I'm a born & bred New Yorker, so I feel I can say this...I hate New York. Not all the time...but frequently. Sometimes, walking through Central Park on a gorgeous mid-summer afternoon, I only actively dislike New York. But then, after reading this articlehttp://www.vice.com/read/amphetamine-logic-disappeared-cat-marnell and then this, heartbreaking article, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/29/nyregion/the-short-life-and-lonely-death-of-sabrina-seelig.html?smid=pl-share...I kind of want to scream. I kind of want to rent a car, throw the cats and some books into it, and flee the overpriced cesspool city right now. Move to Wyoming or Montana and start a pro-cat, free-love commune or something.

Perhaps you see my point? Cat Marnell is alive and well and able to stuff as many drugs as possible into her bony, cadaverous 98-lb frame...while the chick with promise, the girl who was trying to create something real with her life...oh, she's dead. She died alone, tied to her bed in an outer-borough dungeon "hospital," with no doctors or nurses checking on her for hours. No malpractice there! That seems like standard procedure...for Auschwitz. Paging Dr. Mengele! Where did they get that jury? Oh yes, they came from right here in NYC! Some of them are probably my neighbors, for f**k's sake.

I have lived in many other places--Russia, India, Washington, D.C., the Midwest, etc.--so I'm not one of those exasperating New Yorkers who tediously bitch about this city, but can't leave it. I've left plenty of times. I even have a driver's license. But right now, due to the various business projects I am involved with, I have to remain here. And I suppose  honestly, the bigger issue, the real issue, is that I'm disgusted by people who choose to destroy their potential--Cat Marnell, for all her melodrama, is, in my opinion, a rather talented writer--and other people who choose to have no empathy. Sabrina Seelig was all of 22, fer Christ's sake. Remember when you were 22 and you made some stupid choices? (Remember last night, when you probably made another stupid choice? Exactly.) She didn't deserve to die alone, neglected, tied to a bed, because she took a supplement. I'm cranky because I'm so disgusted... and because my heart just aches for Sabrina and her family.

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.