By Percy Mesnik

Let me share a story with you about how I was the queen! My people used to love me more than anything. Then, one day, they brought home this strange animal.  What the F – is this, and why does it keep swiping at my tail?

This strange beast (Piper) was trying to take my people from me. My choices were to eat it, or ignore it. I decided to ignore this feline fella, and continued to demand love from my humans!

And that worked. Things were going along just fine, until…

WHAT THE HELL!!!

This new, very funny looking canine, Loki, came bounding into the house. How can my people think this is okay? How can they still provide me the much-deserved attention and keep this hooligan around?!

Well, let me tell you the lesson that I learned! While these new intruders had come in and tried to take what is rightfully mine, my people discovered a way to still provide me with that special attention that only I, the queen of the house, deserve.

You B2B marketer types might refer to this as “nurturing a relationship.” Onboarding new clients or animals is important, but you cannot forget the OGs who helped you get to where you are and taught you how to be a strong and effective provider.  

Here at the homestead, we rely on quality content: “atta girl”, “good job”, and random treats. You want to ensure you are sharing a good message with your clients, too. My owner spends a lot of time sitting on his ass and talking about content marketing, and its power and importance. He has this awesome-sounding program that helps businesses not only bring in new deals, but also help nurture the ones they have. Just like my owner did with me. Though, I wouldn’t be that sad if the hooligan disappeared.

I mean, look at her, always getting up in my space. Just leave me alone!

Guest post by Sterling “Bear” Shimkus

I’m a little hurricane of destruction. Sometimes I like to climb into the linen closet or onto the kitchen counter and knock over EVERYTHING I can find. It’s important to include fragile items of all shapes and sizes in my gravity experiments. I guess Mom is anxious to know the velocity of a shampoo bottle or drinking glass falling to the ground, because she always comes running! Sometimes this is right in the middle of when Mom is working on a social media post, or maybe even a marketing email. She needs to stop really abruptly to come see the results of my hard work. 

For times like these, she uses the Save as Pending feature in her PartnerOn account! Mom can quickly save her work and return to it when she’s ready. Visit the ContentMX Knowledge Base to learn how it works.

Guest post by Arya “Ary-Safari” Shimkus

I remember the old days like they were yesterday. Mom would wake up early in the morning, give me breakfast and snuggles, and then be gone for what seemed like an eternity. I’d spend my days napping, birdwatching, napping, running around, dozing, and also sometimes snoozing. After a few decades, Mom would come home, relieved to kick off her shoes, and of course I would be at the door to happily greet my weary Mama and beg for my dinner. 

Our routine has changed a little, since she’s ALWAYS home now! Mom doesn’t go into the office anymore; she’s brought the office home. It’s pretty awesome. I get to cry for more food whenever I feel like it, and climb all over her laptop during something called a “Zoom.” One time, I looked at the Zoom and saw some other humans and they said I was so cute! I guess a Zoom isn’t so bad, but they say there’s something called Zoom exhaustion where humans get tired from looking at it for too long. I think when that happens, they should just take a break and throw some toys for me to play with. 

Sometimes if Mom is on a Zoom, I hear and see other kitties, dogs, and occasionally even mini humans, too! I love to see all these new friends having fun on the Zoom when their humans are working from home, too. But, I noticed that sometimes the humans say “I’m so sorry” when their mini human cries or if their dog barks, and I really wonder why they are saying sorry. 

Sterling (my kitten sister from another mister) and I have a theory – we think that humans usually keep their office lives and their home lives separate. In the office, they have the people they work with and very important things to do, and then they get to come home and enjoy their time with us. We think it must be a little strange for them to be working on important stuff and also giving us attention at the same time. We agree that we can sometimes be just a little bit distracting, especially when Mom’s desk seems like a great venue for our next play fight. Dog barks scare us a little, but based on my interpretation, I think that dogs bark because they’re excited by the mailman or they just want to play. And of course, mini humans can cry for any hundreds of reasons (especially for food or attention, like Stirry and I do all the time!). All of these noises are totally normal “home life” sounds, but humans feel embarrassed because they know that babies and animals don’t usually belong in “office life” (until now). 

We don’t think the humans need to be sorry if other humans hear mini human cries or dog barks over Zoom, or maybe even see a happy cat butt sashay on their screens. I think those moments are a good time to laugh and remember that every human behind the Zoom is just that – a human with his or her own home life, that they have suddenly had to combine with their office life.

Here are our official tips for dealing with Zoom calls and pets:

1. Show us off. Come on, we’re so cute. We’re also really curious about what you’re working on, and we want to cuddle up with you while you do it.
2. Take play breaks. I bet your puppy would love an extra 15-minute fetch session in the backyard!  If your kitty loves snoozing as much as we do, maybe you would rather set an alarm and take a bonafide cat nap. We just want to hang out with you!
3. If we’re being really annoying, give us some extra treats and shut the door. We’ll make up for lost time after your last Zoom of the day.