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In the past several days of this pandemic crisis, I have been involved, like many of my readers, in numerous online meetings and conference calls. I’ve also been editing projects for clients. While I haven’t had much time to read the newspapers, I have tuned into television or online news—the local supper hour show and CBC’s flagship evening program, “The National.”

The glut of coverage on Covid-19 (filling all and every newscast, daily) has made me wonder (and worry) about all of the other news that has been going on, unreported, for weeks. If a story isn’t about the present crisis, it isn’t worth covering, the media imply. And that reflects the values of the demographic who are watching.

But rather than reflect on crisis communication during this period of upheaval and isolation,  I want to join a still relatively small number of voices in our communities who set complaining aside and thank those who continue to provide “essential services” to most of us. The medical, hospital, pharmaceutical, home care, nursing home and medical support workers, truck drivers, grocery store employees, firefighters, police and paramedics, to name only a few.

Last Saturday, marketing genius Seth Godin said that the “thank yous” that are warranted here may be like the page of “acknowledgments” in a book, which tends to be “rarely read, and it comes out infrequently and it’s not so timely.”

Godin thought to correct that pattern and provided a lengthy list of  “thank yous” that I’ve excerpted here:

“I’m filled with gratitude for the healthcare workers who have shown up to do the jobs that they never hoped to have to do, risking so much to help people. From docs … who are beginning their career in the middle of this, to retired nurses who are putting on their scrubs to help out again.

And thank you to the frontline workers and volunteers . . . from the food market to the fire department, from the gas station to the police. They’re showing up and doing it with grace.

Thanks to Zoom for dealing with a 20x increase in traffic and not missing a beat. Just like so many other tech companies that are quietly doing what they said they would do.

Thank you to the non-profit leaders, entrepreneurs and project managers who have figured out how to pivot on a dime, protecting the jobs of their teams and serving their customers in new and powerful ways.

Thanks to every parent who is at home with kids, balancing competing priorities and still being there for the ones who need them. And thanks to resilient and patient therapists, teachers and spiritual leaders who are figuring out how to be there, fully present, even if it’s on a video screen.

I’m grateful for the unseen but not anonymous people who are delivering packages, maintaining webservers, fixing the things that break and showing up every single day.

And I’m glad that so many people are ignoring the charlatans who are trying to profit from panic and untested remedies, preying on the fear that comes with a pandemic. And proud of anyone who stops clicking on a media channel that’s in the business of profiting from the attention that comes with amplifying that same fear.

. . . . .And I’m grateful to you, loyal reader, for taking the long view, for leading, for spreading ideas that matter and showing up and doing work that you’re proud of. . . . We wouldn’t have it any other way.

If you’re leading despite/because of what’s going on around us, thank you.”

Godin says he lists only a “tiny fraction” of those he’d like to. He encourages us all to post our own lists.

I started my list in the third paragraph of this posting and while it, too, will be incomplete, I want to add to it:

• Thank you to my colleagues in marketing and communications with whom I’m daily rolling up my sleeves on projects; and who show such maturity and decency as we manage tasks and boundaries both online and off. You are well-informed and live the values you present.
• Thank you to my mentors who currently strive to move “heaven and earth” to save their small businesses, but also find time to collaborate with proteges.
• Thank you to my family who respect my schedule as a freelancer, in which work flows steadily or faster, when others in “day jobs” find themselves in a “holding pattern.”
• Thank you to friends who in recent weeks lost loved ones to unrelated disease or aging and who bear the pain of their grief, alone, in social isolation (special acknowledgments to Maureen Doetzel and Tracey Mitchell).
• Thank you to Rev. Roberto De Sandoli and the worship team at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian, who are working tirelessly to present some of the most significant worship services of the Christian calendar (Good Friday; Easter Sunday) online to anyone who cares to watch them.
• Thank you to Silvia Martini, Moderator, and founding members of the “Business Support Saskatoon Chamber of Commerce,” who share about pivoting, adapting, evolving and rising, when these are at once the most challenging and important tasks.
• Thank you to the managers of the building where I live and work, who continue to keep the building as clean as possible and to assist seniors and children who struggle with the pandemic.
• Thank you to Paul Ducklin and other users of Zoom, who have posted online articles and information on how to secure the service, in the face of hateful attackers.
• Thank you (although it may sound absurd) to Queen Elizabeth II, who used a rare public address, filmed last week at Windsor Castle, to encourage citizens of the Commonwealth to continue to act with self-discipline and resolve. These are characteristics sometimes in short supply.

This door in British Columbia was decorated by a family member to encourage laughter, gratitude for essential workers and solidarity with self-isolating neighbours in these anxious days of Covid-19.

 

And this door of my neighbourhood café is one of many that post thanks to the folk acknowledged above.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We interrupt this crisis to acknowledge and thank the above folk who serve on our front lines: they fight a war with an invisible protein molecule that has brought our global population to its knees. But it has not broken our collective decency, empathy, solidarity, generosity, intelligence or resourcefulness—effectively, our humanity.

