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The Passionate Voice

6 Lessons Learned #onthecampaigntrail

September 11, 2018 • Agriculture, Career, Communication, Inspiration, Leadership, Lifestyle, Making a Difference

When people ask what I do/did for work, a lot of people seem surprised when I told them I worked at Queen’s Park in provincial politics. I’m sure a lot of people wonder, “How the heck does someone go about getting into a job like that?” The saying ‘Luck is when preparation meets opportunity” couldn’t be more true than the last four years of my career. I was in the right place at the right time with the right skillset that was needed. And it just happened to be in politics.

I was so honoured to serve in this capacity – serve the public and my agriculture community, using my communications skills to serve a man in politics who I was extremely proud to represent in the agriculture, food and rural affairs portfolio. This pride was evident when I made the decision to move back home to Peterborough this past May/June after my maternity leave, to help in the re-election campaign of the Minister I served, Jeff Leal. And thus began my #onthecampaigntrail journey that I shared on social media.

My campaign experience (and really, my time as a political staffer) was once-in-a-lifetime, simply because of the team of people we had. I shared my journey on social media to try and show the fun, quirky side to the campaign but also share the honest hard work, long hours and realities that are faced by volunteers when working a political campaign. And ultimately, to show people a ‘behind the scenes’ of what politics/campaigns really look like so more people know there actually is a real-life ‘West Wing.’

Disclaimer: I’ve never watched the full series of West Wing to know what exactly goes on, I’ve just been told I was the equivalent of C.J. Cregg 😛

And I speak so positively about the entire experience, despite the outcome on E-day, June 7th. Which was not favourable for us. Simply put, the voters practiced their democratic right and told us what they wanted. And it wasn’t our team. Despite that, I learned so much. I had 50 lessons I shared #onthecampaigntrail but I figured that may be too many to share for one blog post, so I narrowed it down to 6 lessons I wanted to share from the campaign:

  1. Respect means everything – My campaign experience was incredible because the voters were incredible. Full stop. The people of Peterborough were respectful, kind and cordial, even if they told us they weren’t voting for us. I was amazed at how many people knew about the election, knew of the candidates and the work that had been done for their city by Jeff. It was refreshing to see a city so engaged in politics and care so much for the people serving them. And yes, I was proud to not have one door slammed in my face during the campaign #goals. But in all seriousness, the same can be said for my time spent at Queen’s Park. Being respectful to anyone and everyone, regardless of party colour or role, is a simple yet smart tactic to use not only as a staffer, but as a human being.
  2. Nothing will replace face-to-face interactions with people – As much as I love social media, there is nothing more engaging then hearing what voters had to say in person and reading their body language (especially as I approached them with the red shoes I wore door knocking!) The conversations I had with voters were simply the best. I really wish that everyone had the opportunity to door knock on a campaign at least once in their lifetime. There is really no interaction like it – when you’re trying to keep things light while you’re bringing up something that a lot of people dread talking about = politics.
  3. There is no place like home – Rediscovering the city I grew up near, was magic. Walking the streets I’ve drove down so many times growing up; learning the rich history of the city (former Canadian Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson once lived in Peterborough!); seeing the beautiful architecture, details and stories of the homes; and taking in the nature trails, waterfront and landmarks made the long hours of door knocking so enjoyable. Peterborough, you really are a beautiful city and gem to live in.
  4. If you love what you do, you won’t work a day in your life – Moving away from Blake and Andrew for three weeks wasn’t easy at first but doing the work I was doing with the team, made everything so much easier. Having the purpose and mission we had to represent a candidate that was so widely-respected made the long days bearable. I was so thankful for the technology we have so I could connect with Blake every night on FaceTime (and remind him what his mama looked like!). And an additional perk was that this was the longest time I had spent at home on the farm since before University 🙂
  5. Small things make the biggest difference – Brewing coffee with your team in the mornings; picking up a sprinkled donut at the local coffee shop to refuel when you needed the sugar rush; finding a free book that you love, in a library on the front lawn of a voter’s house; seeing your campaign ad in the local newspaper; watching a young person interview your candidate; seeing your Premier knock it out of the park in a TV debate #SorryNotSorry; taking the time to stop to celebrate Blake’s first birthday during the campaign –  small moments like these kept things light-hearted at times when I needed to be reminded most that life will go on regardless of the outcome.
  6. Your dreams are bigger than you – And finally, by far my greatest lesson learned was watching Jeff Leal, our candidate on the campaign trail.  Watching a person of such integrity and commitment work the long hours he did, all for the sole purpose of wanting to make a positive difference in his community, reignited my passion for public service. There is a reason we have people in public office to represent us. To serve us. To uphold our democracy. To try and make our communities better places to live all for our benefit. If our public servants are motivated by the right morals and act from the right place in their heart, you only want to work harder for them. Canvassing and knocking on doors with Jeff opened my eyes to how much of a difference one person can make in the lives of others. He knew everyone – all of the small details, and he genuinely cared for each and every person he visited with. I wanted to work hard for him and succeed because of him. It didn’t seem like work, it felt like an honour. At the end of the day, while he wasn’t re-elected, I am certain that everyone in Peterborough respects him. They respected what he did for the city of Peterborough and are thankful for the time he gave as their MPP for 15 years. Working for a man of integrity & commitment who betters the lives of others made the outcome hard to understand but, I would do it all again. It was an absolute honour, Jeff. Thank you for allowing me to serve on the team.

