I had one job...

A couple of months back a received an email from my son's teacher. In his pre-kindergarten class they have a program called the Mystery Reader. Essentially a student's parent comes in a reads the child's favorite 2 books to the class. The teacher had shared that my son Max was getting more upset every time there was a mystery reader and it wasn't his mom or dad. This is a great program, but a tough one on working parents as it happens mid-day. Sick days, school plays, parent-teacher conferences, doctors appointments, etc. add up so one more thing can be tough.

I was in a fortunate position that I had a flexible enough schedule to take part. I had one job: pick 2 books, show up and read to a bunch of 5 year olds.

But being a good marketer, and being a good parent isn't about just doing the bare minimum, it's about looking for impactful opportunities every chance you get.

My kids go through books like jockeys through Saran Wrap (what, you've never been at the track during a muddy race?), so in order to save space, we only keep their favorite books, giving away others, buying used, or, as is a more recent development, making up stories. Trust me, I looked, there is no such thing as a Sponge Bob Squarepants/Thomas the Train crossover, but if you don't mind ignoring the physics of talking plankton and subaquatic steam engine operations, you can make it a reality. So, over the last couple of months I've been creating new stories to tell my kids. One was called The Helping Beast, about a boy who needs help from a beast that lives in a cave, but who gives the boys 3 chores to complete before he'll help. My older son asked what the beast looked like so I'd pulled out some charcoal and paper.

This is where things began to go downhill. Somehow, in a (non-alcoholic) Ginger Beer haze I emailed my son's teacher to ask if I could read my own story. "As long as it has pictures and is age appropriate, sure!". Oh boy. Weeks or procrastination and false starts later I'd laid out a 35 page book in InDesign with just a single cover illustration.

I spent the weekend and Monday prior to my Tuesday reading sweating over an Apple laptop, a large notebook and box of charcoal, illustrating and editing away. at 1pm on Tuesday I rushed into Staples with a USB drive and 20 minutes later sped off for my 2pm reading appointment.

It would have been very easy to just pull a book off a shelf. But going the extra step allowed me an opportunity for personal growth, personalization, creativity and bringing something truly unique to a bunch of kids who'd already heard Red Fish, Blue Fish a million times, and also allowed the teacher to talk about what it takes to write a book, was a great, if stressful activity. And now, I can add to my LinkedIn profile "published children's author", as soon as I get the book loaded up on Amazon!

So the next time you have a task to perform, ask yourself, "what can I do beyond just the bare minimum?"

I've uploaded The Helping Beast to Slideshare. Feel free to download to your iPad and share with your kids.