So, now that I am no longer working full time, I'm making an effort to prioritize and manage my days so that I can be effect at this Consulting (so that I can spend more time with the kids) thing. And today, on my very first day of officially Not Earning A Steady Paycheck, I made myself do the same thing I did every day, each Monday previous. I herded the kids onto the bus, and then jumped in the shower, dressed, blow-dried my hair, and put on some makeup. And then I sat down to check email and do a little writing.
If you must know, this kind of discipline does not come naturally to me. It's probably a good thing that the weather is so nice this week - I mean, seriously, it was a very uncustomary 77 degrees today. If it were chilly it might have been easier for me to choose to snuggle back under the covers with the poodle and the kid's Halloween candy.
But, I didn't. And then after I checked email and did some banking and made some calls, I ran errands. All my errands, done before 11:15, instead of over my lunch hour when every other working parent is running errands and tying up bank drive thru lanes and return lines at Wal*Mart. Awesome.
Then I headed downtown to participate as a panelist at the Kansas City Advertising Club's Career Day event. This is where college students from local schools who are interested in advertising come down to listen to ideas on getting their career started in this business from various advertising pundits. Being a recruiter, and an advertising person, I had volunteered to speak. I am a decent public speaker, if I have some sort of an idea of what I'm speaking on. Trick here was, I didn't. Late Friday night the woman organizing the event emailed me to say, Okay, I put you on the Public Relations panel, is that okay?
Folks, I am not in Public Relations. I know what PR people do, and I know what their resumes need to say in order to qualify them for PR positions, and yes, I have and can write a press release if needed. But I am not a PR person. So I did what every red-blooded, networking-hungry consultant would do: I said "Sure, no problem!"
So I got down there this afternoon, met the others on my panel, who thankfully, were indeed PR people, explained that I'm really just here to be a warm body to help out, I'll just answer the questions from the moderator that have to do with resumes or careers in PR as opposed to actually talking about one DOES, as a PR person. Except, guess what?
The Moderator was just there to introduce us. She was not there to throw out questions for us to take turns answering. It was pretty much, Okay kids! Here's Jenny! Listen to what she has to say!
And, cue the crickets.
Okay, not that bad. I started talking. I'm sure I looked nervous, but hopefully not as much as I felt. I talked about how we are our own worst enemies when it comes to PR - the one thing we advertising industry people often forget is that our own public image, as individuals looking for career growth, is the most important thing. First impressions, best foot forward, Blah Blah Blah, I'm pretty sure I used lots of annoying phrases and metaphors. I even told them, LOOK, I'm not telling you anything new here, I'm just saying, everything you've ever heard is true, this stuff matters if you want to get a career in marketing, advertising, or PR.
And I must have done okay, because after the other two women spoke, most of the open questions were directed to me.
It felt pretty good, despite feeling totally unprepared for what to discuss besides a very generic topic. It reminded me that I do kind of like public speaking, especially in small seminar type groups like this, and also what I really like is sharing my knowledge and lessons with a younger generation that wants to hear it.
Just promise you'll stop me when I start with "Back in MY day..."
I'm so envious of you! I would do anything to be able to quit my job to pursue writing, or photography, or whatever I damn well please. You are inspiring to say the least.
And errands done before 11:15? Awesome.
Posted by: SJ | November 04, 2008 at 01:12 PM