Tag: covid

A Mask-Wearing Day

Many stores have slower days
in the week.
Businesses will often have
‘Senior Days’ or ‘Kids Days’
during those times
to appeal to
a specific target market.

Considered hosting
a ‘Mask-Wearing Day.’
Everyone,
staff and patrons,
have to be wearing masks.

This allows the
immune-compromised
(which now includes
anyone who had COVID)
and the careful
a safe place to shop.

And it will differentiate
your business.

If you don’t want to host this
for an entire day,
consider reducing it
to a couple of hours.

People WILL notice.
It is an easy
and considerate way
to differentiate your business.

The Little Actions Count

“Masks only make a tiny difference,”
a friend told me yesterday.

They might only make a tiny difference
but that tiny difference
taken every day
multiplied by three years
has resulted in me
only having had COVID once
while my friend, a non-mask-wearer,
has had it three times.

Those multiple infections
means he can no longer walk
around the block
without needing a rest.

(And yet he still mocks people
who wear masks.)

Small actions make a difference
over time.

I pick up a bit of garbage
every day.
Our neighborhood,
years later,
is now quite a bit cleaner
than neighborhoods located
close to ours.

I post an extra promo
on social media
every day.
My sales have stayed level
while the sales
of many writing buddies
have dropped.

Little actions matter.

COVID And Decision-Making

A business building buddy
told me yesterday
she was tired of
hearing about COVID.
She just wanted
it to be over.

Tough sh*t.
As business builders,
we don’t have
the luxury
to pretend it is over.

First,
COVID isn’t over.
People continue
to die
and get sick
and develop permanent issues
(like brain damage)
from COVID
every dang day.

With everyone,
except the wealthy
and the powerful,
dropping precautions,
COVID is likely to be with us
for the rest of our lives.

The impacts on our businesses
will definitely remain.
COVID has changed the world
permanently.

We have more prospects
and customers
using wheelchairs.

We have more prospects
and customers
requiring reminders
due to their COVID-caused
brain damage.

We have more employees
and partners
out sick
because COVID
is still here.

As business builders,
we NEED to continue
talking about COVID
and the impacts on
our businesses.

It is unfortunate
but it is reality.

COVID And Your Customers’ Abilities

I was lurking
on a social media thread
last night.
The discussion
was focused on
gyms and the classes
they’re offering.

Many of the gyms
have cancelled
their high impact cardio workouts.
There is little interest
in them.

They have focused
their efforts
on the much more popular
low impact workouts.

And they’ve noted
the age groups
interested in those
less intense workouts
are much younger.

They are changing
the music selection
to make those patrons
happy.

You and I
both know
WHY there has been
this shift
in workout preferences.

COVID
has decimated lung capacities
and energy levels.

Our prospects, our customers,
ALL of them
are different people
than they were
3 years ago.

Have you noticed more talk
about places
being wheelchair accessible?

That’s because,
due to COVID,
there are more people
in wheelchairs.

If we want to be successful
going forward,
we have to factor
our customers’/prospects’
decreased mobility
and energy levels
into our businesses.

COVID And Our Brains

I had a first bout
of COVID
in August.

Research relays
COVID changes our brains.

I can attest
that’s true.
My brain is different now.
I see the changes
in my writing.

My writing hasn’t deteriorated
(I think).
My voice, my pacing, my thought processes
have merely changed.

My editor had COVID
in January.
Before COVID,
she excelled at catching
continuity errors.
Now,
she doesn’t notice them
unless she puts in extra effort.

A loved one
had COVID in August also.
Before COVID,
he was emotionally tightly wound.
Now,
he is extremely mellow.

I’ve compensated
for my brain changes
by adding an extra review
for my books.

My editor compensates
by reading over works
one more time.

My more mellow loved one
has adjusted his schedule
to include more down time.

If you’ve had COVID,
your brain is different,
whether you’ve noticed that difference
or not.

Change your processes
to compensate for that.

Revelations About People

We’ve learned quite a bit
about the people in our lives
over the last few years.

We learned, for example,
some people
won’t wear a bit of cloth over their faces
to save our lives.

We also learned
some people
WILL take that action.
They will do as much as possible
to keep others safe.

We learned some people
will believe anything
they read or hear.

We also learned
that some people
do extensive research
before making a decision.

We learned some people
are terrible judges
of other people.

We also learned some people
are terrific judges
of other people.
They knew a certain former world leader
was a grifter
as soon as he appeared before them.

All these revelations
can help us tremendously
in our businesses
and our lives
going forward.

We know better
who the people around us
truly are.

Use that knowledge
to make your world better.

Know The Odds

I recently took a cruise
with a loved one.
We masked in public
when not eating
and asked
for socially distanced tables
during meal times.

Why did we take these precautions?

Because I researched
and laid out the odds
of events happening
before we embarked.

The odds of COVID
being on board
were 100%.

The odds of being exposed
to COVID on board
were also 100%.

The odds of deriving long COVID
if we were infected
were 1 in 8.

If we looked at the odds,
we would be dumb a$$es
not to mask.

We masked.
COVID, as predicted,
raged through the ship.
People around us became sick.
We didn’t get COVID.

(And yes,
I know luck was also
a big factor in that.)

Know the odds
of events happening
before you make decisions.

It might not change
your decision
but, at the very least,
you can prepare
for high probability events
to happen.

Grieving Queen Elizabeth II

There has been extensive coverage
on U.S. TV networks
of Queen Elizabeth II’s death.

Why would U.S. viewers
care about the passing
of another country’s queen?

Because the coverage
isn’t about that queen’s death.
It is about the deaths
of our own loved ones.

Grieving a public figure
is less about the public figure
and
more about collectively grieving
our personal losses.

The public figure
emotionally represents
our lost loved ones.

Few countries, over the past few years,
have lost more people
than the U.S.

Give your employees
and other partners
time to grieve on Monday.
Honor their pain and sorrow.

It has been a tough
few years.
Allow them a moment
to acknowledge that fact
and derive some comfort
from the people around them.

Masks And Hand Sanitizer Are Here To Stay

With Monkeypox ramping up
and COVID not at all ramping down,
it is essential
that businesses,
including the small businesses
you and I are building,
attempt
to keep customers
and employees safe.

The easiest way
to do that
is to have hand sanitizer
and masks always available
at the front door.

Keep those containers
filled up.

Factor those expenses
into your financials.

Assume you will supply
masks and hand sanitizer
forever.

Because you likely WILL
do that.

These are the bare minimum
now
for businesses
going forward.

And they convey
that you care.

Lowering Risks

I tested positive
for the first time
for COVID.

I’ve been fairly careful,
wearing high quality masks
anytime I’m with other people
indoors,
limiting contact,
employing social distancing
as much as possible.

This lowered the risk
of getting COVID
with each contact
but it didn’t eliminate it.

Especially since,
over the past two and a half years,
I have had hundreds,
perhaps thousands of contacts.

Low risk per contact
multiplied by
those thousands of contacts
meant the odds of me
catching COVID
was becoming pretty f*ckin’ high.

My ‘luck’ ran out.

Low risk events
happen.
Especially if we
participate in thousands
of them

Plan for that.

And yes, I will continue
taking precautions.
COVID is kicking my a$$
and I’d prefer never to get it again.