It’s been stop-start-continue for businesses navigating this every changing year! From surviving lockdown one and now two, Melbourne superstar boss and social media champion Cherie from The Digital Picnic joins us for a debrief and a deep breath on Rising up and Staying Home!

Cherie’s positive, must-do attitude is truly inspirational, keeping her team together and her community close, The Digital Picnic has continued to go from strength to strength. Read on for tips for working from home and thoughts on being agile and learning to forgive yourself and others! We could all do with a bit of that ✨

The Digital Picnic offers social media workshops and digital media training to individuals, small business owners and corporate teams who want to become more social savvy. Get cracking and check out their amazing range of serves here.

2020 has been a challenging experience for everyone so far! And now in the midst of Lockdown 2 in Melbourne, what’s kept you focused, inspired and productive?

LAWDY, has it ever been challenging! ha!

For me? Committing to focus and productivity has meant telling myself that it’s ok to not be those things some days within this climate. I’m not a home school’n kinda parent [and would never have signed up to this by choice, ha!], but here we all are … juggling company ownership like we don’t have children, and home schooling those same children like we don’t have work.

Once I “ forgave” myself for not being able to “keep up”, it gave me the exhale feeling to remind myself of the all-important: this is a one in one hundred year event, and I’m navigating it the very best that I can with the limited resources that I have [i.e we leaned into using a private Nanny during stage 3 restrictions, but when stage 4 happened? That became illegal, so my husband and I looked at each other / massaged our pulsating temples, and just went “all in” as a duo, ha!

Limited resources. Best I can. Repeat multiple times daily 😉

Once I “ forgave” myself for not being able to “keep up”, it gave me the exhale feeling to remind myself of the all-important: this is a one in one hundred year event, and I’m navigating it the very best that I can with the limited resources that I have

What is your top working from home tips?

Once I took myself off Slack twice per week, I reduced the hours I clocked in a week by 5-10 hours per week [yes. You read right, lol!].

So for me, I’ve had to ban myself from our internal comms platform x2 days per week. Reason being? … I read everything. And a large chunk of what I read doesn’t have a lot to do with my daily role, so it’s wasted hours [yep. Hours], and all because my team primarily communicates via Slack now [due to our CV-19 WFH status].

Once I took myself off Slack twice per week, I reduced the hours I clocked in a week by 5-10 hours per week [yes. You read right, lol!].

As for my team? We’re a people-over-profit, human-centric, human-celebratin’ kinda workplace, so productivity has always [for us] been a naturally occurring event pre-COVID times [and even now, i.e throughout COVID times].

When you give the way my company gives? … they give back to you tenfold, and we see that via the level of commitment and productivity [yep. Even during a global pandemic].

When you give the way my company gives? … they give back to you tenfold, and we see that via the level of commitment and productivity [yep. Even during a global pandemic].

We’re the luckiest.

Where have you made meaningful changes within your business and future trajectory?

I think [possibly like everyone] we’ve come to realise that flexibility is significantly more possible than we ever thought it was before [and flexibility was something we used to think we were nailing].

Once this is all over? … I can’t wait to continue with the significant improvements we’ve made to our company culture via the flexible work we’ve been able to offer during the pandemic [long should this live in work environments well after we’ve all survived the #yearofthebat, right? Ha!].

What are you currently reading, watching or listening to?

At the moment? I’m reading ’the Smart but Scattered Guide to Success’, because my workplace is an incredibly neurodiverse once [and has attracted some outstanding candidates who win at a lot, but executive functioning is the challenge].

To understand those challenges [they’re with me, too], I purchased this book and honestly? Even if you don’t battle executive functioning issues, you should genuinely seriously read this so that you can empathise with those who do / subsequently be more accommodating to those challenges. #knowbetterbebetter, right?

What are some words of advice you have for small businesses trying to survive and thrive this season?

For me? I’m taking it day by day. Patting my own back wherever possible. Going gently on myself. Asking [and demanding, ha!] more help from my partner. Not being a martyr. Forgiving myself, and forgiving others even more.

For me? I’m taking it day by day. Patting my own back wherever possible. Going gently on myself.

Oh, and I’m putting myself to bed when the kids go to bed [8-8.30pm] twice per week. #seniorcitizen 😉

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