Can it really be four months since I last blogged?
I think it can – and there is no shame in that. Life has been doing its usual thing of kicking me in the bollocks sometimes, except I don’t have any, but you get the gist, right?
So what has been happening?
Well, my dad and my niece are still with us, and whilst neither of them is any better in terms of their cancer, neither is particularly worse… and for that, I am eternally grateful. Cancer is an absolute twat, and if you’re going through it too, you have my sympathies.
Work comes with two updates, my day job and my side hustle.
The day job is OK. I keep on keeping on. I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t stressful because it is. I am a solo marketer and have to do all the marketing mix alone. That being websites, socials, blogs, marketing materials, promoting new services etc. Which is OK, except we have three brands. So that over four days is a LOT.
My side hustle, The Hive Mind Company, well, that is just a thorn in my side right now. I have no idea what I want to do with it. I am a marketer, coach and mentor, who happens to know shitloads about mental health, neuroscience and general mindset stuff. I also teach meditation. All that is an uneasy set of bedfellows that don’t feel like they work. It feels off. I can’t even put into words what is wrong, it’s just off. I hate my website too, so that really doesn’t help!
The other side hustle is Invisible Wall, which is my peer support ‘thing’ for football fans.
In February, after talking to someone else who works in mental health (for kids, Lumii – check them out!), I decided that I was going to set up another Twitter feed, this time for UK football fans no matter what their colours.
Mental Health will always be my thing. Always.
That won’t change, and that is perhaps my own Achilles Heel; because I cannot see a way to monetise that. I do need to bring money in if I want to grow the Invisible Wall stuff. I can’t afford to fund it all.
So what do I do?
That is the question that has been going around my head for months. I really don’t know. I want to get Invisible Wall into every club in the UK, starting with the Premier League. When I say into the club, I mean that their community teams are aware that we exist. We’re trying to support their fans, so if we have someone in crisis, we can signpost them to the people who can help them in their location.
But that feels like a crazy idea that I cannot pull off alone. I am starting to talk to some fans about supporting me with this – but I really need to know what that looks like. I am not aware of anyone else doing something like this on such a scale, and that is scary shit!
Oh, and if that wasn’t enough, I am starting to donate some of my time to TDAS who are a local domestic abuse charity in Trafford. One day I’ll share my story about domestic abuse. It’s not that I don’t want to share it, it’s just it’s not for today. That deserves a series of blogs!!
So, as you can see, a lot has been going on in my world. That’s before we even get on to the health issues I’ve been having…
Hopefully, next time I will have made a decision about life – there is so much more to come from me, I can feel it!
As always, the title of this blog is related to a song… Did you get the reference?
I’ll give you a clue, it’s the first line of a song, released in 1990, by a thrash crossover band.
A massive clue, if you need it, is that their bassist at the time has played with Infectious Grooves, Ozzy and now plays for a certain little band called Metallica… Answers on a postcard (or Tweet if you prefer!)
Not Middle Aged 