Does Male Bashing Sell More Products?

By: Leann Cranmer   Marketers are using an interesting tactic in recent years—male bashing. My, how the advertising pendulum has swung! For decades men were depicted as strong, competent husbands who went out into the world and conquered it in order to earn a living for their families. Women were stereotyped as creatures solely interested in finding a husband, then making him happy by keeping a spotless home, cooking delicious meals and maintaining a svelte figure. Who remembers these popular advertisements from the middle of the twentieth century: Palmolive’s “A wife can blame herself if she loses love by getting ‘middle aged’ skin;” Total’s “Keep up with the house while you keep down your weight;” “Christmas morning she’ll be happier with a Hoover;” or The Folger’s commercial in which the husband complains that “the girls at work make better coffee on their hot plates” than his wife does at home? Advertising’s job is to sell products, and these advertisements did just that; with the side-effect of demeaning and objectifying women. They reflected the culture of the period. They remind me of my well-meaning but out-of-touch grandmother. After dinner one evening my mother was washing a glass when it shattered and deeply cut her hand resulting in a scar. My grandmother’s initial reaction was, “Well, thank goodness you’re already married because you wouldn’t be able to find a husband now.” My grandmother was a wonderful woman, but when my mom repeated the remark to me, I reacted with disbelief and anger—not just for my mom but for my dad. How dare my beloved grandmother imply that my mom was only worth her beautiful skin AND that my dad would be shallow enough to reject her because she had a scar? Just as my grandmother had no idea I would find her attitude off-putting, many pre-feminist advertisers had no idea that many women would find their marketing tactics insulting. God bless the researchers who figured out that women were the shopping decision-makers in most households. This shift occurred in the 1960s, in conjunction with the rise of the feminist movement, and compelled advertisers to change the tone and messaging in their ads. Suddenly, ads showed women as strong, smart and in control. But somehow, when that shift happened, the gender bashing was reversed rather than disappearing. The trend was extended right into TV programming, where sit-coms mirrored the strong woman/weak male trope… and continue to do so today. Reverse Bias I wonder if the advertisers who market products to women using “reverse bias” toward men realize they are angering potential consumers or facing a future backlash. In reverse bias ads, men are portrayed as childish, incompetent and, in some cases, downright stupid. Oscar Meyer Selects’ “It’s Yes Food” campaign is a good example of gender bias. In one of the commercials, the clueless husband tells his wife he is going to “Like” the babysitter on Facebook, start wearing skinny jeans and quit his job to write a blog. To each of these statements the wife replies, “No.” It isn’t until he asks about eating cold cuts from a package and the wife points to the label “Oscar Meyer Selects, no artificial preservatives,” that the wife finally says yes to something he wants. Other commercials in the campaign have the husband demonstrate his incompetence and total reliance on his wife’s better judgment when a tree house he builds for his son falls down, when he hands the same young son a chain saw and tells him to yank hard, and when he calls home like a teenager to ask permission to stay out a little longer with his friends. The women who buy cold cuts may find the ads amusing, but according to many comments on YouTube, men do not. The Oscar Meyer Selects campaign is just one example of this trend. FedEx’s “It’s so easy to ship internationally, practically anyone can do it” campaign also highlights men as stupid and/or incompetent. It’s implied in several of the spots that it is so easy to use FedEx, “even a man can do it.” In one spot a man cannot figure out that the FedEx box he is trying to seal by licking has an adhesive pull tab. Both campaigns are meant to be humorous and obviously target women. Yet how many men (and, yes, women) are insulted by the male bashing? Plenty, we’re guessing, especially as changing employment trends have created a new generation of daddies who work at home (and do housework, childcare, and yes, the shopping) while their wives are the corporate breadwinners. According to Business News Daily, men are the primary shoppers in one-third of all households. The folks at Squidoo recently created a “lens” on the topic, sharing multiple examples of male-bashing in ads, and a list of organizations waging battle against TV programmers and advertisers. You’ll also find the topic on many “daddy blogs,” and a number of recent books address the trend. When Gender Bias Gets Ugly There is also a burgeoning library of academic studies on how gender portrayals in advertising, TV and film affect children’s self-perceptions. We know advertising has negatively impacted on women’s ideas about body image and healthy weight. Advertisers consciously manipulate our fears about not fitting in, having bad breath, body odor, not being “cool,” and being un-sexy. Gender bias is one more trend that may have longer-lasting effects than the immediate intention of selling more products. One could even make the argument that we’ve reached a point in our cultural development where advertising messages tend to objectify both genders—sex sells, as they say, or so advertisers persist in believing. But that’s another topic…

 

Ready Set WRITE!

