Summer here has so far been a bit rubbish….
On 13th July my dog had surgery to remove a cancerous lump from his back leg. He should have been healed in plenty of time for us to go on holiday at the end of the month. But he wasn’t.
The wound refused to close up. Every time it was stitched the sutures failed and the wound reopened. The poor dog had his leg stitched three times before our vet finally admitted defeat and referred us on to a wound-reconstruction specialist. I’ll spare you the gory details, but the dog came out looking like he belonged to Dr Frankenstein with stitches going every which way.
Obviously we missed our holiday.
We have needed a lot of patience over the last few weeks. The dog has been knocking his cone of shame into everyone and everything, he hasn’t been allowed to go up steps, or jump, or run, and he hasn’t been able to get into his crate which is his safe space. We’ve had weeks of taking it in turns to sleep with him to make sure he doesn’t get his cone off in the middle of the night, and we haven’t been able to go anywhere or do anything. It’s been a bit boring!
But our patience has paid off. It’s now 13th August, one month on from the original surgery
and at last there is light at the end of the tunnel. The stitches are due to come out in 4 days time, and it looks like everything has healed up well.
It got me thinking about my business. I’ve always enjoyed projects for the heritage sector the most, and about 18 months ago I decided that I would start telling the world that this is the work I want more of.
It’s been a slow process, but finally I am seeing the results of my efforts.
I’ve joined networks associated with heritage, I’ve given talks about how audio can enhance the visitor experience, I’ve been to heritage related conferences and exhibitions, I’ve launched a podcast about heritage attractions, and I’ve made a voice over demo specifically for the heritage sector.
There have been days when I’ve questioned what I’m doing, and wondered whether my efforts would pay off, or if I was wasting precious time that could be better spent doing something else.
I’ve had to be patient (and I’m not a naturally patient person), but it has worked.
I have just updated my whiteboard this morning. Of the four jobs that are in progress at the moment, one is a heritage job, and of the nine hot leads I currently have, five have a heritage flavour.
I feel like the heritage world is getting to know who I am and what I can do for them.
There’s still a long way to go. There are lots of people who don’t know about me yet, and the leads in my pipeline may all come to nothing (some are dependent on grant funding which is never a given). However, I’ve definitely come a long way in 18 months, and it just goes to show that patience (and perseverance) is a virtue like they say!