Hey it's me Tom Critchlow your friendly neighborhood indie consultant.
At the end of 9 years on the road I said:
Well, this is year 10. Buckle up.
I simply refuse to be stuck in 2024 like I was in 2022 and 2023. Not through determination and force of will but through forgiveness, play and lightness. As Italo Calvino once said: “One should be light like a bird and not like a feather.”
I’ve used the metaphor of a road trip before to describe being an indie consultant. I’ve always imagined it like driving around in a car. But perhaps after almost 10 years it’s time to expand my ways of being in the world. Moving through the world not on wheels but on wings.
Writing this in the depths of winter it’s time to manifest the owl as my spirit animal for the year - wise and quirky, beautiful and alive. Like a snow owl gliding through time and space with temerity and grace.
Hoo hoo motherfuckers.
I made a deal with myself this year. Any time I felt stuck I had to write. The only way through is writing.
Red Bull doesn't give you wings. Writing does.
I feel lighter, more playful. Things are happening.
9 blog posts so far this year. Some highlights:
Maybe the whole reason I felt stuck was because I was working from home? WTF-WFH? Including this chart:
I wrote down my dream clients for 2024. So far I'm 4/9 on meetings (but no actual bites yet...)
One of my dream clients is reMarkable - so I wrote up some notes on how I use my e-ink tablet every day.
A couple of riffs for stuff that I'm thinking about:
- How do you get executives to be customer-centric?
- And what's going on with AI and search?
- Oh, and maybe narrative strategy is the perfect way to explain how I work with clients (or not).
Meanwhile, over on my pop-up newsletter Winter of Wordcraft I'm having fun documenting the behind-the-scenes of book writing. 7 emails so far. The manuscript is back from the editor and we're in the final stretch. LFG!
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If you're reading this I wish you BIG GREEN ENERGY. Spring is coming. Get your bones moving. Write. Make something happen.
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Want me to look at your website? Send it to me. This guy seen some mf websites:
Much love.