I Want To Be... A Hoop Dance Teacher!
[ 30 November 2008, 12:50 ]
Deanne came into my life almost two years ago, & has rocked it to the core with her love, support, insight & ideas! As well as owning Tokyomade — one of my very first advertisers! — she also introduced me to raw food, one of the things that I really believe has super-charged my life! Shortly after we “met” online, she got into hooping in a big way. Her passion for what she does is incredible, & when a reader suggested I interview her for my career series, I was flabbergasted that I hadn’t already thought of it myself!
So, without further ado… !
Tell us about what you do.
I am the visionary behind a transformational love revolution going on in Tokyo, involving lots of glitter, truckloads of laughter, massive amounts of hip action and pretty colored rings. I am a hoop dance performer and instructor in Tokyo, the founder of hooplovers.com.
How long ago did you start on this path?
Gala, I am not sure if you are aware of this but it was you and your infinite inspiration that reunited me with my inner dancer and brought hoops back into my life. Back in the days when you were orchestrating international dress up days, early 2007, a gorgeous gal called Rachel dressed up as her alter-ego Heidi von Hula. Clicking on her short video and watching what she could do with a hula hoop put me in a spin. I have not spent a day since without a hula hoop around some part of my body! Thank you Gala and Heidi von Hula!
How long were you doing it before you made it into your career or primary form of income?
About one year. In that time I took some hoop dance classes, hooped every day for up 4 hours a day, spent my spare time glued to hoop dance vids on youtube, dreamed big, visualized what life would be like as a hoop star, started planning and then headed to Sydney to meet up with my Hoop Dance mentor and sister in the spin, Bunny Hoop Star.
Did anything significant happen to get you to that point, or was it a series of small steps?
I think life is pretty much filled with happenings, big and small, that are overflowing with significance. There are a few major events in my hooping journey that come to mind. Firstly, my Mum visiting me in Tokyo and buying me my first pink, sparkling, dance hoop as a surprise. Realizing that hoop dance was a global revolution and that there were huge communities of hoopers and hoop entrepreneurs, many of whom were women was a big awakening. Going to Sydney to complete a Hoop Teacher training journey with Bunny Hoop Star and create a life changing connection. Seeing a positive, fun filled, lively community of hoopers grow in Tokyo. Opening up to the possibly that dreams really do come true, thoughts become things and I could become a Tokyo hoop star if that is what I desired. Believing in myself. Having talented, positive and passionate people around me.
Do you think official qualifications are important for someone entering your industry?
Behind all the glitter, color and spinning hoops there is an intense amount of work that goes into running my own business. I have a degree in Marketing that I guess helps with the business side of things. I have an Education degree, I was a primary school teacher for years before embarking on this spiraling journey, the knowledge and experience I gained from being in education most definitely helps me to create and execute hoop dance classes, workshops and other events. I know of a hula hoop star who has a degree in hooping from a Melbourne institute, I wish I had thought of that! I don’t think qualifications are essential but experience, passion, dedication, belief and training are!
Hoop Dance Teacher training is extremely valuable, learning from the mistresses and masters of the hoop is priceless. There are teacher training courses in Australia, the US, the UK and possibly other countries around the world.
What do you think is the best thing about working for yourself?
There are so many things that make having your own business a worthwhile choice, so many things I am grateful for. I can set my own schedule, be in charge of my life, know that the possibilities for promotion and advancement are limitless, my earning capacity has no cap on it, I can choose the people I surround myself with, connect with positive, like-minded peeps…I could go on and on…
What’s the worst thing?
Hhhmmm I am not sure, thinking about tax, insurance, account keeping, probably the financial side of things. There is no one to deposit a lump of money in my bank account each month, now it comes from many places and has to be shared around a lot more so that requires keeping track of.
Rate how happy you are with what you do out of 100 (100 being the best, 0 being devastatingly awful) on an average day.
I go to bed every night feeling giggly on the inside (not just from lack of sleep), I often find myself bursting into a huge smile when I think about the state of my life, I get to play dress ups with my friends at least once a week, I have met some of the most amazing people from all over the world, I have found the ultimate form of body changing exercise that doesn’t feel like I am exercising and I have over 50 hula hoops in my house… I would say between 95 and 100. When I am teaching a hoop dance class filled with big smiles, pumping tunes and spinning hoops it is definitely 100!
Although to be really honest, it is not all glam and glitz, there is a crazy number of hours spent in front of my mac formulating class plans, event ideas, confirming reservations, doing paperwork, getting gigs, finding space in Tokyo (ha ha what a joke! Everyone knows there is no such thing.), organizing schedules, training for shows, meeting for rehearsals, making hoops, planning costumes, creating new opportunities, updating websites and promoting hoop dance in Tokyo. When I am in the flow and feeling really creative while dealing with the business side of things I would say 85-100. When I am still up at 4am trying to get things done I would say 70.
Would you call yourself a workaholic, & if so, are you alright with that? Do you think that’s normal for your industry?
I am a Capricorn, I think being a workaholic is part of who I am, the goat always climbing the mountain. I am doing what I love so most of the time it feels like play, but if that is the case I play A LOT!! I was working as a full time primary school teacher when I started Hoop Lovers as well as running TokyoMade with my partner Masao. It came to a point where I had to make some big choices about how to balance my life, I felt like I was working 24 hours a day. The choice came very easily, I felt a strong pull towards being in charge of my own life, it felt really right and was a natural progression.
The fantastic thing about being a Hoop Dancer is that a lot of the work is creative, energizing and great exercise for my body and mind. So even though I feel like I ‘work’ about 18 – 20 hours a day now, shared between Hoop Lovers and TokyoMade, much of the work is fuelled by passion, fun and creativity. Dancing around with hoops is considered part of my work.
Other leading hoop dance teachers and performers work extremely hard, it is their life work, they inspire me greatly.
What would your number one suggestion be for someone who wants to do what you do?
Go and buy a hoop now! Assuming that you are already a pretty funky hooper with a passion to share the joys of hoop dance in your community and possibly the world, my suggestion would be go and spend some time with other hoop teachers, performers and hoop dance business owners.
...How about number two?
Be prepared to dance, work and play! Teaching and performing requires late nights, early mornings, heavy lifting (carrying twenty hula hoops around Tokyo is always a fun challenge), learning new skills very quickly, crazy amounts of networking, hours of dance, practice, drills and play. Be prepared to balance this. Know when to take time to chill, your body is the most precious piece of equipment, take care of it!
What do you wish you had known when you first started out?
More Japanese! Being a business owner can be tough, being a business owner in another country with different rules, language, customs and ideas is a wild ride! I am an Australian living in Japan with my gorgeous Japanese partner, I consider myself the luckiest kid in the world that I have his full support and endless help. I like being an independent business woman but I realize my limits and accept that I need a lot of support and help to do what I do. Being a foreigner here presents me with outstanding opportunities but there are also barriers that I find tough sometimes.
Are there any major misconceptions about your job or industry?
Lots of people come up to me and say, ‘Oh you are the hula hoop girl!” while swivelling their hips in a giant circular motion. That technique would never keep a hoop up for very long, but their giant hip action with imaginary hoop is entertaining for me to see. People also often assume that the only thing you can do with a hoop is spin it around your waist – definitely not true.
What is the best thing that’s happened to you as a consequence of the work you do?
Again, if I really thought about this and let loose I would be typing a crazy long list. My life has changed so much for the better. I have been given the opportunity to connect with some of the most inspiring, colorful and talented people in Japan, Australia and the US as well as others from around the globe. Hooping on some pretty major stages in Tokyo has been exhilarating, and looking forward to some even bigger shows globally. The chance to go to the USA for Hoop Camp, meet up with my idols and be one of the hoopers leading the San Francisco Love Fest Parade this year was a wonderfully wild experience.
