We need new words to cover these intricacies. The historic “local” is defined by proximity. The associative local is defined by relationship. My reading of the undertone is that there is a greater shift towards the historical local which is burgeoning on the associative one. There seems to be new interest (and potential cash flows) in providing services/platforms for the historical local.

We are now entering the Lace Economy (exiting the Web + Bubble Economy). The Lace Economy is both a fine-tuning of our networks and relationships, and a demand for services and products that are well crafted, genuine, and trend towards supporting the local and regional…New networks are being amassed through a mix of web-based tools (Facebooks, LinkedIn) and traditional channels (networking, associations). These form into a tangled, limitless, and underproductive web. Though there is an intoxicating excitement in the chaos of tangled relationships, the ever-increasing girth of networks makes these connections fragile and meaningless.

We make follow-up phone calls on Jeffrey’s behalf in response to his email statistics. We gain Jeffrey sought-after portfolio requests from specific, targeted, contacts.

Francine McKenna, the author and owner of the blog re: The Auditors, originally approached us to assist her with moving her blog from blogger to a more robust and custom platform…Ever since we’ve been assisting Ms. McKenna with marketing and business development advice…

O’Fit asked Wise Elephant to help to solidify their branding and marketing messages while ramping-up their blogging and direct marketing.

Freelance creative professionals increasingly ask me these two questions:

1. Is there any work “out there?”
2. Is that work for me?

The answer to both is no, not right now, and maybe not for a while, if ever. There is no work “out there” for anyone anymore in the way it used to be. There is no low hanging fruit; there is no regular gig. If you keep asking these questions then there is no work for you.