The Passionate Voice

A Changing of {Life} Seasons

• Career, Lifestyle

Well hello there! I appreciate everyone’s messages, texts and check-ins asking what the heck I’ve been up too as of late. Its hard to believe the last time I blogged was back in May. Thinking of what I’ve did between now and May is somewhat daunting. Daunting in a good way though. Let’s just say that being able to have the time to properly ‘digest’ something like an election is a healthy process to go through. I’ve needed the time since May to process what I’m only realizing now was A LOT that took place in the last four years of my life #OntheRoad #Commuting #NewBaby #Motherhood #MaternityLeave #LIFE

After watching this video and hearing of the notion of ‘life’s changing of the seasons’ from a fellow #GirlBoss,  it made me realize that I too, am going through a changing of the seasons in my own life. I am putting to rest, four years of my life in politics and a career I loved. Anytime I become nostalgic, I think of people like the Minister I served, who has known nothing else than serving people in a public service capacity for 30+ years.

The best part is that I am welcoming this changing of the seasons with open arms in a way I’ve never before. I really think that is why we all love being Canadian, because one of the perks is we know each year we get 4 seasons guaranteed – with each season promising something different and new for us. In life though, we don’t necessarily expect our life to change that often as the seasons come and go. But I’m learning more and more that it is in fact, a healthy process to ‘change. To adapt. To come to terms with the old and look forward to the new, all while being the same person I was before. It really is a transformational experience – this whole being unemployed thing. (And yes, when you’re a political staffer and lose an election, you do in fact also lose your job). Its a scary yet exciting feeling knowing I am the captain of my own ship, the creator of my destiny. Wherever I want to go, I can go. (I feel like I sound like a mix between Dr. Seuss or Tony Robbins, ha!)

I’m going to share a whole separate post on my experience #onthecampaigntrail. I shared a lot of my journey on Twitter and Instagram for the month I lived away from my family but the experience warrants its own post. It was an incredible experience of hustling NON-STOP. And while we didn’t achieve the outcome we set out to accomplish, I know that we did everything possible and the team I worked with was nothing short of amazing.

Here’s to the journey ahead on the road less traveled, as I experience this changing of life’s seasons. I hope you too come along and share in this journey with me.

Tuesday Thoughts

• Career, Lifestyle

Well hello, there!

I’ve wanted to blog for a few weeks’ now but never knew where to start. Isn’t that something we all struggle with? Where to begin? What to do first? What to stick with? What to love the most? What to get rid of and leave behind? So much has been going on as of late, its hard to know where to start and what to share.

Springtime

There is something about this spring that has awaken me to so many new things. New things about the world around me, about people, but most importantly, about myself. The new greenery and flowers blooming, even the fresh smell of spring has awoken me in a different way than the last few years. I’ve happily welcomed this.

Motherhood/Back to Work #onthecampaigntrail

Its an overwhelming bittersweet time for me personally right now. I’m transitioning from my year off on maternity leave, entering back into not only the workforce, but the campaign trail. Ontario’s provincial election is 23 days away on June 7th. When I began working 4 years ago in politics at Queen’s Park, I knew this election time would come eventually, I just didn’t think it would come this fast. Much like my time with Blake. Where did this past year really go?

Because of the transition heading back to work, it has meant closing the book on being a stay-at home mom for the past year. It has meant starting a new chapter of watching Blake transition to day care. I’m also preparing to move back home to Peterborough for a few week’s while I work #onthecampaigntrail. I promise to blog about this exciting adventure in a separate post.

What the last few weeks has taught me is about sacrifice. Loving what you do for a living, while you have to watch what you’ve did for the past year fade into the sunset. Knowing that while it is hard to watch your child grow up, this is what life is all about.

I’ve been trying to soak up as many friend hangouts, family catch up’s, sunsets on the dock and coffee shop visits before reality sets in next week when I officially go back to work.