The connections that I have made with other women through my teaching of hoop dance has really made an impact on my life. I have made so many wonderful friends as a result, I cherish this very much!
I have learned so much about who I am as a woman, a student, a business owner, a friend, a leader, a performer, a partner, a dancer, a learner and a teacher, I continue to soak up the learning experiences.
Physically I have become much stronger, more flexible, lost lingering fat and shaped myself into a form that I feel really comfortable with, that in itself is a really powerful transformation. I remember the days when I would wear a long t-shirt over my bikinis at the beach, these days I feel at ease whipping hoops around my body for hundreds of people dressed in little more than my underwear. I have found a path that makes me feel alive and more in tune with myself and others. I have got so much to be grateful for.
What motivates you to keep doing what you’re doing?
Seeing others gain joy and positive benefits from hoop dance, being part of a very creative global community, a desire to improve and a need to know what surprises are coming up next. Nurturing the relationships I have formed thanks to hoop dance and a need to strengthen my body and mind even more. Also, very honestly, I love the attention!
Do you think you’ll continue doing this for the rest of your life?
I have a lot to learn, I entered a very new world/industry at the age of 30, I feel like it has only just begun. I see myself as a learner and teacher for the rest of my life. I don’t think I will be performing for the rest of my life, I am 31 years old so I think I have a few years left to rock the stage. I see myself, in about 5 years, heading more strongly towards helping communities and schools to inject more right brain/ whole brain activities into their curriculum through hoops and other performing arts.
What are your next big steps?
Hoop Lovers collaborative dance workshops, Hoop Lovers retreats and Hoop Lovers in Australia. I am also looking into aerial hoop training and other forms of flow toy and fire art training. A gorgeous costume and glittering hoop range is in the making.
Who do you look up to within your industry & why?
I adore and admire the other strong, independent women of hoop dance, such as Bunny Hoop Star, Hoop Girl and Spiral, just to name a few. I am inspired by their openness to life, their individual style, I admire their voice, their ability to share their thoughts, ideas and strength with others. Beyond that I just love the way they move, groove and rock the hoops! Hoop Dance is definitely not just for women though, I am a huge fan of the powerful moves shaking up the hoop dance scene offered up by men such as Baxter and Rich. I am also a big fan of Philo Hagen, a Bay area hooper who keeps track of the global hoop dance scene via internet hooping mecca www.hooping.org.
Love letters & feather headdresses,
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I Want To Be... A Dominatrix!
[ 17 November 2008, 08:27 ]
So, I have this friend. She’s gorgeous, hilarious, intimidatingly intelligent… & also works as a dominatrix. Since she doesn’t really want to be “out to Google”, I can’t tell you much more about her, but I can tell you that I am really excited & delighted to present you with the following interview (which I find absolutely fascinating). Enjoy!
Tell us about what you do.
Since I was of legal age I’ve been a “part-time purveyor of erotic odd-jobbery, all sorts,” but for the past year and a half I have been what is most easily called a dominatrix.
I know that you’ve been in the sex work industry for a while now. When & why did you get into it in the first place?
Yup, a long time. I’m 22 now and I got into the sex industry around 18 through a perfect formation of the Great Upper-Middle Class White Girl Sex Worker Trifecta: Morbid curiosity, interest in sexuality, and “I can make HOW MUCH money!?” I started in doing phone sex with older men, paid through Paypal, and picked up (and dropped) odd gigs along the way.
As for when I got into it for serious, I was going to school and working at a “feminist sex boutique” and since the pay was sh*t (hey, dildo retail is still retail!) all of my coworkers had side gigs. Generally, these were doing things like toy parties on commission or working the renaissance faire (!) on the weekends. Several also did “foot parties,” which is a set up where a lot of foot fetish enthusiasts and ladies with nice feet meet in a very formal way, usually at a club or bar, to mingle with the hoped-for outcome of “mini foot sessions.” These sessions were usually just foot massage or toe-sniffing, trampling, the like. There’s no absolutely no genital contact, and you get $20 for 10 minutes. I was intrigued and it seemed so safe, so I went along and had a blast—although I didn’t make a lot of money, something like $150. From there, a couple of my friends and I marketed ourselves as “foot girls,” but the demand was too low to make renting a hotel room worth it, so we started looking for space to rent. That led us to my place of work, which I like to say isn’t so much a “domme house” as a “domme home.” Awww.
I want to emphasize that my background and my experiences in sex work are really, really individual: I am someone who has never gone hungry or had to worry about getting her children taken away from her or felt coerced because she had no other options. Beyond these stereotypical “nightmare” scenarios, there are all sorts of other coercions for sex workers to need to make sacrifices against their better judgment: for instance, college tuition or just needing to pay off consumer credit card debt.
I am completely positive that the reason that I’ve had such a good time in general is because of two reasons: first, like I say up there, I never had to choose between taking a customer that I felt uncomfortable about and, say, not eating, or not being able to pay my rent or tuition. Second, because I am young, skinny, traditionally beautiful, and college educated, I could charge a much higher price for my time, and worked at a much “classier” house. It really had very little to do with my own individual charms or wiles and everything to do about how my personal characteristics were valued in this f*cked-up society of ours.
Of all the different avenues of sex work, why be a dominatrix?
Basically, I was looking for the most payola for the least amount of time spent and then trying to balance those considerations with my own personal comfort zone of what I was “willing” to do. I also play with BDSM a lot in my personal life and was into exploring that more; this isn’t true for everyone who becomes a domme, though. I was also operating under the false pretences that to be a domme is more “clean” than other sex work—which, sorry to say, kids, ain’t really true. At least for this girl. But more on that later.
Do you work from home, client’s houses, hotel rooms, a dungeon… ?
I work from my dungeon, although we hate that word. There’s a big room with all sorts of fun supplies and furniture like a spanking bench and an examination table. I will see long-term clients on an outcall basis (i.e., their place, not mine) only if they’re a trusted referral or I’ve seen them many, many times. Doing outcalls is dangerous because you are not in control of your own environment, and hotels are even scarier to me because that’s how I’ve heard people get busted by the police most frequently. YMMV!
What’s a “typical day” like for you?
Let’s see. There are two general kinds of work situations for dominatrixes: house domme or independent domme. There are independent dommes who rent space from houses, and house dommes that work independently on the side, domme co-ops, etc. but those are the basic categories. Many dommes begin in a house to get a feel for the profession and build their skill/clientele base, often working as a submissive before they move “up” to switch or straight domme. The next move from there is often to being an independent. I’m more or less a house domme, although I am in charge of bringing in a lot of my own clientèle. This work is balanced out with having a super-low house cut.
Superficially, a typical working day: get to the dungeon half an hour early, hang out with my mominatrix (she’s more of a mom than a madam), set up the room, do a session, clean up the room, hour break, half an hour to set up the room and fix my hair, repeat. Although I can usually leave work and feel back to normal by the time I’m done, I do need space in-between sessions to decompress. I will usually do two or three sessions a day, two or three days a week; even when I was full time I had a part-time mindset, and most people I know work more days than that and do more sessions a day. Most dommes end up “specializing“—they find a flair with feminization or with over the knee spanking—and I did, too. I really love the actual work most of the time, especially when there’s enough chemistry to keep things moving.
Seems great, but for every hour of session I do, I do—not sh*tting you—three hours of email and phone calls. That used to be four or five hours until I got more regular clients. For the girls I know who are more “classic” house dommes and session while “on call,” there’s lot of sitting around a lot in a back room during their shift. So there’s down time no matter what and it can takes a surprising bite out of that golden-looking hourly rate. Uh-oh, sex work jobs are still jobs! Sad trombone!
How much of the money you earn is spent on upkeep (buying equipment, taking courses, etc.)?
