hobnobbing

Worth sharing.

August 8, 2011

Kate Ancell, who taught my “Creative Writing FUN-damentals” class earlier this year at StoryStudio Chicago, sent her students an e-mail today offering encouragement, with nothing but a link inside.
This is what I found after I clicked the link:
The Writer
Richard WilburIn her room at the prow of the house
Where light breaks, and the windows are tossed with linden,
My daughter is writing a story.

I pause in the stairwell, hearing
From her shut door a commotion of typewriter-keys
Like a chain hauled over a gunwhale.

Young as she is, the stuff
Of her life is a great cargo, and some of it heavy:
I wish her a lucky passage.

But now it is she who pauses,
As if to reject my thought and its easy figure.
A stillness greatens, in which

The whole house seems to be thinking,
And then she is at it again with a bunched clamor
Of strokes, and again is silent.

I remember the dazed starling
Which was trapped in that very room, two years ago;
How we stole in, lifted a sash

And retreated, not to affright it;
And how for a helpless hour, through the crack of the door,
We watched the sleek, wild, dark
And iridescent creature
Batter against the brilliance, drop like a glove
To the hard floor, or the desk-top,

And wait then, humped and bloody,
For the wits to try it again; and how our spirits
Rose when, suddenly sure,

It lifted off from a chair-back,
Beating a smooth course for the right window
And clearing the sill of the world.

It is always a matter, my darling,
Of life or death, as I had forgotten. I wish
What I wished you before, but harder.

I thought it was worth sharing.

1 comment

My new favorite person: Jill Salzman

August 4, 2011

New term: “Impostor Syndrome.”
Coined in the late ’70s by a pair of psychologists — and not to be confused with this, which is actually the belief that a loved one has been replaced by an evil doppelganger — Impostor Syndrome an inability to internalize your accomplishments.
Basically: Attributing your success to blind luck and good fortune instead of the hard work you did to get yourself there.

Jill Salzman does not have Impostor Syndrome.

This is Jill. We love Jill.

She’s the real deal. Jill, a self-professed serial entrepreneur whose latest venture is a resource for “mompreneurs” called Founding Moms, understands that the success that’s come to her has been a result of her determination and infectious enthusiasm for every cause she’s thrown her weight behind. Jill knows, plus or minus a few butts, exactly how much ass she kicks.

I’d been reading Jill’s tweets and Facebook postingsfor months before I saw her speak at the SPARK Women conference during TechWeek, and I’m not sure what I expected going into it…but she surprised me. The woman had me in stitches the entire time, and gave me a whole lot of think about. She told the packed room stories about her ventures — using maybe the simplest PowerPoint presentation I’ve ever seen; bless you, madam — including the time she invented a publication to get press access to an event she was dying to attend. (She got it, by the way, and rubbed elbows with Eddie Vedder. Rule No. 1 of Entrepreneurship: Make shit up.)

Her utter superiority as a human being wasn’t off putting, even for a second, because she somehow balanced it with this grace and humor and self-deprecation that were so completely charming I could hardly deal with it.

 

SELF-LOATHING SIDEBAR.
When Saya Hillman invited me to talk at a CRAVE Chicago event back in early June, I knew I wanted to speak off the cuff, tell my story in a way that people would remember.
Well, people do remember me, but I think it’s because I was a basket case. And I’m not being self-deprecating — I actually remember my inner monologue screaming, “Paige. SHUT UP!!!” as I babbled on and on about God only knows what. The number of time I mentioned boys in front of that room full of female professionals… Oy.

 

Jill did not ramble. She gave a talk at SPARK Women that I dream of giving one day. She has the confidence I dream of having and the results to back it up. (She also has the husband, the kids and that life I dream of…and despite the fact that her newest business caters to mothers, none of her stories revolved around that part of her life — something I can admire in a culture of “LOOK AT ME, LOOK AT ME” mom bloggers.)

And I think everyone who heard her speak that day was feeling some version of what I was. The woman’s got balls, something every woman could use a bit more of. That entire room of women wanted to be Jill Salzman — until she made them realize what they really wanted was to be better versions of themselves.

