How the Pandemic Has Changed My Behavior

As a marketer, I’ve been monitoring articles and research regarding the impact COVID-19 has had on consumer behavior. I plan to write an article based on the data, charts and trends soon, but realized that the pandemic has impacted my behavior across the board and that my own experiences may be shared by others. I felt it might be a useful exercise to evaluate how my own behavior has changed since March and what that means as a consumer, marketer and business owner.

The biggest shift in my behavior since the COVID-19 outbreak in the US has nothing to do with the pandemic or being stuck at home. Although I grew up in Seattle and was a minority at my high school, I never fully understood the depth of systemic racism until the death of George Floyd and the resulting protests. The racial injustice issue put Portland on the global stage, especially when Federal troops started abducting peaceful protestors. I realized sharing #BLM posts on social media wasn’t enough and I started taking action, which inspired the article, How You and Your Brand can make Positive Change in honor of George Floyd. I’m now more proactive and intentional in supporting black-owned businesses and non-profits, for example. If you believe all humans are created equal, I hope you have acted as well.

Home Life: Too Much of a Good Thing?

Coworkers, friend and family have consistently complained about being cooped up at home with roommates and loved ones, trying each other’s sanity. I’ve had a slightly different experience. As an entrepreneur and agency owner, travel has been a big part of my life. The work-at-home lifestyle the past few months has provided an opportunity to connect at a deeper level with my family, which I appreciate (perhaps being a minority in the household). As much as I miss business travel, I’ve enjoyed time at home and around our city with loved ones. To me, it’s all about perspective, but it may also say something about how fortunate I am to have such an amazing family.

Enough of the humble bragging. In terms of behavior changes outside of the obvious reduction in travel shopping and eating out, I’ve found I’ve developed a fear of crowds. When floating down a local river this weekend, I couldn’t help noticing an absence of masks, and not just other floaters on the river, but everyone onshore hanging out in large groups. I fear I witnessed a future hot spot and continue to wear my mask outside of my house and office with diligence. To support the restaurant community, I’ve been tipping larger, including take-out and to-go orders, which I never tipped for prior. Conversely, I’ve also been making lunch to bring into the office (we have a COVID-friendly revised schedule and layout), which cuts my costs, but I feel some guilt for not eating out near the office as frequently.

Speaking of eating, I’ve heard about “COVID-15,” alluding to the average 15 pounds gained by many stuck at-home without access to gyms or fitness associated with commuting to work. I’ve been fortunate to have a stationary bike, weights and other equipment at home for years, and added a rowing machine early in the pandemic to stay fit. With a more flexible work schedule, I’ve added 20 minutes in my daily workouts on average, while also adding 20 minutes to my nightly sleep regiment. Having a life partner with exceptional cooking skills, I’m also eating better, as we’ve had more time to shop and prep meals. Lastly, I’ve replaced brainless cable TV viewing time with reading and watching shorter late-night talk show segments on YouTube. The change in screen time allowed us to cut the cable cord and save a few bucks as well.

Work Life: More of a Good Thing

One of the first changes I had to make when I started working from home, was to purchase a monitor for my new home office workspace. I’d never had a dedicated work area at home until coronavirus forced the issue. I’ve avoided having dual monitors at work, for example, as I like to be able to shut my laptop lid to have unobstructed conversations with coworkers and others in my office. At home, I didn’t have that restriction and adding the second screen impacted my productivity. The other subtle but important behavior change happened naturally as I reevaluated how I was spending my workday and what mattered most to me and to my agency.

First and foremost, I focused on my team’s health and safety. Once we ensured the team was able to work comfortably from home, I focused my attention on ensuring the team was engaged and productive, which inspired this article: How to Connect with a Remote Team and Build Loyalty Through a Pandemic. One change I’m grateful for was creating a weekly virtual happy hour, which has created more team bonding and connectivity than any other single ongoing activity in our 20-year history. My secondary focus was on existing clients. Instead of worrying about replacing clients impacted by the pandemic and recession with new business, I doubled down on current clients, ensuring they had the attention from me that they needed and deserved, and it has paid dividends. I’ve outlined key strategies in this article: Five leadership strategies for navigating crisis.

With current employees and clients in a good place, I shifted my efforts towards our sales and marketing efforts. I adapted our content strategy at Anvil, based on all that was and is going on around us. The new focus inspired this article: How to Create a Content Marketing Strategy: Pure Purpose. We then revised our messaging strategy. Our journey is detailed in this article: Ten Marketing Communications Strategies to Navigate the COVID-19 Crisis. We overhauled our marketing channels as well, inspired by our purpose-based content, shifting from in-person speaking engagements and syndicated articles to virtual events including webinars and podcasts. These two articles outline our strategy in greater detail:

·        How to build your personal brand via public relations

·        Podcasting strategies for quarantine life and beyond

Since the outbreak, I’ve refocused and reprioritized what matters and what generates the greatest impact. I’ve always enjoyed advising and supporting the career of others, as well as volunteering for a variety of organizations. While my service-orientation won’t change, I have gained focus on how to best give back to the community. For example, I used to average 5-10 weekly “coffee” meetings with people in my network, personal and professional, but not always with a specific agenda. If I didn’t have a business to run or family to support, it would be an ideal way to spend the day, but alas that luxury is down the road for me. Once in-person coffees were no longer an option, those meetings naturally stopped, and I noticed it freed up half my workday. I’ve refocused that time on ensuring my marketing agency is positioned well through and beyond the pandemic and recession. That insight inspired this article: How to measure client health as a service firm.

I’m sure your personal and work life has been similarly impacted by the pandemic and associated recession. While I’ve been fortunate that our efforts to protect our family and agency has insulated us from COVID-19 and full impact of the recession, I remain diligent and prepared for anything. Please share your insights into how your behavior has changed in the comments section below.