Girl at Play

The Boss of You

2008-01-02T01:57:18Z

I'm asked a lot to be in books, to review books, to promote other's books and 99% of the time I decline. Everyone and their mamma seems to have a book nowadays and from what I've seen, a lot seem to just be riding the creative bandwagon which I hopped off long ago.

The thing is, I'm highly creative but I'm also business and it seems that books either address one or the other. Also, a lot of self-employed/creative books geared towards women tend to lack "meat" - they go for making a person feel good with words like "juicy" "blessings" and offer ideas that aren't appealing to me like pink markers, morning pages, breathing deeply and dancing wildly (ok - I like the last one). For someone like me who is a do-er, I want to be inspired with advice I can actually take from people who not just dish it, but have lived and are living it (I can't take another self-help guru with a messed-up life promoting how to live and work creatively!).

Bitter much? Yes but I'm sure you'll agree that there's a lot of bad books out there. And when you're starting out you might be tempted to buy them all (I almost did!).

That is why I am so, so, so thankful that Lauren Bacon and Emira Mear's new book, The Boss of You, is almost here (you can pre-order - so do!).

Over 5 years ago, Lauren and Emira ran an amazing site called Soap Box Girls which let women talk about what women talk about but also had tid bits on business (they really highlighted women-run business) politics and crafting. It was a great zine ahead of it's time. I was so in-love with what these women were doing (running their own graphic business on top) that I asked them to be profiled on Another Girl at Play. Lucky for me they said yes and a great friendship started.

It was in this interview that I received the best bit of business advice I've ever received: Don't undersell yourself!. Women undersell themselves on so many levels that to read this from them really, really stuck. And I've always asked for what I'm worth and have never settled financially or with projects. That's thanks to them.

They now run the site "Boss Lady which has lots of great info. It was also the base for their Boss Lady Panel at SXSW last year that I, along with Jenny Hart and Vickie Howell, were able to be a part of. The five of us meshed so well and we offered great advice and stories - some of which are found in The Boss of You.

Months ago, Lauren asked me if I'd review a proof of the book and if I liked it, would I send a blurb to the publisher. I read the book in one night because I kept thinking, "yes, yes, exactly! This is how it is. Oh I never thought of that. Great advice!" So yes, I wrote a blurb!

Whether you're starting an internet based business, something crafting or a brick a mortar store, this book is something you need - and I don't say that lightly. It doesn't talk down to you and it's not dry. It's personable with real advice to get you rocking out. Isn't that what a great book does?

Publicity

2007-12-19T03:44:07Z

I get asked a lot about publicity; how did I get so much? Why is my name/site everywhere? What did I do? How do I market? Who do I know? When I received yet another email about it, I realised I hadn't ever really addressed it and so here is the question and my response.

Question:

Hi Alex! I found you via the long list of Women to Invite at Conferences on Personified* and am quite inspired by your blog! My sister and I are both creative types and I in particular have been thinking of ideas for a potential portfolio website for a while now.

I do have a question - how did you get so much publicity? Was it happy accident, or did you hire a publicist, or did you do the work yourself? What did you do?

My reply:
I think the basic reason I've received so much constant publicity has to do with timing and need. When I began GirlatPlay.com in 2001 to talk about taking the leap from Corporate America to freelance, there just wasn't a lot of personal blogs out there and there definitely weren't any blogs documenting the business process like mine. People had "sites" that said what they did or newsletters that made their work "polished" but most sites were impersonal and didn't showcase the reality of starting your own business. I created Girl at Play based on my need; I wanted the info and thought I couldn't be the only one who'd be interested. And apparently I was right!

The site and my words just struck a chord with people which lead to a lot of work for me; I've never queried or marketed my work or site. It's all been word of mouth. I write from the heart, I write without thinking about an audience, I do what I love to do and I work really, really hard so that not just people reading will talk about me but those who hire me will talk, too. I think because I focus more on the work and sharing information, there isn't a sense of me trying to sell something to people or an air that is stand-ofish. The site is relateable but more importantly I think, useful. And that's why it continues to do well and why I continue to benefit from having the site.

