24th of March, 2020

It’s been an intense week for business owners and bosses as we all navigate a totally virtual space.

I’ve tried to take a growth mindset and see this whole process as a chance to get more creative in the face of possibly quite grim odds.

You see, I’m ever the optimist. Perhaps my winning trait as a small business owner. This aspect of my temperament has made be believe things are feasible if you set your mind to it. It is also the aspect of my character that makes me vivaciously excited by change. I can’t but help admit that in spite of the heavy circumstances right now (especially for anyone working in health care in the client facing space) I am also driven onwards by it.

This has been a time to shuffle and adjusted my priorities pretty rapidly. The clarity it has yielded has been amazing.

I thought I’d share the inspiration for this blog & vlog (which you can watch at the base of the page).

Last week I sat and mapped out my goals for the coming quarter. Although it feels immensely personal to share them (I’m pretty closed about internal business decisions), I will be an open book in the hope it might encourage and lift some other leaders in my predicament.

March 2020 has called me to value, more than ever:

1. THE INVESTMENT I’ve made over the years in team engagement and the strategies I now need to implement to encourage, invigorate and pay (let’s be realistic) my A-team because my biggest grief from this scenario would be to lose my team.

2. THE NEED for affirming rapport building communication, with every personal and business contact that is generous and goes both ways with the interest of both parties at heart.

3. THE SHIFT in financial focus to survival, rather than scaling and growth.

4. TRUST in my clients to support our unique beautiful service so we can survive.

It’s now over a week working at home virtual. The Voice Science Virtual party has truly begun.

 

We have a beautiful list of current clients that have supported our early transition to online and seen outside of their own difficulties to accept that our team are an expert service who continue to deliver robust consulting, even if the space has shifted to virtual.

I’ve been blown away by the dominant modern mindset of my clients who hit the ground running and reduced my own personal business stress by coming to the virtual party as motived as ever with both trust in my time and empathy in the knowledge of how much cancellations can plunge a small business into disarray.

We have had no clients cancel their programs. I am humbled by the manners and kindness our clients have extended.

 

It should go without saying that

the nights are sleepless,

the heart is heavy,

but my smile & my faith and hope

will not be kicked to the curb.

 

You know me by now! We are in this for a solid fight & the party at the end when we emerge, like a phoenix from the ashes, or wiser for our failed attempts to advocate for the importance of communication impact at a time the world needs it more than ever.

 

 Now, over to your tutorial,

We’ve done online consulting since 2013, but this week was our first week purely online as a team- normally we pop our heads into eachother’s offices for a little old (or long) chat each day.

You might be charged with managing a large team that is working from home or purely virtual right now. What are some quick strategies to build social presence and engagement when interacting in online meetings so that your task force is productive?

There’s some pretty solid research in this area that I’ve been reading up late at night in my p.js. Geeking out, as usual. Over the weekend I’ve compiled it into a vlog for you which you can watch below.

And here is what you are going to learn:

1. How to use Meeting design to deliver amazing meetings online with your clients / team
2. How to build social presence and engagement in meetings

I hope this post helps at least one of you, if not all of you.

I encourage you to stay sharp, move with the changes, seek learning opportunities and be ever giving and abundant with respect and patience for all who cross your path, be it virtually, or on the sidewalk with 1.5m distance.

 

Ciao for now,

XO

 

 

 

 

P.S. If you have something optimistic to share on this topic or feel in the mood to pop some words of encouragement out to anyone who happens upon this page like yourself, I encourage you to add something in the comments below. It’s the first time I’ve opened comments, because I think our little space on the internet is starting to feel more like a community, so it would delight me to see the conversation continuing below.