The insomnia of a creative mind. It’s one o’clock in the morning and my mind won’t rest until I put pen to paper. Is this a sign of a great entrepreneur who only needs a few hours sleep a night, or the sign of a parent who’s ignored his own self imposed, ’no internet before bed time’ rules. All those neurons fizzing and bustling, like young kids high on Haribos. But who’s really to blame here? Squarely I lay the finger of blame on one man- Ben Legg. He’s on a mission to change the world and his cohort at the portolio collective have awoken my dormant self.

How appropriate that the Monday catapult course session is on Linkedin profiling, pushing me to explore this networking behemoth. How could it be that at mid-life this would be my first endeavour into this professional network of the new age?! Fortunately for me, on clicking my home page, I found immediate comfort in the now familiar logo of the portfolio-collective and the ever smiling face of its founder Ben Legg.

’Searching for a content provider’ was the headline.

’Well’, I thought to myself, why is he looking for content providers when he already has such a wealth of talent on the newly launched catapult course. Certainly of the few outstanding personalities I’ve had the good fortune to meet virtually, there seems to be a plethora of diverse talent, all with remarkable stories to tell. Laura, Lexi, Fiona, Claire and Jesus have all enhanced our lives and created a community with such passion that surely we should give something back. No doubt working to a template, combined with Lexi’s fine word smithery (if that’s a word?!) could produce some content with a personal edge. A product which reinforces the brand values without the obvious undertones of a singular voice. No doubt the genius that is Ben Legg will already have this in his back pocket, either way now it’s out my system, I can finally return to rest my head. 160 ’catapultors’, that’s half a years content already!

So, thanks Ben and the portfolio-collective team, you’ve awoken me in more ways than you could ever imagine. ’Content writer’ is possibly not going to part of my portfolio career, but it never hurts to contribute and it never hurts to care. Chase the money and shape your future, but make genuine friendships along the way. Who knows just where your portfolio career will lead you.

P.S. Like a number in the session today, I was concerned as to whether or not to post, but if you’re looking at marmite marketing they don’t get much better than Trump. Give yourself a voice, you may not necessarily receive those ’likes’, but you will make an ’impression’ (I have Fiona to thank for that one)

Steve Reader (the AMOEBA)