Determined persistence!

Back on top again this week. Last week was a bit of a downer, but now I’m firing on all cylinders again.

I guess this happens to everyone now and again, but you’ve just got to dig your heels in through the times when everything seems to be going wrong, and keep going until you turn that corner, and the world seems to be with you again!

How do you do that? How do you keep going and not give up or get yourself deep into the doldrums? There’s a few ways I’ve realised that work for me. I’m generally quite a positive, optimistic, happy person. So my dark days never last for long. But I’m also pretty good at giving myself a kick and making myself get back to that ‘half full glass’ type of person.

Reading autobiographies, business books or just ‘good reads’ usually works well for me. I get so many ideas when I read business or marketing books, and make lists (again!) of things to do in our business, or I summarise the key points in my notebook.

So reading either makes me a bit more positive generally, or else I feel so inadequate and humbled when I read something like Ellen MacArthur’s autobiographies, that I just wake up to the reality that my issues are so inconsequential.

‘Pressing the flesh’ is I think what the politicians and celebrities call it, when you go out and meet the public. As an internet business, we don’t usually see our customers, but by going out and doing baby shows, we get to speak to ‘real people’, introduce our product, and we get a real buzz from hearing again all the positive comments about the site. You forget these feel-good comments when you’re sat alone in your home office or you’re not working in large offices with lots of team members, who usually tend to keep each other ‘up’.

Taking time out, spending time with your family, especially children, getting some fresh air, and just not being so hard on yourself is something that a lot of business owners find difficult. But I’m getting better! My big thing is driving to the coast (at least 2.5 hours away for me!) so I can see the sea, hear it and smell it. I think it’s another good way of getting things in perspective. Plus you get constant reminders afterwards, because the sand always stays in your shoes for days afterwards doesn’t it?!!

Remembering where you’ve been and what you’ve already achieved is another thing we should force ourselves to do a bit more often. Ross bought me the most fantastic birthday present last month. He made up an A1 frame with images showing the website’s development. The first home page we had, then the current one (which is about to be re-jigged again by the way!), the early promotional materials we used, and the more recent cards for the launch. Plus a picture of both the earlier logo and our present one.

It all looks fantastic and just shows me in a snapshot how far we’ve come. You could turn all ‘Blue Peter’ and make a ‘memory board’ yourself, which is just as simple and quicker, using a cork noticeboard, and print offs or cuttings. Going back further, I’ve still got the rough notes we made when we brainstormed the site concept in January 2005, so I must dig that out too and mount it up on the wall so I can see it regularly.

It also reminds you why you got into this business in the first place. What was it that made you so passionate about what you were doing? Do you still think it? If you’re product or business is good, you still will believe it. If you’re floundering, look at what you’re offering, and see if you can tweak it a bit. It’s usually just lots of small changes that make the biggest impact.

Besides looking back over what you’ve achieved, I know lots of people use images to show where they want to be, as a motivational tool. Pictures of their dream car, house or holiday. Ross tends to use these ideas, but I still regularly think back to my ‘Vivid Description’ which is a summary of a day in the future. You have to imagine then write down where you will be, what you will be doing, what you’re wearing, what the room is like or what or who is surrounding you.

Smells, sights, sounds – all the senses have to be used to do this. And it’s really powerful. Ross and I wrote our own back in October, depicting a day in March 2009. We used it at the time for goal setting, but I still regularly remember mine, and it’s a great motivational tool.

So what’s been going on this week then? Well thanks to a lorry fire on the M62, I spent about 3 hours stuck in traffic as they shut the motorway. So I didn’t even make it to the baby show near Hull! Really naffed off, but nothing you can do about it, so we had to just forget it. We did a baby show in Salisbury at the weekend, which was great and gave us those ‘press the flesh’ opportunities. Once again some good contacts made, and it was a good day out – albeit a long 18 hour one!

And here’s some baby show news for you – we’ve decided to exhibit at The Baby Show at NEC on 19/21 May (stand M15 if you’re going – come and see us!). They’re expecting over 25,000 visitors, so it’s going to be a hard few days, but hopefully worthwhile.

This is also a longer term marketing strategy for us, because, although we do get new members joining up at the show and immediately afterwards, a lot of the visitors are pregnant. So we’re introducing the brand and site to them before they may actually need it. Over the next 12 months we hope they’ll remember us, probably when they see the brand again somewhere, and then join up. I guess that’s the strategy of most of the larger brands at these baby shows, because most aren’t products for pregnant women themselves, they’re investing their marketing costs for the future.

Meeting with fluid provided some excellent news. Lee’s looked at the website, especially the home page and has suggested some changes which will make it snappier and more appealing to the first time visitor. Can’t wait for those changes to be put on the site.

Plus a different format & layout for our monthly newsletter which I was really unhappy with before.

Spoke to Kay about the ‘search engine optimisation’ (SEO) work she’s been doing too, and that sounds fantastic. Whilst we don’t think the majority of our members will find us by just browsing on the web, using google, yahoo, msn search engines etc., it all helps!

I’m on a press trip to Butlins this next week. So Luke can meet Bob the Builder!

We have to make the draw for our April competition of a luxury spa break weekend and we have announced our new competition for May – a family holiday at the amazing Sparkles Hotel in Blackpool. A themed children’s hotel like you’ve never seen before! Have a look at my review of it ‘Blackpool Bliss’ if you haven’t seen it yet.

So let’s hope for sun in Skegness this week, and a good mobile network so I can still pick up emails and take phone calls whilst I’m away from my desk!

Kirsty