I kind of just blindly started a marketing company and now I’m scratching my head trying to decide what to do next. I got one client first and had to concoct a company, and now I’m wondering if I should go gung-ho and seek out new clients, trying to build this into a career for myself. If so, how? My first thought is that I should do some stuff just for the experience, but the thought of working for no pay is discouraging. The opportunity to do some marketing came up for a network of “mommy bloggers”, and I quoted them a really low price which they said it was too much for them (totally understandable in this economy), and I’m thinking that maybe I should reach out to them on a pro-bono basis (I have the time) and let it be an educational experience for me, or if I should let it go and hope for a paying client to come along.

A friend of mine came over last week and we were discussing her career path and her resume. She shook her head and said, “My parents just didn’t give me the tools I needed to deal with all of this.” and I sympathized. Neither did mine; they simply didn’t have them to give, and hers really don’t, either. What do ladies like us do in situations where we are toeing the line to our “late twenties” and are craving upward mobility but don’t know how to get it?

I had been working on a marketing project for a while, but it was all back end stuff. When the time came to actually contact people, I had to figure out what email address to use. My personal one is personal. My blog one would be pretty inappropriate (I use the “eff werd” too much). And anyway, who wants to work with some girl who is emailing out of blue? So I started a company.

If you click on the picture you can see the site.

The copy isn’t exactly the way I want it, because I wrote it rather quickly. Najla, copywriter extraordinaire, is working on that for me.

I call it Pink Moose because I really, really like the word “Moose” (MOOOOOOOSE!) and I figured the logo would be great. Pink can be saccharine, but when it’s a pink moose, it’s less Pretty Pretty Princess and more whimsical and funny and not too serious.

I’m not sure if this is the permanent logo, but it’s what Rob came up with in a pinch, and it’ll do. I’m NOT paying someone to design a logo, and my attempts at drawing a moose have left me regretting skipping most of the second semester of my illustration class in college. (I got a B anyway, a fact that my then-boyfriend found deplorable, because I was literally never there.)

I’ve done marketing like this for another company. I enjoyed it (even though the pay was poo) because I learned a lot about what works and what doesn’t, and I also got an abundance of tiny secrets on “going the extra mile”. For instance, she insisted that any paperclip that was not red (to match her logo) was to be banished from the office! Sounds weird, but made all of our outgoing, paper-clipped packages look SO special. All of my paperclips are going to be pink! I also learned a lot of what I would do if the firm was MINE: things like handwritten labels (we HAD to have typed in her office, and I always wanted to hand write them) and recycled material packaging and paper.

I’m pretty excited, although I’m overwhelmed because my home office is not up to par. That is tonight’s task, along with making cupcakes for Jen’s birthday tomorrow. These are the ones I made for her last year:

This year I have something pretty special planned, too!

I hung out with my little brother yesterday. I’m in a position where I can help him achieve SO much, but he doesn’t have the motivation to make even one step forward, and it freakin’ kills me! My uneducated parents didn’t do a good job in instilling the “you can do anything you put your mind to” thing in us; there were no long-term goals they shared with us, and there was no sense of “let us always strive to be better and press onward, through the most difficult, to the bright end”. It was always, “this is hard, I quit.” and “we deserve this luxury, even though we don’t have the money.”

I floundered around a lot when I left the house at age 20, and I didn’t so much pull myself out of it as marry out of it, which is marginally acceptable, but only because I’m a woman. My brother is still mired, and I don’t know how to say, “make one step and I’ll help you take over the world!” He’s a wickedly brilliant artist (his drawings, even the ones from when he was little, are jaw-dropping) and he wants to learn video game design and graphic design. Game design is about as hard to make a living at as fashion modeling is, but graphic design is not, and it’s a logical starting place for the long-term goal of video game designer. Sorry, snooze fest; my point is that, especially with the kind of natural talent he has, anything is possible, and Rob and I have about one bazillion friends in graphic design that would be willing to impart their wisdom to my kid brother, if only he were enthusiastic to learn.

In the meantime, I’m now trying to pull myself out of that whole mired mentality, too, because while I’m fine being married and living this life (which is really 90% Rob’s life), I’m not the person I want to be, and I’m certainly not the person that I want my children to become, which is forever my hallmark of success.

The Bible says women are to be man’s helpmeet, and I’m doing that, and loving it. (*kerBLAM!* That’s the sound of every feminist’s head exploding.) This wife thing, though? I’ve got it down cold. (Of course, I have the world’s most mellow husband to make it easy.) I need to do something else, too, in addition. But what?

I’ll keep you posted.

I’ve been living with Rob for over 3 years (I know!) and during that time I’ve gone through phases where sometimes I’m like, “Okay, It’s time to go out drinking with your buddies!” as I’m shoving him towards the door and flinging his wallet out onto the sidewalk, and sometimes I’m like, “Oh, you’re taking a shower?  Me too!” and I climb into the tub after him because being apart long enough for him to get clean would make me sad.

I was in the middle of a “clingy” phase when he left for San Francisco on Friday, making it one of the more painful times we’ve been apart.  He was, too, and we were both mopey about not being together.

He just got home this morning and has been sleeping for hours at this point (it’s almost 6pm).  I am resisting the urge to wake him up to talk to him, because I am a Nice Wife, although if he keeps sleeping his schedule is going to be all off and he’ll be up all night bothering ME.

With him being out of work (the newspaper he worked for closed) we’re anticipating a lot of “together time” as he is planning on doing a lot of work from home.  Sounds good to me!

I’m nervous about this suddenly-thrust-upon-us turn of events, but I’m excited because we, as a duo, tend to take weird, unconventional life events and rock them out beautifully.  Sometimes I wish that we’d just have a six-month period of SAMENESS, but that doesn’t seem to be in the cards for a good long while.  No matter.  I think we’re going to rock this out, too.