I’ve got a lot of major changes coming at me all at once. I’m starting to look for a new place, hoping to move out on April 30. And I had a fantastic new business meeting last week that could bring me a lot of new work.
This is good stuff. I put together my first PowerPoint presentation on how companies can use Facebook and Twitter, and I killed with it. I’ve been asked to put together a proposal for next week, where I would do monthly social media trainings for this company’s clients – and be available to do social media implementation work for their clients.
This is fabulous, but I’m mostly just interested in the monthly trainings. Even if a small % of their clients decide I was so impressive during a training that they want me to handle their Facebook/Twitter/Linkedin pages – say, 10 out of 138 – that’d still be a lot of new work all at one. Too much? And too much of the same kind of client – nonprofits – when I’d also like some fun, pop-culturey, commercial ones.
I’m all for replacing the remaining bit of work I’m letting go from my main nonprofit client when I stop working with them in May – but I might want to be more selective with who I replace them with. Let self-belief drive a little while and give fear a rest.
The good news is all these changes are temporary. In May, I’ll have a more stable roster of clients, and I’ll be living and working in my apartment by then. But for the time being, I’m just in major flux – with two twin-biggies: housing and working. Even though I know it’s temporary, I’ve still gotta hang on for dear life right now.
Filed under: Work | Tags: Facebook, self-employed, social media consulting, twitter
Really just a quick note to say that my consulting business is progressing very nicely. I am very busy, and enjoying my work very much. I’m trying new things and seeing good results with them, and I’m gaining new clients, too.
I’m not going to talk about specific clients on here anymore, because I don’t think it’s smart. They may not appreciate it; why risk it? Also, it’s just not necessary to be that specific for this blog to work.
Since I last posted, I:
- Created an online press room for a client and widely-yet-targeted distributed a press release for them
- Started following-up on the press release and already generated some coverage for them (much more to come)
- Started a Facebook fan page for my 3rd client
- Designed and launched a Facebook gifting application (!!!) for a client that’s already been used 400 times !!!
- Had a job interview for a 4th client and am working on my first power-point presentation for them on spec.
I’ve been working very, very hard – but it’s been very, very fun!
Filed under: Work
Hey, Guys – gonna bang out a few posts now, but they’ll probably be short ones. I’ve had a great Shabbat, just sleeping the day away, and catching up on American Idol w/Petey.
I soooo needed it, b/c I think I had the hardest working week of my life. My ex-boyfriend soon-to-be-ex-landlord nemesis dementor soon-to-be-former-boss left for a month-long business trip on Thursday, and before he 
did I put together a huge, 400-piece outreach mailing, continuing a year-long project of introducing our NGO to various groups and agencies we feel are likely to support us (schools, law schools, NGOs, Fortune 500 diversity groups, LGBT community centers, more). Each group got a different letter and press clip, so it wasn’t just the volume, it was the number of different moving parts to keep straight.
Another client is approaching venture capitalists next month to raise a new round of capital, and they are looking for media hits ASAP to be able to show potential investors. So, in less than a week, I wrote multiple drafts of:
- Two press releases
- Three corporate bios
- A “Q&A” press kit piece
- 5 core messages (key internal document)
- “At-A-Glance” (fact-sheet; another key press kit component)
- boilerplate paragraph (to be included below all press releases)
- ALSO:
- creating multiple, targeted media lists across all mediums
- drafting blueprint for online press room
That’s a lot of writing! We will reuse and repurpose a lot of these documents for a long time. But the ramp-up and creation of these key materials is time and labor intensive. It requires not only brilliant writing, but a lot of thought as you try and crystallize and articulate the company’s story. (Now, I have two days to put together a core “A” and “B” list of our top target bloggers to give a preview to in order to convert their attention into the media coverage we are seeking. My work has been outstanding so far, and my strategy is solid. But it was some days of writing for 11 hours straight, and I had to be at the top of my game. The entire program is coming from my head only – it will succeed or fail as a result of my efforts alone. There were times when I had finished a lot of writing for one day, but because there was so much more to do and such a hard deadline, I had to just take a break and walk the dog, then make some more coffee and get right back to it.
