UNIT D:

D8 INTRODUCTORY BLOG: In terms of career aspirations, there are many opportunities for someone in my line of work. From freelance to becoming a studio manager, starting your own recording studio or you could become a producer. I would most likely want to be freelance, as I would enjoy working with many different people, listening to their music and challenging myself to get the sound that they want, especially when it would be different to the kind of music that I have listened to before. To achieve anyone of these, the before stated skills including competence and knowledge of mixing and confidence would obviously be vital. If I wanted to start my own studio, I would have to be even more so because I would potentially be working alone, so there would be barely any technical assistance, and the performers would be depending on me, a scenario that I must improve in. I would also need great work ethic to keep up with the workload of doing multiple jobs. UNIT D8 INTRO: Going into Year 2 at the College there were a number of things that I would like to improve upon. Mainly I wanted to improve my confidence on the mixing desk, improve my abilities with Pro Tools ,to improve my confidence especially in recording sessions or mixing sessions where I am the only presiding technician,  improve my work ethic (especially practically) and to be involved more with the gigs/ live sound scenarios. These all stem from shortcomings that I had last year. I would often find myself falling short in aspects where performers and other technicians were relying on me to set things up and/or record. I would be hindered by my lack of knowledge on what to do, my lack of motivation (especially with the physical tasks like setting up microphones) and being worried about making mistakes due to a lack of confidence. The convenient thing about setting goals to improve upon these areas is that they link together very well; improving abilities and knowledge on the mixing desk and Pro Tools are so intrinsically linked that you will struggle to learn one without the other. Improving the aforementioned will also help my work ethic because I would be more motivated to do work if I was more comfortable with what to do. Also, being improving all of the other areas will help with my contribution at the gigs because I would be more knowledgeable and able at mixing during said gigs, I would be more inclined to do physical tasks and keep it up if I improved my work ethic, and my confidence would be easier to manage and thus there would be less self inflicted pressure. An ideal way to improve many of these was to be taken out of my comfort zone and record someone in Pro Tools individually. This would kill a lot of birds with one stone because I would have to become more adept at Pro Tools and mixing desks to get a decent recording and pass the assignment, I would have to stay professional and not let fear of mistakes get to my head if I wanted to gain a reputation as a pleasant technician to work with and for the same reasons, I would have to improve my work ethic and motivation. The experience gained from this session would not only give me more experience in any future recording sessions, but also it would give me some semblance of working in a live gig, because a lot of the tasks are similar to those of a recording session, namely setting up microphones, getting good signals and being proficient at recording tracks into Pro Tools. I would also like to study Music Technology at Bournemouth University, which would be very demanding, so getting my motivation and work ethic up to scratch is obviously important for me to keep up. With the added workload of a University course, knowledge and confidence will also be vital, as I have done a tour there and the recording studios are bigger and much more complex. For me to progress to the level where I can be able and ready in that area, this Year's potential must be fulfilled to the maximum.

UNIT D8 DEVELOPMENT PLAN: An ideal way to improve many of these was to be taken out of my comfort zone and record someone in Pro Tools individually. This would kill a lot of birds with one stone because I would have to become more adept at Pro Tools and mixing desks to get a decent recording and pass the assignment, I would have to stay professional and not let fear of mistakes get to my head if I wanted to gain a reputation as a pleasant technician to work with and for the same reasons, I would have to improve my work ethic and motivation. The experience gained from this session would not only give me more experience in any future recording sessions, but also it would give me some semblance of working in a live gig, because a lot of the tasks are similar to those of a recording session, namely setting up microphones, getting good signals and being proficient at recording tracks into Pro Tools. Short Term Goals - To participate actively and usefully in the Unit E project as aforementioned. To achieve this I will constantly be suggesting ideas for what we could do, constantly asking for jobs to do and will be looking for the next job once I have finished the one I was doing. By continuously keeping busy, I will not fall victim to the idleness that constantly happened last year (namely at the Jellicoe gig). Another Short Term Goal is to complete D8, D9 and D10 to the best of my ability and to hand them in on time. I will achieve this simply by not wasting time. I will work on it whenever I have the opportunity at the college, I will make sure to use up my time at home to work on this too. I will carefully plan what I want to achieve so as not to make any mistakes and I will try and get the tasks completed with time to spare so if I want to tweak anything with the work, both practical and written. Medium Term Goals - To complete The Unit E project as aforementioned. Long Term Goals - My Long Term Goal is to graduate the course with good grades. I will be doing the best that I can to achieve the best grades possible and I will be doing everything in my Short Term and Medium Term Goals to help me due to the fact that all of the projects outlined are summative. Doing everything I can to do well in these goals is vital to getting good grades and passing the course. My Short Term Goals in relation to Unit D9 and D10 are to review what works well for composition and to create a script as to what I'm going to say and how I am going to walk the audience through the process of composing that I use. I will come up with a few examples of scales to use (and how I use them) and a few songs that I have written to put in the video, to really sell myself as a competent artist and composer. My Medium Term Goals in relation to Unit D9 and D10 are to complete the assignments to the best of my ability. This includes filming the videos for the showcase. My Long Term goals in relation to Unit D are to get the best grades possible by following the criteria. Here are some blog entries from me recording Uzi, in which you can see me reaching my goal of getting more adept at Pro Tools and recording someone by myself on a mixing desk. There was definite improvement in both confidence and ability during these sessions:

2/12/22: 9:00 - 10:30: I recorded Uzi’s piece for him. He wanted two harmonies for the first section, and a double track for it as well. I am much more confident in Pro Tools (for instance I remembered how to put the inputs in) I also am getting better at talking to the performers. We recorded a multi track for what we recorded yesterday, 2 harmonies for what we recorded yesterday, section 2 and a multi track11:00 - 12:30 Glenn switched inputs, put the mics in the others position, switched Cables (note to self, the room was a mess) and he put them side by side. 9/12/22: 9:00 - 10:30: I’ve become so good with the desk in Studio 5. I know how to make it so Uzi doesn’t hear any playback from Pro Tools. I understand the gain. I understand Pro Tools so much more now as well. I understand inputs and outputs. I understand record enabled. Everything is falling into place now. Lol Uzi explained to me that because it’s in 4/4 and he’s playing to a click, cutting the piece is easy because you have to cut to a precise number. There was a loud thud in Section 2, and Uzi realised that it was a part in the next section where I had pressed record too early and caught a thud. Uzi also wanted to record a solo in section 2 so I played it on a loop so that he could practise.

The Truth About Fate

Vicar Max x Fem! Captain

Warnings: Language. Mentions of death, violence.

Word Count: 5,497

“How could anyone ever get over the fact that the person they loved most was taken from them, and they couldn’t do a damn thing about it?”

This had by far been the worst job the Captain had ever taken. The missions she had dealt with thus far had brought her to rabid canids, stuck-up and brainwashed rich people, and even murderous cannibals living outside the security of Stellar Bay. But this was a totally different kind of uncharted territory.

The Captain would be lying if she said that she wasn’t a little enthralled when a severed arm was delivered on to her ship. She didn’t know the man that she later learned to be Lucky Mantoya (since she wasn’t actually Alex Hawthorne), and the idea of taking the job from a dead freelancer was a bit thrilling. The Captain supposed that she owed Alex in a way, so taking this job was her paying her debt. 

It wasn’t until she was too far into the journey on Gorgon that she wished that she had remained indebted to the late captain.

The Captain knew all about Adrena-Time. She saw the ads everywhere and how it was portrayed to be a performance enhancing drug created by Spacer’s Choice. She had never needed or wanted to take it, but it seemed that it was advertised everywhere she went. 

It didn’t take long for The Captain and the crew to discover that Adrena-Time had created marauders, and Gorgon was the birthplace for them. Spacer’s Choice had poured endless money into The Gorgon Project, continuing to flood the market with cheap items and giving empty promises to the colony. 

The deeper they dug into the mission, the more disturbing it became. The Captain was stuck between a rock and a hard place. It was too late to back out now, but she wasn’t sure how she felt about exposing herself and her crew to the rundown labs and abandoned “volunteer patients” left to die. 

The labs were horrifying. The endless traces of failed experiments and suffering people were forever etched into her brain. The smell of all the dead bodies made her nauseous each time she remembered it. The cubes that were made from literal human parts. The worst part of it all was knowing that marauders were created. 

It was very clear that the entire project was a cover up. She wanted Spacer’s Choice, The Board, and all the other snot nosed corporations to burn anyways, but now that feeling had tripled.

There were two positives to this mission. One was that (unlike other jobs she had taken) there didn’t seem to be any rush on completing this job. It wouldn’t change the outcome if she decided to move on to other things for a bit. The second upside was that the Captain had met some genuinely wonderful people on Gorgon. 

The Sprat Shack had been their safe space during their time on Gorgon, while The Captain preferred that they all stay on the ship for sleeping, she spent the rest of her downtime and breaks at Lex’s bar. The Captain stayed fairly under the radar at first, keeping her head down and ordering her selected crew at the time to do the same. But she slowly began to realize that the people of the small bar meant well. According to Lex, most of them had been forgotten...and the bad ones had made it out of Gorgon instead. 

The Captain had met some outstanding people, some of which she even developed friendships with. She wasn’t surprised that some of them needed jobs to be completed for a fee. The side jobs were actually somewhat refreshing, and it kept the Captain on track without leaving the void blasted rock. 

But there was one side job that she wished had never been offered to her. 

Leonora was a kind woman. She kept to herself and mostly drank the day away. The Captain couldn’t explain the feeling of hurt every time she looked at Leonora. The sense of loss and hopelessness. It all made sense when Leonora asked for a personal favor. 

Leonora told the Captain about her lost husband and their Gorgon story. Leonora had no idea where Jerome was or what became of him. But she wanted the one thing that was left of him.

Truth be told, the Captain wasn’t sure that going out of her way to find a beat up flask was worth her time. But after talking with Leonora and hearing how “a broken heart” had brought her back to Gorgon, she couldn’t bring herself to say no. It was supposed to be an easy job. One that would lift everyone’s spirits. 

But it ended up hurting the Captain even more.

It had been weighing on her a lot. There was something about the way Leonora’s eyes glassed with tears when she said Jerome’s name that made the Captain feel terribly upset. She could tell that Leonora loved Jerome endlessly, and it made the Captain question a lot about love. How could anyone want to fall in love if there was a possibility of ending up like Leonora?

The Captain worried about it, because it was totally possible that it could happen to her too.

Max meant everything to her. She loved him with everything that she was. She looked forward to waking up with him every morning and going to bed with him at the end of each night. She couldn’t even begin to imagine her life without him.

Max was her comfort in this fucked up colony. She had talked to Max about it, taking advantage of his confessional conversation training. He tried to help her get to the bottom of her feelings, which amounted to the fact that she needed to complete Leonora’s job first.

It turned out that tracking down Jerome’s flask wasn’t as difficult as she originally thought, once The Captain, Max, and Nyoka shot their way through a group of strung out marauders. The apartment was small, but she knew that Jerome had been there. 

“I think that’s it, Cap.” Nyoka stated, motioning towards the metal flask sitting on the bed.

The Captain looked at the engraving on the flask, letting her know that it was the one she had been searching for. 

“Yep. I think so too,” The Captain said, “I’m going to take a second to read his journal now that we’re not being shot at.”

Max and Nyoka offered light chuckles at the Captain’s joke, continuing to look around the room for anything they could pocket before they left. The Captain had found Jerome’s journal earlier, but hadn’t had a chance to read it since they had been under attack. 

Now she wished she had never allowed herself to read what Jerome had written.

She smiled faintly when she read the sweet things that he had written about Leonora. But that feeling didn’t last long for the Captain. The fuzzy warmth was washed away with a cold gut drop when she read that he had taken Adrena-Time. Her heart ached as she read on to see his slow descent into marauder madness. It made her feel a sense of dread at knowing that she likely had just killed him within the group of marauders just a few moments before.

“Oh, God...” The Captain groaned, handing the journal to Max and Nyoka so they could skim over it too.

A wave of nausea filtered through the Captain’s senses, but not the kind usually brought on by rotting canids on Monarch. As much as the Captain wished that she had more control over her feelings, sometimes they still smacked her in the face.

Max and Nyoka went through the same emotions the Captain did as they read. They knew what the Captain was feeling, and they didn’t want her to blame herself for something that she couldn’t help.

“It’s not your fault, Cap. We had to kill them.” Nyoka said.

Max seconded Nyoka’s statement, approaching the Captain and resting a hand on her shoulder to soothe his distressed girlfriend.

“She’s right. There was nothing else that could be done.” Max’s voice rumbled low in the Captain’s ear.

The pad of his thumb stroked her shoulder through the hard material of her Rizzo’s SugarOps armor. It was something he always did when he knew she was uptight, but it didn’t always offer her consolation.

“What am I even going to say to Leonora? How am I supposed to tell her what happened to Jerome?” The Captain asked rhetorically, but she had hoped they’d give her an answer.

The Captain already had a feeling as to what they thought. Nyoka and Max were very honest people, believing that the truth was always best. The Captain mostly agreed, but she knew how damn bad the truth could hurt sometimes.

“Cap, I hate influencing decisions. Just...go with your gut.” Nyoka offered, which wasn’t exactly helpful.

“Whatever you find to be best, Captain.” Max echoed.

The Captain sighed, dejected that their advice didn’t help at all. The Captain tucked the flask into the pocket of Max’s jacket, assuring that it’d be safe with him until they made it back to The Sprat Shack. The trek back through the ruins to the saloon felt far too quick. Even if she had all the time in the world, the Captain was confident she’d never fully settle on how to handle this.

These were the moments that she hated about being a captain. The moments where all authority and responsibility fell to her, and when her crew couldn’t back her up. As horrible of a thought as it was, the Captain was tempted to not even return to Leonora. Leonora would never even know that the Captain had indeed carried out her task. But the Captain knew that was probably the worst thing she could do.

