creative geek sheek

I often say "I revel in my creative geekiness".  Over the past few weeks, this couldn't be further from the truth.

It started with a phone call from my dear friend Dan - from the ICU at Froedtert.  Apparently, a pulmonary embolism will land you in ICU.  Yes, it freaked me out.   However, he asked me to essentially run Southeastern Wisconsin Arts Guild (SWAG) for the week he was in ICU.  And in the same (faint) breath, he promoted me to SWAG Vice President.  (note:  I personally never thought I'd be a vice president of anything).  In that one week, I learned quite a bit more about social media and running this little arts & culture information we've got going.  

The good news:  I was able to take what I have learned and apply it to MJ Care's social media sites, which I created and currently maintain.  Yes, I am becoming a little guru in this area.  And no, I'm not going to bombard you with the links.  The better news:  Dan is recovering at home and slowly getting back to work. 

I also created professional  Twitter account:  @rjl_creative.  I swear, I am not a tweet-aholic.  Why a new account, you ask?  The professional account shows potential freelance employers will see I keep abreast on issues and trends in the marketing/communications industry.  My original @beckerbean account follows many a political & social sites (read: Democratic Party & Hash House Harriers).  While I don't care if my friends know my views on politics or that I hash (because chances are, they already do), any professional contacts or fellow marketing communications folks don't need to know. Additionally, they don't need to know my random brain spew.  On the flip side, friends who don't give a crap about social media, design, marketing, etc. don't have to read about it (although I think you should anyway, even if it's just to humor me).  But really, it was to separate the professional and the personal.  

I also updated my resume to add the SWAG position and to match my website (news on that in a teeny bit).  However, I learned I really shouldn't do that at work.  Keith (my wonderful boss) saw me working on it Friday and this morning, he asked me point blank if I was looking for another job.  I had to reassure him that I was just adding the part-time SWAG position.  Apparently, he doesn't want to lose me as an employee - and I really didn't mean to freak the guy out.  Once he calmed down, he did say the design itself was "striking".  I will say, however, it is nice to be needed and appreciated. 

But the biggest news is that my rjlcreative.com site is complete!!!  I will admit that this will always be a work in progress, but all the links are up (and functioning) and it includes all the facets of what I do.  I still need to brush up on HTML/CSS, but I think I did pretty well with my trial-by-fire skills.  Now I just need to get out there and get some freelance jobs.

So if you don't hear from me for a while, I'm likely immersed in a graphic design or a social media site - or perhaps both.  But definitely reveling in my creative geekiness.