It ranges all the way from a little lot to a lot lot. If you work at a house, they usually have wardrobe and toys available for sessions. The trade off, as I said before, the house takes a cut of 40%-70% and even some of your tips. A little trick is to ask your clients to bring in what they like to play with at home. If you’re independent, once you’ve gotten your wardrobe and toy kit together, there are still other expenses, but you can really start turning a profit.
Are dominatrixes really as well-paid as society would have us believe?
Depending on where you are, what your experience is, and what is going to be done in session, the client is looking at anywhere from $100 (a basic foot session) to upwards of $500-$1000 (overnight, with “the works.”) I’d say an average 1hr session for me would be about $250, of which I’d give $35 to the house if I had brought the client in myself and $50 if the house had. I have the lowest house cut of anyone I know.
As I said before, a lot of it is based on how what your particular “mix” is, but the cool thing about domination is that your “price” actually goes up as you become older and more experienced. Skill/experience/age is often prized, and if you check out the “domme boards” like MaxFisch.com you will find a lot of “discussion” (read: angry squabbling) about whether young girls like me are even worth going to for “real domination.” The best thing I read about that was one domme who said that, in respect to young dommes, there are amateur dommes and novice dommes. I’d like to think I’m a novice, not an amateur.
A lot of the real “perks” come in as you get more experience and build up a clientele base—this takes, of course, an enormous investment of time and money. The most well-paid dominatrixes I knew were women who truly enjoyed their work and seemed to play the most in their personal lives: they had live-in “slaves” that cleaned their houses or ran their websites, lowering their out-of-pocket costs in exchange for sessioning or allowing worship. This kind of stuff didn’t appeal to me—I was never acting in session, but I just didn’t want to put my feet on a human ottoman when I was sitting on my couch reading Umberto Ecco, you know?
These successful dommes also put in a lot of time raising their profile by putting in time at parties, at conventions, on domme boards and networking. (Sad trombone for sex-work-is-work again!) All of this created a successful brand for/of themselves, and the baller move now is to make that image and then set up websites with videos and images on them and let the income roll in from the viewing dividends. Again, though, TIME.
Do most people in your life know about your job? How about your parents?
Most of my friends know, most of the people at my college knew, and I am planning on telling my parents once it’s safely in the past—like, I don’t know, on my wedding day, or after I have a graduate degree.
I have been very lucky to have a partner who gave me absolute faith and trust, and neither fetishized nor demonized me for what I did. Most of the other people I know in the sex industry have relationships, but the sex work question always seems to be something that needs to be addressed. Let’s see. I’ve seen dommes whose partners are completely clueless about what they do but are planning on telling them, some that are planning on never telling them, dommes whose partners only want to know the basic details, dommes who have agreements with their partners on what they can and can’t do at work, dommes that work with their partners, dommes that can’t find a partner because of what they do, dommes that get dumped when their partners find out about what they do, dommes who have to stop working to save a relationship, and dommes who may date or marry a client—although that’s very, very, very rare!
I saw Nick Broomfield’s documentary “Fetishes”, which followed the lives of some dommes who worked at Pandora’s Box in NYC. One of the things that struck me was that they all seemed pretty unhappy & emotionally unbalanced. What are the other dommes that you’ve met like?
I haven’t seen the movie but the dommes I’ve met have all been different. With movies, you never know why they’re making the cuts that they do, and maybe Pandora’s Box was just a sh*tty place to work. I don’t know. I know a lot of dommes, and they don’t all have terrible pasts with abuse or “promiscuous” sex or have been dreaming since the schoolyard of beating up their male colleagues, although some do—and of those that do, some will say it’s the reason they did this, and others will say that it had nothing to do with their decision.
On a professional scale, at least from what I’ve seen, there seem to be a couple “waves” of dominatrixes in the US. The first wave was before I was born, and my Mominatrix says that they were considered “inauthentic” because putting a price on BDSM made it not “real” BDSM to the “real” (non-monetary) players. Now there’s a younger set that’s even less frowns n leather (dude, I have never even held a bullwhip) and this first generation considers us “inauthentic.”
Do you think that doing the work you do has given you a more or less realistic view of what the world is like?
The world is so insane. Have you seen YouTube?
Rate how happy you are with what you do out of 100 (100 being the best, 0 being devastatingly awful) on an average day.
Really depends. If I have a great session, I’m on top of the world—I’ve made a connection with someone, made someone’s dream girl come to life, and gotten paid handsomely for it. 100! And I’m flying! If I’ve had a crappy session where I didn’t connect with the client, or I drove 80 minutes round trip to get blown off by two clients in a row, uh, let’s just say it’s a substantially lower number.
What would your number one suggestion be for someone who wants to do what you do? What do you wish you had known when you first started out?
For anyone who’s ever dreamed of being a hi-class hooker, or a well-heeled dominatrix, I exhort you to read this article by Monica on the $pread Magazine blog about the “high dollar hottie” escort image. (And, of course, her hysterical and absolutely f*cking ON takedown of that Radar Hipster Hooker article.) In fact, buy up old issues of $pread Magazine and read as much as you can of it. It’s an incredible resource and should give you a better image of what it’s really like.
As someone who’s pretty out in her personal life, I act as a go-to person for people who want to get in to the work.* An eighteen year old girl once asked me if she’d make a good domme because she’s “strong and not freaked out by anything.”
I think being strong and not freaked out by anything are important traits to have but the best question I could come up with for this girl was: could you f*ck a guy up the ass with a strap-on within ten minutes of meeting him?
Many (although it varies a great deal from domme to domme) dommes touch dicks and pee on people and do strap-on. At the very least, you will be asked to do this, and the rate you will be offered to do this will be much higher than for the “easy” stuff like foot play.
Also, a dark dark sense of humor and wonderment at the beautiful variation of human experience is a plus. If you’d get a bemused kick out of a client telling you that you “seem like a very spiritual person” while nose-deep in “worshipping” your ass, You Could Be a Domme!
*As a side note, I can’t tell you how irritating it is when someone I am out to refers someone I have never met to me for questions. Hello, I don’t even know you, Betty Wantstodom, and since you have even less investment in me as a person you are that much more likely to out me to someone I didn’t want to be outed to or turn me into cheap gossip. People, please don’t do this to your sex worker friends. Ask first.
...How about number two?
You know how people with curly hair are like “aww, I want straight hair!” and people with straight hair are like “anything for curls like yours!?” Sometimes me and the massage girls I know get into joking fights like that—“You’re so lucky, you don’t really have to touch the clients!” “No way, you’re lucky, you get to zone out for an hour! I have to be in the game every second!” You’re in charge, every moment, for as long as they’ve paid for. Something to consider.
Oh, and if you think you’re going to get coated in the clothes and trappings that you as a hot young thing want, you’re not—you’re going to get coated in the clothes and trappings of what a 50-year old dude from an investment firm thinks a hot young thing wants. Ugh, white lingerie. Of course, you can quietly return them. Or sell them on EBay. Girls, ask for jewelry! It’s the easiest to offload when it’s ugly!
What are the major misconceptions about your job or industry?
I think “sex worker” wins the award for “Most Misconceptions” at the Misconceptions About Jobs ceremony every year since, perhaps, the dawn of time. We’re not Ivy league educated hipster geniuses or immigrants trafficked into working in massage parlors, except when we are, which is not often. We sure as hell probably aren’t making as much as you think we’re making. Everything I’m saying here is only my experience, mediated through exactly who I am. Some of my experiences will reinforce stereotypes that you had in mind and some of them won’t. I can’t help it either way because that’s just what I’ve been through, but I can ask that you listen when I say that this is only one person’s experience. The sex industry sucks and rules at the same time. Please go read $pread or College Call Girl or Susannah Breslin. Ugh, this is a lot of responsibility. Do you have a beer?