She fished the flask from Max’s pocket once they were out of harm’s way, her dirtied fingers trailed over the engraving once more. She hated everything about this entire Gorgon mission. Every side job that she took seemed to be making the main objective worse. Gorgon was by far the worst of the colony.

And it only further cemented the Captain’s hate for The Board.

They entered the building, the dread in the Captain’s abdomen growing more and more as the elevator descended them down to the lower levels. She looked at Nyoka and Max again, her usually confident and determined eyes suddenly filled with uncertainty.

“I don’t know what I’m going to tell her.” She admitted, her usual boldness being chipped away more and more the longer she thought about this.

Nyoka and Max both wished they could’ve been more helpful. Unfortunately, this was just one of those moments where their assistance wasn’t making the job easier.

Max adored the Captain. Their relationship had given his life a whole new purpose and meaning. He loved her endlessly, and seeing her this upset hurt him personally. If he could bear her burdens, then he would without a second thought.

But she was the Captain, not him.

“Maybe she won’t even ask, Cap.” Nyoka suggested the likely best case scenario.

“If nothing else, at least returning the flask will partly offer her closure.” Max tagged on.

That helped marginally, but it barely made a dent in the Captain’s feeling of impending sadness. The Captain led the way into the room where Leonora was sitting, rummaging through a bin of her belongings that amounted to practically nothing.

For a split second, life returned to Leonora’s eyes when she saw the Captain. However, the life left them again just as fast as it had come. It was as if Leonora had hoped that Jerome would’ve been with them. The Captain couldn’t even imagine Leonora’s pain.

“Hi, Leonora.” The Captain greeted in as neutral of a tone as possible.

Max and Nyoka stood back a ways, wanting to give Leonora plenty of space for whenever the Captain broke the news to her.

“Find anything out there?” Leonora asked in her serene voice.

The Captain nodded, revealing the metal object to her.

“I found Jerome’s flask.” The Captain stated simply, passing it to her with slightly trembling fingers.

A genuine, yet sad smile appeared on Leonora’s face as she looked over it. The Captain could see a whole parade of memories flood over Leonora. The Captain refused to cry, but it was taking a lot from her to stop the tears.

“That’s it, all right! Law...still smells like whiskey, his cigarettes, and that awful cologne he bathed in every morning.” Leonora said, but more as a testament to herself than the Captain.

The Captain refused Leonora’s payment when she offered the bits. The Captain was glad Ellie wasn’t there, because she would’ve surely bitched at the Captain for turning down payment. The Captain had this overwhelming sense to leave now while Leonora wasn’t asking questions. The Captain figured she could bid her farewell and good luck and dash out, but Leonora spoke again before the Captain could try.

“You didn’t happen to find anything else out there...did you?” Leonora questioned, very clearly wanting the answer she’d been waiting all these years for.

The Captain felt like she could’ve broken out into a sweat. This was exactly what she was afraid of. Her observant ears heard the uncomfortable shifting of Nyoka’s feet behind her, and she could practically see Max’s lowered head as a show of respect for Jerome.

The Captain’s hesitation was probably not a good sign to Leonora. The Captain knew that she couldn’t completely avoid answering Leonora. The Captain had two very clear paths in front of her. She could tell Leonora the truth and risk breaking Leonora’s heart further, or she could lie and offer Leonora some solid comfort...even if it wasn’t real.

The Captain didn’t want to do this. She wished that she had better options at this moment. But she had to choose what was dealt to her and what was best for Leonora in her eyes. So, the Captain made the best decision that she could.

So she lied.

“I found Jerome. It looks like he died peacefully.” The Captain told Leonora.

The energy from Max and Nyoka changed. They both were a bit stunned that the Captain fibbed. Just as before, a flash of a look of relief crossed Leonora’s features. She didn’t want Jerome dead, but thinking he died comfortably brought her great consolation.

“Good...good. I should’ve been there for him, but I suppose he wanted to be alone in the end,” Leonora said solemnly, “Thank you for the flask. Jerome and I were supposed to live and die together, but sometimes fate has other plans.”

The Captain didn’t hear Leonora’s goodbye due to the ringing of her last sentence.

Fate has other plans.

The Captain felt a million times worse now. She thought about all the plans she had with Max. All the things about their future that they had talked about. They were supposed to live and die together...but what if that didn’t turn out to be the case?

The Captain only gave Leonora a nod for a farewell, leaving her to wallow in a broken lie as an attempt at moving on. It was the end of the night, and the Captain just wanted to get the hell back on The Unreliable. They left The Sprat Shack, the Captain’s solitary question giving Nyoka an invitation to speak once they were en route to exit the establishment.

“Did I do the right thing?” The Captain asked for the first time ever, tears brimming her eyes.

Max didn’t say anything, knowing she’d talk to him more later. Nyoka sighed, clearly torn at what had just happened with Leonora.

“I don’t know, Cap. I hope she’ll find some peace in this, but...sometimes it’s better to know the truth and deal with it.” Nyoka said honestly.

“I just couldn’t tell her. She’s been holding on to a sliver of hope for years and if she knew that he had turned into a marauder...” The Captain stopped briefly, “It might’ve killed her.”

The Captain wasn’t known for theatrics or delivering dramatic lines after an intense moment (no, they left that up to Felix). But her words couldn’t have been more true.

Max hates seeing the Captain so unsure of herself. She usually never thought twice about a decision she had made. She had lied her way out of situations before, but never in that context.

“I’m sure you did the rightest thing you could, Cap. It’ll be fine, you’ll see.” Nyoka added on after realizing that her opinion had made it worse.

“Yeah. Maybe.” The Captain said as they walked up the ramp of the landing pad.

The ship was fairly quiet as they entered, only a few distant sounds could be heard over the hum of the engine. Ellie and Parvati had gone to bed, Felix was raiding the fridge in the kitchen, and SAM was probably cleaning ADA’s units for the millionth time that day.

The Captain wanted to get the hell off of Gorgon, even if it was just for a day or two. But she was afraid that she wouldn’t be able to stop thinking about it until the job was finished. She just wanted to get this over with so she could get on with her life.

Her mind was reeling with thoughts and replaying the day’s events over and over again. She couldn’t tell what was bugging her more. The fact that she was responsible for the death of Jerome or that she had lied to Leonora. It was probably a horrible thought, but it offered the Captain some peace knowing that Jerome never would’ve been with Leonora again, due to his marauder transformation and all.

But she subconsciously knew that there was much more to her discomfort than what was on the surface.

Nyoka, Max, and the Captain silently stashed their things away into the lockers at the front of the ship, the sounds of their weapons and whatever they had stashed in their pockets clinking and making other noises. Usually, the Captain took inventory at the end of the day, but she was too tired and honestly couldn’t have cared less.

The Captain’s gear had been stashed away until their next adventure, her head craning from one side to the other as she attempted to adhere to her achy muscles and tired bones. Nyoka didn’t say much else, knowing the Captain needed to be alone. Nyoka snatched a few bottles of Spectrum Vodka from the kitchen before holding herself in her room, not nearly as bothered as the Captain was.

Max had hardly taken his eyes off of the Captain the entire time. He studied her and watched her to see what she was feeling without her actually saying it. The Captain and Max had an interesting dynamic like that. He could read her and she could read him.

He just wished she wouldn’t beat herself up so much about this.

“[Y/N], darling,” He hushed out, his voice like smooth silk in her ear, “Please, don’t dwell on this too much.”

The Captain only shook her head, her eyes stinging with tears again and her throat heavy with the struggle to hold down that first sob.

“I’m going to shower. I just want to go to bed.” She stated, managing to conceal the quaver in her voice from him.

To anyone else, the Captain’s behavior would’ve been coming off as cold and hateful. But Max knew her too well for that. He knew she was hurt and upset with herself. She turned around the walk away from him, knowing that he understood where she was mentally right now.

He instinctively let his hand find her waist, keeping her from straying away from him. He looked into her bleary eyes, seeing the toll that this was taking on her.

“Okay, my love. Whatever you want.” He smiled softly, trying his best to reassure her.

Now, he went to walk away, taking the Captain’s statement to mean that she wanted to be alone. But her frantic grab for him told him he was wrong. He could see the desperation in her eyes, the plain and simple fact that she did not want him to be away from her right now. Even more so, he heard it in her voice. The gentle request that came out as a crack of a whisper.

Almost as if he’d disappear if she spoke too boldly.

“Please don’t go.” She pleaded to her beloved priest.

A singular tear slid down her left cheek, creating a wet line through the layer of dirt caked on the Captain’s face. She wouldn’t let herself completely fall apart. Not yet anyway. She refused to let the emotion show on her features past the tears.

She was supposed to be the strong, blazing captain of The Unreliable. She was supposed to be the one person who never let things get in the way of things that needed to be done. Independent captains were supposed to keep their feelings stored away on a shelf, safe from all the horrible things that they had to see.

But what the Captain was beginning to realize was that all of those other captains had become that way BECAUSE they didn’t allow themselves to feel.

They had ruined themselves by trying so hard not to ruin themselves.

“Oh, Captain...oh, my darling,” Max said quietly and lowly, not to draw any attention in the event that someone was lingering around, “I’m here for you. I always have been and always will be.”

His hand slipped into hers, intertwining his fingers with hers. He brought the back of her hand to his lips and left a gentle kiss, bringing her to the shower of the ship. The water was hot and heavenly on the Captain’s skin, already washing away the dirt and grime she had collected during the day.

Silent tears were still streaming from her eyes as they stood together under the flow of water. He wiped away the tears as best as he could, his heart breaking with each new set of soundless tears that told the loudest story. She didn’t have to say that she needed comfort; he could see it and feel it.

“You’re so wonderful. You’re so incredible in so many ways,” Max said as he began to wash her hair, his hands massaging at her scalp, “Law only knows how you ended up in my life.”

Even through her tears, she managed a smile, along with a saddened and amused laugh.

“Did an outlaw, happenstance captain really change your life so much?” She asked him in a purely joking manner.

“You’ll never understand the half of it.” Max replied as seriously as ever.

Max made sure she was clean first, before getting himself clean as well. He continued to tell her sweet nothings. He continued to love her in the ways that he knew she responded well to. He couldn’t undo everything that had happened, and he couldn’t do much about the Captain’s worry. But he could be there for her through all her tribulations.

She took her usual place on the inside of the bunk once they were dressed for bed and back in her quarters. Max had slipped one of his shirts over her body, kissing her gently and carefully. His lips were met with her quivering ones, her final attempt at not completely breaking down in front of him.

She was pressed between the adjacent wall and Max’s body. She snuggled up next to him like she always did, but it wasn’t in the giddy way that she normally did when she was eager for cuddles. No, this was more of a slow pull of herself flush to him. Her head against his left pectoral and her hands reaching for one of his to play with. She was needy for comfort, rather than her usual nightly snuggles.

The trace scents of Max’s cologne filled her nose as she formed herself into his side. It was a smell that always grounded her. It brought her a sense of care. A sense of direction when she didn’t know where to go. A feeling of all the answers in a world of so many unanswered questions.

It made her feel a sense of home.

“Max?” She called out, not hiding the tremble in her voice this time.

He could feel the glass about to break. The glass underneath her that was protecting her bottled up feelings was beginning to crack and was on the verge of shattering and causing her to fall.

But he’d be there to catch her safely.

“Let it go, Captain,” He persuaded softly, holding her a little tighter in preparation for her inevitable meltdown, “I’m here.”

And then she did indeed let go.

The first real sob was a gut wrenching one. She felt it all the way from the bottom of her lungs to the tips of her toes. It was an overwhelming reaction, one so intense that even Max was a bit taken aback. She buried her face into the soft material of his shirt, muffling her pathetic cries in an attempt not to disturb anyone on the ship. 

“I lied to her, Max.” The Captain sputtered, each word being thick with distress.

“You did what you simply had to do. Your decision wasn’t out of disrespect.” Max answered, his hand caressing her damp hair. 

“It was her husband. I killed her husband, and I didn’t even have the guts to tell her that.” The Captain drawled, her tears seeping through Max’s shirt.

“You didn’t kill him. He was dead long before you ever pulled the trigger,” Max reminded her, referring to how Adrena-Time pretty much had sucked any life out of him beforehand, “Leonora and Jerome never would’ve ended up happily together again. Even if we had managed to get away with not killing him.”

The Captain seemed to be understanding that. It registered well in her head, but there was one part she was still so hung up on. 

“It wasn’t that I didn’t want to tell her that I killed him. I just couldn’t tell her that he had turned into a marauder. How could anyone come to terms with their lover becoming a fucking maniac?” She wept, “How could anyone ever get over the fact that the person they loved most was taken from them, and they couldn’t do a damn thing about it?”

Max was intrigued by the Captain’s specific choice of wording...but he sensed that there was a deeper issue that was causing her to fall apart like this. Max was doing absolutely everything he could to make her feel better. Unfortunately, she had just seen and dealt with too much since taking this Gorgon job. She was exhausted in every regard: emotionally, physically, mentally. He just wished that there was more that he could do beyond talking things out. 

“It’s so overused to say, but life is unpredictably cruel sometimes. There was a reason for the way that things turned out.” Max said, kissing the crown of her head.

The Captain dwindled down into a series of sniffles and hiccuping cries, her head too rattled to say anything for the time being. Max caressed her skin, kissed her, touched her, and loved her. Anything he could do to remind her that he was there for her.

“Max?” She called again after a few more silent moments.

“Yes, my love?” He answered, letting his hand relax so she could fidget with it easier.

“I love you.” She declared, wiping at her tears fruitlessly.

