Guy Kawasaki’s blog tagline is “How to Change the World,” so his post about change and being resilient through change is appropriate. I’m almost drowning in change right now. I’m drawn to the idea of making change easier. He interviewed Ariane de Bonvoisin is the founder and CEO of The First Thirty Days, Inc.

One part of the interview has caused me some introspection:

Those who struggle with change also:

• Hide and think they are alone–they don’t ask for help.
• Become busy and distracted instead of making time to get quiet and mindful.
• Move slowly through change because they think it will be less painful. I call this using a butter knife instead of a butcher knife–sometime change requires you to cut directly to the heart of the situation.

This applies in business and life. At this point my home is closing (today), my job location is changing (our office is moving locations and our team moves tomorrow), most of my belongings are packed, and I have wedding details to wrap up. Getting married is the biggest change. Plus I’m continuing working at my job and as a contractor and being a mom, which actually is going well (my son’s sense of humor is emerging more and more and I love it). I’m having a pretty simple wedding but the amount of thinking and planning going on is still overwhelming.
I don’t find that experiencing big changes makes me better at facing change, in fact it’s the opposite. I’ve been a little haunted by that first bullet point - when things get intense I want to hide and I don’t ask for help. Some people are great at anticipating what I need and pitching in (thank you Melissa, Galina, Stephen, John, Michelle and Angie!). When asked I’m so detail overloaded that I don’t know what to tell people who offer to help. I don’t like being asked questions or making decisions (like, what to eat for lunch even).
I’d like to read the book that Ariane wrote about change. I have learned one thing she speaks of - to trust my intuition. I’ve paid or benefited greatly from following or not following it.

Know that there is a part of you that doesn’t change, even when everything around you is transitioning. Find the time to connect with this part of yourself. You can call it your intuition, your inner voice, or your Higher Self, but be sure to make the effort to tap into it. This part of you is wise and knows what to do even in the most dramatic or chaotic of situations. The most successful business people know this. 

The problem with intuition is it isn’t logical! Like how I spent an extra $1200 on two different appraisals to refinance my condo rather than trusting my illogical doubts. Interest rates are low. I couldn’t resist. But I couldn’t have predicted that instead of a refinance I’d be getting married and moving.

For me, getting married is akin to jumping off a cliff into the grand canyon when you’re afraid of heights, but my intuition said jump anyway.  In January when Stephen started to talk about marriage in a more serious tone, I dumped him and vowed never to talk to him again. But my intuition was that I’d made a mistake. After several months I called back to see if he was dating anyone. I wanted to elope, but he wanted a real wedding. He won.
I bought my condo on a gut feeling. Two years prior I looked at it but I wasn’t ready to buy. When a series of events led to me needing a place very quickly, I bought it. I didn’t spend a lot of time looking and three weeks later I moved in. It was a much better financial decision than my home which didn’t appreciate very much at all.

Plus, if all goes as planned it will have sold in a month in a very tough market to the first person who looked at it. My logical side said drop the price (especially after reading an article about the subject in the Wall Street Journal). My intuition said don’t. Good thing I followed my intuition. This has proven wise through many tough decisions. It has determined where I work and where I live and even what I do.

Five years ago I started out with almost nothing and had to completely rebuild. I had never even heard of internet marketing or blogging. I made a very illogical choice to take a part-time job (to be with my young son more) at a small business doing marketing. That is where I met Paul Wilson and he introduced me to Internet marketing. I was internet savvy from years of working at internet companies but from the moment I learned about it, internet marketing was my passion. I’m making money online and I still love what I do (and plan to expand my own sites in coming months).
Lesson: There is solid ground or bedrock that you must trust even when the choices or changes are difficult.

Thanks to an inspiring post from Zen Habits, and to encourage myself through a period of drastic changes in my life, I’m designating today “Gratitude Tuesday.” To me, nothing is real unless it gets out of our heads and into reality. I need to voice (not just type) my appreciation as I feel it (to myself or others) or as I remember to. Like forgiveness this is as much for me as it is for the person I’m acknowledging. It improves our quality of life.

Like Zen Habits pointed out, we are all incredibly rich…and right off have many things that the rest of the world doesn’t have - like enough food to eat at any time day or night. We also have a lot of money which means responsibility. Because…”the way we handle our money reflects how we feel about other people and our lives in general. Therefore, an important part of living gratefully usually includes a commitment to regularly help others with our financial resources.” You invest money in others’ lives.

