As I have worked with creative business owners in the past few years, I have come to a point where I realize that if you're going to hire someone to work for you, it should be a person you can get along with well just as much as it needs to be a person with a particular set of skills. After all, I can learn to perform a task, but I can't learn to be an entirely different person. We don't have to be exactly alike - after all, Kirk and Spock are not even the same species! - but we will work together better if we generally like each other and can relate to one another easily.
In the spirit of fostering a new relationship, here's a fun list of facts about me; it's a baring of my human side, if you will. If you get through the list and you think I'm the type of person who might work well with you, send me an e-mail and we'll talk about how I can come on board YOUR starship and help you live long and prosper in your biz.
Things you might want to know about me before hiring me:
- When I take the Myers-Briggs personality test, I come out as ISTJ (introvert, sensing, thinking, judging). It cracks me up to read that this means that in the Star Trek universe, my personality is most in line with Spock. It was kismet, I tell you! Seriously, though, my goal is to do my job well and be of service, so that part of the description hits the nail right on the head.
- I loooooove anything and everything handmade. I grew up in a household where my mother never let a boxed cake mix cross the doorstep. This also means I grew up with a pretty serious sugar addiction, but I'll take that to have had the opportunity to use or eat, every day, something that was lovingly made by hand, just for me. I lost my mom to cancer when I was 15, and I'll always be grateful that she passed along the love of making things before she left.
- I love to catch mistakes in movies. Yep, like that scene in "The Little Mermaid" where Ariel goes to bed and she's not covered up, then the camera cuts away and cuts back and suddenly she's snuggled under a blanket? Even as a kid that bugged me.
- I tend to get this twitch in my right eye whenever I read our local paper, because it's riddled with grammatical errors. It drives me nuts when companies sacrifice spelling for the sake of alliteration (Krispy Kreme? SERIOUSLY? They could have spelled it correctly and it would still alliterate!), and I want to tell the cashier at Wal-Mart that you actually have 10 items or FEWER in your cart, not LESS, but I remind myself that the signage isn't her fault. I prefer purple ink to red, but the love of proofreading is there, all the same.
- I have a petrifying fear of needles, but I also have a tattoo. I like to think of that tattoo as my reminder to myself that I can do it - I can get over fear, I can overcome a challenge and if I want something badly enough I can sacrifice to make it happen. Some day I'll work up the courage to get my second one.
- I curse like a sailor in private, but don't worry - I always censor that in business communications. I am not easily offended.
- Because I used to be a teacher and a sorority girl, I'm comfortable in front of a crowd or in one. I don't mind taking charge when the situation calls for it, and my sister taught me to schmooze with the best of 'em.
- I use the Walt Disney quote "Keep Moving Forward" as my kind of personal motto. I think it's important to remember the past, and to learn from the experiences in life, but it's bad to dwell on them. Onward and upward is really the only choice I want to make at the end of any given day.
- I'm extremely sarcastic and sometimes blunt, but I try to always be kind.
- I embrace the Weird inside me and I love all things NERD. I'm a huge fan of Star Trek, Doctor Who, and young adult dystopian literature. I think The West Wing is the best television series that has ever been written, and I like that it makes me feel smarter every time I watch it.
- I know first-hand the stresses that come from running your own business. There's a definite ego boost that comes from making something and having people line up to buy it, I'm not going to lie. But there's also the stress of running a business like that: the drive to makemakemake until your fingers fall off, the desperation when sales are low and the wave of excitement when they're high, the To Do list that runs through the back of your mind so constantly that it starts to feel like the soundtrack to your madness. I have cut back on Storied Yarns to avoid having that feeling of being totally overwhelmed, and I can help you feel less of that, too, if you hire me to help you out.
If you think we might get along, send me an e-mail! Even if you're not looking to hire someone right now, I'm always open to making new friends.
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