Business
Hello from Portland, Oregon! During the pandemic, many people turn to podcasting or video recording as a creative outlet. I, on the other hand, moved inward and started to focus on my mind and my emotions. I haven't completely shut down or gone off grid. I still work on my client projects. I continued to get on Zoom for business and the personal gatherings. I still create content, but only limited to my monthly webinars and the pre-committed speaking engagements. To manage my emotion and my stress, I made an intentional effort not to worry too much, even though the business has been down. But following that premise willing too much, I took very proactive look of the overall financial health of my business and created a plan for the worst case scenario, such as what if I didn't meet my revenue goal for second half 2020. What should I do? Right. Once I have a plan in place and I know what to do and what I can control, I stopped worrying. Now, if it happens, I have a plan. I know exactly what I need to do. Then subconsciously, I just decided to let go of that podcasting goal, that video recording goal, that my writing goal, just for a little while. Like I said, it was not planned, it just happened and I kind of went with that flow. Speaking of focusing in where I spent a lot of time thinking, thinking about my business, thinking about where I want to be in next several years, thinking about what type of content to create moving forward. And thinking about whether I need to modify my current value proposition--and if I do, how do I pivot, what do I need to change? And I also think about the work and life balance, and I've been spending way too many hours working in the past six years. So I kind of just let my mind wander here and there without much direction. Oh, by the way. I also think about what I want to eat every day (laughs). I'm not much of a cook, but I love to eat when I'm sad. I eat when I'm angry, I eat when I'm depressed, I eat when I'm happy I eat. When I'm with my friends, I eat. All right. And I love to try different restaurants. So when the restaurants were closed, doing COVID, man, that was hard for me. Thank God. My husband started baking and cooking. I don't know what happened to him and I'm not going to ask, but I'm so happy he started doing that. And I am his worst critic. Like if he creates something and I was like, “Oh my God, this is not good. Can you just go back to a kitchen and fix that? Otherwise don’t come back.” No, I'm kidding. I did say that occasionally, you know, in a very joking semi-serious type of way. But either way, I'm very grateful that he cooks and I'm just being a critic. It's fantastic. Oh, by the way, we love, we love “Great British Baking Show.” Have you seen that show? It's fantastic. We watched 10 seasons straight and you can say that I stopped creating content and then stopped consuming massive, I mean, massive amounts of content on Netflix and Amazon Prime—aka: binge watching shows. I guess that's kind of like the trends like everybody's doing. I certainly can check off binge watching shows on my 2020 list. But, you know, even though I've been thinking a lot and thinking is nothing without execution, right. Because I can think all the time, but if I don't on it, it's kind of like a fart or thin air. So here's one thing out of this whole, let-my-mind-flow-randomly process. I came up with one idea and this is related to a podcast. So I'm thinking I've been doing the seven minutes kind of podcasting format for about three years and you'll be hearing me, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Thank you so much. Moving forward. I was still sharing my thoughts and my ideas, but I like to juxtapose that with guest interviews--the length will be around 15 minutes with three to five questions. You can hear other people's point of view and we can all learn together from them. What do you think? I want to try that and to get your feedback. All right. So you are going to hear several interviews in the next several weeks, so check it out and I'm looking forward to hearing your feedback. Another thinking ideas that I did is I started to reevaluate my own website and I look into my current value proposition is a clear enough is anything I need to be fine. And also I need to change due to the current environment. And there are a couple of things I made changes. And they are changed to accommodate the current situation at the same time optimize for SEO. For example, I offer strategic planning, account based marketing, content marketing, and the Martech integration and evaluation, so I create a separate page to talk about what I do for each of this topic. And that that will make it very clear. It's articulate, again, my offering in a way that people can understand at the same time optimize for search. Another thing I did is for my book page. So in the past I listed three books on one page. So that very long page. Now I broke that down into three separate pages for three different books. Again, you know, articulate my positioning a little better at the same time optimize for SEO. Another thing I did is the speaking page, which is obviously it was tailor for face-to-face conferences and trade shows and events. Now all that has stopped. And so I changed the heading and add it online and also virtual a virtual events as a part of my offering. Again, looking into the current environment and optimize my website accordingly. And you know, to be honest with you, many brands are changing that they are onsite rule to accommodate or comply with social distancing. And you should talk about what your stores are doing or your brains are doing on the specific situation like this. And make that very clear and does share that on your website, so you people know that you are doing everything to keep them safe. That's another form of a content marketing. So here are some of the changes I made and by thinking and let my mind wander around. So what about you? What have you been doing in the past 10 to 12 weeks? And you're working hard. Are you hardly working? or are you enjoying your time with your family or you just want to get away from them for a long period of time? I get it. Or you’re just spending way too much time, like me watching Netflix and Amazon Prime. Some of my friend actually went off grid. They literally just take a break away from computer and not really looking into a social media stuff. And I really admire that. So whatever you did, I hope you are healthy and safe. Thank you so much for listening to my podcast. Podcasting is a one-way communication. I don't necessarily know who you are, but your support means a great deal to me. If you want to chat, reach out to me on any social media channel. Not Tik Tok top. Okay. I'm not on Tik Tok. You can also join me on Facebook community Build Your Marketing Skills to Get Ahead. When you join, you can get a free tall Starbucks on me. I place a gift card with a barcode on the side. You can find that in the Announcements page. Please use it. Right. Love to hear from you. If you venture out, be safe and stay healthy. Take care. Bye bye.