Maintaining Momentum in the Final Stretch

We just entered Q4 of 2023. How did we get here so quickly? If your energy and creativity are lagging, you need to listen to this episode.

 

Here’s the link to the blog referenced in today’s episode, “How PR Pros Can Find Their Secret Sauce” 

 

Transcript

Michelle Kane (00:02):

Thank you for joining us for another episode of That Solo Life, the podcast for PR pros and marketers working for themselves. Like me, Michelle Kane, with VoiceMatters and my ever steady co-host, Karen Swim of Solo PR Pro. Hi Karen, we are back again.

Karen Swim, APR (00:21):

We are here!

Michelle Kane (00:25):

Oh my goodness. Speaking of, we thought today would be a great day. We're looking at the end of the calendar pages and we thought it would be a perfect time to talk about keeping ourselves motivated. How do we keep our motivation momentum as we enter into this fourth quarter? And I don't know, I think for so many of us, we're just tired. We're just weather subconsciously or consciously tired from these past several years now of stuff.

Karen Swim, APR (01:06):

And as we record this, it's a particularly interesting time in that we continue to say post pandemic because it's not that far behind us. And now Covid also is popping its head up quite fiercely again. And so we're seeing more cases come back and I felt like we were still finding our footing after the pandemic and still trying to fill out what normal really was, and the ground is shifting under our feet once again. So it is an interesting time, and I don't know about everyone else, but I feel I'm tired, but I also have maybe excited energy. So there's that combination of being excited about the last quarter of 2023 and the things that are happening and the things that are in place that will set me up for 2024, but also just tired, fatigued. If we could end the year today, I would really be okay with that.

Michelle Kane (02:14):

I am with you. No, it's interesting. I mean, there's so much that goes into keeping you motivated, right? I mean, some of us may have client work that is samey-same, and there's nothing wrong with that, but sometimes you just get that multi-year itch about it, which you could flip that into saying, well, can we change things up to be more beneficial? How can we just reinvigorate ourselves about it? But from the broader spectrum, it's also keeping ourselves invigorated about our day to day

(02:53):

Just staying excited about the job or thinking, well, why am I feeling this way? Aside from the general global malaise and freakout that's been hampering us for all this time, I think of myself. For me, I do big crises really well. If something big happens in life, I'm like, okay, let's handle it. Let's get through it. Let's get through it. And then if I drop a pen, then I just lose it. So I have to wonder if as a society, if that's kind of where we're at, we all got through the big massive thing pretty much, and now we're just, now we have the crash. So I think we just need to keep that in mind as we go about our businesses and our work days and our personal things, and just remember to be kind to ourselves, be patient with ourselves and realize that as much as we might like to go back to autopilot for a lot of things, we're not there yet.

 

Karen Swim, APR (03:54):

I also think at this time of year, we've gone through nine months. We're in this final stretch for a lot of people. Fall is very busy. It's event season. It's just a lot going on, a lot of moving parts. And so you can start to feel your energy levels flagging at this point of the year. So some things that you can do to make sure that you continue that momentum of the year and keep things on track is one is that you could revisit your schedule. This is a great time to start looking at pulling things off and be more effective, be more efficient. Sometimes we're just go, go, go. And we've added all of these things. So what can you remove from your schedule? How can you be more efficient and spend less time doing things if you need help? There's some great books out there like Essentialism, which I loved because it really forces you to look at how you prioritize your time and blocking things out worked for me, really love it.

(04:55):

I need to read it again. Then there's a book that I've been hearing a lot of good things about the 12 Day Year. So take a look at your time management and think about, okay, as I go into this last quarter, what can I do to be efficient? And maybe it means eliminating some things and tabling some things for next year because this is already a busy time of year. I think you can also sustain momentum by ensuring that you're refueling your creativity. So in this fourth quarter, what can you tweak to make things a little bit different? How can you approach these Q four campaigns just a little bit differently? Sometimes we deal with clients so much, I want to say this in a super kind way, but clients have a way of sometimes just no matter what we do, they will slip back into the corporate persona hole and it can whittle away at your creative energy sometimes because we can be wildly creative and then they dial us back.