The new year is upon us. At Plaid Swan we are writing annual marketing plans for our clients.
The development of these plans can seem overwhelming to your team when they imagine it added to their already busy workload, however, a solid plan that follows a standard format can move along at a steady clip.  Your plan should spell out the goals, strategies, and tactics to gain and/or maintain a competitive position as well as any results sought by the leadership of your organization.

Whether you write an annual plan, or a 3 year document, we recommend that you review it every quarter to ensure you are on task and your plan is up to date with new or changing goals.  Take the time to complete this process on a regular schedule. It will ensure all your internal teams are heading the same direction!

Benefits – The advantages of developing a formal written document include:

• Forces a thorough review of all factors impacting success.
  
• Encourages a long-range view; minimizes expedient decision-making.
  
• Stimulates thinking to make optimum use of company resources.
  
• Provides a market-driven foundation to build operating plans on.
  
• Serves as an ideal vehicle to achieve internal consensus and buy-in.
  
• Fosters coordination and unification of all efforts; maximizes efficiency and effectiveness.
  
• Enables team members to take action that is appropriate and in concert with organizational goals.
  
• Facilitates objective evaluation of past actions and results; fosters use of strengths, helps prevent repetition of past mistakes, and indicates where improvement is necessary.
  
• Clearly delineates goals, facilitates measurement, course correction, if indicated, and recognition of superior performance.

Characteristics – A good marketing plan is generally:

• Simple and easy to understand.
  
• Clear about responsibilities and desired results.
  
• Practical about goals to be attained and application of resources.
  
• Flexible and adaptable to changing conditions.
  
• Complete and comprehensive.

Major Elements – Most plans include the following components:

• Executive Summary: Write this first! It should serve a guide for assembling all of the other components.
  
• Situation Analysis: Summary of trends, issues and recent performance in the context of the macro-environment. Include a Market Analysis (market forecast, segmentation, customer information, and market needs analysis); a Competitive Analysis; a SWOT Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats—look at regulators, distribution channel or selling dynamics, etc.); conclude with a summary of problems and opportunities, and the strategic alternatives to exploit them.
  
• Sales Forecast: At minimum, include sufficient detail to track sales month by month, and follow-up with a plan-v.-actual analysis. You may also want to include specific sales by product, by region or market segmentation, by channels, by manager responsibilities, and other elements.
  
• Marketing Objectives: The specific, attainable and measurable goals that flow from the opportunities, and the strategic alternatives to exploit them.
  
• Marketing Strategy: The “game plan” or marketing “logic” through which the objectives will be achieved, including: targets; if segmentation has been adopted as a strategy, positioning vis-à-vis customers and end users; the mix of elements; allocation of resources, etc.
  
• Implementation or Action Plan: Timing and details of specific action including an expense budget. Again, include enough detail to track expenses month by month and produce a follow-up plan-v.-actual analysis. Expand on this bare minimum content with specific sales tactics, programs, management responsibilities, promotion and other elements.
  
• Review: This section covers organizational impact, risks and contingencies, and pending issues. Be ready to support the plan to counterbalance such risks and concerns.

Happy writing!

Being Social

Many brands and companies have attempted to enter the Internet’s multiple social spaces, but few have enjoyed anything approaching resounding success—at least, not if measured against past campaigns in traditional, mass media. The social factor that trips up people is that they persist in thinking of online social venues as “media”—something they can manage and control, in which they can continue to dictate the outcome of their efforts.

But social venues were created to enable social interactions, not brand transactions. Until companies understand this and adapt their own interactions to fit the venue, they will continue to find only haphazard success, and a reluctant welcome in social networks and other social “media.”

Companies tend to launch into social conversations with their old sales-oriented lingo: “Hi there, I’m Joe Smith of ABC Products, and I have a product you’ll love.” That’s an intro that will garner digital rotten tomatoes and an invitation to show yourself to the door. Instead, marketers must learn to enter the conversation as participants, speaking only when they have something valuable to say, and conversing rather than selling. This is a change that company personnel often find difficult. Many companies are now developing staffers who are personally well versed in social media into spokespeople who can guide the company into social venues by “talking the social talk.”

Another impediment to brand success in social venues is that people who flock to social networks tend to deeply distrust brand-managed pages. The most successful brand fan pages are those created by individual users, not brand parent companies. Coca-Cola now sponsors the most popular fan-created Coke page in Facebook; Pringle’s consolidated their three most popular fan-created pages under one umbrella page to merge the voices of 2.8 million fans; Nutella, the hazelnut-flavored spread, has a huge user-generated fan page, with 3.1 million fans.

