An end-of-weekly roundup collecting fffffive of the fffffoxiest things I fffffind stumbling around the web. More about the genesis here. Every dang Friday Round-Up here, you procrastinating slacker!
While I’m pleased that my friend Lisa is gainfully employed again, my fondest wish is for a full book full of her startlingly clear and beautiful prose pieces—like this one, on divorce.
A mostly monthly but certainly occasional round-up of what I’ve been up to and what’s in the hopper. For full credits and details, see this entry.
Colleen of the future (stuff I’ll be doing)
“Making People Love You Madly” tour for ASMP [January dates: Albuquerque, 1/17; Phoenix, 1/19; New Orleans, 1/23; February dates: New York City, 2/1; Philadelphia, 2/9; Salt Lake City, 2/23] I’m continuing the road with a beefed-up version of my “marketing in the postmodern age” talk for the American Society of Media Photographers. Many of the chapters allow non-members to attend for a fee. This version of the talk uses specific examples from the world of commercial photography, but anyone with a small creative business will come away with plenty of ideas. And, if you’re good at networking, many new contacts from the world of photography!
January L.A. Biznik Mixer at Jerry’s Famous [Los Angeles; Tonight, Wednesday, January 11, 5:30-7:30pm!] Fun, free, low-key networking plus great tips, tricks and ideas from your fellow indie-biz folk, which of course includes me. Duh. My co-host again this month is South Bay illustrator Donna Barger. Heeeeeere’s Jerrys!
TEDxConcordiaUPortland[Portland, OR; March 31] I am beyond thrilled, honored, and yes, terrified to be presenting at this conference whose theme is “Becoming Extraordinary.” I mean, pressure much? But I had such an amazing, amazing time at the last TEDx produced by my now-friend Michelle Jones that—well, I made her be my friend. So there you go. Tickets go on sale January 28, and this event will sell out. And yes, I’d pay to go even if I wasn’t speaking—it’s that kind of day.
Colleen of the Past (what I have done for you lately)
Points of View :: Photography consultant Selina Maitraya invited me to talk shop on her BlogTalk radio show to talk shop (in our case, how photographers/imagemakers can harness the power of awesomeness to mesmerize people. Kidding! We talked about fear and change and social media and how not to be a jackass online. Good times!
The Career Clinic :: Way back in September, my friend Maureen Anderson invited me back to her weekly syndicated radio show, The Career Clinic, to talk about what I’d learned so far from 50-for-50. Little did we know that that very evening, we’d break through our $50,000 goal…10 days early! If you can’t see the little player here, click through this link to listen online.
Colleen of the Present (stuff I do, rain or shine)
communicatrix | focuses :: My monthly newsletter devoted to the ways and means of becoming a better clearer communicator (plus a few special treats I post nowhere else). Free!
Act Smart! is my monthly column about marketing for LA Casting. Nominally for actors, there’s a ton of good info in there for any creative business person. Browse the archives, here.
Internet flotsam :: You know, I have not been so much with the Internet flotsam of late. Mostly posting links/etc. and chatting on Facebook. This could change—and probably will. Most things do, given time.
Salutations, and apologies for the distinctly lengthy, somewhat self-indulgent, purportedly “useful” video above. In my defense (and I’m nothing if not defensive), I’m both: (a) woefully (or not) out of practice; and (b) pressed for the kind of time needed to write a shorter letter. We’re looking at a rather tense couple of months here at communicatrix HQ, deliverables-wise (after which time I’m sure my essays will return to their previously scheduled interminability; my videos will return to a brisk conciseness; and my newsletters will return, period.) (Kidding. I think. I mean, I should be putting out a newsletter next Wednesday, but don’t quote me on that. But you can sign up here, if you want to roll the dice.)
This video—which you may have to click through to watch if you’re reading this somewhere other than on the web and an actual computer—contains two main sections.
Section the First is just a hair update. While very little has changed, hair-wise, since September, amazingly (as is abundantly evident via this video), it takes me A MINUTE and THIRTY-NINE SECONDS to state this very obvious fact. I suppose part of the issue is that I’m taking a little time to say howdy and to provide context, and another bit is that I had to shill show off my fancy new Wahl cordless electric all-in-one hair-clipper thingy. Lots lots lots more to say on this whole being-bald(ish) thing, but those are stories for another day—a day which has not quite made it on the publishing calendar yet, but which certainly will at some point.
The second section concerns books. Not just any books, but a particular ritual of reading certain books—one I’ve been engaged in for some time, and which I’ve found to be extremely helpful in keeping me focused/on-track (a perennial challenge) and non-depressed (ditto, and how).