I love me some routine

I’ve enjoyed setting up a productive routine for the past little while, knowing full-well that, that routine is going straight out the window now that the campaign has started. If there is something I have learned about myself, its that while I love new things and discovering the unknown, I thrive on routine. Don’t we all as human beings? I’ve learned this the most from watching Blake. He loves meeting new people, taking in new things, not going to bed on time once and a while, but he pays for it a few days later. He sleeps better, eats better and you can tell he’s just an overall more happier baby when he’s in his routine. This is us as adults too, we just don’t like to admit it.

Learning Overload 

I’ve been the type of person that has 100 tabs open in my browser; articles saved to read; and so many random notes about motivational TED talks written down in my notebook but it hasn’t been until recently that I’ve wondered… is it too much? I’m not saying I want to stop learning but at some point, is it too much? If I want to speed up in the areas of my life I want to succeed it, does it mean I have to slow down in other areas of my life that don’t allow me to grow? If anything, Blake has been the greatest reminder for me to slow down.

[Photo Source]

7 Ways to Manage Your Digital Footprint

• Career, Lifestyle, Social Media

If you visit here often or we follow each other on social media, you would have noticed some changes last fall to my photography and branding.

It was just some simple, subtle, yet positive changes that helped to spice things up around here and on my social platforms. Hello, new headshot! 😛 

Its like when I re-arrange furniture in my house when the seasons change, it is the simplest thing to do and the BEST feeling when its done. In the social world, you really always have to be changing it up to keep fresh, continue to evolve and be noticed as you and your brand grow and evolve.

The intended change was good because it made me realize how you have to take continued stock or inventory of your digital footprint. Simply put, you have to keep track of all your social profiles. Sounds easy but it isn’t.

Even if you’re not rebranding, having all of your passwords and log-in information in one place is a good place to start. This made things SO much easier for me when I went to do my rebrand and proudly post my new headshot across all my social platforms last fall.

This blog post can serve both individuals or even businesses and social/digital managers that manage their company’s corporate communications and brands. Here are 7 things I learned last fall with my rebrand for how you too, can easily manage your digital footprint at any point in time.

7 Ways to Manage Your Digital Footprint

  1. Create and maintain a locked password document (that requires a password to get into the document). This should contain all of your social media platform passwords. This is an easy way to keep organized, period.
  2. Establish and set your brand guideline. This will ensure you execute your brand with consistent colours, fonts and look/feel across all social platforms you use. It is best to create a mood board and then a brand board to always refer back too. I’ve provided my latest rebrand branding board below for your reference 🙂
  3. Once you’ve set your ‘look and feel’, hire a professional photographer to capture your brand – it’s a wise investment and some of the best money you will spend!
  4. Have a consistent logo/photo/headshot across all of your social platforms.
  5. When/if you decide to change your logo/photo/headshot, take the time to update your bio and descriptions with the same consistent wording and put this across all of your platforms.
  6. Update your website or your blog at the same time to reflect any of these new changes and introduce your new rebrand.
  7. Review your analytics on each of your social platforms and website/blog to determine what platforms are working best for you. When you rebrand, its a perfect time to add new platforms, change the function of existing platforms or decide altogether to stop using certain social platforms if you find you’re not getting the ROI for the value you’re putting in. Your followers on each of your social platforms will tell you a lot about what they consume from your brand.

If you have questions about your own social media profiles, need help in rebranding or want to know more about the analytics behind your social platforms,let’s get in touch!

Saturday Morning Inspiration

• Inspiration

Happy sunny, Saturday friends! That’s if you’re in Ontario I guess but if you’re like me, you are SO freakin’ happy it is sunny and warm. This delayed Spring has been so hard to deal with but I think it is safe to say that Spring may finally be here to stay.

Before I spend the rest of the day outside enjoying this fresh air, I had some creative juice to get out this morning. So to my computer I went to write…

I don’t know about you, but I always need to be in a creative mood to write. We all need something to stimulate us. And while I’ve been bad here on the ol’ blog of only blogging when that creative spirit is in full force, I’m continually reminded of this message:

Writing is like a muscle, you must work at it to get stronger.

One thing I’ve tried to do in the last little while is create habits around fostering creativity especially around my writing deadlines. For anyone who designs, wordsmiths, brainstorms or works in the creative/marketing/communications field, we all know that being in a creative mood helps to make the words and ideas flow easier. Or a glass of wine or rye always helps too 😉

And of course when deadlines are impending, that is when creativity usually decides to take a hike.

