Episode 131 - Planning for the unexpected

Melanie

The Monday Morning Marketing Podcast is brought to you by Esther of IPA Group, bringing premier online promotion to your business.

Esther

And Melanie of STOMP Social Media Training, who empowers business owners to manage social media and marketing for themselves.

Esther

Welcome back, guys. Today we're talking about planning for the unexpected.

Melanie

And as previously noted by Esther, that was very much an oxymoron.

Esther

Yeah. So things happen, stuff happens, you know what happens. We're still living through the big C - COVID, my other big C - cancer. So what can we do to plan for these times that we have to take a break?

Melanie

Well, quite simply, having even some idea, some semblance of planning for maybe up to a month can really get you out of trouble. Maybe you've slipped over and hurt yourself and you can't get into the office for a couple of weeks. But within that three to four week period, you could find ways of working remotely, finding somebody else to step in your role. Any number of things can get you out of trouble, but only if you plan ahead. So we need to talk about how we can plan ahead for every eventuality. It could be a short operation, just a small operation that you need that will lay you up for a couple of weeks, right down to looking after children. They could fall sick and that takes you away from work as well.

Esther

Or be off school on holidays.

Melanie

There is that too.

Esther

No, Melanie and I both have school age children and the struggle is real. Nine weeks of summer holiday is not as fun as it sounds, not when you're an adult.

Melanie

And it's even worse when you've got a secondary school student here in the Republic of Ireland. Because it's three months off.

Esther

Yeah, no, at least it's only ever nine weeks up here until they've hit university. But by that stage, hopefully they can drive by themselves.

Melanie

It's their problem.

Esther

Yeah, and get a job. But anyway, we digress. So let's say because this did happen to a friend of mine the other day. She got up in the middle of the night and tripped over her son's toys, fell, broke her ankle, her leg and twisted her other ankle.

Melanie

My goodness.

Esther

Yeah, things happen, right? And as Melanie says, you can get somebody in to help you. So say you've got a physical business, you've got a shop that you need to be and you have it open. You can't really close that for a month while you're sitting nursing two bad legs. I mean, you can't even drive at that point. How far in advance would you need to have somebody lined up for trying to expect the unexpected?

Melanie

Well, it really depends on what you're going to be doing. For this podcast, as you know, it's all about marketing, so it won't be about human resources or that sort of thing. But when it comes down to marketing, there is a lot of things you can do to prepare. And some of it is very simple. It's just knowing what you've got coming up over the next few weeks or even the next few months. And if you know that you've got to take time off during summer or you want to take time off over Christmas, that sort of thing, and most of the time we do know when we're going to have operations. Normally at least get a week's notice. It just depends on which country you're in. So even if you can just prepare just to get you over the hump, and that could be looking at your diary, looking at what's coming up maybe in your sphere of business. So if you're a retail company, you can look up events or people that you'd like to meet or things that you'd like to arrange in the weeks or months going forward. But to do that, you need to set aside some time to actually conduct some research. So that would be part of your planning. But that doesn't have to take all day or two days. As long as you've got some direct goal with where you're going, that planning could take half a day, tops.

Esther

Yeah, we all use tools in our everyday business to be able to block out times. So, for example, like Google Calendar, we have a time blocked out. Melanie and I share a calendar for the Monday Morning Marketing Podcast so we can sort of see when we're available to be able to record the podcast or invite guests on. So it gives us a time that we are both available. And there's times yet that Melanie has had to step up over the last number of months and just record the podcast on her own, because I haven't been available or I've been rushed to the hospital last minute. So having that agreement or that understanding that you have somebody to fall back on is such a weight off your shoulders from personal experience. If I was doing this podcast on my own, there would have been at least

Melanie

Well it wouldn't have happened for a start.

Esther

No, it wouldn't. There would have been at least like five or six episodes that just didn't go out. So having that one person and it doesn't even have to be somebody that lives beside you, right? So Melanie lives in the middle of nowhere, the middle of Ireland. I'm the one that lives in the middle of nowhere, but we don't live close to each other and yet we still have each other's backs, is what I'm saying. So we also have other people that we could fall back on. When I first got sick, the number of people that offered help. "If you have any clients that you're doing Facebook ads for, send us the information and we'll do them for you". "If you need to write a blog, then let us know and we can do something to try to help you out". So there are people in the business community and I hope you don't have anything as severe and extreme as I do, but the people are there that want to help. So I'm sure if thankfully, my friend doesn't run a business, but if she did, then I'm sure the business community would have rallied around and said, "right, what can we do? How can we help?" And thankfully, it wasn't her arm that was broken, so she could still do marketing.

Melanie

This is half the problem I think people have when it comes down to planning. They feel they don't have enough time. And it's very much a case of you can talk yourself into having or not having time. And it really does start with a mindset. So I appreciate myself and Esther are both parents, school going children. I completely appreciate the struggle of becoming Mum and dad taxi. And I totally get that. But you can make it possible that it doesn't encroach over your weekends, it doesn't encroach over your evenings. At times it will. Heck, it does for us. Yeah, but I don't have every weekend working in my office anymore. It just doesn't happen. And it's down to planning.

