Source:
https://www.podbean.com/eau/pb-xipfk-149ec6f

Book Clubs start with the best of intentions, don’t they? In today’s episode, Karen and Michelle turn their book club fail into an opportunity to amp up your business development for a great Q4.
 
Transcript
Michelle Kane (00:02):
Thank you for joining us for this episode of That Solo Life, the podcast for PR pros and marketers who work for themselves, people like me, Michelle Kane with VoiceMatters  and my ever steady captain of the ship over at Solo PR Pro, Karen Swim. Hey Karen, how are you?
Karen Swim, APR (00:18):
Hello, Michelle. How are you doing? I'm doing great. It's good to see you after the Labor Day holiday and we did some pre-recording, give ourselves a little bit of a break, so it feels like I haven’t seen you in a while.
Michelle Kane (00:33):
I know, right? We're getting back into things because back to school, even though I hold firm that summer's not yet over until the autumnal equinox. And I know here those of us like me on the East coast, you are more closer to the center of our country, we're having some delightful record heat this week, so that's wonderful.
Karen Swim, APR (01:01):
The weather has really reminded me about how your experiences can shape your responses to things.
Michelle Kane (01:09):
Oh, is that not so true!
Karen Swim, APR (01:10):
It's a good thing to keep in mind with our clients. I have five, six Brazilian families on my block. I love that. And I was talking with a couple of the neighbors the other day, and it's been in the nineties and humid, so it has not been pleasant to people like me who don't do well with those temperatures, but they are thrilled to pieces and they just want to make this last. And so they were saying like, “Oh my God, isn't this great? Do you want to take a walk later?” And I'm like, “No, no, I don't, as a matter of fact, want to take a walk and this oppressive, horrible, hot as hell, heat.”
Michelle Kane (01:57):
Exactly.
Karen Swim, APR (01:58):
I just want to take my dog and go in the air conditioning. That's what I would like to do, but they're so happy. And I thought, for me, it's super uncomfortable and I feel like I can't breathe. And for them, they're just like, amazing. Let's enjoy every second of it. And I'm like,
Michelle Kane (02:17):
You enjoy for me. Okay.
Karen Swim, APR (02:20):
Yeah. So yeah, our experiences definitely shape our perceptions and as we're putting together campaigns for clients and messaging, it’s a good thing to keep in mind that what we intend is not always the way that people will receive it. And a good example of that is our Book Club Fail. Michelle and I are starting a book club where we read a book together and we were going to share with you our findings. And so we have a list of blogs that were recommended for communications professionals, and there was one that caught our attention, and the title is Surrounded by Idiots: How Ineffective Communication Causes Chaos. Now as communicators, we obviously thought this book was about client work, and this will be a fun read and a short read. Turns out,
Michelle Kane (03:20):
No, not so much. We failed our own challenge. No, it was definitely more of a DISC-ish kind of approach, and it was really about not about communicators at all. So…
Karen Swim, APR (03:37):
Yeah, it was for leaders who do not know how to communicate now. So I guess the idiots they're referring to are sometimes the people that we encounter in our work.
Michelle Kane (03:51):
That's put in such a loving way, Karen, but yes, yes. So yeah, we were so excited and so pleased with ourselves. And then, yeah, so maybe the next book we choose, but you know what, isn't this really what happens with book clubs? Does anyone really read the book? They just go for wine time and giggles. So with that, we're going to talk about other challenges because Karen has launched a cool challenge over at Solo PR Pro. Do you want to talk about that a little bit and share with our audience and invite them to come on this challenge with us?
Karen Swim, APR (04:32):
I do, I do. I do. I'm so excited about this. Ridiculously excited.
Michelle Kane (04:38):
That's good.
Karen Swim, APR (04:39):
Yes. So we launched a 21 day business development challenge, and if you have had any encounter with me, you know that I am somebody that likes to keep it pretty simple and I don't like things that are complicated. So true to form. This is super simple. The idea of this challenge is to help us all to build that business development muscle with consistency. So we're inviting you to participate by choosing a business development activity or two, not 10, not 15, one or two activities, and then just spend 20 minutes a day on that activity. That's it. Super simple. And there's a blog post that was published yesterday that outlines our thinking. But again, super, super simple. And it doesn't matter if you are in the communications industry because this really busines