Blog 15

It’s Just the Beginning of CLI

The process of editing the copy, designing the layout, and publishing the parenting book feels much smoother than working on Easy Entertaining. In the beginning, I didn't really know how to explain my vision for Easy Entertaining to my team. I knew I wanted to write the book and publish it, but I wasn’t sure how to create the final product. The book was “completed” four times!! Each time it was done, I would make changes to it. It just didn’t look the way I had envisioned it. My team was doing exactly what I was asking them to do, but I was having a hard time explaining what I wanted. I was new to this, so I had difficulty expressing my exact vision. The team didn't have the right tools to bring my vision to life, so that's where we had to make some changes with software and images. It was frustrating at the time because I wanted to meet a certain deadline, which kept being pushed further and further back. I was having a hard time taking what was in my mind and putting it onto paper. We finally did get there after four revisions of the book!!

This was the first project that the team and I worked on together, and we had to break through some barriers throughout the process. We jumped into the publication of Easy Entertaining with our own gifts and talents but without really merging our ideas together. However, we have reflected upon our work and realized our strengths and weaknesses. We had a book signing meeting during which we completed a few helpful team-building activities. The first activity entailed writing a compliment on a Post-It note for each team member, including yourself. Once we read the comments, we all felt respected and proud of the work that we had done together. Each person was elated with the compliments from their peers.

The next activity was a green light thinking session. During this activity, each team member wrote different ideas on how to better the company moving forward. There were so many great ideas shared. It was exciting to bring our ideas together with the intention of bettering this company. I was delighted to hear that my team was interested in continuing to work together on future projects.

What I have learned: We have a vision and a dream, and that's just the beginning for us.