Big swings or little blips

In romance novels and movies, there’s a thing called “The Grand Gesture,” where one person concocts an elaborate plan, a last-ditch effort, to declare their love to the other person. This makes for great entertainment, but it’s a little unrealistic. But truly, shoutout to those who can gather friends and family into a surprise coordinated dance that results in a marriage proposal.

For an actual relationship to succeed, both parties need to recognize and respond to “relationship bids,” which are the small moments that make up your everyday lives. Holding out your hand to be held, asking for help in opening a jar, or listening to how a coworker wronged them are all examples of a relationship bid. 

So why am I talking about grand gestures and relationship bids? Don’t worry, I’m not turning this newsletter into a relationship advice column. There’s this thought in business that you make little changes that eventually add up to a big one. But there’s also the whole “go big or go home” attitude. Both have their place, and it takes experience, a sense of humor, an okay-ness with failure, and an overall “try” attitude to figure out which one is necessary. The grand gesture is more successful if those relationship bids have been attended to.

THAT SAID, it can be very easy to fall into the trap of making tiny changes only you can see. These might create more work for you in the long term (which stinks) and not even affect your business from the outside (even stinkier). Worst of all, you may never reach the big change (the stinkiest of them all).

I changed my free newsletter format recently in a drastic way, because the little changes I made weren’t doing it for me. I thought maybe a big swing of change would be the move that made the impact for me. So far, I’ve enjoyed assembling the various parts in a magazine-like format. It has been challenging and exciting, both in a good way. 

My biggest blocker is justifying the time spent on it versus the time spent on other uses that could lead to paid work. In terms of breaking even on tech costs, I am three paid subscriptions away from it, so that’s my current goal. 

I’m around 80% sure on keeping this format going. Hopefully, by the following newsletter issue in two weeks, there will be more permanent language and changes (my about pages and other newsletter language have not been edited yet). 

Anyway, if you’re looking for a sign to make that big swing change, this is it. Hold your breath and hit the launch button.