Max and the Captain had exchanged “I love yous” before this moment. Surprisingly, Max had been the first to say it. He and the Captain had found themselves sitting alone together on Groundbreaker, sharing a bottle of Iceberg Whiskey and drowning out the day’s terrors. He had leaned over to press a kiss to her temple, when he whispered it lowly in her ear. She had returned the endearment, and not a day had passed where the two of them hadn’t said it at least once a day. 

Even when they had been fighting or arguing over something meaningless, they never let the other go to bed angry. He could be past the point of enraged at her, and he would still tell her how he felt before they fell asleep. They were connected in the most beautiful way. 

It felt so different to hear her say it in this kind of situation.

“I love you, Captain. I love you so much.” He drawled, suddenly interlacing his fingers with hers once again. 

“When Leonora was telling her story...I couldn’t help but think about us.” The Captain admitted, her tears beginning to slow.

Max’s brows knitted together in both confusion and curiosity.

“What do you mean?” He questioned, leaving yet another kiss on her head.

“They traveled the colony together...ended up at the wrong place at the wrong time,” The Captain explained, “Max, that could easily happen to us.”

The Captain sat up from where she was laying next to him, her cheeks wet with tears and her eyes puffy. She wanted him to understand her worries and why this was bugging her so much. 

She wanted him to see that she was afraid for them. 

“Oh, darling, I assure you that’s nothing to concern yourself with. We’ve seen what Adrena-Time can do and it’s the reason for marauders, I’d never even give taking it a second thought.” Max assured her.

“I don’t mean with Adrena-Time. I just mean in general. This colony is so messed up. Literally anything could happen and if I lost you...” She trailed off, not even daring to finish the thought. 

The vicar’s eyes softened even more than they already had. Although he knew better than to say this to her right now, he knew that they could realistically lose one another at any given moment. He wasn’t kidding when he said that life was cruel. It was always an open possibility...and not just for them. 

“It could happen. I won’t deny that to you, but I find that it’s more important to savor and cherish the moments that we are blessed with...preferably while they’re still here,” Max said, knowing that probably wasn’t offering her any kind of resolve. 

“Easier said than done.” The Captain grumbled.

“I know it’s not a great answer,” He confessed, a grin appearing on his face, “But for what it’s worth, I enjoy every single moment with you. I’ll spend every moment loving you.”

The Captain gave a light laugh, amused by his words.

“Even when I’m a crying mess and hysterical?” She tried to joke.

Max cupped her face, swiping more tears from her face as he answered with full seriousness.

“Especially then.” 

The Captain took a few seconds to try and collect herself. Talking had helped some, but this was something she’d have to allow herself to work through. In time, The Captain would come to terms with what she had told Leonora. While she’d never know how Leonora came to terms with it, the Captain would rest easy knowing that she’d done what she thought was right. 

Max gave her time to bask in the quiet, continuing to rub her leg that was peeking out from under the sheet. He kept his sights on her, watching her as she dazed out the window in front of her desk. He was proud of her for letting herself release her feelings out into the open. He knew that she kept things to herself more than he wanted her to, but as long as she knew that he was a resource for her, then he was okay. 

“Come here.” He said when her gaze returned to him.

She crawled back into his open arms, falling into his frame for the millionth and certainly not the last time. He showered her with love for the rest of the night, wiping any tears that slipped down her face. He felt relief when she finally fell asleep, because he knew how badly she needed rest. 

He stayed up long after she fell into a snooze, keeping her close in case she woke up again in a meltdown. He was sure that she was releasing lots of emotions that had been building up for quite some time, so he expected her to not fully be herself for a few days. 

He’d be there for her until she felt better. Until she was back to being the woman that he had grown to love...but he loved her just as much even when she wasn’t feeling completely normal. While he hoped that he and his captain had lots of more adventures to go on and endeavors to discover, he was content with his happily ever after that he knew to be her. Because she had shown him love. She had shown him HOW to love.

She was his forever.

Hey Aero! Don't want this to be weird but you strike me as one of those chic and suave successful people. Your fanfiction was-still is-the best and you're living your dream as a writer which prob surprises no one so do you have any advice on how to get to your level? I want to be an artist but most of the time I only feel lost ToT any advice from you would be amazing thank you! -huge fan

This isn’t weird, no worries! And thank you so much for so many compliments! While I was reading this I was kind of hiding halfway behind my hand lol I’d be more than happy to give you some advice, but whether or not this advice will work for you I can’t say because everyone is different.

Full answer below the cut!

There is one huge thing that I can’t stress enough to anyone wanting to pursue a creative passion and that is: Always, always, always build a stable career that will allow you to support your passion. That’s definitely not what a lot of people want to hear, but it’s the biggest and best advice I can give. Build a career that will ensure you’ll have the financial stability to support yourself and thus, will give you the means to pursue your passion. 

This might sound a bit bleak, but the future has never been more uncertain than it is right now. Global warming, pollution, overpopulation, etc. – these are all very real and extremely progressive problems that are on our doorstep knocking. These have to be addressed within the next 10 years at least and if they continue to go unchecked, we’re going to be looking at a totally different world in the next decade. Passions are going to take a backseat to survival and you’re going to want skills and knowledge and a foundation that will see you through that.

I know that sounds incredibly negative, but it’s also something a lot of people tend to ignore because it’s scary to think about. When I began planning out how I was going to be a writer, I really had to sit and think about the best tactic to get me to where I wanted. I worked my ass off, made a lot of sacrifices, and now I’m living. I started writing at an incredibly young age and built off that by continuing to write and hone my skill no matter what stage of my life I was at. I also began university at an early age and as a result of all that hard work, I now have a ridiculously well paying international job ((dual citizenship and an exceptional performance at university led to this)), I get to travel all the time, and if things economically go south, I’ll still have a strong foundation to stand on and see me ((and my family)) through it. Because of this, writing can be something I do purely because I enjoy it. The income I get from my writing gets to go directly into my savings and as a whole, money isn’t something I have to worry too much about. My books do phenomenally well, but if they didn’t, it wouldn’t matter because I’d still have plenty of income to take care of me. Being a freelance anything ((writer, artist, designer, etc.)) it’s going to come with a lot of stress and those are all things that aren’t going to be in demand if the economy takes a dip.

Plus, and this is just me, but I love writing so much and I can’t honestly say how I’d feel if it were my “job.” Yes, I love it with all my heart. Yes, it’s my greatest passion. But if it were something I felt I needed to do because I had to in order to live, I think my feelings toward it would change and that scares me. I don’t ever want to resent what I love to do or begin to associate it with stress and negative emotions. I don’t want my life to revolve around how much I can sell or whatever, I want it to be about just writing what I love and sharing it with no expectations. The idea of living paycheck to paycheck isn’t something I ever want to see come to a reality. At this time, if I lived on my writing alone, I’d be able to do just fine. I wouldn’t be able to live as extravagantly as I do, travel as much, or save as much, but I’d be okay. However, there’s no guarantee that books will be as in demand in the future when global issues influx and that’s not a chance I’ve ever been willing to take.

So, anon, voila! This is the best advice I feel I can give you or anyone. I really do know it’s not what a lot of people want to hear, but from experience, I can say that I’ve never been healthier or more confident in myself than I am now and it’s the greatest feeling. 

As a Virtual Assistant you can earn while at home

In today's generation where we live in the face of Advanced Technologies influenced by different Social Media Platforms in which we do our transactions and businesses in an efficient manner, less time-and-effort consumed. Now, facing the pandemic without any guarantee of when will it end and when will physical work force and businesses will resume, thus we tend to loose our jobs, as an alternative, we use different social media platforms to continue delivering services to our dear clients/customers and finding different jobs to sustain our needs. In this current situation, there were a lot of people confiding on different freelancing jobs. Thus,

Virtual Assistantis the best way of.... You will have your job at the same time you can managed your own time. You can also be with your family, without compromising their health and risking them in physical contact outside home. I have a husband who's working overseas, and at the same time I just gave birth with our first baby. Being a wife and a mother is not that easy. Being in this situation, I cannot afford to have a regular- physical job. It's quite exhausting as I think on how will I survive in that case , and at the same time the chance of getting a job, applying, and dealing with a lot of nuisance of processing my application will took me sometime to be hired as well. And as a first time Mom, I would like to be with my son and be hands-on in taking care of him. I cannot afford to see him grow without me and without my guidance. I want to work to help my husband and secure our future especially the future of my son.

Building our future

and being with them at home, I guess that would be impossible. You need to choose one over the other. I don't want to loose time with my child, but I don't want to waste the time for our future.

Above all, my family is my top priority. Instead of applying jobs tirelessly in a regular job, I found out that Virtual Assistant is more

efficient

, because not only you can manage your own time, you can also be with your loved ones without compromising the other and it is the best way especially this days that we're having pandemic that require as to stay at home. It really is a time saver! I am actually enrolled at the moment in

Filipino Virtual assistance

, still enhancing and discovering my capabilities  and skills in the freelance world.In freelancing, they train you not just by merely giving services to your clients of what they need, but they train you to be the best and competitive globally.

I know there were a lot of

freelancers

out there, they were smart and competitive. But my conviction and faith as mother and wife, I guess no one can stop me for being the Best of what I can be as a

Virtual Assistant

, with the help of my coach, those training I've learned, those will pay off soon, and I will be as Successful as I visualize. Those Visualizations will come into reality.

What Were Musicians Doing During Lockdown?

Among the most startling changes the outbreak of COVID-19 in Ghana brought, the city-wide lockdowns were among the most dramatic. For most of us in the music space, the government-enforced stay-at-home orders and restrictions on social gatherings meant a temporary loss of income, vital connections, and excess time on our hands.

While being stuck at home took its toll on nearly everyone, it presented a rare opportunity to do things differently, try our hands at new skills, and engage with those we love in exciting, unconventional ways.

We spoke to some of your favourite musicians to find out what they made of their time at home.

Bernard Odai

Cellist at National Symphony Orchestra, Cellist with Musicians without Borders

Every musician fears a time when gigs would not be available. My worst fear was becoming a reality when the president put a ban on social gatherings which saw imminent gigs canceled.

As if that wasn’t enough, the lockdown was instituted and I was to stay home since, by definition, I am not a frontline worker.

I resorted to working online by registering with a website called Fiverr which helps and manages freelancing. I registered as a freelance cellist where I played a lot of pieces composed by people outside our borders. I created my own personal studio in my home with a phone, my laptop, cello, and headset. As ridiculous as it may sound, it worked! Some of these jobs included playing sections of songs to be mastered in studios and the pay was handsome.

I also continued my cello lessons with Dr. Sally Singer who came to Ghana last year for some performances and a masterclass. She gave me exercises that kept me busy throughout the lockdown and it improved my technique as a cello player.

Being a member of the National Symphony Orchestra, we were tasked to practice Beethoven’s symphony no. 5 which is to be performed later this year. This piece was really a challenge for me since the cello has major roles to play in the 2nd and 3rd movements.

For me, the lockdown, contrary to my fears, served as a retreat from daily rounds to make myself better. I can testify that I have improved as a cellist

Moses Torto

Tenor Soloist, Music Youtuber, tenor singer with Harmonious Chorale Ghana

Getting time as a musician to work on your art is one of the most difficult things to do. It takes a high form of work discipline to push some time in one’s busy schedule. 

As much as this pandemic is causing a lot of havoc, it has given artists much time to work on themselves.

I used this opportunity to work on my vocal art. I learned more tenor arias to enrich my repertoire. I also started taking some lessons on the piano which I almost gave up on at a point in time. 

I started making comedy skits relating to classical music and other relatable topics based on the genre. I went crazy for a minute and turned into King of the Night smacking my cloned self with a slipper. 

My most prized possession is the New YouTube Channel I created for my Brand Called Team Tenor which introduces beginners to classical music in a more fun and entertaining way. We never stop learning so that advanced musicians can also watch for fun.

Rita Fafali Nkonu

Music Director and Organist at Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Tarkwa Brenuakyinim

Assuming the role of a music director and a keyboardist in my church comes with the responsibility of attending choir rehearsals and playing at Sunday masses and some weekdays. I sometimes get external gigs from church choirs and choral groups to play at church services, weddings, and funerals. I am also a keyboard teacher.

These aspects of my life as a musician integrates with my normal day to day activities and other aspects of life. 

However, during the lockdown, all these tasks ceased. Initially worried about the boredom it would bring, I realized it was the best opportunity for me to upgrade myself as a musician. I grabbed that opportunity. 

I was able to learn some new chord structures; the use of the blues scale for jazz and hymn variations. This helped me to come up with a contemporary style intro of  "Adom ne ahumobro" which was posted on the Triumph Symphony Facebook page. l practiced playing of scales with the right technique to improve my fingering and speed in playing the keyboard. I learned new pieces and revisited those I had learned before. All these were included in an increase in practice time to 3 hours a day. This however made me pay more attention to details of effective performance. I had to practice better posture, exceptional stage performance, and good conducting techniques.

Having more time on my hands helped me transcribe some pieces from the staff to solfa notation to speed up teaching when my choir resumes rehearsals. 

It was time to embrace making appearances on social media: thus shooting videos of either myself performing alone or with a group. Some of the pieces included "the trumpet shall sound" by Handel,  “Voi che sapete by Mozart”, “Adom ne ahumobro” by Newlove Annan, and some others. 

Again, I accompanied our priest to the radio station where we had a mass on-air which was streamed live on Facebook. I employed all the skills I had learned early on while singing and playing the keyboard. 

Finally, I worked on my few compositions and composed additional pieces which I hope to premiere before the year ends. I believe I have been refined after having more time to learn my trade.

Samuel Teitey Ninyeh

final year marketing student at the University of Ghana, Legon, Keyboard accompanist at VocalEssence Chorale, sound engineer at Prof Music Production (PMP)

The lockdown journey began basically with online lectures which included submission of lots of assignments. But that did not deter me from engaging in musical activities. I hosted Facebook live sessions where I played some Presbyterian hymns on Sundays. 

