So this week marks the first six months of RockPaperScissors.

I would love to be able to say that I wished I did this 5 years ago, but the truth is I was no way near ready. My emotional intelligence couldn’t have taken it, my confidence was lacking, and there wasn’t this AI thing everyone is talking about (including me) that is now the great cord cutter.?

So let’s plunge the thermometer in the ear and see how we are doing, shall we?

This. Is. Hard. I knew that going into it. But I had also read my horoscope, and being a Wood Dragon, in the Year of the Wood Dragon, and I felt more empowering than possessing an MBA. My early bets on deep diving into not just curious learning, but structured, institutional learning of AI, has paid off in Spades.?

I have repeat clients, meaning those that have chosen to work project by project have come back with, you guessed it, another project. Those on retainer seem happy, and are squeezing the life out of the time they have booked with me.?

My Happiness.

Let’s start here. It couldn’t be higher. This is the thing where I can say I wished I had done this years ago. Sure it’s a struggle, but this too shall pass. I have made friends with my Imposter Syndrome, because pretty much everything I am doing involves something I wasn’t specifically trained for, but that was the whole point. We can pay our bills, even took a holiday for my birthday, and have dined out a few nights. The discussions at home are something like this - “Hey, shall we go see Dua Lipa in SG?” “Let me check the pipeline. It won’t be cheap.”?

I think the biggest growth in my happiness has been you, dear reader. The belief in what I am doing. The encouragement, shown in your coffee chats, in your notes or DMs, and in your business. The number of F2F IRL meetings have grown immensely. My scheduled 45 min video calls are turning into 90 minutes which in most cases has been a good thing. Because you are just so damn interesting. Also, I am not “Selling” selling,? you know. When I say “so tell me about yourself” I really mean it. Then we talk about your business. These talks are my favourite part of the day.?

The Work

The shape of the work I am doing is rather surprising. Lots of Strategy work. A mix of Storytelling and Design. A growing number of requests for Image Engineering. Some training, and some AI integration consulting. At first I thought I would be focusing on storytelling only, you know, words and pictures, both moving and still, but those initial talks went into other areas, and then long term goals, and then shifting a client’s priorities into areas that were most impactful in the long term, not just what was needed tomorrow. Although there are still a few of those.?

I am doing GenAI Image Engineering for one company, and a couple of brands. Strat and Storytelling (I am not a fan of the work content. It lacks heart) is in the mix, and those are pretty exciting as I am not handing these off for a strategist to work on, and then a writer. I get to stay with the red thread the entire way through, and I think the results are better, as nothing gets lost in the handovers between disciplines. The training has been mainly focused on brands, looking to integrate some form of Gen AI into their workflow.?

The Clients

My clients are an interesting mix. I am now having more discussions with Agencies, which I expected when I started RockPaperScissors. It just is taking longer than I planned. I love the work I am doing on a brand or an agency, but I am finding the emotional rewards of working with agencies to be a bigger, and quicker emotional payoff, which I didn’t foresee.?

One agency I am working with recently closed a new piece of business off the back of some work I did with them. It was a really fast turn. I was able to provide a strong idea and hook, move that into a formal supported strategy, and then unpack concepts on how a campaign might look and feel. I took the initial brief on Day 1, by Day 3 it was presentation ready, and presented to the client on Day 4. Day 6 we got the news that we had won the business, which was significant. (And here I am already using We, and not they. That is a good sign.) And I was able to celebrate that win with them, and grateful for the work, but also excited that I had helped secure a multi-year program that will benefit the entire agency.?

The brand side is more difficult. Brands seem to be slower in understanding what I am doing, how I can work so quickly, and so expansively, as an agency of 1. I get this comment often - “My AOR says that it will take 3 months and 5x the budget. Are you sure you are right?” I can understand it, as we are often rooted in a past, and hesitant to change things up, especially when they have numbers to hit, margins to achieve, and relationship managers that don’t want to challenge the past ways of working because, well, why should they?

The Training

Now this is exciting. I have always been a teacher, or a guide, but never a “trainer”. So this was new territory, and because I have been taking online learning courses, mostly from Section School, for the past 4 or 5 years, I knew what it should look like to be successful. So I built my first course on GenAI integration into a company’s comms workflow. But the most meaningful training I wouldn’t even call training. It’s more like “Let’s learn together”. They have been 1-1 two hourish session where we just talk through the ambition, what they might be thinking of doing, and then diving into tools and ways of working that they can immediately take back to their office and use. And there is coffee and stuff, so it’s rather civilised really. Let me know if you might be interested in that. ?

Pricing

Pricing is hard. There was a time that you could just say (day rate x days) x margin, but with AI everything has changed. what used to take weeks takes days now. I am learning about my value, and the value of the output to the client. But value based pricing is something new, at least for me, as I am new to the consulting game. I know I am leaving money on the table. But over time that too will change, as I do more work. So book me now while my rates are in your favour.?

OK.

So there it is. 182 days in. Reach out to me if you want to have a call, or a coffee. I am still doing the? “Biz Dev Cringe” but as my client recently reminded me, I need to get over that, so call me, write me, slide into my DMs and tell me about how I can help your business.

But first, why don’t you tell me about yourself.