When Life Trumps Social Media Life...

Yay, insomnia! The only time I can find to blog. I’m hoping this post will accomplish a couple of things: 1) Explaining to you, my small-but-super-loyal blog following where I’ve been and 2) applying a little balm to my chafed ego which is longing to spend more time blogging, but just can’t get there from here right now.

I started a new gig two-and-a-half months ago, as many of you know. I’m now VP of Account Management and Digital Strategy at Meyer and Wallis, a 42-years-young agency with offices in Milwaukee and Indianapolis. In a nutshell, this means I bear ultimate responsibility for all of our agency’s Milwaukee-office accounts, research, strategy, planning, and digital projects, in addition to a major role in new business efforts. Until now, I’ve had little or no empathy for people who use the “I just don’t have time to blog, tweet, insert other social media verb here.” excuse. Now, I totally get it. I still work in as much social as I can, but I recognize that I am barely scratching the surface of what I could, should, would like to be doing.

I should be blogging here at least three times a week, doing the same on our agency blog, tweeting for both a heck of a lot more than I am, and so on. I should be reading and commenting on more blogs. I should be a lot more active on Facebook and LinkedIn than I have been. I should be playing with Posterous, and a whole bunch of other tools. I finally managed to prioritize playing with FourSquare just this week. That Google Wave invite? Been sitting in my inbox for months. I feel like I could take a week off just to catch up on social media and digital experience reading at this point. And I definitely should be using/editing video (hence the new flip video camera that Santa will be bringing me this year).

But here’s the rub, folks. Social media is really fun, really educational, and really good for your ego, but…it’s still not real life. It’s sorta like real life, and obviously you can interact with people that are in your real life. But, the bigger question is: how many of you manage your life around your social media life, instead of the other way around?

I may permanently eliminate my chances of ever sitting at the cool kids table in the cafeteria for saying this, but if I have to make a choice at times between an hour with my kid or an hour blogging, there is no freaking contest. Go to yoga class three times a week to take halfway decent care of myself, or spend three more hours online? No contest. Take my son sledding not once, but twice, on Sunday, or catch up on reading? No contest.

Believe me, I am all about passion for what you do and going above and beyond to make it happen and all. I truly do admire the much-more-high-profile-than-I social media folks who seem to manage to find the time to do it all. But the ones I know well are also pretty exhausted and asking themselves: when is it enough?

When does life trump social media life? In my world, the answer is “Always“. Do what you can do. Push yourself, within reasonable boundaries. Find what works around your life, rather than making yourself crazy trying to cram tiny bits of life in around your demanding social media calendar.

What say you?

Happy #Tweetsgiving...

Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday, a few quiet days to pause and reflect. It’s so easy to get caught up day-to-day in the things that are “wrong” in our lives – or the things we want that we don’t have; and such a relief to find the perspective that Thanksgiving brings, of the absolute abundance we have for which to be grateful. Especially when so many others around the world are struggling just to put food in their bellies at all.

I am thankful for my very stressful new job that keeps me challenged and provides well for my family. And I am thankful for the amazing yoga teachers that help me breathe my way through it and occasionally sleep at night.

I am thankful for a black dog that cries like a baby when my two stepdaughters come home from college for the holiday. And I am thankful that they come home for the holiday, and that they are the wonderful people they are.

I am thankful for the love of my husband, who has the patience of a saint and a heart of pure gold.

I am overwhelmingly thankful for my beautiful, curly-haired little boy, Griffin, who loves me a million-trillion-gabillion (which is a lot), and reminds me every day to laugh more.

I am thankful for my 85-year-old father, and the fact that he is still with us on Earth. Even though he is far away (Florida), his spirit comforts and encourages me. I am thankful for my mom, who is no longer with us on Earth, but gave me the gift of being here to enjoy all of this.

I am thankful for the rest of my family: my two deeply sarcastic-and-entertaining brothers, with whom I wish I was closer. My two sisters-in-law whom I love and wish were really my sisters. My awesome niece and nephew, who grew up way too fast.

Right now, I am thankful for Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, the barking dog next door, the dog hair tumbleweeds on the floor, the heaping pile of toys in the living room, and all of the things that so often annoy me, because they are all abundance.

On a lighter note, I am thankful for good coffee, dark chocolate, J. Crew, guacamole, Mexico, finally trying kayaking this year, and looking forward to trying kiteboarding next year, come hell or high water.

I’m thankful for new friends and colleagues, like you, from whom I learn so much and who make life so much richer.

People like Danny Brown, from whom I heard about #tweetsgiving. Check out his great post,  Gratitude is Simply Attitude. Most important, please visit the Epic Change Tweetsgiving site and donate what you can to help some kids in Tanzania get a new school. It’s one thing to be grateful, and it’s another thing altogether to do what you can, however small, to help others who need something for which to be thankful. Epic Change is doing great work, and I am thankful that people like them exist to make the world an even more joyous place. Happy #Tweetsgiving to you and yours.

How about you? Have you stopped to think about it lately? What are you thankful for?

Seven tips for being a so-called change agent...

