Category: storytelling

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What I’ve learned from being a PTFA mum

PTFA MumIt’s time that I came out of the closet. I’m one of ‘those’ Mums. The ones they warn you about when your child is starting school. I’m the person you’re encouraged to actively avoid in the playground. I’m the chair of the PTFA at my sons’ school. Before either of my kids started school I wouldn’t have had myself down as a PTFA person at all, even though my Mum volunteered at every school fair when I was the same age. I was invited to a meeting to write an article for the local magazine about the latest fundraising project and found myself inspired by everyone’s enthusiasm. I’m stepping down next term and my last event is done and dusted. I found myself wondering (not for the first time) why I took it on in the first place and what I’ve learned. Here’s what I came up with.

Volunteering matters

In the two and a half years that I’ve been involved I’ve encountered a range of attitudes to volunteering and school fundraising generally. There are people who turn up for every meeting and volunteer whenever they can (these are usually the people with the least time to spare). Then there are are the ones who don’t understand why we bother and won’t volunteer (some of these people would also complain bitterly if there wasn’t a summer fayre). There are even those who complain about everything just for the sake of something to talk about.

I’ve come to love volunteering because we’re working towards something that benefits other people. That might sound a bit smug when we’re talking about a primary school in a relatively privileged area. There are much worthier causes. But I reckon that anything that makes school a better place to be has got to be a good thing.

Organising PTFA events

My admiration for people who organise events for a living has quadrupled over the time I’ve been doing this. It’s incredibly rewarding helping people have a good time but it totally wears you out. Getting volunteers is often the main challenge, although people generally come through in the end. I’m a realist. If you work full time I don’t expect you to help at a school disco that starts at 3. I often hear ‘I haven’t got time’. I know some people genuinely haven’t, but no-one’s really got time. A job (or a business) and a family is hard work. Yet there are still a few of us who find the time because it’s good fun and the end result is worth it. I admit that I worry about whether anyone will take over when I stop as I’d hate for it all to end.

I know that sounds like a massive whinge. I admit it’s a little one but that’s not why I’m standing down. It’s because my business has gone bonkers since I became chair and I don’t have time to organise things. I also like sleeping. On the plus side I’ve learnt a lot about organising events, which is a useful skill. It’s also made me appreciate how easy planning is when I’m the only person I have to organise.

Getting people together

One of the biggest benefits of getting involved with the PTFA is getting to know people. I’ve gained new friends and strengthened relationships with existing ones. I know lots of school related gossip (and no, I’m not telling you any of it).

If I was carrying on (I’m definitely not) I think I’d simplify the events and stop doing what people expect. I might do a Christmas film with a visit to Santa thrown in rather than a full on Christmas fayre. Maybe a summer social that doesn’t have quite so many moving parts. Something that brings people together to get to know each other and have some fun. That could be the most important bit.

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What success means to me

successI sometimes feel that I get bombarded by other people’s definitions of success. I hear all the talk about hustle and being a weekend warrior. Someone in one of the business Facebook groups I’m in even asked whether members were aiming for ‘five figures or six’ this year. I’m not saying that people shouldn’t have those goals, if it makes them happy. My only issue is when it becomes the only definition of success.

I was at my regular networking lunch earlier this month and the host asked us to think about how we defined success. The people who spoke up all talked about being healthy and happy. They thought there was no point having financial gain if you couldn’t enjoy it. It got me thinking about how I define success for myself. Here’s what I came up with.

Having it all is tough

I used to have a prestigious career. I was a solicitor on a decent salary (not fat cat levels, but still pretty good). Between us, my husband and I earned enough to cover the essentials and still have enough to treat ourselves when we fancied it. My working hours weren’t too ridiculous but I still found myself arriving home worn out and snapping at my children. I can only imagine how bad it must be for people whose working day extends into the evening.

The crunch came for me when it became clear that I was going to have to go for promotion to stay in the profession. I chose to leave. I won’t go over that here but here’s the story if you want the background. It was a scary step but mostly it felt like a massive relief.

What comes first?

To be honest, I wasn’t really thinking about how I defined success when I first started my business. We had bills to pay so I didn’t think much beyond needing to make some money. Over time I realised that I wasn’t necessarily reaching for the things that the business gurus were talking about. It wasn’t about mansions and having millions in the bank. I wanted to build a business that helped me to put the important things first.

Beyond having enough to live on I wanted time with my family. My kids are still small and I want to spend time with them. There were times when I felt as if I’d be heaped with scorn for only working during school hours or taking weekends off. Where’s the hustle in that? Over time I’ve realised that the people who’d be put off aren’t the ones I want to work with anyway.

Do I have success?

I’ve realised that I have more than one definition of success. On one level, I’m successful now. I’m (fairly) healthy and working flexibly so I can enjoy time with my family. Working this way can mean that financial success comes more slowly. For example, I’ve turned down endless invitations to networking groups because they clash with the school run so I daresay I’ve missed out on some business there. I’d like to have more regular work to make my income a bit more predictable so that’s the next level.  But even if I end up as a millionaire author one day I can’t imagine myself moving to a massive house in the middle of nowhere. I’m part of a great community where I live and consider that another form of success.

I suppose the important thing is that I’ve decided where my priorities are. When I think about financial goals they’re tied to personal ones, like a great family holiday or building my writing shed in the garden. What’s your definition of success?

