Author: vanessalesage

So What Do You Do?

I am asked this question every time I meet someone new. It always seems to be the first topic of conversation with new acquaintances. In case you didn’t know my spouse and I operate a light commercial and residential plumbing company in Calgary, Alberta. Whenever I mention that my spouse is a Plumber the first assumption is that plumbers mostly just deal with clogged toilets. I wish that was true most days. It would make our business insurance much more affordable.

What Do Plumbers Do?

They install a variety of items integral to your home such as taps, toilets, humidifiers, hot water heaters, drainage, sewer, waterlines, and furnaces. Some plumbers specialize in in-floor heating, boilers, drain cleaning, water treatment, and commercial work. Some pursue additional training to install air conditioners and perform gasfitting. Plumbers exist to safeguard human health. This is why they are considered an essential service. Homes and businesses are uninhabitable when there’s no infrastructure to handle cleaning, handwashing, and basic sanitation.

How Did You Start Your Business?

Years ago my spouse was a Chef for several restaurants in and around Calgary and Edmonton. He was always fixing the kitchen equipment when it broke down. This was usually due to the lack of a maintenance budget from the owners. He developed an interest in repairing equipment and decided to pursue plumbing professionally. He spent his apprenticeships working for the top plumbing companies in Calgary. He saw a need in the market and was approached with an opportunity to sub-contract under a large renovation/construction company. This gave him the resources to expand out on his own.

Why Do You Operate Your Business?

With the plumbing sector being highly competitive in Calgary. We sometimes get asked why we continue to operate when it would be easier to work for someone else. Being entrepreneurs has afforded us the opportunity to continuously learn and help our community on our own terms. We also enjoy the challenges the business brings us on a regular basis.

To see behind the scenes of our business follow us at https://www.instagram.com/calgaryplumberanddrains/

Behind the scenes video of our business https://www.instagram.com/p/Chn87kMFoGY/

This week I decided to share 5 of the key elements I believe make for good storytelling in digital marketing.

1. Having a well-thought-out writing plan is always beneficial in organizing your ideas and composing your story. This is a good opportunity to utilize a storyboard. The video link does a great job of explaining the process in a different way.
2. I like to start projects with the end in mind. Setting a goal for the length of your project makes it easier to stay on track.
3. Every story needs a challenge and a solution. I have always enjoyed stories that have a hero, especially in fiction. The hero’s journey typically makes up most of the story itself. The article linked gives a great example of the hero’s journey in two popular movies.
4. Incorporate visuals to make your story memorable and resonate with your reader. Neil Patel has a great article about incorporating images into blogs.
5. Feedback is an important part of storytelling and digital marketing. Share your writing when you have the opportunity to do so.

Hope you enjoy my infographic. Thank you for reading mine.

https://twitter.com/CalgaryDrains/status/1559378677099646976

This week I decided to base my storytelling on real events we face at our small business. We frequently receive late-night phone calls from panicked individuals encountering plumbing emergencies. Most of the resulting damage from these emergencies can be avoided or significantly reduced with some pre-planning in place.

The most common emergency we address with homeowners is flooding. Many of them leave their homes unattended to travel or have newly moved into their properties with no idea where their main water shut-off is. We found this to be a frequent issue when sales in the housing market increased over the pandemic. I suspect many of these new homeowners never had proper walkthroughs with their realtors at the closing of the sale.

The Twitter story below documents one of these conversations and some useful tips if you find yourself in this situation.

Short Story Time
Conversations we have with new homeowners late at night #EXSM3989

— Calgary Plumber and Drains (@CalgaryDrains) July 26, 2022

I was first introduced to Julia Child’s cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking when I was newly enrolled in culinary school. I will be honest at the time I was not overly interested in her cookbook. I was far too busy learning about Escoffier and the mother sauces. In hindsight, I lacked the knowledge and experience to truly appreciate the content she painstakingly produced for her readers.

Fast forward to the summer of 2009, I had recently completed a three-week study exchange in Singapore. This was my first time experiencing the culture, food, and customs of a country outside of North America. It was an enlightening and at times overwhelming experience. I was also just weeks away from commencing my last year of Baking and Pastry Arts at Sait. The movie Julie & Julia was released in theatres that August. Naturally, being the foodie that I am I had to watch it. For those of you that have not watched the film. The plot goes as follows. Julie had the idea to cook her way through Mastering the Art of French Cooking in one year. She was determined to reproduce all 524 recipes in 365 days and document the journey through her blog. This was no easy task to complete as a novice cook. Julie challenged her capabilities and wanted to give up at times. She summoned her inner strength by asking herself “What would Julia do?”. This moment really resonated with me after some of my own culinary mishaps. I found the film so incredibly charming it inspired me to read Julia Child’s memoir My Life in France.

To quote Julia’s memoir “This is a book about some of the things I have loved most in life”. She goes on to mention her husband Paul, France, and her love of cooking and eating. From her opening introduction, I knew I would have to revisit Mastering the Art of French Cooking in the near future.

Julia Child started her culinary journey shortly after moving to France in 1948. She wholeheartedly immersed herself in French culture to learn the language and social customs of the time. She enrolled in the prestigious Le Cordon Bleu Paris in 1949 to learn French cuisine in her late thirties. I have always been inspired by how Julia allowed her love of food and unwavering support from her husband to guide her down her path and shape her career. I can only imagine the challenges she overcame to learn a new language and study culinary arts with a group of men that doubted her abilities and motivations. The tenacity on her part to pursue the development and publication of her first cookbook was unparalleled at the time by any other author. Julia later went on to have several successful cooking shows, cookbooks and taught generations of home cooks how to make traditional boeuf bourguignon at home. She inspired future generations to pursue careers in food blogging, culinary arts, and hospitality.

Mastering the Art of French Cooking was a labor of love and is one of the most beloved cookbooks in my collection. Julia Child’s unforgettable story will always resonate with me and the way I pursue the things that I love.