Also, although dommes as a general rule do not have penetrative sex with their clients, it’s still sex work. And in most place, it’s still illegal—the police can do whatever they want with you at whatever time they want to do it. You are not safe. In NYC, the police have been busting dungeons left and right—even the “nice” ones that minded their Ps and Qs with regards to legality. Are the dommes going to go to jail? Nah, probably not. Did they still get their names in the f*cking New York Post and had to pay lawyer’s fees? You betcha.
What is the best thing that’s happened to you as a consequence of the work you do?
This is personal, but it helped me a lot with body acceptance. Remember earlier, how I said that I was lucky to have a partner who didn’t fetishize me or demonize me for what I do? I both fetishized and demonized physical appearance, and having a price put on it—seeing that beauty ain’t nothing personal—really helped me be able to come to terms with How I Look in a big way. Sometimes I’m beautiful, sometimes I ain’t. For the first time in my life someone can say “You look great!” or “You look terrible!” to me and it won’t make a lick of difference to my day.
On a more general level, being relied on that heavily to create/manage another person’s experience and maintaining that made me feel more capable at bottom-lining projects in my life—comfortable with more responsibility, I guess.
Also, when you remove that barrier that prevents modern man from being uncomfortable telling another person on short notice that they’re a little pig that’s useless to women, it apparently also removes the part that’s stopping you from unbridled, wordy road rage—“Oh, you f*cking worm—you little—how dare…” And a client gave me a super pair of boots once.
Who inspires you? Who do/did you look up to within your industry & why?
I’m in love with the people at $pread Magazine, the staff of St. James Infirmary and AIM Medical, the people involved in SWOP-USA, Annie Sprinkle and, my most favorite blog of all time, sorry Gala, College Call Girl. College Call Girl, please college call me.
When we spoke earlier, you told me that you were on your way down a new, completely different career path. What’s the reason for that?
I am one of those people who runs on sex and being a dominatrix/sex worker was one aspect of that. So was being a queer studies major in college, working at the Dildo Depot, teaching sexuality classes, and wanting to be a women’s health practitioner/ob-gyn. I don’t think I’ll ever leave “the industry” behind entirely—I have a dream of opening up a St James Infirmary on the East Coast one day, for one thing.
What’s next in your life?
How about med school? Med school sounds good.
Love letters & feather headdresses,
Comment [36] Tags: i want to be Add Gala on Twitter!I Want To Be... A Magazine Founder & Editor!
[ 10 November 2008, 07:04 ]
What is Coilhouse? It’s a love letter to alternative culture, in a time when alternative culture no longer exists. It’s the squirming, excitable brainchild of three amazing women: Meredith Yayanos, Nadya Lev & Zoetica Ebb. All three serve as editors, & all three bring their own unique experience & charms to the table. Coilhouse started as a blog in October 2007, & made the flying leap to print a little less than a year later, in August of ’08 — & with issue 02 due out before the end of the year, it’s clear that they have no intentions of slowing down any time soon! Their blog is brilliant, & their magazine is truly unparalleled. In a world where the word “magazine” is synonymous with “dross”, Coilhouse is glorious, a glistening tribute to all that is magnificent about ink on paper.
Of course, running a blog & putting together a magazine — especially when it’s not your full-time gig! — is a task of elephantine proportions. Here then, for your mind-blowing pleasure, is an interview with Meredith, Nadya & Zoetica!
Tell us about what you do.
Meredith: Well, in addition to this wonderful collaboration with Nadya and Zo, I do a few other jobby-type things: making music, performing with a circus, low-budget wardrobe and prop styling, and various boring part-time jobs. But at the heart of everything, I’m just another one of those typical, overstimulated Gen X spastics who’s constantly shouting “HOLY CRAP, do you know about ________? It’s amazing!” and tossing media at anyone willing to absorb it. Music, books, comics, movies, frippery, perverted internet memes, whatever. Just about all of my output reflects a compulsion to disseminate.
Nadya: Mer, Zo and I have been working on a magazine and blog called Coilhouse for a little over a year. We launched the blog in October ’07, released Issue 01 last August, and we’re just putting the final details on Issue 02, which will be out in December.
Zoetica: Coilhouse, the unruly baby conceived with my comrades Meredith and Nadya, is growing up fast and takes up much of my headspace. In addition to this alternative art and culture magazine/blog, I paint, draw, photograph ladies and desperately try to find time to read. Someimes I model, too. Not long ago, I was part of a cabaret troupe and spent about a year doing makeup, mostly special effects stuff. Unfortunately, I’m confined to a body that seems to require more than 2 hours of sleep every so often. While I’m looking into more efficient housing for my brain, caffeine is a close associate.
How long ago did you start on this path?
Meredith: I’m a lifelong bookworm and have always enjoyed writing. I’ve been dabbling in various forms of journalism since junior high, from making homemade zines, to editing my high school’s literary magazine, to co-running a college newspaper, to doing copy-editing and grunt work for a progressive rag in NYC, to penning columns for indie magazines, to the occasional freelance gig for more mainstream publications.
Nadya: My first print endeavor occurred in second grade, when my dad bought a Xerox machine. In junior high, I wrote some articles for the school paper. In high school, I got very involved with and eventually edited our literary magazine, Demogorgon. In college, my favorite class was called “Magazine Editing and Design.” Then I became interested in photography and began to contribute to all the alt-y publications: Gothic Beauty, Elegy, Meltdown, Marquis, Skin Two, etc.
Zoetica: Always being told that I would end up writing prevented me from doing it in my teenage years. The fact that I’m a huge bookworm, and thus hyper-critical of my own work, didn’t help. For a long time I filled dozens of journals cover to cover and excelled in school writing classes, but defiantly avoided taking writing seriously. It was difficult to shed my inhibitions, but in recent years much has changed and I finally feel like I have something to offer. Blogging helped a lot, actually. Writing in my own pressure-free webspace had everything to do with getting comfortable and eventually, getting serious.
How long were you doing it before you made it into your career or primary form of income?
Meredith: Wait, I’m supposed to be making real money doing this?!
But seriously, I only committed to journalism as a potentially viable career option once Coilhouse got cookin’.
Nadya: Because of the print quality and the fact that Coilhouse is available in major bookstores, it may look like our full-time job. I wish! It may happen some day, it may not. Right now we’re all working very hard at other jobs and pouring pretty much all the free time we have into the blog and the magazine.
Zoetica: That is just a hope at the present – photography remains my chief source of income. One day!
Did anything significant happen to get you to that point, or was it a series of small steps?
Meredith: The latter, mainly. I’ve been stubbornly persistent, and I’ve been plain lucky. One of the most unexpected (and lucky) turns was meeting Nadya two years ago. After a few months of knowing one another, she just asked, “hey, you want to try doing this thing with Zo and me?” I was pleasantly stunned and hopped aboard without thinking about it too much. And here we all are.
Nadya: There was one seriously humiliating moment that made me decide to start a magazine. The story goes like this: when I was 21, I landed the covers of both Gothic Beauty and the 50th-anniversary issue of Skin Two, which made me think that I was a hot shit photographer (I was not). High on the feeling of appearing in print, I set my sights on what I considered the next level: the fashion glossies. I called up their Manhattan offices leaving hopeful voicemails, never to hear back from a single one. But by some strange twist of fate, when I called up Flaunt, one of their founders, Long Nguyen, picked up the phone. He introduced himself and told me that he was stuck in the office working late on a deadline, and very agitated as a result. Naively, I began to tell him my story of being a young photographer dreaming of a shot to submit my work to their amazing magazine. Well, he totally shot me down. “Listen,” he said, “do you know how many people call us every day and try to get published? Dozens. Hundreds. You think you’re something special? You’re not. Do you know how much crap we’re forced to look at every day? You can’t even imagine.” We stayed on the phone for awhile, and he belittled every attempt I made to get them to even look at my work. Anxious to get off the phone with me, he cut off my pleas with a request for my phone number. “OK,” I said, “it’s 2-1-5…“ Before I could finish, he cut me off again, crying out exasperatedly: “OH my GOD, you’re not even in New York?!” He pretended to take down the rest of my number and hung up, leaving me deflated and humiliated. My dreams of being a part of a really cool magazine were crushed. That’s when I realized how much I loved magazines. I’d show him. I’d show all of them! In hindsight, the whole thing’s really funny. I still love Flaunt.
