Hello, Beautiful.
Happy Easter, if you celebrate. It's also National Grilled Cheese Sandwich day in the US.
Which seems like a random pairing, until you consider that this very different, quarantined Easter Sunday is the perfect time to resurrect something else, too: the ultimate comfort food. There is no right way to Covid.
* * *
I was out on my daily forced family walk around the neighborhood with my daughter. We cross the street when we see other groups shuffling toward us—they are also let out into the sunlight for their daily exercise.
Before now, my daily walk has been a special time for just for me and my earbuds, worn like a shield, the way you do on an airplane when you don't want to chitchat.
Usually I barely acknowledge any other person I happen to pass on the street. My day is packed with calls and emails and all kinds of inputs. My one hour outside is Me time. Go away.
But not anymore: Now I pause and enthusiastically shout hello and big-smile to my neighbors and how you holding up...? Everyone OK...? Yeah we're good just making the best of it....
After the third round of this theater, my daughter Caroline turns to me, incredulous: "Who are you?"
* * *
What habits will you keep post Covid-19? What are you doing now that you'll continue to practice post-virus pandemic?
I keep pining for my old life—for things to go back to the way they were. Before this pandemic put so many of our lives and well-being at risk. Before it hobbled everything and you and me and everyone.
But maybe now is also a good time to recalibrate a few things: Who we are. How we've been living. What we value.
"Who are you?" is another way of asking, "Who were you?"
So now, Who I Am is the kind of person who is gradually flipping a few scripts on Who I Was. Is the same true for you?
Here are 14 habits worth keeping post-Covid, curated from a thread I posted on LinkedIn last week:
- Make Takeout Tuesday from local restaurants a thing.
- Choose news inputs carefully + thoughtfully: Bad news in the morning, good news before bed.
- Greater awareness of how much we're consuming (toilet paper, antiseptic wipes, wine!)
- Less texting, more Zooming.
- Flipping the script on the vague "We should get together sometime" to "Can you do lunch on this specific day?"
- Saying No to nonessential business travel; saying Yes to being home for dinner.
- Pajamas-on-the-bottom, business-casual on the top.
- More appreciation for people in jobs who didn't seem "essential" before but are now literally keeping us from descending into a complete freak-out.
- Endless gratitude to healthcare workers.
- Honest empathy for the pressures and challenges that my colleagues experience just to get any work done whatsoever.
- The sudden ability to conjure up "dinner" out of a potato, leftover lasagna, and a pile of rocks (metaphorically).
- A weirdness about touching surfaces and shaking hands.
- Newfound knowledge of how to *actually* wash our hands.
- And finally... you heard this already.... but SAY HI FIRST. (Thanks, Joe Terry.)
Much gratitude for everyone who suggested these new habits and others, especially Karen Handley, Sharon Dowdy, Laura Hall, Nancy Sheed, Sue Krause, Cathy McPhillips, Susan Baracco, Mary Rosebrook, Angela Earl, and Tamara McCleary.
* * *
Here are a few things worth knowing this week.
1. Pandemic Marketing, Take 2
Why did Joe Biden launch an email newsletter AND a podcast now... on the same day?
This story got lost in the Politics section and was probably ignored by every non-Biden supporter. But it's actually an important Marketing story that underscores how any brand or person (like you!) must own their own platform to share their own point of view.
Story here.
👉 👉 👉
Related: A global pandemic is a perfect time to launch an email newsletter. Why: A crisis is not a time for Marketing to be clever or snarky. It's a time to be helpful and sincere. It's a time to build relationships, nurture customers, and create long-term loyalty.
Here are 17 things your 2020 newsletter
HAS to contain.
2. A Writing Prompt for an Anxious World
The writing prompt I shared in the last issue... well,
prompted a great response. (Owen Philipson
submitted his homework publicly.) If you missed the previous newsletter and need a Red Bull for creativity,
it's
here.
3. Live Video Vs. Recorded Video: Which Wins on LinkedIn?
Marcus Sheridan and I are a month into our pop-up video show,
#InThisTogether: Marketing, Sales, Life During Covid-19. For the first few weeks, we pre-recorded the show; but last week we took it Live on LinkedIn. Which was more effective? I shared the stats on
Recorded vs. Live Video here. (See the first Story on that page.)