As someone who spent her late teens and twenties living in Wisconsin, California, Texas, South Carolina, Minnesota and New York, I’ve always been pretty able to adapt to change. Change excites me, in fact. Last week I started a new gig at a 42-year-old agency. Not surprisingly, not everyone is as welcoming of “the brave new world” of marketing as I may be, though there are definitely some major bright spots. I’m not alone in my passions, and that’s incredibly important.

Personally, in my sometimes idealistic little brain, I think an agency — any agency — should be filled with 100% individuals who have massive intellectual curiosity and embrace new ideas, new technologies, and new people. But that’s indeed idealistic and I try to brand myself as a realist. So, instead, I am – to use a friend’s terminology – cultivating a garden of patience. I am heeding my pre-gig horoscope which warned: “You will meet with resistance if you are too pushy and bold.” I don’t believe one can be too bold, per se, but one, especially this one, can be too pushy.

My new mantra: small victories. Someone fixing the broken link on the agency blog. New, more strategic content on the agency blog forthcoming. A few people agreeing to use Yammer to share news, articles, research between agency offices. While I might hope for more, being the change hog that I am, that’s not a bad first week. I’ll take it and I’ll happily come back for more.

It will be interesting to see if this degree of transparency – which I consider far from “radical” – raises any hackles. I should be clear, I am not representing that this agency is “broken” and I am the savior, by any stretch of the imagination. There were a lot of good things happening long before I came along. Before I was born, in fact, and I am no Spring chicken. But I will also transparently say that there is a need for people to breathe in new life from time to time, in any organization. And where is this more true than in an agency, where we are responsible for leading a wide variety of brands into said brave new world?

So from my first week, here are things I’ve become acutely aware that I will need to do to be an effective-and-not-annoying “new life breather”.

1. Cultivate patience. A bumper crop of it.

2. With patience comes persistence. Small victories every week over time will add up to big ones.

3. Have both “gentle” mode and “bold” mode. They each will have a time and a place.

4. Do your homework, always. The more “proof” you have for your positions, obviously, the more credibility you will establish for the next time you suggest a change.

5. Lead by example. This has always been a favorite and, in my opinion, is one of the most important strategies for any successful leader.

6. Identify and nurture your like-minded allies, the ones who can help you make things happen.

7. Be an energizer. This requires a “relentless focus on the positive”. In my new role, I am relentlessly working on this.

There, of course, are more. These are the ones that are top of mind for me right now. Tell me please, what are yours?

Photo credit: David King

On hospital “patient experience” and m...

I’ll tell you right now, this post has little to do with anything remotely marketing, strategy or social media related. It is tangentially related to customer experience in a healthcare setting, but that is not why I am writing it.

It has to do with being human. And with gratitude. Which, I would argue, are slightly more important matters.

My 85-year old father had surgery yesterday. He’s been my best friend since I was a little girl. He let me dance on his feet. He blows bubbles like a little kid on the beach, and swims even when it’s so cold that no one else will. He payed my way through college. He supported me when I dropped out of college and moved to California briefly. And when I came back. And every day since. He worked at a concert venue until he was over 80, and digs the Red Hot Chili Peppers. And, as if that’s not enough, he was a navigator on bombing missions over Germany in WWII.

As a hospital patient, he is a total pain in the behind.

He doesn’t follow important medical instructions. He won’t accept help getting around, even when he needs it. He threatens to take out his own IV. He jumps to every possible worst-case scenario about his health, when none of them appear to be true. He complains about the bad communication, when really, he just can’t hear because he is too stubborn to get digital hearing aids. He rants incessantly about the cost of healthcare to the people who are just in the trenches, busting their butts to try to help people.

The nurses, however, are saints.

They understand, with coaching from Scott-the-very-kind-hospital-chaplain, that my very beloved pain-in-the-ass of a father is reacting to the total loss of control that he is experiencing. They remain firm and calm, even when I am yelling at him to stop being mean and leave his IV alone. (I am not mean, but sometimes yelling is all he responds to. It gets his attention, at least.)

In a setting where I have long questioned why the patient experience is so lacking, I now realize: the nurses ARE the “patience”, the glue, that hold all of it, and all of us, together when times are tough. They are so kind, so caring, that everything else about the patient experience that often fails us really must be kept in perspective.

The pre-registration mix up that’s too convoluted to attempt to explain here. The near miss on giving Dad antibiotics to which he is allergic. The doctor who “didn’t know” that I was anxiously waiting for news long after the surgery had ended, and who never came out to give me so much as the time of day. The broken telephone in my Dad’s room, so when family was trying to call him after surgery, he wasn’t getting any calls. The conflicting information received from doctor and nurse about what was happening the day after the surgery.

None of it matters all that much, compared to the quiet acts of heroism that are happening the whole time.

I work for an advertising agency, integrated marketing firm, brand strategist blah blah blah. And sometimes I am under the illusion that it is difficult. It is not difficult.

It is a walk in the park compared to what Nurse Debbie and Nurse Lori at Elmbrook Memorial Hospital did today.