I also had my first work-session for a limited social media campaign I’m putting together for my newest client. I worked on site, so the client could have input and feel that I’ve got their concepts down enough to turn me loose and have do the implementation work on my own after that. It’s a really fun client, but again – the ramp-up phase of working with a new client is always the most labor and time intensive.
I’m proud of myself for staying focused and not quitting before the job was done. I had to be very self-disciplined, b/c there’s no one but me in my apartment lighting this fire under me (that needs to be there). Of course I want to remain humble and give props to God, not think I do any of this alone, etc. – but I definitely do my part, and I really “showed up for myself” and worked hard this week. In fact, I’m not exaggerating one iota when I say I worked the hardest this week than I ever have before in my whole life. What a wonderful feeling to know that I certainly haven’t peaked yet!
Filed under: Work | Tags: public relations cosulting, self-employed, social media consulting
Great news, Peeps.
Last week, I wrote about some fast changes that were happening in my life. Mainly around my career. Well, last Sunday I met with my social media client, and we agreed to double my hours (up to 30/week now) and I would being implementing a PR campaign for them, while continuing my social media strategy and implementation duties.
What was especially great about this is that I got to contact my boss at my full-time nonprofit consulting gig and tell him I was scaling back my hours with him. We spoke again later the same day, and he asked me if my plans included scaling back even further en route to departing the organization. I told him Yes.
There’s major history there that’s still embargoed for the time being, but do you think I liked it when he remarked that my departure would be “catastrophic” for the organization? [answer: hellz yeah]
I’m also going to be moving in the middle of May, because there are several problems with this apartment. Again, it’s not stuff I explore too deeply on G-Fish, but there is a connection b/t my employer and my apartment, too. So, when I was recounting all these developments to my friend Juni, she said, So it sounds like the middle of May won’t be just Israel’s Independence Day, but yours as well!
Oh, and Juni’s becoming my client, also. June is beyond remarkable. She was appointed 2008’s Person of The Year by the Mayor of Tel Aviv (the real one, not some Foursquare shiz). She runs an organization called Because We Care, which is all about educating Israelis to be accountable for taking care of our land and our society. One of its most successful programs is called “Saki-Kaki,” which posts little doggy bags around Israel’s parks and streets and encourages people to curb their dogs.
I’m going to be doing a social media campaign for Saki-Kaki, and I’m so excited about it. It’ll be great to work for a friend as dear as she, and I’m also glad to pick up another nonprofit client with a great mission.
I told you last week how I think I may be picking up a lot more work in May, when my other friend’s company relaunches with a much bigger social media component. It’s a bit of a risk to tell my main client now that I’ll be leaving in May, b/c I don’t know for sure this work will be there. It is a risk, but one I am willing to take.
Real quick, b/c I’m getting a little rambly at this point. A shout-out to my Higher Power, who I feel (once again) did for me what I could not do for myself. You see, I was always content to be the # 2 person, the wingman.
The real work – there was no question I could get that done, and do a great job on it. If the boss was on vacation or unavailable, I could even step in and hold down the fort and make big decisions on the spot when called for. But bringing in the new business?…paying rent for office space?…hanging my name on the shingle outside? Not for me! I’m a number two man, and I was cool with that. Not everyone’s cut out to be the boss. I didn’t want to work for myself, I needed a boss.
That was then. As Yoda Jeremy pointed out a few weeks ago, I already contacted an accountant, filed for official freelancer status in Israel, got my own clients, etc. And now with this PR campaign for my new client, I’m being given major latitude to run the program how I see fit. It will succeed or fail 100% on my own efforts. I’m not the number two man at all. You see –
New biscotti post up @ ROASTe. Was a really fun one to research. I prepared various sweet and savory foods to eat with my coffee – in an experiment to see how each of them affected the coffee’s taste differently. I think you’ll like it.
Filed under: Feelings, Friends, Work | Tags: PR, public relations, social media consulting
Remember when things were ‘bubbling under?’ Well, once I started doing my two jobs, things got a little unmanageable at first. I would kinda sleep too late to get all my social media client work done in the mornings and find time to work on my memoir and look for new work. I’d get one or two errands done and maybe some powerwalking, but then it was time to take Petey to the dog park, and before I knew it, it was time to start my 2nd job, which I would do until 9pm.
Then, I’d bang out the client social media work, scram to the gym for the last hour before it closed, unwind w/ the web and maybe an episode of glee, and get to bed too late (2am) to get up early enough to prevent the cycle from continuing the next day.
