#NerdsUnite: Life Effin' Happens
<editorsnote> Nerds, meet my buddy Morgan. I met him when he was the manager at the Coffee Bean near my house. See, I was the mayor at the time, and then explained to him one day over a vanilla latte the awesomeness that was Foursquare and a few months (and many more coffees later) we totes became besties and he started writing for the site. This is life as told through his eyes in the keyword of nerd. HIT IT MORGAN!!! </editorsnote>
#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @maniacalmorgan
December 2010, I took a leap of faith, forever changing my professional destiny. For four years I was stuck in the same old rut- serving coffee to complete strangers for next to no compensation. Through the amazing support of friends Jen Friel and Tucker Gumber (just to name a few), I decided to get up and take control. Within a month, I had landed a job with SpiritHoods doing their social media and have been happily employed as the "Director of Social Media Marketing" for the past year. Yay life!
For those of you who don't know me, hello! My name is Morgan. Not only am I a total nerd, but I'm also unapologetically awesome. There are many of you who don't know me, but I go back a few years. Since taking on my position at SpiritHoods, I've had next to no time to write here on TNTML, but here I am. Nerds need loving too. Enough of this little tangent. Back to the story.
Life effin' happens to me on a seemingly regular basis. For instance,when I was 21 I found out through MySpace that I was adopted. You have to roll with the punches and adapt to the circumstance. Sometimes, when things seem to reach a stale mate, the puzzle pieces seem to just come together. I've lived in Los Angeles for 90% of my life. As much as I love it here, there has been a voice in the back of my head telling me that I need something different. I need a change. In July, one of my good friends (of 10+ years) from NYC came to visit me during 4th of July. I've always loved this girl and she's been an awesome friend, but things went from love to love. How would things ever work out between two people on opposite coasts? In August, I went out to NYC to visit and not only did continue to fall more and more in love with her, but I fell in love with NYC. Could it be that the puzzle pieces, which I never even realized were pieces of a puzzle, were starting to fall together? After spending a few months over on the East Coast, I decided that it this was the change I needed - I'm moving to NYC.
So great. Now that I've decided to move 2,000+ miles, what's the next step? How am I going to support myself. Having known Jen for a few years, I seem to always have her voice in the back of my head telling me, "Morgan, you're awesome. Go be awesome." I have this passion for social media, but what do I do with that. It clicked- I am going to start my own business. Talking about the pieces coming together, I remembered that I had a friend who owns her own PR firm who just opened a new office in Manhattan. After talking with her, not only is she making introductions to some of her clients, she is giving me office space to work out of. I gave myself from October until December to figure out how I was going to support myself in NYC, and I actually met my goal. Social Media, here I come!
Here's where things get dicey. I am making the move into self-employment sooner than expected. SpiritHoods is my first client, and as of now my only client. Wouldn't be a problem, but I am making this transition starting February 1st. Let me tell you, in the freelance social media world, one client isn't enough to support yourself. Like the theme of this post, life effin' happens. Adapt and overcome. I could be scared and paralyzed by the thought of not knowing what I am going to do, but that's not me. It's crunch time and I'm hustling. Despite the fact that it's happening sooner than expected, I welcome this change with open arms.
Don't let your destiny control you; control your destiny.