9 comments

Wherein I ask you for money.*

July 5, 2011

* It’s not what you think!

 

It’s 11:15 a.m. the day after a long weekend, and I’m not at work.
I don’t have to be at work ever again, actually.

Letting go of the monkey bars was pretty easy for me. I love taking risks, and I’m at the age where it’s silly for me not to: At 28, the risks I’ve taken have made me bolder and more confident in my decision-making skills, and more well rounded personally and professionally.

Yeah, well. I found out last Wednesday that those same monkey bars that put me in control, made me princess of the playground, can also be pretty treacherous little stinkers, greasing up and letting you slip off into a crumpled, mulch-covered pile underneath.

Which is a convoluted, not-very-effective way of saying that I lost my job last week.

It wasn’t going well. For either of us. The best kind of breakup, the kind where you’re relieved when the other person finally says, “You know what? This isn’t working out,” then gives you a really awesome present to send you on your way into the world. (Winning concept to explore later: relationship severance.)

So, it’s fine: My biggest predicament that night was actually how to get home on my bike with a Whole Foods paper bag full of almost everything I had at the office.

* No, it’s really not what you think! Though I wouldn’t be mad if you sent Starbucks gift cards.

I’m not writing this to whine about the fact that I’m soon to be largely without income and have no idea what to do with myself. (That’s what Twitter’s for, until I snap out of it and realize I know exactly what to do: get up, brush the mulch off my butt and hit the slides instead — the monkey bars are stupid anyway.)

I’m writing this to talk about my new friend Marcy, who I met here for the first time (after weeks of stalking each other on Twitter).

 

Marcy is a genius. And so is this new concept, Junto, from her media production studio, Polymathic.

What the heck?, you ask. How do I even say “Junto”? Well, it’s the same “u” sound as “junk,” only it couldn’t be further from that. Here, direct from the website:

“Almost 300 years ago, Benjamin Franklin started a club called The Junto (juhn-toh). The group consisted of successful entrepreneurs that used their knowledge and resources to advance small businesses within their community.

“We’ve modernized the Junto to operate online, so that it can incubate ideas that don’t fit into the existing mold of seed fundraising or venture capitalism. … We want to make great ideas become market-viable realities through community-funding, collective wisdom, thorough testing and nontraditional investment incentive…

“That said, we’re simply a group of young, motivated and multi-talented creatives that are listening to the needs of new entrepreneurs. We want to help the little guys with big ideas get their start.”

A startup! For startups!

I love it.

But like any startup, Junto needs a bit more funding before they can kick things into high gear and start helping these other startups.

And it was recently determined — not that we’re scheming or anything — that if just a fraction of my Twitter followers used some of their wherewithal to support Junto, they’d be in remarkably better shape at the end of today.

So what do you say? Can you afford $25? (Maybe watch this video and then decide.)
Your week in Starbucks — well, if you’re anything like me — to help baby businesses grow up.

Back to me for a moment: My motives are not pure here.
You see, Junto eventually needs a writer and community manager. And I want to be that person.

The closer the Junto team gets to reaching its funding goals, the closer I’ll be to some freelance work that I’m pretty keen on getting — with a business I really believe in.

So I’m asking you for money, sort of. But really, I’m asking you to help me get a rockin’ gig. I’m bootstrappin’, baby!

* And if you really actually want to give me money, well, make me an offer.

13 comments

I Wish Lessons: Make sushi with me!

March 3, 2011

Do you live in Chicago?
Wanna hang out?

I like to pronounce this "kick-a-man" because that makes me smile.

Well, if you’re free on Monday and can write a haiku, it’s totally possible: I Wish Lessons let me put together a contest to give away a free entry ($50 value! BALLER!) to the March 7 sushi basics class at Trace.
That’s right: I will go to Wrigleyville if you promise to hang out with me.

Head to my latest blog at I Wish Lessons for more information.

While you’re at it, maybe you should like them on Facebook or follow them on Twitter.
Or something.

Anyway, I have some huge news.
But I can’t tell you yet.
So go write a damn haiku instead.

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