A baby that was too quiet.

A baby that was too still.

Please stir. Inhale. Exhale. Breathe!

I remember getting very close to my daughter when she was a newborn fearful because she was sleeping so peacefully for too long. I didn’t want to disturb her if she was just sleeping but I needed a sign that she was breathing. A pulse at her temple, movement in her chest or the faintest twitch so I could relax and let her continue with her slumber.

There was that one time. Something made me check her and she was blue. I jerked her up and she immediately awoke and began breathing and we both cried. After rushing her to a hospital where I continued to cry for three days, it’s was finally diagnosed as Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) and we were sent home with a monitor. It would go off occasionally, especially during the night and I would always rush in total fear to her room where the loud screech of the monitor would always stir her awake and back to breathing. That was 27 years ago.

I’m still checking pulses and breaths. First of my father who died a few years ago and then last year with an aunt who was diagnosed and succumbed quickly to cancer. I spent a great deal of time with her and her daughter in the end and my cousin and I would frequently get close to her and look for signs of her breathing.

Then there was the economy and our business. We were looking for signs of the economy inhaling and exhaling. It wasn’t the peaceful hard to see breathing of a healthy baby, it was the shallow breathing of death. Businesses were the brain and people were the heart that needed that breathing to survive.  Likewise the economy needed businesses and people to thrive.  Every day we check to make sure it’s alive. And it’s not just our own jobs; it’s every business we support, shop and use. We wondered if we would all be okay.  We saw a few breaths last year and were hopeful but for many companies it was too shallow, too late. They hung on as long as they could but couldn’t survive.

But now I see more life. We’re fighting back, fighting to breathe and move on.

The same exists for 2balance. I’ve continued to watch her pattern of breathing. Watching for her to inhale and exhale. There are too many people depending on her to live. A team and their families, clients and vendors, partners and friends.  And just like my daughter many years ago, her breathing is getting stronger and steadier. We made difficult decisions, cut back on expenses (and shoes), and even terminated relationships with clients that could suffocate us. The color of pink is returning to her cheeks.  I’m thankful to our team, families, friends and the wonderful roster of clients for which we’re so very blessed to be working.

And what caused me to write this at 2:45 in the morning?  I awoke to a very quiet bed. No snoring to the right of me. No giggles (yes, he giggles in his sleep), and no sounds of breathing. I get close and listen for signs of breathing.

Please stir.  Inhale.  Exhale.  Breathe!

I gently stroke his arm and he stirs.  All is well, maybe I can now rest.

Sweet dreams. ~Sheri

A recent conversation with a friend had us wondering why there weren’t more mothers holding public office.  We speculated it’s because Moms have so much to do.  Could they really be expected to do the 5 ½ dozen chores and tasks that come daily with motherhood and running a household and still keep up on all current events, race issues, fundraising, platform development, campaigning and all the other duties that go with running to be a public servant?  Being a private servant in your own home is hard enough.

Would Barack Obama BE Barack Obama if he also had to remember all the kids’ doctors appointments, vaccination schedules, classroom party refreshments, birthday gifts, soccer games, gymnastics practices, school registration forms, sleepovers, scout meetings, etc, etc, etc

Lest I be accused of partisanship, what about someone like Mitt Romney?  Would he have made his millions if his mind had to fragment to remember to buy plastic eggs and the prizes that go in them for his kid’s Easter party at school?  If, on the way to his office he had to pick up a sick 3 year old from daycare and coordinate her care, all while trying to troubleshoot work questions on his phone.  Don’t know, maybe he would.  But the long held praise of women being great multi-taskers is simply because we generally have more practice at it.  And as they say “practice makes perfect.”

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to limit mothers.  Many I know work full-time and even run companies.  And they don’t shirk on the duties at home.  They find a way to get it done.  Either by doing it themselves or hiring someone to help (the latter takes a lot of coordination and planning too).  Moms  learn to fit even more into their already crammed schedules and minds.  The word balance becomes a very vital part of their vocabulary.  Balance is a goal to be reached.  If you can balance the job on one hand and family on the other, you breathe a sigh of relief as you settle in for a hard night’s sleep before the next 18 hour day begins.

Back to the headline.  The stress women feel from trying to do all this multi-tasking and balancing can make for a real “get it done” type of Mom.   I know I’ve had this conversation with my son: “Can you play karate fights”?  “Yes, but only for 6 minutes and then Mommy has to send an email.”  Have I ever heard his Dad say that?  No.  The Dads power seems to be in NOT multi-tasking.  I envy the apparent ability men have to focus on a single task with enjoyment. They don’t always appear to be thinking about what comes next.  In our house, Dad laughs more and tasks less.   I’ve heard that’s the case in other houses too.  I strive to employ his attitude toward life more.  Sure we have arguments occasionally about who’s doing more housework, but in the end my spouse is the best balance I could ask for in this lifetime and I’ll sing those praises any day.

-Christine

What a wonderful ideology: all competitors have an equal opportunity.

