wingspouse.com

When do you have your most creative moments? At night? While you’re running the treadmill? I have always been most creative when I first wake up. My husband solves problems in the shower. The other morning, the two creative places converged. I was standing in the shower — only half awake — when I looked over at the Aqua Notepad we keep in the shower. Mark and I write each other love notes in the morning, and lately it’s been getting pretty boring. I decided it was time to be creative.

I thought about writing a poem (boring), briefly considered writing a jingle (corny), and then it hit me. I remembered chuckling the day before when someone posted “I don’t know what Oh puh-leese means.” My creative juices were flowing. I took the pad and wrote:

aisle of euphoria fur

I was so proud of myself, I could hardly wait for Mark to say something. That day went by, and then another, and Mark said nothing. The next morning, he had torn off the top pages and started a new “I love you” note. How could he not even ask what my note said?

I asked him about it that night and he said he thought it was garbage and threw it away. I went into the trash, got it out, and said, “read it.” He looked at it intently. “No, read it out loud,” I insisted. He responded with, “aisle of euphoria fur.” He shrugged his shoulders. I started laughing. He said it again with a puzzled look. I repeated the saying back to him … He finally understood. My creativity was finally appreciated and I could sleep well.

Who would have thought I would be back here posting that my life as a wingspouse has gone full-circle and THEN SOME! Some of you know that my spouse left healthcare administration shortly after I started this blog and that wingspouse.com was really my hindsight realizations of what made our career and marriage successful. This blog resulted in exposure and events that lead to me forming BrowneKnows Social Media where I have enjoyed a new career in social media. It has been wonderful having my husband appreciate the contributions I made to his career and turn his attention to doing the same for me. Without him, I would not have accomplished all that I have.

What you probably don’t know is that my husband is returning to health care administration. Health Care consulting has allowed him to share his talents with others all over the country, but there was a cost. He was gone more than not. His new position is an opportunity for him to focus his talents on one organization while enjoying more time at home AND an opportunity for me to focus more on my business.

We are so excited to take the next step in both of our careers, upholding our commitment to each other and to our mutual success. I look forward to sharing the next chapter with you all.

Children aren’t the only ones who like to hear a good story. In fact, adults like to know the story behind almost everything that affects them. It’s a very adult way to get satisfaction of the why questions we never stop wanting to ask.

My husband frequently comes home excited about a story one of the shareholders told, because it brought insight into the motivation behind a company decision while also revealing a delightfully personal side of a powerful shareholder. These stories build respect and trust. They raise awareness of the seemingly insignificant actions that are not so insignificant at all.

If a leader is struggling with getting employees to buy into a procedure or mindset that is important to the company, perhaps it is time to uncover the story behind this priority. When a good story is told, people want to repeat it and then the message takes on a life of its own.

I need some advice!

I appreciate the people my husband works for, and I want to give a thoughtful gift for Christmas. I don’t want to start any obligatory gift giving, so I want it to be thoughtful without being serious. I thought I had come up with the perfect gift, but now I’m second-guessing myself after my husband called it stupid.

My husband does his best brainstorming in the shower. He takes these incredibly long showers standing under the water and when he finally comes out, he has all these great ideas to start his day. I thought some of his partners might do the same thing. They are all big thinkers (executive/consultant-types) who solve other people’s problems. So, I ordered these aquanotes, a notepad and pencil that works in the shower.

My husband thinks it is silly and wants me to forget it. What do you think? I want to deliver these today, so please give me some feedback!

I finally bit the bullet and started migrating all my blogs onto one server. I didn’t really understand what that meant until now, but everytime I called my domain folks they told me that’s what I should do. Well, I waited for a time when I could afford to put some attention to doing it and that time was last week.

It’s not as easy as one would think. I thought I had a backup plan for everything, but, the best laid plans… you know the rest. So here I am, slowly fixing links and attempting to follow directions doing some web stuff I’m not really qualified to do, and hoping for the best. As you can see, my old stylesheet hasn’t been brought over yet and the hotel where I am currently staying has really bad internet reception (so I’m not able to use my FileZilla).

We don’t always get to control what comes our way, but the skill is in how we handle it. Right? So, I just decided to post what is going on with my site and hope you forgive me and come back again later when it is all fixed. I have also decided to chalk this up to a learning experience. I learned that I have a lot to learn. Some experts say that’s a first step in becoming a better leader. If I were in leadership, I’d keep that one to myself!