Anyone seen this? *

Has anyone got any spare patience please? I’m so impatient for my meeting tomorrow afternoon that I won’t be able to sleep tonight. I am so impatient with my work  for the PHG and the Born Healthy project that I’m checking my emails constantly, waiting to work out how I can make next steps in progressing relationships and facilitating opportunities for the project. And I’m impatient with myself, for not being uber efficient enough so that I can make everything happen as quickly as I want it to.

This is why I’m self employed though, so I can have a range of different projects to work on and whilst something is fermenting away in for one client, I can be making progress for another one… So this makes me think that I’m best to remain self employed. Well, today’s thought is that I’m best to remain self employed….

What’s your list of the pro’s and con’s of  being self employed. This is my list of starters for 10….

Pros
I get to work in my PJ’s
I don’t have to wear make up to my desk
I have control over what I choose to do each day. ish…
I decide who I do or don’t want to work with

Cons
I don’t see many humans other than lovely bloke, E and W and that skewes my outlook somewhat
I don’t have anyone to blame if something doesn’t happen on time
I have the pressure of being the breadwinner and needing to make financially smart choices as to who I work with

Help me think of more for both lists please… See, I’m even impatient when it comes to these lists – I want to do it RIGHT NOW!! Look forward to hearing your thoughts on this one….

* Image courtesy of  www.psychologytoday.com

What were you born to do?

What were you Born To do? The new campaign from Save the Children has not just caught my eye, it’s got into my head. Not least because I’m working for the PHG Foundation on the Born Healthy project, which is working in a very similar area.

But there’s another reason too. I’m trying to work out what my purpose is right now. DH and I are shattered, the boys are pooped and we’ve not got back into a routine since the Christmas holiday – and it’s March next week. HOW DID THAT HAPPEN????

So much good stuff has come our way since the start of 2011, but I don’t know, I’m just not sure what to do – I’m near capacity from a consulting perspective and that’s good, but it means I’m going to end up turning work away soon, which is something I don’t want to do.
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A big organisation is interested in outsourcing lots of their printed publications to Weston Communications. Another one is interested in bringing Weston Communications in to take their online and social media engagement  strategy  forward. And then there’s the New Baby Guides, and the Young Families Bump, Baby and Toddler Shows! As well as my usual smaller clients. Something’s got to give, but what? So going to the Born To bloggers conference today was the perfect opportunity for me to take some time out and think about it.

What was I Born To Do?

I’m using thinking about what I was Born To Do to help me focus on my life and where it’s going at the moment. I was born to be a mummy. Not just a mum, or parent, but a mummy. To me, I’m parenting when I’m teaching our boys how to do things, being a mum when I’m sorting out logistics for birthday parties and a mummy when I’m giggling with them when we read a book on the sofa, or letting them climb in our bed in the middle of then night. In ten years time, there won’t be much mummy stuff left that they want  from me, so I want to try and be as  much of a mummy as I can, right now, whilst it’s still wanted.
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But how do I do that whilst working full time? I don’t know if it’s possible, because I’ve been really struggling with it recently. Honestly, I don’t if it is possible….

Watching the videos today at Save the Children, I looked around at my fellow attendees and thought “Is anyone else finding this really hard?  Is anyone else on the verge of tears? Does anyone else want to stick their head in the sand and run away from this because it’s such a big thing – and I don’t  know how I can contribute to it?” I wore mascara today – so I didn’t sit there sobbing. But I wanted to. I had tears in my eyes. I felt so small, so inept, so, I  don’t  know, lost, I suppose. I felt so overwhelmed with thoughts of my family, the families I was watching, the families of the Save the Children staff who go into these countries to help people and children in need – and the families of the people who go to film, shoot and relay the situations back to us in real time.

It was upsetting. I’m not going to pretend it wasn’t. But what it has done, is give me hope. If #blogadesh can get a message to 10 million people about what’s happening in the world, if the Make Poverty History Campaign ensures that countries are relieved of their impossible to repay debt, and if Save the Children can get into stricken countries and set up safe play centres for children within hours, then I’ve got to be able to work out what I was Born To Do, haven’t I?