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How I knew it was time to leave

time to leaveI’ve been along to a few different networking groups since I started my business. You meet an incredible range of different people with all kinds of businesses. These days I find myself speaking to a lot of people who have a job and a side hustle. Some of them want to turn the side job into the main business and others just want a bit of extra money every month. It all means that I’m hearing more and more conversations about the right time to leave a job.

It’s a tough one. Even when you’re unhappy in your work a regular, predictable income is hard to leave behind. How do you decide where the tipping point is? I made the leap so want to tell you about the things that helped me make the decision. If you’re teetering on the brink of a new business adventure I hope they help you too.

The good (but not great) job

I used to be a solicitor. After university it took me a while to get a training post, via a couple of legal secretarial jobs which introduced me to the right people. I qualified as a personal injury solicitor and got a job with a national firm. My team represented the companies that had been sued.

I really enjoyed it to begin with. When you deal with personal injury claims you hear an interesting story every time a new file comes in. I got to know lots of different people and learn about what made them tick. It’s hard for me to pinpoint when the dissatisfaction started to set in. All I know is that by the time I went on maternity leave with my first child, I’d started to wonder whether I really wanted to do this work for the rest of my life. I had ambitions to be a novelist but saw that as a long term prospect at best.

Crisis point

When I returned from my second maternity leave a lot had changed. There had been reforms in the industry which had started to affect the day to day work. I had a meeting with two of the partners who told me that I needed to think about applying for promotion as I was too senior to carry on case handling as I had been. It would have meant managing financial targets and other members of the team. I’d half expected it but somehow it was still a shock.

I went home and sobbed. There was no way I wanted to be a manager. I’d mentored people before and hated it. It was time for me to find something else.

Time to leave

On reflection, the decision to leave was pretty easy. It was a choice between leaving or going through a rigorous application process for a promotion I didn’t want. My husband and I sat down and worked out that we could survive on his salary while I built a business. Even if I’d decided to build the business on the side I would still have looked at the budget. We worked out how much we needed to cover the essentials first, then the things that weren’t essentials but which we weren’t prepared to live without. It helped me to work out what my priorities were.

I suppose that’s the one golden nugget I want you to take from this story. If you’re making the leap, be realistic. How much do you actually need to live on and are you making it yet? Are you at a point where you can’t build your business any more without cutting your hours or leaving your job altogether?

Whatever decision you make, good luck! Let me know how it goes.

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Why storytelling works in your marketing

why storytelling worksIt’s easy to think of storytelling as being something you do with your children. You can cuddle up at the end of the day and send them off to sleep with a lovely bedtime story. Mine are still young enough to watch CBeebies so we sometimes get the added bonus of a tale read by Tom Hardy. (I even know people without kids who tune in to watch him anyway!) If that’s how you think of storytelling you might be forgiven for having dismissed it as an effective marketing tool. Actually, it’s one of the most effective approaches you can take.

What are stories for?

Storytelling has been around for as long as there have been human beings. Even the earliest cave dwellers painted the walls with images of themselves and the animals they hunted. There’s a basic human need to share information. Storytelling doesn’t have to be about anything particularly exciting. You tell a story when you talk about your day or what you did at the weekend.

The reason we feel the need to share is because stories bring us together. When you meet someone new the conversation you share tells you something about them. It helps you to decide whether they’re your kind of person or not. In your personal life stories help you to forge new relationships. When you use storytelling in your marketing you can bring your customers into your world.

Know, like and trust

You’ve probably heard of the ‘know, like and trust’ factor before. Just in case you haven’t, it’s the idea that your marketing lets your customer get to know you, work out whether they like you and eventually come to trust you. It’s also known as relationship marketing. Brands of all sizes can market themselves in this way but it’s particularly important for small businesses. People find it easier to trust the big brands. They seem solid and reliable in contrast to small businesses that might be run by scammers or have shockingly poor customer service.

When you use storytelling in your marketing you can introduce the person behind the brand. You can share images to show that you’re a real person. Your content, your blog in particular, can share information that helps your customers to understand your values and how you run your business.

How to think about storytelling in marketing

Now, you might be reading this thinking ‘that’s all very well, but what stories do I tell?’ – I’m glad you asked. They won’t be the same ones you share at the school gate or when an elderly relative tells you about their ingrowing toenail. As always, it’s important to remember the first principles of marketing. Namely, your customer cares about themselves more than they care about you. When you tell a story about yourself it really needs to be a story about them. For example, when I tell you that I have to get this blog post finished because it’s nearly time to pick the kids up, I hope you’re nodding. You sympathise with my need to juggle my business and family because you probably do it too. If you share something that you have in common with your customers you help a bond begin to develop.

There are lots of different ways to do this. You can talk about how your business has developed if your customers are going through something similar. If you want to market to parents talk about your own family or why you do what you do. Your story could be a whole blog post, a picture or a couple of sentences. The opportunities are endless.

Telling your story is one of the ways you can inject some personality into your marketing. That’s one of the topics I talk about in my new eBook ‘Stop hiding your business! 5 ways to be seen online’. Sign up to my mailing list using the form below and you’ll receive your copy straight to your inbox. I won’t share your data with anyone else and you can unsubscribe at any time.