Why Reinventing Yourself Is the Key to Empowerment
Writing this post today got me all fueled up. Writing it uses my knowledge from online marketing, and what I’ve done in the past on blogs to cement that knowledge forever. It doesn’t matter what I did, nothing goes to waste. And using the photo from the last post that I did in 2014 about saving my nuts really helped me reinvent myself. Do I have your attention now? Good.
When I was in online marketing, and that’s not just the first career I’ve had, but for purposes of this post, I’m going to bring the online marketing to the present day. It still relates to my MS and fitness and everything I’ve done before with photography, you’ll see you in a minute.
Online marketing, it’s very important to always have juicy Contant to sink your teeth into. You take that Contant and you repurpose it into other juicy nuggets to distribute across the web, to reach as many eyeballs as you can, because you never know what somebody is doing when they looking at what you have, and there were so many distractions and opportunities for people to get the content that they want wherever they are at whatever time of day. It’s never been a more challenging time for marketing, especially when the pandemic hit, and a lot of people were online and attention was just fragmented.
So I have this knowledge of marketing i’m selling an idea right? This knowledge will never go to waste, no matter what career I am in at whatever time in my life.
During this time I really brushed up on my photography skills because I needed to have juicy Contant to put on a website that I pretty much built with all of the photos I found from before I came, and all of the sexy amazing DSLR photos I took when I was there all these huge exhibits. My photography skills really became sharpened in a low light setting, using what I had and my mobility was certainly challenged with a trade show Display room where I had to step around or over things a lot, and set up lighting with cables and a tripod and a camera. I walked with Kate at that time so it wasn’t too bad, but it wasn’t easy either. I learned a lot with doing a great deal with very little.
While I was still at that job, I was brushing up on my food photography skills. I am a foodie, and I’ve always been very interested in food photography. There’s more of a side story to this, but it would take up a whole post. It’s about the book I wrote while I was still working as a marketing manager. The book I wrote included food photography, and the forward from Lou Manna, a well-known food photographer and author. But I don’t want to get distracted.
I took my love for food photography, and I started a blog on WordPress. I took photos, which became the post images, and I wrote about each one. It really solidified my interest and knowledge in this area. I was reinventing myself.
I used my love for food photography and online marketing and begin working with a local restaurant, Mesob, of which I was a fan for a long time. I was happy to help with social media, taking photos at the restaurant, and immersing myself in the industry, even being invited by the owner to the restaurant event of the year.
After almost a year, doing PR, social media taking sexy food photos of Ethiopian food that looked exotic, my work led to the recognition for a Zagat award. The owner had been dreaming of this, and my work made it come true.
Fast forward to today, with MS that has progressed since my marketing career, unfortunately being on the wrong medication, or maybe not wrong, just not as effective as the one that I’m on now.
If it were not for reinventing myself over and over again, I would not be in the place I am now. I am empowered every day to see all that I have done. I am reminded by the people that I inspire, and I’m able to do it virtually because I can post this, and people can see it wherever they are whenever they want. Having content online builds a legacy. No matter what you do, save your nuts. You never know when you’re going to be needing them again someday. Nothing goes to waste.