However, had I started the site this year, things would probably be different because there are so many people blogging, so many women running their own business, and I think that it could be very easy to get caught up in the marketing and competing aspect of it all - which for me never, ever works. The more I worry about what everyone else is doing and how things look, the less I'm inclined to do or the more generic my work comes. I didn't read other sites when I first started so they weren't in my brain. I limit my blog reading and surfing now so that I can focus on what I can do. I think that's the trick - make sure you know who YOU are, what your truth is and how you are useful. Don't worry about competing, marketing, & PR at first - worry about getting stuff out as authentically as you can because if you're copying someone or doing something just to get PR, you'll always be compared to others and your audience won't be able to distinguish you from someone else because they won't care enough to. Just rock everything out as passionately as you can so that people will talk and keeping hiring you.

To this day I don't have a PR person though I'm probably going to change that in 2008 not because I want more PR but because I need someone to handle the incoming queries for me (I admit to being bad about this because I'm not attracted to media attention, it just comes).

I'm not sure if that's helpful to you or not. I don't write business plans, I don't over think it, I don't worry about the site or my audience. I just do what I need to do because at the end of the day, that's all I have. And it's worked so far.

* I don't know what this site is! But it's a great example of having my name out there without me putting it out.

Artist with a Day Job

2007-11-01T23:56:34Z

I've known Summer Pierre for a few years. She was kind enough to be profiled on Another Girl at Play and dish with me on several occasions in both Palo Alto CA & New York. With each visit she's inspired me and her blog is a never ending visual treat. She's an amazing, highly creative artist... with a day job.

I once wrote about the highly acclaimed artist Dai Giang who had art showings around the world and sold paintings for thousands of dollars. Yet during the day he worked in the manufacturing plant at Mountain Safety Research - an outdoor gear company. Anything but creative!

Summer shares a lot of thoughts about having a day job (the reasons, the good, the bad, the ugly) that I think everyone can relate to. She's even made a zine out of it (The Artist in the Office ). Why I love these discussions is because I think sometimes some artists feel a sense of "shame" if they have a "day job" or any job that isn't 100% based on their creativity. But they shouldn't as long as they're creating and living the way they want - who cares how it gets done. There is no generic "Right Way." One way doesn't make you a real artist. There's just life and living it the best way for you.

Personally, I'm the most creative when I have a million things going on. If I had nothing to do all day but write and paint I'd do anything but. I believe firmly in the Thoreau quote, "How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live." So because of this, I am on the go a lot, I do a lot of things - some creative, some not. But everything is piece that makes up the larger picture of who I am. Everything I do are things I want to do whether it's for business or pleasure. This way, despite being tired I'm never drained - and always creating.

The world judges only the outcome but we forget this because we tend to judge the process. We judge the title, the outfit, the company, the paycheque, the right answer, the wrong answer. But really, all that matters is that you do something that satisfies you - whatever and however.

After all, that's all that should matter, right?

Cheeky Work Video

2007-10-25T06:37:16Z

I love when companies allow their employees to be seen publicly in creative, cheeky, fun ways like the "holiday video" above. When you allow your employees to be human and have fun and then share that fun, you create sparks for coworkers and clients.

Any company that calls itself creative or social needs to share both of those things publicly as much as possible and not just through one dimensional presentation (no, no PowerPoint!).

Women in Film - Still Challenging

2007-10-05T21:31:16Z

Warner Bros president of production Jeff Robinoff has made a new decree that "We are no longer doing movies with women in the lead". This is based off of two under-performing female-lead driven movies in the past year (with Jodi Foster & Nicole Kidman).

I've got to go and pull some statistics but there are very few female driven movies (even Pixar has yet to do a movie with a female lead) but there are a whole bunch of male-lead movies that tank every week and no one seems to find this alarming.

When I first got into movie making I was 19 and very naive - I just did anything and everything for fun. I love movies and the movie making process. Background bits and stories are my passion. I never really took it all serious because it was just so much fun (yes, 20 hours on set was fun). But I was working in Canada, Europe and New Zealand - a much different beast than working in Hollywood itself. It wasn't until 4 years ago that I actually made my way to Los Angeles and began working in "Hollywood."

