Image by Perpetualplum

But the other reason is that for the first time in my life, I have an ear infection. This experience has taught me multiple new lessons in everything, including learning to work with limitations, the value of good customer service / patient care,  and the value of hearing.

First, let’s talk about learning to work with limitations.

I came down with this first ever ear infection on Friday, May 14  after fighting allergies and sinus issues since March. At first I couldn’t believe it was happening and just tried to keep going with my normal schedule.

I was scheduled for a radio show on WXCO 1230 on Saturday and I had projects to do. It was still fairly low-grade on Saturday morning so I drove to the radio station, talked over the show agenda with the host, and went on air with almost no issues.

Sunday, I still was basically telling my body I could deal with it. I went to church, struggled a bit, took a nap, and then felt well enough to help with projects around the yard, stacking wood, moving brush, and I even cut most of the lawn. I know, I should know better. I rarely call doctors but I told myself that I would call the ENT office on Monday morning if I wasn’t any better.

The value of good customer service / patient care

No Help:

I did call Monday morning and told the receptionist that I was a former patient of Dr. S. and had sinus surgery a few years back. I told her I felt that I had my first ever ear infection and would like to know the next step. She said, “Dr. S. doesn’t have any openings until Wednesday and you certainly couldn’t have any one see you today. Your best bet is to call a general practitioner or go to a walk-in.” Then she dismissed me as if I was annoying her by calling.

I called ENT because they have my records of sinus-related issues. Most antibiotics don’t work on me and I am allergic to the penicillin family and the sulfa family. I also called because I was scared. The receptionist’s response made me feel like I wasn’t worth her time and it made me angry especially when I am not one to seek medical help very often.

Friends to the Rescue

In between I was talking with Jason Alba, who has 5 children and knows ear infections well. He asked his wife for the Garlic Oil recipe they use on their children. I started using that on Tuesday. At the same time I was talking to Jim Connolly, who in addition to giving great marketing advice promotes the use of green tea. I stepped up my green tea drinking.

On Tuesday afternoon, I had promised Coy Sawyer with 89Q that I would help on-air with Sharathon and I was scheduled for 3pm. I e-mailed Coy that I was fighting this ear infection and he said they would be kind to me. It was a challenge to do that hour since by then my hearing had deteriorated and I felt like I was under water. But the good result was that Dave Olson was also there, taking the shift after mine. Dave owns Architectural Millwork and Sons of the Carpenter. He reminded me that there is a homeopathic doctor on 6th Street.

I realized I should have known that. Noelle from Herbal Awakenings has been a client for years. I have created brochures and other marketing fliers for her. I called her Wednesday morning and got immediate suggestions for care and went to her business to get her recommendations and buy products. It’s going to take awhile because she says it is one of the worst infections she has ever seen. She wrote the directions for the products she suggested:

1. 6 tablets of IN-X 4 times daily decreasing to lower amounts when I feel progress.
2. Silver Shield with Aqua Sol Technology both orally and as drops in my ears.
3. And she said I could alternate Jason’s recipe for Garlic Oil in my ears between Silver Shield.
4. And I stocked up on Green Tea: zhena’s gypsy tea: Tropical Green Tea in the Mojito Mint flavor

I checked back in with Noelle today and got more suggestions. She told me to call her at any point, including during the weekend. I asked if I needed medical intervention and she said only if I find I am getting worse not better.

The Value of Hearing and Listening

Hearing is very important for everyone and for me, it is a huge part of how I understand what my clients need. I am on the phone or in personal interviews much of my time listening and talking with my clients. Whenever things like this happen to me, I am reminded of how much I have to be thankful for on a given day. Your ears play an important role and most of the time, like water and electricity, we take them for granted.

I found the difference between the way the ENT office responded to my request for help and the way Herbal Awakenings responded to be indicative of why I am drawn to personalized service and quality customer service. I’m looking forward to getting back to normal soon. But I know that I will continually remember that I too make a lasting impression on others on how I handle my incoming calls.

I blog about customer service frequently because I believe that it is one of the most critical ingredients to business success. As a business owner, if you have someone on your front line who fails to listen to your customers, you will lose business and in today’s world, it doesn’t take much to have your unhappy customer tell thousands via Twitter, Facebook, and social media.

photo by David Barrie

When I was interviewed by Ken Bishop, the Way-Cup Show personality from 89Q, it was very first time for an interview as Julie, the career marketing communications professional and Design Resumes.

In the past, I did multiple interviews for print, radio, and television but in my prior role with Wausau Whitewater.

Ironically, I was also taught how to write effective press releases by a journalist because of Wausau Whitewater. In fact, my work with Wausau Whitewater brought me considerable notice.

Design Resumes held the contract with Wausau Whitewater. Not Julie Walraven, which makes it even funnier that during that whole time, my now 25 year old business never had a single mention in local press. The dual e-mail signatures with both Wausau Whitewater and Design Resumes didn’t make me a resource. My focus was on helping the non-profit grow and draw media attention.

Self-imposed brand confusion.

I thought that media would see me as a resource without me having to do much. But I thought wrong. I really did need to develop my own brand outside of Wausau Whitewater. I needed to network, as Julie, career marketing professional.

Lost my identity.

Oh, my Design Resumes clients provided a strong referral base and the business grew. Success story calls come frequently like the one from a client who said he was hired on the spot for a position matching his talents and heart’s desire. But as a career marketing professional, I failed to market me, creating brand confusion.

What Job seekers do wrong

• Job seekers often think that all they need is to answer an ad or post their resume on an online application and they will get the job.
• Or they blame the employer when they don’t get the job.
• Marketing a job seeker is not much different than marketing a business or product. You have to have a recognizable brand or product. And then you have to drive up demand.

