Stop fishing and start frying

I have come to the end of my unemployment status. I’ve written some about my journey off and on. Here are nine posts about it.  It has been a fascinating 46 weeks. I was in a pretty bewildering state of mind at the end of the first 26 weeks and I was very happy when Congress  made that first extension so that I could take a breath and sort over some hard choices.  Those weeks are now over and even if I do somehow qualify for the additional extension, I’m not taking it. This should make my Republican friends happy. (yes I do have Republican friends – a lot of them, actually).

After nearly a year, I still pretty much have the same amount of wealth, or lack thereof, as I when my job was eliminated out from under me. We have had a lot of help from family and friends. A heck of a lot. Gift cards and mysterious packages in the mail and encouraging words from the strangest places.  We also got some help on the winter electric bill and the summer electric bill from the Metro Action Commission.  I’ve never had to ask for help like that.  I will forever respect those that give it and those that need it on a new level. We were helping stuff emergency food boxes at Second Harvest Food Bank last November hoping we wouldn’t need to ask for one the following week.

Here’s how we thrived in our relationship as a couple and how we thrived in our relationship with our community:

Faith, Hope and Love.

When we called our top five and asked for advice, they  offered hope. When we had to draw on our faith, we learned how to humble ourselves and give away as much as we could.  Love of community, love of friendship, the love in our relationship , all grew faster and with deeper roots.  We had time to flourish.

After nearly 100 job applications and  a handful of interviews I was either over qualified or under qualified way too many times. To stay optimistic I  met with Cool People Care nonprofit premium partners to see what they had going on and helped dream up ways to be helpful. In the last 5 months I’ve met with 77 nonprofits about their communications strategies , about 80% of the meetings involved coffee.  It got to the point that Cool People Care gave me a title even though it wasn’t actually a job. As the Sr. Director of Social Media Strategy and Development, I talked to folks about how we might together, tell their stories better.

When the time came to help with the Tennessee Arts Commission workshops, I not only said I’d conduct them, I designed the curriculum and maintained  the nonprofit resource blog.  I loved it. In the past ten months, I spoke in person on behalf of Cool People Care over a dozen times and have conducted four webinars.

I was self employed in marketing and management for 17 years before I left that work for a corporate gig with BMI.  After nearly 9 years there, I joined the nonprofit sector in 2007.  I was an Executive Director that took their arts-nonprofit from a  267k budget to a 330k budget all in the black during a recession in only a 30 month time frame. How? Because I treated the nonprofit like it were a for-profit brand. All in all, I’ve always been an entrepreneur. I tried really hard to find another full time job, I tried really hard to find a part time job.  What I found was meaningfully work that my made a difference in my community.

As of August 9 2010 Carpe Diem Management is back in business.  I will have three clients; Cool People Care, Inc. ,  a new start up that you will hear more about in September called Proof, and The Transit Alliance of Middle Tennessee.

My continued affiliation with the team members at Cool People Care and the folks at Proof will allow me to not only serve nonprofits with branding, communication strategy support and earned income merchandising opportunities. It will also allow me to help for profit small business clients with similar services.

When I was interviewed last November I said:

“At this point I have to analyze what’s best for my family and make sure that what I do everyday is something I’m truly passionate about.”

“It’s like that old adage,” VanReece said. “You teach a man to fish and he’ll eat for life. You teach a woman to fish and she’ll feed a village.”

It’s time for the fish fry my friends, I’ve been fishing long enough.

What does your catch look like?