To Tell You The Truth
Let's talk about what's happening in marketing right now.
You may have recently found yourself exposed to germs — sorry, messaging — like…
"This is a great time to hunker down."
"Your [insert talent here] is more important than ever before."
"And they rested..."
"We must keep selling." (I agree.)
Truth be told, I feel like COVID-19 has completed fogged up my brain...
And it's hard to really, truly focus on anything with 100% of my energy.
All this messaging? It's starting to freak. Me. Out.
As a result, I'm noticing everything and absorbing nothing.
I’m refreshing my news feed every 2.1 milliseconds.
I’m starting to notice very minor details about our provincial health officer's hair when I watch her daily updates.
I can't scroll Instagram without notifications competing to tell me which one of the many fitness studios I follow is going live with new workouts. (The number of studios I follow is not at all correlated to the amount of exercising I do in real life. This realization is disappointing.)
These are my first world problems, y'all.
Here's where I'm meant to give *you* something useful, right?
Hate to break it to ya, but --
I have no free training to show you my top 10 ways to work from home and not go nutty (there’s plenty of blogs out there competing for that SEO ranking).
I don’t have gold nuggets of info about how to make it through this time if your clients have put the brakes on your projects (it’s happening to me, too) or your business is going under.
Let’s be real — none of us know what we’re doing, when this is going to end or what happens next.
But after being inspired by a very vulnerable post shared by my favorite copywriters, Laura Belgray, thoroughly enjoying a five-minute fast-write exercise at my conference last week...
I thought giving this fast-write thing a whirl again might help work through all this wackiness a teeny-tiny bit — and that’s all I can offer you right now.
So if you're feeling as scattered and weird as I am...
I picked a new writing prompt to get all this mind garbage out right now, for you and me.
(Except I cheated, because my five-minute timer didn’t really go off properly and when I stopped, 10 minutes had passed. Oops.)
(I have since made edits and added a few new lines.)
And you know what?
The world didn't change in those 10 minutes, but it felt like I got to turn the volume down on all my endless mind chatter…
Which feels like a first step towards feeling a little bit more normal right now.
If writing stuff out supports you sometimes — I *think* you might feel the same after trying it, too.
Down to give it a go?
The prompt is: “To tell you the truth….”
All you have to do is write whatever flows immediately to your brain, nonstop, for five minutes by using this prompt to begin.
While I continue to resist at-home workouts, I like to think this is one for the brain. Shake it all out!
I hope that if you've got brain fog too right now, this will help clear it by at least 0.45%.
I believe there’s some relief that comes when we name and share our fears, right?
And leading by example — here’s every single honest thought that’s been running through my head over the last week, written in 10 minutes.
To Tell You The Truth
A 10-minute fast write
To tell you the truth, I’m terrified of what’s to come next.
To tell you the truth, I grew up feeling safe and was suddenly plunged into uncertainty when I least expected it — and this gives me anxiety.
To tell you the truth, I think I’m using too many Lysol wipes and that I’m not counting 20 seconds properly when I wash my hands.
To tell you the truth, every time I check my email I cringe because I worry that it might be a client canceling another project.
To tell you the truth, I feel guilty. Guilty that I don’t have kids to worry about running around my apartment, pitter-pattering and making me go nuts. Guilty that I’m not *so* affected. Guilty that I still have a running business and a roof over my head and no mortgage.
To tell you the truth, I am one of the lucky ones. I always believed that being an online entrepreneur would be a good “backup plan”, but I never expected it would be a cushion to fall back on in the midst of a pandemic.
To tell you the truth, I want more salty snacks.
To tell you the truth, I don’t know how to help without feeling like I’m contributing to a noisy world of with a fresh abundance of free trainings.
To tell you the truth, that also feels selfish because I know I have a lot to give that people might need right now.
To tell you the truth, I know I’ll be okay. But I know so many who will be hurting for months — maybe years to come — and that makes me feel helpless.
To tell you the truth, I hate working out but I really wanna go dancing with my friends and listen to old-school R&B together.
