Welcome to The Me Show! While talking with a dear friend, we were discussing our children, the changes we have observed in their behavior, and their interactions with others. My friend stated that she and her husband refer to days when their children are behaving as though they are the only children in the world as, “The Me Show.” Now mind you, I feel my bean is an unusually well behaved, kind hearted, reasonable young person. However, there are days when all I can do is roll my eyes, shake my head, and wait for the turbulence to pass. We have hit what I would call a bit of a bumpy patch with our bean. She is flexing those muscles of independence, pushing on the boundaries just a bit, and well, lets be honest, acting very much like a child who is used to being the center of another’s universe. It can be a bit trying at times. I know in the overall scheme of things, she is a great kid and when push comes to shove what is considered a bad day with her, is probably a really good day with some kids. However, I am ready to change the channel on The Me Show.
When I sat down and gave it a considerable amount of thought, our society has turned into one big me show. It is a difficult thing to admit, but I am an active participant in that show. Social media, has really turned our lives into one big Me Show: look what I made for dinner, look what I did today, look at my children, look at my adorable dog, read my political memes. On a more personal note, buy my soap, read my blog, look at what I made, look at my adorable goats. I struggle with self-promotion, I really do. I don’t feel comfortable with making my world public, pushing my products, or constantly putting myself in peoples faces. However, as a small business owner, I know this is now how the world works and if I want to see my budding little business bloom, I have to go outside my comfort zone.
I have friends and associates who do direct sales of one product or another. In my humble opinion, sometimes things go way too far. Six to eight posts per day about a product, a company, or a party is just intrusive and well, annoying. Allow me to clarify, if a friend is having an online party to promote sales for a week, I understand. However, when it is a daily occurrence and I am being bombarded with messages and images of products, I just feel annoyed. I appreciate your time, your dedication, and your excitement level about the company’s products, I do. I think it is wonderful that people find good companies they love and products they endorse. I just don’t feel comfortable with that approach for myself.
Since the pandemic hit, I have started writing on my blog daily…mostly. I like to write, I like to share stories I feel are funny, interesting and entertaining. It is nice to be able to share the on goings of life on the farm, the soap, and well, just life. However, when I feel I no longer have anything relevant to add to the world, I will stop my musings and go back to just hanging out in my own head. I will post on The Smiling Goat Soap Company Facebook page once, maybe twice a day. The Bibbed Wonder, is now Mr. Social Media. He does all the things I know need done but simply won’t take the time to do. We both work on the Facebook page but he is strictly Mr. Instagram. Instagram just baffles me…maybe it’s because I’m old…maybe I’m just not cool. I like to think it’s because I am just too mature and way too cool but that is just really admitting I’m old and not cool. I am editor in chief of all posts. The Bibbed Wonder is a math genius, he really has a natural gift with numbers. I on the other hand, struggle with my multiplication tables. However, my personal Archimedes struggles with spelling and the correct use of to, too, and two. When he goes off on one of his rants about math being the foundation of knowledge, a constant, the only rational, logical system in the universe, I like to smile at him and respond with, “Spell caterpillar.” That usually stops the constant barrage of noise that comes from that handsome face. However, I digress…
On two occasions we have met with college grads who have majored in marketing. Both were wonderfully insightful, very helpful, and offered us great tips and advice. We tried to heed that advice, make some changes, continue to do what they felt was going well. However, the reality is, our focus isn’t social media, it never has been. Our focus is our passion; providing a healthy, loving home to our animals, making superior quality products that are useful and beneficial to others, and provide a healthy, loving, stable life for our bean. I tend to focus on my passion, making soap. If it were up to me, I would simply make soap quietly on my own and enjoy what I do. That is what I did for the first few years and it went well. I had built a small audience, accepted my naturally introverted skill set, and happily carried on. However, now that soap is our blood line and not a side project, the focus has changed. Now, in order to provide for our bean and our animals, we have to participate in The Me Show.
There are things I can confidently promise, the first being my focus will always be caring for our audience. Whether it is providing superior products with responsible, healthful ingredients or providing customer care with the focus on care, we will always remember why it is we do what we do. Secondly, I will never bombard my audience with promotions. There may be a daily blog, a monthly newsletter, a monthly email and daily Facebook posts but I am just not comfortable with that in your face approach. You will never see me cracking a bar of my soap with a baseball bat just to grab your attention for three seconds. I feel my audience deserves better than that…and you are just too intelligent to find that interesting. I will try to keep up with the times, keep our company relevant, and fresh but I will never insult you. So dear reader, I hope you enjoy the Me Show!
As always stay safe, stay smart, enjoy the show, and of course, wash your hands…don’t forget the 20 second rule…it still applies.
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