Over three years ago I proposed that we change our corporate name. After presenting my rationale, the board agreed. What came after was a needlessly long and painful process, because our management team severely lacks trigger-pullers. Over the course of that excruciating wait, all of our print collateral ran out or became outdated.

Though I tried hard to keep things moving where fiscal sense allowed, churning out promotions and miscellaneous stuff, it was an uphill battle to grow the business without the essentials in place. The “hurry up and wait” of the name change project wore not only on my nerves, but on my ability to take pride in my work.

After two and a half years poised on the starting block waiting for the gun to fire, they finally selected a name last August, and since then I’ve been off and running. To say I was busy over the last eight months would be an understatement. Logo, tagline, branding, website, mailers, booklets, brochures, signs, merchandise, posters, badges… Oh my!

I’m a one-person marketing department, so it was up to me to get everything ready for the April launch. Now that’s behind me, but my work life still doesn’t show any signs of slowing. In fact, with a more solid foundation in place, the frontier now seems wide open. After a long period of waiting, it feels good to make a positive impact again.

The labor of marketing is strikingly similar to bearing a child: conception, gestation, delivery. Each phase has a proper duration and things must happen in a certain order. The final output depends upon the quality of what was accomplished in those formative stages, however, if you drag any of it out too long you’ll endanger the mother.

If momma ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy, and this little momma is only happy when she’s being effective. Knowing it wasn’t right to print short collateral runs with the name change looming didn’t help me feel any better about being less productive. Certainly it wasn’t my fault, but I couldn’t work at one-third capacity and call it a job well done.

Once I read that procrastination was a major cause of depression, but since I’ve learned that being forced to put things off is even worse. Creative people need to run with ideas instead of waiting to be cleared for launch. Though I now have tons to add to my resume, I’m slightly more impressed by the personal trial I endured to get there.

Wheew… Time to get back to work!

16 comments April 17th, 2007

Tomorrow is my big day! Looking forward to when I’ll be able to type again… Don’t you think I haven’t had plenty of thoughts brewing in the meantime. They’re all waiting to explode on this page in coming days. Love to all of you… Be back soon!

PS: I’d love to work on a new skin for the site during the week of the 27th, so if any of you brilliant CSS junkies are inspired, please feel free to send your ideas my way… It’s about time for something fresh.

14 comments March 20th, 2006

“These moments, as beautiful as they are, are evil when they’re gone.”

13 comments March 10th, 2006

A while back I posted about this Star Estimator that uses advanced facial recognition software to tell you which celebrities you resemble, and it was fun… But, then I discovered a site that’s way better at it:

MyHeritage.com offers you a wider range options, so it’s not just one certain image of a celebrity, but many that you’re being compared with. Plus, it will also list your match percentage. When I entered my latest self-portrait, this is what I received in return:

If you want to play along, make sure you tell us which of the celebrity photos were a match, not simply whom. When I played around and put in a different photo, I got totally different matches, sometimes the same star in a different setting, and sometimes an entirely different person… Have fun!

11 comments January 30th, 2006

Happy 250th Birthday, W. A. Mozart! In the past I’ve expressed my fervent love of classical music and his work is a big contributor to that passion.

Little known fact about me: For twelve years I was a devoted instrumentalist. Though my primary focus was the alto saxophone, I quickly learned (much to my dismay) that there was very little opportunity to play classical music on an instrument which was not invented until the romantic era… So, I learned many other ways to make great music.

Those early years fostered in me a great love for musical performance. Once you’ve played, it completely changes the experience of going to the symphony. Once you’ve analyzed a score, it revolutionizes the way you hear a piece played by an orchestra. You’re no longer sitting there, you’re actually inside the music and a part of the experience.

Haven’t been to the symphony in years… The mention of it makes me think of Dad. He was the only one in my family interested in such things. As one of those season ticket kind of guys, now and again he would let his daughter tag along… But then things changed with us.

Los Angeles now has a new concert hall. A freaky looking building near the courthouse. Sooner or later I’m going to have to find someone to join me for a performance by the LA Philharmonic. All weekend they’re playing Mozart on XM Classics, and it’s making me jones!

7 comments January 27th, 2006