Zoetica: Back in Russia, my father was a journalist and my mother worked for a publishing house, so the industry had long been part of my life. I’d been writing on my website and for the Suicidegirls newswire when Nadya approached me about starting a web and print magazine. By this time I’d had a taste of being published – my art, photography and modeling work had all been printed in various mags and I was hungry for more. With writing experience now under my belt I could hardly wait to get started on a new project. The more I talked with Nadya, the more I realized this was something I would dedicate myself to long-term; electricity was in the air. We were thrilled when Mer came on board and thus our little trinity was forged.
Do you think official qualifications are important for someone entering your industry?
Meredith: I don’t think an official collegiate degree is necessary, but one must, at the very least, be a devoted autodidact. One should be well-read, and I think it’s crucial to have a solid grasp of grammar and syntax. The following unofficial qualifications are equally important: reflexive problem-solving skills, a healthy imagination, and the ability to graciously give and receive constructive criticism. Most importantly, I think we all have to be responsible about what we say and how we say it. Especially in these frontier days on the info superhighway, where anyone can claim authority and say anything they like… and the same goes for self-publishing.
Nadya: The traditional way to get a job at a big-time magazine is to get an internship and work up from there. In order to even get that internship, most times you need to have a degree. If you’re outside the print industry and looking to start your own magazine, I still believe that having some experience is crucial. Mer, Zo and I all had some experience in print before working together on Coilhouse. Not enough experience to get a call for a job interview from Conde Nast, but enough to feel confident going into it and start researching in areas we knew we lacked. So to anyone that wants to start a magazine, I’d suggest you help at least one other magazine first. If nothing else, it’ll help you decide if it’s something that you really want to do.
Zoetica: Above all, deep respect for the work along with passion for constant improvement are essential.
What do you think is the best thing about working for yourself?
Meredith: Making my own hours and basically just ruminating about whatever I feel passionately about. Getting paid a bit of pocket money to sit in a cafe or a park or on my rooftop, writing about whatever pumps my ‘nads? Bliss.
Zoetica: Besides the benefits of making my own schedule and doing what I love? Waking up and having the first thought in my head be “Coilhouse”. Even though I’ve always been consumed with various endeavors, the notion of something a partnership has poured its heart and soul into is immensely gratifying in a completely different way.
What’s the worst thing?
Meredith: As I’ve said, I’m an active freelance musician. At this point, I still make most of my bread that way. I have session work, bands I tour with, teaching gigs, and recording projects with strict deadlines. Balancing my time (and my brain) between writerly and musical obligations can get stressful. Also, living hand-to-mouth is not fun. Still, I vastly prefer my life as it is to cubicle purgatory, and I’m grateful every day that I get to do what I’m doing.
Zoetica: My time management has suffered greatly. Presently, I’m happy with the illustrations I’ve been creating for the print magazine – it’s the one way I’ve been able to combine my two biggest passions. I’m still trying to smoothly make time to work on everything else I love while leaving time for actual fun. Life is short and stopping to enjoy it is of dire importance, but it’s been a precarious balancing act thus far.
Rate how happy you are with what you do out of 100 (100 being the best, 0 being devastatingly awful) on an average day.
Meredith: I’m happier right now with what I’ve been able to accomplish career-wise than I’ve ever been. But there’s still a lot of room for improvement, so I’ll say I’m at a respectable 89. Not too shabby, right?
Nadya: 95. I don’t take a moment of this for granted. It’s not always “fun,” but I remind myself every day that many people don’t come as close to realizing their dream as we have. There are days when things definitely don’t go our way, even some days on which I want to give up. That’s why it’s 95, not 100. But I definitely try to keep those moments to a minimum.
Zoetica: I’m not an easily satisfied person so I’d place myself at 80. I’ll be truly happy only when I’m finally able to paint and write simultaneously, while looking out at my parked rocket from the balcony of my Martian tower.
Would you call yourself a workaholic, & if so, are you alright with that?
Meredith: Yep. I’m a workaholic, and I’ve got my fingers in a lot of pies. Don’t sleep much, and run on caffeine and adrenaline. I’m all right with that, mainly because I can’t remember ever being any other way. I have a feeling my comrades may give you similar answers. We’re some high-steppin’ fillies.
Nadya: I am not a textbook workaholic. I’m a person of extremes; when I work hard, I work really hard, sacrificing food and sleep to get a task done. But when I decide that I don’t want to work, I turn into a vegetable; I don’t return emails, I don’t charge my dead phone, and I usually end up doing something useless that I take very little pleasure in, like having an ANTM marathon on YouTube. With Coilhouse, a lot of my bad work habits have improved, but they’re still there. At my best, I do work very hard and reward myself with a type of rest that’s actually positive for me, like going for a walk, reading or visiting friends. Even though Coilhouse is technically my “second full-time job,” I really believe in work-life balance. I just wish I was better at managing my time.
Zoetica: It’s a truth I’m comfortable with accepting, yes. This level of madness is not only normal but necessary for small startups such as ours. Mer, Nadya and I are constantly busy with a variety of personal projects while keeping the Coilhouse engine chugging – workaholism is the holy juice the gets us through it all.
Do you think that’s normal for your industry?
Meredith: Oh, definitely. You’re going to find restless, multi-tasking, frantic type A folks in just about any line of work, but journalists are an especially hyper-extended lot.
What would your number one suggestion be for someone who wants to do what you do?
Meredith: Stay curious, stay open, and really make the effort to listen to people when they speak. Empathy. Always.
Nadya: Get a job that’s completely separate from your most ambitious pursuits, and use it to fund what you want to do most. It’s sad but true: what we love to do often gives us very little money, and what we’re good at, but not passionate about, is what pays the bills. The idea is that eventually, you can take off doing your own thing, but not overnight. So in the meantime, learn to enjoy that job – don’t treat it as the obstacle that prevents you from doing what you love, but what enables you to do it. Learn as much as you can there and apply it to what you love to do in your spare time.
Zoetica: Read. It may not sound like much, but when you life is taken over by magazine work, time to read becomes precious and vital. Brains need input to produce good writing – it’s impossible to have one without the other. Read, damn it.
...How about number two?
Meredith: Read and write constantly. Seriously, write something creative every single day. Don’t worry if it’s caca. Just keep the channel open.
Nadya: Learn to listen to other people. A magazine is a collaborative venture, and you have to surrender your ego and listen to what others say. If you do this with the right people – people who also listen to you – that’s when the best possible product emerges.
Zoetica: Understanding the production process is just as important as polishing your writing and research! Get to know all aspects of the business end, even if business is not your direct responsibility.
What do you wish you had known when you first started out?
Meredith: Honestly, I wish I’d had more confidence in myself and my abilities in my early-to-mid twenties. I was too timid. I should have just gone for it, instead of waiting around for permission from… who? From no one! Morrissey said it well: “Shyness is nice, and / Shyness can stop you / From doing all the things in life you’d like to.”
Nadya: I wish I’d known more about the advertising side of things. I still do. We’re trying different things and we’ve had success selling ads, but not as quickly as I’d like. Magazines live and die by their ad revenue, and that’s really what we need in order for the magazine to stand on its own.
