Make Lemonade

You know that old saying: When life gives you lemons, make lemonade? Boy, can that ever bring peace of mind.

A couple of weeks ago I sent out several group emails announcing this blog. I also mentioned my redesigned work website and new email addresses, but my primary purpose was to promote the blog.

A couple of hours later I received a response from my friend Melani Robinson, an award-winning blogger who writes for the Huffington Post and is about to publish her first book.

Here's what she wrote: "Hi Leslie. You've given the wrong address for the blog and when clicked on is an email address. I don't believe any website has '@' but usually a dot or backsplash in the address."

What? The WRONG blog address? OMG. Seriously? No! No. No. No.  You've got to be kidding me. HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN? I used to be a professional writer and editor! I am extremely careful, checking and rechecking my work. How did I write SyracusePeaceOfMind@blogspot.com when the actual address is SyracusePeaceOfMind.blogspot.com?

And then I remembered. I didn't cut and paste the address of the blog from the website into the group emails. I typed it. From memory. And I didn't test it.

Enter the peace-of-mind fork in the road, the choice between peace and no peace. No peace looks like this: beat yourself up, crawl under the covers, bemoan the fact that you've made a mistake.

Peace, on the other hand, looks like this: Take a deep breath. Tell yourself it's ok. Everybody makes mistakes. Figure out what to do next.

So, even though I was feeling pretty low, I asked myself: How do I fix this? Answer: I sent out a short, follow-up email with the correct address. Embarrassing? Yes. End of the world? Not exactly.

Then I realized I put the same wrong address on the business cards I had ordered for the blog. I took a few more minutes to be upset and then I made more lemonade.

I realized my e-mail mistake might actually be a good thing. A marketing coup, as they say, because dozens of people received two emails about the blog instead of one, thereby increasing the chances they'd actually look at it.

As for the incorrect business cards ... the first batch had a plain white back side. The new ones have this beautiful photo of a Buddha I took at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City last fall. My friend Brett, a salesman who majored in business and marketing in college and suggested art for the back of the cards. He believes people will keep them just for the photo.

So the the next time you get some lemons, make the lemonade. Choose the peaceful way.