Answer the following do-questions? Do you have a gift? Do people tell you over-and-over again how talented you are? Do you feel that your current profession is not a match made in heaven? If your answers were a trio of yesses, then you may need a tune-up. Even if it’s self-proclaimed or praises originating from others, you may be selling yourself short. Working day in and day out for someone else’s corporation, while belittling your God-given talent, may be hindering you from the incorporation you already possess. You may be the next Oprah, Tyler Perry, Steve Jobs, Donald Trump, or Martha Stewart. Maybe it’s time for you to take that mental portfolio places and become brand new.
I for one, would definitely be the first to say, that 9 to 5s are not for everyone. We sometimes have been misguided by societal influences. After college comes a job, the one that we love, then a family, and happily ever after. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always come so equipped, or in that particular order. A job does not always involve a hustle-and-bustle morning, designer high-heels, fast-paced work environments, with glass walls separating you from pandemonium. It in fact may be nestled in the comforts of your own home, at your computer, relaxing barefoot, with Pandora serenading in the background. Let’s face it, not all of us have found comfort in the professions we now behold. Sadly, we may be cheating ourselves from what genuinely makes us happy. There are people, dare I even say it, who actually love what they do. And who says that can’t be you? Your mind is just as unique and powerful as Steve Jobs or Oprah Winfrey. All you need is a mental push and know-how to get that incorporated out of you.
The following steps (in no particular order) will hopefully provide at least a little guidance. I’m no expert, but I have a few ideas:
1. Attend trade shows, festivals, and conferences in your specialty. If you’re dying to get into filmmaking, then there’s Sundance or ABFF. If you love to cook, there’s the Food and Wine festivals at Walt Disney World , the Food & Wine Magazine Classic (pinky-up), and many other foodie events like the Taste of Chicago, and The Metropolitan Cooking & Entertaning Show. Learn more from celebrity chefs or unveil those mouth-watering baby-back ribs your family and co-workers have been raving about for years at any of these events. Trade shows are a great way to see what’s leading the industry. To gain more education and rub elbows with the who’s who in that particular industry. Fashion retailers and designers love to frequent Magic in Las Vegas and PROJECT, a budding trade show that showcases contemporary brands in New York and Vegas. Makeup Artists retreat to The Makeup Show (cue yummy411 for more details). No matter what you like, apparently there’s someone herding the cattle into a specific place at a specific time each year. But if you can’t find it, then get busy creating it!
2. Become a member of an organization/club. If one does not exist for your chosen field, start one. There are tons of ways to rub elbows with the people you’ve drooled to meet and pick their brain. Everyone in the business, belongs to something…if not, trust me, they’re on Facebook, Twitter, or MySpace (which we’ll discuss in #4). Let’s say you’re really into marketing. Well, let me introduce you to the American Marketing Association. Just from browsing their website, it’s apparent that this organization has the tools one would need to start-up a marketing empire or even sustain your skills if you’re a marketing veteran. Belonging to an organization provides a commodity of people who’re just like you and the people you want to be like. Through their websites you’re able to search for jobs or find mentors that can hold your hand as you reach your brand-specific utopia!
3. Make your passion a part-time job, until it become a full-time one. If you’re already working an unfulfilling 9 to 5, then you’re in luck. You have the means to provide capital towards your true passion. Take the weekends, or days off, as time to put in work on your logo, communicating with resourceful entities, and promoting your brand. Don’t feel bad about the job that’s not rewarding. Accept that it’s just supplying you with the means to make your passion a reality.
4. Start a blog or website to promote your business/service/niche. Social media marketing is NOW. Say goodbye to waiting for a trendy magazine to get hip to the madness surrounding your gifts. Social media marketing, cuts out so many middlemen, it’s a wonder they still have jobs! Twitter, Facebook, MySpace…no they’re just not social proprietors looking to consume your days with gossip & satisfy your nosey-ness. They are also a necessary agent, that every company, celebrity, movement, organization, or fan has attached to their marketing campaign. Facebook and Twitter also provides the platform that allows you to share with your friends, virtual links that interest you. Creating almost this microcosm of folks who share similar interests. Blogging makes you the CEO, faster and permanently. Here’s a virtual journal that illustrates how you have come from A to Omega! It’s controlled by you and has monetary bonuses along with it (ad $pace). WordPress, LiveJournal, and Blogger are popular places to reside in the blogosphere. Use blogs to write articles, post pictures, and link to others who share the same interests you have for your field.
5. Begin to catalog your experiences into a portfolio. Ask clients if they may provide testimonials that you may quote. Make sure your portfolio is a hard copy that you may show and a file format that you may send through the world wide web. It should be readily accessible, like your wallet, or better yet, your shadow, for the sake of showmanship.
6. Provide a free service to showcase your talent, if you think you need the experience to credit all the hoopla surrounding you. Ask others if you may volunteer, if they’ve already provided the platform. Let’s say, you’re into makeup artistry. There’s fashion show buzz circulating around and you finally get to meet the organizer. Ask he or she, if you could be apart of the makeup team for the show. Or, let’s say there’s a freelance photographer, that you’re a fan of…ask if you could be the makeup artist for his fashion shoots. Free of charge. That’s the tagline that will get you the portfolio and eventually your work will attract the naked faces ready to pay top dollar for your skills. It’s this simple, you need a following. Consider yourself Moses looking for the chosen people. They are the ones who will fuel your brand to make the promised land a reality. I just hope it doesn’t take forty years. =)
7. Stop comparing your steps or background to others in the field. The more original your concept or idea, the less folks there will be to understand, constructively criticize, or support your passion. I’m sure the guy who made Snuggie, had several friends and colleagues mocking his blanket with sleeves. But guess what, it worked. Over 6 million Snuggies have sold since its debut in 2009. And get this, it’s not the first time a blanket with sleeves concept has been materialized. Several other companies tried before the Snuggie, but that bizarre, late night infomercial, couples “raising the roof” apparently worked a little better. I even scratched my head, laughing rhetorically, but then again, I was impressed that someone had the balls to produce it.
8. Believe in yourself. Stop trying to talk yourself out of it, because you feel that you’re missing the degree, or the money, or the MAC computer, or the right software. The successful folks got there, not because they had the right kind of this or that. They’re successful, because despite the odds, many failures, obstacles, lack of resources, they never gave up. It’s that simple. No one was able to talk them off the cliff, that they were actually waiting for their private helicopter to pick them up from. If you have a gift, it’s yours…always and no one can ever take that away from you.
I think that’s it. I’m sure as I execute my brand, I’ll discover more things. But for now, we have to get the ball rolling on this thing and start building from the ground, up. I’ve never heard of a failure who succeeded because he never tried.
I had put down my drawing pen years ago, couldn’t even find my scissors.
