What am I doing
So I have been doing a lot of thinking lately and wondering what the hell I want to do with my life. Yet I still have no answers. At the beginning of this year I started my own website, it is dedicated to the music journalism work that I like doing. Now I am starting to sort of regret it. It has been a real eye opener for me. I am starting to not enjoy it one bit. But if I don’t want to do that then what do I want.
I have been looking for internships and this is why this has been bugging me. I’m not sure what kind of internship to apply to now. I was initially going to go for music magazines, or magazines that have a music section I could write for. But now it seems like if I do that I will be just as tortured as any other job. The whole point of school and everything I do was to get into a area that I love. If I feel tortured every time I think about writing an album review how will I get through it for the rest of my life.
I also have started working as the music editor for a local student run magazine. This work seems so much more satisfying. I like being able to reach out to public relations and such to get albums for others to review. I also enjoy the editing process so much more than the writing process. Unfortunately, I know no matter where I end up in magazines I will one have to start at the bottom and two will still have to write certain things myself.
So this leaves me with several questions. Do I continue with working in music journalism? Do I pursue my other interest? If so what?
Marketing for Creatives Workshop by Etsy
A couple weeks ago May 24th, I attended a workshop run by Etsy.com, Duct Tape Marketing for Creative Entrepreneurs. As a student of business I have a special fascination with marketing and advertising. So when I saw a friend post a link and a code to get free tickets to this workshop I just had to go. (though tickets were only $5) It was geared towards creative craft makers who have shops on Etsy.com. However, I figured it would still be informative and worth the trip. I was correct. The workshop featured John Jantsch presenting the basics of marketing. John is a marketing consultant and author of Duct Tape Marketing and The Referral Engine.
To my great satisfaction he started out by explaining that though it was called marketing for creatives, there really is no difference. All marketing is based on the same principles.
Before getting into the explanation of what marketing is and how to perform it properly he explained the characteristics needed to run a small business.
- Purpose
- Love
- Wonder
- Courage
- Grace
He went on to explain that most small businesses are still just a hobby. The major determining factor between it being a hobby and a business is marketing. To really be a professional business you have to be proactive and search out your customers through a thought out marketing strategy.
He described marketing as a system. The goal of this system is for people to know, like and trust you and your business.
He stresses several points associated with a good marketing system. I’ve outlined a few of the main points I jotted down during the presentation.
- Strategy before tactics-A narrow focus and a clear definition of your ideal customer help with your differentiation and domination of your market.
- Marketing Hour Glass-This is essentially an extended version of the concept of the marketing funnel. Where that ends at the buying stage, he stressed the importance of the whole buying experience in order to not just make a sale but also get repeat business and referrals.
- The Information Business-With the abundance of available information on the internet business owners need to provide content to their market. Connecting to your potential customers in many forms of media can gain you more traffic which could turn into sales.
- Create a total Web Presence-Essentially make sure you are utilizing all the social media tools, local directories, and ratings or review sites to your best ability. In addition they should all connect back to your main website or online store.
- Live by the Calendar-Marketing can be a big task there can be many different elements to take on at once and it can be overwhelming. Using a calendar to outline monthly themes, weekly actions and daily appointments can help keep it to a manageable level.
All in all I think it was a very informative and entertaining workshop. For me a majority of the presentation was a refresher but there were some great elements I got from it. For those with no marketing knowledge it broke it down to pretty simple terms that could easily be followed.
It helped that they had refreshments and snacks, it made the trip there worth it. I found out later they would be simaltaniously live streaming the presentation. Though if I had been at home I would not have paid much attention.
To read John Jantsch blogs or find out more about him you can visit www.ducttapemarketing.com.
Etsy is a website and community for people that sell handmade goods, and connect them with customers. Visit www.etsy.com to find out more.
Lifes little lesson for Monday
Yesterday, I was really in a funky mood. I woke up later than I wanted to, so I stayed in bed being lazy. Just felt like lying around. It didn’t help that I hadn’t really gotten anything done in a couple days. I basically wasted my time, by hanging out, and my money . Not that I didn’t enjoy it or feel like I needed it but I just couldn’t get myself back into a working state of mind. So after I finally got up, sitting in front of my computer I just couldn’t think of one thing I wanted to do. Then I get a text to go hang out with a friend. I did want to go hang out because it’s not like I was being productive. But then I thought about the money issue and if I did go anywhere then I would be upset the next day because again I had gotten nothing done and I would be completely broke.
