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Being the Best Swiss Army Knife That I Can Be
I prefer this term to jack-of-all-trades.
First and foremost, I’m a storyteller. That’s my art. For the most part, this gets manifested in my writing. However, that’s not my only art and skill.
Over the past few years, I’ve developed an increasing ability to create websites. While I’m still primarily about site layout over graphic design (I’m a very limited graphic designer), I’ve gotten a lot of experience. I’ve built and maintained websites in WordPress, Wix, and Squarespace. Mostly, I enjoy this work.
In college, I minored in Audio Production. This was during the early 1990s. Hence, the editing I learned involved cutting and splicing reel-to-reel. We had 1 digital machine in the entire college, which happened to be in the theatre department (theatre being my major). I got to use that unit once before it was stolen.
As the world has increasingly digitized, I’ve learned to do audio recording and editing digitally. I cannot sufficiently express just how much better and easier this is to work with than the analog way. I’ve recorded, edited, and produced multiple podcasts and several audiobooks of my own work.
As an authorpreneur, I wear a lot of hats. I’m the boss when it comes to my self-publishing (Argent Hedgehog Press), formatting, paying for editing and art, marketing, advertising, and all the rest.
As if that’s not enough fun, I’ve also been working as a virtual assistant and doing other jobs along that line for the past few years. This has honed and developed multiple skills for me.
Rather than being a jack-of-all-trades (and not a master of none), per a conversation with my dad, I’m using a new term. Swiss Army Knife.
Different tools, different uses, one source
Have you ever used a Swiss Army Knife? Even the smallest has a great variety of useful tools, including a blade, toothpick, nail file, and screwdriver. The bigger ones — still pocket-sized, mind you — include multiple blades, a corkscrew, pliers, wire crimper, magnifying glass, and more. These are amazing, durable, multifunctional tools.