Even Budweiser’s Bud Light fan page, “Drinkability,” garnered only 1,743 after 6 months online despite promotional efforts including cross-channel ad promotion and NCAA March Madness tie-ins. Smaller companies may find Facebook even less effective because their brands may not generate user fan pages, and attracting users to a company-managed fan page may be difficult.

B2B companies are finding it more effective to: join conversations where their customers and prospects already “live”; monitor those conversations to learn more about their brand’s strongest advocates; and listen to conversations as part of the larger pattern of online “buzz.” Companies that participate rather than manage are growing in authority and brand acceptance in the social media space. Becoming strong listeners rather than trying to dominate the conversation is the new goal for companies exploring social networking as a business tactic.

Social networking can be a portal into many areas of corporate interest, including recruiting, improved customer feedback, one-to-one CRM, and lead development. But social is not the right place for selling… unless the fans are doing the selling for you.

It is time for companies to stop thinking of social networks as channels or tactics, and simply become “fans” themselves. Be a member of the community, rather than trying to be its dictator. Develop the “common touch.”

Slow Down When Building Your Brand

The process of acquiring the brand positioning statement is intensive and purifying. You gather all the details about your business, its products, people, customers, industry and challenges, sift them until the chaff falls away, then pick out the best, most substantial kernels and use them to define the brand.

The process of definition is a step that too many companies skip. All too often, eager to “get to launch,” companies skip straight to the communications without properly defining and testing the brand position.  This results in brand statements that are inaccurate, and frequently unsupportable. Defining the brand is important because:

·         

      First, it helps desired audiences understand the brand, and helps to establish the same perceptions across all audiences.

·         - It ensures delivery of consistent brand messages across markets and geographical areas.

·         -It serves as the basis for orienting new hires, new customers and new business partners.

·         -It moves the brand from abstract to “real.”

As you review possible positioning statements, consider what it that your company is trying to build.  Break down the brand into its key elements—those factors that contribute to the brand essence.  These include:

1.   Product Essence – What does your brand promise—and deliver—to the customer?

2.   Function – What does your brand do or provide?

3.   Values – What values or qualities do customers associate with your brand?

4.   Personality – What characteristics or “personality traits” are associated with your brand?

5.   Perception – Finally, how does your customer or “brand advocate” perceive your brand essence?

The brand positioning must align with these factors to ensure the positioning will “fit” the brand in the minds and emotions of brand advocates and customers.

What Goes Down Must Come Up

Ariana waiting to ride the slide
during a previous visit to
Chestnut Mountain. Yes she
is wearing flip-flops.

So a few weekends ago I took my family up to Chestnut Mountain Resort to ride the slide, enjoy the view, and have some great food at Sunset Grille. My kids – Ariana (10) & Maya (6) – absolutely love to ride the slide at Chestnut and we are frequent visitors every summer.

I guess I wasn't thinking because I let Maya wear flip-flops. Not a good idea when you plan to ride the slide. For those of you not familiar with Chestnut's Alpine Slide it is a fiberglass (I believe) slide that twists and turns its way down the mountain and you use a sled to ride from the top of the slide to the bottom. Once you reach the bottom you take the chair lift back to the top.

Well it was bound to happen - Maya lost a flip flop when riding the chair lift back to the top. By the time she reached the top and got off the chair lift she was an emotional mess. For some reason she had decided she couldn't live without her FAVORITE flip flop.  So I agreed to climb down the mountain with her & Ariana to fetch the missing flip flop – despite the wise council from the other adults in our party. They, like any other rational adult, thought I was insane to climb down the mountain (475 foot vertical drop after all) to retrieve half of a $5 set of flip flops.

Well I had a plan – those of you who know me know that I always have a plan! I knew the going down wouldn’t be too bad and thought that I could just retrieve the missing flip-flop make my way down the rest of the mountain and ride the chair lift back to the top. After all it would be good exercise to climb down.

Maya & Vicki before their
excursion on the Alpine Slide.

The girls and I had a pleasant trip down – chatting and picking wild flowers along the way. It was good bonding time after all. We retrieved the flip-flop and I started to continue down the hill when I heard one of them – I think it was Maya – who yelled “Where are you going?”. Sure enough, I turn around and the girls are climbing their way back up the mountain roughly following the same path we took down.

I tried everything I could think of to convince them to turn around – truly I did, but they wouldn’t do it. And for some reason I wasn’t comfortable letting them proceed on their own.  I’m not sure what my rationale was at the time after all it wasn’t like there was anyone else climbing around on the mountain and the rest of our party was waiting for us at the top.