I wonder how I can be what I was Born To Do – be a mummy, a worker and someone who makes a difference. I’m going to keep working at it. Thank you #bornto and Save the Children for giving me insights into your campaign and the inspiration to keep working at what I was Born To Do.

Please comment below and tell me what you were Born To. And vist the Save the Children Born To site, so you can learn more about this brilliant, challenging, amazing opportunity we all have to contribute to making a positive change in our world…

Today it was announced that This Morning had organised their maternity leave cover for Holly Willoughby. Two presenters from GMTV will be covering when the star goes on leave to have and spend time with her daughter in May this year. Three months in advance.

This got me thinking about my own maternity leave cover when I had my daughter and how easy I had it that it was left for me to arrange, well no one else wanted to do it. No one else had the time. I wanted to ensure a good cover so I had a smooth return.

It got pretty near to my leave date when I realised that no one was going to organise cover for my role and I did it myself. Office restructure talk and my former boss leaving had taken it’s toll on all around me leaving me in a state of uncertainty surrounding my cover.

In the end I approached an agency we had used before myself and nagged a manager in the team to interview with me. I was very conscious that my role should be well covered as I dealt with high level meetings, reports and complaints.

I coerced this manager to interview a candidate he had passed on but my gut instinct had told me she was the right person for my job and it felt good to have put someone in my place that could learn as well as manage. She was similar to me when I had first started office based work, a graduate with no on the job experience but plenty of enthusiam.

So what’s the crux of this blog?

No one knows but the person doing the job who is best to cover them? Maybe. But they should be able to leave a job safe in the knowledge that it is well looked after.

The person doing the job really should have chilled out more and enjoyed the end of pregnancy? Possibly.

Employers should be more aware of what they need Maternity Leave Cover (it’s not just keeping a seat warm for a year) and the implications cover can have on a mummy returning to work. Definately.

I’m asked regularly as to how I get my work done. So here’s three things that make Weston Communications PR and Marketing, the New Baby Guides and the Young Families Bump, Baby and Toddler Shows possible:

1. My husband. He is quite literally “the daddy”, in every aspect. He’s taken to play dough,  cooking,  train tracks, making pack ups (lunches in a sandwich box) to a toddler’s changing whim and sometimes,  ironing and cleaning. He thinks he does more of the latter than I do, but we’ll not split hairs over that. Not least because someone will have to tidy up after those hairs… Ahem. And as well as doing full time daddy daycare, he’s also an electrician who goes out at short notice to help people. Usually when they’ve tried to do something themselves to save £££ and messed it up. I’d hate to have to go and fix someone else’s mistakes whilst they watched me, quietly seething… But he does that as well. There’s no end to his talents. And did you see our fireplace? He made that as well.  And our fitted cupboards upstairs. he’s an all round top bloke.

And that’s without me going into how he supports me through thick and thin, emotionally and physically…. He’s my cheerleader and sounding board, the person I shout at when people annoy me, or don’t pay their bills on time. I count my blessings in having found him.

2. Hannah Elsom. She’s known as the “Glue” of Weston Communications for a very good reason. Because she brings everything together, and sticks it in the right places, so it all works nicely. Need something scheduling, there’s Hannah. Need admin, fiances, coaxing and cajoling doing, there’s Hannah. Need motivating and keeping off facebook, mumsnet and dare I say it, the Daily Mail online, there’s Hannah. She’s amazing. She’s made such a difference to my performance, and enabled me to move forward and develop Weston Communications into something that I never thought possible. Every time I think, “thank god for Hannah”, I tell her how grateful I am for her – she usually looks at me all “??? she’s off  again”. But it’s nice to know you are  needed and valued every so often, isn’t it?