So with that, I’m grateful for…

• The amazing people I’ve met through my job at OrangeSoda, including my boss Michael (he should coach other bosses), clients, and coworkers.
• The way my employer treats their employees, and most especially the goodwill they’ve shown me from the beginning. It really is remarkable.
• The exposure I got from Shoemoney’s blog. I can’t keep up with the responses, but the people I have connected with so far are a privilege to know (like uPlej).
• uPlej - I know some people criticize them for making money for helping others, but the point is they’ve created a platform that makes giving automatic and affordable. Nonprofits tend to lag behind on technology. Just like people, organizations that struggle to provide the basics aren’t able to help others who are struggling. I’ve been there. It’s tough to work on a cause when you don’t know if your paycheck will be good so you can feed your own family. It’s in everyone’s best interest to provide dependable platforms and methods of giving. I love that you can leverage your network for a bigger cause than just being popular.
• My finace Stephen who makes me better than I am without him. He builds me up. He is a master at making things seem seemless and providing a good experience for others. He works with people and looks out for their best interest, not his own, even if that means a tradeoff and he doesn’t sell as much. He’s someone I trust and who has high integrity. He’s been my friend for a few years and to everyone it seemed to come out of the blue that we’re getting married. But they don’t know how much actually went into making this decision or just how afraid of being married again I am. Thanks for smoothing the path for me! He loves my quirkiness and doesn’t get mad if I get lost from time to time - it’s part of the adventure.
• My condo that sold in two weeks when there is a lot on the market and most had to lower their prices. This was a huge stress. One call. One offer. Now we just have to close and I have a temporary residence until I move in with Stephen (after we’re married).
• My friend Vicki who convinced me to trade her organization coaching with my blog and web coaching. She transformed my life by teaching me what to her is obvious. I love the extra space we created and the sense of peace I have from having room and being organized. I met her at an event I spoke at and she convinced me not to wait. It took us over 10 hours but I’m sure it helped me sell my place. It also prepared me for marriage because Stephen is organized. I wasn’t born with that personality strong point, but I’m learning it.

What about you, what things are you grateful for right now?

I didn’t realize how much of a philosophy I had about press releases until today. So let me lay it out for you. I love the story. The story is what it’s about. If you can tie your story into a larger story you have it made. Why? because people love a good story. They don’t really care about your company without the story (compared to how many care about a story, unless your company name or your name is really big, not just in your industry).

If you do it right, people write about your story and your company gets mentioned. I’ve never been formally trained in marketing, writing, or press releases. But I can recognize who is good and learn from them. Also, I’ve had a lot of experience and trial/error and I have an instinct and appreciation for a good story. There’s also personal motivation - If I’m bored writing the story, I won’t enjoy my work.
Here are my rules for press releases:

1. Make the story compelling and if possible tie it into a bigger more universal story. When possible, expand the story. This takes thinking and creativity.
2. Keep the story straightforward. Don’t use a lot of jargon and watch out for your own internal culture, make your press release inviting and accessible. Don’t make them think too hard to get it.
3. Put the most important information first: who, what, when, where, why.
4. Reiterate or personalize the story in the quotations. In other words, the quotes should mean something and should make people want to read the entire story. Often people skim over your press release before they decide to read more.

   There is nothing I hate more than boring quotes that don’t mean anything. They usually say, “we’re excited about our new…” why are you excited? How does your story help people? That’s more compelling.

5. Keep ego out of it. Sometimes companies overdo it by putting their name above the story or see a press release as a way to brag or prove themselves. Especially in their broilerplates they find many variations of saying they are first, number one, the best, etc. How about give some stats or results that say that or reference someone else saying that you are. Or, better, what you do best for your customers or clients (your value to others).

   My take on it is that people care more about the human element than the company name. If they care they will find out who you are and they’ll remember you.

When I wrote a press release for Shoemoney free, I did it for two reasons. One, it’s Shoemoney and the exposure is worth way more than the money. Two, it was for a nonprofit that has the potential to impact people’s lives. I get satisfaction for making a contribution. I’m not saying money is not important or that I plan on doing my work free a lot, but that in this case it made sense.
I decided that the money or exposure alone wasn’t the main point. I wanted to see if I could get another 5/5 on my editorial score and get results (actual exposure). At first I wondered how I’d get a perfect score since the story on a basic level was a fund raiser. There are tons of those. But then I realized I had a shot at a perfect score because people care about the economy and how it affects families. Especially families of the troops.I didn’t know if or when Shoemoney would write about this on his blog, but he did today. It all happened in about 5 short twitter or email conversations. As I read what he wrote I noted that he said he wasn’t that impressed. I kept reading - I didn’t want the story to be one of disappointment.

Here’s what Shoemoney wrote:
I was on 4 radio stations and in 2 news papers and had inquiries from a TON of media sources. Janet had been able to score another perfect prweb score and had incredible distribution for my press release.

Success!