Last Saturday at 8:30 pm,  I clanged a kitchen pot in front of my home and generally made a ruckus of “thanks” to these folk, and to those whom I’ve unintentionally forgotten.  I heard (and saw) plenty of ruckus back.

Thank you all. Keep on keeping on.

 

Many of us Canadians started social distancing on (or before) Monday March 16th in our efforts to try, responsibly, to contain the spread of the Covid-19 virus in our communities.

In his March 21st blog, Marketing guru, Seth Godin, reminds us of the peril of some of what has followed. There have been many opportunities, as we work from home, to glut our appetites on a too-steady diet of reporting, social media postings and other cultural handwringing, about Covid-19.

Godin describes the tendency as “day trading [our] emotions”:
“When the stock market is on an upward tear, day trading becomes popular. You sit in your basement, surrounded by terminals and tickers, searching for the latest bits of information, hoping to make a profit buying and selling based on what’s happening in this very instant.

It’s pretty tempting today to trade your emotions.

We’ve piped the voices of a billion people directly into our brains. The loudest, angriest, most frightened people are the ones that are amplified the most.
Everyone sharing what’s breaking. The visceral angst of this very  moment, over and over. 

Just as it’s almost impossible to make a profit as a day trader, it’s difficult to be happy when you day trade emotions .. . . Add up the sum of our days and that’s who we are. We get what we repeat.”

Last week, I participated in a number of Zoom meetings and conference calls where all participants were understandably voicing distress and grasping for a life ring to figure out what to do, to estimate how long the crisis would continue and to plan how financially to survive the interim period.

While telling myself that a few of my own, obligatory social media postings or the telephone “insights” I shared with friends were helpful, I soon realized that I was “descending into the weeds.” I found myself repeating observations I’d earlier had and, as Godin aptly put it, “getting what I repeated.”

Let me hasten to say that, in my reading, Godin is not advising us to deny or efface our emotions. The power of occasionally crying when one’s trying to level one’s emotions has never been clearer to me, than during the past 10 or 12 days.

And there has been much needed work done by business leaders like Silvia Martini and Henry Buitrago, over Facebook’s “Business Support Saskatoon Chamber of Commerce Page.” There, these and other entrepreneurs have provided a public service by vetting and consolidating relevant knowledge, such as government wage subsidies and financial supports that are crucial to the survival of small- and medium-sized businesses. These folk have done well to prevent readers from wringing their hands.

And I know they’d agree that entrepreneurs managing (not trading) their emotions still need to limit the hours we spend online and consuming media. For me the balance has been reading or watching one hour a day of local news; another for national news, and not more. For some, it could be reading one or two newspapers online or listening to a particular daily radio program.

The huge uncertainty created by the global pandemic makes repeating our emotional distress understandable, but we only amplify our depression and anxiety by repetition. Godin describes some alternatives that I illustrate, with examples:

“Buy and hold.” Support local small businesses (e.g. independent bookstores, take-out restaurants, dry cleaners, etc.) by arranging for touchless delivery, or by buying gift cards you can redeem when better times return.

“Stand for something.” While striving to accomplish work, don’t overlook the needs of children or other dependent family members, whose fears and confusion can be stoked, instead of relieved, in the commotion. Stand for family and humanity.

“Stick with it.” Just as the best stockbroker argues for investing long-term, so as the weather the ups and downs of the market, commit to a limited number of activities and “FOCUS” (“focus on one course, until success,” or at least until you see gradual improvement).

“Long-term contributions matter. Today ends, tonight and tomorrow starts again, but we only get one long-term life.” When we get out of repeating or “day trading our emotions,” we restore our calm and our capacity to see that “this too shall pass.” We enable ourselves again to see the bigger picture, that life is still a gift and one that is (or will again feel) much worth living.

“Add up the sum of our days and that’s who we are. We get what we repeat.” Choose carefully the activities and people with whom we share our lives, each day, and we will see the value of the investments we make in each moment.

And now it’s your turn: Do you “day trade” in emotional angst in this time of pandemic? What alternative transactions can you seek, to lift yourself out of repeating loss and distress?

Saskatoon’s Chapter of IABC (International Association of Business Communicators) held a “Lunch n’ Learn” today with a hands-on talk by local award-winning technology strategist, Katrina German.

Katrina’s talk featured digital strategies to use to “pitch your idea and yourself,” even if your boss isn’t a tech convert or believer.

She took as starting point that we can authorize company spending more effectively, if we can show that the time we spent creating the content for yesterday’s Facebook posting reached 600K readers, or that our email open rates were twice that of other governments in North America.

“This isn’t rocket science,” she said, emphasizing that we need only choose what metrics to track, plug them into spreadsheets, identify the company/organizational goal and align ourselves (and our personal goals) with that goal. So what does “our boss” want? Often it’s to reach more people and increase revenue.

Some straightforward tips she shared:

(1) Google Keyword Search: Go into Google Ads and use its Keyword Ad Planner to do free market research. Do a potentially deep-dive search by altering the order of your terms, by searching according to different locations, etc.