So I did the unthinkable – I climbed up after them. Both Ariana and Maya are very active children and therefore both are in excellent physical shape. I, on the other hand, have made every excuse not to exercise and therefore am not in any kind of shape to speak of.

A portion of the Alpine Slide
at Chestnut Mountain Resort

The girls proceeded flitting back and forth across the mountain continuing to pick wildflowers as they went. I kept my head down – I refused to look up to see how far I had to go yet – and plodded along as straight as I possibly could up the mountain. I figured we were about ½ of the way down so roughly 200 feet to climb back up.

100 feet to go….. I flopped on the ground gasping for air & desperately craving water. The girls began to get concerned for me and started cheering me on and offering encouraging statements to keep me moving.

50 feet to go….. Ariana ran to Rick, my husband, and told him I was dying.

25 feet to go…..Rick met me with a bottle of water and let me lean on him as he walked me to a shaded table to recover.

30 minutes later I recovered enough to slowly start walking back to the vehicle – still leaning heavily on Rick. 60 minutes after scaling the mountain (following a short nap during the drive home and another bottle of water) I felt like myself again.

In summary, the lessons I learned from this whole experience are:

§  Stick with what you know will work to avoid scaling a mountain when you are not prepared.
§  Always bring water with you when hiking – particularly if out of shape.
§  Exercise is not a waste of time but will ensure your body is ready when you want to challenge it.
§  Listen to the advice of your peers – particularly if they all think something is a bad idea.
§  And finally your child will get over losing a FAVORITE flip-flop!

Maya's infamous FAVORITE flip-flops!

Target Markets

"Target marketing, know your audience, identify the primary customer," yadda yadda, yadda!  These lines have been drilled into every marketing person's brain since their first marketing 101 class.
The fact is, you have to do it. And what makes it more difficult is that as the Internet continues to open the world to everyone; people in a demographic group no longer follow each other around like geese.

There was a day when the majority of women over 55 years of age wore polyester, drove a 4-door sedan, more likely to not have a pet in her household than have one and she lived to serve her grandchildren. She was probably married and was mental mush if she was divorced.

These ladies still exist, but not as the majority. Now you have the "polyester" minority and many others, including, the metro, senior female, who if divorced will more than likely choose not remarry, prefers to live alone, probably has a dog and is just as likely to drive a Jeep as a sedan.

Add to her, the ever exciting psychographic makeup of the Cougar (yes, she is a recognized co-hort in marketing today) This flashy lady, likes younger men,  may or may not be financially well off, travels alone and she may very well still be top in her career field. She is not wearing rubber soled shoes, she is in 3" heels. Want to sell her something....get to the point. Don't load her with droning details. Tell her the benefits of doing business with you, upfront.

And these are just three very small micro groups of women over 55! Whew!

So, why do it? Why go to all this trouble? Because it can dramatically increase your sales and just as dramatically lower your marketing expenses. Stop talking to everyone and start talking to the few that care about what you sell and have a want or need for your products/services. Are you sending out 1 direct mail piece to everyone in your database? Waste of postage, waste of paper,WASTE of money. Develop 3 or more messages, send less and target the right message to the right group. No call to action? (gasp!) Don't you dare! :P

What encourages a buying decision out of a 30 something, married, female is her family. "Does this make my kid's life better or my life easier?" (Sorry hubby's, you don't weigh in much to her daily purchase decisions, except for food.) She also is swayed by her budget and whether or not her friends are talking about/aware of the product or business she is considering and what experience they had with you.  She will hunt your reputation down on line like a bloodhound. These reviews are gospel to her. If you haven't monitored your brand on social media, take time to audit this!

What encourages the same buying decision from a woman over 50? "Do I know/trust the brand, does this make MY life better, does this purchase reflect how I see myself? (younger, vibrant, sexy, informed and so on) She cares MUCH less about what her friends are buying or who they buy insurance from, bank with, or where they shop at online. You have to reach her directly.  Don't lie to her or offer her untrue value statements about your company. If she catches you, she will never use you again.  Tell her the truth and talk to her as you would a male customer. Talk down to her or try to charm her and she is gone.

This process can seem overwhelming, but you can see how in the end, it simplifies everything. By trying to market to everyone, you are literally, targeting thousands of unique categories of consumers. Drill it down to 3 or more groups that offer you the most ROI and go get them!

