My project is live! Modern Doing, an interview series on work & meaning
I’ve been dropping hints & references to my interview project for a while, and am finally ready to talk about it in more depth!
Modern Doing is a written interview series that explores how people find meaning through work. It’s a place where I’ll try to answer questions that I’ve wondered about for ages, like “why do some people stay in one career path with confidence while others feel the need to pivot multiple times?” or “how do people discover what gives them meaning? Is it really from self-help books or life coaching?” I don’t know how much I will be able to answer through the process, but the act of asking and conversing about it seems valuable in itself. And that’s really the motive—a broad inquiry into “meaningful work”, how we all try to find it and have it, and what others can learn from each of our journeys toward it.
Interviews will be published starting March 2020. Meanwhile, the website is live—along with Instagram. I would so appreciate if you signed up for the newsletter! (Yes another newsletter, I’m sorry I love emails). If you’d like to chat with me about your experiences with work and meaning, I would love to hear from you. There’s a handy form for signing up for an interview as well 😊
Over the next few weeks I plan to share more about the process behind Modern Doing. This is the first project that I am creating completely by myself. Of course “by myself” is not entirely true; I’ve had really wonderful friends and a project coach help me out with many different aspects of the process. But there were no cofounders or dedicated team members. I believe the trendy new term for this is “solopreneur” (though Modern Doing is not a business at the moment).
Pros of doing things alone:
Learning a TON. I enjoy having my hands in many things and being a generalist. So far I’ve gotten to learn a lot more about brand design, brand messaging, marketing, CSS/frontend, photography, and project management.
Seeing your vision come to life without needing to compromise. This was my main reason for going at it alone. In the beginning I was still sussing out what I wanted Modern Doing to be, and knew that I would not be invested unless it was what I specifically wanted to create and see in the world.
The only blocker is yourself. I can be very impatient when waiting for someone to execute something. See: Virgo self-sufficiency and trust issues.
Cons of doing things alone:
Lots of potential for doubt and indecision. Having a cofounder means having someone to bounce ideas back and forth and help vet decisions. Instead, I relied on my project coach (through Walden) and friends. There are so many scenarios to practice trusting myself and tuning into my gut feelings.
Lots of work. Sooooo much work. There is a constant battle of perfectionism vs. overwhelm. I’ll want to do things according to my grand plan but how can I feasibly do it all? There has been lots of slashing of tasks and plans and expectations and learning to be okay with that.
Missing out on people’s specialized talents. I considered bringing on a photographer or a brand/web designer, knowing that the look & feel would be that much more elevated and “right.” I decided against it, partially because doing it myself felt like an exciting learning opportunity. Mostly though I didn’t want to spend a lot of money upfront and I value paying creatives fairly for their work. I could find volunteers/non-paid people, but I didn’t know if I could trust the quality of work or their commitment (there it is with the trust issue again lol). But I do want to collaborate with folks in the future—photo & design are two stressful areas for me and I know there are lots of talented folks out there!
I’ll be back next week to talk about branding, a commercialized word straight from hell (jk…) and my creative process for the brand design!