Helpers, Humans, & Repetition

Dear Leaders, Entrepreneurs, Dreamers, and Creators of Great Things: I write these Love Letters each month with the hope of bringing you a little encouragement, some marketing help, and a few minutes of joy. Whether we are already friends or have yet to meet, I hope you’ll enjoy my stories from the road and some awesomely random takeaways, tools, tips, and updates.

Helpers

I want to tell you a story I haven’t told anyone.

If you have followed me for a while, you know that I lived with my Grams for a season and helped look after her until she passed away in December of 2024. She was the feistiest lady you could ever meet, and I was lucky to have so much time with her.

The day she passed, it was just her and me in her room. I was playing her favourite music and talking to her as if she was going to respond. I told her that if she was waiting for a quiet moment to sneak out, this was it. And then, quite suddenly, she was gone.

I had never been with anyone as they died before. I sat there for a minute and actually thought to myself, Well… what do I do now? There was a string beside her bed to call the nurse, so I pulled it and just sat there in the silence. Waiting for whatever happens next.

A few moments later, a nurse breezed in, asking how she could help, with a kind smile. She suddenly paused, looked between me and the bed, then back at me and said, “Ok. Alright.” I remember thinking, “Oh, good. She’s got this. She knows what to do next.”  But what she did next surprised me.

She came close, knelt down to my eye level, took my hand and asked, “Are you ok?”

I am sure, in those moments, there are Things That Need To Be Done. Paperwork. Hospice. Phone calls. But all of that waited while she took the time to just be in the moment with me, asking if I was ok.

I led a workshop last week for leaders who are leading their companies and teams through messy change. In this workshop, we look at change through the lens of the six stages of grief. Because change and grief go hand in hand. For every change, we are grieving what might have been. What was. What won’t be. And for leaders who are guiding their teams through constant change, understanding the grief process is really important.

For many of us – when change happens, we just want to do the things that need to be done. But it is equally important to take the time to sit with those who are grieving and start with, “Are you ok?”

Fred Rogers famously once said, “When I was boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.'”

We talk a lot about the role of leaders. But those who really and truly lead are the ones who get up close and personal with the grief and take the time to be a helper.

Humans

My neighbor got a Roomba. She was super excited about the ability to just set it and forget it and never have to vacuum her house again. Until she went to work, her dog did his business on the floor, and she came home to a zigzag trail of you-know-what all over her wall-to-wall carpeting. She told me this as she was standing in the yard, waiting for the commercial carpet cleaners to finish their scrubbing.

A real estate team ran a robocall campaign to try to recruit other agents to come work for them. They recorded a message and set it to go out at a certain time. But something must have gone wrong with the time zones because the calls went out between 9 pm and 1 am. Not an optimal time to be calling someone with a pre-recorded message about how great you are. Yikes.

My friend has been gushing about the effectiveness of her Instant Pot for months. She brags about how that thing can cook a pot roast in minutes and how life-changing it is. Until last week, when the pressure valve broke and the lid exploded, smearing cheesy scalloped potatoes on the entire kitchen ceiling.

All three of these instances leave me wondering… is there a single thing we can really and truly automate and totally ignore without consequences? It’s super great to pay for that service that promises to automate your business, automate your marketing, and automate your lead follow-up… until it all goes wrong. Don’t forget the human element, y’all. Automation is great – but the human element is irreplaceable.

 

This is where I share the good stuff

… the latest websites, books, & tools that are inspiring me, the people who are making me smile, and the stuff I have been writing on sticky notes.

One of the best things I’ve read lately. You should take a minute and read this too.

The coolest Threads comment section I’ve seen this month. People are so awesome.

A quick QR code tip that will blow your mind.

A wonderful checklist that will make you a better storyteller.

A quote we all need to hear:
“If it feels repetitive to you, it’s probably just starting to reach them. Let that sink in.” – @marketingbyshelby

Three books I am loving this month:
This one about Flowers
This one about Food
This one just for Fun