Status Update - 6.15.13

Quick and simple post.

I'm...

Reading:
Getting Real
American Savage
On Writing Well

Watching:
North America
Felt
Does Someone Have to Go
Dragon Ball Z Youtube Clips

Playing:
Pokémon Black 2
Sim City

Learning:
More effective ways to workout
Direct communication techniques 

Dreaming of:
A vacation to Barcelona
Financial stability

Working on:
Marx Foods social media support
Goodwill digital communication projects
Snapping more pictures
A longer blog post

[Photo courtesy of Flickr user stuartajc]

Growing Up in Coffee Shops

As a Northwesterner raised by a Midwesterner and Southerner, coffee was a foreign substance in my household.  In its place was pop – a drink often rationed by my siblings and I. Coffee didn’t enter my life in a meaningful way until I returned to Seattle in 2007 for college at the University of Washington.

After years of drinking pop out of a fridge or vending machine, the notion of brewing coffee or going to get it from a shop seemed downright foreign, if not absurd. Venturing to shops with friends proved to be an interesting challenge. I’d often get to the menu board and be overwhelmed by the choices. It was a stark change from my standard options at home – Coke or Pop. Dazed and often very confused, I’d frequently leave shops with a mocha, my default/security blanket.

It wasn’t until I graduated from college when I truly started to appreciate coffee. Oddly however it wasn’t the taste which drew me in. No, instead it was the culture around the shops and its powerful distinction as an independent space for interaction, business, and relaxing. I hadn’t experienced anything like it before and was hooked by the notion.

Much of my experience with coffee came as a direct connection to the close of the Great Recession in 2009 – as documented by economists. During this time I found myself constantly hitting the pavement, making cold calls to potential employers, and emailing leads I’d discover through contacts. Responses were mixed. Many people were unresponsive, a few were downright rude, but remarkably I found a majority were actually very warm, friendly, and open to a conversation.

The receptive majority which I began to befriend always had a particular place they’d like to meet - coffee shops. Timid at first, I found myself bouncing from coffee shop to coffee shop meeting a variety of different professionals. During the meetings they’d provide in-depth insight into their lives, careers, and passions. The warmness I felt from those experiences still lingers with me today and is a major factor why I find myself frequenting coffee shops today.

Now at a new stage in my life as a budding freelance communications consultant/unemployed young professional I often find myself calling coffee shops home. It serves as a place to connect and work. In just a few years, this once foreign drink has become part of my natural routine. Happy to say I drink it mostly black with just a bit of sugar these days.

[Photo courtesy of Flickr user Nicola since 1972]

Status Update – 5.26.13

As a professional teetering in-between unemployment and part-time communications consulting, it’s easy to lose track of the big picture and forget to count accomplishments. This week I reached two important personal goals. I won my first independent new business pitch and launched joshuaholland.co. In honor of these milestones, this post is dedicated to a few of my key accomplishments since leaving Waggener Edstrom at the end of 2012.

Books Read
The Elements of Content Strategy
The Last Lecture
Time Traps
The Great Gatsby
The Four Hour Work Week
Storyteller Uprising

New Places Visited
San Juan Island
Los Cabos
Columbia Tower
North Ballard

Events Participated In 
SMC Social Media Club Seattle – What’s Hot in 2013
Ignite Seattle 19
Citizen University
Jumpstart 2013
Think & Drink: How Technology is Reshaping Community

Personal Goals Completed
Launched joshuaholland.co 
Secured my first piece of new business

Classes Taken
HTML and CSS Level 1
HTML and CSS Level 2
Project Management for the Web

[Photo courtesy of Flickr user katiedee]

New Thread for the Web

Happy to announce joshuaholland.co is now live! As explained in “Adding Another Thread to the Web,” the site will serve as a central hub for me on the web and is an updated version of a childhood dream.

It’s not perfect but after hacking it together from scratch I've learned a website shares a lot of similarities to crafting a blog post. There is no perfect. At some point you have to let it go and make improvements along the way by creating additional content through other posts or in this instance, website updates.

Big thanks to the School of Visual Concepts for a crash course in HTML and CSS and Rich Kim for hosting the site. Take a look around and let me know what you think! 

[Photo courtesy of Flickr user jamesrbowe]