"I made lanyard, got poison ivy, and made lots of new friends...
and I played hard in "color war," went on field trips, and sang camp songs. And, I wrote letters 'home.'"
Actually, I didn't literally do those things. But I did the business equivalent of all of them.
Just as we all did in school, we should, as grown-up business professionals, reflect on our summers and write our own mini-essays about how we played and worked, what we learned, who we met, and how we're going to start autumn with new energy. Some of us even shot up a few inches over the summer and got great tans. We changed, evolved, and used our time to relax and become healthier and more attractive (or, at least, to make our brands more attractive).
Here's my recap:
- Lanyard: Running a business is like starting with a box stitch and building from there. Yeah, it can be frustrating. We managed to untangle some of the social media "knots" and can now proudly display some truly incredible new creations. We changed our tagline to "Bright & Timeless Marketing" which reflects our new vision.
- Poison ivy: Toxic people, financial challenges, and missteps are a part of running any business. Don't pick or scratch your scabs...just learn how to navigate those dark and scary parts of the woods next time.
- New friends: Summer was a great time for socializing and speaking. I gave talks on branding and social media throughout the tri-state area and overcame my fear of strangers. With Constant Contact and Microsoft, I planned a great new Back to School event for September 19th and hope you'll join us there. I'm also going "back to Woodstock" in October for this incredible women's event. It's totally worth playing hooky and joining me!
- Color war, field trips and camp songs: At theONswitch we believe in working hard, but also in playing hard and fair. Socializing and celebrating are important aspects of business, especially in this digital age. Being present in the real world, saying thank you, and helping our teams are activities that apply to work as well as play. And our travels (literal and metaphorical) often took us out of our comfort zones. Exploration leads to innovation.
- Letters home: Keeping in touch with clients, colleagues, prospects, and vendors is essential to building relationships. Although we now use Constant Contact, Facebook ,and Foursquare rather than note cards and ink, a great newsy update is always appreciated by the people who care about us.
And now we head "back to school" in September. We are more relaxed and confident than we were in May, having learned so much from our explorations and from our clients, colleagues, and friends. We even have a new seat in the classroom -- a cool office space at WeWork (in addition to our space at METRO92 in Yonkers).
Although we'll miss the hot summer sun and the treats in the canteen, we are looking forward to learning, teaching, collaborating -- and, of course, "recess."
Please comment on this post and tell us what YOU did over your summer vacation. The author of the best response will get a special after-school treat from theONswitch.