For the first time I found everything - the people, the attitude, getting things off the ground, getting taken seriously - a challenge. Because I look like I'm in my early twenties, I wear dresses and I have a quick wit that makes people and myself laugh a lot I wouldn't get taken as serious despite the fact I had years of experience, great perception and was completely capable of putting together the right people, coordinating sets or working in post production to get stuff out.

Hollywood is still run by an Old Boys club and these men would think me "cute" but not "capable " until I started proving myself with successfully completed projects (either in development or production). Once people saw the results, the dresses, the laughter and the look didn't seem to matter - as much. However, being female always has and people in Hollywood are very open about this. And the only women who seem to care about this are those who work in the background (producers, directors, script writers, designers, coordinators etc). It's been my experience that a lot of the young actresses just don't care - and they should. They're going to suffer for this with crappy roles that are disappearing.

There have been a lot of women in film that I've been working with on getting projects up and running and they are almost always small and independent - even with big A-List actresses. These projects don't get as much promotion so finding an audience can often be hard but the upswing is that when they do find an audience, they're almost always well received.

I'm not one to do "women only" projects but I do believe in supporting women in areas where we lack credibility and accessibility solely because of gender. I work to help us do what we want and not necessarily to prove anything. But it's comments from people like Robinoff that make me just want to flip the bird and say, "Alright, game on."

The Value of Community

2007-10-04T08:17:56Z

Metrics are rarely useful for the community members themselves. Most of what matters is experience. People may revel in the fact that there are over 25 million people signed up at the same service that they are using, but what matters is that their closest friends are using it and that they are getting value out of it. The 25 million people just have the experience in common.

Who are metrics for then? Business people. Venture capitalists. Journalists. Outsiders. People who want a number to tell the whole story (mostly because they are not part of the community itself and it’s really hard to explain the impact of a great community to an outsider). In the end, it comes down to Social Capital and as I’ve discussed, Social Capital is incredibly elusive. It is measurable, but only relative to the source (how do you measure happiness? everyone has a different experience of it), which probably makes it the loveliest, most perfectly decentralized system in the universe, which is where we are headed, but so many people can’t grasp that yet.

But hell, we need to communicate outside of the experienced boundaries of our communities, so we have metrics. We use metrics to entice more people to come and experience our communities beyond the numbers. We use metrics to try and communicate the pride we have in the amazing things happening in our communities. We sometimes have to compare to give others a reference point. But in the end, we know in our hearts of hearts the real measure is in the experience of it. The proof, as they say, is in the pudding (why do they say that, though?).
By Tara Hunt

Fantastic article on community metrics. Need to blog more about this and will. It's been a crazy, busy year thus far and for the first time tonight I've got a moment to think about what it all means and what's next.

Purpose + Belief + Action = Magic

2007-10-03T05:20:44Z

I think most artists, creative people, entrepreneurs go through very rough patches when they're young which then causes a lot of us to not do publicly what we were meant to do. In fact, I think we often hide behind "safe jobs/hobbies/days" whilst secretly engaging in our real passions/pursuits.

But when a person finally believes even just a little in themselves to say "My talent is worth something - I am worth something" and then does something (no matter how terrifying or impossible) the result is always magic and life changing.

For more related posts by me "Belief and Action" and my interview on All Things Girl.

Low income nations more entrepreneural.

2007-10-02T08:32:45Z

" In a survey of more than 150,000 entrepreneurs in 40 regions around the world, women in low- and middle-income nations were found to be more than twice as likely to be involved in early-stage business start-ups as those in high-income nations, researchers at Babson College and the London Business School said."

From Inc. via Sheep Dog PR.

My take on this is because if you have nothing you don't have fear of losing anything. All you know is you want something so bad you'll do whatever you can to get it. The more desire you have, the less questions you ask and the more actions you take - this is true of anything.

Comfort is something so many of us strive for yet can become a sort of prison if we're not careful. It can breed fear and laziness by tricking us into thinking we can't risk. When it's at that very moment we should.

Rock yourself out.

2007-05-31T02:39:01Z

"who says you must only be one thing? who says you can't be an artist and want to make money? would you only invest in one stock? would you bank your life savings on that stock? hell no! it's all about diversification. it's about being honest with regard to your value and your potential."

