I need a vacation from being unemployed and famous!

I had a heck of a time with this post this week. After a week that saw me speak at my very first corporate event (it went well), give a number of radio interviews as a result of the MACLEANS article, and conclude three days of focused effort for Pre Paid Legal, I am exhausted.

I have stopped and started this post so many times, I have lost track.

So to heck with it, here is what is on my mind this week:

A cautionary tale: don't ever take anything for granted. I did. I though it would be easy to replace my corporate job within 4 months. Hard work yes, but with all my experience, energy and enthusiasm, I figured no business could resist the total package. Was I wrong. Not only did I loose my job, but a number of friends and associates from the advertising world also got 'right sized'.

I have been blogging and playing in the social media marketing world through all of it and have recently gained my 15 minutes of fame with the article in MACLEANS a couple of weeks ago. And the radio interviews and blog recognition have extended the fame to about 25 minutes. But it all seems hollow and pointless. Something is missing and I don't mean just the money.

I think I need a vacation.

No I'm not kidding. The hardest part of not having a 'job' is trying to keep all the balls up in he air for the multiple things I am doing: Altered Perception, Pre Paid Legal, blogging and social media marketing, corporate speaker.

'Brand Morales' covers a lot of divisions that are all active every day. (Yes, that is my logo above. I am playing with the tag line, "building brand value by unleashing the hidden potential".

Last week as an example:

• Monday: got to bed finally at 2 am after finalizing the presentation for Tuesday evening to the Wasaga Beach Women's Business Association
• Tuesday: interview with 97.7 The Beach at 9 am and another at 1 pm with 570 CHYM. They love my story of blogging my way into MACLEANS. Then presentation to the Women's Business association at 7 pm before getting home at 11 am
• Wednesday: Pre Paid Legal Business all day: presentations in Kitchener to two businesses and two 'cold calls' to other companies. Then back to Barrie for the evening business meeting.
• Thursday: more Pre Paid Legal prospecting in Toronto this time. Plus another radio interview this time with 1290 News in London.
• Friday: some advertising business before a return visit back to Toronto for an evening of training for Pre Paid Legal.

Whew!

For this upcoming week, I am only going to do three things:

1. Stop and take a breath. And stop trying so hard.
2. Get back to the basics. Focus on fewer things
3. Continue to build business relationships.

This will seem like a vacation.

Finally, let me sum it up this way:

• It sucks to have all this energy, experience ambition and ideas...yet be sitting on the sidelines.

This 'sabbatical' has been good: I no longer have to live in Toronto during the week away from Sally and Tia. I have learned a ton about social media marketing and got the MACLEANS media exposure. Plus it was fun to give those radio interviews. I have great support from Sally and all my friends and family, plus I have met some really great people including Tammy and Kristi at Altered Perception, Teresa with Pre Paid Legal and Paul with Avenue A.

Champagne soon.

Until next week...

PS: check out this web site for the #2 ranking I received for my story about how to beat the recession: http://communitymarketing.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/04/how-25-professionals-create-success-in-a-recession.html