I’ve actually written at some length about daily reads in my marketing column for actors, so I won’t belabor it here except to say this: the daily devotional has its place in the secular world, too. Some kinds of change are particularly slippery and elusive, and the right words (i.e., from people who’ve been working on this stuff longer than you, and are further down the road, and are maybe not too preachy) in a manageable, portion-controlled size (for me, extremely small), repeated at the right intervals (in my case, daily) can be great helpmates. Two of the books are listed in the column I link to, above, but for your convenience, they are:
Think and Grow Rich Every Day, a carving-up of the Napoleon Hill self-help classic by two enterprising fellows, and more power to ‘em. Each month focuses on a particular aspect of Hill’s teachings, with one month lumping together two of the shorter chapters (“The Subconscious Mind” and “The Brain”). The authors claim to have updated the language a bit from the fusty original text, but damned if I can tell much difference. And that chapter about the sex urge is just nutso; you’ll want to take October with a grain of salt, or a pinch of saltpeter, or something. But it’s eminently more readable in these bite-sized morsels, and has helped me to keep my eyes on the prize. And as I mention in the video, this book was, in a weird and witchy way, partly responsible for the success of 50-for-50.
One Day at a Time in Al-Anon, a compendium of teachings from the 12-step recovery programs for the friends and families of alcoholics, who (boy, howdy) generally suffer from their own addictive, self-destructive tendencies. I hope you don’t need this one. I hope that you have no boundary issues or co-dependent b.s. or any other of the narsty, sticky residue of self-loathing that growing up in an alcoholic (or xholic) home can leave. But if you do, and you can put up with a little Higher Power here and there, you may find it not only steadying in stretches, but shockingly illuminating. I have taken in a few days’ entries with the wonder I can only imagine Helen Keller must have felt by the family pump.
The third book I cannot conscientiously recommend yet, as I’ve only been playing with it since the start of this new year. (Which somehow already seems old at four days in—how weird is that?) But in the month or so since I finally got over my squeeginess over the covers, I have become quite taken with the output of Susan Ariel Rainbow Kennedy, aka SARK, reading a full two books’ worth and well into a third. (I put down another one a third of the way through because the erratic typesetting was making me seasick.) But in case you want to check it out—which I did, literally, from the library—here it is.
Okay! This post is already too long and my to-do list isn’t getting any shorter. One short request before I go: if you have any daily-devotional-type books you LOVE, feel free to leave them in the comments. Right? Right!
And happy new year, while I can still say it.
xxx
c
While this is probably obvious, for the purposes of 100% transparency, this post contains a shitload of Amazon affiliate links. Feel free to buy ANYTHING through your local bookseller, or to test-drive via your local library. Except for maybe that hair trimmer. Because (a) doubtful that anything but a chain store will stock electric clippers or that libraries carry them at all and (b) ew, gross.
You know what you learn when you do a review of the back half of a year in which you did a massive, 50-day-long fundraising thing-a-majiggy? That it takes WAY MORE than the actual 50 days to do it. Seriously. There’s a full six months of my life (and counting) that’s all 50-for-50! 50-for-50! 50-for-50!
So here’s a one-time-only, half-of-100-things list devoted (almost) exclusively to my biggest teacher ever.
In other non-news, good lord—no wonder I need a nap.
I, for one, am flummoxed. Also, baffled, perplexed, confounded, and generally mystified.
No sooner do I finish off my list of 100 things for 2010 than I’m sitting down to do it again. How is this possible? Who is stealing this time? And for the love of all that’s holy, PUT IT BACK.
Well, no matter. While some days it seemed like this entire year was onelongbeg-a-thon, upon closer scrutiny, a few other things did, apparently, happen. Who knew?!
Of course, I’m not at all sure how much I learned from any of them, but oh, well—tomorrow is another year, right? Hahaha! Also, GET OFF MY LAWN. (If one does not earn the right to say that at 50, I hardly see the point of birthdays.)
I’m exhausted by all the striving I see online. —Patti Digh, in fear.less (which you really should read) * * * * * I have been having a spot of difficulty lately with my writing. By “writing,” I mean “posting anything to outward-facing places like email or the Internet,” and by “a spot,” I mean “fucktons.” [...]
Once upon a time there was a man who would, from time to time, play a friendly game of tennis with his much-younger wife. The wife was naturally athletic, highly competitive, and devoted hours to practice and instruction; the man was riddled with infirmities, profoundly disinterested in sports, and played as seldom as the bounds [...]
Every morning, after ramping up with a mug of weak tea, I have one giant cup of incredibly strong coffee. Almost immediately, I am filled with focused energy, high spirits, and love for my fellow man. Which, even though it’s happened every single day for the past 30 years (give or take the occasional streak [...]
I vastly underestimated my ability to do something “impossible.” And I vastly overestimated my ability to recover from it. * * * * * It is curious, the formless form recovery takes. When I was recovering from my Crohn’s onset nine years ago, there was a constant tension between wanting to leap forward, back into [...]
A mostly monthly but certainly occasional round-up of what I’ve been up to and what’s in the hopper. For full credits and details, see this entry. Colleen of the future (stuff I’ll be doing) Fundraising on the Mac with IndieGoGo [Apple Store, 3rd Street Promenade, Santa Monica: TONIGHT, 9/21, 7-8pm] I’ll be featured on this monthly panel, [...]
