Growing up, one of my favorite things to do was rearrange my room. It amazed me that while using the exact same furniture, posters, bean bag chair and various stuffed animals, it felt like a brand new space just because I switched up where I put things.
Now that I’m an adult, I’ve enjoyed the upgrade of having an entire house where I can rearrange and adjust the furniture whenever the mood strikes. You can imagine how excited Dean was to discover this was a “thing” for me.
I was reminded of that feeling when I did a little updating of the blog. While I’m excited to try out a new format, I assure you we are working with the same furniture, so to speak.
What will stay the same is sharing updates of this journey to grow my creative brand and business, with the hopes of encouraging and inspiring you fine folks along the way. However, I am going to organize it a little different.
If you haven’t had a chance to check out my website recently (take a gander here) I have created 2 distinct graphics to represent my Audio (narrating) and Visual (handlettering) projects.
What will help keep me on track is to provide an update on both. If I don’t have accountability, I could go weeks or months without making progress on either endeavor. #KeepingItReal
If I know that I will share weekly bringing value in these posts about how things are going, that will keep a fire lit under me. I will use the specific graphic as a little header and color the text to identify what I’m sharing.
As always, if I do this for a little while and find that it’s not working I’ll make adjustments. Of course, any thoughts or ideas you’d like to share on what I’m doing are always welcome. Without further ado, let’s dive in.
I’ve been working on more involved pieces in growing my skills with traditional lettering. The style I created when I posted every day for 2 years (click here for a refresher on that) is something that I really enjoy and still have plans for creating with it. However, that stylized, whimsical look doesn’t work for every project.
Additionally, I was aware of telling myself a story that what I was doing wasn’t REALLY lettering. (Oh, how that inner critic LOVES to chime in) So I decided to nip that message in the bud by working “old school” with pen and paper, then showing the process of an idea evolving into a final inked piece.
This week’s example gave me a chance to work more with a script style by lettering an idea that I have a lot of energy for. Everyone is creative, but I think people confuse creative with artistic and start telling themselves all kinds of stories about how they are not creative.
Which is just bananas, because creativity is about having original ideas, making new connections or finding meaningful solutions to a problem that haven’t been found before.
For example, while my Snuggie is not artistic in the least, you better believe it was somebody using their creativity to come up with the idea of adding sleeves to a blanket so I can keep my arms warm AND enjoy a bowl of popcorn while I sit on the couch watching T.V. (I may look ridiculous, but it makes me happy)
I could go on and on about this topic, but bottom line is that when I’m creating artwork, I’m being mindful of using original content or ideas I am passionate about because that should help to set my work apart.
On the audio front, I’ve been building up my communication with various people that I met when I went to APAC (Audio Publisher’s Association Conference). As with most industries, people tend to choose to work with people they know, like and trust.
The world of audiobooks is no different, which means I am working at growing my network of contacts in order increase the likelihood of getting hired for more projects.
Part of the trick is standing out from the crowd and giving a bit of a flavor about who I am. While I won’t be everyone’s cup of tea (‘cuz I’m more of a coffee gal), I want to find ways that I can reach out to various people and keep it interesting.
One example is a follow-up I did from APAC, which brought together both my audio and visual skills. There was a producer who talked about how helpful it can be to share about skills you have which have nothing to do with narrating because at some point those interests may be helpful for a future project.
She encouraged people to write down 2 additional facts about themselves on their business card and give it to her. Of course, it was the perfect opportunity to share my love of lettering and also my mad pie baking skills.
Rather than handing it to her at the event I ended up emailing it afterward so I could direct her to my demos. I’m happy to say that she responded well to my email and told me that she would be sharing my information with some others in her department.
Who knows if anything will come of it or not, but I felt good about making the connection and finding ways to share more about who I am and what you get when you work with me (and yes, I’m totally up for baking a pie for anyone who wants to hire me for their project… distance permitting)
I always love hearing from you, so leave a comment and let me know what things have you done to set yourself apart in your area of interest. Or how have you shared your work in a way that has proven successful in getting your stuff out into the world? Also, if you enjoy this kind of content, do yourself a favor and sign-up here to get these posts sent to you directly.
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