Hi. It's me again. Your friendly digital doyenne. Your Lady of Lexicon. Countess of Content. Marchioness of Manufacturing Marketing.
How are we all doing?
It's midway through August and I don't know about you, but I'm exhausted. We've finally just wrapped up the Top 100© and all that goes with it and I'm in serious need of a day off. Or maybe a nap. Heck, I'll settle for a Pina Colada and a hammock.
For those who aren't familiar with the enormity of our Top 100© project, it's a yearlong research project that culminates in a fast-paced finish in the first 10 days of August.
Dave (you know him, right? He's our magazine's Editor in Chief) gathers the data all year long on each of the companies that appear on the list. He sorts, he contemplates, and then he bangs out an analysis that accompanies a mass amount of financial data. Once the magazine issue has reached its printing deadline, I then take all of the data and I go to work on the website.
The charts you see on The Top 100 page? That's the result of me, an Excel file, my trusty computer, and a handful of swear words. Throw in some code, a macro, and voila. You have the chart y'all know and love. We also have a version of the list you can download and hang on your wall (or wallpaper your cat with....I don't judge). I work with my trusty sidekicks to make that available so that when everything is ready to go, I push some buttons and release the kraken that is our Top 100© into the world.
This year, we've started doing podcasts, so we added an episode about the Top 100 into the mix too. Give it a listen. You can hear what our motley crew sounds like.
Full confession: I love working on the podcasts. I was a late arrival to it, but now I can't get enough of them. We've got 3 episodes already up, another one in the queue, and I'm talking to potential guests about future episodes. That journalism degree and Toastmaster training have finally starting to pay off. (Want to be a guest on the podcast? Send me an email and let's talk).
My team of doctors have warned me that I should step outside of my quarantine cabin in Chicago's western suburbs for a sunny and socially-distant stroll. Really it's only two doctors, but both have pointed out I'm woefully deficient in Vitamin D. I graduated from Flintstone chewables a long time ago, but even with my high-dose adult vitamins I can't seem to get to 'good enough' levels. And for the type of overachieving, Type A personality that I have, 'insufficient levels' are... well.. insufficient to me. This is all to say that I need to take my own advice from a month ago and probably use up another vacation day or two before it becomes too cold to leave my house again.
Before I sign off on this Thank-Goodness-it's-Freaking-Friday! post, I'm wondering: Am I the only person who seems to have dove headfirst into workaholism during the pandemic? Is anyone even reading this blog?
Stay sunny my friends.
Erin Hallstrom is the resident geek and Swiss Army Knife of FoodProcessing.com and the author of our Working Wit blog, she's responsible for the digital strategy for FoodProcessing.com including posting content, managing social media, and analyzing reader data. She's a Toastmaster, a Black Belt in Karate, and an Improv Performer to boot. Erin also is a founding member of the Influential Women in Manufacturing program, the creator and host of our Food For Thought podcast, and is a producer and host of our Manufacturing Tomorrow's Workforce podcast. Give her a shout-out or get in touch with her via email.
