When Work is Play

I have to admit, Erik and I are surprised to be where we are today. If you look at the last couple of blog posts by Erik, he defined the beginnings of Talking Finger, and it seems like yesterday that we sat around with those Scooby-doo scented markers (I liked the cherry! Yum!) and big white pad to figure out "who" we were. We planned, practiced, learned everything we could about our industry, refined and defined our business plan, beta tested several companies and did it all over again and again. We had been "playing" with social media for years already. This was the inevitable next logical step for us when creating our business model. We wanted to work AND play. Ad/marketing became fun again!

Here I sit on a very windy Saturday morning almost a year later, in what used to be the library of my home. What once was a quiet sanctuary to read and relax, is now converted into TF office #1 (Erik's is TF#2, GVCC #3, and various Starbucks#4). I look around at the four computers, video cameras, printers, desks, tables and chairs, empty coffee cups and papers with scribbles on them yet to be converted into digital notes, and can't help but smile.

I guess if I could give any advice to others starting a new company, it is to love what you do before you start off on a new adventure. Enjoy it...have fun with it. I think this alone was the most integral part of how far we have come since the smell of cherry markers filled my pool cabana in spring of 2010. We knew right from the beginning that we would, if nothing else, enjoy showing others how they could take advantage of this new medium for marketing their businesses. That hasn't changed, and I never expect it to.

I find myself being drawn online to check up on our latest client's foray into social media such as checking their Facebook page and Tweets on a Sunday evening. I pop onto my main computer to work on our enewsletter or YouTube video, and plan the week's Facebook posts, tweets and production schedule. Heck, even now I am writing the ad we need to hire a new html coder to help with custom pages. This is in addition to Lauren Vasallo, a young talent interning with us to train in social media the Talking Finger way. Growing...

In the end, I've never felt so free to believe that I could love what I do every day and night and become successful at it. When people ask what I do for a living, I smile and subconsciously smell cherry markers as I tell them "I play on Facebook".