Felicia Sullivan, all-around rockstar whom I'm so freaking proud of.

Boss Lady Panel Podcast

2007-05-25T01:11:06Z

Finally the podcast from the panel I did at SXSW in March is up. Listening to it I felt really proud (yes, even with the embarrassment of realising I talked about vomit) of all that we said in it. The advice that Emira, Lauren, Jenny and Vickie shared I think is really valuable and I hope the fun we had really came through.

Successful, creative and self-taught entrepreneurs (from graphic designers, to producers, to crafters) will discuss and offer advice on what it's really like to be the gal running the show. With experience running their own successful businesses on-line and off, each of these women has a wealth of information, advice and success stories to share. The panel will explore what makes business different from a female perspective, the particular challenges the panelists have faced, how to create/maintain a business with/without employees and how to achieve financial success all without boas or pink markers.

Listen Now to the Boss Lady Podcast

Where are all the women?

2007-04-24T21:13:06Z

In response to Jeffery Zeldmans' Women in Web design:

In 1984 I received my first Apple II computer and coded endlessly with "the turtle." A few years later I begged my parents for a computer (just a blank PC) and they thought I was crazy (a pretty little cute 14 year old girl wanting a what? This was 1987 after all). I began coding games in DOS Basic in between rounds of playing with Barbie and learning how to put on rouge. Then I got into BBS'ing - 300, 1200 oh my word 9600 baud! It was pre-web at that point but I was connecting to people from around the world at a very slow pace and loved every minute of it.

In 1995 I created my first web page using Netscape Navigator and began writing a daily online journal in 1996. My personal site became instantly popular (I assume because at this time, there wasn't much personal stuff on nor was there many females). In 2001 I began my own freelance career which I chronicled on my site, GirlatPlay.com. I ended up creating more sites, branding things, creating a loyal audience, and having 2 SXSW Web award nominations.

I've worked in New Media and technology for a lot of years yet I'm almost never invited to speak on tech subjects (I usually am only asked to speak at writing and "creative" conferences which I mostly pass on). Although I'm 33 with this 20 year solid online history, I look quite young, I'm very blonde, I wear dresses, I laugh whilst speaking, I'm not uber-competitive with others and I still maintain a life outside the web. This, I think, makes it hard to get taken as "serious tech geek who has authority" amongst a whole bunch of men and a few pant wearing women - the same 4 women that seem to get asked over and over again to speak.

I think people often have a perception of what "geek" is, what "authority" is and what "serious" is and if one doesn't fit it, they're out. I know all the "cool kids" who speak at these conferences, I am connected with my peers yet I don't have their "look" nor do I blog 24/7 about it. I think that has a lot to do why I - along with other women like myself - do not get invited to participate at conferences. We can talk about "being creative," our "feelings" and "wearing pink boas" but we don't really get to talk about the meat of things very often. And that's frustrating. Especially since I don't think we have to be one or the other - we can be both. And I think those of us who don't just make a living blogging 24/7 about tech or just going to conferences as a full-time job might be a little more in-touch with the outside world and have a fresher perspective than the people who keep making the same rounds.

It's why I initiated and helped put together a (very well-received) panel at the 2007 SXSWI called "Boss Lady" - showing women can be smart, creative, funny, personable, driven, and geeky. Because I know I have something to offer and I'm not going to wait to be asked to share it anymore.

Business Advice to HighSchoolers

2007-04-12T22:15:33Z

Mighty Girl has a great little post up about advice she'd give to highschoolers (found via Boss Lady - love that site!). My favourite bit:

Don't believe the myth that "if you liked your job, no one would pay you to do it." It's essential that you love your work for you to be as happy and financially successful as possible in your life. The person who loves her job will always beat out the person who's doing it for the paycheck.

The InterChange Desk

2007-04-12T17:32:58Z

I recently wrote a post on how those who are unhappy with their current jobs often want to freelance when perhaps that's not the best fit. The InterChange Desk web site offers lots of ideas and information on how to change careers which might be useful to those who want to work in another field but can't just jump ship right away.