Aside that, I started rearranging some of our Ghanaian choral songs in classical style. Some of the works I rearranged were Yesu din and Basel mission( both songs by Osei Boateng). I also rearranged James Varrick Armaah's Hosanna which surprisingly trended on Social Media. 

I had a collaboration with one of Ghana's finest clarinetists, Daniel Kyei. We performed some pieces together. I recorded some choral songs and Presbyterian hymns with Caleb Nii Sowah Nsakie (a singer and a hornist of The National Symphony Orchestra). All these activities were solely aimed to bless and entertain everyone in the choral music fraternity. 

Last but not least, I took a few lessons on sound engineering in order to better my knowledge and skills in that area.

Sebastien Dakey

Keyboard accompanist at Tema Youth Choir

The transition into quarantine season was spontaneous and brought so many uncertainties. For someone like me who is mostly out of the house, the thought of staying in the house indefinitely was frustrating. 

Nonetheless, I can’t deny that I had more time on me this time around. What better way to make the most that time than growing my craft. Over the past 15 years, I have played, taught, and on very rare occasions conducted. My choirmaster at church has always encouraged me to go into music composition. The lockdown offered a great opportunity to explore this new area. 

Although I could rely on my years of experience as a keyboardist to write my own songs, I decided to be conservativeby arranging popular pieces to test the waters. My first arrangement “Sunsum Cantata” was a huge success. This gave me the confidence to pursue another arrangement, “Onnso Nyame Ye”. This was another success. 

The success of these arrangements has proven that I have a potential in the composition space. Even more rewarding were the mistakes I made along the way, which taught me a lot. These humble beginnings will be an invaluable memory I will hold on to some years to come. Should I say the lockdown was good? Well, I guess the whole point is that it is important to make the most of your situation. 

In the coming days, I look forward to learning new classical pieces to keep my fingers active.

The government has since eased restrictions on public gatherings and other activities since those early weeks of the outbreak. Gradually life has returned to “normal”, and many of us who were forced to sit at home can now venture out to do the things we love best: make music.

We’d love to know how you fared during the months of nation-wide restrictions, and especially when the major urban areas were under lockdown. How challenging was it? What did you learn? We’d love to hear your inspiring stories!

Today’s Professional Confessional is with Girlie alumnus, Brittany Jones! Check out our interview below:

*What’s a recent release that you’ve been loving lately?*

BJ: I’ve had FKA Twigs’ new album, MAGDALENE, on repeat. “Fallen Alien” is a standout on the album. 

*What are 5 words or less that best describe you as a person?*

BJ: I would describe myself as laidback and opinionated. Having a strong opinion can be helpful in the industry, but can get you into a bit of trouble if you bump heads with someone. 

*Where do you work currently? Speak a bit about your position and the company itself.*

BJ: I’m currently at the Royalty Network, also known as RoyNet. I started there about three months ago as a part of their creative team. The pitching team is composed of myself and the VP of Creative, Lawson. This is the first time I’ve done sync creative in this capacity, other than some freelance work before this opportunity came up. It’s super fun and I enjoy it so much. My position mainly entails figuring out what to put the songs in our catalog into and talking with music supervisors directly. I like that my position is more in between the administrative and creative side of licensing. There’s a lot more face to face time, taking people for coffee, and getting to know them on a more personal level. There’s also a little bit of A&R work in what I do. We try to be at the forefront of what people need for their projects, currently, I’m on the hunt for KPop and more hip hop.

*What is a typical day like for you in the office?*

BJ: A typical day usually starts with checking to see what shows are happening to see if I have to put people on guest lists. I might have to get a supervisor on a list and contact artist managers to do so. I mainly do this for events in LA, more Film/TV, and NY, for Ad agencies. I’ll also send out blasts of who we’ve recently signed and what we’ve been working on. We have to be a bit selective of what we send to people based on their taste in music. I receive briefs from production folks and music supervisors, where they ask us for what they need for a certain project. I also upload music to SynchTank - a system that production people can get access to in order to hear everything that we have in our catalog. Everything in the database is tagged by genre, emotion, etc. If there is a specific lyric that repeats, we’ll throw that in as a tag too. We update that regularly through a master spreadsheet of almost one hundred thousand songs.  

*What would people be surprised to know about your job?*

BJ: Listening to music for most of your day can get a little tedious, especially when listening to Christmas music in August. Also, there’s a lot of research that goes into generating and making playlists. People assume that you just make playlists with up and coming new music, but there’s a lot more research that goes into it. We sift through a lot of Indian music at RoyNet, which is a new world that I’m jumping into and requires a lot of research. There are a lot of layers that go into selecting music, in general. For example, Reggaeton can be tricky because of the common use of homophobic and misogynistic lyrics. We just have to be careful with what music we recommend for a project.

*Talk about the steps you took to get where you are now.*

BJ: I studied Management of Music Enterprises at Baruch College. I did a lot of internships, during and after college, to figure out what I really wanted to do in the industry. I went into Artist Management first. I found that some artists can be a bit needy, which I discovered I don’t have enough patience for, especially when receiving phone calls at 3am. Though you learn a lot in artist management when you’re doing every aspect of the business: booking flights, tour managing, connecting the right people for promoting releases, organizing schedules, booking hotels with specific mattresses, etc. I also loved working with my boss - he would sit down with me and go over Donald Passman’s Music Business book. I would pick a chapter I was interested in and we’d go in-depth about the subject. I went into licensing after I bounced around a bit at different companies and have stuck with it. I discovered the licensing world at Decon, which is now Mass Appeal, where I focused on a lot of legal aspects like contracts and negotiating. Later I was at Rough Trade Publishing for 4 years, which also entailed a lot of negotiating. Networks would hit us up and we would serve as the liaison between artists and the production/clearance people to license their works for sync.

*How did you know you wanted to get into music?*

BJ: I’m an only child and growing up I occupied most of my time digging through my mom’s records. I would sit and listen to all her 60s and 70s records. I would read the liner notes and be fascinated by all the people working behind the scenes. I’d look at the companies listed on the records and research them. In high school, I decided I wanted to go into the music business. Remember Lisa Loeb? *sings “Stay (I Missed You)”* She was doing a show and I swung by her meet and greet after the show. I asked her how I could get a job in the industry and she talked to her manager for me. That ended up being my first internship. 

*What is a challenge that you are currently facing or have faced in recent memory?*

BJ: What do I actually want to accomplish in this industry? I knew I always wanted to work with music, but I’m not great at making music. Can I make/create the job I want? 

*Are you still navigating what you do what to do?*

BJ: I really like the licensing area and the industry is constantly changing. When I first started, streaming wasn’t really a thing yet. Everyone was figuring out how to navigate this new platform. Netflix came out and the industry had to shift. This industry will continue to shift - constantly navigating.

*How do you feel your experience at Girlie shaped your career thus far?*

BJ: I developed relationships there that were really strong - I still talk to some of the people that I worked with there, even though most of them don’t work in the music industry anymore. It showed me that PR is more difficult than it seems and requires a lot of patience and hustle. For a number of reasons I also learned that PR isn’t really for me, which is okay!

*What advice do you have for networking?*

BJ: Say yes to everything! Go to every show, networking event, and interview you can. Get on mailing lists, Facebook groups, LinkedIn groups. Mostly anyone is willing to help you out if you need something, but you need to find and make those connections. 

*What advice would you give your twenty-one-year-old self?*

BJ: Don’t be so mean to yourself - you’re doing better than you think! You’re doing fine and just keep going - you’ll get there…!

*What advice would you give to a Girlie intern looking to enter the industry?*

BJ: Never be afraid to leave a job. If you’re not enjoying what you’re doing, leave! Leave behind what doesn’t make you happy. Learn as much as you can during your time and don’t be afraid to move onto the next opportunity. 

*Name an artist/band that everyone should know.*

BJ: Moses Sumney - his music is sexy, but also beautifully confident and hits you right in the gut.

Check out Moses Sumney’s latest release here!

Thank you again to Brittany for taking the time to meet and share your experience with me and some of the other Girlie Interns!

See you soon for the next installment of Professional Confessionals!

xKyle

A few ideas for developing Spider-Man

i’ve harped on and on about how I want Spider-Man to be the sum of his experiences (well mostly...we can skip the experiences of Howard Mackie’s run) and to develop further as a character.

Often times I’ve talked about that along the lines of him being married, having a kid and so on. 

However for the sake of variety and to demonstrate us Spider-Fans/detractors of Post-OMD Spider-Man, don’t wrap everything up around one issue, here are a few ideas OTHER than Peter getting married or having a kid which could be used to advance his character in the immediate/near future.

In a way the post-OMD run of Spider-Man has made developing Spider-Man pretty easy.

 All you need do is have him be competent then you could call it a day.

 But I’m looking to go a step further than that. Peter is intelligent, but he can be prone to guilt trips or acting like an idiot. It can be sometimes difficult to discern when that’slazy and bad writing or legitimate instances for his character.

 So I’d make an active effort to not have Spider-Man as his default act that way, which he was prone to even at times under the good writers. Make the whining and the guilt tripping a thing of rarity.

 You could achieve this a few ways but one way would have him maybe acknowledge that flaw in himself and recognize that to a large degree he acts like that out of habit. Then resolve (perhaps by talking to say a cop of a similar experience) to actively try to not be that way.

 This would be put to the test during a time period where he is perhaps depowered somehow or otherwise out of commission so he legitimately can’t do anything other than just be normal for a little while. Hell maybe his leg is broken or something so he really does just need to be normal for awhile. During his down time no big crisis unfolds. He hears about crimes in progress but has to learn to let some of them slide. Over the course of like two months say he gradually acclimatises himself to this life style and when not being bombarded with stress from being Spider-Man finds he has time to do some serious thinking and take stock of a few things.

 Now sure you COULD use that as a launchpad for him trying to get MJ back, and as I’ve said it’s been OOC on an ongoing basis for him to have not been trying to do that. But for the sake of argument lets pretend that it’s not OOC for him to do that and he isn’t focussed upon his love life.

 So Peter on his break takes a look at his life and puts into practice his new philosophy towards his guilt and his whining. He recognizes that a lot of that is kneejerk reactions and deep down he isn’t intrinsically guilty over more than half the things he beats himself up about. So he embraces that, along with the reaffirmation that he isn’t who he is because he’s trying to make up for one big mistake nor that he helps people out of concern that he’ll have to live with further guilt. He reaffirms that he helps people because it’s the right thing to do.

 At the same time due to his down time Peter has been able to reconnect with old friends and faces and this has made him appreciate them and their roles in his life all the more. He recognizes that his friends and family (and if we were going down that road, MJ in particular) are important to his  emotional fulfilment and to keeping him stable.

 He also comes up with ways to balance out his life a little better but concedes that things won’t ever be perfect due to the randomness of his lifestyle. To this end he realizes a 9-to-5 is out of the question and uses his free time to organize a series of flexible part time jobs between which he could support himself. These jobs include

 ·         Being a lab assistant at ESU

 ·         Substitute teaching/tutoring at Midtown High

 ·         Freelance Photography at the Bugle

 ·         And working on the Bugle’s tech side a little bit

  If we were to go about the romantic route maybe Peter could figure in some ways to better protect MJ and her loved ones too, along with all his friends. This would be tricky though because whilst within Peter’s abilities going down this route has the unfortunate problem of making him retroactively look like an asshole for not considering those options before and also runs into territory where it’s not really a Spider-Man story anymore if you get too high tech.

  And if you give the character the perfect solution to the problem you rob the series of tension. So he can’t give all of Peter’s friends boosted spider tracers and equip them with forcefields or something. But I’d try to find a more grounded solution which would allow him to provide a bit better protection for his friends and family that wouldn’t make him retroactively look like an asshole.

 Regardless one legitimate method I’d have Peter take better precautions with is by either using a holographic image projector (circa Civil War) as an extra layer of protection for his identity or, just wearing like a domino mask under his regular one. This way even if his mask is damaged his identity can still be protected. Admitedly maybe that’d be a little too far off the beaten path. He could however conspire with Reed Richards or whoever to create some kind of computer program to cover up any public records of his DNA or blood, thus preventing anyone taking a sample from him or from a crime scene from sourcing it’s origin.

 However by favourite method for addressing this issue is for him in his down time (presuming he still has his powers, but just can’t go into action somehow) to investigate his abilities and come up with some new ways to use them. One such method would be using a thin lining of webbing to better secure his mask.

 He could use some of the martial arts training he learned from Shang Chi or Captain America to meditate a little bit and explore the reach of his Spider Sense and wall crawling powers. In Slott’s Spidey/Torch mini-series it was established that Peter’s enhanced powers from the Other allowed him to make his mask stick to his face. Peter lost these powers but I’d have him essentially learn to exert a bit more effort in order to achieve the same effect without even thinking about it, though it’d take more effort than when he had the Other inside him. This is not that far of a stretch as Peter and Ben Reilly have been shown to be able to stick to surfaces even whilst asleep or unconscious.

 As part of this rethinking of his powerset I’d have him redesign his web-shooters. Nothing too high tech just something to show he’s thinking about this stuff. I’d reintroduce the LED version of the web-shooters which debuted back in ASM #296-297 which warned him when he was running low on webbing. I’d similarly state though that due to the wear and tear of his job as Spider-Man it’s likely that the LED won’t work 100% of the time meaning we could still have him run out of web-fluid when needs be.

 Similarly I’d have him retool his utility belt in order for it to carry a few more basic necessities, like a few medicines you might carry with you in your pocket, and make it air tight so they won’t be compromised. Peter would acknowledge his physiology makes these redundant but it’s better to be prepared in case someone else needs them.

