I have been off the radar for a bit - just had my third baby girl and finding time to write is difficult. So I am facing a common problem that a small business will also face from time to time: how do you keep telling your story when you have no time OR how do you keep your story connected when there’s been a gap?Â
Let’s address the first problem. What I should have done is take my initial instinct one step further. When I agreed to write this blog, I wrote out a year’s worth of story ideas to make the task of writing less daunting as the ideas would already be at my finger tips. What I should have done was take it to the next level and actually write out the blogs 2-3 at a time. That way I could routinely post without taking the time to write. As we identified in previous postings, getting started is the hardest part. So once we are in the creative mode, have set aside the time and sat down to write a blog, it makes sense to write out a few while we are in the spirit.Â
A business can do the same. Let’s say you have a venue like a column in a local paper or an email newsletter. You can pre-write (or have a copywriter write for you) a series of pieces to for that venue. That way, you will have your marketing materials ready to go in advance. If business gets busy, as it is apt to do, you don’t need to worry that you fell off the radar…like me.
In the other scenario, you did fall of the radar. Now what? Don’t just jump back in and act like nothing happened. Address the gap and let your audience know where you stand: that you have changed or updated your newsletter, that you have a new spin on your column or, as in my case, a mea culpa or personal anecdote and on with the show. People like to know what happened but there is no need to dwell on it.Â
However you handle preventing or dealing with a communication gap, just remember to be honest with your audience, dust yourself off, jump right back on the saddle and ride into the sunset like the communication cowboy you are.Â
Happy trails!
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To paraphrase THomas Edison- writing is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. No time? Turn off your television, cell phones, computers and all distractions. Americans work less hours than most people on earth.
Lorenzo has made a comment with no basis. All surveys of average work weeks for major industrial countries show that the average American wage earner works more hours per week than in any other of the countries surveyed, e.g. Germany and Japan. Japan has more public holidays than any other major industrial country. Of course all of this is rendered somewhat irrelevant when one considers that all the major industrial countries have economies dominated by the service sector, so it is a bit of a misnomer to call them major “industrial” countries.
Congratulations, Chrisina on your new baby daughter!
The dilemma you describe is so familiar to so many of us. I remember reading about Navaho women whose babies were swaddled to cradle boards. They would tie the board to a tree so that they could work, unencumbered. I looked at my then rambunctious and large baby and decided that we didn’t have a tree big enough! The Snugli was a baby carrier created by a pioneer Peace Corps couple from Africa who observed how babies were carried, contentedly, in that culture. It also freed the moms to work.
Rural Colombia had a beautiful tradition called “La Dieta” to help brand new mothers and babies. During the first six weeks after birth, the mother, no matter how poor, was attended in her home by a relative or friend. That women took over all household tasks and the mother was only to rest and establish a good nursing relationship with her child. Given the labor intensive work of women, this was a very expensive gift to the new mother. It also obligated the new mother to recipocate when the helper needed the same support.
The countries of the European Union offer generous paid paternal leave. I remember how incredibly difficult it was to pass the Family Medical Leave Act in this country. I fear now that it is on the Tea Pary Ax agenda.
I appreciate you thoughts on “keeping ahead.” I would note that in my own case, carefully laid outlines can waylaid because of comments and events which I couldn’t have anticipated.
I wish you well. Please enjoy your babies; blogs are always there.