I’m happy to report, after a few weeks of having both jobs, equilibrium did present itself, and I settled into a groove. I was able to get the client social media work done in the a.m., which ended my work day about 90 minutes earlier. Still had difficulty finding time to accomplish everything else I wanted to in the morning, but – progress, not perfection.
Anyway, then – in a flash! – the fast changes were upon me. Late Thursday night, I was putzing around online, getting ready to go out to BEEF, when I saw some news from a client’s competitor come up in my Facebook news feed. They were thanking a New York Times writer for mentioning them in his new blog post. WTF? I clicked the link and saw the coverage. Crap, this wasn’t good.
That’s when I sprang into action. I:
- emailed the client’s three owners (only one of whom I have direct contact w/, but the other two’s addresses I’ve seen in emails I was copied on)
- gave them the link and asked them if they’d seen this yet
- reminded them I have a professional background in PR
- stated that the competitor clearly got into this blog post b/c they have a PR program
- initiated a swift and brilliant crisis-management plan, where I ghost-wrote a comment and had someone else post it, getting my client’s name into the first comment below the article, only sentences away from our competitor’s coverage, and virtually making us part of the article, too, now (the next day, another commenter referenced us, so I had my client wrote an official response; now, we’re practically the dominant theme in the comments in a way that is not overkill
Wow, the rush was exhilarating! After thanking my HP, I remembered to ask Him to help me let go of those feelings, too – b/c if I fed them too long, they could become disruptive and harmful to me.
Anyway, the client responded that same night with an offer for me to begin doing PR for them, too. (We have a meeting tomorrow to talk about this.) Now, I’m sure this is what I was after – otherwise, why would the first thing I have done been to remind them of my PR background and drive home the fact that our competitor’s success came b/c they had PR and we didn’t?
But, waitaminute – did I actually want to get back into PR? Despite being a very talented PR professional, I feel that my career in New York sort of ran its course, b/c I was unwilling to do what was necessary to break myself through to the next level where I ran my own company (or ascended to VP level at a bigger firm). And I’ve been so excited about being led down this new path into social media consulting. Would a return to PR be a step backwards for me?
I’m glad for my instincts. My actions that night were very smart. My friend Felicia helped me see my go-to thinking (that a return to PR would be a step backwards) as unnecessary and untrue. She pointed out that:
- It could provide a comfortable place to do what I know best, and buy me the time to study up and become better at social media strategy, until I have the knowledge to match the social media implementation I am already doing
- This would be In-House PR, which I’d never done before. Unlike at a firm, where having different clients meant the media you had to target was vast and diverse, here my media universe would be much more niche….almost a way to take my existing PR skill set and go 2.0 with it, to push myself to that level I was uninterested in achieving back in New York
Felicia helped me realize that this moment I was at didn’t have to be bad or scary just because it was heralding the unknown. If I just rubbed my eyes, I could see all the hope that was present. Thx, F !!
Later that day I spoke w/ my friend Debra, another social media professional. She was very supportive of my taking the PR meeting with my client, and stressed the value of keeping one’s professional skills flexible and always growing. Thx, Deb!
After that, I had a super (and super-long!) call w/ my dear, longtime friend (and former supervisor) Meggles. She revealed her own plans to reinvent her PR/marketing company with a much stronger social media component and asked me if I’d want to do social media implementation for her clients. Meg and I have worked together before, and I can’t say enough good things about how she inspires and brings out the best in me. Meg, you really are such a kind cheerleader, I feel quite a bit of love for you. Besides our practical discussion, we also went off on social media’s explosion in general, and it produced an extraordinarily stimulating discussion.
Later that day, I spoke with my friend and former boss Pat. A kind and talented PR genius, Pat helped me crystallize the ideas I want to present to my client tomorrow. Thanks, Pat!
So – I must remember to keep focused on taking the next, right action, and constantly turning it over to my HP – but in such a short order, from my likely-to-expand hours with my existing client, to the new work I hope to get from Meg, I can see the light where I’m ready to decrease my hours working for my full-time nonprofit client and maybe even close that chapter definitively.
This is an incredibly exciting prospect for me, and I’m just so grateful to be visualizing that idea – albeit with the proper balance.
