Reframing

A few months after our son was born, things started to look up: My wife and I were getting more sleep and I was getting more help with I CARE IF YOU LISTEN. Pockets of spare time started to emerge—oh, joy!

I started brainstorming about things I should do with this time, things that I loved doing and was good at. I love music, musicians, and digital marketing and communications. I like sharing what I know, not because it makes me look smart (it would take more than this) but because I want people to be successful.

I started putting ideas down on paper. They quickly turned into two separate ebooks (a great source of passive income). Some ideas didn’t fit the ebook format so I started looking at a whole curriculum, to be hosted online (my platform of choice was Thinkific)—another source of passive income.

Requests for talks started coming in, at Juilliard and elsewhere. People were reaching out for 1-on-1 help. Momentum was building.

Yeah… right.

Soon enough, reality sunk in. I was trying to have a career in web in  higher ed, be a good parent/husband, run an online new music magazine, and freelance.

Nope.

My day job—which I love—required too much time and focus to leave me with enough energy to do anything else. I stopped blogging, I stopped working on my ebooks, and even though I was still asked to talk about my favorite topics, I had lost my momentum.

My personal website was also becoming less and less personal, and more about tips, tools, etc. I felt like I didn’t have a place to post something silly (80% of what I want to post) or more aligned with my career in higher ed. I was not happy.

Having sencha at the Japanese Tea Garden in San Francisco (more of this)

Pivot is an ugly word

So I won’t use it. I’ll use reframing instead. I’m reframing what I have to offer here.

• I won’t advertise my services anymore. I’ll be glad to answer questions on Twitter—if people have any interest.
• I’ll stop e-mailing updates to my list.
• I’ll focus more on my work for Cornell University. Some of this stuff will look boring to a lot of my musician friends—sorry ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
• I’ll share what I’m reading, what I’m listening to, what I’m thinking about. I like Derek Sivers’ idea of a /now page. I think I’ll have /now page.
• This website will feel more personal. I’ll rely less on stock photography and flat illustrations, and more on photos that I take.
• I’ll share 80% of silly stuff.

And I’ll be much happier about this.