Have Great Creative, Will Travel

Work is often perceived as a necessary evil. "I have to go to work to get paid." It's true, some days it is just true in all companies. But, if you have been following Plaid Swan, you know we are an agency of a different feather. --Pun intened.:O

At Plaid Swan, we made the decision to raise "free range designers."  Yep, just like free range chickens, they are free to run, work, concept, brainstorm anywhere in the world. We don't care if they work in a suit or a Speedo. They are on their own.

Operating under the philosphy that great design comes from inspired designers, we have located what we feel are the best of the best in the country and tied them together only by Skype. And these meetings are only on key perspective client teams when needed. Otherwise, we have no idea where they are.

To date it has worked great. They are 100% accountable for producing heart-stopping design and MUST be on deadline, no exceptions, to remain with PS. In exchange, they roam free. Free to ski (Peter); go back to school (Adam) raise kids; (Craig); own a gallery in Boston (Bonnie) and on down the line.

No cages. No time cards, no desk that you have to sit at, no office politics, and no 8A-5P. Do your best work at 3:00A? Great! Have at it.

The challenge with the traditional ad agency model is that all work looks similar. When designers sit in a group, the work all starts to look the same. One idea inspires another, and eventually, an entire community or industry is blanketed in one font and one color scheme. It's no-one's fault, but if the same people do the work, the work starts to look the same.

The same goes for copywriters. We retain the best non-profit writer in the country and the best tourism writer on the face of the planet. They could NOT, however, write for each other. A truly great writer has a style and that style can rarely cross drastic lines say, from extreme sport copy to banking. One is going to sound odd. Most traditional firms employ a group of copywriters who just try to write everything. The grammer may be correct, but they can rarely speak to an audience in all segments.

People often come in and say, "where is everyone?!" Well, Peter is in Colorado....we think.  After a little explanation, and review of the bios we have hand selected for their team, 100% of new clients say, "Wow, that's cool."

 We think so.

Your Brand is Your Best Sales Tool 24/7. Is It Doing A Good Job For You?

Is it time for a brand assessment? Your brand is your #1 sales tool 24/7. Is it working for you?

Does your annual ad spend keep increasing? If your brand is working properly your advertising budget should only increase year over year if you are launching a new product or service, if you are targeting a new demographic/market or you need to respond to new /changing competition. If it's increasing just to keep the bottom line where it has been, then it is time to re-evaluate your media mix. BUT don't stop there. Audit your brand. It may be time for a refresh.

Brand Audits

Ideally, a brand audit will be scheduled annually and receive as much attention as the marketing plan. But if not, it should be reviewed when any of the following situations occur:

• When contemplating a decision to enter a new market or product category in which you have not as yet established a position.
• When assessing the pros and cons of extending a brand into a new product category or developing a new brand for that category.
• When determining whether to sub-brand or utilize a corporate brand – and to assess the balance between the two.
• When a brand's market share is slipping or is not meeting realistic expectations because of competitive activity.
• When considering the establishment of a new product category in which your brand will be the first participant.
• When you are not certain of your brands position, strength or effectiveness in relation to competitive offerings. 

The Ripple Effect

People around me lately have had to deal with major life changes. The funny thing about change is that it has long fingers. It never really stays with the host. It has a ripple effect. Not always bad, sometimes for the better, but I find it interesting to see how far the ripples go. For instance, my going from being employed to being self-employed created huge ripples in those close to me. While I have more flexibility, I have much less personal time and that has affected my friends and family. I have had to change my whole life to keep up and that has affected everyone, all the way down to my hairdresser and UPS delivery guy. I may be home working on my deck at 2PM one day and gone for 12 hours the next.  People have had to change their schedules and even lives due to my changes. 

 I have a good friend and client that lost her job. She is dealing with the shock and loss of her entire social structure, income and security all in one fell swoop. At Plaid Swan, we were affected as we loved working with this person and will miss her on the work front for a long time, but now our relationship changes from client/friend to just good friend and it feels off center and will until we all regain our balance. While the change in not working with her is bad, her replacement is a good guy and now we and 400 people have change in our daily lives. (But we really like him as well, so it will be worth it.)

My neighbor was blindsided by cancer. No symptoms and too far along to do much about. She went from gardening one day to making end-of- life decisions the next. She is a very young woman and she has just found out that she has lived her lifetime. It will be in the span of 42 years, not 80.  I cannot imagine the changes in every corner of her world from her parents to her husband to her children.  Her passing will affect thousands of people in enormous ways and some ever so slightly, but their lives will change all the same.  The mailman won’t get brownies from that house this Christmas, and local nursing homes residents will suddenly notice that this woman and her therapy dog don’t visit and read to them anymore.

