Source:
https://www.podbean.com/eau/pb-u97jp-14c3eae

We just entered Q4 of 2023. How did we get here so quickly? If your energy and creativity are lagging, you need to listen to this episode.
 
Here’s the link to the blog referenced in today’s episode, “How PR Pros Can Find Their Secret Sauce” 
 
Transcript
Michelle Kane (00:02):
Thank you for joining us for another episode of That Solo Life, the podcast for PR pros and marketers working for themselves. Like me, Michelle Kane, with VoiceMatters and my ever steady co-host, Karen Swim of Solo PR Pro. Hi Karen, we are back again.
Karen Swim, APR (00:21):
We are here!
Michelle Kane (00:25):
Oh my goodness. Speaking of, we thought today would be a great day. We're looking at the end of the calendar pages and we thought it would be a perfect time to talk about keeping ourselves motivated. How do we keep our motivation momentum as we enter into this fourth quarter? And I don't know, I think for so many of us, we're just tired. We're just weather subconsciously or consciously tired from these past several years now of stuff.
Karen Swim, APR (01:06):
And as we record this, it's a particularly interesting time in that we continue to say post pandemic because it's not that far behind us. And now Covid also is popping its head up quite fiercely again. And so we're seeing more cases come back and I felt like we were still finding our footing after the pandemic and still trying to fill out what normal really was, and the ground is shifting under our feet once again. So it is an interesting time, and I don't know about everyone else, but I feel I'm tired, but I also have maybe excited energy. So there's that combination of being excited about the last quarter of 2023 and the things that are happening and the things that are in place that will set me up for 2024, but also just tired, fatigued. If we could end the year today, I would really be okay with that.
Michelle Kane (02:14):
I am with you. No, it's interesting. I mean, there's so much that goes into keeping you motivated, right? I mean, some of us may have client work that is samey-same, and there's nothing wrong with that, but sometimes you just get that multi-year itch about it, which you could flip that into saying, well, can we change things up to be more beneficial? How can we just reinvigorate ourselves about it? But from the broader spectrum, it's also keeping ourselves invigorated about our day to day
(02:53):
Just staying excited about the job or thinking, well, why am I feeling this way? Aside from the general global malaise and freakout that's been hampering us for all this time, I think of myself. For me, I do big crises really well. If something big happens in life, I'm like, okay, let's handle it. Let's get through it. Let's get through it. And then if I drop a pen, then I just lose it. So I have to wonder if as a society, if that's kind of where we're at, we all got through the big massive thing pretty much, and now we're just, now we have the crash. So I think we just need to keep that in mind as we go about our businesses and our work days and our personal things, and just remember to be kind to ourselves, be patient with ourselves and realize that as much as we might like to go back to autopilot for a lot of things, we're not there yet.
 
Karen Swim, APR (03:54):
I also think at this time of year, we've gone through nine months. We're in this final stretch for a lot of people. Fall is very busy. It's event season. It's just a lot going on, a lot of moving parts. And so you can start to feel your energy levels flagging at this point of the year. So some things that you can do to make sure that you continue that momentum of the year and keep things on track is one is that you could revisit your schedule. This is a great time to start looking at pulling things off and be more effective, be more efficient. Sometimes we're just go, go, go. And we've added all of these things. So what can you remove from your schedule? How can you be more efficient and spend less time doing things if you need help? There's some great books out there like Essentialism, which I loved because it really forces you to look at how you prioritize your time and blocking things out worked for me, really love it.
(04:55):
I need to read it again. Then there's a book that I've been hearing a lot of good things about the 12 Day Year. So take a look at your time management and think about, okay, as I go into this last quarter, what can I do to be efficient? And maybe it means eliminating some things and tabling some things for next year because this is already a busy time of year. I think you can also sustain momentum by ensuring that you're refueling your creativity. So in this fourth quarter, what can you tweak to make things a little bit different? How can you approach these Q four campaigns just a little bit differently? Sometimes we deal with clients so much, I want to say this in a super kind way, but clients have a