What does it Mean to Exhibit Grace?

When you work in social media, or any kind of long- or short-form writing on behalf of a client, getting the client voice right matters a lot.  Many of my clients are authors, and this demands an extremely high standard for my writing.  I'm putting words in the mouth of someone who has made their career around their voice.  Not only are the authors themselves very picky about sounding like themselves (as one would expect), but readers know when the voice on Facebook doesn't match the voice they've spent hours reading in a book.

In the beginning process of bringing on a client, I take time to read as much as I can by the author so I can match their style and meter.  I'll read any blogs they write, analyze their emails, and read any past Facebook posts, as well as at least a few chapters of their book(s).  I try to read all of my clients books, and have a small shelf in my office dedicated to my copies.

From my consultation meetings, I gather a few "content well" subjects, topics the client wants to communicate about on social.  Usually, I create four to five general topic areas, then build a calendar which draws from those wells, making sure that about one third of the calendar schedule is directly promotional, about one third is about the client and their other interests, and one third is about topics related to their field.  Once I have my topic areas, I write up six to ten posts that draw on each of those subjects, taking care to stick closely to the client's voice.  If this is a new Facebook profile, it also builds the past history of the page so it doesn't look too empty to new followers.

I run these posts by clients so they can see, natively and on the platform, what posts will really look like.  This is when I get feedback on whether I'm on track.  My authors are especially attentive to grammar and unique turns of phrase, but all of my clients have a particular tone they are looking for in their messaging.

It was while writing for my newest client that I had the biggest surprise during the feedback period.

Modern Traditional Archery is my father's archery coaching business, which I encouraged him to start, and helped him to initially pitch.

I know most people discourage working with family, but so far, my dad has been my kindest, most gracious client.  That is not to say, of course, that my other clients are not kind or gracious -- indeed, they are, and forgiving as well.  But our relationship is fundamentally about business.  I love my clients, I am excited and passionate about their passions, and I feel very close to all of them.  It's an honor to work with each of them.

But working with my dad has been a different kind of honor.

First, my dad is extremely gracious with me.  As his daughter, I thought I had nearly 25 years of experience knowing his voice.  I do, but not the voice of a new business man and of a coach.  In one of my first posts, I was explaining his recent tournament results, and I made a joke about the guy to whom dad lost (an archer who sometimes, but less and less often, can beat my dad in competition).

Now, technically, my joke sounded exactly like my father.  But it sounded nothing like the number one nationally ranked traditional archer in America that he is.  My dad made his edits and returned them quickly and without editorializing his reasons for correction.  I was thankful for how kind those corrections were, to me as the writer who missed the mark.  He didn't remark on how far off I was, he simply made his changes, and let the edits speak for themselves.

Much more impressively, my dad's changes reframed his loss as a thank you to his competitor, for being a good archer and an even better mentor.  Even in losing -- which my dad does very rarely these days -- he was gracious, thankful, and humble.

My father still has so much to teach me, and in moving into a new season of my own life, lessons I might have assumed I already mastered have reappeared, ready to be reassessed in the new context of adulthood.  As a wife now, I see the actions of my father toward my mom differently; what I once saw as how a dad treats a mom, I now see as how a husband treats a wife.  It's a shifting of lenses, from the position of a child observing a parent to that of one adult seeing another across the yawning chasm of his extra 30 years of life, of marriage, and of parenthood.  There is still so much for me to learn from my dad, and I am blessed and thankful to have the opportunity to continue learning from him.

Not everyone has such a man of character in their life, but everyone should.  If you can't find one near you, become one.  The lessons taught by real character are lessons to be learned and relearned throughout all of our lives.  Good sportsmanship, humility, grace, and kindness are luxuries we all can afford, and can afford to share freely.