PJH Studios

Category: Thoughts

My personal thoughts/opinions, or commentary.

  • The audience

    Stand in front of crowd. A few friends, a gathering of family, a room full of strangers.  Speak a few words. Announce that you’d like to say something. Present a prepared pitch with or without a slide deck as your copilot. In those first, present moments, you have their attention. The group becomes an audience.

    Here’s a secret: 99.98% of the time, when you have an audience, they want to hear what you have to say. They want you to succeed. Know this secret to conquer the fear of speaking to an audience.

    Underwear, and envisioning people in their’s, should remain a secret.

  • Pinterest is the new women’s magazine

    I picked up my mother’s copy of Women’s Day.  Thumbing through a few pages I read about dinner (and cookie) recipes, household tips, clever pop culture items, quick style blurbs and general interest items.

    Scrolling Pinterest’s front page, I spy a recipe for a sugary confection, photos of style “looks”, make up tips, pictorial witticisms, photos of cool things to make or do around the house.

    Women’s Day, the paper magazine, is social to the extent of giving the magazine to someone or clipping out an article and physically sharing it.  Pinterest is social as simple as finding something you like and pinning it for anyone one to view.

     

  • What a college career center should be

    Yes, the college career services should offer the following stock services:

    • Resume and cover letter help (I’d argue that cover letters are a waste)
    • Mock interviews – know how to talk and be self aware
    • Resources for soul searching to figure out skills and interests

    I’d expand with the following:

    • No nonsense, active tips, in the vein of Ramit Sethi, where individuals are encouraged to be aware of their strengths and market the hell out of them.
    • Industry, pull-the-curtain-back on how businesses and careers run, styled like Penelope Trunks‘ detailed missives.
    • Light hearted life coaching that encourages personal introspection, ala Therese Schwenkler
    • Big, bold, constructive, have no fear to do good work, as told by Seth Godin

    What links the four individuals? An emphasis on active actions (monster.com, sending out resumes are passive), where we’re self aware of what the hell we’re doing.

    Sethi details psychology of actions and their perceived impacts. He may come across as arrogant in his style, however, fine tune his advice to the point of self  confidence. Formatting and whitespace on a resume ain’t gonna do that.

    Trunk hails as the veteran, the insider, the one who’s been there and still doing it.  She seeks out information to gleam insights into trends or to justify why a common approach really doesn’t work. She emphasizes doing something and learning about what your learning–random jobs can teach you something.

    Schwenkler brings the “life balance” dialogue to the career center.  If you’re not happy, aren’t aware of your attitudes, all your relationships will be a challenge. She’s that cool, slightly quirky advisor that can actually relate to people.

    Godin is a marketer of life.  His writing belies an understanding that puts everything into perspective–career and life and all that we want to do with it. So long as we’re honest, working to do the right thing and not be afraid of our self doubts, we’ll be successful.

  • Crossword Puzzle Girl

    Petite, blonde hair always in a pony tail, blue-eyed, she occupied the same corner of the campus cafeteria. Whenever I saw her, her face peered down, lips pursed and eyes intently engaged in the day’s crossword puzzle. Her books and backpack would be either piled at her feet or on the table next to her, depending on the crowd of students flowing through the room.

    During my attendance at TCU, the campus’s main dining hall, called The Main, served three meals a day, opening and closing for each meal. At times, it became confusing as to what the hours actually were, especially when students would camp for hours at a time, at the behest of the cafeteria’s staff. The Main’s interior looked like a Luby’s stuck in the 90s—grey walls, tables and floors, bold geometric, airbrushed artwork and booths lined with red vinyl.

    This girl, whom I silently named Crossword Puzzle Girl, was a staple. She always went for the back corner and folded the campus paper, The Skiff, to reveal the crossword puzzle. Before Sudoku became the distraction of choice, the crossword puzzle had a place in the back of classrooms, communally shared in the lounges or those sitting solo, etching out the answers to the day’s clue’s.

    I never asked of her name, so she never answered. The only other thing I knew about her, seems amusing. She was a baton twirler. Dressed in purple polyester, skin-tone sheer and sparkly, sparkly sequins, she would dance amongst the band during halftime shows, as her partner—the baton—twirled, swirled and curled through the air. While she worked on the puzzle, her pen would roll and somersault between her fingers.

    I saw Crossword Puzzle Girl a few months ago. She’s one of those people you’d never expect to see again, and would notice them immediately if paths crossed, however distant. Instead of a 90s era cafeteria, a contemporary Starbuck’s cafe was the setting. She sat in the corner, flanked by windows, light shining off her blonde hair, pulled back into a pony tail. Instead of a bag of books by her side, a stroller stood. Instead of a bustling crowd of undergraduates moving around her, her daughter, equally blonde and blue-eyed, moved amongst the tables and chairs.

    Crossword Puzzle Girl sat with a pen in her hand and looked relaxed as she appeared to answer one of the day’s clues.

  • Art begets art

    Art begets art.  One creative act should be free to inspire another creative act.  To say that one creation, once delivered to the world, remains tethered to its creator, unable to inspire, evolve or grow into something new, restricts the life of the original creation.  As much as one may try to control the perception of the work they created, it’s impossible.  Once you let the light, the art, the work, whatever, out—it’s no longer yours.  Maybe for a time it’s your’s.  But at some point it belongs to someone else. And that person may be inspired by your work to let loose another creative work.