Well, I’m jumping on the bandwagon along with everyone else. It’s the new year and time to set goals. My new year’s resolution: to blog more. Not sure why it is important, but my marketing department seems to think it is. Of all the bloggers out in the world, I can boast I am among some of the longest running. Though I am not prolific in my amount of posts I do have longevity. My first post was January 2004. Wow…I’ve been at this for 14 years!
At the time, we thought we were so clever when we bought the url Bannerisms.com. It was a play on words. You know what I’ve discovered… I hate play on words! So now I ask myself how and why did I get duped into agreeing to that name. Words are hard enough to memorize without having to make up more. And misspelled words like cupcake with a “K” (KupKake) drive me over the edge. How is anyone ever going to type in your website correctly with a crazy spelling???
When I first started my blog, I had more contributors than just me. For a while Jason, who worked in the call center, posted as a guest blogger. He was a great writer who had lived in California and written for the TV series “Touched by an Angel.” When that show was cancelled, he moved back to Little Rock and briefly worked for Flag and Banner while he redefined his life. There was another brief contributor to the blog, but unfortunately, we found out she was stealing and I had to fire her. In small business, there is always something! Never a dull or drama free week. But, I digress… back to the blog.
We lost most of the blog followers when we redesigned the website. My marketing team encouraged me to get busy rebuilding our blog presence. So, here I am…staring the new year in the face, hands atop the keyboard. Not exactly starting over, but in some ways, it feels like it. The difference this time around is that I have more experience, have more to say and (hopefully) am a better communicator. Much more than 14 years ago when I first began blogging.
So, as I begin the journey of keeping this new year’s resolution of blogging more, I may not play it so safe in my posts. I may let my funny, politically incorrect and straight-talking side shine through a little.
To that vain, here I go: I often think my views on life and work are like that of a man with a vagina. Think about it. Empathetic but unemotional. Company minded but always fair. And my favorite… physical prowess without the male ego. I started this business at the onset of women’s lib and here we are in the middle of the “Me too” movement. Women have come a long way, but we still have far to go. The unemotional, just business side of men kept them in control of the workplace for decades. Women with leadership roles now have the opportunity to balance that with empathy and fairness, qualities that are more often attributed to our gender. But let’s not throw the baby out with the bath water. It is important to be unemotional when making business decisions. And as a boss, I will hire a company minded team player over the intellectual shining star every time. It is time to lead with integrity and honesty. Join me here (bannerisms.com) every week this year and together we will see what 2018 has in store.