Someone said to me other day that they thought this woman was cold and at times rude. This person has no idea about this woman’s health, and it was not my place to tell her. But, she decided she no longer likes this neighbor because she doesn’t wave anymore when she walks by with her dog.

The point of all this, is for everyone, me included to give people in your everyday life a little slack.  Don’t take everything personally, don’t feel that every comment or expression, or even poor customer service at the drugstore, is a shot at you.  Stop reading so much in to all of life’s tiny unimportant moments, and then maybe we won’t miss the ones that do matter.

Sometimes people are just simply preoccupied with all the changes around and don’t think to make sure everyone else is petted and happy. Let’s be kind to each other and give people we love and those we don’t even know, the benefit of the doubt. Sometimes the kindest reaction is a little breathing room. Let people regain their footing. And if you have to make changes because of someone else, swim with the tide, not against it. The ride is nicer.

People around me lately have had to deal with major life changes. The funny thing about change is that it has long fingers. It never really stays with the host. It has a ripple effect. Not always bad, sometimes for the better, but I find it interesting to see how far the ripples go. For instance, my going from being employed to being self-employed created huge ripples in those close to me. While I have more flexibility, I have much less personal time and that has affected my friends and family. I have had to change my whole life to keep up and that has affected everyone, all the way down to my hairdresser and UPS delivery guy. I may be home working on my deck at 2PM one day and gone for 12 hours the next.  People have had to change their schedules and even lives due to my changes. 

 I have a good friend and client that lost her job. She is dealing with the shock and loss of her entire social structure, income and security all in one fell swoop. At Plaid Swan, we were affected as we loved working with this person and will miss her on the work front for a long time, but now our relationship changes from client/friend to just good friend and it feels off center and will until we all regain our balance. While the change in not working with her is bad, her replacement is a good guy and now we and 400 people have change in our daily lives. (But we really like him as well, so it will be worth it.)

My neighbor was blindsided by cancer. No symptoms and too far along to do much about. She went from gardening one day to making end-of- life decisions the next. She is a very young woman and she has just found out that she has lived her lifetime. It will be in the span of 42 years, not 80.  I cannot imagine the changes in every corner of her world from her parents to her husband to her children.  Her passing will affect thousands of people in enormous ways and some ever so slightly, but their lives will change all the same.  The mailman won’t get brownies from that house this Christmas, and local nursing homes residents will suddenly notice that this woman and her therapy dog don’t visit and read to them anymore.

Someone said to me other day that they thought this woman was cold and at times rude. This person has no idea about this woman’s health, and it was not my place to tell her. But, she decided she no longer likes this neighbor because she doesn’t wave anymore when she walks by with her dog.

The point of all this, is for everyone, me included to give people in your everyday life a little slack.  Don’t take everything personally, don’t feel that every comment or expression, or even poor customer service at the drugstore, is a shot at you.  Stop reading so much in to all of life’s tiny unimportant moments, and then maybe we won’t miss the ones that do matter.

Sometimes people are just simply preoccupied with all the changes around and don’t think to make sure everyone else is petted and happy. Let’s be kind to each other and give people we love and those we don’t even know, the benefit of the doubt. Sometimes the kindest reaction is a little breathing room. Let people regain their footing. And if you have to make changes because of someone else, swim with the tide, not against it. The ride is nicer.

A friend and I were sharing a glass of wine and somehow ended up on the subject of how much better candy was when we were kids. Remember all the great penny candy? Like, hot dog bubble gum, lollies, those big rings with a HUGE candy diamond in the middle and never forget...Pop Rocks. Pop Rocks of course are still around today as they are the best candy EVER!

But lets not leave out the gross ones. Those button things that came on strips of paper that you had to strip off with your teeth, those weird wax mini bottles with some tiny amount of liquid inside?  Don't confuse these with wax lips. Wax lips were AWESOME! They were gross to chew, but that didn't stop us from thinking they just might be gum... this time. No little brown bag was complete without them. 

My parents got slave labor because of penny candy. I would pull the tops off dandelions over an huge yard for a nickel, shine my Dad's work shoes for a dime and even agree to not fight with my sister, Janice, but that costs them a quarter. In the 60's, a quarter was like $100. Really.

We were the cool generation. Today, the great candy of our time is gone because parents are afraid their kids will choke. Not our parents. We would suck on Fireball jawbreakers while ramping our bikes off of 2x4's put in place by our Dads. No helmets, no choking... just stitches, bruises and scraped elbows Yeah, we were much cooler.

Hey, remember putting playing cards on the spokes of your bike...

