High Performing Business – Learning – Changing My Seat
Michelle LaBrosse, CCPM, PMP, PMI-ACP, RYT
If you don’t like your view, then change your seat. But how can you do that if you’re stuck in your chair?
I had a good friend who routinely said – “If you don’t like your view, change your seat.” For the past several months I’ve been reeducating myself on digital marketing, search engine optimization, everything “social” and have realized I need to “change my seat.”
I’m visiting my daughter in Alaska for the holidays. She is a dietician at the regional health care center that serves 5 small remote communities (most accessible by only water or air). We were discussing moving one of the micro green systems I donated to the town over to the senior center. She suggested I go check out their cafeteria but cautioned me to make sure I did not sit in anyone’s assigned seat. “Assigned seat?” I questioned. “Yes” she said, “they each have a seat they always sit in. Many get very upset if someone else sits in their seat.”
I was thinking to myself on the ten mile drive back from town today, “geez I never want to be that stuck I have to sit in the same chair at every meal.” It didn’t take long for the angel of humility to show up on my right shoulder whispering – “ahem, excuse me, what about your desk chair, what about the seat and area you’ve carved out for your “office” at the end of the kitchen table, what about your favorite stool at the counter, the seat at the dining room table, even your preference for the window seat, couples rows back right side on the plane?” So yeah, I’m literally stuck in my chair too. Not so easy to change my seat being stuck in my chair.
I started to contemplate too, where else I’m stuck in my chair metaphorically. At Cheetah Learning, we’re very comfortable with our way of doing things. What I did to get Cheetah ramped up 16 years ago – we called it an “Integrated Media Promotional Campaign” today, this needs to be more of an “Integrated Media Connection and Engagement Campaign”. Having a separate place for me to blog, is also a problem as the search engines now rank based on content, so not blogging under the banner of “Cheetah Learning” actually hurts the business.
So I’m moving these daily blog posts to the main Cheetah Learning blog. We are also creating a premium subscription based Cheetah Learning Blog that will include the 8 years of this blog, and a whole slew of incredible content we’ve created over the years – assessments, templates, quick reference guides for project managers, video presentations on a variety of techniques to advance your career – lots of great stuff to help people go for it, at Cheetah speed.
Both blogs are a new zone, a new format, a bit of a new voice. This is helping me move out of the chair I’ve been stuck in. I’ve developed a voice on this blog – it’s one I’ve become very comfortable in. When you blog, you blog for yourself as much as anyone else. When I write articles for various publications, I’m writing for a specific audience. But, on these new Cheetah Learning blogs, our audience is quite varied – from those who have come to know Cheetah Learning professionally, to those who I personally share more of my day to day life in the communities where I hang my hat. So, my new voice there will still be of the day to day perspectives of life, but through the lens of a seasoned business owner and entrepreneur; exploring the relevance of what I’ve learned over thirty years of business ownership and innovation. I want to share in a way that is accessible for most to further their own independent ventures.
It’s a good time to make this shift. I started Cheetah Learning 16 years ago. I am going to be running Cheetah Learning for at least another 16 years. The biz has grown and evolved over the past 16 years to where I no longer have the skill, aptitude or the desire to run many parts of it (my awesome team takes care of the majority of the day to day business). It is goodness the company has grown beyond where I need to pull the levers day to day. It’s kind of like raising children – they grow up and move to far away places (sometimes). But just like with my children, there is always a seat for me at the table. I just don’t want to be stuck in one chair anymore.
.