That’s when habits come in to handy.

One of these habits I’ve been trying lately is creating ‘mood boards’ to help me visually get into the creative spirit. Sourcing photos from fellow bloggers, things I find online or social and capturing my own photos has certainly helped me at referring back to these mood boards whenever I’m in a rut and need inspiration. You could also call these vision boards. Here is an example below of the cottage vision board I created when I knew I’d be tasked with the interior design for our little cotty 🙂

I had mentioned this idea of mood boards/vision boards to a colleague a while ago and she loved this idea and asked that I share an example here on the blog. So voila, here is a spring mood board above I created just this week that may help inspire you as well, like it has for me this morning.

Let’s be serious though, just waking up to this sun and warmer temps this morning was enough inspiration itself. Thank you Spring for making your very late entrance to the party, regardless, we are so happy to see you!

{tulips/robins eggs/split leaf philodendron/coffee/wisdom begins in wonder}

The Power of Unity Through Social Media

• Communication, Social Media

I’ve been finding this post hard to write. For someone who wordsmiths for a living, I found the words hard to come by – to properly formulate thought into sentences. It reminded me though that in times of crisis, sometimes all we have is our words.

Thirteen days ago, we witnessed anyone’s worst nightmare. The tragic bus accident that resulted in the death of 16 people who were part of the Humboldt Broncos hockey organization. It is something that no family, friend, team, community or country should ever have to experience. They were a team of passionate individuals on a bus travelling together to play hockey, the sport they love. Its a sport that our country loves – a sport that is ingrained in our cultural fabric as Canadians.

As things unfolded that night as I watched on social media and in the days following, our country came together, united, to help a small Saskatchewan town mourn at an unimaginable time. It really was incredible to watch as everyone dropped what they were doing, to mourn together. It didn’t matter who you were or where you lived, no matter where we were across Canada, we mourned and showed our support together in any way possible. Because of the physical distance, a lot of that was done through social media.

It dawned on me that Monday morning after, as I walked past the local Canada Post office that had their hockey stick taped to the window in support of the Broncos, just how powerful social media really was in this time of grief.

I use social media on a daily basis and for work, but never before had I witnessed something like this on social media that brought us together in the way this did. Social media really played a crucial role in how information was not only shared, but how it brought people together. Here are just a few incredible examples of just how powerful social media has been:

  • Watching the initial updates from people posting about the accident late that Friday night, Twitter seemed to be the platform as to how parents, friends and organizations were initially communicating about the accident.
  • Once news began to break about the horrific accident, social media was where people began to mourn publicly and share their memories of the people who had passed.
  • It was how information was being shared publicly for those who needed to seek mental health assistance to cope with the tragedy.
  • The Go Fund Me page, that has now surpassed $13 million, was created and it became the place that people could go too to help provide financial support, which so many people have did.
  • People registering for organ donation spiked after one of the players, Logan Boulet gave the incredible gift of life through his organ donation. This was shared throughout social media and it reminded all of us to consider organ donation {If you would like to check if you’re an organ donor or to register, you can visit beadonor.ca. I just checked the other day and had thankfully already signed up as an organ donor}
  • Those from near and afar, from all around the world, put out hockey sticks on their porches in solidarity to pay tribute to those lost in the accident and pictures were shared using the hashtag #SticksOutforHumboldt
  • Last Thursday on April 12th, everyone across the country wore their hockey jersey using the hashtag #JerseysforHumboldt which was documented across social media. Even Drake wore his Broncos jersey at the Raptors playoff game.
  • And social media is how the team is honouring and remembering its loved ones who were tragically lost. A website has now also been created and shared online to honour their memories.

In an unimaginable time like this, I couldn’t be more proud to be Canadian. I also couldn’t be more grateful for social media and the positivity that was harnessed throughout social media platforms to bring us altogether, united as a country at a time like this. It truly is incredible how powerful our words have been and how they have been used on social media to bring us together. Humboldt, we are with you!

#HumboldtStrong