I’m so grateful to God and everyone I mentioned in this post. I can some it up in this Tweet/Facebook status update from yesterday: Huge bath of love from the universe right now – from peeps recent and all the way back. My history pushing me forward. Love.
Filed under: Work | Tags: broadcasting, gay, gay middle east, gaymiddleeast.com, TV news
The wait is over, people. The first video segments that me & my friend Shabi produced for GayMiddleEast.com are up on our YouTube channel.
Look, I’m not embarrassed by them, but I also don’t think these are good enough to send as links to the producers of the English-language evening newscast here in Israel. With no budget or teleprompter, I am reading the stories from a script in my hand. My head is bobbing up and down faster than Pamela Anderson in the Pittsburgh Steelers’ locker room. But it’s OK. Next time we are going to try a creative solution – slowly filming us moving the script upwards in front of the camera, then playing it back on a monitor next to the camera when we record me. Makeshift teleprompter!
Stick the popcorn in the microwave for these. But don’t take a sip of water before pressing play – you might just do aspit-take.
Let me lay it out for you: yesterday afternoon I worked on writing another page for the job-that-I-don’t-talk-about-on-here‘s new website, which we’re launching next month. I’m really proud of this project; the site is going to be fabulous. Plus, this particular page was very challenging; I was taking complex financial and estate planning stuff and explaining it very simply to the casual reader who might want to leave this organization a bequest in his/her will.
Then…yuck. My nearly 4-year old PC, which had been slowing down dramatically the last six months, crashed when I was updating its drivers last night. Not the world’s worst news – I have all my important docs, media & data saved on an external hard drive – but it kept me up very late trying to save it.
Then, this morning, I listened to Shabi’s full Silvano Orsi interview, so I could write out the questions we would film me reading into the camera later today. After that, I wrote up news briefs for the six stories we’d also be filming me read. Then, I rode my bike – dressed in my on-camera suit – to the part of town where Shabi lives. We did the filming, which went really well. (I have to let go of the results of what the final edit will look like; I already know you’ll see me looking down at my notes a lot on camera.)
All the while, I’m trying to keep my dog entertained and make sure he gets outside for walks instead of just watching me type all day.
I also squeezed in an AA meeting, then did my ROASTe Tweets & FB updates, and now at 2:30 a.m. I’m blogging my personal shiz.
I have to tell you….I love it. Don’t think for one second that I don’t love the fact that I’m certain I am the only person in all of Israel living this incredibly packed life of really interesting activities. I mean, c’mon – racing around town on my bike dressed in a suit to go film YouTube videos about Middle Eastern LGBT news reports, and then coming home to write pithy, upscale coffee Tweets? You can’t make this shit up!
But – there’s also a lot of stress. I’m under very real financial pressures now. I don’t make enough money to support myself at the moment. I should be alright now that there’s Job # 2, and Job # 1 has a raise for me in the works. But it’s tight, and I’m dipping into savings now. Plus – today was a gorgeous in Tel Aviv – 77° and sunny. My neighborhood was wall-to-wall families with strollers and people on roller blades and walking dogs. My neighbor Ilana went to the beach. My other neighbor Justin went to the gay nude beach in Ga’ash. As much as i love running around with a purpose and being busy…I kinda deserve a day off to be naked around beautiful men on the beach, too, you know?
Filed under: Cool Things, Work | Tags: broadcasting, gay, Silvano Orsi, TV news
On top of both my jobs, this week I did a third job, albeit one that didn’t pay me anything. I mentioned it already on here; it’s sort of combination news writer/reporter/anchor work for GayMiddleEast.com. GME is a news-aggregator site for LGBT stories from throughout the Middle East. I’m part of a new project for them, where we’re creating original video content from the stories on the site and posting it on YouTube. You never know – there’s at least one English-language newscast in Israel, and I’m sure the talent pool for native English-speakers with broadcasting skills is pretty small…who knows – maybe this will be the thing that pops, and I’ll wind up the Israeli Anderson Cooper.
