Artists

My day starts early and ends late. I have the scribbled remains of a legal pad to prove it.

8:40 AM: Enter the subway. Most people hate public transportation but I love it. Yes, it's dirty, smelly, old, and probably unhealthy but it's by far the best way to travel. I love being part of the morning shuffle, commuters jammed into the cars like sardines. I take the Lexington Avenue Line, the 4 to be exact, the express train, and make it to Union Square in just over 15 minutes.

8:57 AM: I know where I need to be, but have not a clue where I am. No, scratch that, I know where I am but I don't know where I need to be. I have exited the Union Square underground at the exact opposite corner of where I'm supposed to meet my mentor. No, scratch that again, I've located the farmers market (where people mill about as if time doesn't exist) and I text my mentor to let her know that I'm slightly disoriented (lost) but I will locate her at the Starbucks shortly.

9:01 AM: Enter Starbucks. There's a seventeen person long queue that churns out skinny vanilla lattes like a well oiled machine. By 9:10 we're out the door again.

9:20 AM: We are buzzed into the office (home office) of the first entrepreneur I am working with. My mentor confirms the plan with us, and then darts off to Wall Street for some corporate meeting. I am left in the lofty apartment of Ariane Zurcher, jewelry designer, blogger, writer, and autism advocate. My task: help her create a marketing plan and adjust her social media strategy. Good thing I have come prepared with a PowerPoint, outlining my ideas.

9:45-6:00 PM: Truly an entrepreneurial experience. The office is a living room, low couches, low tables, and high ceilings. We create a plan of attack and I dive right in, organizing photos of her craft, strategizing a Twitter campaign, and debating the merits of multiple Tumbli (Tumblrs? Tumblets?). It is both exhausting and exhilarating. Author Richard Long, Ariane's husband works on copy for a trunk show she is organizing next week at his work station (a comfy chair).

6:10 PM: Reverse the route home. Crash on couch. Leftover thai food for dinner. Fall asleep to the sounds of a city in perpetual motion.