Zoetica: I wish I’d taken my writing seriously, sooner. I wish I’d known everything there is to know about the business of publishing and advertising. Ultimately, however, there’s no way to know all without trying it out hands on. Actually doing this has been the greatest learning experience I could have asked for.
Are there any major misconceptions about your job or industry?
Meredith: That print is dead. For alternative publications like Coilhouse, it’s anything but! Another misconception: that a tiny, close-knit, somewhat green group of folks can’t pony up to create a marketable publication that’s really engaging, relevant and beautiful. We’re proof that it’s possible.
Nadya: I think a lot of people believe that running a traditional print magazine and a very involved, daily-updated blog with lots of original content are mutually exclusive activities. But for us, the two formats are inexorably linked. We pour just as much effort into the blog as the print magazine, and at this stage one can’t exist without the other. If not for all the people who bought the magazine because they found out about it through the blog, we wouldn’t be able to put out Issue 02. And if not for our blog, we wouldn’t have been able to attract some of our collaborators, advertisers and distributors as fast as we did. Our main national distributor, RCS, said to us: “if your magazine is anything like your blog, we will carry you starting with Issue 01.” So there you go.
Zoetica: That alternative culture is an ominous creature of exclusivity. It is not so! Nurturing the strange and off-beat does not mean simultaneously spouting hatred at all things mainstream. Too often fringe media sources take a stance of habitual disillusionment. I cannot agree with this toxic and wasteful world view. At Coilhouse, we curate content that gets us excited, in hope of igniting the same kind of inspiration in our readers. We’re not shy to yell “Hey, peeps – check out this awesome thing we love!” and our slogan “Inform / Inspire / Infect” illustrates this credo well.
What is the best thing that’s happened to you as a consequence of the work you do?
Meredith: Coilhouse has helped to foster a really nurturing online community, and I’ve made some wonderful friends because of it. The overwhelming majority of readers I’ve communicated with are folks I’d love to have over for tea. These are curious, intelligent people who favor sincerity over snark, and creativity over cynicism. Creating a space for that has been so important to me, and really healing on a personal level.
Nadya: It’s going to sound sappy, but the best thing has really been the people I’ve met and friendships I’ve made. Our readers, our contributors, our advertisers… everyone we’ve come in contact with has been awesome. When we had our launch party, I was just floored by how diverse the readership was. Doing Coilhouse has exposed me to a more interesting and diverse group than ever before.
Zoetica: Without a doubt, the wonderful community that’s come together through this project. Because of Coilhouse I’ve aligned with people I hope to know indefinitely. When we started out I couldn’t have dreamed of such a curious, erudite and all around formidable bunch to stick by us through this endeavor.
What motivates you to keep doing what you’re doing?
Meredith: Working as a team with Zo and Nadya, and knowing that we’re all counting on one another to keep this going, definitely spurs me onward. I think it’s safe to say that all three of us really want Coilhouse to grow and evolve, and we’re all working really hard to keep improving and expanding the venture.
Nadya: Mostly the idea that it gets better all the time. We’re comparing the proofs from Issue 02 to Issue 01, and it looks like a totally different magazine – in a good way. The blog currently has 5 times the number of readers that it had a year ago. The quality of writing and amount of different guest contributors has gone up. We’re still learning new things, branching out. We have a lot to look forward to.
Zoetica: Knowing that we can reach so many. A kid from the boonies without web access can now come across our magazine at a local store and discover an entirely new universe. This really began to sink in when we received an email from college students who found us in their school’s book shop. It’s a wonderful and humbling sensation that makes me want to do better, always.
Do you think you’ll continue doing this for the rest of your life?
Meredith: Well, I know I’ll always be a writer, and I’m pretty sure I’ll still be the same ol’ culture vulture when I’m 93, zooming around on a prune fart-powered jetpack, hurling obscure records and esoteric books at people’s heads. As for Coilhouse specifically? Who knows! But let’s shoot for the moon.
Nadya: There are many other things that I want to do in life that I feel Coilhouse will prepare me for. My real passion is writing, and all the writing I’ve been doing for Coilhouse is helping me come out of my shell and get comfortable with the process, just the same way that doing photography helped me figure out that I want to do a magazine. But I think that if Coilhouse succeeds that it’ll be a very fulfilling outlet and rewarding collaboration for many years.
Zoetica: I’ll always be an artist, writer – of this I can be sure. I’ll always seek warmth in particular corners of the world and the web, where like-minded individuals cluster and exchange ideas. Of course, the future is uncertain but I hope with all my might that Coilhouse will continue to flourish. And I intend to do everything within my power to make it so. To victory!
What are your next big steps?
Meredith: I want to become more financially stable, buy some health insurance, and find a way to travel and write about it. Mostly, I just want to keep doing what I’m doing. So, in other words, I really want to see Coilhouse chew bubblegum and kick ass.
Nadya: As far as making the magazine succeed, it’s all about getting more advertisers.
Zoetica: Bigger, better, faster, stronger! Beyond that, I’m in the early brainstorming phase of designing Coilhouse merchandise. Earlier this year I joined forces with future fashion label Plastik Wrap to create a limited T-shirt line with the Coilhouse space girl on them, but that’s just the beginning.
Who do you look up to within your industry & why?
Meredith: My old friends Douglas Wolk and Warren Ellis spring immediately to mind. Those two inspire the holy effing hell out of me. Douglas is one of the most consistently imaginative, thoughtful journalists working these days. Warren, in addition to being a prolific and gifted storyteller, has this uncanny knack for online curating/networking/tastemaking. Both are walking encyclopedias, both are generous with what they learn, and each has patiently helped me muddle through all sorts of ungainly creative molting processes over the last ten years. I’ve got a slew of mentors back in NYC: musician/musicologist/professor Kyle Gann (brilliant guy, got me my first internship at the Village Voice), musician/bootlegger/know-it-all Sport Murphy (proof that you can always cram a little bit more information into your cranium, and that cynicism and worldliness need never overtake one’s sense of wonder), singer/composer/radio programmer David Garland (a gentle, thoughtful man whose interview style reveals the vital importance of really hearing something), and radio personality/landmark preservationist/outsider music expert Irwin Chusid (a top tier documentarian and chronicler who never worries about whether his subject matter will have an audience, and whose career is a great example of the success one can have if they just trust their inner compass). Suzanne Gerber (Wurzeltod) continues to impress me to no end. Then there’s that weirdo over at Ectomo, Ross Rosenberg; he’s ridiculously clever and funny. On that same tip, I’m dying to bake Cintra Wilson some red velvet cupcakes, and I’d love to snort some of Hunter S. Thompson’s ashes.
Nadya: In the publishing industry, I definitely admire Sandra Yates, the woman who founded Sassy. Yates was a single mom of two who worked as a typist, a messenger and a secretary before becoming the only woman on a sales staff of 30 at an Australian daily paper. Yates was sent to the US for two weeks, and there she got the idea to launch Sassy, one of the most progressive and meaningful publications ever made. Yates was not directly, creatively involved with the magazine, but she made the right decisions about who could make it work, like when she hired a then-unknown, 24-year-old Jane Pratt to helm the project. Doing sales for Sassy must have been an incredibly difficult job because the magazine rarely backed down from controversial topics. Why would anyone want to advertise in a new teen magazine that sparked boycotts in the Midwest when they could put ads in the tried-and-tested, decades-old publications like Seventeen and YM? It was Yates’ job to convince advertisers why, and she kept the magazine afloat against all odds for many years. Going way back in history, I really admire Kurt Schwitters and El Lissitsky, who, in the 20s and 30s, collaborated on Merz Magazine – one of the most beautiful avant-garde magazines ever made. It still looks awesome. I was looking at a lot of Merz when trying to plan a layout for Coilhouse. Another person who really inspires me is Darby Romeo, who published Ben is Dead. Darby had a very distinctive voice and proved to me that you don’t need a big company to publish a cool magazine. My boyfriend at the time bought me a copy of their last-ever issues at Borders. I also have tremendous respect for Mark Frauenfelder, who published bOING bOING magazine starting 1988. The BoingBoing blog has been in action for over 10 years, and continues to fascinate and inspire me. It really is the best.
