Last updated on April 23rd, 2021 at 08:27 pm
In the second of 10 posts, I look at The 2013 100 to show what I managed to pull off in 2013, what I had to cancel, and some peeks at what I have planned for 2014!
Previous Posts:
The 2013 100, Items: 11-20—Birthdays, BiSC and Blogging
- Spruce up my about.me page
- Send personal emails to everyone who I came into contact with in 2012 about future potential opportunities to collaborate
- Launch the Mansformation website
Update my résumé- Create my creative résumé and portfolio
- Attend Bloggers in Sin City
- Do something awesome for my 30th birthday
- Create a collective of creatives with similar goals in mind
- Get new glasses
- Transform all the blog drafts I have lying around into real posts
11: Spruce up my about.me page
Spend enough time on the Internet and you start to learn a little something about Web presence. When it comes down to it, the only places where you should focus your efforts on standing out are:
- Your own website
- YouTube
Frequent anywhere else all your like, but create amazing content across these sites and I promise that what you share will make its way wherever else you want it to get in due time.
So about.me, it’s been a slice, but I’ve got things to do.
STATUS: Ain’t nobody got time for that!
12: Send personal emails to everyone who I came into contact with in 2012 about future potential opportunities to collaborate
This is one I didn’t pursue. As years pass, you learn more and more that it’s not the number of people you know, but the strength of the relationships you make. While tweetups and networking opportunities are great, you’re rarely going to find yourself entering a lucrative, sound business opportunity with someone you barely know. Instead, I weeded through the pile of business cards I’d collected, dropped quick notes to the few I’d connected with and moved on.
Life’s too short to spoil it with poor relationships.
STATUS: Ain’t nobody got time for that!
13: Launch the Mansformation website
Let me tell you a little story about an idea called Mansformation. Somewhere in 2012, I jokingly replied to a tweet with a Man Lesson about how a man should act in a situation if he wants to get anywhere with the women. Somewhere soon after that, I was tweeting daily Man Lessons, which carried over to my Facebook page, and eventually to its own Facebook page as it got more hype. If I was going to run a business, this would be it!
But I wasn’t passionate about it. Much like many things in my life, I feel into it because the opportunity was there. So I tried it out and enjoyed it for a while, but ultimately found it more effort than I wanted to invest in the project, and slowly started turning my sights elsewhere.
So in early 2013, Mansformation took a hiatus, much to the chagrin of some (including some who’d piggyback off of the success of my Man Lessons to try to make a name for themselves.) Though I’ve no immediate plans to revive the brand (not without a solid business plan, anyway), I can’t say it’ll stay gone—I’m getting a better handle on the blog and real-life stuff, so who knows? Maybe I’ll find someone else who wants to take it on and give them the kick-start they need to succeed!
STATUS: Ain’t nobody got time for that!
14: Update my résumé
STATUS: SO done.
15: Create my creative résumé and portfolio
I’ve always wanted CaseyPalmer.com to be more than just a blog. At no point in my life have I been just a blogger—I’ve drawn logos, designed layouts, been in plays… a blog is cool, but it really sucks at showcasing what you can really do.
So I’ve worked at building a portfolio into the website, focusing on all the things I’ve done over the years. I had to learn some WordPress-specific PHP to do it, but it’s on my development version of the site, and I hope to roll it out in 2014!
STATUS: On to the next year!
16: Attend Bloggers in Sin City
A resounding success! If you read my blog post — it was an amazing time and is helping to change the way I blog!
STATUS: SO done.
17: Do something awesome for my 30th birthday
DoomzDay 2 wasn’t quite as epic as DoomzDay in attendance (largely due to the threat of a second Stormageddon on the horizon, scaring people into staying home), but I’d argue that I had a closer group of friends around me in 2013.
Held at The Office Pub in Toronto’s Entertainment District (and now apparently one of Team Trolling‘s preferred birthday venues—shout-out to Marcel), I put a playlist together and brought a good 75 people together to celebrate the three decades I’ve lived so far.
The Dirtiest of Thirties
It was definitely a night with its ups and downs, from hugging friends I hadn’t seen in ages and partying the hardest I’d partied in months to finding out (again) that shot don’t agree with me and swearing up and down that someone’d stolen my wallet when I couldn’t find it the next day (only to have Sarah find it well-hidden under our bed five months later….)
