I woke up on Monday morning after 9 full days at home with my children, trying to balance work and parenting and grasping what our new reality looks like. I was starting the work week from a place of overall burnout. As I stared at my computer screen, I felt completely flummoxed. I was drowning in a constant blast of bad news, competing information, and general uncertainty about what the next few months will hold.
I couldn’t turn that off and make my brain work in the functional, confident way that I needed it to. I couldn’t trick my psyche into “business as usual.” I’ve built a job for myself based on making decisions and giving guidance, and I had some big decisions to make on Monday. I needed to guide several clients on the best next steps for their marketing strategy. But I felt completely unable to make any decisions. What solid information could I use to make hard choices? How could any of us pretend to know what’s coming next?
I had to restart. I had to physically calm myself down (side note: even if you’re not into yoga, now is a really good time to start using savasana as a reset position). And I started making calls. I reached out to people who could help me process our current reality. After an hour of talking through my options with people who know me well, I felt better.
They helped me return to simple fundamentals that are hard to remember when you’re stressed and anxious. One fundamental I keep coming back to:
Find the overlap between what your audience needs and what you can deliver.
Knowing your audience is always the most important part of communicating, but it’s even more heightened right now. Think about your audience (whether it’s employees, partners, customers, prospects, or your community). What do they need right now?
And only once you’ve considered what they need, you can ask: How could I help them get that?
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Maybe they need guidance on staying afloat in a crisis, and you’ve been there before. You could share your experience.
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Maybe they need access to information. Even if you’re not the primary source of that information, you could connect them to the information they need. You could become a curator and a connector.
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Maybe, like me on Monday, they just need someone to talk to. You could be a really great listener.
If you’re flummoxed about the next right thing, go back to the basics. How can you find the overlap between what your audience needs and what you can deliver?
