Weekend Roundup: April 21
"You have to be willing to be bad at it in order to get good at it." Mary Going
Hello, it's me, back from hiding.
The past few weeks have been so busy that I haven't had a chance to get a post out:
Immediately after Easter, I shifted into advertising mode at RightNow. I know and love social media and content production. However, as RightNow grows and the marketing landscape changes, digital advertising is more important than ever, and my boss has been showing me the ropes and more or less giving me the push I needed to dive into that space. After a few weeks of floundering through online articles, podcasts, forums, and a couple of classes, ya girl is handling Facebook Ad Manager without breaking into hives — and even having fun with it.
I took the next Friday off and spent a weekend with friends, exploring more of downtown Dallas and then Denton (which I love as much as everyone here has told me I would). We had a ton of fun and got very little sleep...
...which was a great idea, except for the part where I boarded a plane early on the 11th and headed to Orlando, Florida for a quick couple days at RightNow Conference Orlando. I've said it before and I'll say it again — I love working our conferences. There's so much fun behind-the-scenes content to mine (you can see the highlights from our Instagram story here, and we live-streamed one of the sessions on Facebook, too!) and I got to spend time with coworkers I don't necessarily work closely with on a regular basis. RightNow Media has hired all the best people, I think.
We landed back in Dallas at about 7 p.m. on the 13th, I drove home, tossed a couple more things in my bag, got back in my car and drove five hours southwest to the San Antonio area. Was this wise? Probably not, but it's okay, we made it, fam! I spent the weekend at the Poteet Strawberry Festival (obvi) and rambling with friends between San Antonio other such small towns. Between sunshine, street tacos, and an emergency nap here and there, it turned out to be a favorite weekend.
I rolled back to Dallas on Sunday in the power of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and a quad-shot americano, got things straightened out for the week, and reveled in my boring schedule for the upcoming week. I spent Monday-Friday finishing up some small advertising projects, prepping the next couple weeks' social media content, wrapping up a freelance article, and dedicating my evenings to some good, long trail runs and zero social interaction.
Now that I feel fully human again, the disappearing act here should be over with. I've got some fun stuff written that I hope you'll enjoy, so keep an eye out! In the meantime, here's some fun links. (A lot of them, to try and make up for the absence!)
Randoms for your weekend:
Writing advice from Austin Kleon.
This interview with photographer Becca Skinner was one of my favorite Mountain and Prairie podcast episodes yet — which is saying something, because I really love this podcast. The show notes have some fantastic stuff, too, so make sure to click through those!
Working with the design team at RightNow has dramatically increased my appreciation for cool website design. Since it's hashtag conference szn around here, here are a couple conference sites that have gotten an actual, audible "OOOOOOOOOH" from me upon first click: Bethel's Heaven Come conference (the colors! the clouds!) and ARC Conference (click the top right menu button and feel delight). We also have a conference site that got an audible "OOOOOOOH" from me, but I'm not 100 percent certain Jeff is done designing it, because I still see him working on it during the week, and I don't want to bring about any wrath by linking to an unfinished site. I'll let y'all know when it's for sure done.
The New Yorker published a longform piece after one of their writers tagged along with the River and the Wall crew for a portion of their filming journey. I haven't read it yet, but I'm linking to it anyway, because it's a New Yorker article and therefore probably a freaking masterpiece. Also, SO stoked for the film to come out.
This article was linked to in just about every newsletter I get this past week. Probably because it is Very Good. (A great and important reminder of why contentment is key.)
I loved this interview with Questlove.
