Kerstin Baker-Ash

The Working Mother

With the move over and things finally starting to settle down in Toronto, I'm left both cherishing my last week of maternity leave and looking forward to the new challenges ahead. So it's a bit clichéd, but it's my blog and I get to be philosophical when I want to be.

I've always been of two minds about returning to work. From the moment I saw the little blue line appear on the pregnancy test, I knew I wanted to take loads of time off to be with my little bundle. I didn't factor in the exhaustion of pregnancy or the heavy duty commute and the toll it took on my body. In the UK, I got fantastic maternity benefits, and was able to start my maternity leave at the end of October 2009. I used my nearly three months pre-baby to rest and relax and prepare to become a mother. Sure, it wasn't all rosy - especially when my aforementioned bundle was more than reluctant to meet and greet the world - but I really enjoyed my "me" time. 

When my daughter was born, it was a whirlwind of emotions. I did get the baby blues - nothing serious, but it was unlike anything I'd ever experienced before and it was gone in about two weeks - and my life became about her needs. I re-prioritized everything, and I loved it. Life is and was diaper changes and poosplosions and breastfeeding and learning how to collapse the damned stroller and sleep deprivation and baby cuddles and first everythings and more love than I ever could have imagined possible. My daughter is, in my no-holds-barred-very-biased opinion, the most awesome little creature and smarter than I could have imagined. 

But this post isn't about gushing about my fantastic daughter - it's about trying to reconcile her needs with my needs and our family's needs.

We moved to Toronto to make working work. I was not going to go back and work in London. It made no sense to put her in daycare for twelve hours a day while we would endure a pushy, hellish commute only to spend five minutes with our daughter before she had to go to bed. In Toronto, I am hoping to work hard to make a work-life balance realistic and manageable for both my family and my new employer (more on that in a later post).

So, it's with excitement, trepidation and sheer exuberance that I return to work - missing my baby terribly but knowing she's having a great time with friends and cherishing the time I do have with her that much more.

Into the Next Decade

 

It might be a bit misleading, I realize that now. Along with my first (and hopefully last, for a year at least!) 30th birthday card, my work bought a very delectable carrot cake and jelly-filled cupcakes (having lived in the UK for three years, I still can't bring myself to call them fairy cakes). I also got my first present from the baby, a kids' cookbook - the baby is half Baker, after all. A pregnancy massage, gift certificates for Harrod's and Laura Ashley and more Paula Deen cookbooks rounded out a great haul; the best gift I got was a relaxing day, a lovely walk in the park and dinner with my mom and stepdad at my favorite restaurant.

I'm pretty darned excited for my 30th year, even though in spirit and reality, I'm still in my 20s.

What I've Learned from 100 Posts

I didn't launch into a grand set of goals for this blog. I wanted to get a bit more recognized in the industry, make a few more contacts and test the waters for my approach to search engine marketing. I've received much more than that in one hundred posts. My reluctance to blog since the last three posts has been about getting as much industry traffic as possible and not diluting it with recycled clip material for a milestone blog post. How fitting, that on my 100th post day it is also my Twitterversary - the line drawn marking how engaged I wanted to be in this community and my enthusiasm to contribute.

To ignore that blogging is a bit of an ego boost is, well, egotistical. I enjoy writing. I enjoy getting feedback - who doesn't? I kind of expected comments to be pouring through after I started the blog, and that hasn't exactly been the case.

100th Post Learning #1 - If you want engagement, be prepared to over-engage elsewhere. Acknowledge a lag time in getting the ball rolling, in getting your name out there.

I've spoken at two industry conferences since starting this blog. I'm a big believer in community, both on and offline, and try my hardest to continue to engage with those movers and shakers in North America we all admire. While I do believe geographical challenges exist (I live in the United Kingdom, which is a bit of a trek to the majority of search conferences and post-conference themed drink-ups), a lot of networking and schmoozing has taken place online.

100th Post Learning #2: The stigma of online no longer exists. Engage, engage, engage with people you've never met in person, and build relationships, trust and influence with respect and humor.

I've had two relatively high traffic events. The first was a questionable tip-off from an old colleague about some rather questionable marketing tactics by an Irish betting giant - negative traffic, small niche-carving traffic. The second was borne from a rather opportune peek at what my husband was searching for on his laptop - Google started displaying favicons in AdWords, I saw some amazing traffic levels and got some love from above on Sphinn and MediaPost, and Search Engine Land. Good traffic, profile-boosting traffic.

100th Post Learning #3: The site gets sticker with positive, informative news. Negative, sensational stories get a burst of traffic but no incremental increases in steady readership. Choose your news posts carefully, while I don't necessarily regret calling that company out on their questionable marketing, the niche that you carve can be tough to climb out of.

I got pretty worked up a couple of times when things I had posted were either taken out of context or not taken at all. In a social media age with access to some pretty spectacular industry leaders, it's easy to feel slighted by lack of response, attribution or acknowledgement.

100th Post Learning #4: Be gracious. If you are retweeted, respond. If you are linked to, thank them. Don't get your knickers in a bunch if someone doesn't respond to you right away. Reach out to the community you want to be a part of. Engage positively - ranting and raving can earn you a quick reputation but it's not necessarily the reputation that you want to cultivate with the same people you're trying to impress.

I've learned a lot, shared a lot, and hopefully improved the way I'm perceived in the search industry. It has been a heckuva fun 100 posts. 

100th Post Learning #5: Have fun. Enjoy. It's not worth it unless you're getting something positive out of the ride.