{My journal on vacation: Photo by me}
I was on vacation last week. Did you notice? And now I’m back. Cheers to Lauren and Alyssa, who kept things running seamlessly while I was away. Hurrah! Later this week I’ll be back with tales from the vacation. Once, you know, my lap top with all my writing on it gets out of the shop (Sob!)
I could write a treatise on the importance of taking vacations when you’re self employed, but I’ll say in sum: if you want to save your sanity and not burn out, it’s one of the most important things you can do. As a self employed person, one of the only times I can fully power down my work brain down is when I’m away, forcibly unplugged. It gives me time to think, and reflect, and usually makes some new plans by the end of the trip. I figure out what is working for me, and what’s not, and well, I nap a lot.
One of the things I realized on this trip is how much I miss collaborating. I started my professional creative career in theatre, which is the most collaborative of art forms. I produced, I threw galas, I raised money—all things that made me work with people non-stop. And now I’m making my living blogging, writing, and running a business. If I so chose, this could be the least collaborative of art forms, but I’m not having that. As APW has grown and changed, it’s become a powerful community gathering spot (yay!), full of writing by guest posters (yay!), and now I have a staff to help me out. And I can’t tell you how much I love working with a staff. I have people to bounce ideas off of, to meet with, to make spreadsheets with, to make plans for world domination with.
{Erin at Mighty Summit by Zan}
And collaboration was part of the reason I was so delighted to participate in the Stories I Only Told My Mom e-book (which is now available on Amazon for ease of purchase). Not only did I get to write an essay on a topic I wouldn’t touch on the blog, but I was able to work with fabulous people, including Erin Loechner of Design for Mankind, who is truly one of the sweetest, feistiest, and most has-your-back-girlfriends on the internet. Seriously. I’ve ended up sharing a bed with her at the last two conferences I attended, sort of accidentally, like the universe is throwing us together to learn from each other. And then, in Stories I Only Told My Mom, Erin wrote the essay that smacked me upside the head with humor, and wit, and truth.
She wrote about the importance of WHO you work for, something I thought a lot about on vacation last week. We talk a lot about entrepreneurship on APW, and working for yourself has been great for me. But working for yourself isn’t the be all end all, and it’s not right for lots of people (it’s been dead wrong for me in the past). But over and over and over, what’s proven to be true for me, is that who you work for always, always matters. And these days, I think about that as an employer (which feels borderline crazy to say). How do I build a sense of trust and respect? How do I create an environment where creative collaboration is happening? How do I create work for the whole APW team that feeds our souls? I’m slowly figuring it out, and thanks to Erin for reminding me of how important it is.
In short, I was glad to be gone, but I’m really glad to be back, doing the work and collaborating with all of you to create a community of, well, awesomeness.
You can buy the Stories I Only Told My Mom e-book on Amazon, and read my raw essay about finding closure, and Erin’s hilarious and wise essay about finding meaningful work, not to mention 14 other excellent women’s essays.