 Once Peter is ready to get back into action he’d acknowledge that he’s out of practice and needs to start slow and readjust to the larger scale crimes, allowing us a ground up look at his new approach to things. And seeing this approach work for him he gradually builds up his confidence and performance.

 All in all we’d get a Peter Parker who would be

 -          Less guilt ridden and whiney

-          A little different in his powerset but not radically so

-          A Spider-Man with a more believable occupational life but still one ripe for drama

-          More considerate towards his friends and trying to make more time for them

 Or you know maybe instead of an arc where this happens these changes occur for Peter incrementally in the course of other stories.

 I’d also have him be a bit more confident and leading in a situation, rather than say the guy in the corner of Avengers meetings spouting one liners.

 A lot of this could be explainable via Peter getting older and seeing the world differently. He would be more confident because he’s so veteran. He’d be more considerate to his friends because how you feel about the people you really care about is different at 35 than 25. He’d think up these new methods of superheroing and would consider himself and his life differently just because he’s been around the block for so long.

 I’d never make him cynical or jaded, that’s not who he is at heart. But I’d make him very much not someone who’s growing up but who has grown up, been grown up for awhile and is trying to take better measures for his life despite the potential for chaos. Have him modestly plan for the future whilst still living for today, since he knows how easily he or anybody else could lose their lives.

 In this regard what I am suggesting is just a further extension of Peter’s JMS’ era characterization where he was written as the sum of his experiences and the early 30 year old he was rather than a mid-twenties douchebag or a manchild.

 On the superhero side of things I’d have him also take on a bit more of a Captain America or even Superman role. In so far as younger crooks and heroes alike would look on him in a very different way from the crooks he’s tangled with in the past. To older guys of say Sandman’s age Spider-Man is a punk kid. To people closer to Spider-Man’s age who began a career of crime around the same time as him, he would be one of the new daily hazards they had to face. But to younger crooks getting into the game Spider-Man would be a lot more impactful. A figure of fear and a fact of life they wouldn’t underestimate and would either surrender to on the spot or seek to take down to build a reputation.

 For most younger heroes they would look on him the way he looked upon Captain America, only moreso given that many of them would be aware that he began his career at their age and was in many respects a ‘self-made man’, no mentors to instruct him or anything like that. This would make Peter feel both old and give him a sense of...I guess ‘shepardliness’.

 He’d be conflicted over younger heroes because on the one hand he wouldn’t want them to get hurt and would want to advise them to stop in fear of that. on the other hand he knows that’d make him a massive hypocrite. So in a sense Spider-Man, whilst not being one of the younger heroes like Ms Marvel would be something of a defender to them and a mentor figure. I’m not saying he’d regularly patrol the city with like Ms Marvel or anything. Rather when he encounters them he’s going to be taking charge giving them friendly advice. Thing Wolverine and Kitty Pryde but not even that involved.

 Essentially he’d be the guy telling guys like Iron Man to lay off Miles, Kamala, the Young Avengers etc since he knows where they are coming from. But he’d also be the first guy to tell them to get the Hell away and let him handle things when the situation gets too dangerous.

 Possibly you could take this to the point where yes he does get a sidekick but obviously not one like Alpha.

 And the final touch...give him a manly beard. He’s a grown ass man he shouldn’t look like this:

 And maybe he shouldn’t look like this either:

 But what about something in between like this?

 Which is kind of an extension of this anyway:

Digital marketing course in hyderabad

It is clear that either you are planning to make a career in digital marketing in India or you would like to know more about Digital marketing career opportunities, as you are here to go through this post. Usually many questions will trigger in our mind when we think about Job opportunities in digital marketing like, fields we can enter, pay scale, career growth, learning various desired skills, etc.

Here we are posting this article to answer all your questions ensuring you to be one step closer in making the right decision regarding your career.

Scope of Digital Marketing in India

Over a decade Digital marketing has seen remarkable growth. Studies revealed that by the end of this year 2021 it is expected to provide 18 Lacs jobs per year approximately,

As the world is heading towards digital technologies everyone is being on the internet irrespective of their age, status, gender, or location. This makes companies and marketers take advantage and not to ignore digital users. Hence, a career in digital marketing in India is seeking importance.

Internet penetration in India is far higher compared to other countries like the US & UK. Also people were preferring online companies over traditional companies. To reach their customers 90% of the brands are coming forward to spend more than 20% of their marketing budget on Digital Marketing. One can understand how a job opportunity in digital marketing can nourish your career in India after having the above mentioned data.

Career opportunities in Digital Marketing

Digital marketing provides various career opportunities. One with coding skills can opt web designing vertical, or if one loves writing then he/she can become a content writer. Other general digital marketing career paths include SEO analyst, Social media Marketer, Youtuber, Affiliate marketer, Business Analyst, etc

Let’s talk more about some most common digital marketing profiles in India, below:

Web Developer & Web Designer

A web developer or designer is the one who is responsible for the coding, designing, developing, and maintaining websites. These are the people behind the great and amazing websites and web pages we usually browse on the internet. One should have knowledge of various coding languages like HTML, CSS, PHP, Bootstrap, My SQL .NET, etc is required. Also one must have skills to deal with CMS like WordPress, Magento, Webly, etc. A web designer or developer can opt to work as a full-time employee or work as a freelancer.

SEO Analyst/Expert

SEO professionals are responsible for generating traffic to the website by improving the Google search rankings of any website. They make sure that a web page is optimized according to search engine webmasters, web and are mobile-friendly & free from crawling issues. This vertical is a better career option for people aspiring for a digital marketing career in India. One can do work as a freelancer or as a full-time employee for a company, also can undertake online assignments.

Social Media Executive or Social Media Manager

A Social Media Executive or Manager is the person who is responsible for handling all the social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, Linkedin, etc. they need to be updated and follow social media closely. They need to keep a note of all the social media trends and coordinate with copywriters and graphics designers. Primary requirements for this job role will be sound knowledge regarding social media challenges and creative ways of approaching things.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) or PPC Expert

People working under this profile are responsible for the ads which we usually see while browsing the internet irrespective of their relevance. In the present market environment these profiles are in huge demand as they can generate leads which can be their potential prospects for the business. Primary responsibilities of these professionals usually include keyword analysis/research for ad copy, maintaining ad groups, generating insights and analytic reports, optimizing landing pages, and coordinating with the creative team for ad copies and creatives. Search engine marketing or pay per click is a better digital marketing career option for candidates with excellent analytical skills.

Content Writer & Content Marketer

If you love writing then the content writer position is the best-suited profile for you if you are desiring for a digital marketing career in India. But one thing you should remember is writing for a website or a social media copy or content for an email is completely different from writing an essay or writing a story. A content marketer should take responsibility for creating fancy and trending content, coordinating with the SEO team, Keyword research, creating readable and unique content, etc. Content writing is not something everyone can do. It needs a passion to write and skills to research and dump details in the content. Thus this profile is high prominence compared to other profiles. The only concern for this profile is good command over the language and creative way of thinking

Digital Marketing Manager

Digital Marketing Manager is responsible for overall digital marketing, designing strategies, generating web traffic, supervising all the other team members as listed above. In other words he/she will be the boss for the digital marketing vertical and can be considered as the head and ultimate decision-maker. One must possess experience of about 7-10 years in the digital marketing vertical to be a digital marketing manager which every professional in this industry usually aims for. This is the highest paid profile in digital marketing.

Inbound Marketing Manager

The inbound marketer is responsible for creating a strategy to attract customers. The major responsibilities of an inbound marketer include lead nurturing, conversion rate optimization, funnel, and conversion tracking at each stage, drip marketing, content planning, etc. Content marketing is one of the strategies an inbound marketer has to plan. Hence it is said that the responsibilities of inbound marketer and content marketer overlap a but.

In other words, we can say that inbound marketer designs a strategy to attract customers using content, while content marketer creates content and executes the strategy designed by an inbound marketer.

Conversion Rate Optimizer

The primary responsibility of conversion rate optimizer is to increase the conversion rate at every stage of marketing funnel which is an art. CRO experts being one more member of a digital marketing team usually deals with many other secondary tasks like designing and developing landing pages, designing email marketing templates, etc. Increasing conversion is very important at each stage of a marketing funnel from attracting more clicks for an ad copy to converting leads into customers.

Along with the profile mentioned above, there are some other profiles which organizations usually require for dealing with many other internal things in digital marketing:

Email Marketing Manager

Analytics Manager

Affiliate Marketer

Business Development Manager

Business Analyst

E-commerce Manager etc

Apart from being a full-time employee in any organization one can even work as a freelancer. You can also start your own digital marketing venture If you are confident enough. As the market scenario changed completely because of the Covid-19 outbreak, the demand for freelancers in digital marketing is increasing. One with skills and knowledge can gain a lot in this industry.

Conclusion:

Digital marketing will be a very good career choice for someone who is willing to switch or pursue in 2020. It has got wide range of job opportunities as mentioned above with decent salary packages. All the best for your future!!

Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.

31 Feasible Online Jobs for College Students and How to Get Them

Colleges are expensive, and as a college student, you will always find yourself struggling with cash. Keeping up with the classes, assignments, social life, and a full-time job is a lot to manage. According to College Data, we find that an average college tuition fee for 2018-19 was $25,290, which will, however, increase in the coming years.

Need Help to Pay Off that College Fee?

This topic explores ways for college students to make money online while staying back in your dorm room. During education years, students can avail of these opportunities in finding the best online jobs for themselves.

Benefits of Online Jobs:

The main advantage is the flexibility that online jobs offer to students. The best part is you don’t require a degree to perform these jobs, all you need is some useful skills to prepare yourself for these legit online jobs. In case if you do not have these skills, don’t worry! You can always learn it by taking free courses online; with a little dedication, any skill can be learned. Thus we will conduct a detail discussion of these online jobs today in this topic.

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1.      Simple Data Entry Job

  Pay related to the role

  It is $10-$17 per hour

  Data entry online jobs for the students are the best stress-free job, and there is no need for specialised skills to perform them. All you need is an excellent keyboard skill, a penchant for accuracy, and the commitment to work under deadlines, data entry job can then work as a reliable way to generate money online. Some of the useful websites that can be used for data entry online jobs are:

Clickworker

DionData Solutions

The Smart Crowd

2.       Fiverr Gigs

  Pay related to the role

  $5-$995 per gig

  Gigs on Fiverr work as a selling tool for the skills you have. An opportunity to sparkle off your talent. The task associated with Fiverr Gigs is an easy way for college students to make money online without a doubt. It is a fact that the cost of five dollars is undoubtedly not much for any student. The nature of the task does not require a lot of time. Though, students who were having exceptional skills in performing some of the functions, then they can indeed charge more amounts. The tasks on Fiverr Gigs are regarded as legitimate online jobs. Many Fiverr sellers have turned themselves into a full-time gig, while some of them can make money just as side work. The services offered on Fiverr could include Graphic Design, Writing, and Web Development.

Job Associated with the Evaluator of a Search Engine

  Pay related to the role $12-$15 per hour

  The task associated with the Evaluator of a Search Engine is an essential legit online job. Though, it can be said that Google is never always perfect, and this is the main reason why some other search engines have a reliance on real people to get feedback for extracting the usefulness and relevance of the results. A student having a busy college schedule can easily manage this job with his studies without facing much of a severe problem. The best part about this profession is that it is a secure online job for the students.

3.       Job Associated with a Survey Taker

  Pay related to the role $2-$20 per survey

  Surveys are not regarded as one of the most fun gigs, but they are undoubtedly the easiest. It is the best online job for the students. All the survey sites have an important role in the collection of the data. It is then utilised by companies to improve their products. It is the main reason because of which the sites are quite eager to paying regular people to gather their opinions. Within a few minutes of the day, the survey taker can earn an excellent decent side income with the help of paid online surveys. It is also a legitimate online job. Swagbucks is considered to be one of the most favourites for many students.

The reason is that it provides different kinds of ways for students to earn money that can comprise of watching exciting videos, playing exciting games, browsing the web, and finally taking surveys. There are even more activities. Any student looking forward to starting his work as a survey taker must surely establish an account for any site that he intends to use. Since there is a possibility that students might not be eligible for all the surveys, so they need to sign up with several sites in this regard. Survey Junkie is another useful option for the student.

4.       The job associated with a Web Developer

  Pay related to the role $20-$75 per hour

  The task-related to Web Developer is an easy way for college students to make money online. Any student can quickly build up a side hustle as a Web Developer regardless of the majors they have. The Students can even enhance their skills by taking “The Complete Web Developer Course” (at present $10.99) on Udemy. This course will provide you with all the essential knowledge that you need to have to book clients, and there is not much significant amount to pay. It should be clear to the developer that one class is not going to make you a professional coder.

However, it is a crucial point to note that the developer has a legitimate online job. The initial work can build a good foundation and can also enhance the confidence of the developer to take on the first clients. Though, it is recommended for web developers to start their work with small projects in the beginning. The most important things that the developers can learn are popular IT languages and WordPress. The bidding of the projects can be started on essential projects on PeoplePerHour, Freelancer, and Upwork. Good web developers are in high demand because of their valuable skills.

5.       The job of a Home Tutoring through Online Sources

  Pay related to the role $14-$20+ per hour

  The task associated with teaching or tutoring is undoubtedly one of the easiest ways for college students to make money online. The best aspect related to tutoring is that it allows students to perform their work full-time and have their focus on online jobs. The tasks related to these jobs are easily performed at home. An essential element about tutoring is that the student can reinforce all the concepts that they have learned in their education. They can help the student struggling in one of the subjects with the help of their previous knowledge.

For this work, they get paid. The tutors can even assist students in other areas of expertise, such as sports or instruments. They can indeed advertise these services on social media. Secondly, these services can be further promoted in the community around the school and even in the student centres. Online tutoring is one of the best online jobs for students. Below are the best places for the tutors to start providing their services:

Wyzant: On this platform, tutors can set their rates.