Esther

Yeah, planning. And the fact that your office is no longer in your house,

Melanie

Well there is that too.

Esther

That's a real major bonus in that sense. But like I said, Google Calendar is one aspect. We also use Infinity. None of these platforms that we mentioned, we're being paid by.

Melanie

Oh, no.

Esther

But we use Start Infinity for planning out what we're going to do. What we're going to do.

Melanie

It's project management, isn't it?

Esther

Yes, project management. You could use Asana, Trello. There are so many. Monday.com - they should really sponsor us.

Melanie

They really should.

Esther

We digress. But there's so many tools that you can use. And yes, getting started in the planning is far worse than if you were just to maintain it. But if you don't start now, then it's going to be harder the further down the line you go. And the further along you are and somebody you that's running the business and you don't have things written down as to, you know we talked a while ago, Melanie talked to Alexis about social media policies. If you get sick and somebody else comes in to take over being you on social media for a while, how will they know what you sound like on social media, what you want to publish, what you don't want to publish if you don't have your social media policy set up and in place. So all the things that we've already given you tips and tricks about, I mean, we've been going almost, what, over two years now?

Melanie

Two and a half years, yeah.

Esther

So if you didn't start when we started two and a half years ago, you got an awful lot of stuff to do if you go back and listen to all our podcasts about things that you need to do in your business to improve your marketing.

Melanie

So I'm not suggesting for a second that anything is going to happen or anything is going to be wrong, but by just giving yourself a little bit of breathing space myself and Esther, right now, at the time of recording, We're coming into the Summertime, we're starting to think of spending more time away with our family. We've got the kids off, that sort of thing and we planned ahead. We had to plan ahead, yes, because we want to spend that time with our family. So any research, any work, because we've both got VAs to help us out with graphic images and that sort of stuff. So that's all been pre planned so that we can take that time to spend with our family.

Esther

It's much needed time, especially if you're a one man band, you can't keep going.

Melanie

Unlike you.

Esther

Well, yeah, I have a team. I was like, what do you mean I can't keep going? I stopped six months ago. Basically, one of the only things I do now is record the podcast, pretty much doctors orders do not work, so I'm doing what I'm told, but thankfully, yeah, I have a team behind me, but that's a team that I've built up over the last eight years. It didn't just happen overnight. And if I were a one man band, or one woman band, in this case, the business would have folded. If doctors orders says do not work, then do not work. Yeah, do what your doctor tells you. He's the expert, you know, but, yeah, have people that you can even in the same industry like Melanie and I are in the same industry. We talk about this all the time, collaborating and stuff. I know that if I needed Melanie to do anything to jump in and help my team, she would. And I hope Melanie realises that I would do the same for her.

Melanie

Absolutely. Even before we started working together, myself and Esther, the first time, it was five years after I started my business. I had this opportunity to go to America and have an amazing holiday for ten days. But I was so worried that I wasn't going to get any downtime and I was talking about it to these gal pals that I've got in a messenger chat. And they're all in the same space-ish. They all market their own business. They're not marketers all of them. Some of them are, but not all of them. But everybody markets their own business. And every single one of them offered to go on my channels and look after them, just so I could get a well needed break with my family. So just sometimes just putting it out there and asking for help, guys, can help you plan, can help you find tools that are going to be suitable for you or even have people step in. But the only way your business is going to survive is with a bit of planning.

Esther

Yeah. And obviously we are going to mention the one platform that we do love and adore and that is a Agorapulse. And you can schedule - listen, guys, - schedule your social media posts in that and you can set up to listen for certain ways that people are talking about your brand or people are talking about.

Melanie

You can find out who your ambassadors are, who is engaging with you. You can get amazing high level reporting out of AgoraPulse as well. It really is a top notch, too.

Esther

And you can add people onto your team there, so you're not having to give them your social media logins, because as we know from a previous episode, your logins can be hacked. So giving them access to your AgoraPulse, that maybe you've already set up all the social media posts before you go away on your holiday. Maybe you're organised enough that the next month is already scheduled out and you're a month ahead with your planning already. That's great. But keep it going, okay? And allow people to help you when you need it.

Melanie

So that's all the time we have for now, guys, but we just wanted to remind you that there are ways out of trouble before you even head into it. So enjoy your time off with your family and whatever time of year it is that you're listening to this, if you've got any important operations or anything you must attend, then this is the way you can continue marketing your business and appear when you need to appear.

Esther

Talk to you next week, guys. Bye bye. Did somebody shoot you?

Melanie

No. That was a door shutting

Esther

It sounded awful like a gunshot. I am from Northern Ireland. You know, PTSD is real. That's funny. That's really loud. Melanie's dead. Expect the unexpected.