Appearing… or disappearing.
Posted in Advertising Related on October 28th, 2009 by liz – Be the first to commentSomeone once asked local jazz great Bobby Watson why he was playing a gig for so little money. Watson replied, “Because you’re either appearing or disappearing.”
Sax man Bobby Watson
That’s a sobering thought. And it’s a great reason for doing pro bono projects between the paying ones. So last week, I wrote and disseminated news releases for two organizations I belong to (which also involved updating my media list because of all the newspaper staff layoffs). And recently, I submitted the winning entry in the informal “rename the Freebe Awards” (former name of the Freelance Exchange of Kansas City’s annual awards) contest and wrote copy for the call for entries and the event invitation. My designer friend, Laurie Chipman, did a literally cool design for both ICE Awards show pieces featuring a penguin illustration that just makes me smile. Especially because it’s a neat piece for my portfolio. You can take a look at the invite here.
Doing pro bono projects can be fun and can keep you from going nuts while waiting for paying jobs. It also helps out good causes, gets you together with people you like (usually), and makes you feel useful. Finally, when you do any kind of project, you’re out there “appearing,” not disappearing.
Today, I did some paying work, and that’s a good thing, too. So I don’t see my bank balance disappearing…