The availability of the Internet and the proliferation of social media platforms have indeed given marketers and brand builders the ability to compete against the big dogs of advertising. No longer are huge advertising budgets and marketing research enough to sustain brand growth.

We live at the speed of Facebook, where Guitar Master Pro gains exposure to 45 million potential customers simply by showing a man playing the guitar and asking others if they would like to learn to play; Domino’s Pizza actively requests your feedback and lets you track the progress of your $5 pizza online with customizable themes for your enjoyment; and, where Joe’s coffee shop has just as much power to become a household name as Tide once had. There does appear to be an increased equality among brands in this new flat world.

But, here there be monsters – once a phrase used to represent unexplored locations on a map, takes on a new meaning in a global social marketplace. The monsters? Resistance to change.

As marketers, we will have to be more transparent and more authentic in our messaging. We will need to truly understand our brands and the people that buy them. And we will need to market good products. No longer do consumers have to rely on trial and error, slick ad copy and confusing product benefits. They know what’s good, because they’ve asked their mother, their brother, their best friend, they’ve read the blogs and searched the internet.

As marketers, we must help our clients engage with the people who buy their products. What better advertiser is there than an advocate of your brand? Change is scary and authenticity is even scarier “What if they don’t like me?” “What is they say something negative about my company?” These are opportunities that should be embraced because they allow a brand to fix a problem or change tracks if needed. Dominos figured this out. They have created an open dialogue with their customers and in the process doubled their profits. You can bet New Coke would have never hit the shelves in this new flat world.

A social marketplace is not a monster to be feared, but rather an opportunity for brands both big and small to compete, each with an equal opportunity of being heard.

-Jackie

Today I find myself in a new type of program, where flexibility is vital, but not measured.  The gymnasium has been replaced with an office.  My classmates are now my co-workers.  This is not an individual contest, but a team effort.   When school is cancelled for a snow day, it’s okay to work from home.  Or even the next day, when the kids have a 2 hour late start, it’s ok to come in 2 hours later.

The support, and flexibility, within our team is reflected in our clients and our work.  Our clients embrace the culture we have created.  We meet them where they are- because we are flexible.  Our flexibility becomes their best asset.  And now, thanks to my 2balance family, flexibility has become my best asset, too.

-Tiffany

What are the problems with this type of approach? First your competitor can fire their marketing agency because they don’t need it. They have you to advertise their name and brand. I recently passed a business with a huge banner on it. The first thing that stood out was the competition’s name. I had to look twice to see why that business was advertising for their competition. Next I wondered why they had to take this approach. Can’t they stand on their own merits? Are they not quite as good as their competition but scrambling to catch up?
In these economic times, many people are brand hopping to find the best value but there are still those that are looking for the overall experience. If the same price is being offered, but your competition has far better customer service, more knowledgeable staff, well-displayed aisles, and a great marketing plan; it’s safe to say that the big banner splashing their name is only going to add to their marketing efforts and not yours.  I want my brand as well as my clients to not be conceived as good as but much better than my competition.

-Sheri

I don’t know who originally said this, but I have come to lean upon this simple statement.  I emerged from college with a vision of my career as a market researcher and after twenty-two years working in the field I have to say it met my expectations.  I love the whole research process from developing the hypothesis to digging through the results and proving or disproving what we felt was the truth.  Finding out something you believed to be true was actually false delighted me because it confirmed that research was a powerful tool and that people are so very hard to figure out.  “Perceptions are reality” was the mantra I lived by and how I would explain contrary results to a client who just knew their product was the best thing ever to hit the market.  A person’s perceptions are a hard shell to crack.

Then I found myself at a crossroads in my career.  My freelance work was slowly disappearing along with our stable economy and for the first time in my life I was contemplating a career change.  It was both scary and exciting to think of the possibilities.  Did I leave behind a career that I had enjoyed (most days) for the whole of my adult life or did I find a way to marry the skills I had with new skills.  I had to shift my perceptions and open up my mind.

As often happens in life, the opportunity was right in front of me even if I didn’t immediately recognize it.  I began working at 2balance with the intention of providing research services to our current clients.   The economy, however, was causing many companies to turn to public relations in order to squeeze the most from their diminishing marketing budgets.  And, so I began my second career in public relations almost without realizing it.

As I began working in the public relations field I quickly learned that my skills as a market researcher fit nicely into the skill set required for PR.  And while I used my research skills daily identifying journalists and publications to approach and finding that newsworthy tidbit that will turn a release into a cover story, I was now able to exercise the creative side of my brain.  Marrying together my research skills with the new skills I was learning in public relations gave me a different perspective on marketing.  Knowledge is vital but so is the ability to disseminate that information and communicate it to the right audience.

Over the past three years, I have learned that perceptions can change.  That life is change and we either go with it or we get run over by it.   That growth, new directions and an open mind are the ingredients to a happy, balanced life and that using our skills in new ways often leads to a better product in the end.

-Jackie