Chegg: On this platform, tutors can start the work at $20 per hour.

VIPKID: This platform is only available to the students who have graduated because there is a need for a bachelor’s degree. The pay scale that exists is $14-$22 per hour.

6.       The Job Associated with a Resume Writer

  Pay related to the role $10-$25 per hour and $50-$75 per resume

  Usually, not much is expected on the resume of college students. However, since college students can perform online jobs, so it is necessary in this regard for their resumes to stand out. They have the option of taking some free workshops and even learn in creating a killer resume. It can help them in getting an excellent opportunity for an internship or a prestigious job as well. The online college students can even assist their friends in preparing the best resume for them. It can also turn out to be the best online job for them.

Students can enhance their skills by taking workshops on Skillshare. The ideal and easiest way for them can be to offer resume writing services with the help of freelance sites such as Freelancer or Upwork. Online tutoring is the appropriate legit online job for the students. The only thing that can matter for them is to find the right contacts in providing online tutoring services to earn a decent income.

7.       The job associated with the Proofreader

  Pay related to the role $10-$45 per hour

  Any student who has a sharp eye to spot the punctuation and grammar mistakes they can consider working as a proofreader. It is indeed one of the easy ways for college students to make money online. The proofreading skills can prove very much valuable for the students. Both proofreading and editing are known to be very two different things from each other. In the case of publishing, it involves not just restructuring but also adding and deleting content. In the case of proofreading, the errors related to punctuation, spelling, and grammatical are checked. Before publishing the last piece of content, proofreading can be considered as an easy online job. The online proofreading job can be started quickly by setting up a freelancer profile. There are numerous opportunities available on the Freelancer and Upwork.

  8.       The job associated with a Graphic Designer

  Pay related to the role $25-$50 per hour

  It is not necessary at all to have a major in arts for making money online as a graphic designer. All that matters is paying attention to details, and the requirements are there to have the right tools. Small businesses even have a demand for graphics that must be appealing, such as logos, social media images, business cards, and also much more. Those students who lack the necessary skills but want to perform the work of graphic design, then they must sign up for the free Graphic Design Basics course available on Skillshare. Once the basics would be learning about Graphic Design, then the students can opt for Graphic Design for Beginners Part 1.

This course is useful for the students as they can learn principles associated with real-world projects. The work of Graphic Designer is not an Easy Online Job, but once the courses would be taken, then things could become more manageable. Once the online student would be able to acquire critical skills, then he can reach out to small businesses in the area. Prospective clients can even see sample work. Freelance sites like Upwork can also be a promising source for freelance designers.

9.      Job Associated with a Virtual Assistant

  Pay related to the role $15-$200+ per hour

  The task associated with virtual assistant services can include a broad range of work that provides for customer service, email marketing, copywriting, and data entry. An online Virtual Assistant can charge the amount based on the experience he has and the overall skill set. The best thing about Virtual Assistant is that it is a Legitimate Online Job. Many businesses hire online Virtual Assistants for outsourcing the tasks. These tasks become challenging to perform in-house. Another necessary and useful step is that the Virtual Assistant can start working by preparing the list of services that he can offer. The profiles can then be created on Virtual Assistant Networking and Zirtual for booking the first clients.

10.   The job associated with a Freelance Writer

  Pay related to the role $50-$500+ per article

  The student does not need to worry about the experience or credentials if he wants to work as a freelance writer. It is undoubtedly the most suitable ways for college students to make money online. The students who have a strong desire to write and even have excellent grammatical skills can quickly become a Freelance Writer. Freelance writing has become not just a lucrative way for the students to earn money in college, but it even has a lot of flexibility. Freelance writing is regarded as one of the secure online jobs for the student.

The freelance writer can also have the name mentioned in the print publication. The online presence of a blog for any writer can prove very much useful because they can be in a strong position to attract large clients and have a good portfolio of work. Another option for freelance writers is to register their profile on Upwork to have a large number of clients. It can make it easier for them to work for these clients in the best possible way. Freelance Writing is considered as a legit online job. Once the Freelance writers would have some testimonials to show to the customers, they can then start pitching work on platforms like Freelance Writing Jobs and Problogger.

11.   The job associated with Bloggers

  Pay related to the job It can vary as some of the bloggers can earn more than $100,000 per month.

  The blogger can produce written content, and sharing can take place with the audience. The critical factor for the blogger is to make money by writing content that can provide value to the readers. Blogging is undoubtedly the best online job, and it has a lot of scopes. Before starting the blog, it is necessary to select the topic, and then it must be made specifically for writing. The main target is the audience, and the written content is for them. The first step is deciding the topic, then another step is writing down at least 20 blog post ideas, and the first five posts can then be written afterwards.

It can be a good test for the writer. It can enable him to know whether he enjoys writing for the subject that is chosen. Once the writer would be ready to start the blog, then the next step in this regard would be choosing the host for the website. HostGator is recognised to be a popular option for bloggers who have just started their work as beginners. It is not a free hosting site as the plan begins from $2.75 per month but can prove to be an essential first step for the bloggers. The work of the bloggers is indeed a legit online job. Therefore, blogging has a lot of scope for the students.

12.   The job associated with Social Media Manager

  Pay related to the role $15-$40/hour

  If any student who spends a lot of time on social media, so they can even utilise this time to get paid for the work done on this platform. There are so many businesses these days that are making use of social media and require assistance for management. It is the main reason why companies then hire social media managers. The job of social media management is a creative way for college students to make money online. Students can even become social media managers, and they can build brand awareness with the curation of the content as steps can also be taken to create a beneficial relationship with large potential customers. The creation of the new leads can take place in this regard. The main objective of the Social media manager is to become the online voice of the company. You should start your approach from local businesses, convince them why they need a strong social media presence, and how it will increase their sales. The examples of the business activities in this regard can be restaurants, coffee shops, and yoga studios.

13.   The job associated with the Editor

  Pay related to the role $350 and $500 for editing a short book

  An editor can charge more money from the clients if he has enough experience or can even work based on a retainer deal contract. As per this term, the client is going to pay based on the specific set number of articles edited per month. As an online college student, the best way of starting work is by writing work for friends. It can be an easy online job for the student. There are some other useful positions as well where the editing work can prove fruitful such as a literary magazine or campus newspaper. The networking with professional editors can even prove to be a useful activity. Thus, editing work is an easy way for college students to make money online.

14.   The job associated with Audio Transcription

  Pay related to the role $0.36 per minute of audio transcription

  For the position of audio transcription, the primary need that exists for the work is listening skills and the ability to type any information. Audio transcription is recognised to be the best online jobs. The easiest option for them is to start the work at a site like Rev. The transcription assessment can then be carried out by the student. Once the student would pass the assessment, then they would become eligible to start the work.

15.   The job associated with the Video Captioning

  Pay related to the role $0.45 per minute of the total video captioned. There are more experienced captioners that can even earn an amount of $0.75 per video minute.

For the job of video captioning, the student would need listening, watching, and typing skills as well. The role of video captioning is recognised to be an easy online job. Students performing the task of video captioning can even sign up at a site like Rev. A captioning assessment would then be the second requirement. Once the student would pass the assessment, then they can quickly receive the work.

16.   The job associated with the Voiceover Work

  Pay related to the role $25 per voiceover can be earned

  Computers have become quite better in the imitation of the human voice. Though, it is still very much easy for any person to identify a synthesised voice. As a result, demand for such people who can quickly provide a quality narration for all kinds of instructional videos has increased. Any person who has the audio recording equipment and even has a magnificent speaking voice, he will find no problems in doing the job. Thus, it is a secure online job. The essential requirement for this work would be the headphones and a microphone. Once the person would have access to the equipment, then the next step should be to post the voiceover services on a freelance marketplace like Fiverr. The task of voiceover work is undoubtedly a legitimate online job.

17.   The job associated with a Video Editing

  Pay related to the role $20 and $45 per hour

  In the first case, students must make significant efforts to learn the basics of video editing with the help of any useful course. They must also try to gain access to the quality video editing software popularly known as Adobe Premiere. They can even have access to Premiere with a minimum amount of $19.99 per month. The student can undertake all the necessary efforts to build up the portfolio. It can even turn out to be the best online job. They can also do the project for free with all the family members and friends. Lastly, they can then start pitching services to the clients.

18.   Job Associated with Photography

  Pay related to the role $25 per hour

In cases where the student is not good at this skill, they can always learn to take great photos with the help any useful course. Buy a camera a one-time investment. The next step should be to start taking pictures. Building up a unique portfolio on their website will also help. It can then work as one of the easiest ways for college students to make money online. To take a start as a freelancer, small gigs can be performed with family members and friends. This will expand the portfolio and can open up new opportunities.

  19.   Job Associated with Teaching English

  Pay related to the job $12 to $25 per hour

  Students can make significant efforts to get the work started quickly. One of the recommended sites which must be used as a starting point is VIPKID. It is one of the best platforms for teaching English. Another useful website in this regard is iTalki; it helps in connecting students with language teachers. Teaching English is undoubtedly a legit online job for the students.

20.   The job associated with teaching Foreign Language

  Pay related to the role $10 to $35 per hour

  Any participant must be genuinely fluent in the language that he needs to educate. The next step is to sign up on a website like iTalki for teaching. It is even essential for the student on an alternative basis to look around those members in the community who are interested in learning the new language. Teaching a foreign language is undoubtedly a legitimate online job for the students.

21.   The job associated with the translation

  Pay related to the role $29 per hour

  For the translation job, it is very much necessary for the student to have fluency in at least two languages. Beyond this aspect, they even need to have an understanding of the way translation would work. It is indeed a skill for the students. Preferably, they also need to take a course at their university that can enhance their translation skills. The next and the most crucial step for the student needs to be to post services on freelance websites, and they must check out the essential guide in becoming a freelance translator. The translation work would be considered a legit online job in the future.

22.   Job Associated with a PPC Marketing

  Pay related to the role $25 average pay per hour

  The recommendation for all the students is they should sign up for the free course, which can be very much useful for them to learn critical concepts of PPC. Once the students would know about the basics, then they must start getting the experience as soon as possible. Local businesses can be the ideal option for the students in this regard. Once a bit of knowledge is going to be earned by the students, then they can consider applying for high-paid projects. The work of PPC Marketing is well recognised to be an easy online job.

23.   Job Associated with Starting a YouTube Channel

  Pay related to the role Earning a few dollars a month and it can be increased to full-month income

  Any student who would be interested in making animated videos, then they can start with a useful course from PolyMatter. The session with the basics of video production can be quite interesting for the students to learn about starting a YouTube Channel. They must also listen about the conversation, which states “how to get started on YouTube.”  They must even upload a video on a regular schedule. The video editing skills also need to be improved along with the techniques of storytelling. The instant results cannot be acquired. However, the student would gradually learn all the useful skills for starting a YouTube Channel.

24.   Job Associated with a Music Production

  Pay related to the role $19.99 per beats

In the first case, students must learn ways of producing beats with the help of software such as Logic. In the second phase, they can then learn posting their hits on a Soundcloud to acquire a useful following. It can help them considerably for their learning of music production. The third phase at the same time for the students can be to make the beats up for sale on the platform categorised as BeatStars. The final step would be making a website that can prove useful in showcasing the hits. Once all phases would be complete, then the tasks related to music production will be classified as a legitimate online job.

25.   Job Associated with Selling Art

  Pay related to the role In the case of part-time work, earning a few hundred extra dollars is not that difficult

  The primary art skills are necessary for the student if they need to consider selling art. It would then become more comfortable for them to focus on the sales/marketing part of the equation. The inclusion of an Instagram channel for art and the website is crucial. After this point, it is then necessary for the student to decide whether they must work on their site or a third-party platform such as Etsy.

26.   Job Associated with Selling Notes

  Pay related to the role $500 per class

  The first step for the student should be to sign up for an account known as StudySoup. From this particular website, then they need to search for an eligible course. They must then sign-up to become a note-taker. Uploading the notes every week is necessary. During the next phase leading towards exams, another task for them should be uploading a study guide based on their records. The student can then receive an amount for the work after 3-5 days once the exam would take place.

27.   Job Associated with Starting a Niche Site

  Pay related to the role A few extra hundred a month can be earned with the help of a site where the work was shared

  The first step that a student requires is starting a blog. An excellent guide in this regard is useful if the student is interested in earning a smart passive income. After gaining enough experience, this work would be a classified legitimate online job.

  28.   The job associated with a Retail Arbitrage

  Pay related to the role It is necessary to do the work regularly, then it can be expected to earn a few hundred extra dollars a month

  The first step in this regard for the student is going to be downloading an app known as Amazon Seller (Android | iOS). This app can is useful in scanning products, and it can then be figured out whether the items can be bought at less price on Amazon. In the final phase, these products can later be purchased, and they could also be sold on Amazon to earn a profit.

29.   The Job Associated with a Drop Shipper

  Pay related to the role $25 to $500 or more for all the items sold

Dropshipping has a straightforward process. It is indeed a perfect opportunity for the people who want to earn an income from a remote job. By establishing a reasonable setup, they would be able to earn great money. Dropshipping is the easiest way for college students to make money online. It is probably one of the main reasons because of which Drop shipping is regarded as the best online job because there is no need to buy anything, and then there is no need to store products even. The only step needed is establishing an online storefront, and the products then get listed for sale. In the case of the sales transactions, the product gets directly shipped to the customer. Students can make the best use of Drop shipper’s opportunity.

30.   The job associated with an Online Influencer

Pay related to the role $5-10 for every 1000 followers on Instagram

There are numerous ways for an online influencer to have a connection with an audience. For instance, if anyone is going to have a large following, they can then take steps to apply for joining influencer talent and also the marketing agencies. The two platforms that have immense importance are Whalar and Viral Nation who can build a secure connection with Instagram influencers with the help of relevant brands. In this way, an online influencer can earn a lot of success in his work.

