An acquaintance of mine on Facebook--oh stop acting like you don't start sentences with those words all the time. Unless you're a Luddite. In which case, why are you reading this blog and not churning your own butter or shoeing your horses or something while it's still daylight?--recently noted that since he had left his job, he could now tweet with impunity, since he didn't have to worry about marketing anymore. Oh my.

I'm not a huge fan of this um "friend," so I didn't say anything. But I do have a soft spot for people who read this blog, so here's what I would have said: "You are incorrect." He was incorrect to 1) think he didn't have to worry about marketing anymore, 2) to think he could tweet with impunity (especially, given the fact that he is unemployed), and 3) to think that he was ever not marketing.

News flash: We're all always marketing. We're marketing, in big and small ways, when we go to the gym, when we gain weight, when we go to graduate school or drop out, when we get hung over or laid, when we get married, when we stay single, when we post photos on Facebook, or don't post photos, when we wear shorts or jeans or capris, when we have pets or don't, when we wear makeup or don't....if you're breathing, you're marketing. And to think that you can somehow choose when you're going to market...alas, no. All you're doing then is choosing to market poorly.
Marketing is interacting with other humans, it's leaving a path through life, it's being alive. (Oops, almost became a Barbra Streisand lyric there.)

I, for example, have a personal Facebook page and a public page. At this point, I don't accept any friend requests anymore--sorry, Bradley Cooper, you missed your chance--since at one point, I was perhaps a little less savvy about marketing and put up quite a few status updates and photos that um, perhaps I didn't think out too well. (Translation: http://youtu.be/QYHxGBH6o4M)

So, as I got deeper into this business, I realized: this is who I am. I could try and hide it...meh. Lying is so boring. Or, I can embrace it: bingo! Its now part of my organic marketing. Or something.
My point being: you are always marketing. Every social media imprint you leave, every comment, every joke, every photo you click "like" on, every group you join, every stupid thing you re-tweet, every party you attend, the people you date, the types of food you eat...you are marketing. And if you think you aren't, then you're marketing something even worse...your lack of intelligence.

Before you get cranky and join a Luddite commune (unless it's a free love kind of commune, and then high five, son!), email me @carlotazee.com and let's see how I can help you improve your marketing...or at least avoid making some of the more egregious mistakes I made.

Luck

Underneath this cranky yet hawt exterior is a person who has a huge thing for Barbra Streisand. So huge that I’ve even watched, more than once, “Yentl”…oy. (But the music!) I have that kind of irrational fetish for Barbra. (And I’m only calling her “Barbra” because I doubt, somehow, she reads this blog. Otherwise, I’d address her as Ms. Streisand…what am I, crazy?) So when an irritating relative spent part of Easter lunch interminably rambling on about how “lucky” Barbra is to achieve what she had…cue the shark music from "Jaws." 

Luck?  I hate people who talk about luck. People who talk about luck are letting themselves off the hook. They’re absolving themselves for not having had the guts to go for it, and denying the persistence, determination and hard work of those who did. Did Barbra have some lucky breaks? I’m sure she did…and I’m sure she also had a lot of doors slammed in her face and that many people put her down, and told her not to quit her day job or dream she could ever leave Brooklyn.

In this business, and in life, I don’t believe in luck…I believe in making a plan and sticking with it and creating the opportunities you need. I believe in hustling. I believe in committing to your dreams. I believe in making your own luck. I believe in this:http://youtu.be/G_g3kkGH8

Since leaving TV news and going to law school and returning to writing and starting this business...I've had some bad breaks. Alas. Such is life. But I've chosen to suck it up, to learn what I could from my mistakes and keep going forward. So when clients say to me, "Well, you've been lucky..." No, I've been determined like a mofo. I've decided that my mistakes weren't going to be the end of the road. I've made my own luck.

And when you’re ready to start making your own luck, whether or not you love you some Barbra, email me @carlotazee@gmail.com.