One of the most common questions I got after the election loss was “Do you at least still have a job?” And sadly, no. All 400 political staffers lost their job as well that day on June 7th. But its something I’ve come to terms with. What’s the saying? “When one door closes, another one opens.”

The lessons I learned not only on the campaign trail, but as a political staffer over the last four years will be lessons I’ll take with me personally and professionally forever. Thank you to the party members, MPP’s, fellow staffers, media, personnel, kitchen staff, ministry staff, #OntAg stakeholders and to the legislature herself. It was a time, QP. This isn’t the end, politics.

One final thought from the campaign trail that couldn’t be more true for the times we’re living in but really, a reminder for life: Lose with dignity & never stop fighting for what you believe in.

Make sure to check back this week as I have some big, exciting news to share! 

Leave a Comment Agriculture, Career, Communication, Inspiration, Leadership, Lifestyle, Making a Difference #Onthecampaigntrail, 2018, Agriculture, Blog452, Business, Campaign, Career, Christina Crowley-Arklie, City of Peterborough, Communication, Dreams, Inspiration, Jeff Leal, Leadership, Lessons Learned, Life, Making a Difference, Motherhood, Passionate Voice, People, Political Campaign, politics, Respect, Social Media, The Passionate Voice, Truth

Tuesday Thoughts

May 15, 2018 • 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]

Leave a Comment Career, Lifestyle 2018, Baby, Blog452, Business, Career, Christina Crowley-Arklie, Food for Thought, Life, Motherhood, Parenthood, Passionate Voice, Side Business, Side Hustle, Social Media, The Passionate Voice, Truth

7 Ways to Manage Your Digital Footprint

April 23, 2018 • 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!

Leave a Comment Career, Lifestyle, Social Media 2018, Agriculture, Analytics, Blog, Blog452, Blogging, Brand, Brand Board, Brand Guidelines, Branding, Brands, Business, Career, Christina Crowley-Arklie, Communication, Corporate Communications, Digital, Digital Footprint, Followers, Headshot, Marketing, Mood Board, Passionate Voice, Passwords, photography, Professionals, Rebrand, Social Media, Social Media Manager, Social Media Platforms, The Passionate Voice, Website

The Sunday 7

March 25, 2018 • Lifestyle, Travel

Oh, Sunday’s. 

1. We saw Nelly this past week. Like the rapper. Who say ‘Hot in Here.’ Yes, it was epic. Like circa 2004 epicness that made my high school-University self sing WAY too loud. It was the best $45 I’ve spent in a while. It reminded me how we need more of those random nights out with friends that turn out to be the best nights.

2. I have a day in Toronto planned for some work-related things and meet-ups.. a day in the big city sans babe is what my heart needs right now.

3. This tote has my heart swooning. I’m just wondering if it’s big enough to hold all of my stuff.. and Blake’s stuff :S

4. Now that Spring may be here (the last two weekends have been sunny and made me hopeful here in Guelph!), I’m wondering where the Instagram spring stickers are now?!! Come on #Instagram!

5. If we’re talking about Spring, a good ol’ ‘Spring clean’ of the house is necessary. I found this handy list of one item you can do each day for a month to get your place clean super helpful.

6. A place we forget to clean that we use daily? Our smartphones. I used this list to give the iphone a good clean tonight!

7. Talk about a fun-filled week, we celebrated the upcoming nuptials of my girl Mac at The Fancy Design Co with a girls night out. It was wildly fun, I wouldn’t expect anything else from our group of friends. A night out with the gals celebrating one of the best people I know was SO needed after a week of Blake being sick with a cold. We had dinner at Gilt in Kitchener and oh yum, was that menu amazing.

