What We Learned from “quarantining”
The Routine
As much as we all complain about getting up early, driving through traffic, and spending a “full day” at the office, we really do miss it. I’ve always been a “routine” kind of person. I get up at the same time and have the same morning routine before I do anything…Shower, get ready, watch the news and drink my coffee, then head off to work. What I have noticed over the last several weeks is that I still stick to that routine, but walking the 10 feet from the kitchen to the “office” just isn’t the same as enjoying the drive in…listening to sports radio and planning my day ahead. We have all developed a “new routine” that involves more phone conversations and a LOT more Zoom conferences or Google Hangouts! But it’s nice to see everyone “face to face”. The new routine can get a little lonely when you are used to being around people each and every day, but we are making it work!
Team Comradery
I would say we have a pretty diverse team. We vary in ages, interests, passions and skill sets. This is great when it comes to creativity for our marketing clients…but can sometimes cause some “work tension” when you spend 8 hours a day, 5 days a week together! While I feel we have all always respected each other’s ideas, time and work ethic (for the most part) I have noticed since we “went remote” that that communication within our team has improved tremendously. Partly because we are becoming more “in tune” with our coworkers…and partly because we had no choice…remote work environment=mandatory communication!
Thinking “outside the box” for our marketing Partners
While I truly believe that we are one of the most unique and creative marketing companies around, no one could have been prepared for how “out of the box” we would have to be when a global pandemic closed down some of our partners and reduced others to remote work environments and less than ideal business situations. I, for one, probably took for granted how easy it was for us to gather video and social content and go out and “snap a few lifestyle photos” whenever we needed them. “Strategic” has taken on a whole new look! Videos and photos done from home, commercials created completely from past work using kickass editing by our production team. How do you continue to help those partners that are in the food service business? You get creative….you encourage “buying local” and “curbside pickup”, you make sure that your audiences know how much these hard-working Oklahoma companies have done for our community during these most difficult times. And what about the “front line businesses” that we represent? I can’t say enough about how proud we are to represent them in their marketing efforts to keep us all safe and aware during this time!
When we went remote on March 16th, I think we were all a little nervous and apprehensive as far as how this would work for our business…we’ve never been a fully remote company. We were equally nervous about what this pandemic meant for our world as a whole. Six weeks later, I feel like we have all learned a lot. A lot about our marketing partners, a lot about our team, and a lot about ourselves. I would definitely say we won’t be taking anything for granted from here on out…on a business or personal level. Time is short and there are no guarantees. Let those you spend the most time with know how special they are to you and how much you appreciate them. We will be taking these lessons and applying them to all of our efforts moving forward.