So as I sat there contemplating what to do I went through my choices.
1. I could get right back into the bed and wait for the day to be over and just start all over tomorrow hoping it would be a better day.
2. I could go hang out and spend the last of my money. I could also hope that hanging out would put me in a better mood and that at least I would have had some fun before I tried starting over again tomorrow.
Or I could do the smartest thing. Just try to work through it and force myself to do something, anything. I thought for a minute and pulled out the easiest thing I could possible do. Take out a journal and just write about how I felt. I just sat and wrote out the whole ordeal, it came out real easily once I began. About half way through it I was already feeling better. I’m not sure how long I wrote but it was about two pages. I stopped to eat and do a couple of other things in between but kept going back. (I tend to always multi-task once I get motivated) But by the time I wrote the last paragraph I felt totally better. I did still get back into bed but with different intentions.
I was just going to do a little mini restart of the day. Instead of getting in the bed and staying there until the next morning I was going to take a little mini nap and get up later to get some stuff done at night. I did get in bed but never up taking the nap. Eventually, I got some work done later in the night after watching a little television.
Whether or not I did get anything done though was besides the point. Writing my way out of my funky mood made me remember why I began writing in the first place. The writing experience has always been very cathartic for me. It was the easiest and most natural outlet for me to channel my energy into. Over the years I’ve lost my enthusiasm for writing. Well actually the better way to put it is I lost the momentum I once used to have. At some points life’s distractions took over. At other times it just started to feel too much like an obligation. With attempting to turn my passion and something that I did purely for fun into a legitimate career I had to write things I didn’t always enjoy, so it became forced. But while I was writing the journal entry it just all flowed out of me, it wasn’t forced and the more I wrote the better I felt. I just realized this is a sign that I’ve got to work out a new routine. I have to do more of that natural, fun writing so I don’t get that burn out from just churning out work.
I have to find a balance so that I don’t forget again that I actually do enjoy writing.
Hello 2011
So as I’ve said before I don’t do new year’s resolutions, but I do like to at least make a nice list of goals I would like to accomplish for the year. Unfortunately, last year I started one but never finished and to make it even better I can’t even find it. This year I am not only going to make sure I get the list done. I’m posting online for to ensure a certain level of accountability and I will know exactly where to find it at the end of the year.
Goals for 2011
- Write everyday.
- Get my website up and running.
- Attend networking events.
- Organize my picture files.
- Edit poetry collection.
- Experiment with photo-editing everyday.
- Read at least 5 books on writing.
- Post something new online once a week.
- Update the website once a week.
Can’t wait to see at the end of the year how many of these I was able to stick to or accomplish.
Short Update
I know this blog has been pretty stagnant lately. It’s just not as easy as some people make it seem. With no editor I don’t have anybody assigning me stories. I also don’t have anybody to answer to if I don’t meet a deadline. I have several drafts waiting for me to go back and edit to publishing quality. I am an extreme perfectionist and would rather put nothing up than something sub par. I have seen blogs with simple misspellings and grammatical errors, it makes me sick. And the most important problem I find is that I just don’t have the time with school, work or looking for work, other writing projects and trying to live life.
However, the motivation behind starting the blog was to keep me writing on a fairly regular basis. I do get to do this with all the other work so I don’t feel that bad. As a matter of a fact I just got a new writing gig. As of today, my birthday, I will be writing album reviews for the website M is For Music. My first review was for the new band Baptized in Blood and you can read it here. I do hope to add more post to Last Words and I am considering creating a whole website. But for now I’m just happy that I’m still writing and enjoying it. (usually)
Keeping entertained while unemployed
I’ve pretty much been employed since the minute I got my working papers at fourteen years old. Except for a couple of months I was out of work after I moved back to the city, the longest I’ve gone without a job has been three weeks. As I write this I haven’t been working since May, in addition I also finished up my semester right after that. So for the past couple of months I’ve pretty much had nothing to do. I will admit I haven’t been looking that hard, because I am getting unemployment and I know I’ll be starting school again soon.
All this extra time on my hands has been driving me insane. Part of the reason I always worked was I needed to keep busy. So I’ve had a million little projects that I’ve been working on. In case you’re ever wondering how to pass some time if you have plenty of it here are a couple of my recommendations.
- Organizing your CD collection and/or uploading them all to your computer.
- Rearranging furniture.
