Riders on the storm

Mental note : come back to that later.

But right now, I gotta do my homework!

Namely, writing the next episode of the show my client Nicole is making. She loved the first ep and wants to make it a weekly than.

Why, that’s almost like real work!

Here is a link to the first episode. Facebook Live doesn’t do embed, apparently. Grr.

I wrote the script upon which she based the video. Like me, she doesn’t like memorization and prefers to get the basic idea down in her head then wing it.

That might sound crazy, but it’s the only way to get a performance that sounds genuine, and I don’t know about her, but I put a very high value on being genuine and honest, so I get why she works off the script but not from the script.

If you know what I mean.

Anyhow, here’s the blurb she gave me for this week’s episode, due tomorrow morning :

“The client requests a basic package and then wants bells and whistles beyond what is reasonable. Basically, they are paying for a Chevy Cobalt but want a Corvette. We carefully work with these clients to let them know what is realistic on their budget, set things up as much as possible for future improvements and outline next steps for when they have more to invest in upgrading.”

Wow. I bet everyone who works in a client-based environment has a story like that. Hmm, that’s actually a pretty good opening.

“Now where was I? Right. Hi, and welcome to It’s a Solopreneur Life”, the show where I share  funny, inspiring stories from my life as a solopreneur in today’s digital world. This week, I have one I think a lot of solopreneurs can relate to.

Tell me if this starts to sound familiar.

You have a client who opted for the low-cost package of your services. No problem. Those packages are there for a reason.

But then they start asking you to do everything from your most expensive package!

Basically, they paid for a Chevy Cobalt and expected to get a Corvette.

I’d hate to be behind these people at McDonald’s.

“Hey, where’s my Big Mac, fries, and shake?”
“Sir, you ordered a small pop. ”
“Your point being….?”

And what you want to say is, ‘Hey pal, if you want more, pay more. That’s how this works. We’ve been through this. ‘

But of course, we’re professionals here at Virtual A-Team, so what we do is work with the client to make sure that they understand what they do and do not get with their package and give them some options for when they have more money to invest.

Crazy as it is, that’s just another day at work here at Virtual A-Team. ”

That will do for a rought draft for this week’s ep. If I have the time, I will work on it some more before I submit it tomorrow in the AM.

I am happy to get a regular gig. She pays me $35 per script. At the moment that is around $45 Canadian. But UpWork takes its 25 percent (hey, better 75 percent of something than 100 percent of nothing), and so I will be getting around USD $26.25 per script, which translates to around $35 Canadian.

Notice how that came full circle? The gains from the currency conversion are neatly canceled out by UpWork taking a cut.

It’s so efficient!

What else. Oh, Riders On The Storm.

I was listening to that song earler and for some reason, the couplet in the chorus got stuck in my head.

It’s the part that goes,

like a dog without a bone
or an actor all alone
riders on the storm

Why all lower case? Because it’s pretentious.

Anyhoo, when something gets stuck in my head I inevitably start playing with it, and I have been having so much fun that I thought I would call it a game and share it.

So we will call it the Riders On The Storm Game. The rules are simple : make up your own couplet then end it with “riders on the storm”.

Here are some examples fresh from my fervent imagination :

like an ancient mystic tome
made of purple styrofoam
riders on the storm

like when I blow a tone
on my chocolate saxophone
riders on the storm

like I just took out a loan
to buy the latest new iPone
riders on the storm

like a hot and dripping cone
of molten silicone
riders on the storm

like I’m always on the phone
with some stupid corporate drone
riders on the storm

like my car hit a stone
in a harbor loading zone
riders on the storm

I could go on and on. It’s just so much fun!

At least for me.

Look, I was a bored and lonely child and I learned to make my own fun, OK?

What else. I keep struggling with whether to sleep whenever I feel sleepy or force myself to stay awake at normal hours in hope of developing a healthier sleep schedule.

It’s a thorny nest of issues because on the one hand, the medical consensus is that I would sleep a lot better if I slept only when it is dark and stayed awake all the time the sun is up. Plus, a rigid and regular sleep schedule is healthy no matter when it happens becase our circadian rhythms will adjust accordingly.

And that sounds marvelously rational and sensible.

But it’s not that simple.

Because I already have a demon in my head that is constantly trying to force me to conform to its idea of how I “should” be doing thing and who I “should” be, and it’s one of my worst ones.

That means that this whole “sleep hygiene” trip is exactly the sort of ammo it needs to further persecute me on my failure to do things the “right” way.

From that point of view, I should simply accept that sometimes I will need to catch up on sleep so badly that all I do is sleep all day.

Sleep till I am not sleepy any more, basically.

But then again, I have a history of sleeping when I am not at all sleepy but I convince myself that I am because I want to hide from reality and not have to deal with anything.

Sleep is like death without the commitment, after all.

So honestly, I dunno.

Guess I’ll sleep on it.

I will talk to you nice people again tomorrow.

 

 

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