Penny drop
Finished the poem I am going to read at Ken's 80th birthday party, I am rather pleased with it and I hope he likes it. Then crept off to the gym again but only briefly. Returned to do an hour or two of French press ad work while before putting my long coat and hat on to go out and meet Di Turner for a coffee. I don't know what it is about her, but she seems to spark off penny drop moments every other time we meet up. We pushed off to a teashop in New Road and sat in what has become our usual table by the window.
Diane helped me realise three things. First was that I needed to separate my identities as Peter Kenny poet, librettist, all purpose airy literary fop from my hard-nosed business side. At the moment I am presenting myself as a hybrid, which makes me seem a bit of a dilettante to business types, while the arty types have no interest in how I make money at all. This results in me watering down both sides to meet uneasily in the middle.
Second was in talking to her I realised how bored I am with my current paid work: the same clients, the same kind of work. I clearly saw a need for a flagship project to take me onto a new level of big and cleverness.
Third was that Diane told me how she had used Linked in to build an impressive portfolio of contacts, and this made me realise that I have been timid about networking -- essentially just relying on people who know my work to hire me.
Anyway these things left me with loads to think about, and it was just about the most useful cup of coffee I can remember having.
Then home to do some more work before Matt called around and we drifted down to the Basketmakers. He has started right away getting stuck into the new piece, which is provisionally called ï -- an I with two dots, to suggest a split identity. Matt had a vivid dream in which he saw the bridge between sections five and six, and it turns out to be a rather brilliant idea. Good to get things rolling. Working with Matt is so inspiring and ego-free it is just great.
Lorraine came then and Matt left shortly after. Eventually we went back to my place and ate a bowl of bean jar I'd made, which was one of the more delicious ones. All well, and Lorraine tremendously pleased to have reached the end of her trying week. All well.
Finished the poem I am going to read at Ken's 80th birthday party, I am rather pleased with it and I hope he likes it. Then crept off to the gym again but only briefly. Returned to do an hour or two of French press ad work while before putting my long coat and hat on to go out and meet Di Turner for a coffee. I don't know what it is about her, but she seems to spark off penny drop moments every other time we meet up. We pushed off to a teashop in New Road and sat in what has become our usual table by the window.
Diane helped me realise three things. First was that I needed to separate my identities as Peter Kenny poet, librettist, all purpose airy literary fop from my hard-nosed business side. At the moment I am presenting myself as a hybrid, which makes me seem a bit of a dilettante to business types, while the arty types have no interest in how I make money at all. This results in me watering down both sides to meet uneasily in the middle.
Second was in talking to her I realised how bored I am with my current paid work: the same clients, the same kind of work. I clearly saw a need for a flagship project to take me onto a new level of big and cleverness.
Third was that Diane told me how she had used Linked in to build an impressive portfolio of contacts, and this made me realise that I have been timid about networking -- essentially just relying on people who know my work to hire me.
Anyway these things left me with loads to think about, and it was just about the most useful cup of coffee I can remember having.
Then home to do some more work before Matt called around and we drifted down to the Basketmakers. He has started right away getting stuck into the new piece, which is provisionally called ï -- an I with two dots, to suggest a split identity. Matt had a vivid dream in which he saw the bridge between sections five and six, and it turns out to be a rather brilliant idea. Good to get things rolling. Working with Matt is so inspiring and ego-free it is just great.
Lorraine came then and Matt left shortly after. Eventually we went back to my place and ate a bowl of bean jar I'd made, which was one of the more delicious ones. All well, and Lorraine tremendously pleased to have reached the end of her trying week. All well.
Comments
It's easy to get loads and loads of connections on LinkedIn. And for a while it can make you feel good as all sorts of people add you to their network. But it almost never leads to any work. I did the LinkedIn thing for a good while, but deleted my account a few weeks ago.
As for being a literary fop, there's nothing wrong with that. There are all sorts of professional marketing copywriters out there who have never written anything outside of an ad. They're all the same. All they know is ads.
Better to position yourself as a real writer who, for a reasonable daily fee, will turn his hand to some ad work.
It's worked for me.
What I am now realising is the essential ah-ha! boils down to the fact that I am not throwing much creativity into my business positioning - and as a consequence am encountering the same people, and the same old stuff.
As for Linked-in yes, I have not really used it other than as a less trivial facebook. Di impressed me by proactively linking with the top people in her field around the world, and now has a list that is beginning to resemble a who's who of people in her industry - and has already had some interest.
I like that you deleted Linked in though. Decisive!