From the Desk of Erica Statly: June 2023
June is my absolute favorite month of the year. I think it started back in grade school. June meant summer, which meant warmth, Michigan sunshine and freedom. Since then, I’ve relocated to Charleston where June means sticky air, crowded beaches and sundresses. And I love it just as much.
June Business TidBit
A goal of mine for 2023 was to implement a more robust, professional reporting structure for my clients. After all, one of the biggest pain points clients have with their marketing agencies is not understanding the return on their investment is. The challenge I presented myself with was: how do I begin implementing this without investing in any paid reporting software?
Firstly, one of my strengths is defining metrics. I never write, propose or agree to a strategy without metrics or something to measure against. These metrics are what clients pay me for. The question I’m answering is: How am I returning them their $ through my services? And then one step beyond that, How am I doubling their investment into me with my services?
From here, I build out the outline of a report. I decide what type of graphs or visuals will most clearly and succinctly depict our success or shortcomings. Here’s a couple examples of what this outline might look like:
20% increase in leads YOY: Bar graph to show last years leads vs this years
Increase brand awareness: Pie chart to show a visual breakdown of how people find their website, next to a bulleted list of tactics implemented to achieve this
From here, I schedule a couple 60min blocks to dig into the data and convert it into the proper visuals.
Finally, I combine everything into the final designed report and create a page of insights. The insights page is 50% what the client will actually care about and 100% of what they will recall from this report in the future.
If you want to try it out for yourself, reach out to me and I’ll share my Canva template for you to try.
June Lifestyle TidBit
I am a huge proponent of therapy. Therapy has been a weekly commitment for me since about 2019. I started going to therapy in high school and took a break during the busy college years. But ever since graduating college, I’ve set therapy quite high on the priority list.
A reoccurring topic is my anxious tendencies. A coping mechanism I developed somewhere along the way is over scheduling myself to the point of being so busy I don’t have a nanosecond of time to deal with my problems. We’ve been working on undoing this for over a year now. Life gave me a little nudge to help expedite the process.
Ever since April of this year, my life has been nonstop chaos. I’ve had visitors, left to travel places myself, moved apartments and ultimately have been thrown off my schedule for so long I forget what it’s like to be on a schedule. This makes me feel out of control but strangely, free. I have more space to think, be creative and also realize that life doesn’t come crashing down around me when I don’t stick to a strict calendar every second of each day.
June Wellness TidBit
In the beginning of June, I truly thought my wellness tidbit would be more materialistic. Perhaps related to routines or stress management during a move.
But honestly, the predominant wellness practice I’ve implemented in the past month is acceptance. There’s been a lot of change in my life lately: relationships, fitness, health, my literal home…leaving me feeling completely out of control. Somehow, through all of this madness, I’ve learned to accept the feeling of not knowing what’s going on. Realizing it’s okay to show up late from time to time, for plans to go off the rails and missing a workout now and then doesn’t really impact your physique.
For most people, this is probably just their everyday mindset. But for me, it’s a huge breakthrough.
That’s a wrap on June!
-e
