What i Have to Offer

If you’re asking yourself ‘what do i have to offer?’ then you’re asking the right question.
If you’re asking someone else what you have to offer then you’re in trouble.
Here’s what Listen & Be Heard has to offer: an opportunity for a community to recreate itself on its own terms. Change is definitely on its way. The only question is who will participate, who will be prevented from participating, and who will just let change happen?
Here’s what i have to offer that you can put to good use: a different perspective.
The motivation that gets me to this desk each morning is not to get rich in the multi-media publishing business. The business plan is to grow a vital arts community in which i, as an artist myself, can thrive, because this is where i live. The goal is to promote what is going on right Here and right Now.
Talk of what’s coming is all fine and good. Some people talk. Other people wait for promises to be fulfilled at a future date. Here at Listen & Be Heard, we are quietly and steadily placing one brick at a time into place, building a foundation on the reality of what we have created with our own sweat. The value in building our own power base of unique and vital people participating in shaping their own futures, is that we can count on more than politics and promises. We can count on our own unshakeable reputation for diligently pursuing the promise of diversity.
You see ads for Listen & Be Heard Poetry Caf? in our print and web publications. All the caf?s and restaurants should have their ads in our magazine and on our site, because business for one person is business for everyone. Here’s one small example: Some new folks walked into Listen & Be Heard Poetry Caf? last night. They came into town from Benicia because they had heard about the World Comedy Jam on Tuesdays. The show ended at 10pm, and they asked Tony where they could go for a drink, (we don’t serve any alcohol.) Tony directed them to The Front Room on the Wharf (who already have a free listing in our local restaurant directory in the newspaper and on our website). Tony knows there is a nice view of the waterfront, and a full bar, and that the people who asked him, would most likely feel comfortable there. The newspaper brought new people to Vallejo.They came first to our caf?. They went on to patronize another business in Downtown Vallejo. They will return because they enjoyed themselves. While projects lay dormant all over Downtown, score yet another one for what Listen & Be Heard is doing right now for everyone.
There is another good reason why local businesses should take out ads in a local publication that prints the only extensive weekly entertainment calendars focused on the region in which they are doing business. Here it is: Where there is a vital and unique arts community, businesses flourish. Business owners who are themselves offering something of value and interest to prospective customers, should actively promote themselves in a way that supports the unique identity of their own neighborhood.
If you know about another publication or organization that is doing as much as we are to promote arts in this community, please tell me about them, because they should be featured in this publication.
What do You have to offer? If it is something that will benefit you and your neighbors then here’s to wishing you and all of us Success and Prosperity.