Consistent Mayhem

Wanna know a secret? I’m trying!

Something that I am quickly learning about trying to show up consistently is how much you have to juggle to be consistent! But, it’s starting to take form, shape, pattern, clarity - I can give myself that credit.

Honestly, what I think is holding me back is my fear of creating content. I’m afraid that once I start, I’ll falter; or even worse that I won’t and instead start to resent that I chose to do this because I have to do it so often (because if you know me you actually know how guilty posting to social media makes me feel - be it for the hustle or for pleasure!) The plan for April had been to kind of lay low and create a back-log of content to start posting this month while working weekly on a green web design course. The April showers have come and gone - and I ended up flooding myself socially in the first part of the month and needing to take a step back on the back half. Unfortunately because of that, I likely won’t be seeing many May flowers.

I can’t say that I’ll post any more content than I did in April. But, after making a conscious effort to recharge and reorient my priorities over the past couple of weeks I can say that I am more motivated to just dive in and create/post. The first order of business is going to be cramming out a social media plan and calendar for myself! (I might also be working on a related freebie for all of my DIY-ers in marketing!)

So, May’s plan is to be in [planned] consistent mayhem! Meaning, that we’re going to start to juggle - and dammit it’s gonna be messy, inconsistent, imperfect, and we’re just going to have to be okay with that! We’re going to create a very small, obtainable, plan, and execute it! Call it a red flag for me to be in marketing and saying that it doesn’t have to be a perfect plan - but this design will bet her bottom dollar that the most polished and perfect content I’m comparing myself to has time, a team, and a treasury behind it! Few in music or any other creative outlet make it big overnight - most work hard and fail far more often. Forgive the cliche - but getting up is what will define these moments.

You won’t know this until it’s posted, but the first week of May will be quiet. I’m getting the small, “monthly” stuff done (IE: this blog post and the email newsletter - sign up for it!). As well as organizing some social media stuff so I can start a small back-log of posts - currently just photography related!

Surprisingly, photography has been a really easy adoption to be consistent at! I almost think that I should take a step back and limit myself to only 1 shoot a month for now, rather than the 2 that I’ve been holding down so far. I had only planned at the start of this year to attend to shows a month - and that has been incredibly easy to do so far!

Here’s a run down!

Jan: Marigolds - Private Show, Kilynn Lunsford - The Whirling Tiger
Feb: Stay Bent, You Died, & The Dead Speak - Mag Bar (📸); Breaker, A Modest Proposal, Comforter, & Thresh - Mag Bar (📸)
Mar: Chuch Pup, & Green Machine - Galaxie Bar (📸); Bad Moustache, & Xenon Xenon - High Horse; Keeper of the Mountain, & Shimona - Quills (📸)
Apr: Kids Born Wrong, & Daikaiju - The Whirling Tiger (📸); Joslyn & The Sweet Compression - Kentucky Derby Festival (📸)

So, I’m blowing my concert-goings out of the water! If I have to scale that back just a little in order to be more connected to other areas of my community and my goals - then so be it.

I want to build a community - and that’s going to be a mix of getting out there in it and then collaborating with others in it! That requires me to put myself out there in person far more than it really does online - and that should be far more frightening than anything that puts a screen between me and that community that I want to grow in.

This kind of turned into another recap! Here’s to the next one being more about the music than it is about building this … thing * gestures wildly to the void around me *. Because as much as I love designers and the community - the last thing I want to be is another designer-influencer that markets to brands with trendy styles that appeals largely to other designers! 🤢

PS: You can sense that this blog post wasn’t planned - can’t ya? Yeah? It’s a part of consistency - not perfection! But, with that, I hope to seadily put out more quality stuff in the future!

EDIT/UPDATE: Thanks to my friend and fabulous model, Lavender for helping me create a homage to a now neighborhood hot-spot from the cover of Jack Harlow’s new album, ‘Jackman.’