Final Word

Undoubtedly, working online is indeed the best option for college students, and they do not necessarily require experience to succeed. Different availability of gigs are flexible and they are far better than the overall payment made in the brick and mortar jobs. Students are not even supposed to work during their holiday breaks. Therefore, if they can find any fantastic opportunity related to their interest, these college side gigs can be converted into a full-time career in the future.

The post 31 Feasible Online Jobs for College Students and How to Get Them appeared first on sow your money.

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Hey - Pat from StarterStory.com here with another interview.Today's interview is with Gabriele Contilli of Rocket PPC, a brand that sells pay per click consulting services.Some stats:Product: Pay per click consulting services.Revenue/mo: $30,000Started: January 2018Location: Reggio EmiliaFounders: 2Employees: 1Hello! Who are you and what business did you start?Hi everybody, my name is Gabriele Contilli and I am the co-founder of Rocket PPC - a Pay per Click agency based in Italy with a highly-experienced team of specialists.When Pasquale and I decided to launch our own agency, we had 3 clear objectives:To specifically hire highly-talented and experienced peopleTo start and to stay fully-remoteTo work only for large clients and/or promising startupsThe main idea behind Rocket PPC is to grant our customers the highest level of PPC management and help them discover new ways of growing their businesses through online advertising.As marketers, we truly believe that Pay per Click is - nowadays - the best channel to grow any business and help CMOs and CEOs reach their business and marketing goals. It is the only way to support a business in this unstable and unpredictable market scenario, in which any goal can be changed, deleted, or modified in a matter of days.We started our business with a very underrated business plan: our goal was to reach our break-even point (100k) in the first 12 months. The first year has been a true success and we exceeded our original expectations by reaching a double amount.Our main KPI, however, was the churn rate of our clients: we were willing to keep it as low as possible, in order to keep growing on solid basis year over year. After the first 12 months, we only lost 10% of our clients due to internal changes and not to our errors or fault. I this way we were able to plan a second year with a +50% in revenues that drove us in the 30k/monthly revenue range.imageWhat's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?Pasquale and I work in the digital marketing field since… ever! We started when Facebook was not yet existing - so you can imagine how many things have changed in all those years. We first met in a large web marketing agency in Italy and we worked together for a couple of years, side by side for large clients.After that, we both followed our growing path working on the client side or in other agencies, trying to get the best from all our jobs. It took something around 4-5 years to finally start talking seriously about our “dream job”.We both wanted to start our own thing: a Pay per Click consultant service without compromises.We are aware that digital marketing is not a perfect field and even if it allows to create mathematical models and to draw graphs and projections, it is almost impossible to define the results of each activity. That is, of course, alright, but many agencies and freelancers consultants use this unpredictability as a “shield” to protect themselves and their work from client’s objections.We, however, wanted a new model, in which we were able to make a real difference in client’s business.That is why we decided to sell PPC services and leave all the other “marketing services” outside: with Pay per Click you can obtain quick results and validate marketing ideas, so companies can better decide their next business goals. You can also make hypothesis in terms of budget and revenues , so clients have something to rely on beyond your promises.Take us through the process of designing, prototyping, and manufacturing your first product.When we decided that we were ready to launch our own agency, we started analyzing startup costs and break-even point. It was not very hard because we decided to restrict initial costs and let us say: start small!We ran a simple business plan including:Minimum salaryFixed costsTools and Hardware% overall marginWe expected a slower launch, but we made a ** 2.5x in revenues**. That’s an important lesson for anyone who is planning to launch a business: plan & analyze as long as needed, but get ready that your assumptions can always get better tuned!Since we had a significant experience with the Italian digital marketing area, the process of launching our company was quite easy:We analyzed all the contacts and potential clients we could reach in the first 6 monthsWe also checked all the active contracts or projects we recently worked on in our spare timeAt the end of the process, we had something between 10 and 20 potential customers to contact and start proposing our services.In addition, another important theme was our ability to send out highly specific quotes: we sent out files with budgets, ideas of campaigns and paid channels to activate, and even revenues and overall ROAS. These are preliminary analysis that beat our competitors since we were able to actually generate models and make accurate predictions for our clients.The first 10 clients signed a contract with us in less than 90 days.Launching Rocket PPC was very easy. During the few last months before our first presentation to the digital marketing world, I worked in order to get the first clients onboard. During that process, I was mainly exposing an idea to them rather than a real agency. We also had friends and ex-teammates who were working with clients that we would have liked to collaborate with them, so I simply contacted them and explained what we were going to do.Our expertise and our preliminary analysis seemed to be a good warranty for them.Once I heard Eric Siu and Neil Patel in a podcast saying “Start a business when you are around 30s” and I think that’s a great advice. If you start a business when you’re 32 or 35 years old, you should already have good connections in you market: if you browse your LinkedIn network or your address book, you should see a lot of opportunities in them and that’s a great way to start something especially in the Consulting field.You also need a professional image, and it is very important to work on it before starting.We decided to create our brand image since the beginning, even if with a very “simple style”. We found out a small design studio in our area and decided to hire them to:Define our logo and brand identityHelp us create templates for PowerPoint and Word documentsDevelop our websiteHaving these materials helped us sending out, in the first weeks, very professional quotes and analysis: I am pretty confident that this attention to detail helped us a lot in winning some clients against other agencies or consultants.imageSince launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?Our business is basically based on relationships and proven results. We can be the best in class but we need connections with people to have a chance to “sell” our services and our results. Especially in Italy, the market is full of digital marketing agencies which are composed of 50% or more by sales people. We are not.Our marketing strategy is simple: do the best you can to provide results, document them and attract new customers with similar needs.That makes our best “sales weapon” our actual customers who can spread the word about us and help Rocket PPC build new relationships and connections. We have been lucky enough to start with highly prestigious clients since we started, and as we were expecting, good clients lead to other good clients.But I have to be honest: since Rocket PPC was our first entrepreneurial adventure, we were not totally aware of actual costs of it, thus we started by accepting all kinds of clients in the first 6-10 months in order to “make money to pay bills”. We knew that it was important for us to reach our business goals and since we did not know how the sales process could affect our revenues, we basically seized every opportunity. I have to say now, 18 months later, that this was not a good strategy. If you want to work with highly prestigous clients, you should only go for them and ignore the others even if it seems “quick money” to help your growth. Managing and onboarding small clients usually requires the same effort as big ones, but revenues are incomparable.My “Pro” tip is: define your market positioning and stay consistent. It could be hard at the beginning, but it is important to laser-focus your energies and send out consistent messages to your audience.You also may notice that Rocket PPC is highly specific and there is a real reason behind it: we were also seeking the possibility to “connect & partner” with other agencies without feeling competitors. Thanks to this, in the very first months of our agency, we have been contacted by 3-4 agencies that would need our specific services for their clients. We do not work “behind the scenes” since we need to speak directly with clients, but it is a strategy that works since it is a win-win: we gain a new client, the client gets a high-level PPC management, and the other agency gets a happier client and usually a referral fee (10-15% on the contract value).imageHow are you doing today and what does the future look like?I’m glad to say that we are profitable, and with higher gross margins than a “normal” agency in Italy. We cut down costs (no offices) and increase profitability by selling a professional consulting service.Today we are focusing on putting ourselves in front of other big clients, and expand our team.It is usually hard to have a chance with this kind of clients, but we are pretty confident that our network and good case studies would help us to become the agency we wanted from the beginning. During the second year we started sending out real case studies to prospects and attend at web marketing conferences with dedicated speeches and workshops. Talking with people and prospects during conferences is always a good idea if you work in the consultancy field: you can share with them ideas and suggestions and if you give them value, they usually “want more” from you.So, do not be afraid to share your knowledge and give suggestions and tips for free to prospects. It’s usually a good way to show your skills and your passion and people love it. If you can create a real trust, then they will buy from you.Our gross margins are now quite high: since a lot of work is done by Pasquale and I, these are on average between 60% and 80%.At this point we are obviously discussing about growth of our company. We want to hire new talented people and define work processes, but that is not easy either.Let me be honest, sometimes we also question the “growth”. Do we really need to grow? How big?I mean, we are happy with our revenues, clients and workflows: adding more people, especially in a full-remote team, may require extra procedures, more controls, and usually, lower quality. You have to carefully choose collaborators and employees and that is not easy. A couple of months ago we added Andrea to the team. Hiring Andrea was easy: he is a +10 years experienced PPC guru, with a lot of personal skills that are perfect for Rocket PPC, and more importantly, we already knew him and trusted his expertise by experience. You know, finding people with all these characteristics in one place is not easy. How can you fully trust people and test them before hiring?We are an agency based 100% on people: on their talent, skills, and passion. It is difficult to find people that truly fits in your company vision and mission.So the point is: can we keep going on with our actual setup (maybe with a couple of other people) and keep getting new clients and avoiding the “usual” descending curve in quality of a high-growing company? Or not?Who knows… we will find out in the next few months, or maybe years!Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?Shut your fears up.It is not easy to leave your casual work and start your own thing, but if you keep listening to that voice inside you every single day telling you “quit your job and start your own business” well.. you know you’ll get there, sooner or later.We did it in a 6 months period, just to be sure to “prepare ourselves” and save a bit of money for the first months. I think that it is important to have some money in your pocket before starting a company because you need to be calm and confident with no fears about you upcoming future in terms of money and sustainability.What platform/tools do you use for your business?We use Slack for team communications and for clients too. It works just fine. We don’t like it for calls (it is a bit buggy on that side) so we usually switch to Google Hangout just for video calls.Asana is our project management tool and it is great even if some very useful features are only available at the most expensive plans. The most absurd missing feature is time tracking: we actually need to use Toggl as a third piece of software to just track time spent on specific tasks in Asana and that’s not so useful. I hope they will add this feature quite soon.All the emails and file storage are in Google Suite: Gmail is by far the best email provider and Google Drive just works fine, so it is easier for us to have all in one place.What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?A lot! I read all 37Signals’ books and I think that a lot of my mindset has been shaped by them.I think that ReWork is by far the best business book I read in the last 12 years: it is quite easy but it reshaped the idea of having a business several years ago and I think that is fascinating.Now a lot of companies do smartworking, agile meetings and so on, but 37 signals guys were among the first… in 1999!Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?Do not focus on money. Oh well, you should have a Business Plan and a clear vision of you revenue goals but do not let it drive your business.Remember that any kind of business is based on trust: do what you are good at, be nice and transparent and money will follow.Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?We are hiring PPC Specialists with +4 years in experience. Want to try? Join us.Where can we go to learn more?https://rocketppc.it/https://www.facebook.com/rocketppc/https://www.linkedin.com/company/rocketppc/If you have any questions or comments, drop a comment below!Liked this text interview? Check out the full interview with photos, tools, books, and other data.For more interviews, check out r/starter_story - I post new stories there daily.Interested in sharing your own story? Send me a PM

Reflective Essay

Throughout this module, I believe that I have made it clear where I want to go after I finish university. When we talk about computer games, many of us picture something along the lines of Space Invaders or Pac-Man, something simplistic in its nature. Even though these examples are perfectly fine in their own right, they do not accurately represent my own opinions on the matter. Part of my appeal towards making computer games is their unique opportunity at being the only medium in which they are a completely non-vicarious art form. Computer games, just like animation, are a marriage of science, art and design and it is in this synergy where I find I would be most suited. Over the first and second years of this course I have found a niche skill that I find a lot of enjoyment in, and that is 3D modelling. Because of my personal interest in architecture and the world-building aspects of computer games, in my opinion one of the best ways for me to break into the computer game industry would be to get my start as an environment artist. This is what a lot of my research and branding has revolved around during this module.

Environment artists have the advantage of being a key (and thus a more permanent) part of a team of developers. A lot of this has to do with the fact that building modern games is a highly iterative process, environment artists and level designers are often kept on for the entirety of a given project and that gives me confidence that pursuing a career in computer games within the skills of an environment artist be would a good career option. That and I know that I find enjoyment in this kind of work, part of the appeal is that it is almost like solving a problem with the consideration that the solution has to convey a certain artistic style, so it certainly requires a more lateral approach to thinking. I think the reason environment art appeals to me specifically is because I like architecture and I like the way in which architecture and computer games crossover. I am interested not only in how an environment can serve the mechanics of a given game, but how that can help tell a story. To me this is a universal objective of many forms of entertainment but the way in which computer games can achieve this is radically different from other forms of media. When you truly think about it computer games are a well suited industry for budding environment artists because of the obvious lack of physical constraints. This is why I want to take a more specialised approach rather than being a 3D artist or 3D generalist, environment art already encompasses a wide range of technical skills and this isn’t counting the fact that you must have a good idea of free hand sketching, so I believe that I would be able to demonstrate a large amount of different skills within this vocation.

Computer games are a highly cooperative affair, there are so many moving parts and types of specific skills that go into making a computer game so I have made a concerted effort to ensure that I can effectively communicate in a group, I think that is evident from the fact that I collaborated with two other individuals in the first semester on a different module, to which we were given very positive feedback on the resulting work. To me communication is extremely important and I want to make a point of highlighting this fact, personally I would always rather work in a team as much like playing an instrument in a band, I feel that the benefit of being able to readily communicate with colleagues leads to a much vaster improvement in my overall skill. I feel that being able to work in a small team after I graduate as a full time job would be an ideal scenario, so the intent is to show that I have been thinking about this since the beginning of the module.

