In the past week, a few people unconnected to each other and who I know through different ways mentioned to me that they've noticed I don't post any Facebook notes or blogs as I did on a regular basis for at least a few years, beginning with Myspace. So here it is, an explanation as to what I've been up to in the form of a Facebook note, and GONE post...
Starting a business will put a crimp on the free time, and writing letters to Jared Fogle the Subway Guy and haikus and fake news articles and all the other stuff I loved doing so much just doesn't pay the bills. Writing comedy sketches doesn't pay the bills, either, in fact, as a student I get to pay someone else to take the classes to learn how to do it, so if I have any energy left after working on the newsletter it goes into sketch homework, or reading instead of writing.
The weekly neighborhood newsletter covering the neighborhood I've lived in for just about five years now started this past April with a simple idea to write a chamber news email, an opportunity I was extremely grateful for, and still am in so many ways and on so many levels. The director of the chamber who I knew previously from selling newspaper ads spots to her knew how passionate I was about writing, and if it weren't for her I'd probably still be writing letters to Jared. Instead, I feel like my creativity is being applied to something larger- and consequently far more important than myself or entertaining the few friends that may have enjoyed the for-no-reason blog posts I just don't have time for anymore-- though in a perfect world I would have time for both.
This past July it became apparent that I should expand my focus beyond the chamber members and friends of chamber as I was spending untold hours each week wandering around, almost like people being a drug and me being addicted to finding out more about them and then sharing it in the for
m of a weekly email. After a meeting where I probably appeared on the verge of a breakdown, no actually I did appear that way, and in which I not-very-convincingly "resigned" from my $30 per week freelance contract job, the director and I shared a very therapeutic ride in her car, and being my emotional self I think I was bawling about how I needed to either figure out a way to spend far less time on the newsletter, OR figure out a way to expand it, and sell sponsorships to many of the readers who sent me lots of emails each week with things to include in the newsletter, or just notes of support like "keep up the good work!" and other positive feedback like that each week they read about happenings they wouldn't have otherwise known about.
With that sort of feedback, and because I was truly loving the process of working on the newsletter, I knew I had to find a way to 'keep it continue' as Sammy Sosa so eloquently once said, even if it meant I'd have to go back to the very thing I was so burnt out from doing, and really wish I didn't have to do all the time, which is selling. The chamber became my very first advertiser on that drive, and, because for whatever reason people that sell ads always make more money than people who write stuff, I increased the weekly pay to somewhere around $61. In a newspaper business model, only about 15-20% of ad dollars goes to content creators, but with the Pipeline it is closer to 90%. There are no fat cat executives at the top of the food chain here sucking up ad dollars, just a fat cat that sits on my lap as I write.
It's much easier to sell now than in the past because I am selling something that I created vs. selling something for a big business, and where I felt more like a cog in a wheel taking hundreds of dollars from small businesses (as a relationship seller, I sell to the people I like) yet offering no guarantees except for exposure and visibility and that I'd bust my ass for them to create a unique looking advertisement or something different that would hopefully make them stand out from the pack. Hours went into taking photos for their ads, or training them on how to set up a social media page, or begging friends to model for the ads (THANKS, you all know who you are!!! I won't embarrass you through tagging but I just recalled maybe four or five of you), and then returning a week or two later to disappointment, and hearing my customers say that nobody mentioned the ad, or they didn't make any new sales as a result of the ad, and sometimes the look in their eyes telling me to please get the hell away, you're just a damn solicitor, those were the looks that made me cry in my car on the way back home, because I had disappointed others who'd given me their trust and money in a declining economy and the job felt utterly soulless and my so called career worthless.
Somebody this week asked me why I'm doing what I'm doing, and if it's all about "just trying to make a buck." I laughed, and am still laughing thinking about that comment because there are many other ways to make a buck that are far easier than writing, taking photos, selling sponsorships to support what you're doing, partnering with another writer contributor, and then distributing it all while working with a local kid who is also becoming part of the wandering street team, and learning about the business model, and how to explain it to others. In terms of finding other ways to make the proverbial buck, though it could just be my wild imagination, I'm sensing an air of anxiety permeating many traditional businesses, and their workers. As I've been on many an interview, I can also say firsthand that the competition for the few good jobs out there is intense, and it doesn't seem to be easing up anytime soon. At one interview in a Michigan Ave. building I sat there in a suit perhaps saying all the right answers until the part came where they asked what I've been doing these past months, and I mentioned the newsletter which could have been a red flag despite the fact I assured them I would have time for the job, and the newsletter. In the past I wrote the text for two published photography books while working at full-time jobs, and I also wrote a novella called '30-Days Notice' while also working at a very demanding 50-plus hour full-time job that required near weekly travel. For health insurance, and steady pay, I could probably find a way to straddle both worlds, in fact since health insurance is important to me I might have to figure out a way to do that soon, yet with increased competition for corporate jobs it appears as if most companies want someone who doesn't have a full plate of extracurricular activities.
Needless to say I haven't found a traditional job yet despite keeping an eye on the job boards, and while I could step up the search another notch or two I'm also busy with the weekly newsletter, and the caffe gig. Yesterday Pat, who is a tremendous help in terms of moral support, as well as proofing and contributing a story or two each week, calculated that maybe he makes $3 or so bucks an hour, and these days I'm maybe pacing at $8 thanks to the support of sponsors who've come aboard, and to whom I am very grateful for this season!!! While the pay is small, the fact we are even paid at all is encouraging, though the pay is 100% dependent on my ability to solicit sponsorships, too, and frankly I'm having more fun with the writing than the selling. Our highest paid worker is the delivery kid who makes $10 an hour two hours each week. Like Whitney Houston, I too believe that the children are the future, and even if we're not quite a real company, by installing in him the way real companies pay and job responsibilities maybe one day he will get a job at a real company. A few weeks or so ago I told him that we had brought on a new sponsor. He was like, "uh, cool," though I don't think he understood what I meant, or its implications. I added, "This means you still have a job next month." He understood immediately.
As I 'pop in' on shops all the time, tonight all are welcome to "pop in on me" as well as Pat at caffe de luca from 7 to 10 p.m. It'll be as close as The Pipeline will come to a 2009 holiday shindig....and like everything else I thought of/"planned" the gathering yesterday, so I understand if it'll just be a few of us... In addition to steep half-off discount on wine bottles, and 25% off food, and "Aly De Luca's" free tarot readings, with the donation of any amount of toiletries or diapers, while supplies last, people can dip into a "found object" grab bag- CPS forged excuse notes, random stuff from garage sales, art, cat collectibles, it'll all be there!