I was good at finding creative ways to get people to come to Wausau to paddle on the whitewater course. I went where they were. On the boater boards, on Facebook, on e-mail lists targeted to paddlers in multiple large metropolitan areas, I used print strategies, newsletters, and direct marketing. In other words, I networked and marketed. I could have used those same strategies for me and my business.

Brand Development for Job Seekers

• Job seekers often don’t understand how important brand development (who are you?) is to their job search strategy.
• They throw out resumes to every ad they see instead of focusing on the jobs that really match their talents.
• Sometimes they don’t even stop to figure out what that talent is.

If you live this way for your whole life, tossing your job application in to everything, you will most likely be one of those unhappy employees who is stuck in a job they hate. Instead, if you think about what jobs you would really enjoy, focus on marketing yourself from that vantage point, you will end up in a career you love that you can have for as long as you want. Market pressures may intervene and you may have to change companies but if you are really doing what you love, you will be marketable.

Joy sells! Misery doesn’t! And brand confusion of not showing who you are and what you offer makes it difficult for anyone to “want” you.

If you have visited my blog before, you will know that I am a people person. I love helping others, I love positive words, I love making a difference whenever I can. Social media has let me do more of that from the comfort of my home office. Right now it is the Thanksgiving Sharathon at my favorite Christian radio station, www.89q.org. I don’t work to music very often but when I do, it is Christian radio or contemporary Christian artists. Lately, I’ve been back to turning on 89Q again.

Today listening to the Sharathon, I am hearing friends on the radio. Coy Sawyer, the General Manager, invited me to his Christian Business Leader breakfast about 2 years ago. Within the last couple of hours, I have not only heard Coy and his announcers, Ken Bishop and Matt Deane, but Dave Olson from Sons of the Carpenter and Architectural Millwork as well as Rimon Moses from RMM Solutions both of whom are in our leader breakfast group. I’m loving sharing the current challenges through Facebook and Twitter and knowing that people can pledge all over the world now through the website and better yet, people can listen all over the world now through the website.

The long story about Coy Sawyer started when he was with another station in Marshfield. I used to listen when my children were little and I mailed in a prayer request. Times were really tough back then and we had just lost both of our property management jobs on a project in Naperville, Illinois and moved back to Wausau to start over. We managed to buy a really small house and were struggling to remodel it. I just wanted people to pray that we would have work back then, a prayer I still pray. But instead, apparently Coy read my request on air and we received a $100 check from the station because some listener wanted to help.

When Coy moved to 89Q, I offered to be a business sponsor. When that was hard for us, Coy came up with a way for me to help that didn’t cost me cash. He was starting a tabloid-like newsletter that was syndicated and printed in Grand Rapids, MI but the local sections and the ads had to be created here. I learned Quark to help Coy create ads and other desktop publishing. We worked together every quarter for several years, designing ads and laying out content. I learned skills in desktop publishing that I later transferred to things I did for Wausau Whitewater and Kiwanis. Later the newsletter turned into a locally designed and printed publication done by Sun Printing but for a long time Coy was a quarterly visitor.

With all that, you can see that I have strong ties to 89Q. If you have never checked them out, go to 89Q and visit. If you are reading this during Sharathon, the pledge line is 888-638-9250, manned from 6am to 6pm CST.

On the last Wednesday of every month, I meet with a group of Christian Business Leaders to discuss things that affect our Christian witness in the workplace. The group was originally started by Coy Sawyer, from 89Q radio. We meet pretty early in the morning for breakfast at The Sixth Street Filling Station, located at 1314 North Sixth Street in Wausau.

I met the owner, Joan Schnitzler, when I’ve paid my bill and chatted a bit. Joan bought the restaurant from the original owners in March of 2008. I asked her how it felt to have just bought a new business in this economy. She said that though it is challenging, by encouraging more groups like our group to meet at the restaurant, she has been able to sustain business.

It is a smart strategy but one that many restaurants don’t go out of their way to encourage. Groups like ours of 20+ people meeting can disrupt other customers but we have found that most people still come in for coffee during our breakfast and some even stay and have their own breakfasts. Our group has an open session when we  discuss the topic at hand and respond to the questions by the leader or spin off of each other’s comments. We’ve become a very bonded group even though I didn’t know many of the participants when I started.

We all enjoy the Filling Station, in January, we had their Cinnamon Roll French Toast and it was delicious! The Filling Station has great prices, the unique french toast is only $3.79 unless you want bacon, sausage, or ham with it for $5.69. I had their 5oz Grilled Chicken Breast for $4.74 on a visit with a friend. They serve breakfast and lunch, opening at 6am on Tuesday through Sunday. I never tried their Flurries (M&M, Cookie Dough, Oreo, Snickers and more ) but I bet they would be yummy.

They make all the breads there … with my February breakfast, I had a cracked wheat roll and a sample of the carmel pecan rolls… very yummy!

The decor is really fun. It has all these very old gas station related signs and decorations. It fits the theme of Sixth Street Filling Station. Joan seems to be doing okay in this economy but I think that is because she focuses on giving great food at great prices. I’ve never gotten the Jumbo Cinnamon Rolls for $1.89 or the Jumbe Caramel Roll for $3.32 but I have watched them walk out the door. My favorite word, yummy! (Actually this has now changed, I brought home a pan full of cinnamon rolls for $10 complete with really yummy buttery frosting, and I can attest that they are the best cinnamon rolls I have ever had.) Flakey and cinnamony and with the frosting, out of this world!

If you are in the Wausau area, I think you would have fun at the Filling Station. Tell Joan I sent you!