A virtual wave hello.

There are two truths I've realized about the Coronavirus pandemic:

1. Everyone feels they are dramatically, uniquely affected.
2. Everyone is right.

Every one of us is affected. No one knows exactly how much.

There is a relentless, invisible virus among us, and there is also a weird anxiety in the air.

Like one minute I'm in a positive mindset: We've Got This!

Then literally a minute later I watch that doctor's video about how fastidious you need to be when you clean your groceries... and fear and anxiety settle in.

Like suddenly I'm jumped by a Feelings Mafia that's been lurking in the shadows, waiting to pounce + mug me + empty me out.

It wears me down. Maybe you, too?

* * *

I spend a third of my year on the road, speaking at events and meeting people like you. But, as of now, I won't be on an airplane until late June.

That's disorienting in many ways, but especially creatively. I get so much inspiration and motivation from stepping outside my home bubble.

So I feel Feelings Mafia-mugged creatively, too. Frozen like a person-shaped slab of permafrost washed up prostrate on the couch, binging Schitt's Creek.

* * *

How is any of this crisis inspiring? How can we take care of our mental health? How do we stay hopeful when the Feelings Mafia is lurking just outside the frame?

Sportscasters are getting through the sports sabbatical by narrating play-by-plays of their lives or the lives of those around them: marble races, two dogs playing in the park, people crossing the street, or (my favorite) street pigeon dressage. I like the absurdity of it.

That's working for me, too: Taking an ordinary-nothing moment and playing it out to its ludicrous end. Those moments have become my daily writing prompts.

I've been doing that everywhere in the past two weeks, most publicly on Instagram Stories. You can see one on the "profound" hardship of running out of orange juice. Or how my ancient little dog lying for hours on a mat becomes a virtual yoga class with the world's least versatile yoga instructor.

 

Humor is the truth exaggerated to an absurd degree. Imagining absurd outcomes with a sense of humor does two things:

1) It reminds me that this virus isn't permanent. The profound hardships of so many of our friends and fellow humans will end. 👈 👈 👈 (That last sentence feels like a statement we shouldn't have to actually make. But some days feel endless and dire (mugged by the Feelings Mafia). Some days I crave that perspective.)

2) It keeps me sane. It reminds me that my problems are, on balance, minuscule. It keeps me creatively limber at a time when I'm feeling emotionally atrophied.

 

If you want to try my daily writing prompt, here's the framework I use:

▶️ Introduce a "real" problem.
You're out of orange juice, too.
Your kids are bored.

▶️ Elevate it to a ridiculous degree.
What if you get a repetitive stress injury from squeezing your own oranges?
What if the kids never go back to school again?

▶️ Make the "solution" as absurdly specific as possible.
What if you also had to milk your own cow? Make your own clothes?
What if you devised a curriculum around things they really need to learn: Like AP Correct Way to Load a Dishwasher? What if you expelled them from your own home school?

▶️ Frame that ridiculous solution in a modern context.
What if you sewed your own khakis for casual-office Friday?
What if you were eventually Director of Admissions for Home College University? Would you wait-list your own child for the Class of 2025?

Here's the framework:

Problem: ________________________________
Elevated problem: _________________________
Absurdly specific solution: ___________________
Framed in a modern context: _________________

Don't overthink it. Write a few sentences. Keep your good humor.

Let's stay in the light: The Feelings Mafia won't come out and mug you there.

 

 

 

The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City put its head of security in charge of the museum's social media—ostensibly as a way to keep the accounts running while the museum is closed.

But here's the surprise: Tim's voice is way more sincere and authentic than anything an agency or marketer might've dreamed up. "What we didn't anticipate was how much that voice would resonate with people during this difficult time," said Seth Spillman, the museum's chief marketing and communications director. There's an important, 10-gallon brand voice lesson embedded in Tim's story.

Free Video Template

Storyvine is offering a free video template to help you keep your customers and colleagues up-to-date and informed.

It's especially handy for any company or individual struggling to produce update videos quickly and seamlessly. [h/t David Berkowitz]

 

QUICKIES

What Marketers Can Do Right Now in the Age of Coronavirus. In the last issue I talked about the importance of Slowing Down to Speed Up (#SDSU). I ran some expanded thoughts on Slow Down over at MarketingProfs.

Really Good Email's Emergency Emails. A showcase of some of the best pandemic-related emails companies are sending out to customers and employees.

 

Win a 1:1 Tiny House Talk with me. Register for the MarketingProfs Marketing Writing Bootcamp by March 31 for a chance to win a one-on-one Tiny House Talk with me. You. Me. Abby. Zoom. Tiny House. What's not to love? Bootcamp site here. Contest details here. Terms and conditions here (including 10% lawyer-speak. You've been warned.) [Register with code ANNBFF to save $.]

 

TOOLS

Everyone's new home office (Zoom) offers a "virtual background" option for green-screen-like video backdrops. Now brands are getting in on the game to glow up your office, too. Here are three:

 

The Infatuation (the "donut halo" below is basically the best)

 

 

The AP Stylebook to Coronavirus is for anyone writing about the virus and its implications. [Most gut-wrenching entry: "death, die: Don't use euphemisms like passed on or passed away except in a direct quote."]

 

DEPARTMENT OF SHENANIGANS

 

Normally I'd share something to make us laugh here. But I'm donating this space to an important message from my friend Laura Fitton, who has been finding and indexing efforts to help healthcare workers on the front line of this virus. There's a lot the average person can do way beyond sewing masks:

 

 

Please help if you can, even by only sharing the link broadly.

 

 

 

💌 To Alyce for including my thoughts in its State of Swag 2020. Events might be postponed right now, but Alyce has ideas on how to use swag effectively now (and beyond).
💌 To Elisa Doucette for including me in her piece on writing in a time of uncertainty. (Side note: She calls me a "beautiful, talented, brilliant, powerful musk-ox." None of those things are true except maybe the musky part.)
💌 To Maggie Archibald at Foundation for including me in this list of marketers to follow.