Lazy Susan gets a bad rap

What did ‘Lazy’ Susan ever do to you?

You know what a Lazy Susan is, right? She’s that spinning platform in your cupboard that holds all of your stuff, presenting it to you gracefully as she spins around at your every whim. All she does is help you. Yet you call her lazy.

I think you’re the lazy one, sir.

While Susan stands ready at any moment to deliver what you need — cinnamon, oregano, even the rarely-used bay leaf (truth be known, she may be the only one at your place who knows where that is) — all you can do is criticize?

Let’s take a look at her life for a minute. Since you were fortunate enough to happen upon her at that random garage sale, Susan has never missed a spin. She doesn’t fall off her track; she doesn’t take a sick day. She makes you look like something you’re not — an organized chef.

Yet you’re ungrateful. What gives?

My guess is that you treat Lazy Susan a lot like you treat your existing content. You know, the stories lying around inside your company just waiting to be told. There may be thousands of these stories, many of them potentially helpful to your customers. Yet they sit there, in the proverbial cupboard, much like Susan, waiting for their turn.

It could be the story about how a call center rep helped someone solve a problem that wasn’t related to the topic of the call. It may be the eight other ways your product or service can be used that the product guys have been talking to you about for months. It could be the above-and-beyond stories your customer service department is always sharing in meetings that never see the light of day.

It could be a thousand other things. The point is there are probably many unharvested stories in your company that could be helping your customers. Heck, they could be helping you find new customers, too. And it’s your job to go find these stories.

Sure, content marketing is the hot, new thing. But that doesn’t mean you always have to create brand new content. Even though some of the stories lying around your place may seem old to you, they can still be valuable and deserve to be told.

After reading this, you need to do two things: first, go home and apologize to Susan. Stop calling her lazy and thank her for keeping you organized. And second: go looking for those untold stories and start telling them.

You’ll be glad you did.