an update on the lack of updates

you know how sometimes you get grandiose plans to accomplish things { and stuff! } and then life gets in the way?!?!? yeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaah……..that.

during october i managed to balance the chaos of: my parents visiting for a week; an extended-weekend of insanely early, long distance commutes to work off-site; my spouse’s sister coming to visit { a weekend earlier than we had planned– our mistake, not hers } ; AND our good friends’ wedding, which of course included the bachelor/hen’s night parties, rehearsal, rehearsal DINNER, ceremony, reception, and day-after brunch festivities. on top of that, i managed to go to therapy { yeah self-care! } and not miss a single work shift…. needless, to say, it’s been exhausting and emotionally taxing.

i ALSO managed to check a few more things off the list…but those will have to wait for another post.

branded: becoming my own “brand”

about a month ago, i went to PAX { for those not in on the “lingo”, PAX is the Penny Arcade Expo, a huge west-coast celebration of all things nerdy, focused predominantly on video gaming }. in the weeks leading up to the big event, i began watching STRIP SEARCH –an internet reality/competition show about web-comic artists produced by Penny Arcade. the main thing i took away from the show { besides how insanely talented all the artists were } was that in order to succeed –as an artist– is you have have HAVE to create an internet presence/ become your own brand.  from blogging, to tweeting, to having an e-shop, to posting on social media sites, the only way to gather a following and maintain that following, is to be on all these sites and to update regularly.

fast forward to PAX. while i was mainly there for the experience, i managed to sit in on several of the panels pertaining to topics i was interested in. while the subjects widely varied { from geek crafts, to LGBTQIA, etc. geek issues }, they all touched AGAIN on the importance of: 1. having an internet presence 2. updating DAILY, even if it’s is something small and insignificant and 3. developing { for lack of a better word} BRAND recognition— link your social media sites to each other, make sure they use similar fonts/colours, tie your “look” together so you present a well-rounded “BRAND”.

and here’s the kicker….if you want to succeed…in pretty much anything, in this digital world, you absolutely HAVE to do all this. or you will fail.

is this really what the world has come to? that the quality of your work/what you produce doesn’t matter/can’t speak for itself…but instead, covering your tech-bases will get you ahead in life??? is this something i must resign myself to? how does one even begin to “brand” oneself to create a coherent package? a unified front? i feel like this is easy to do for a business, but much much harder for an individual…

 

any suggestions?