Sure we’ve still got a little over a day left in New Hampshire for 2014, but I’m about ready to stick a fork in this year.
This year I:
- Began freelancing full time
- Wrote some articles for ConversionXL that I was really proud of
- Published 6 issues of an online zine
- Helped a friend jumpstart selling prints of their art
- Began planning a new venture to launch next year
Freelancing has been a sort of mixed bag. After 10 years with the same organization, I really enjoyed the free format of doing pickup work. I was able to take more time for myself, stretch out, and try new things. But it turns out I’m not really all that aces at time management, and I found it hard enough to juggle multiple disparate expectations that I wound up leaving a few people hanging. Not cool.
I was really happy to provide some cool 101 level guides on things I know well, like Google Analytics, and PPC for ConversionXL. (Check out the list here.) I got some great feedback, met some new people, and had a few interesting opportunities. It was the first time I got to flex my know-how on these subjects publicly and it felt great. Super grateful to then-editor Tommy Walker for taking a chance on my writing, and for ConversionXL head, Peep Laja, for publishing me!
On almost a whim, around April I thought “hey it’d be nice to set up a digital zine and publish it on Issuu”… so I put the word out to my personal network and Earth Is Huge And We Are All On It got started. It’s 6 issues in and issue 7 is slated for early next year. It’s been highly rewarding and I hope to keep developing it as a platform for all types of art and writing. (And with luck find a way to finance paying contributors so it’s not just a for-fun project, but one that rewards creators too.) Read the existing issues here.
Using a Society6 account I’d originally set up to try to sell prints of my own collage work, I set up a print sales home for my friend, and amazing artist, Jillelaine Condon. She got her first sale on an iPhone case and I hope to help her develop a plan to get more art up and get more eyes on her beautiful work.
Last and definitely not least, I have started preliminary work on a community coworking space for Dover, NH! My dream is to create a space not just for people to work, but also a place for people to create art, and to learn new skills that will help them live and work better, together. The last few weeks have been all about logistics planning, research on successful coworking spaces, and a lot of fevered pinning of possible setups, supplies, and projects. Beginning early next year I’ll start the most critical phase: taking the idea to the community. I think that there’s a ton of potential in an open, outreach-driven, creative-focused community work space and I’m excited to get started on that.
I’m ready for 2k15! I want to help make it a really great year for as many people as possible.
