(This is the exact text of my About page as of today; I’m storing it as a post for archival purposes.)

(I probably should have saved the previous version too…)

Hello. My name’s Rob Farquhar and I reckon chatting with interesting people is one of the best things ever.

What makes the people I find interesting so interesting to me? Well:

They’re unusually curious and curious in the unusual.

People who put time into things that make most go past “don’t give up your day job” to “How the hell could you do that for a living?!”

Doubly so if they’re mashing two or more curiosities together, like rock music and video games.

They believe in themselves.

People with the courage to stand not in front of, nor behind, but at the side of the results of their curiosities.

People with the conviction to ask those who value the results – be they skills or products – to hire their skills, purchase their products.

People with the self-trust to walk away if the answer is “no” rather than undercut their own value.

I love chatting with these professionals in the unprofessional.

• Video game rock musicians.
• Cosplayers.
• Freelance blog writers and editors.
• Romantic fantasy novelists.
• Independent makers of tabletop roleplaying games.
• Graffito-DJs.
• Author-podcasters.
• Tattooing comic book artists.
• Coaches helping you get out of your own way and make money from your thing.

No matter where their curiosity takes them, their energy and enthusiasm is infectious!

And I love sharing it with you because I reckon we all need a little help believing that we can take our own oddball curiosities and turn them into skills people will hire, products people will buy.

I also reckon it takes a lot less time and money to start, and to keep going, than most of us tell ourselves.

In each episode of the Paid to Play Podcast, I ask these career crazies and income iconoclasts to tell us their stories, their endeavours, their mistakes, their triumphs, and the amazing, amusing things that happened on their way.

I ask them to help demistify the process of getting paid to play. To help you build your confidence through positive examples to the point where you can put everyone else’s “wisdom” that “it can’t be done” aside, do your thing and ask the folks who dig it to pay you for it.

And keep on going from there.

About Your Host, Rob Farquhar.

I have Joel Zaslofsky to thank for getting in the habit of asking people when I meet them, instead of “What do you do for a living?”, “What are you digging right now?”

Why? Well, do you really want me to ask you about what you do for a living? Really?

I’m probably inviting you to talk about the biggest source of frustration, stress and dullness in your life. Even if not, it’s likely something that you do for eight hours a day, five days a week, in between…

See? In between the things that probably just put a smile on your face when you thought of them, right?

(And if your joy is your main income… would you be my guest for an episode of the Podcast, please?)

So what about me, then? What do I dig? What puts a smile on my face right now?

• My wife and our two dogs, as always.
• This podcast and the fun folks I get to chat with on it.
• My main personal play for pay: Voiceover work as both a character and a podcast host for a friend’s web-based TV series project.
• Drawing comics when the mood strikes.
• Alien: Isolation, probably one of the best computer / video games to date. (Okay, maybe it doesn’t make me smile as such, but I could talk about it for ages.)
• Things with cool machines and / or sleek futures in them. A dash of Star Trek, a pinch of Star Wars, a spoonful each of Macross and Homeworld, a cup of Doctor Who, another of Guardians of the Galaxy and another of Transformers, two cups of Iron Man and – oh, heck, just pour both bowls of Pacific Rim and Tron in there, won’t you? Yeah, the whole bowl of each.

I’ve been chasing getting Paid to Play on and off for years, but I’ve recently come to realise that chasing money is part of the problem. I’m learning to just play first and share the results; because of that, I’m finding that people on my wavelength are getting in touch with me about putting my talent to work for them (hence the voice work project mentioned above).

Web-wise, I maintain a personal web log, where I chronicle my progress, talk geek stuff and upload a new comic strip every so often. I call my little corner of the web, The Society for Doing Things.

More broadly, my wife and I (and our dogs) live in Australia’s tropical north east and, yes, I have a pretty good Day Job.

But I’m still looking forward to making the things I dig into my main gig. Life’s too short and the days too long not to get Paid to Play.

About Getting In Touch

Please feel free to comment on any post that takes your interest!

You can also reach me via many social networking avenues.

• E-mail: robf@robf.com.au
• The Paid to Play Podcast’s Official Facebook Page
• Twitter: @ByRobF
  
• google+

About the Theme Tune

The opening and closing music for The Paid To Play Podcast is from the tune “Big Ten” by Miracle of Sound (buy it from Bandcamp or iTunes). It’s used with his kind permission and all rights are reserved by him.

 

About WordPress

WordPress is the content management engine I’ve chosen to power my website. You can find more information on WordPress here.