Self Promotion Lecture Thoughts

Having started this module with a series of lectures based around entering the real working world, i thought it'd be helpful to include these. The first coming from Working Links and the latter two from Richie Manu.

Be Your Own Boss

Working Links

If you’re going to be self-employed, be FULLY prepared. Do the research, do the training (if necessary), and make sure you have financial backing.

Register yourself with HRC – self-employment.

Self-employed work should be a calling/ a vocation, that way it won’t seem like a job at all and naturally you will desire to excel.

Outset Plymouth

Outset Plymouth are an organisation that incorporates itself within Working Links and aims to aid people starting up a business for the first time. Outset isn’t just based in Plymouth however, the organisation can be found all across the country, which is handy to know when I move away post degree.

‘I am the only person stopping myself from being successful’ was the given word.  Being dedicated to working every single day because it’s your living, you will need to WALK THE WALK and TALK THE TALK. If I am to put the effort in, I will reap the rewards. For example, the benefits of being self-employed include:

·      Choosing your own hours

·      You produce what you want to produce

·      ALL the profit is yours!

However, there are a number of downsides to being self-employed as well:

·      The risk of failing

·      The lack of security from a regular income

·      No sick or holiday pay

Outset offer a level of market research, and they call it ‘de risking your business idea’. This looks at your chosen practice area and studies it through with you as to what the competition may be that you face, for example, the location of the area you are producing work in, there could already be somebody doing exactly the same thing within the same area.
Outset also offer a financial service which offers funding for a newly fledging business.

Standing out from the crowd By Richie Manu

The Competition is ever growing in the creative world, and it’s been said that there will always be someone just as good or better than yourself, therefore there is a need to stand out from the crowd.

Digital Practice:

Most practitioners have begun using the internet to promote and market themselves. It's a free, easy and attractive way to display and show off your work to the world. It also helps when networking your practice and keeping in touch with clients and other artists.
An example of social and professional digital sites include Linkedin, Facebook, Behance, Flickr, and Tumblr.

However, it is important to be able to still come across as being more than just words on a page. It may be all well and good that you’re ‘up to date’ or ‘down with the kids’ but if you sound just like a CV on a piece of paper then you’re not going anywhere. You have to be clever, simple and yet bold; display your work, get to the point, make contacts.

You one have to be present and involved to be seen by potential clients. ‘Show Up, Show Off’, and 'You have to be in it to win it' come to mind. Make sure people know who you are and what you do!

Richie explained that to succeed in the creative industry, you can follow 5 D's:

Differentiate_

·      Set yourself apart from the crowd and be individual.

Depart_

·      Move away from the type of works you do not want to do. There is no point displaying work in your portfolio that you aren’t excited by, because you certainly won’t enjoy producing that again under pressure from a client.

Devil's Advocate_

·      Be critical about both the work you produce but also the client which you are working for.

Dynamism_

·      This work is defined as 'the quality of being characterized by vigorous activity and progress'. This means that within your practice with potential clients, try to shake things up and force change. Be a creative 'trouble-maker'.

Deliver_

·      'You can talk the talk, but can you walk the walk'.

·      After being so active in promoting yourself, when you get work you must deliver and live up the to expectation you have created of yourself.

Richie followed this by suggest ways to help someone get their foot in the door, and for a creative practitioner, this is extremely important. Getting your foot in the right door can bring about new possibilities and potentially a new way of living… To help us take this on board these points were given:

Research_

·      There is a need to research the ins and outs of a company you wish to work for. Not only does this show an interest to the potential employer, but also allows you to truly understand the practice of the company and what they can offer you.

·      Through researching you can also target specific individuals within companies and pin point what you are looking for.

Likability_

·      This is an extremely important way in connecting with people. Employers don’t necessarily weed out the best, but the individual that would be good to work with day in and day out.

Work experience and Shadowing_

·      Work experience does exactly what it says. While at a work placement you should try and make a statement and make yourself heard, thus making you memorable. Many have received work out of a work experience placement.

Radar_

·      You need to be on the companies’ radar.

There are a number of pitfalls that can be avoided when promoting yourself. It was explained in the lecture that some of these common pitfalls can be easily overcome:

The communication of the work needs to be the same over both digital and physical portfolios. It is easier to explain your work in person and create interest, but this interest must be present when displaying through digital media too.

The addition of a narrative when communicating works can add interest and be far more memorable for a potential client. You have to keep the individual interested and occupied long enough to be able to deliver what you can do for them and make them interested in you.

When discussing work, talk about problems solved throughout the production. The overcoming of problems is something the client/boss is interested as this is what they look for in employees.

Adapt a professional vocabulary and retain an aura of confidence through body language. The lecture returned to the idea of 'Show up, Show off' and the talk went on to discuss how to present yourself. This led to the idea of 'Peacocking' which means dressing up what you say for attention, just as Peacock's use their feathers to get a mate; take what you have, and present it in an interesting fashion.

Here is a descriptive example using a potato:

A Potato - A global culinary staple with endless possibilities and potential.
This has sparked a fresh view of what a potato can be and therefore this is what must be done when communicating yourself to create interest.

Don’t state what you are but what you can be. Make individuals

desire more of you and to be excited at being a part of what

you’re apart of.

An example of this would be how you might go about describing yourself:

I want to be a professional illustrator - I want to be known as one of the best illustrators that has ever lived, leaving a mark on the industry.

By sprucing up the statement you have therefore created a whole new world around it, drawing people in.

The lecture ended with the thought that you should constantly be reading around not just your field but others (e.g. science). This interest in other areas makes you a more rounded practitioner and makes it easier to interact with any client that is presented to you due to a potential shared interested. Curiosity is the key, and to do things outside you field to inform your own practice may also help.

Looking At Ways To Market Yourself

Think Plural – There is more than one way to market yourself.

At the end of this academic year there will be an estimated 55,000 Art graduates all looking for jobs within the creative industry. The piece of paper with my CV on it will not make much of an impact. Therefore, I will need a multi Channel strategy, a way to promote myself using more than just a CV. This would mean an online presence, the creation of a whole atmosphere around myself and what I do, involving narratives within my work and offering a fresh appeal to potential clients and bosses. I’ll need to focus in early on what I would like to do, (in hindsight this is great advice), but beware that every boss would have ‘heard that before’.

Richie Manu suggests confidence in our own creations and in ourselves; we need to have the ability to be able to sell what we do and whom we can do it for. We need to become a navigator of our time, offering it wherever and whenever we can, proving ourselves to be the best.

Within the interview situation Richie states that we should focus on what we can do for the company, to turn the questions around and give the answer that involves the establishment.  Answers should be that we have the potential to be a good fit within the corporate company, but in order for us to truly know what this means we must do our research first and look at the historical background along with the modern day ins and outs of the desired work place.

http://www.richiemanu.com/