You're so strong and I wanna be your weakness....

[flirtygirl238]

Here are some random thoughts...

My parents have gone off the deep end with the money situation. They expect me to save for Auburn next year while paying for my own gas, car insurance, haircuts, food, etc currently. Um sorry mom and dad. Its not possible! And I already go to school full time now PLUS work 25 hours (40 during this Christmas) a week

Comments

[adages]

Hmmm. OK, so how long do you think it will be before one of you emails to take a shot at *writing* something? Probably next SUMMER, I suppose?

You guys have the intellect for it. The question for me is more about ego, and it's backwards from what I'll bet you've been taught.

If you're pretty sure that Kelly Anne and Amanda are pretty cool, competent, soon to be accomplished achievers, then a creative director can scratch out this and rewrite that and they can think, "Eh...we'll still be Kelly Anne and Amanda when we wake up tomorrow...whether we're learning by, er, temporarily sort of failing...or not..."

Whereas the folks with tiny egos are the ones who, when you try to teach them, defend and rationalize and basically sound like they're two years old and you're trying to wrench a lollypop out of their hands.

You'd think the loud ones are sure of themselves, huh? Or that the strong ones would be the unbending ones. Nope. The ones that are sure of themselves take in the input, process it, refine, rewrite and comes back with something that blows you both away. The strong ones bend and give and don't break under pressure, and then spring back up and keep growing.

And you already know this. It's in a lot of your posts. ; )

Anyway...yeah...freelance writing. Email. Confidence. Courage. Etc. Give it some thought and get back to me. ; )

[adages]

Hmmmm. Yearbook. Any chance you're using Quark or InDesign (design software)? Or just some weird yearbook program? : )

[flirtygirl238]

Hm...I sensed some compliments in there perhaps...Who knows these things!
We use Adobe Pagemaker...great program but definitely has its flaws!

[adages]

Oh, I know...I'm throwing a lot at you fast, but, as a rule with both of you, I'm leaning toward what would seem to be the most obvious reality: You'll both have the brains and chutzpah to compete in any setting, and you've started out surrounded by folks who spent their entire lives where they are...doing what they do...knowing what they know.

When those folks try to give advice, they *should* always preface it with "I haven't a CLUE what it's like to ride the subway, drive a beltway, live in one of the four richest counties in the country, bicycle in downtown traffic, have homeless folks and millionaires as friends, or even, for goodness sake, live in a downtown apartment...BUT...that shouldn't stop me from telling you where *you'd* be happy. You'd be happy doing exactly what I'm doing and are familiar with!

YOU: Wow...really? Who could have seen *that* coming? ; )

So...Kelly...mostly I'm just saying...yes, they're compliments, but they not much more than, um, if you feel like reaching to the level you appear to be capable of, it could be a pretty high level.

You can think, "That's kind of flattering." My thought is more, "It's also just downright accurate...and there's no defensable reason not to fill you guys in."

There's also a bit of: If you're really smart, discerning and willing to work hard, it can be easier for you in a setting that most people can't even get into than it would be at the level that most people have to compete at. You know? Like a guy who's a natural at writing national TV sitcoms is just going to be the frustrated loudmouth who doesn't take work seriously enough in Birmingham.

And I'm not saying where either of you "should" fit in, either. I'm just giving you another perspective and some additional awareness to use as you plan and learn and try things out.

You know what (some) people from places like Birmingham and Pittsburgh are that people who grow up in the burbs of the bigger more prosperous cities aren't? Hungry. So...you know, check in at jverba@adgression.com. I just finished two self-promotion postcards that I'd love to get you guy's reactions to. (Just to see what you think and say.) And let's see where that goes.

I found a home schooler from Seattle who just works and thinks and produces. And the first check I sent her for $750 for photography and Digital Studio work, I said...OK...get a Mac Mini for $500 and an educationally priced copy of Quark ($199...seriously) and I'll send you a ton of fonts and we'll see where it takes us. And she and her parents were cool with that...and...

You know, Kelly (and Amander)...I think at some level I'd much rather pay guys like you $25 to $50 an hour once you're being productive, and have you put your hearts into it...and let you build portfolios and futures, then pay someone here $85 an hour and have them turn in typically dreary DC copywriting and have no interest in improving on what they do.

Pagemaker is a lot like Quark...but Quark is more intuitive. And sometimes I just have to have done an update of an existing Quark file, like for a reprint of a brochure, and I just want to send it to someone knowing that they can go through the changes, make them and send the file back while I'm off networking and managing everything else that's coming through.

So can you see why having you be delighted to make $15 an hour doing that would be worth all these emails in the end? ; )

I've seen what can happen to a business if it can get all the people in the right places at the right prices. Things can flow like you can't imagine...but it takes pulling it all together and bringing together something 9 out of 10 people can't see. Which is kinda' the right size challenge for me, you know?

John