth is when I sell out on myself, I’m more inclined to sell out on you – or at the very least to think/feel less about myself when I show up for you – and that is really the same thing.

So, I’m here, later than usual, fulfilling on the commitment that makes a difference everywhere in my life.

What have you been unwilling to commit to?

Closed (Really?)

Sorry, We’re Closed for the DaySo now I was “opening” and “closing” my business each day – and I found the closing part to be the hardest.

How do you really close?  How do you turn off the stream of things you didn’t get to for the day and/or the things you remember promising that never got recorded anywhere – the busy mind.

I almost always plan my day – which includes a list of the things I intend to accomplish – and it wasn’t until I started “offloading” from the day that I really let myself quit for the day when I closed.

An hour or so before I finish, I choose the things I’ll complete for the day, complete them, and move any remaining asks from today’s list on to tomorrow.  Ditto for anything else I promised and failed to record anywhere.  I also pick this time to communicate any missed deadlines to clients with new promises for completion.

Time off is now more off than on.  What have you got to lose?

 

Always Open?

Open for BusinessDuring a recent networking meeting the facilitator asked, “How do you official open and close your business each day [when you're self-employed]?”  It made me start to think.  When you work for someone else you typically go to work, punch a time clock or in some other way officially begin and end.

Many evenings too numerous to mention found me still hunkered down over the computer, “open” for business – at least until this question had me begin to look at how I’d been operating.

I took on “opening” and “closing” my business each day, and found that I’m far more productive during my open hours than I was when I was “open” all of the time.  I know what I want to get accomplished in the time allotted and I have something to look forward to at the end of the day:  time off.

What are you looking forward to?

That One Thing

To Do ListWe all have at least one – the thing we don’t want to do.  It’s been on the list for days, weeks, or even months, zapping our energy and occurring like it will take “too much” time.

Yesterday, I took mine on.  I didn’t allow myself to do anything else until it was done.  You’ll laugh to know that it took less than 30 minutes and cleared away a massive amount of guilt and concern.

I was more productive yesterday than I had been in days.

What is your “one thing”?  (Do it first.)

Are You Your Own Best Marketeer?

One of the questions I ask regularly is: “Just because you CAN do it yourself, will you?” and perhaps equally relevant is “Should you?

Social Marketing Requires SoulEvery day I talk with prospective clients who wonder why their marketing efforts are going unnoticed and I see many of the same mistakes being repeated.  Regardless of whether you engage someone to aid in this effort (which I recommend highly), here are a few things to keep in mind:

  1. ContributionContribution is to the web like location is to real estate.  We’re all busy and overloaded with information.  We’re looking for that bright/interesting spot in our day.  Tailor your posts, tweets and email content to be that.  If it’s all about you, it’s only a matter of time before we quit paying attention.
  2. Respect our time – We may not have time to read an entire post, so consider posting a relevant quote or tidbit that will stick with us – possibly even engage us to make time, or come back.  Hint:  “Read my blog post” is not this . . . instead, pick something from the blog post that may be of interest and use that instead.
  3. Vary your content – You get bored easily and so does everyone else.  If you’ve seen the same photo/link/video, etc. being posted by the masses, avoid the urge to follow the herd.  Remember that tasteful humor and interesting quotes can be as powerful (sometimes more so) than information.
  4. Be consistent – Create a monthly/quarterly “game plan” (this is where having “Weborization” – or similar – assistance can make all the difference) for the events and services you want to promote throughout the month/quarter and then make sure it shows up everywhere along with everything else.  Add your everyday tweets and posts as you go along making use of either the scheduling feature in Facebook or another social media tool.
  5. Be you – Your clients “bought you” when they selected your product or service.  If you are posting what you think they want instead of what appeals to you, you’re barking up the wrong tree.  If you like it, chances are they will.
  6. Add a graphic – A picture is still worth at least a thousand words – maybe more.
  7. Know when – There is always a point when you know you’ve gone as far as you can without a perspective change.  Two heads are always better than one, and this is particularly true with social media and the web.  Consider adding to your team in the form of a dedicated employee, trusted vendor, or both.  Hint:  Weborization loves doing this for businesses.  Contact us today.

Better Than New

Kintsugi - The Process of Gold Repair“When the Japanese mend broken objects, they aggrandize the damage by filling the cracks with gold.  They believe that when something’s suffered damage and has a history it becomes more beautiful.”  ~ Barbara Bloom

This process is called Kintsugi – read more about it here.

What a different mindset from the “if it’s broken it has no value” meme that is currently embraced today.  It brings up so many interesting topics for consideration:  how we strive to attain (and own) flawless perfection, how more and more things are replaced before being repaired (or are unable to be repaired), and what might be available if we created the process of repair as a meditation – really looking at the break and what it reveals about the design/object/process.

And yet there is always a point in time when it simply makes no other sense than to start over.  I face this regularly as clients bring old, outdated site architecture to me wanting a revamp.

I’ve also been considering The Slow Web which creates the concept of disengaging from the constant barrage of stimuli available to us in favor of being present – of choosing how much, and what we do, when.

Consider that the true failing is having only one answer/solution/process, or perhaps even falling into the trap of relying on the same one all or most of the time.

As always, it’s about perspective and being present. And just because it works for me, does that guarantee it works for my client?

Where do you rely on the same response, solution, or reaction?  And what would be possible if every interaction was a considerate creation instead?