Hello and happy new year!
It's been months since I wrote to you. I'd like to say that I'm back. Let me warm up my writing muscle by giving you a personal update.
(By the way, if you visit my Substack page, you'll see two new sections: Junhan's Journal, where I will send reflections like today's newsletter, and Junhan's Visual Newsletter, where I'll send one visual a week.)
The last few months have been a rough ride for me. Getting retrenched, deciding to become a solopreneur, learning new skills, working with clients... these have been both awesome and wearisome. As a result, this newsletter took a hit.
But now I'm back. Let me share with you three of my resolutions for the new year, and you're welcome to tell me yours too!
1) Get back to writing
Do you have a fear of heights? Getting back into writing feels like the fear of heights for me.
While I was serving my two years of military service, there was a combat fitness training programme called the Standard Obstacle Course (SOC). If you've never seen it before, think of it as a soldier's version of Ninja Warrior.
It took a long time for me to overcome my fear of heights (I'll tell you the story another time). After basic training, I got posted to be an instructor. That meant I was free of the grueling obstacle course... until the end of my two years of service. Before we can leave, we had to prove our combat skills proficiency, and the SOC came back to haunt me.
I thought I'd conquered my fear of heights, but stepping back on the Apex Ladder again, 3 metres above ground, that old familiar fear came back.
Getting back to writing this newsletter feels the same.
I thought I had overcome my fear of publishing imperfect ideas and possibly incoherent thoughts, but in the last two months, I've written and discarded so many drafts. It's scary!
But thinking back to those army days, I know it's just a matter of adjustment. Because while the fear of heights came back, it took me just a few practice runs to ignore the fear and complete the course - much faster when I first encountered the course as a recruit.
The obstacle course taught me that some fears may never go away but after we beat it once, we can beat it again, and often much quicker. So today's post is me getting back on the obstacle course of writing and publishing consistently.
Do you also have an obstacle course to clear? I hope you get through it in 2024.
2) Proudly promote myself
In the last two years, I've let my work do the talking. Every client I worked with reached out to me first. While I'm grateful that my works have brought me income, I need to do more to survive (and eventually thrive!) as a solopreneur. So here's what I'm offering in 2024:
Visual design: Reach your audience more effectively theough visuals. Work with me to clarify and amplify your ideas and turn them into impactful illustrations. Contact me at junhan@junhanchin.com
Speaking and training: Bring the skill of visual thinking and visual communication into your team or organisation! I can customise talks and workshops to your specific goals. Contact me at junhan@junhanchin.com
3) Professional speaking
In 2023 I was once paid $650 to talk about communicating with visuals. That was a milestone. I'm finally taking my first step to becoming a paid professional speaker!
But instead of giving a talk worth $650, I felt like I delivered a $65 experience.
It's a painful reminder that knowing something doesn't mean you can say it well.
Ironic! Because while I've been working with clients to help them SHOW their ideas well, I'd forgotten to make sure that I could SPEAK well too.
So that's what I've been busy with in the last quarter of 2024. I've already started working on this with a professional speaking course. I've started speaking again in Toastmasters clubs.
In 2024, I will become a more eloquent speaker. This entails speaking in Toastmasters, running talks and workshops on Zoom, and taking up speaking opportunities.
Again, if you’d like me to share my experience with your audience as a speaker, contact me!
The year ahead
Let me wrap up with one last thought.
In the 7 months that I've been self-employed, I'd been spending a lot of time on what I want to be. Do I want to continue being a visual communication designer? Do I want to be a professional speaker, delivering keynotes and workshops? Do I want to coach people to communicate better in visual and verbal formats? Or all of the above?
It was a time of learning, exploration and experimentation.
But the BEING comes from DOING. I couldnt call myself a writer in the last few months because I wasn't publishing any newsletter posts. I become a writer instantly when I send you this email. So to achieve my goals of being a visual consultant, writer, and speaker in 2024, execution will take the driver's seat. Experimentation and exploration will continue but take a backseat.
It's time to work with more clients, write more, design more, speak more.
I’m excited about the year ahead. And I’m excited to become a more prolific speaker, writer and visual communicator. What about you?