Realizing that I Suck as Wonder Woman

The other night I engaged in my favorite procrastination activity: reading other people's blogs. There is nothing quite so satisfying (except maybe chocolate) as ignoring the laundry or the disaster that is my office so I can find out how someone else dealt with the same challenge.

While surfing, I found: Staying Sane as a Parent and Business Owner. Hmmm, anyone who's figured this one out is a genius in my book.

It was written by Peter Vogopoulos, the mostly silent partner of Firepole Marketing. I first came across Firepole Marketing when Danny Iny, the not so silent partner, sent me a link to his book  "Engagement from Scratch", a compilation of the real-life stories of 30 successful marketers on how to build a loyal and engaged audience. From that moment, I was pretty much hooked on FM.

In this post, Peter shares how his life -- and priorities -- as a business owner changed after he and his wife had a baby. He had to give some stuff up, take a supporting role instead of a starring one, and find new ways to work. He was juggling a lot of balls and trying really, really hard not to drop the glass ones. These are the ones that are the most precious, the ones that when all is said and done, are the only ones that really matter.

I love this. How many times do we give the same level of importance to everything that's on our priority list  and then end up feeling like crap because we missed our kid's baseball game so we could meet a deadline?

This post resonated with me in many ways. Last year, I was laid off. I took that as the proverbial kick in the pants I needed to start Studio 4 PR, the business I'd been dreaming of for years. I was thrilled that I'd be working from home. My husband and I have a five year old who was starting kindergarten in the fall and this meant I could volunteer in his class and make sure he got on and off the bus safely.

I also had visions that I would be a cross between the Wonder Women of Productivity and Macguyver, accomplishing far more between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. than I ever had in my previous 40-hour life and, with two candy bars, a piece of string and a rubberband,  also able to whip up a Halloween costume, get dinner on the table, and clean the house. So, it was a little disheartening to have my husband come home from work, see the house a wreck and the laundry not done and ask "what did you do all day?

A reminder hanging over my desk

The fact that I'd been spending hours upon hours on the business plan for the virtual press room I'm launching this summer, attending a networking event, or helping out in our son's class didn't seem to matter. He wanted me to "show him the money".

Heck, I want to show him the money, too, but I also want to be like Peter and make sure I don't drop any of the glass balls. 

What about you?

What's Your Why? Six Steps to Getting R.E.A.L About What You Want

A good friend has asked me to take her on as a PR client. She worked for many years, very successfully, for a large, very well known company where her work was regularly recognized and appreciated by the top management. When she left, she thought she was moving on to "the next big thing".

Unfortunately, her next employer didn't appreciate the value she brought to the company. Not only didn't appreciate it, but came right out and told her how much they didn't
appreciate it. It wasn't long before she left because it was
starting to affect her health.

The tanking economy made jobs hard to come by, so after being unemployed for awhile, she found a job writing policies and procedures for a non profit. It's a pretty important gig since this agency has to comply with HIPPA privacy laws and Medicaid  not to mention a million other compliance issues. But, the agency's senior management is mean-spirited and the job itself is about as much fun as watching paint dry.

So, she called me, almost in desperation, to help chart a path to her true destiny. I'm a PR specialist, not a career coach, I reminded her. I'm used to working with clients who already know what they're passion is and then letting the rest of the world in on the secret. I couldn't start doing PR for her until I knew what the heck we were promoting her to do.

I had her do a couple of exercises that, I think, can benefit any creative entrepreneur.  The first is based on one I learned from PJ McClure of The Mindset Maven. 

I call it "What's Your Why?"and it embodies my Get R.E.A.LTM principles that every entrepreneur should have: Realistic, Engaging, Authentic, Longlasting.   In six steps, this exercise will help you Get R.E.A.L about what you want to do.

Here's how to do the exercise:

1. Write down your goal. It should be clearly defined in 1-2 sentences. So, if your goal is to quit your job, win the lottery, and travel the world, you need to rewrite these as three separate goals.
    
2. Look at your goal and ask yourself "why is this important to me?"  Write down your answer.
   
3. Look at your answer and ask yourself "why is that important to me?" Write down your answer.
   
4. Look at that answer and ask yourself "why is that important to me?" Write down your answer.
   
5. Look at that answer and ask yourself "why is that important to me?" Write down your answer.
   
6. Look at that answer and ask yourself "why is that important to me?" Write down your answer.
   

The final answer is like a tiny kernel, but it's also the most important. Even though, it may seem to be world's apart from your goal, don't dismiss it. This is what your heart wants and your head is afraid to admit.

I'd love to hear what you discovered when you got R.E.A.L. Please feel free to post in the comments section and share this post if you found it useful. 

Thank you for being in this space.

Robin