A Day in the Life...

So, it all started with planning for guests at my house for Easter dinner. It started out simply enough. I had the meal all planned, the house was clean; I had even cleaned out my car so I could give a lovely tour of Dubuque after dinner.  In fact I was so organized and so far ahead that last night, I emailed a good friend and thought, “I will spend some sometime Amy, have some fun conversation over  cocktails and then get up at the crack of dawn to get any finishing touches done in the morning. It will be a nice weekend.”

I woke up this morning, and decided to take the dog (yes, the handsome, Simon) for a walk to wear him out. It makes him a better host. If I can wear him out, he will find a corner and drop out cold for the day.  We were off on this beautiful morning, 9:30AM, me and the dog, enjoying the beautiful countryside of the Asbury trail system. 

After about quarter mile there was “the pond.”  Simon lives for this pond, it’s very clear, pretty low water, maybe 3 feet, just perfect for an old man to float around in for a while. As the water was so clear, I thought, “Who cares? Let him go.”  The instant he went in, a man walked by and said, “I wouldn’t have let him go in there, my dog got stuck in the mud last week.”  Well, we all know Simon and his hips, so I knew this was going to end badly. There he was 6 feet out and stuck solid.  In my hands were his leash, poop bags and car keys. Yes, car keys.

I thought I left everything on the shore when I waded out to waist high water to drag this old man out of the mud. The mud kept sucking the shoes off my feet, so I gave one up and kept pushing his butt out of the mud. He of course is trying to “help” so he is splashing like hell on the front end. I get him out. I get back up on shore and then decide that I like those sneakers, they are Coach and I am not giving them up. I go back in for the sneaker. I find it, full of mud and other scary things..

Simon is covered in clay/mud from his ears to his tail and so am I. I have mud in my hair, in my teeth, my ears and all the way up to my chest. All this is bad enough, but remember I have a houseful of people coming at 12:30. 

No keys. Yep, no keys. They are in the pond.

I am on my stomach pulling up handfuls of scum, no keys. People are walking by and a guy finally asks if he can give us a ride back the house. So, for 15 minutes, I am walking back to this man’s truck with mud in my hair, teeth etc. while people are strolling by in their Sunday wear, looking at me like I have been assaulted.

This man offers to let me sit in his truck and I refuse as I am a disaster and instead ride home in the back of his pickup with my dog.

(Company coming at 12:30…)

Now, of course my neighbor is standing in her front yard, (the same neighbor that was present for the ground squirrel episode this past winter) if you don’t know that story that is for another day. She saw me leave in an hour ealier in my shades and baseball cap, in my clean SUV and now sees me return in the back of a strange pickup truck covered in mud.  She is a very good friend so she comes over and helps me get Simon down out of the truck and stands there smiling, not saying a word. I told her I needed a ride back to my car, but I had to find keys to the car and the house. Jan just smiled and said “certainly. But I get EVERY detail on the way.” Fine.

Well, I cleaned the garage several weeks ago and put the extra house keys in such a safe place, that I could not find them. The only way in the house is through the dog door. Yep….

Company coming at 12:30….

I get on my hands and knees and crawl in the house through the dog door. I go upstairs open the door and tell Jan I will be right out.

Simon gets in.

 I walk out of the bathroom and my huge, black lab is in the middle the house in full shake out. FULL SHAKE OUT.  There is mud on the walls, on the windows and every glass table in the living room. PLUS, the white table cloth and all the table settings that I put out that morning. I just stand there and breathe.

Company coming at 12:30…

I get the keys, we go get my car,  I get home, throw Simon in the tub and give him a bath, run around and strip off clothes, table cloth, etc. and throw everything in the washer. I grab Windex spray all the tables, wash the dishes, reset the table, sprayed Febreeze and called it good. It is now 11:40.

I take a shower, redo hair and make-up, mop the floors, clean the bathroom AGAIN, (you cannot image how much mud came off that dog!) and as the first car pulls in, I slam a shot of Irish whiskey.

After everyone left, I dropped on the couch and decided to focus on the positive.

1)      I had a crock pot main course. Thank God!

2)      All food prep was done

3)      I had extra car keys

4)      I found my extra house keys, IN the house (bright as a bulb, am I)

5)      Wet mud comes off walls and glass very easily

6)      My neighbor was home to give me a ride

7)      I saved my shoes

8)      AND, I still have Irish whiskey left in the kitchen for a nice little night cap

Happy Easter.