To tell you the truth, I probably shouldn’t have gone to a conference a week ago but I love my copywriter bubble of pals so much that it’ll all be worth it.
To tell you the truth, I’ve never had so many friends hop on FaceTime to check on me before.
To tell you the truth, I think about how many germs hang out on my iPhone everyday and if I’m ever cleaning it enough. And my laptop. Oh, and my keys.
To tell you the truth, I never realized how hard it is to not touch your face all day long.
To tell you the truth, I hope it means my skin will be so dang dewy when I’m done self-isolating.
To tell you the truth, being an introverted entrepreneur means I’ve basically been training for this moment my whole life.
To tell you the truth, I can’t handle one more post saying “your gift is more important than ever before” because it should always feel important.
To tell you the truth, I don’t really know my neighbors but I love eavesdropping on their cross-balcony conversations right now. The dude above me was just saying, “maybe nature is telling us to take a break, ya know?”
To tell you the truth, I’m witnessing a beautiful, digital congregation of global solidarity that makes my heart swell.
To tell you the truth, I’m in awe of female leaders reframing the impact on their small businesses with positivity, even when their hearts are breaking.
To tell you the truth, I’m thinking I got lucky to be married just in time, when I know so many couples who don’t know what to do now or the wedding photographers I adore who are suddenly out of work.
To tell you the truth, watching videos of dolphins swirling on the shores in Camogli makes me cry at their evident joy that we’re not messing with their space.
To tell you the truth, seeing the environment reclaiming her space makes me smile from ear to ear.
To tell you the truth, I wish we didn’t have to wait for a pandemic to actually see what’s inside the canal water in Venice. SO many fishies!
To tell you the truth, I am burned out and my body has decided to give in and do… Nothing.
To tell you the truth, it seems like our culture wants to take any opportunity to pause as an opportunity to work harder.
To tell you the truth, I believe we’re all overdue for a long, long nap.
To tell you the truth, we have a good supply of bamboo toilet paper (it’s amazing) and I guess that makes us one of the lucky ones.
To tell you the truth, I lasted two years in a “9-5” before I realized working from home was The Dream, and it still is.
To tell you the truth, my dog is pretty darn happy to have *both* his humans constantly lavishing him with treats and cuddles all day long. He’s rating 10/10 on his performance review this quarter.
To tell you the truth, I freak out every time I forget to use my elbow to open a door and use my hands instead.
To tell you the truth, I really love grocery shopping. Until it was chaos on Monday morning at 8am, which is usually My Secret Time To Shop In Peace.
To tell you the truth, I have no idea what to do with cans of pinto beans and kidney beans and why can’t I find any chickpeas? I guess it *is* a good time to make hummus…
To tell you the truth, it’s incredible to see how many businesses are problem-solving creatively. I’m very into contactless food delivery.
To tell you the truth, it’s terrifying to realize how much of our lives depend on coming together.
To tell you the truth, it’s surprising to know that when we say our generation is so disconnected, it’s really not.
To tell you the truth, I’m waiting to give my besties and my mama a tight hug when this is all over and it will feel so good.
To tell you the truth, I wish we didn’t have to wait for a disaster to reconnect and reunite.
To tell you the truth, I want to write a book, create a program, write poetry, hike the mountains, and do all the things during this time — but I can’t seem to do it.
To tell you the truth, I’ve started sleeping in more and I’m hungry All. The. Time.
To tell you the truth, I want to use this time to reclaim my rituals but my brain feels too cluttered with graphs telling me how to flatten the curve.
To tell you the truth, I’m addicted to learning more but feel selfish when I want to switch it all off.
To tell you the truth, I don’t know what’s going to happen.
To tell you the truth, this is a humbling experience for all of us.
To tell you the truth, everything is changing but everyone is learning.
To tell you the truth, I believe we’ll get through this.
Now, your turn…
If you feel inspired to share, too:
Start your response with “To tell you the truth…” in the comments below and see what flows for five (or 10!) minutes.
Journal it out and hopefully, it’ll help you declutter your mind.
I can’t wait to see what you share.