In any event, we celebrated 30 in style, and while I don’t see going as hard in 2014 now that I’m a father, I’m happy that my friends and I got to go bananas for a night—even if it’s the last time for a while.
To sum it up best, I’ll take a line that Christine told me around the time of my birthday:
“Welcome to the best years of your life.”
STATUS: SO done.
18: Create a collective of creatives with similar goals in mind
After returning from Bloggers in Sin City, I was so filled with optimism and emotion that my post was both a thank you to the friends I’d made and an outcry for change in Toronto’s social media scene. Though far less pronounced now, there was way too much beef, backstabbing and blood in the water for a while, but eventually fizzled out as bloggers grew more professional and stopped causing so much drama.
Would I still want to work with others? Sure—I still believe that the power of man far exceeds that of one person if they’re striving for a common goal. But when I look around—and especially now that I have a son in the picture—I don’t see other bloggers trying to do what I do. Maybe I’ll find more bloggers to collab with in 2014, maybe not. In the meantime, I’ll do what I’ve done so far, working hard at constantly improving my craft.
STATUS: Ain’t nobody got time for that!
19: Get new glasses
Some people are really good at being on top of their employee benefits and getting health services when they should.
If I were that organized, I’d have gotten new glasses in May 2013.
With my optometrist hounding me for my bi-annual visit, 2014’s going to see a new pair of specs (with a pair of prescription shades to deal with harsh glares while behind the wheel!)
STATUS: On to the next year?
20: Transform all the blog drafts I have lying around into real posts
I’m not a linear thinker. I carry a notepad with me because I’ll have random ideas I think are great, but not developed enough to share publicly. With blogging, I’ll often get a sentence or a stream of consciousness about a topic that’s great on its own, but I’m not in the business of writing sound bites—as a blogger, my responsibility is to draft these ideas into stories.
So I have 200+ drafts on my site, 10-15 of which I’m actively working on to turn into live posts. I have no way of telling whether this number will rise or fall in 2014, but I can tell you this—my blog is important to me. I put a lot of time and effort into developing it, hoping to eventually build something truly reflecting who I am. To me, having real estate represents the freedom to create your own possibilities, free from traditional society telling you how your life is going to play out.
TL;DR—I’ll still be writing next year, no doubt about it.
STATUS: On to the next year!
Another day down, 8 more to go! Come back tomorrow when we talk social media, stock markets and some of the people who keep me alive!
Until then I stay…
6 replies on “Birthdays, BiSC and Blogging”
3 in row! You rock star! Loving all the stuff you’ve done, are doing, and will do!
Sad I missed your bday. It’s been a bad year for family deaths and it makes it hard to really enjoy stuff.
You keep rocking Casey Palmer. We’re just along for the ride.
C.
With only 12 days left in the year (I know, right?!), I’m working HARD to get these out! Means I’ll have to post on weekends too, but I don’t want it looking like I didn’t actually make an effort toward this list!
It was a good birthday, for sure — I’ll probably try another party of that magnitude for 40… 35, earliest. I know you’ve had a lot to deal with, and I hope 2014 is better for your family!
Hopefully the ride stays as awesome as possible!
For #18 I’m in. Dad blogging is too much to go it alone. A dad blog network, got all the time for that 🙂
Another great post sir!
You know what, Mark? I’d really like that. I’ve wanted a collective of like-minded thinkers for a good while now, and that’s a step in the right direction 🙂 We should Skype it out or something in the next while and see what we can think of. I have some other people in mind, too.
Thanks for stopping by 🙂
Good move with #12! It’s about the quality of relationships, not the quantity. The busier you get, the more selective you have to be with your time! Besides, there’s no sense in beginner a new relationship unless you can truly add value.
#17 – I had forgotten about the storm! Now I remember dancing in winter boots upstairs 🙂
It was pretty liberating to toss a bunch of business cards in the recycling. The less you physically have around you, the less you feel pressured to do. That’s what I find, anyway. Constantly trying to declutter so I can cleanse my mind 🙂
As long as you were still dancing, I think the attire is quite secondary. Thank you again for joining my paaaaaaaar-tay!!!!