My name is Laurel Grey, aka the IDea Lady. I’ve been in some form of marketing and/or visual communication my entire adult life, starting as the youngest visual display manager ever (19) for a California department store chain, to owning my own dimensional marketing business in the wilds of Wisconsin. I’ve picked up a few things along the way from some great teachers, and at the ripe old age of none-of-your-business, I’m feeling the urge to share.
See, I’ve recently discovered something: I’d been feeling like a dinosaur because I just couldn’t keep up with all the changes anymore – and I’ve always been the “techy” one! It was all so overwhelming and downright HOPELESS. And scary. I felt like I was being left in the dust, and being single and self-employed with a big fat mortgage, that was keeping me up nights. For me, fear = brain freeze. Not helping.
Well guess what? I was right! It truly is impossible to stay on top of it all. It’s just not gonna happen, whether you’re Bill Gates or what’s his name – that Facebook guy. (Hey Mark…) The minute you get comfortable with something, it changes. (HEY Mark…) And then there are 10 more new things you should be doing – yesterday. This is the new norm, folks.
Once I understood – and more importantly – accepted this fact, my life began to get easier. Instead of feeling like I had to learn it ALL in order to succeed, I realized that since that is no longer possible, the only things I need to learn is what I need to know for my business and my life at this moment in time. That’s all. And that’s do-able.
That’s all you need to know too: just which of these myriad changes will benefit you personally and professionally. Skim the surface, and when something looks interesting, dive right in. If it’s interesting, it’s probably exactly what you need right now even if you don’t know enough to know that yet. You will. Trust your intuition. I’m a big believer of the “when the student is ready the teacher will appear” school of thought, and school is definitely open.
So let’s just all relax, take a deep breath, and jump in the pool. The water’s a lot warmer than you think.
