On mattering
I went a while there where I really didn't matter. Weird to say, but true. I was stuck in a job that demanded my silence, and as a result my personal profile faded. Sure, my work mattered to the company's bottom line, but my craft ceased to be viewable outside my office. A decade of personal brand-building, participating in a vibrant community of my peers, went into partial stasis.
On top of that, I spent the last two years focused on personal things--buying an apartment, having a baby, dealing with a baby--and as a result everything else became secondary. I was too busy to be on the radar, and I slowly fell off it.
The evidence is in the public domain. My website design hasn't changed in four years. I haven't done any public speaking since 2006. My poor dog's photo gallery is atrophied and sad. My wife's online portfolio is 18 months overdue for an update.
The good news is that era has passed. When I came to Alexander Interactive, I was pleasantly tasked with raising the company profile. I've been blogging for Ai on business topics and begun publishing opinion articles for iMedia Connection, and I'll be a panelist alongside our principals at the Internet Retailer Design '09 conference in January. We've got whitepapers and other projects planned to continue the activity.
So I'm amending the raised-profile plan to include my own. Blogging at Ai, which has been a once-or-twice-a-week endeavor, is going to become a daily habit. The Ideapad will continue its run and a half-finished redesign will go live before year's end. I'm going to look for additional publications in which to participate, organizations to join, public speaking engagements to forge, teaching opportunities to claim.
I'm refreshed, invigorated and excited. Let's light this candle.
(Note to self and others: This is the kind of blog post that I often choose not to publish, which means I don't write it at all, which helps no one, most [least] of all me. So I'm throwing it out there. I'm back in the proverbial game and stepping onto the field.)