I’ve been working through my own mini-life-crisis recently, which in truth is interesting to no one other than myself. However, I’m making some major changes to my business because of it – plus, it’s Thursday and I’m Thursday Girl and I don’t feel like writing the AdWords shtick today. This is what’s on my mind instead.
Earlier in the year, I was chastised for expecting that my clients and my site visitors were like me, and for treating them the way I expect to be treated as a power user. And I was a little offended at the time. Being a tad altruistic, I sincerely want people to make what I would consider to be smarter choices about their interactions with the internet and email as a whole. But I let that idea sink in for a while.
And then I was talking to my pal a couple weeks ago – I’d been beating my head against a wall all day at this place that just frustrates me endlessly – and when she got done laughing at me for getting worked up over the quality of things I can’t control, she reminded me that it’s not always the method that counts so much as the result.
So I started considering some changes. And I kept running up against this huge emotional barrier, this moral outrage that wouldn’t even allow me to entertain some of the thoughts I was thinking. But in the end, I have to meet my audience where they are, and not where I want them to be – and I have to run my business like the business it is. And it’s okay to do that. I can embrace other methodology, if I do it in a manner that will keep my inner quality diva happy, because the method is sometimes less important than the result.
I’m not saying I’ve got it all quite worked out yet, but at least I’ve given myself permission to approach things in a new manner – and maybe that doesn’t make me quite as evil as I previously thought.
Jonathan Dalton
November 20, 2008 at 4:24 pm
For me, the blog is a vetting process on both ends … I write more or less to the audience that I want, and the clients to whom I speak end up using me as their agent.
I don’t try to connect universally because it simply can’t be done. So I choose my path and work to connect with those who walk a similar path.
Mariana the Wagner
November 20, 2008 at 5:49 pm
I kind of liken this to working with Buyers. Sometimes you want to scream, “WHY do you want to raise your family HERE, when there is a perfectly good neighborhood OVER THERE that you could buy in?!?”
But you can’t do that. People want to buy and own homes for vastly different reasons, and we just need to accept that. Same end results. Different Reasons.
Just make sure that your keep your “inner quality diva happy” … and all will be right with the world.
teresa boardman
November 20, 2008 at 7:43 pm
Kelley
this post struck a cord with me. I am the kind of person who can totally reverse what I have thought as I learn or get new information. through the three years I have had a blog many of my ideas have changed and I continue to experiment. I learn from my readers and from people like you who use a different approach.
Like Jonathan I try to write to the kind of clients that I want to do business with. Sometimes I screw that up with out meaning to. I learn so much from my readers and my clients.
I think with our businesses we need to learn grow and evolve and people like you who are open to making changes and trying new things have the best shot at being successful.
Teri L
November 20, 2008 at 8:53 pm
Ooo. Converging thoughts. My conclusion- shift happens.
Ginger Wilcox
November 22, 2008 at 1:08 pm
I believe we have to be open to new ideas and new ways of thinking. Through this process, we can grow and evolve. Unfortunately, the process isn’t always easy.
Eric Blackwell
November 23, 2008 at 6:58 pm
“And it’s okay to do that. I can embrace other methodology, if I do it in a manner that will keep my inner quality diva happy, because the method is sometimes less important than the result.”
That was a battle that I went through as well..(whatever the male equivalent of diva is…grin) But you know that.
It was great talking shop with you the other day. Whatever you decide and however it turns out…here’s wishing you the best with it.
Dang it…what is the male equivalent of an “inner quality diva”…I KNOW he exists…hehe