(2) Google Analytics: Often our “best friend,” because it provides useful stats about what’s happening on your website. You can also pull from it to compare which social media sites are performing better for you. What clickthrough rate does a platform provide to your website? Who is reading about your company and converting to sales for you? Try changing the topic of content you search by, for further insight.

When you identify a goal for your marketing work, align with that goal, do your analytic research and you’ll have the content to make visuals (presentations) that even a disbelieving boss will follow.

Other digital tools Katrina recommended:

(3) Ad Parlor—target and identify audiences similar to your existing subscriber list to ensure you’re reaching your ideal audience.

(4) Facebook Creative Hub: allows you to preview ads (in mockups) for Facebook, Instagram and Messenger.

(5) Photofeeler—where you can submit your photo to be judged on its likeability, credibility and expert status. (You can also judge others’ photos there).

In addition to plotting out spreadsheets with the results from the above providers, Katrina suggested these strategies for measuring and reporting success to that hard-to-convince boss or funder:

(6) Hootsuite–compare results for usage and engagement across all social platforms.

(7) Hashtags (keyhole.io)–a free version allows you to run a hashtag for a week to measure interest.

(8) Vanity Metrics—these don’t necessarily mean your reach is that wide but can be impressive to see.

(9) Visuals—ol’ fashioned spreadsheets and similar documents can display stories of your numbers for non-tech readers to appreciate.

There are also more “sketchy” strategies—such as “Nacho Analytics”—that enable you to view your competitors’ analytics. (Buyer beware.)

Some content works better in certain platforms than others. For instance, Katrina mentioned that Snapchat ads are easy but using content there can be tricky.

(10) Saskatoon’s Insightrix reports detail Saskatchewan usage rates for various social platforms that can assist you in researching and sharing your presentations.

If you’re a small business owner or CEO, do you have to convince yourself of the validity of your digital platform use? Which of these strategies will work best for you?

Please write in; I’d be delighted to hear from you.

In a recent webinar, my mentor and friend, American marketer, Michael Katz, taught a simple method of sharing stories that sell. By sharing a “slice of life,” something that has happened to you, and then building a bridge to your marketing or entrepreneurial insight, you can evoke emotion from your readers that they will remember and take action on.

Katz’s webinar inspired me to share the following story, for today’s blog posting . . . .

After a particularly stressful day in the office recently (the phone ringing too often, multiple bills arriving in the mail, a client late with payment), I felt the need for a treat.

I decided to drive to my neighbourhood bakery for one. Which bakery? The trusted Griffin Takeaway, where everything (whether vegan or not) is handmade and delectable. (It doesn’t hurt that plenty of sugar is involved.)

To be honest, I had spent all day dreaming about my reward—a chocolate haystack cookie. Chocolatey and coconutty—Mmmm. Who could resist? They’re great. 

Trouble was, I was so distracted by thoughts of the delicious cookie that I forgot to unplug my car’s block heater, when I set out for the bakery.  And this, amid a frigid, Saskatchewan winter.

So what? Well, for one, I dragged a six foot extension cord behind my car for seven blocks in moderately heavy traffic.

I didn’t notice a thing. Felt nothing under the snow tires. Saw nothing in the car’s mirrors.

No one else on the road seemed to notice, either.

No friendly car horns. No gestures to look down toward the underbelly of the car.

We were all, it seems, distracted by other things.

I only realized my mistake when I reached the bakery, parked the car and glanced at the car’s front bumper, as I walked by. There I found the poor ol’ blue cord, covered in black tread marks and with prongs that were bent and blackened. What a disaster! I blushed with embarrassment, relieved that I hadn’t driven any further.

All of which reminds me of why it’s important to be mentally alert when writing marketing materials.

I’m talking about more than just catching typos, here, folks. We live in a very noisy, digital world . . . . when you sit down to write an email, you may forget to hold your prospects in mind, with the result that your content flounders.

You may “go through the motions” with lacklustre bullet points or forget to pen a “Call-to-Action,” at the end.

Maybe you missed the opportunity to match your  headline with the copy that follows it.

And on and on it goes . . . .

The reality is that the more easily we’re distracted by our own daily lives, the more easily we lose our awareness of our prospects’ and clients’ needs. When we can block off our own distractions, we free our minds to tune into what our clients want . . . . This is why it’s almost always easier to write marketing and communications copy for others than it is, for ourselves.  It’s why clients return to me, as a trusted service provider, when life gets–well, distracting.

So now, when I feel distracted by a irrelevant phone calls, bills or tax season and a rare, late-paying “rogue” of a client,  I remind myself of my ol’ trip with the car extension cord. (I actually have it on a bulletin board in my office as an inside joke.)

While thoughts of chocolate haystack cookies still sometimes run through my head, this experience has reminded me to stay more “in the moment.”

When it comes to writing your own marketing materials, however, as when going to buy a cookie, distraction is an inevitable part of life.  It teaches us ultimately that it doesn’t pay  to write for yourself.

And that’s a good time to call or email me.

And now it’s your turn: Do you ever catch yourself in a state of distraction, in your business?

Do you have an extension cord I can borrow? (Haha, Michael, that’s for you!)

Please weigh in. And see you at the bakery!