The struggle is eternal.
The struggle is internal.
And I can only blame myself for it.
Earlier in my life, the decision to be creative or analytical — to pursue writing and storytelling or business and marketing — it tore holes in me.
I seemed to think that it had to be one or the other. And with that mindset, any decision would impact me for at least a few years, maybe a decade, or maybe my entire career!
The pain was not acute… but it was constant.
Couldn’t I clone myself?
Couldn’t I have one of me do the writing thing while the other me did the business thing?
Then one day it hit me. I realized, it didn’t have to be one or the other. It didn’t have to be one whole or the other whole. It could be one half and the other half.
It could be both, because Yin Yang rules the universe.
It’s all about projects.
Small projects, I could do very well (at least in my view) and enjoy them.
Larger projects, I could lead, follow or a little of both.
All I had to do was make my business projects my creative projects. If only it were that easy, right? Because the money was coming in over here, and I wanted to go over there.
But I’m not the only one who asked myself the biggest baddest ass question: “When I’m on my death bed, will I regret the decisions I didn’t make more than the ones I made?”
The answer was so clear.
Bang! Decision made.
Two non-fiction books later, one a plethora of stories that hit the Amazon category best-seller list, and an anthology of love poems, and my marketing consulting business took off.
When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.
And then, serendipity.
January 2021, I got hacked by Covid. All dressed up and no place to go, I somehow got on Clubhouse right at the beginning.
Marketing colleagues were asking me to join their Clubhouse rooms and talks. After two appearance, I knew I knew the opportunity to establish my brand here as something else would evaporate fast.
So I built my Clubhouse profile not as a marketer, not even as a creative marketing storyteller, but as a storyteller.
As an author. As a poet.
I didn’t join Clubhouse marketing talks. I joined author talks.
I ventured into screenwriter talks. I raised my virtual hand and offered some comments that experienced filmmakers found valuable.
“Your protagonist is only as interesting as your antagonist makes him or her. Weak villain? Uninteresting hero.”
The L.A. film director moderating the room said, “Jack, that’s dope, man. That’s dope!”
Another director in Madrid contacted me and asked me to collaborate on a short-film project. And in Madrid, I acted in several handful of shorts. I did this for both the acting experience as well as the director-actor-shooting experience.
A production company here in Switzerland asked me to send them the screenplay to a thriller I was writing. In preparation for working on bigger projects with them, they urged me to direct my own short, and it turned out to be an award winner!
But does that mean the struggle has ended?
To even ask that question makes me laugh, because we are human.
The struggle is eternal.
But it’s no longer internal. It’s external.
Every day, I’m looking to collaborate.
Every day, I’m looking to support good people like you.
Every day, I’m looking to garner that reciprocal support, for good people like you to work with me on a bad ass thriller, which I know is going to be a blockbuster.
And I won’t stop struggling until we bust those blocks. This is a story that must be told.
Want to hear about it?