When I thought about how I would brand myself then, I made sure to include as much of this research as I possibly could. I looked at numerous computer game developers and publishers and what they looked for in an applicant, and I also looked at many examples of different environment art show-reels and portfolios and looked at how they solved various presentation issues. On the whole, I opted to present myself as extremely organised and focused on making my own work the main ‘point’ of my brand. I didn’t want to obscure my skills in any way but I made sure that where possible I could elevate its presentation through simple graphical and font design, effective use of editing in my show-reel and an overall consistent image across my web presence and branding materials. This is also apparent in my physical promotional materials, as I spent a large amount of time researching and designing business cards and personal logos. Evidenced on my Tumblr blog is a large amount of hand drawn designs, with an iterative design process showing how I progressed from my initial sketches to final design. I think this all speaks a lot to the actual level of quality that I strive for in everything I do and shows that when asked to, I put in a professional amount of effort.

This thinking also extends to how I constructed my CV when the time came. Obviously it is easy to outline the specific skills that you can demonstrate in your work, but in the sea of applicants that is game art development, it is imperative that you stand out so my thinking revolved around how I could show the way in which my creative skill is affected by my own thinking and how I have been actively developing different ways to solve problems. In an industry where everyone has the skills needed, it becomes more a case of who has the best ideas and not who has the best skills, meaning I focused more on demonstrating how I can think laterally. In my research on show-reels many of the interviewees that I watched outlined how valuable being able to think laterally was, employers want to see people who can solve a problem in a non-traditional way as most of the time, this ends up being the more favourable solution. During my 3D Games Design module I was praised for the way in which I had ‘Solved technical challenges such as simulated cloth physics to provide a crucial part of the effect.’ The actual method of this solution was initially difficult to figure out, but the resulting effect was something that I otherwise would not have been able to achieve through traditional means. The fact that tutors picked up on this is clear evidence that I have developed this recognisable skill, which shows I am making progress.

On the subject of presentation, I made sure to extend this sentiment to my online presence. To date I have six different areas in which people can discover my work. I have been thorough in the way in which I work on each social media account and website, everything has been kept consistent throughout the semester which I feel is another important aspect of this module in general. It has been repeatedly highlighted by our course tutors of the importance of maximising your discoverability on the internet, and I think I have definitely taken this advice to heart. I also made sure to consider the possibility of going freelance after I finish university. This comes with a lot of consideration and planning on my part but thankfully I have some experience. Various small pre-production jobs that I had worked on at the beginning of the first semester gave me valuable experience as a freelancer, to which I was then able to use this in my CV and respective social media accounts.

At the beginning of this module we were asked to outline what our interests and aspirations were and I knew exactly what I wanted to say. There are obviously downsides to being so assertive in decisions like this, but what I wanted to show is my level of commitment to attaining a serious and professional outcome. At no point in this module have I taken any piece of advice (from tutors and peers) lightly, this is pretty evident in the dramatic changes I made to my branding image. Every decision I have made has been made with that singular aspiration in mind, be it the company’s I wanted to work for, my CV, my show-reel. I have displayed that I have been able to work as if this was a real interview. Over the course of this module I have made significant steps towards attaining my career goals and developing crucial interpersonal skills, and I have a much clearer idea of how I will reach my career goals.

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Mona Patel: From Designer to CEO

Mona Patel, the CEO and founder of Motivate Design, barely had the confidence to call herself a designer in the beginning of her career. Early on, Patel worked in the fields of engineering and psychology, then became the VP of Human Factors International, the world’s largest company specializing in user experience (UX) design. But while she was doing research and translating those insights into innovative solutions using concept sketches, it took her some time to truly identify herself as a designer. “I think design has been branded as a really scary field,” she says. “You know you’re born “creative” or you’re born artistic. But for me, we were taught if you’re not singing you’re not going to be a singer, or if you’re not painting you’re not going to be a painter. Oh, and by the way if you can’t do those things, you’re not creative.”

As Patel continued to unpack what design meant, she called it problem solving creatively. She found results through her sketches that attracted clients, thus increasing her confidence. She had a knack for mentorship and started teaching at Parsons School of Design to show young creatives how to truly understand business and design problems, and to think outside the box to develop effective solutions. She realized if she was going to be teaching at a design school, she had to be a designer. Then she thought, “Well, if I’m a designer, why don’t I design a company?”

Motivate Design was founded in 2009 as a user experience research design company. Two years later, Patel introduced UX Hires, Motivate’s staffing shop. Patel has led her team to work with clients such as MTV, Capital One, Carter’s, and Citi Bank. She has also written Reframe: Shift the Way You Work, Innovate, and Think, an Amazon best-selling book.

We sat down with Patel to discuss how she made the leap from designer entrepreneur to CEO, transitioned from designing products to designing teams, and how she deals with people in the industry mistaking her success for her husband’s.

You were VP at Human Factors International and Research Scientist at American Institutes for Research before founding Motivate Design in 2009. How and when did you know you wanted to build your own company?

When I had a prospective. A great company is one where you’ve identified the problem and are committed to coming up with a solution. A lot of times people look at it like: I have the solution, let me find the problem. I think when you see the problem and you decide, “I want to commit my work to doing that,” you’re starting a company. 

How did you make the leap from designer entrepreneur to CEO?

I left my position at HFI and then I started freelancing as a designer and user experience strategist. I added a few more strategists to my team and then I was pregnant. A lot of people have this misconception that after you have children it’s going to be harder for you to work. I found that it was hard in the day-to-day, but also valuable. I had 2-3 hours of work during the day due to nursing, so I had to get as much of what I needed to get done, done. 

I stopped designing interfaces. I had to come in and give feedback and lead on different projects and then I had to go be with my kid. So I started designing jobs. I started designing structure. And I started sketching. However, I realized I wasn’t designing for clients anymore; I was designing for my team. Then I thought to myself, I think I’m designing a company.

That was my easy way to do it. I don’t think I could have ever applied for a CEO job because I didn’t have the confidence. But I took my strengths, which is being really good at motivating people, and making people feel heard. I’m very trustworthy, and I believe it is my responsibility to help as many people as I can. These are things I do really well, so I just started using it for anything that I could.

What kind of mindset should a designer have in order to know it’s time to shift to CEO?

It took a couple of years for me to learn, if a client calls and says I need Mona and I do the job, I’m designing, not running the business. One thing you’ll have to do is step away from doing the design work and step into the business development – operations, HR, and begin to create the structure for someone to buy the visual design work from your brand.

The mindset shift is: I am the designer and there are people here that work for me. I am the four-wheel horse power engine that creates a brand that people will work at so other people will hire the brand to deliver a higher level of quality that they can’t get anywhere else. Your job is to create that environment and that system. So you switch from being a product designer to a system designer, if you will.

What are some of the common excuses that you’ve heard from designers that have held them back?

Designers think that they know everything already and sometimes they miss the innocence of diving in and doing the research to learn more. The idea of “Oh no, we don’t need to do research, I already know how to design the website.” 

What are some of the challenges you’ve faced while leading your company?

In general, there are not many female CEOs, which sucks. When I went to both Inc. 5000 ceremonies actually, people would go directly to my husband like “Congratulations!” and he would have to point to me like no, her. You’re dismissed sometimes and sometimes you’re punished for not flirting back, in the sense where you won’t get put on a project or invited to the next networking function.

But there are some really great things as well: I feel like as a woman I can have a deeper connection with people, from employees to clients. From being a mom I’m able to multitask at a higher level as well.

You’ve said in a Ted X New Bedford talk that in Indian culture women are to fall in line and never cross that line because women are beneath men. Yet, you’ve disrupted that way of thinking. How?

In my culture, people were confused about what’s going on with me. I think I’ve earned it now, but earlier on, I was looked down upon and people would ask what was I doing or say things like “Shouldn’t you be home with the kids?” It’s your people who turn on you.

I’ve had women make undermining comments that have made me second-guess and at times cry. I’ve thought to myself Am I a bad mom because I work and sometimes travel for work? It’s the judging that can lead to the discrimination and it’s less about being a woman or minority. It’s just as a person, don’t judge me. I get it the most from Indians and women; very rarely will a white male say anything to me.

To combat it, I’ve been working hard to deflect. When I hear something negative, I try to think it’s on you, not on me. People will have their own insecurities and try to push them on to you, but you have to swat them away like tennis. And if the comments do get to you, which some of them will, you just have to recognize that it’s not you, and don’t believe it. You use it for fire to prove them wrong. Then, you start your own company.

Branding: The Art of Perception

*Young lady or old woman?

I was fortunate very early in my career to learn a great lesson about a simple, yet extraordinary phenomenon called perception. I had been out of college for about two years and was still honing my craft as a copywriter. I had even become confident enough in my abilities to add that title to my resume without ever having gone to … Portfolio School (gasp!).

I was lucky. But to tell this story fully, I must, indeed, go back two more years. I landed an internship at a good agency just a few months after graduating from a state university in the generic concentration of Advertising. The internship wasn’t on the creative side. I was actually mostly working on research and coffee runs for the account team. But, when I told them why I was really there, they gave me a shot, I impressed them with a few headlines, and the rest is history.

Now, back to the original story. It’s already starting to feel a little too Midsummer Night’s Dream in here, anyway. I was a full-fledged copywriter with a couple of years and recommendations under my belt, and a friend of mine was interested in putting my skills to use. This person worked at another advertising agency. This person was not a copywriter. But, this person had been asked to write a newsletter for one of their clients. This person, in turn, asked for my help.

I wouldn’t be paid for this, because this person wanted their agency to think that they wrote the piece, thus “wowing” their clients and superiors, winning the Most Awesome award and being carried out of the office on the shoulders of their peers for having the amazing ability to both write and account exec (Ya, I’m using “account exec” as a verb).

I didn’t mind. Hell, at that stage in my career, any chance to hone my skill was an opportunity I would jump at. Now, of course, I still would, but there’s usually going to be a price tag attached.

So I wrote it. It took me about five hours. But I wrote it. And guess what happened. This person’s superiors hated it.The page bled in edits. Red replaced black as the majority. Scribble superseded Times New Roman.

This person asked me, “What happened?” I said I didn’t know. I thought it was good. Maybe not my greatest work ever (Does anyone love writing newsletters, after all?), but it certainly should have done the job for a newsletter that would likely be read by a subscribing audience of no more than seven.

So the edits were made. The superiors were satisfied when few of the original words on the document remained. The clients were satisfied when the superiors advocated it. And everyone was happy. Except, this was a monthly newsletter. This process was going to come around in another 30 days. And what then?

Well, I had done some freelance work for this agency in the past. I was currently working at an internal marketing department for a very niche product, so there was absolutely no conflict of interest … Just in case you were wondering. Ironically, the agency reached out to me the following month to write the succeeding five page newsletter. The same young copywriter that they had thrashed and stained in red the month prior. I hesitantly agreed, knowing that this was an opportunity to learn and grow. And make some extra money, of course.

So I wrote it. Again. And again, it took me about five hours. And you know what happened this time? They loved it. A resounding, unanimous acceptance, without edits, of the golden god of newsletters. It was perfection in local publishing. It was heaven on paper. I could hear the applause from my office on the other side of the city. No edits needed. No changes required. A masterpiece. They showed my friend, the one who had initially solicited my help, stating “This is how a newsletter is supposed to be written.”

I am sure that a small part of that person wanted to spill the beans, if not walk from superior to superior kicking everyone in the  “beans”. But I think at that moment, this person realized the same lesson I learned when I got the news. Perception means a whole hell of a lot.

I pride myself on learning from past mistakes, writing or otherwise. But there is no way that over the course of one month, I could have gone from writing a newsletter that was about one more edit away from becoming garbage, to a beacon on which all other newsletter should strive to resemble. The decision-makers of this ad agency saw the first newsletter and were prepared to see a flood of writing errors and missed voice attributes, because it was coming from someone without specific experience in copywriting. And because that is what they expected, or perceived, they found the errors they were looking for, and then some. A self-fulfilling prophecy.

When they looked at the second newsletter, they expected a certain level of greatness. One, because it was coming from a copywriter, not one of their Account people. And two, because they paid a freelance fee for it, and wanted to validate their expense.

Perception means everything in the world of consumer marketing and advertising, as well as B2B. What does your customer think of your company and does what you are saying about your company match up with their perception? “Think Different” worked for Apple, because they had always portrayed themselves as the outlier to the corporate big brother of IBM and Microsoft. “Just Do It” worked for Nike because their customers are athletes, and that’s exactly what they want to do, and need to be told sometimes. But if you were just another clothing store on the corner, “Just Do It” and “Think Different” would make no sense, and a pair of the greatest taglines ever would have been wasted.

I’ll give you another example. Stephen King, the world’s most renowned horror author of all time was rejected by over 30 publishers before someone decided to back Carrie. King went on to a successful career that continues to horrify and captivate audiences, from paperback to big screen to Amazon Kindle tablets. But for a brief period, King wanted to find out if he really was as good as people thought he was, or if it had all just been a fluke, and was now being carried by his name alone, and not his quality. So, he penned novels under the name Richard Bachman. The secret didn’t last long, but King found, much to his delight, that he sold nearly as well, and the quality of his writing was, at least in large part, the reason for his continued success. But, it was the perception of his fans that he wanted to test. And it could have just as easily failed. If it had, it would have proven my point in a much stronger fashion, but you get where I’m going with it.

Cool begets cooler. Smart begets smarter. Fun begets excitement. Building perception in a forward direction is like rolling a rock downhill. As long as your product, and the perception of your consumer matches up, your success will be imminent (as long as that perception isn’t shitty).

Shifting perception is another beast altogether. Volvo is still considered the safest line of automobiles in the world, when, in fact, they are no longer even ranked in the top ten, as far as safety is concerned. But I won’t get into that right now. Shifting perception, as I said, is a whole other beast.

Just remember the importance of perception. It affects everything. You. Your brand(s). Your work. Your friends. Your family. Find a way to use it to your advantage, and realize when it is working against you. Once you take perception into account, you’ll find a lot of formerly unanswerable questions become much simpler.