(06:06):

So spend a few days or a few hours each day or just take some time out and start to think about unleash your wild creative side again, because within that you know that they're going to probably have you dial it back, but it energizes you to just pick off all the boundaries. Forget about what they said, no to forget about who they are, because sometimes we kind of get into this mindset of thinking, okay, they'll never do that. And so then we don't go there in our head because we feel like it's a waste of time. But again, this is about refreshing you, and a lot of times when you do that, just take off all boundaries. If I could do anything that I wanted for this client, anything, and they would totally go for it, how would I approach this in there somewhere is something new that you probably could get past them and that will make you excited again. And that excitement means everything.

Michelle Kane (07:07):

That's so true, so true. And it also communicates that you're invested in their success. I would say a partner activity to that would be to make sure you're fueling yourself creatively. I know it's so easy for all of us and hello, I'm the worst culprit. You're just getting things done. You skip. You think going to a movie's too frivolous, I don't have time for a walk. Those are the things that refill your cup and you have to keep your cup full so that you're able to, I mean, I'm sure we've all worked ourselves to the bone where we're just dry. It's like I got nothing

Karen Swim, APR (07:47):

For sure. Totally been there, but it is possible to regroup. It's interesting on the solo blog this week, if you haven't visited our blog, we tackled a topic lightly on your secret sauce. And as we go on in business, we all hit a point, and sometimes it's seasonal, but sometimes it's just a point in our business where we just were bored, we're restless, or you're just not feeling it for whatever reason. Maybe you can't even put your finger on it. Dialing down some levels and really finding that secret sauce could mean a little bit of a tweak to the services that you deliver to how you deliver them. And so some of the things right now that you can pay attention to as you set yourself up for 2024 is what is that thing that when you're doing it, when your head's down, you are just in your zone and you don't even notice time passing?

(08:51):

Do more of that because that's a telltale sign that that's your secret sauce. That's something that you really love. What's the thing that you want to continue to learn about? If there's something that you keep wanting to just, you want to take classes, you want to do workshops, you want to investigate, you want to learn more, you want to get better at it, do more of that. Lean into the things that are really calling you, because sometimes we have gone along and we've offered our services as just a regular roster, PR services, and you might be missing that secret sauce that could really be uniquely yours in your business. A few examples, I met someone, a colleague in the UK, and she was doing these thought leadership programs where she brought together global thought leaders via a YouTube channel. So she would go out and they would record them and do the whole thing, but she was doing full on PR.

(09:51):

Well, she loved it, and she ended up pivoting into that and she was living her best life winning awards, growing her team, scaling her business because she leaned into something that she was really passionate about. If there's something that when you talk about a particular area PR and people go, wow, they lean in and they listen as you're talking about and they want to learn more, or people have commented, I said this to my colleague Carolyn recently, I'm like, you light up when you talk about this. What's the thing that you light up about when you talk about it? This is a good time of year to say, huh, maybe I'm feeling tired or burned out or restless because I'm not doing enough of this thing That really is my unique calling, my secret sauce, the thing that really jazzes me up for me these days, media relations and me are having a moment and I am not feeling the joy all the time just to be transparent, not feeling the joy. But there are other things that have me super excited and I am leaning into those areas more and really trying to pivot pretty precisely to that area over the next year. So maybe maintaining momentum may mean that you make a little bit of a shift or that you a plan to make the shift because we know you can't always turn the boat around on a dime, but if you start moving in that direction, that alone will energize you for the rest of this year.