3. My cheerleaders. My mum and dad, my brother, TJ, Debi, Eileen, Rachel, Carmen, Karen, AKT, Lorraine, Annie, Jacqueline and Kate. I’m sure there are more that I’ve not remembered, so I’m sorry if I’ve forgotten anyone. It’s so important to have different cheerleaders for different things. When I think I can’t be a working mum any more, I call Rachel Yoxen, who reassures me that it’s ok that my house  is untidy and that if I had a weekend to myself, it would be filled with sleeping. When I worry that I’ve stretched myself too much,  I have TJ, Eileen and Debi on hand, who reassure me about business matters and direct me towards Susan Jeffers and Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway… And when I want to know how to do something parenting related, I can call on Lorraine, whose knowledge of food and allergies is amazing, and Karen, Annie, Jacqueline and Kate are such good mums that I’m confident to ask for their advice and reassurance on anything parenting related. And Anne of course, if my moral compass. If I’m not sure if something is a good idea or not,  I call Anne. She’s so straight, it must be hard to get dressed in a morning. 

I love and am so grateful to them all for everything they so generously give me and my life and help me on my path to, well, I’ve not quite worked that one out yet….

What and who makes your work happen? Have you told them how much you value them recently? Tell me here, who you value and if I can think of something appropriate to send them as a small reward for what they do for you, I’ll put something in the post….

Am expecting lots of replies for this one, so get writing now…

WARNING: Whinge fest below….

I hate feeling nerrr. Although, Kate and William getting engaged has been a good distraction for me today.

Feeling down in the dumps today :(

I hate post event anti climax. Mind you, the Hertfordshire Bump, Baby and Toddler Show was a good un, so if I’m being balanced about it, there’s bound to be a fair bit of post event down in the dump ness to be had from it. Why is it, that even when I do things well, I beat myself up. 750 visitors = good result, but no, I’m all “oooh, I wanted 1,000″…  At least I’m not tweeting saying I had “1,400 through the door and 72 exhibitors”, when I actually got less than half of that and it’s obvious to exhibitors and visitors. That would be a v bad thing to do wouldn’t it????  <that’s a nudge to a show organiser who’s making the rest of us look bad right now>….

I hate my negative side. It’s silly. I shouldn’t pay any attention to it. 

This morning, a client told me they were unhappy with a comment I made recently. So I apologised, said I wouldn’t comment on it again, and that was that. Or so I thought. Because obviously it’s not, and now I’m left thinking that perhaps they shouldn’t have “assumed that I’d know what they wanted me to say”. There’s the factual truth and then another kind of “truth”, isn’t there? I’m still learning with the latter. Perhaps I should have asked “what do you want me to say when someone asks XXX, that’s  not the truth, but what you want me to tell people instead”… Is that what PR and marketing support really is?

And then a different client told me they didn’t need me to do something for them any more today, which is good, because it means that they’ve taken it on, realised the value of it, and are doing it for themselves. But I felt sad, as it meant my job was done, and I like doing work for them.

Nothing in life is permanent is it? The sooner I realise that, the better, because then I won’t be sad when things do turn out to be temporary.

And there’s a charity thing coming up, where I’ve decided I won’t just give  myself,  my contacts, and my time  for nothing.  That  if it’s so valuable to them, it can be paid for.  But  am procrastinating about  it and where to go with telling the Charity that I want to be paid, rather than just being a volunteer. Although there can’t be anyone who likes to have those conversations can there?

Dooby dooby down down. I can’t even be bothered to write  a proper post. I’m feeling very self indulgent. Talked to a friend today. She said that perhaps I should just take a couple of weeks off. Literally. To get my house tidied, xmas cards done, and get myself  back on track. Maybe I will. Liz Fraser, Author of the Yummy Mummy Survival Guide, and tv presenter is a creative type, and she disappears off radar sometimes. Then she comes back onto the scene. And does good stuff.

I’m going off to help with bedtime, and then watch the Kate and William interview at 7pm. Here’s hoping for a perkier day tomorrow. And people telling me nice stuff, rather than complaining to me about stuff that’s outside of my remit.

Over n out.