Making the most of a new normal.

It’s a pretty weird world we’re living in right now. I think it makes sense that just about everybody in this industry is breaking from their strategy a little. This blog has been “wedding” focused for so long now. It’s been the place we tell our clients stories and talk about their joy and their adventures and yet in the last month or so our industry has been a little bit upended. The world today is like one giant opinion piece from your favorite junk newspaper and though I’m not totally sure how we got here I do know a few things. 1. We’re going to make it through this, as a country, as a society, and as humans and 2. For as important as marketing strategy can be, now is the time to be flexible and authentic. So as we go into week two or three or whatever this is of social distancing I wanted to blog a little bit about life and what’s been going on. 

I think everybody can agree the last few weeks have been pretty stressful. Trying to learn how to homeschool, daycare, work from home, cook, clean, all while seeing our April and May wedding schedules reschedule and our business’s income take a pretty serious shift overnight has been a lot to maneuver. The first few days were all just survival, sending emails to clients, trying to help around the house, just trying to keep a smile on. Fast forward a few weeks though and I feel like we’re starting to get good at this. I’m fully confident that our company will be ok through all of these shifts, trying to drum up portrait shoots, seniors, and families during the enormous gap between weddings to help supplement our income, designing albums and selling prints, working with companies on social media content all is helping but yesterday to be honest we just needed a break. 

All the cooking, cleaning, and family time was just kind of feeling like a lot. And for as focused as I have been on myself, my company, my family, and my industry it kind of occurred to me that I’m really not going through any of this alone. In fact the companies around us, the businesses we love, the restaurants we adore, the coffee shops and hangouts all are trying to figure out how to survive social distancing. It’s a scary world we’ve been asked to live in for awhile for the greater good and with the exception of a few noisy negative voices people seem to be really taking it in stride. So last night we needed a date night. When Melissa and I “date” it’s almost always with our boys. We love time together but truth be told with my travel and work schedule we usually bring the boys just because time as a family is so precious. Last night would have been the perfect night for us to just sneak out, spend a little money on dinner and a glass of wine, and relax. No clean up, no prep, just time together and yet - that’s not really possible right now. 

FALSE. Freds Hickory Inn is one of our favorite places in NWA anyway. (It was one of our first dates actually). It’s a restaurant I’ve shot content for, helped redesign branding and web design after a fire nearly shut them down for good a few years ago, and it just plain and simple has some of the best food in our area. We love the owners, we love the vibe but perhaps most of all, we love the meat. We pivoted last night, changed our perspective a little bit, and called Freds. About 30 minutes later we were eating our favorite foods, at home. It totally felt like date night. It was delicious and the wine was amazing too and it gave us a chance to support friends. 

Here’s my point. We’re all struggling right now. Everybody has seen their retirement account shrink. Everybody in middle America is stressed about the financial implications of this thing. Everybody on the coast is being hit with the very real threat of the health implications of this thing. Eventually I think we will all feel both and yet as we stay at home day after day it’s so easy to swing from one emotional high too low and internalize it all. More Facetime, more creative ideas, more shopping with local companies, more hand washing, and more take out are the solution. For now, consider your neighbors, you local companies, and your photographers as available. Call - check in - and schedule, order, invest. We’re all happy to help! And then, schedule a date night around the dining room table. Business as usual won’t be business as usual for some time - but that doesn’t mean we can’t have a little fun with the new normal until the old one comes back.