Thank you, to all the nurses.

Peace Pause: enjoy your successes...

I was recently in a twitter conversation with a prominent marketing and social media character (resisting use of “guru” or “expert” here) that we all admire very much, and who has recently achieved something really special of which anyone would be enormously proud. Yet, he confided that he is in fact not enjoying his success. Because he’s already looking for “the next big thing”. This has been on my mind a lot, because if he, of all people, can’t pause and go “Damn. I did good.” then who among us can? When is it enough? How high is up?

Most of us here, myself included, can absolutely relate to that type of drive and ambition. There’s some sort of rush that comes from accomplishment that is hard to match. It’s like the crash that happens after a big, exciting new business pitch. “Now what?” “What’s next?” “I need to perform at that level again.”

But. Here’s the thing, people. Life happens in moments.

Your life, like it or not, is happening NOW. And NOW. And NOW.

Tomorrow may come, and it may not. Sorry to be a downer, but face it, it’s true.

So, I ask you to ask yourself, if you are not enjoying it NOW, what’s the point? If not now, when?

Today – stop for a minute. Just a minute. Or five. Or ten. And really, REALLY take in all that you have done. Meditate on it, even if you’re not a “meditation kind of person”. Absorb it like a sponge. Let it flow through you. And just for a moment – let yourself be ENOUGH.

I hope you don’t mind me going all Zen on you today. I write what I feel. Now get back to work and go like hell

Photo credit: Brett Rogers http://www.beatcanvas.com

How letting go can improve corporate culture...

One of the themes in Mack Collier’s excellent Social South presentation, What Rockstars Can Teach You About Kicking Ass With Social Media, is finding ways to shift control to your fans. Mack gives great examples of this, like the Beastie Boys handing out video cameras at their concerts and letting their fans shoot concert videos. Contrast this to the “typical” approach of forbidding photography at concerts. Which is likely to inspire more passion?

Now, take that idea and translate it to WITHIN your organization. How can you better use your INTERNAL fans? I would wager some big bucks, that in most cases, there are people that work for you that are chomping at the bit to be empowered to make things better. What if instead of pulling back so hard on the reins, you simply engaged them in conversations about the direction of the company? What would happen? Here’s what would happen:

You would be more in touch with what’s really going on in your organization.

You would have more, better ideas.

You would have more loyal, passionate employees willing to go to any length to help you succeed.

You would have a stronger, more positive, energized culture.

Your customers would then feel your stronger, more positive, energized culture. They, too, would become more passionate, loyal, fans of yours, and more likely to spread the word. See? Could just turn a negative cycle into a positive one.

So ease up on the reigns, there, Hoss. Stop clinging so tightly to the illusion that you can control everything that you shut out your biggest fans, whether it’s internally, or externally. LEAD. Do so strongly. But collaboratively.

So you can Tweet like hell. But are you LIVING lou...

As I write this, I am waiting for a phone call from a doctor who will tell me if I have cancer, as my grandmother, mother and two aunts did. I likely will have to wait another 24 hours or so for the verdict to be handed down, so inevitably, I am reflective. (Yet, eerily calm.)

I am so not the smartest person in the room. (And ...

Stop putting off your true passions...

Launch yourself into something new – like sp...

How much fun are you having at work? Or does “fun at work” seem like an oxymoron to you? For me, I’ve found that the most fun I can have at work is to really launch myself into something new and exciting. Think about what you would get excited about learning – and then GO FOR IT.

Go for it the way a three-year-old goes for it when he gets turned onto something new. Until three weeks ago, my son knew virtually nothing about space. Then we got him one of those silly Magic School Bus books where the school bus flies around space. Next thing you know, he’s pulling the World Almanac down off the shelf and asking me to help him read the list of space missions. So we get a couple of more books, and now he has taught me all about the 11 planets (including dwarf planets Pluto, Eris and Ceres, you know, right?), the Kuiper Belt and the Oort Cloud. Then yesterday we had to go to the grocery store to get various fruits with which we could estimate the scale of various planets. And when that wasn’t adequate, we had to go get a real model of the solar system and a little constellation dome. Never once did it cross his mind that most three-year-olds, at least most of the ones that I know, don’t feel the need to throw themselves into learning with quite this much gusto.

Sure, kids are all little sponges. So are we, or at least we have the potential to be. Who says you have to stop learning with passion once your job description is written down on a piece of paper? Don’t be limited by what the job description says. For more about passion, check out the “More Cowbell” post from Narciso Tovar and “You Gotta Want the Ball” from Tom Martin.

Uh-oh – here comes the “I’m too busy” excuse; I have zero empathy for that excuse when I hear it from people who supposedly are interested in learning social media, and I have zero empathy for you if that is what you are thinking right now. I get it. You’re busy. We all are. And I know that not everyone has the luxury that I have of an employer who gets it, too, and gives me the time to make it happen. But so what? No excuses. No surrender. Make learning a priority, even if it is for a short time each day. Your career is going to be a hell of a lot more fun – and more successful – if you do.

Have you found this to be true?