A New Year, A New You

I recently attended a business lecture with Pamela Toussaint as the speaker. It was very facinating and extremely motivating. As Pamela is an image consultant, the main topic was branding, or creating your brand. I used to think of a brand as a company name or logo or something. As an artist however, my brand would be ME. This goes for anyone who is looking for a job. When you are applying to a company, you are essentially selling YOURSELF aka your BRAND. So what differentiates you from the crowd? What unique things can you bring to the table? Essentially, what is your unique value? I thought that I would take a moment to share some of the key points that were made.I found them to be inspiring and hope that they will inspire you as well.

1. You should be able to describe your brand in three words. What three words describe you? What sets you apart from everyone else with your degree or credentials?
2. The three things that a company will hire on are professionalism, high energy and self confidence. If you don't feel that you have some of these, then fake it till you make it. ;)

To create a compelling brand you must:
1. Discover what your passion is.
2. Differentiate yourself from others.
3. Engage others with similar interests.
4. Network! Most jobs aren't advertised. You often will find jobs through people that you either know or have met via networking. LinkedIn is a great networking tool!
5. Leverage. Make sure that people know about you. Speak at an event, write and article, keep a blog going, etc.
6. Evolve and stay current with new technology.
7. Create an action plan by taking steps to enhance your brand such as learning new skills. We should never be afraid or hestitant to learn, unlearn and relearn at all times.
8. Create a networking strategy:
         - Figure out a 30 second 'elevator pitch' for your brand that includes who you are, what your brand is and what you do for others.
         - Attend conferences, volunteer, networking meets, speak, host, etc

Here are some networking tips that she gave us:
         - plan ahead! research attendees if you can and figure out who you want to meet.
         - dress the part
         - arrive early. Most of the best networking happens before the doors even open.
         - do a visual self-check in a mirror beforehand and then enter the room with confidence
         - have a nice ice breaker comment
         - establish connection.( If you've researched people ahead of time then you can make this  
        connection easier as you'll know whether you have a same city, college or hobby in common.)

Part of my 2013 New Year's Resolutions is being more pro-active in my business. Pamela's advice has inspired me to reach these goals and to define my 'brand'. Have you already used some of these tips? What three words would you use to describe yourself or your brand?

Hope that this blog post has inspired you to take action as well! Have a wonderful week!!

Bits of This N That

My surgery went well. I decided to take some photos while I was at the hospital. It just helped to turn the whole thing into an adventure rather than a scary procedure.If you ever face something that sort of has your heart racing a bit, I highly recommend doing that. It really helped me to stay calm.

 This lady has no idea that she's on a blog. She also was featured in a facebook album. Do you ever wonder how many albums you are in without your knowledge? Photos that people took while at some festival or park...

 I had to wait over an hour with the IV in and electrodes attached before my surgery. I ended up having to go to the bathroom around 3 times before my surgery and each time it took an entourage to get me to the bathroom. It was worse than my wedding day! The nurse was joking around with me and asked if I was having stage fright. I told him that I was perfectly calm, it was my BLADDER that was nervous!

My mom took this picture of me right after they gave me the anesthesia. Guess that's why I look sort of drugged.. When I woke up, the first thing I said was that now I understood what my co-workers mean when they say that they can't remember a THING from the night before. I don't think that their excuse is anesthesia though. Leave it to me to wake up with a joke. Sadly I don't remember saying that at all, nor do I remember the nurses laughter from it.

I have lovingly named my armpit Frankenpit due to the nasty purple stitched incision that I have. ( I will spare my followers a picture of that. You might be in the middle of eating something) Recovery is moving slower than I would like, but there’s not much I can do about that! I just miss doing my yoga and being as active as I used to be.My surgeon was kind enough to call both my cell phone and my work phone before the weekend arrived to let me know that my lumps were benign. That's a relief, but I can't help but feel like I am going through all of this pain for nothing now. Oh well. It was better to be safe than sorry. I'm just anxious to feel more like myself.

Anyway, I participated in an arts and crafts show this weekend and got to use my tent for the first time. I obviously had some help getting it up. There’s no way that those things can be put up one handed!

   Almost looks professional, doesn’t it?

It was a beautiful waterfront location. They were having paddleboard races and I REALLY want to learn how to do that. It looked like a lot of fun! Maybe when Frankenpit has finally healed...

I have been playing with the idea of opening at least one other etsy shop and breaking down the items in Phoenix Art Studio. Right now I have a wide range of jewelry and art in the same shop. I am thinking of opening shops that have a more narrow range of merchandise. I would probably still keep whimsical/  illustrated jewelry and art in Phoenix Art Studio, but open a shop for the rest of my jewelry and a different shop for my life based paintings/ drawings. What do you guys think? I feel that my work speaks to too many different people and I’m just wondering if I need to compartmentalize things a bit better.  Fun, zany stuff in one shop. Contemporary jewelry in one shop and traditional art in another.  I would appreciate input with regard to this because I truly feel like I have no idea what I’m doing sometimes.

Other than this, I am just busy trying to get back into the swing of things and get some jewelry completed to send off to Co-op Handmade 28. I’ll post some photos once things have been finished.

Have a great week!