jalléCafe

Friday, business or pleasure?

March is nearly behind us!  I believe here in Zurich we will finally set our clocks forward an hour this weekend.   Daylight Savings time over for another year.

For me, it seems like time is always "springing" forward.  Take this week for example.

I can look back on my to-do list and say, "that's a lot crossed off!"

Well, it's not all crossed-off.  In fact I will soon join an evening networking event for people who used to work for the same big company.  This will be my second visit to the "alumni" group.  Haven't decided if this is business networking or catching-up with friends.  Both, I hope.

One thing I always need to do at the end of the day on Friday is remember to turn on my "relaxed" emotions.  Think of my garden, something other than web content management and product logos.  Close the cover on the to-do's for a while.

Usually, the best way is to go out with friends.  Enjoy some wine and catching-up together.  The older I get, the more I manage to stop with few enough drinks to also enjoy the rest of my weekend.  :-)

Happy Friday!

Change, careers & diving boards

Not five minutes ago, I finally hit "send" on the first marketing campaign for my new product:  the jallé Six for Yourself.

I prepared for months.  New web site.  Whole new focus.

But as I approached the moment to hit "send" and "launch!" I felt a tension rising.  Excitement mixed with fear.

I realized that this new launch represents having again learned, discovered and CHOSEN the path of doing what I find most meaningful professionally (after three years with my own business).  I cut out all of the products and services that didn't fulfill me.  That is a risk, saying "no" to one thing and "yes" to another.  What if it doesn't work?

My 2002 diving board sketch (right) showed how I felt then about deciding to leave the corporate world behind me.  Saying "no, thanks" to a big company that had been part of my life for 16 years; "yes" to a different vision of myself.  Felt like a blind leap of faith.  Would I sink to the bottom of a deep dark pool? Seven years later, I cannot imagine another choice. 

This morning I jumped off of the board again.  A decision to start.  To go for it with both feet in. For me, that was one scary moment now overcome. 

A well-stated opinion that applies to a lot of things!

I don't normally consider myself very political.  I have tended to put all politicians into a mental class - say broadly less authentic than firemen or teachers or even the odd CEO - and finally vote for the "least of the worst" on election day.

A week or so ago, I had an inspiring conversation about change with a friend with whom I studied at Northwestern U.  We mutually pondered whether or not Obama could prove to be (and in fact is) authentic.  Is it wishful thinking that for once a politician actually cares at least a little more about the higher goal than himself and leads intelligently toward it?  In other words, that he meets the definition of a leader rather than a politician.  We will see, won't we? We both hope so.

My friend referred me to a blog post she had written. I was so happy she was blogging.  Then when I read her post, I thought it applied to many other situations in need of persistence and change.

So here it is: A view of change, inspired by Obama I want to remember it.  Warm thanks to you, Andrea.

Finally Spring

I take it as a good sign that I am present enough in my life to notice the first signs of Spring - natural or, as in this case, urban!

 

The cafes roll out!, originally uploaded by jalléCafe.

Catching a breath

Full bags, originally uploaded by jalléCafe.

Some days, finding time to post a blog feels like yoga. In these writing moments, I finally find a few minutes to center my thoughts and reflect on what's happening around me.

At this exact moment, I'm a team of one. Two employees are out sick and the third is not working this Friday afternoon. The quietude is OK after what I counted up as no less than 12 meetings this week.

I started my day with a little reward for surviving until Friday by drinking a hot chocolate at Spruengli on my way to work (early as usual!) As I sat there I realized that through the last three years since starting my business, I have found a rhythm that lets me shift fairly easily and enjoyably between corporate clients and entrepreneurial hectic-ness. I like the variety, the challenge, the focus and directness.

And of course, I love working with the clients, the employees, the vendors, the people who volunteer in our professional women's group. 

I do get pretty tired. But it is worth it.

What's new

You may have noticed that my blog categories have changed. 

I did not delete any posts (now up to 167 in two years and three months). 

I simply took a look back at what I'd written about and forward to where I hope I'm going.  Then I revised the categories to fit what I've really been saying.

These categories fit the themes that come up over and over again.  They align more, but not too tightly, with my business. 

Sometimes now I - and you too perhaps - can read over a theme to see what's been pondered about it, tried, achieved and if not, adjusted. In other words, what can be learned from the collected view in hindsight.

Thank you for reading even one single post.  I hope it catalyzes your own ideas!

Storm Spotters

It's been a while since I posted a Lesson from Mom.  Last week, she shared a classic:

Three generations of my family - Mom, two of her sons, and two of her grandsons - are currently taking training from the local National Weather Service to be certified as "storm spotters." 

My home town, which has recently been hit hard by DHL closing its US domestic shipping service (laying off thousands of people in the area) - is also long-known in the Spring as "tornado alley."  A warning siren system sounds each time serious dark clouds approach.  As children, we were trained to go to the basement or the most reinforced room in a one-story house.  We conducted tornado drills at school.  Dad put candles and flashlights together in a "survival kit."

Mom says she's tired of going to the basement all of the time; so, she's going out with my brothers to find the storms!  (Must be in the genes.  Her father also tended to pile the four grandchildren all in the car and chuckle gleefully as he drove through the farm fields chasing lightening saying "we are in the safest place because we are grounded by rubber tires!.")

But Mom is more educated.  "Lightening is not an indicator of storm intensity, " she informed me as I reminisced.

What I love is that - in the most dismal of economic times with 100s of For Sale signs in yards and families moving in together - someone is offering and my family is taking a course about a fascinating natural aspect of life in Ohio.  Tornadoes.

This, to me, demonstrates persistence at its best - finding something new to be motivated about instead of sitting around depressed.  In fact, I won't be surprised if the entire family becomes "Advanced Storm Spotters" by later taking the second course at the regional level. (They are already dreaming about it.)

Tornadoes don't care about the economy or respond to economic stimulus packages.

And Mom is not going to the basement either!