Marching to My Own Strange Drummer

Sitting in my office on a beautiful 70 degree March day, sun stream in g in the windows, listening to Norah Jones and having just completed a project that I have been working on for months, I stared out the window and wondered why I did all this. Why jump off a cliff to be self-employed in my 40’s, why do it during the worst recession since the Great Depression, why leave a big corporate job, that was secure, great pay, great benefits  and even a great boss. And the answer was simple. I just simply, HAD to do it. To own my own ad agency has been my dream since I was a very little girl. It was like the calling women get to become Nuns. It was there, then it was stronger and then it was all consuming. Like a screaming in my soul. Sounds dramatic I know, but that is what it was. A calling.
People were hurt by what I did. Even though I went above and beyond to make sure my employer had plenty of notice, 90 days, and I spoke to my staff and tried to explain that this was not a rash decision, but a lifelong dream, people were hurt.  Even a couple of very good friends I had made, have fallen away and become “busy” when I reach out, but you know, that is ok. I am not mad at them and I don’t feel guilty about me.  People depended on me in my previous job, both from a client and employee/employer standpoint, but in the end, I decided that  I did have a right to live the life that I wanted to live, and in some sense, even an obligation to meet my own goals, because as they say “this isn’t a dress rehearsal,” folks.  And, frankly, I had outgrown my current position and I was bored. I needed a higher stress level to do my best work, more control over how to best serve my clients, and time to truly work to grow my clients businesses. I knew I could build a better mousetrap if I had the freedom to do it. I know when my clients tell me how much happier they are now, how much better service they are getting, and how I have become a partner in their business, that this was the right decision. Right for me, for them, for my life in general.

 People ask me what I will do if this business doesn’t survive in this economy. That makes me smile. Because, as strange as it is, I don’t really fear that.  If that happens, I will simply thank God for the strength to try. All that matters to me, is that when I look in the mirror when I am 80 years old, I can say, “Good for you, girl, you always wanted to live your life as a cliff jumper and march to your own drummer.” But mainly what matters to me most is that I kept a promise  I made to myself  on my 18^th birthday, “in the end, I will always listen to what my soul tells me is right and live my life according to that direction.”

 I will be able to smile at that old lady in the mirror, with a young girl’s blue eyes and say, “Good for you, girl, you have become what you aspired to be.”

Changing My Path

How does one make the decision to become self-employed? I guess the path each of us takes is different but I would wager a pretty strong guess that each path is fueled by our natural inclination and drive to make our lives fit our dreams. At some point in our lives it feels as if the fast-forward button is on and your life is just flying by with each workday blending into the next. It is very easy to find yourself so far from your dreams that it seems impossible to find a path back. A few months ago, that was where I found myself – following a path away from my dream.

It was always my dream to live a life where I could balance it all – a rewarding career and a happy family. I knew people who had achieved that but no matter what I tried I kept moving farther away from it. Either my family was happy and my career unfulfilling or my career challenging but my family unhappy.

If someone had told me a year ago that I would have my own business by now, I would have laughed out loud. In a move that is utterly unlike me, I didn’t exactly plan far in advance for this major change in my career path. Yet, I realize now that I have been heading in this direction my whole life. My parents both worked outside of the home and I remember as a young child wishing that I could spend more time with them. As I was preparing to send my youngest to Kindergarten this past year, I realized that I was following the same path as my mother and knew that my children were wishing for more of my time too. I also realized that I had become the person I was by following the examples of hard work, dedication, and devotion to family that I saw my mother practice every day. I knew a change needed to be made but wasn’t exactly sure yet what that change was.

What I did know was that the job I was in was not meeting my needs. I loved being a media planner and knew that I wanted to stay in that career. At the same time, I had made a home for my family in Dubuque and had no desire to leave. That said, I did find myself unfulfilled in my job. I consistently found my skills undervalued and my career success connected with people who didn’t appreciate my contributions and didn’t want to follow the same path that I did. I knew a change was needed.

Starting my own business seemed like a far-fetched idea at first.But the more I discussed the idea with Betsy, the more I realized that it was exactly what I was looking for. I could have the flexibility to be there for my children when they needed me but could also challenge myself and take my career destiny in my own hands. I was surprised when I first discussed the idea with Rick, my husband, that he was completely and totally supportive. After all I was talking about a risk to the financial well-being of our household. He saw it differently though - I was following the path I needed to follow.

So with the purchase of two laptops and a printer, I left my job of eight years to partner with one of my best friends in the challenging, exciting, and unknown world of entrepreneurs. I am once again on a path towards my dream.

Writing this has prompted me to inquire with Betsy what her reasons were for starting Plaid Swan. Look for her thoughts to be posted next week.