{Photo Source}

Leave a Comment Lifestyle, Travel 2018, Blog452, Christina Crowley-Arklie, Cleaning, Discover Ontario, Evernote, Gilt, Instagram, iPhone, Kitchener, Nelly, Passionate Voice, Smartphone, Social Media, Spring, Spring Cleaning, Sunday, Sunday 7, The Fancy Design Co, The Passionate Voice, The Sunday 7, The Sunday Seven, Toronto, Travel

Processing Random Thoughts

March 15, 2018 • Career, Lifestyle

I’ve found this week to be draining for some odd reason. I alluded to this yesterday on Instagram.

I’m not sure if its the lingering hangover from Daylight Savings time or a flurry of ideas that are sitting in my brain. Regardless, that aching feeling of wanting to get the ideas out is enervating. I shared the photo of paint splatter as a way to try and capture what I {think} my brain looks like on the inside right now. I was glad to hear from other on instagram who could relate.

And so, to find a solution, I figured I would share some of these random thoughts. The thoughts that are swirling around in my head. Expect some blog posts to come from these:

Positivity. This is the basis to the world functioning better. There can’t be enough of it in the world and I’ll admit, some days, the realist in me sets in more than the optimist. I’m not sure if research supports this (send me any papers you find if it does!!) but am I wrong in saying that millennial’s seem more positive than baby boomers (cue the tomato throwing now, I’ll duck). It is so refreshing (regardless of age) when you sit down at a table and have a meeting or conversation and sharing of ideas when it is all positive. Positivity, or the lack there of sometimes, is why I sometimes question if more millennials are not pursuing careers in the sector I work in, Agriculture. So many thoughts on these two ideas – millennials being more positive and positivity within the sector I work in and how millennials view it.

Millennials. In keeping on this same topic, I am one. A millennial. I talk about them a lot here on the ol’ blog. And they seem to be a conversation starter. Scratch that, its all people have been talking about for the last 5 years or so, since it became apparent that we as a generation weren’t going away. When people recognized that we’re going to leave a profound impact on this world and not to mention, we have surpassed baby boomers as the largest generation now. Well, at least in the US according to this article. Millennials seems to be at the forefront of many of the conversations within my social circles and network recently for some reason. Especially when it comes to career conversations. Things like the role of millenials on Boards; what millennials value that differs from baby boomers; and is the workplace ready to evolve to these values. Either way, I have lots to say from my experience (both professionally and personally) so look forward to blog posts upcoming!

Motherhood. Is it OK to feel that you want to go back to work earlier than expected once you realize your baby can now breathe, eat and sleep on his own and perhaps doesn’t need you like he use too? Blake’s crawling away from me tells me that he is going to be just fine come May (his first birthday). Also child care, why doesn’t anyone talk about the beast that is finding child care? :S

Personal Brand. Ok, one more millennial thought. It seems that every millennial has or wants too establish their own personal brand along with maintaining their role/jobs within a company in their 9 to 5 job. This can be done, but with a bit of sacrifice on the millennials part and the company depending on expectations. Where previous workers/generation were so loyal to their company’s brand, are workplaces ready for this millennial “selfishness” as I’ve heard it called? And even more, are workplaces OK with millennial’s side hustles perhaps taking the spotlight away from the work millennial’s do in their 9-5’s?!

Creativity overload. As a creative entrepreneur, how do my fellow CE’s quiet your thoughts? How do you stop, or should I say, harness, the creative ideas waterfall that can come on the most random days? Do you write everything down on paper and pen? Put it in your iPhone notebook? How do you orgnaiz the thoughts? How do you tell your brain right at bedtime to stop thinking and put the ideas to rest? Literally. I would love to hear your tips!

Productivity. I am almost done this book and it is hands down, one of the best books I’ve read in a while. An easy, simple yet thought-provoking read, it has calmed my mind as a women but also fueled my motivation to want to do better, but in a more efficient way. Grab your copy, you won’t be disappointed!

[Photo Source]

Leave a Comment Career, Lifestyle 2018, Agriculture, Baby, Baby Boomers, Blog452, Board, Branding, Business, Career, Child Care, Christina Crowley-Arklie, Communication, Corporate Social Responsibility, Creative Entrepreneur, Creativity, Entrepreneur, Food for Thought, Generational, Ideas, Job, Life, Millennials, Motherhood, Parenthood, Passionate Voice, Personal Brand, Personal Branding, Positivity, Productivity, Side Business, Side Hustle, Social Media, The Passionate Voice, Values

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