When life hands you lemons, go for the jugular.

The last few months have been an interesting ride. A scary ride. You know when you receive an email from a known working creative director asking if you need any help, that things can’t be too good. I have many friends in this industry and many of them are not working at the moment. I have spent the last 3 months creating and executing a game plan. If you read my last blog post about my website going down and the email blasts I created to follow it, this paid off well and resulted in several projects that I am currently working on. I believe that when this economic slump is finally on the upwards swing again, those that have prepared and put all the correct pieces in place will reap the rewards. Many of you that read my blog (or know me) have figured out that my biggest passion in life is Poker (I’m heading to Las Vegas to play in a World Series of Poker event in a few weeks… fully sponsored). Many of the lessons you learn in that game carry forward to real life. I have won a lot of big tournaments because I understand that when the big stacks are showing weakness, that is the perfect time to go after their chips. Right now, big agencies are hurting. REALLY hurting. This has been the perfect time to meet with their clients and show them some much cheaper alternatives for their creative needs. This game plan has been taking up the majority of my time. I have not only received some projects from one or two of them, I have also been referred to others in their rolodex and have 6 meetings next week with the heads of different companies. I also figured out that during bad economic times, some of those recently laid-off will skip looking for a new job and instead take a shot at starting up a new business. I have been targeting these people as well. I am currently working on two large corporate identity projects and have several more waiting to sign. I also had a serious idea for a promotion, brought two other people on board, and we will be launching this week. If all goes according to plan, you will hopefully read about it in the industry press. My point to all this is that you should keep your chin up. All is not hopeless. Nothing is easy. Nothing happens overnight. It’s all up to you and the steps you take now. You can’t give up. You can’t take no for an answer. You knock on one door, it slams in your face, you move on and knock on the next one. Eventually, one should open. If I told you it has been an easy ride, I would be lying. It has been the hardest grind of my career so far. 16 hour work days with nothing to show for it but alot of talk and promises. Thankfully, some of them are starting to come through. I could be back to square one tomorrow. But I don’t believe in giving up. As we say in the game of Poker, you have to constantly be mixing up your game to win. And right now, there are many opportunities to come out of this thing a winner. Fortune favours the bold. Go get them Tiger. Until next time, keep dreaming.