What’s on the iPod: Round and Round by Imagine Dragons
Is it really Friday already? I feel like I blinked and the week was gone. I got a lot done and have a bit more to do, so that explains the detachment from the calendar.
In fact, I meant to post this yesterday, but I was working until time to make dinner on Wednesday (my turn). Then we received a large shipment of books from his mother’s estate. Let me just paint the picture — I’m sitting in the foyer on the floor surrounded by boxes of books. It was heaven. If they weren’t hardcovers, I might have rolled around in them.
But because of the boxes of books, the clothing that’s being sorted, and the other things due to arrive here soon, the house is in a bit of turmoil. I wanted to get to this last night, but we spent a few hours digging through photos on Flickr and choosing more items from her house.
Still, work happened, as did marketing. Here’s what the month looked like for me:
Queries:
I didn’t send any this month. The editors came to me this time, so I had assignments that took no marketing effort — well, no recent marketing effort. I love when that happens.
LOIs:
I sent out eight, mostly to established contacts, but I added a few new ones. Nothing has come of it yet but promised conversations.
Existing clients:
I worked on a number of projects for newer and more established clients — one coming in years after the last project I did. I can credit my conference attendance to the one job. The client started the conversation by saying “Remember when you said at the conference to give you a ring if I needed help?” That little sentence resulted in a $2K gig. In fact, all of my income this month came from existing clients.
New clients:
Nothing on the horizon yet, though there are those promised conversations in the works.
Earnings:
I sit here shaking my head. It felt like I’d earned nothing all month, but I’m just one hundred bucks off my target. I’ll admit I didn’t push too hard as it’s summer, I was still in the throes of post-surgery recovery, and I had this big project to make time for. Still, the outcome was sweet.
Bottom line:
I’m about to go on vacation, so I’m pretty sure the work will start piling up three days before I leave (isn’t that always the case?). My marketing is already picking up this month as I’ve started to feel back to normal again. The focus has been on getting back to my usual healthy self. Now that that’s been accomplished, it’s time to hit the ground running with the projects.
I’m getting nervous about not having much coming in, but I do know there’s work (and checks) heading my way. August is already starting to be scheduled, but I’m hoping to get some projects and clients for September and beyond. The clients get serious right after Labor Day. So do I.
How did you do this past month?
What worked? What didn’t?
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