Michelle Kane (11:32):

And it really is all about the energy that you bring to anything that you're doing. And I love that you've framed it that way because sometimes our lack of excitement, our lack of initiative, I mean that in and of itself is a sign. That's a message that we should be receiving. As long as you can disregard, okay, do I just need a big nap or is this something more, is there something more to this? So dig in, investigate that, and I think that's the wonderful thing about the work that we do. There are so many possibilities that I know when we've got those blinders on and we're doing the thing that we've always done, and we just do our thing. Hey, we also have bills to pay. So you are looking to hit your numbers for the month, but I really encourage you and I'm encouraging myself.

(12:27):

Take a couple of hours and just sit and go, huh, okay, how's this going? What do I really like? What don't I, what kind of clients do I want to go after? What kind of work am I really doing? I mean, look, we're going to change. What do they say? I don't know. I'm not going to point to anything specific, but isn't it like every seven years? Sometimes it's a seven year itch, but I think there's more to it. You just naturally become predisposed. I mean, I always say I worked in the nonprofit world for 15 years, but I always say if that role had not changed every several years, I would not have been there that long because I would've been like, I continued to be challenged. I continued to be fed by it, by the different roles that I was asked to fill.

(13:22):

And that helps too. So I think it just comes down to sitting with yourself, which I know is uncomfortable sometimes, and just say, Hey, what do I like today? Why do I, and it could be even as simple as also how is your day structured? Is it time to shake that up? It could be just as simple as don't right away sit down with your email and your coffee. Maybe it's work on a passion project for an hour before you start answering to everyone else, whatever that is for you. We really encourage you to spend some time on that because I just know that that will spark something good for you.

Karen Swim, APR (14:09):

Yeah. I love what you just said too about being in nonprofit that your job changed. It reminded me that when we were all in, excuse me, in jobs, we didn't stay in one job our entire career, we changed jobs, but when you own your own business, you really are the CEO and your job doesn't change. There's nowhere else to go except for out. You either sell your company or you retire when you shutter your agency. So you're right, Michelle, we need to remember that, that we, humans do crave a little bit of variety. And even if you are so passionate still, and this is your life's work, there's still some variety that you can infuse to keep your energy levels high and to keep you excited about what you do. Because doing the same job year after year after year after year can get pretty stale.

Michelle Kane (15:10):

And even if your clients are okay with that on one level, I always like to think, but we can always be better, even if they're comfy, get out of your comfort zone clients.

Karen Swim, APR (15:26):

I mean, push them out their comfort zone. You will be surprised. I mean, we just had this happen twice, one in a smaller way and one in a big way where we went full on unleash the creative juices and let it fly and said, we don't care if they think we're insane. And you know what? Our client was like, this is why I love you guys. I love you. They were so excited because they know we're creative. They hired us because we're creative and smart. So don't dull your shine even for your clients. Just keep that going and force them to come to the light. Don't go to the dark side. Force them into the light,

Michelle Kane (16:13):

And I get it. Sometimes you think, ugh, but you don't understand. They never want to do anything fun, and I get it. That can be really energy zapping over time. So sometimes you just got to say, who caress? I'm still going to say the crazy thing. Okay,

Karen Swim, APR (16:36):

100%. Because they need to remember why they engage with you in the first place. So don't lose that special thing that they hired you for just because they're too buddy duddy to really appreciate it.

Michelle Kane (16:49):

Exactly. They're probably secretly jealous, so that's okay too.

Karen Swim, APR (16:56):

They know that they're going to have problems getting it through the corporate channels, and so they're afraid to let themselves dream.

Michelle Kane (17:02):

That's true. That's very true, and that's a great point too. So often it has nothing to do with you or your ideas. There are so many other factors that can get in the way. But well, we hope we've inspired you a bit. I think we've inspired ourselves a little bit, which is always a nice byproduct. But if you did get value from this, please do share it around with your friends. Check out the blog post that Karen just mentioned on solo pr pro.com. Hit us up with feedback there as well. We will put that blog post link in the show notes this week. And until next time, thanks for listening to That Solo Life.