by Crazy Ivan
I guess I don't have to point out that this blog hasn't been updated in nearly a week. I would think that was pretty obvious. What's worse, there hasn't been a Trick of the Day posted yet this week. One could be forgiven for thinking that I'm a first-class slacker.
But the truth is a bit more complicated than that. As Myachi Masters, we all have a number of different responsibilities. Because Myachi employs such a multi-pronged approach to promotion, we all find ourselves wearing a number of hats from day to day. Our duties essentially break down into three broad categories:
1) Good Will - This is normally the bulk of my job. We're proud of the fact that at Myachi, the relationship isn't over when the sale is made. We go out of our way to try to stay connected with our customers and add continuous value to their Myachi purchase by providing things like this blog, the trick of the day videos, the forum, contests, etc. Basically, this is the part of the job where we try to turn Myachi players into Myachi Maniacs.
2) Administrative - This is the least exciting but often most important part of the job. In a company this size there is always a mountain of logistics and paperwork to overcome. This includes stuff like human resources, inventory, scheduling, ordering, new product development, promotional meetings and marketing. This is the bulk of Kid's job, though I often find myself immersed in it as well.
3) Sales - Ultimately, this is what keeps the doors open. This is the part of the job that most people think of when they think of 'Myachi Master'. This is the part where we actually go out and teach the game, promote the company, visit the stores and sell Myachis. As important as the other two categories are, this is the only one that actually brings dollars into our bank account.
During the busiest times of year, there is a ton of work in all 3 categories. So much so that even a dozen full time Myachi Masters can't handle it. During the summer and the holiday season we could probably keep at least two dozen busy.
But in the slower times there is less and less to do. One would think that would mean that during the slower times I'd have plenty of time to do things like blogging and filming tricks. One might think this was the ideal time of the year to focus in on the blog and the forum. But because of the seasonal nature of our business, we also have seasonal employees. Some members of the team only work for us during the busier times and during the slower months (September and October for example) they're off doing their own thing.
That means that those of us who are still on full time staff have to wear a few extra hats. A person who, say, normally fills much of their day doing Good Will stuff might suddenly have 20 hours a week of administrative work and 25 or 30 hours of sales work in a given week. And when that happens, unfortunately some things get moved to the back burner.
As much as I hate to admit it, this blog is one of the first items to be shelved in favor of the other stuff. The fact is that the company can operate without this blog. It can't operate without somebody there teaching people how to play or delivering the orders to our retail locations. The blog is only important if we're doing the other two jobs.
Well, as you may have guessed, this week there's been a lot of category 2 and category 3 stuff for me to do. On top of that, I had some work to do to make sure that Pinky's birthday was legendary.
I'd love to say that all of that is behind me and I'll be back to 2 or 3 updates a day now, but the next few weeks look to be every bit as hectic as the last few. I'll be trying some new ideas when it comes to time management so hopefully we won't have another 5 day lapse on the blog, but I'm afraid I can't promise anything more than an update a day between now and then.
It pains me to leave you, the loyal reader, hanging like that. A lot of you have been with us for quite some time and I think it's fair for you to expect a new entry on this blog every day. After this long of giving it to you, I'd venture to say that we owe you a new entry every day. We're looking at some ways of spreading this responsibility around a bit, but my guess is that for the next month to 6 weeks I'll be struggling to keep this thing regularly updated.
But you can help, and you can help in several ways.
One is, of course, to write a guest blog. The best entries on this blog have come from readers anyway, so I'm always to happy to see more entries from the MMFLs, Katanas and Hunters of the world (among others, of course). Getting the viewpoints of people in other parts of the movement is great for the reader and it also makes my life a little easier so it's a real win/win if you're a fan of writing.
But if not, you can help simply by suggesting topics. Sometimes the hardest thing about writing a blog entry is thinking of what to write about. I don't want to get repetitive on this blog (although I don't think this is the first 'sorry I haven't blogged' article I've written), but I also don't want to overlook the topics that are important to you, the loyal reader. If you have an idea for an article or even a question you'd like to see answered, by all means send it to me. You can email me at crazyivan@myachi.com with your ideas (or guest blogs).
The third way that you can help is to simply be patient. Keep checking in with us. We may have lapses again in the future when this blog will go unchanged for a day or two. Just try to forgive us for all the hectic insanity that goes along with trying to create a worldwide movement and check back in the following day. And remember that everything we're doing is designed to help expand the Myachi movement. If I'm not blogging, it's always going to be because there's something more pressing that demands my attention. It's never going to be because I just chose to neglect you.
Except on Pinky's birthday. I can admit that I actually did have time to blog yesterday and instead I went out and got stuff for Pinky's party. But Pinky is the only thing that comes before Myachi for me and she only has a birthday once a year so that won't crop up again very often...
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