Tax Time

2007-04-11T05:54:04Z

The Sheepdog Blog has a great post about taxes and freelancers.

Thank you, old jobs.

2007-04-08T20:28:16Z

On April 08th, 2001 I made a decision to leave my corporate job to write. Maybe do art as well if I ever got that brave (I had, after all, failed art class 3 times). In the beginning, I had no idea what to write, how to write, where to write so I began online, hand-coding each entry. I had no idea where it'd lead me - I just wanted it to lead me away from an unhappy life.

Six years later, I have a very happy life and career. I have been able to write for a living, I've sold artwork online and in galleries (and even for book covers - take that art teachers) I've also been able to create amazing communities, work in film, work in new media and development. I've been able to travel the world, meet amazing people and make even more amazing friends. And I've made more money as a freelancer than I ever did working for someone else.

Because of that, I have a tendency to want to celebrate the day I decided to leave my corporate job to pursue this wonderful, crazy, challenging, beautiful freelance life. And on many occasions before I've done just that. But the truth is, in order for me to have this creative career, I must celebrate every job I had before because without them, I'm not sure I could really be where I am now.

From my first job at 9 as a nanny to three children (in which I learned to juggle quite a bit and realized I need to speak up if I was ever going to make money. $1.hr was not enough!), to my first jobs out of high school (tourism) to my first job in America (Merrill Lynch!) to my last job before I went out on my own, I learned things that I would need to be successful as a freelancer.

Tourism taught me about people; what they need, what their expectations are and what happens if you disappoint (and how to quickly turn a negative into a positive), time management and wheeling and dealing (I loved getting free hotels, trips and raft rides and reporting back about them). I learned relationship building with all the different tourism jobs I had from working and living with the people to connecting new properties to a tourism company I worked for. I also learned whilst working at a world-famous hotel to "treat everyone as though they were paying for the most expensive room. When they're walking the halls you don't know who go the bus-tour special or who got the fabulous suite. So treat everyone as though they got the suite."

Corporate America taught me a lot of things. Merrill Lynch taught me that I didn't do well in very rigid environments (I was written up twice for not wearing pantyhose) but I learned that there were levels and certain levels did not get written up as much and could leave a few minutes earlier than the rest of us. I wanted to be on that level. I also learned about budgets and how not to go over. I learned that a view really does make an office nicer.

My last corporate job taught me how to really deal with business from PR to marketing to acquisitions. We owned a smaller company, which we sold and I was right in the middle of it all. We were owned by a larger company that wanted to sell us so I was in the middle of financial statements, board of director meetings, layoffs, managing and trying to save my own staff, trying to save the company and so forth. It was pure hell at the time especially since it was an elite outdoor manufacturing company and I wasn't particularly interested in that but all that went on was better than what I could have learned at university. It taught me how to look at my own company in a serious way – should I sell it, keep it, bring on new things, get rid of the old? How to market, how to sell, and how to connect my work to others.

Working in fields I did not like helped me to find fields I do love. And even within those fields I sometimes work with difficult people or situations (Hollywood, anyone?) But the three whiny children that I looked after at age 9 taught me that if I do the job well, I could ask for and get a raise and will be recommended to other people so that I can eventually leave the whiny kids. Tourism taught me that sometimes mistakes happen; someone is going to get on a bus that heads to the ocean when they wanted the bus that would take them to the mountains but if you handle it quickly, professionally and calmly, you'll save their trip, save your job, and save the company from losing clients. Corporate America taught me that I was more ambitious than I thought because the thought of being reprimanded a 3rd time for not wearing hose was more than enough to make me want to get into a position of power where I didn't have to worry about that (I've been hose-free ever since!). And my last job taught me that I worked really well under pressure, doing a million different things and that I really needed to work on my own to survive (which literally became true as my position was made redundant 4 months later when the company was sold).

So this year, I'm not sure I'm going to celebrate my freelance anniversary in the ways I've done before because really, I couldn't have gone out on my own without being in the company of, well, those companies.

I think that's important to note if you're stuck in a job right now that you want out of so desperately. It might not be the answer, but I guarantee you it has some. And there is a use to everything we go through. So celebrate where you are. Maybe that's the answer for me, too.