So, I was finally getting around to cleaning out my old digital files the other day. You know how it is, gigs and gigs of stuff just collecting dust on hard drives. I was trying to be all organized, making folders, deleting ancient junk. And then I stumbled across this one really weird note in an old project directory. All it said was: “michelle goeringer feet – check again???”
Honestly, for a good ten minutes, I just stared at it. Michelle Goeringer? Feet? What in the world was that about? My first thought was, did I get hacked? Or was this some kind of bizarre shopping list I’d forgotten? It really bugged me, like an itch I couldn’t scratch.
Then, like a slow train coming into the station, it started to come back to me. Oh. My. God. That project.
The “Ground-Up” Marketing Disaster
This was years ago, working for this small agency. We landed what we thought was a decent client, a mid-sized company wanting a “revolutionary” new marketing campaign. Michelle Goeringer was our main contact there. Let’s just say she had… strong opinions. And those opinions changed. A lot. Like, daily.
We were trying to pitch this whole “boots on the ground” concept, you know, really getting into the local community, grassroots stuff. Our project lead, bless his heart, kept saying we needed to understand the “customer’s footing” and build from the “ground up.” Standard marketing talk, right? Well, somehow, in one of those endless, caffeine-fueled brainstorming sessions that went nowhere, someone started joking about “feet.” As in, “Are we sure Michelle’s got her feet on the ground with this budget?” or “We need to get more feet through the door.”
It became this stupid internal shorthand. And Michelle Goeringer, she was obsessed with the campaign’s reach, the actual physical presence. Every meeting, it was “How many people will see this? How will we track the direct impact on, like, foot traffic?” She wasn’t a bad person, just incredibly demanding and, frankly, all over the place with what she wanted. One week it was all digital, the next it had to be flyers and street teams.
So, that note, “michelle goeringer feet – check again???” It wasn’t about anything creepy, thank goodness. It was my desperate scribble from a late-night session where Michelle had, for the umpteenth time, changed her mind about the “ground-level engagement metrics” – what we’d jokingly started calling the “feet count.” The “check again???” was pure exasperation because her latest idea completely contradicted what she’d insisted on the day before. We were constantly scrambling, redoing presentations, re-budgeting. It was a nightmare.
We were supposed to be building this foundational strategy, the “feet” of the campaign, if you will. But with her, it felt like we were building on quicksand. Every time we thought we had a solid plan, she’d kick the legs out from under it.
I remember spending weeks on this detailed proposal for a local event strategy – really getting our “feet dirty” with community engagement. Presented it. She loved it! Then, two days later, an email: “Team, rethinking the ‘feet on the street’ angle. Let’s explore a purely viral online approach.” We just about lost our minds.
Looking back, that project was a masterclass in how not to manage client expectations and how quickly internal jargon can become utterly meaningless if you’re not careful. We did finish the campaign, somehow. It wasn’t revolutionary. It was… fine. But the amount of churn and stress over the “feet” of it all was ridiculous.
So yeah, finding that note was a weird trip down memory lane. It’s funny how a couple of random words can unlock such a vivid, slightly traumatic, memory. Makes you realize how much random stuff our brains hold onto. Mostly, it just made me glad I don’t have to deal with projects like that anymore. Been there, done that, got the metaphorical blisters.
