cellini's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Holy Shit My Whole Plan is Working Well, uh, holy shit. It worked. It all really worked. The whole plan is working. I got bombarded with email after that video and the article ran about me in the NY Times. Completely broke and borderline destitute, I threw together 2 more classes as fast as I could for all of the people who were asking to sign up. One for locals and another intensive weekend course for people coming from out of town. I decided at the last minute to charge $320 a ehad for the intensive weekend course, because it is time for me to start getting paid in a serious way already. I limited enrollment to 10 students in order to make it a better experience for them. An email went out about this at 1 am and when I next checked my email the next morning I had 6 spaces already claimed. It was less than 24 hours in total until the whole thing was full. That's $3,200 in tuition money for next month. And most of them have already paid their $50 deposits. But it gets weirder and better. I got an email from a cable TV show producer yesterday. And we had a very productive phone call afterwards. They want me to do a TV show. On either the Food Network or the Discovery Channel. Holy. Fuck. This was all part of the plan, but I didn't think I'd get to this point so fast. Meanwhile an editor for National Ge0graphic's publishing house wants to see my book proposal. Embarassingly, I do not have a real proposal. I have a query letter and half a book. Then there is a German TV news network that wants to send a film crew out to do a piece on me and one of my classes next month. I've been playing phone tag with a guy from some Canadian broadcasting something-or-other. The lady from NPR is finishing up her story on me this weekend, assuming that I get a deer killed to do a field dressing demo for her to cover. My cup seriously runneth over. I am trying to manage all of this as well as I can. It has all quickly ballooned up into a small business that I am running from day to day. I'm trying to do 2 things as diligently and methodically as possible. First, turn it into actual money as quickly as possible. Because I desperately need it. Thats why I'm doing more of the classes. They may get in the way of other things in my schedule, but it is sure-as-shit money in my pocket. Not a fortune, but there should be enough coming in over the next 6 weeks or so to get me all straightened out. Get all of my shit out of pawn, pay for the last order of heating oil and fill up the tank, fix the corner of my car that got smashed up by a deer (ironically) over the weekend, and take the kids to the dentist for the first time in over a year. Maybe start buying some food again instead of having to either hunt or bake all of it ourselves. A new pair of jeans. Christ how I need some new clothes. Everything I own is literally full of holes except one of my suits. Oh yeah, part 2 of what I'm doing. I'm trying to set myself up as a brand and make arrangements to ensure that this won't all fizzle out in 3 months. A book deal, a TV show in the works, magazine articles. And I need to diversify outside of deer in some of the TV and magazine stuff or else I'll turn into a one-trick pony. I definitely can't put off getting a cell phone any longer. I haven't had one in years. At first it was nice to be rid of it, but for the last year or 2 I've actually wished I had one again. I just couldn't afford it. I'll need a laptop soon as well. The huge, huge help that suddenly showed up yesterday was Jenny. She is investing in me by sending me a check for a substantial sum of money yesterday. I'm using it to cover things like deposits for rental of kitchen and classroom space for the new courses. Also to get certain things copyrighted and to get a pre-paid cell phone so that I can start conducting business without all of these people having to call my day job, which is starting to feel unprofessional. This is an awkward moment of transition. I can see where all of this is going and it is becoming very clear that I can make a career out of this in the near future. But meanwhile I'm having to do a ton of work and run this little business at a time when I'm not actually getting paid much for it yet. So I have to keep showing up for my regular day job and it just feels ridiculous. I have spent over 10 years at this job. Its time to move on. I'm ready for this new career. 7:03 a.m. - 2009-12-01 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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