Zoetica: Fellow artist and writer Jhonen Vasquez has seen me through work endeavours of the past 8 years. He reminds me to work hard and not to take anything too seriously. Warren Ellis is a brilliant storyteller, productivity machine and perpetual source of awe. There is a growing network of brilliant young women here in the US who stop at nothing to do what they love. One of them is artist, entrepreneur and kindred spirit Molly Crabapple; she continues to show me that drive is everything and is one motivating young lady. From the old school: Mikhail Bulgakov, who started out as a journalist but is best known for his novels, and the irreverent science fiction gods Strugatsky brothers. They remain my biggest inspirations to this day.Though some of the Soviet nuance gets lost in translation, I don’t think anyone’s life is complete until they’ve read The Master and Margarita and Roadside Picnic.
Love letters & feather headdresses,
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i want to be Add Gala on Twitter!I Want To Be... A Health Counsellor!
[ 27 October 2008, 07:52 ]
iCiNG reader & super-sweet girl Rachel Katz tells us what’s it like to be in the world of health counselling!
Tell us about what you do.
As a Certified Health Counselor I help many different people achieve many different goals. The main mission of my business, Natural Zest, is to help people live a long, healthy life and love every minute of it. Clients come to me looking for help with weight, energy, stress and other life issues. Right now I’m focusing on corporate wellness, with individuals and group programs. Corporate programs allow me to help many people at one time. The best thing about what I do is that it’s about more than food, it’s about everything in life that nourishes us – our relationships, spirituality, career and life itself.
How long ago did you start on this path?
I officially decided to go into nutrition in December 2006. I was burned out by my previous career and wanted to find something that met my needs and also allowed me to provide a great service to people around me. What really pushed me into nutrition was my own journey with anxiety and depression. For years I just thought that’s how I was, and who I was. I started changing things about 5 years ago. And three years ago discovered just how important food was in maintaining a good mood. This realization literally changed my life and prompted me to go into nutrition. I enrolled in a Masters in Human Nutrition program as well as a program at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. I found the school trained me well and set me up to run my business and make this my career.
How long were you doing it before you made it into your career or primary form of income?
It was a year after I decided to work in nutrition when I officially launched Natural Zest and started seeing clients. Natural Zest became my full time job in May of this year.
Did anything significant happen to get you to that point, or was it a series of small steps?
For me, the key in switching to health counseling full time was my training at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. I realized that I have the knowledge and skills to really make a difference for people. When I realized this, I went out there, worked connections that I already had, talked to people, taught classes and really tried to increase my visibility.
Do you think official qualifications are important for someone entering your industry?
I think the two most important things are common sense and a bit of humility. We all know that we should eat more vegetables, fruits and whole grains, and eat less processed food, meat, dairy and alcohol. And no single person knows everything, or can tell everyone exactly what to do. I think official qualifications can be helpful, but I know “qualified” people who give less than ideal advice, and people with no qualifications who are very successful at helping people. Ideally there needs to be accountability. If you are irresponsible and create problems for someone, you should be held accountable. But I do not think that one needs to be a certified nutritionist or registered dietitian to talk about food and wellness.
What do you think is the best thing about working for yourself?
Making my own hours! If I want to take a vacation, I can reschedule appointments. No appointments are ever really missed. I also get to choose the people that I work with. It’s important to love what you do, and for me that means loving the people that I work with. I won’t take on a client that isn’t a good fit for me and my personality. At some point I want to start a family. Setting my own schedule will allow me to spend all the time that I want with my children and family without sacrificing my career.
What’s the worst thing?
I’m only accountable to myself and my clients – there are no real deadlines. So sometimes it’s hard to stay on track and get things done. It really takes a great deal of discipline to keep things running.
Rate how happy you are with what you do out of 100 (100 being the best, 0 being devastatingly awful) on an average day.
I’d have to say 80. I love what I do but I know that there’s more that I could be doing with my business. There’s definitely room for me to grow and expand.
Would you call yourself a workaholic, & if so, are you alright with that? Do you think that’s normal for your industry?
I am not a workaholic, in fact I could use a bit more of that! Within counseling, yes, there are many workaholics. But for health counselors, it is so important to find that balance between work and personal life. We have to take care of ourselves if we are going to help others. I can’t see how a severe workaholic could really be the best health counselor possible.
What would your number one suggestion be for someone who wants to do what you do?
Be passionate! Passion is what moves this world!
...How about number two?
Find the training that best suits your personality, whether it is traditional or less so.
What do you wish you had known when you first started out?
My niche. I wish that I had known that group programs and corporate programs were the way for me to go when I started. It took me many months of trying to work in different populations before I found my niche in corporate wellness.
Are there any major misconceptions about your job or industry?
YES! People still think that being healthy with food is all about eating like a rabbit and forbidding your favorite foods from ever entering your mouth again. There are so many delicious foods that are also healthy. My program focuses on crowding out less healthy choices by introducing people to a whole range of yummy alternatives. And no single food is the devil! I still eat cupcakes now and then ;)
What is the best thing that’s happened to you as a consequence of the work you do?
I’m happy and healthy. In the process of starting this business I have learned so much more about myself, what I need, what I want. This has helped me move to what is definitely the best time of my life so far. I couldn’t do that if I didn’t love my career.
What motivates you to keep doing what you’re doing?
Seeing the changes in my clients. I get to watch people that I genuinely care about lose weight, realize new things about themselves, let go of old destructive habits, learn to love themselves, improve their relationships and more. It’s very rewarding! I see so many people, every day, in every walk of life, that appear unhealthy and unhappy. It doesn’t have to be like that! Yes, it takes time, and effort, but it is possible to change! I like being a part of that engine for change.
Do you think you’ll continue doing this for the rest of your life?
In some form or another, yes. I loved my last career, but it was hard to picture myself doing it 20 years down the road. Health counseling is something that I see in my future for many, many years.
What are your next big steps?
In the near future I just want to keep building my momentum with corporate wellness programs. Down the road I would love to have my own wellness center offering a variety of services. Everyone likes one-stop shopping. To have a center with medical professionals, health counselors, massage therapists, acupuncturists, yoga and more is a dream of mine. Maybe even an organic garden!
Who do you look up to within your industry & why?
There are so many people! Joshua Rosenthal, the founder of the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, really pulled together so many ideas and theories on nutrition and wellness and put them into a philosophy which he’s taking to the world. Michael Pollan is doing brilliant work in teaching the world about what’s really going on with food. Marion Nestle works every day to educate people and change the policies that affect what we eat. There are so many great people out there working on issues around food – from how it’s grown, to production, to ingestion – and we need some big changes in this country!
Love letters & feather headdresses,
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life Add Gala on Twitter!I Want To Be... A Lingerie Designer!
[ 20 October 2008, 07:58 ]
Tell us about what you do.
I run my own Lingerie and Accessories company called Loulou Loves You! The site has a lingerie range currently consisting of knickers and boudoir jackets then an accessories range with my own ‘bow emporium’ featuring bows in all sizes as headbands and brooches. Everything is designed and handmade by me using only 100% silks and cottons. I’m just completing my Winter 08/09 range that will be expanding on all the current items and bringing in loads of new ones, I’m super excited!
How long ago did you start on this path?
