It Got Too Complicated
Dear Erin,
Wow, so I haven’t actually posted anything since we were together in February - my apologies. Between traveling and dealing with that trick knee of mine, I haven’t been able to hunker down and just write.
Sadly, I’m beating myself up over it, which is my cross to bear. There definitely are pluses and minuses to having accountability as one of your core values! Hopefully I did not pass that particular trait on to you. “Give yourself a break,” I say to everyone but myself.
Between beating myself up and stepping back to ask why is this so hard, I realized I was juggling quite a few things as if they weren’t actually the same thing. When things got a little crazy-busy, it made me realize that my professional life had gotten too complicated. Not in a you-are-doing-too-much kind of way, but rather a code-switching kind of way. I realized that I had a had organized myself to align with buyer profiles, instead of centering my own value system and approach as the brand. Despite the fact that I am behind all of it, I was trying to create multiple brands and keep them all straight. And divide my time up equally between them.
No wonder it all fell apart as soon as my schedule got messy.
It’s all good if you are a big company with different product lines that cater to different types of buyers. Johnson & Johnson makes Band-Aids and high-end surgical equipment for hospitals. Probably has massive divisions dedicated to each with thousands of employees and unique marketing strategies. That’s not me or the small service businesses I am creating.
I made a mistake. I knew I wanted to do A, B, C, and D. So I built little digital homes for A, B, C, and D. But in fact, the work is interconnected, all because of what I bring to the table. I spent too much time differentiating who and what. I should have spent more time looking for the common elements that make the work uniquely me.
After you and I visited in mid-February, I took some time to step back and follow the very process I use with clients. What problem are you trying to solve? What are your core values? Draft a purpose statement. Distill your impact model (e.g., your consistent approach to the varied work you do). Celebrate how that comes together in all the areas you are focusing on. Make a plan, consistent with your purpose and priorities.
This is a work-in-process, to be sure, but I’m getting there. I got far enough along that I was able to rework my website. I tried to elevate it to capture my impact model and the uniquely-me services I provide underneath that umbrella. That seems to make more sense to me now. Before, I was highlighting one product (the 6+4 System) and then trying to weave in adjacent services. Now, I’m highlighting my approach.
So that’s me. At least for now. I don’t know if any of this resonates - though I appreciate that you too do many things under a single value system and impact model: choreography, performing, producing, community-building… all the things. The only advice I can share is from Simon Sinek: “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.”
Funny how my obsession with the what and the how of my own products obscured my why. Despite me knowing better!!
That’s it for now,
Love, Mom