One of the videos we’re working on is an interview with Silvano Orsi. It’s a pretty incredible story. In 2003 Orsi, an American citizen, was chilling in a 5-star hotel restaurant in Geneva, Switzerland, when Sheikh Falah al-Nahyan – the brother of the President of the United Arab Emirates – came up to him and started hitting on him hardcore. When Orsi turned him down (he’s not gay), the Sheik sent over a $500 bottle of champaign. When Orsi turned him down again, the Sheik whipped the shit out of him in front of everybody in the hotel bar with a heavy metal belt buckle. Orsi tried to get away to another room, and then to the reception desk to call for help, and each time the Sheik followed him and whipped him with the belt buckle in his face all over again. Because the Swiss didn’t wanna piss off UAE royalty, they confiscated Orsi’s cell phone, refused to call the police for him, and kept him against his will at the hotel until 3:00 a.m. Anyway, that’s just the beginning of the story – but already, WTF, right ???
GME.com’s Shabi Gatenio (who’s, I guess, my boss in this non-paying gig; but actually more like my friend) interviewed Orsi over Skype last month. This week, we videotaped me outside the Swiss embassy reporting on part of the story. Then, today at Shabi’s house, we videoed me in front of a green screen asking questions that will be edited together with Orsi’s interview. We also recorded a separate news brief of six LGBT stories from around the Middle East the last six months.
Now, look: there wadn’t no tellyprompter; I had to look down at the pages I was holding a lot. Our budget was less than what a pack of cigarettes cost in New York City these days. But, like I said, what if this explodes into a new career for me here? Israel’s a very “small pond;” it is entirely within the realm of possibility. Also, think of all the LGBTs throughout the Middle East – many of whom are educated and speak English – they’ll get some validation seeing their issues broadcast in this Internet video coverage. Also, people from around the world looking for these stories will find our coverage online. What I’m getting at is: drawing attention to the many abuses inflicted upon LGBTs in this region is a very worthwhile service to be providing. I’m proud and happy to do it!
Oh, what’s with the title of this post? Funny joke from the classic movie Airplane II: The Sequel.
Remember, the big job I had three interviews for…the one I was real excited to get? Yeah, well I didn’t get it. Some bitch other person did. But actually, there is great news to report: My contact at this firm offered me another position: Social Media Consultant. I’m very excited about this – what fantastic experience I will gain! Such a growth field, and I will get a lot of mileage out of this on my resume. I’m working ten hours/week for ROASTe.com, an online retailer of high-end gourmet coffees. My job is to write a weekly blog post about coffee, and to update the company’s Facebook page and Twitter feed. And – I get to expense all the coffee I buy now, and I am supposed to only buy the really good stuff. OMG, you guys – O. M. G !!!
I’m viewing this turn of events very positively. Don’t you think it’s such a compliment that they basically created this position for me? My contact and I really got along well, and I think he wanted to hire me for the position (which was to do marketing writing for them and search engine optimization for the site)…but the other candidate just had better qualifications for it, and he had to go with her. But it’s like he said, Yeah, but we can’t let this guy go….We gotta find something for this guy to do – we must have him! I see it as a huge compliment.
I am still keeping my other job (the one I don’t talk about on here); I’m going to do both. And boy, do I need them both; this is great timing! I’m no longer getting about 1200 shekels ($300) a month from the government; that benefit for new immigrants has stopped. And, since both my employers are based in America, I’m forced to pay my own Bituach Leumi each month, which is like a combo of Social Security and a national health premium for our socialized insurance in Israel. If I had Israeli employers, they would pay it for me, but I don’t so it’s on me. Actually, in Israel the bigger employers also file your taxes for you. Since I’m freelance with two American firms, I’ve had to hire an accountant on a monthly retainer, which is how it works here if you’re an independent worker. The combination of the Bituach Leumi and my monthly accountant retainer is 865 shekels ($230). So, basically instead of getting $300 a month, I’m now paying $230 instead. As Velma would say – Jinkies!
I’ve done this job for three days now, and so far it is a lot of fun. There’s a lot more I want to say about it – the details of the work, and things I’d like to try, etc. But you know, I’m not really sure I should even be talking about it at all. In fact, I may end up deleting this post if too many people reading my work on ROASTe find me here or if my new employers disapprove of it. It is an American outfit after all, and I’m writing a very important voice for them….from here.
But, you can feel great for me, because I’m pretty darn happy about this – although it’s making me busier than ever, as you’ll see in the next post…
Gefilte Fish Out of Water 