- Saving all clips as pdf files, printing and creating a list of them, or updating your resume. In general preparing yourself for a job in your desired field, whatever that may include for you.
- Cleaning out your refrigerator.
- Get back into shape (with no real income I’ve become a fan of walking through Prospect Park for an hour or so).
- Take care of your health, if you don’t have it yet get medicaid, go get the physical you’ve been putting off.
- Catch up with old friends. Who knows it may lead to finding out about a job opening.
There are some also some other things you could do to keep busy that I don’t recommend, they will probably just keep you unemployed longer.
- Drink in the middle of the day.
- Pace around the house, unless it’s part of your workout routine. (I wouldn’t recommend it though, that’s the kind of thing that makes you start feeling a little cabin fever.)
- Spend all your time in bed. This could easily lead to feeling unproductive and useless, that’s when depression starts sinking in.
- Catch up with old friends. It could be a bad thing too, either you realize why you don’t talk to them anymore the hard way, or you occupy too much time hanging out instead of focusing on getting a new job.
At the end of the day the best thing to do is find anyway to keep busy while also being productive. If not, you could easily find yourself in a rut that will not lead you back to being employed. In my experience, the longer you stay out of work the harder it is to get back out there. Unless you have the luxury of not working and enjoy doing nothing, I suggest you find something right away and be flexible. Everything may not seem perfect but at least give it a chance, you never know it may become perfect.
Physical and mental writing blocks
I have a life pretty much filled with clutter. This is as much mental as it is physical. I have recently come to the realization that this clutter has become a hurtle to overcome when it comes to my writing. I’m sure some of this will sound familiar to others. Here’s a fun little list of things that stand in my way.
Physical clutter
- Notebooks upon notebooks half full of writing, ideas and half done poems that I would love to be able to go through to get some inspiration.
- Scraps of paper poem lines, short story ideas, scenes, and random dialog.
- Folders full of school papers that should be edited to use for publication.
- Then there are the piles of random other junk. At the moment my bedroom looks like a tornado just passed through.
Mental Clutter
- First thing in the morning my mind get filled with the redundant task of everyday like, check email, shower, myspace, howework, work, etc.
- In the back of my mind I’m always questioning how I’m going to get my bills paid.
- Right after that I begin the worry of needing to find a decent paying job. Keeping in mind that I would like it to be a job that I actually like.
While all that runs through my mind I still have all the other worries that I’m pretty sure every other person in their 20′s has. I do have periods of time where I am able to push everything aside and get some writing done. But it seems to be getting harder and harder lately.
It would be great to hear if anybody else has these same issues. It would also be great to get some advice on how to deal with it.
Rude Interviewers
I understand that when searching for a job, especially when they are internships, you are not the highest priority on the interviewers mind but it would be nice to think that you can get the common courtesy of the person interviewing you. There are many things that I have encountered that are pretty much completely and utterly rude and if anything nearly close to these behaviors was done by the person being interviewed they would be guaranteed not to get the job. I understand obviously that its not the same thing, and usually we need the interviewer much more than they need us but does that mean we don’t deserve common courtesy. Here are a couple of pet peeves that drive me insane in no particular order:
1. The interviewer being late. I was on time if not early why can’t I get the same respect.
2. Having to reschedule and then never doing so. I really don’t understand this, because to me it says they didn’t need somebody in the first place or already made their decision. Now all they did was give me a glimmer of hope and then snatch it right back.
2. Keep me waiting for more than twenty minutes. This is almost the same as being late but instead the person is there and is involved in something so much more important that you have to wait. Or my favorite their last interview has run late. Please again common courtesy I may not be working but I have a schedule to keep too.
3. Taking calls during the interview. Now this one I give a little leeway on. Just because we are having an interview doesn’t mean the rest of the world stops. But recently I have an interviewer take several cell phone calls during an interview and then sit there and have at least a minute or two conversation each time. Not only was it rude but also distracting; after each phone call neither one of us remembered what we were speaking about. If you must take a call make sure it’s not an emergency and then tell them you will call back when you are done.
4. Rush through an interview because you have to be somewhere else in five minutes. Why did you schedule the interview for that time then? I always tell interviewers when I’m free and ask when they would prefer to meet, yet I still have some that have to run out to a meeting. At the end of those I always know I wont be getting the job because there is no way they got any sense of whether or not I was the right candidate.
These are just a few things off the top of my head, but I’m sure there are plenty more. Anybody else have similar or even worse examples of bad interviewers?