Loulou Loves You has been open for business for just over a year now. It’s been quite an adventure to get to this point. After school I moved to London to study Fine Art. I completed two years of studying and when I was 21 I very suddenly became horribly ill with a chronic pain condition called Fibromyalgia and was unable to finish my degree and had to move back home. The condition rendered me unable to do almost anything at all but when the worst was over I started to rebuild my life about two years later, my college was happy to let me come back to complete my last two years I felt like I had changed so much whilst being away that my idea of my life was different too. I had this urge to learn something more skill based to do with on of my main interests, fashion. I moved to Brighton (the seaside – best for recovery!) and decided to take dressmaking and pattern cutting classes just once a week, the rest of my time I babysat and rested to get back my health. During this time my love affair with lingerie really began and my friend and I used to talk about having a ‘pant empire’ because we were always buying all sorts of cute knickers and obsessing over them. When my courses were finished I knew that it was time to move back to London and really rebuild my life. I started researching into what I might want to do and it was Lingerie design that just grabbed me. I found a year long C&G course at Kensington and Chelsea college and ta daaaa!
How long were you doing it before you made it into your career or primary form of income?
Whilst I was on my Lingerie course I became so enthusiastic about it due to firstly it just ‘clicking’ and also being so inspired by my tutor who was a successful designer herself. I knew that when I finished I wanted to aim high and start my own business! Why not go for it when I felt like my life had been in limbo for so long? It was also only in about 2006 that I actually was almost healthy again and I really noticed very suddenly ‘Oh my god, I feel ok!’ and it was that which made me the most ready to get going.
I thought that If I was going to set up my own business then I wanted to be able to focus on it 100%. I was very lucky to have savings behind me that meant I could just work on the company. As a small business owner in the early stages it’s still very new and I’m not at the point where I can lay back and let the money roll in just yet! I have a two days a week other job that keeps me on my toes and helps me out when pennies are low!
Did anything significant happen to get you to that point, or was it a series of small steps?
Really like I said above it was just me deciding to take the plunge. Having been sick I really felt like I was behind on my life and although of course I’m far from it I was feeling ‘old’ and really just wanted to dive in. I could have carried on with some more courses etc but I just felt like I was ready, also it coincidentally tied in with the fact that the job I was doing part time (working as a nanny) came to an end at the exact point that I wanted to go it alone so it felt like a sign and I grabbed it!
Do you think official qualifications are important for someone entering your industry?
Yes and no, I don’t think you need to have a qualification from the best lingerie school or fashion course but you do need to have the skills. I of course came into this at a different angle, using my Pattern cutting / Dressmaking / Art and Design and then lingerie skills but I never took a Fashion design degree. Do I think I might be better if I had? Often yes but can I be successful without? Of course! I just spend time when I can teaching myself skills and practising what I know. If I’m having trouble then I ask friends or look to books for advice. At the moment I do everything myself from designing to making the patterns to hand making each item and I definitely like the idea of one day being able to put a team together!
What do you think is the best thing about working for yourself?
Setting your own schedule! I try and keep to an average work day, I am always in my studio by 9.30am and then work till probably 7pm but very often till midnight depending on how busy I am. It’s nice to be able to switch time around too, like spend an afternoon with a friend and then work extra on the weekends or nights, a luxury that you don’t get to do with an office job for instance. It’s also really awesome to know that it’s all mine and so when everything is going well I know that it’s because of the hard work I have put it and I deserve it!
What’s the worst thing?
Setting your own schedule! Yep the pros and cons come together. It took me a good six months to actually get into a schedule, it’s very easy to be all ‘Ooh I work for myself so I can lay in till 2pm’. Also my studio is in my house which means I have about a million ways to procrastinate if I want to. The other thing which takes getting used to is that I spend most of my time on my own so I have to enjoy my own company, I combat this by having people come to my house for lunch etc. so I don’t feel like such a hermit… in my knicker prison as I like to say!
Rate how happy you are with what you do out of 100 (100 being the best, 0 being devastatingly awful) on an average day.
I would say about 85 on average…This week it’s been about 50 because I’ve been having a fight with a camisole pattern!... But when I have it worked out then I will probably feel about 120! I do have a good sense of perspective though because if I am not feeling so great about everything I just look back at 6 years ago and know that I’m in an amazing place right now.
Would you call yourself a workaholic, & if so, are you alright with that? Do you think that’s normal for your industry?
Yes and no, I’m not naturally, naturally I am a gigantic daydreamer who could easily spend an entire day doodling on a bit of paper but right now I would say yes because I am really focused on completing all my jobs. I think if you are running a business yourself then you have to try and be a workaholic as it’s essentially only you that’s going to get things done. If I stop then everything stops. I think it’s just important to try and set goals for yourself and work through them.
What would your number one suggestion be for someone who wants to do what you do?
Do it! But do it with a good business plan and consideration first! When I started out, being a creative person my head was filled with all these fanciful dreams, you know a studio filled with bunnies and kittens and photo booths and an ice cream parlour and a giant cloud above my head filled with ideas while they magically were sewn around me… but luckily my sister is a bit of a business genius and she brought me down to earth by insisting on helping me do a business plan. One point became 80, each with an expansion of about ten. You need a plan because there are so many things that can go wrong and if you think of them all first then you are ahead of the game!
...How about number two?
Don’t be afraid to follow your dreams, even if it seems impossible, if you have an idea then why not look at how it can work? You can’t lose anything by research. Maybe think of a friend who you could start out with, share the ideas and the responsibility, look into ways to get grants and loans. There are always ways to work towards your ambitions.
What do you wish you had known when you first started out?
Probably how hard it is to do everything myself. I never wanted to start up with a bunch of people but I really understand now why people need assistants and PR people etc., because it’s amazing how time consuming everything is. Essentially I want to be designing and creating and so I get frustrated when I have to spend all day doing paper work or something. I’ve just taken on an amazing friend to be my PR girl and I’m already feeling how much better it is. I can’t wait to be able to afford to have a lovely assistant! I remember your friend Ana Steele saying she wished she had a twin to help her out and I totally agree, it would be perfect, a Loulou clone to do everything that’s boring!
Are there any major misconceptions about your job or industry?
Well it’s not quite as glamorous as it sounds. When I say I have a lingerie business I think most people (especially guys) think I’m laying around bathing in silk all day haha!
What is the best thing that’s happened to you as a consequence of the work you do?
I don’t think I’ve got to the stage yet where I can say oooh I’m invited to all these amazing events/parties etc. (Anyone want my address?!) For me the continuous best thing is getting messages from people about my designs and work, when someone emails me to ask advice or say they loved their item when it arrived. Getting good feedback from people and magazines that I admire makes me so excited. I’m being featured in the fashion supplement of the December issue of VOGUE which is so ‘wow’ that I EEK every time I think of it because I never imagined that VOGUE would be contacting moi!
What motivates you to keep doing what you’re doing?
I usually work best if I have something to look forward to, so often making fun evening plans makes me determined to work more in the day. Quick deadlines usually help me too, a bit of pressure occasionally! and then of course my ideas! If I have things in my head that I want to create then I’m always happy to keep going, and also having dreams of success makes me want to work harder to achieve those goals. Sometimes I sit and stress out about not having enough money etc. but I also know that I won’t ever quit until I feel like I’ve put everything into what I love doing and right now I feel like I’m very much at the start.
Do you think you’ll continue doing this for the rest of your life?
Yes and no. I believe that everything that happens in my life is always synchronised with what happens before. If I look at the steps that have brought me here then I have no doubt things will continue and take me to different work areas too. I think I will be in this industry hopefully for a long time, but I’m also not going to put away my future dreams to be a zookeeper either ;)
What are your next big steps?
Right now my main focus is completing my Winter collection and getting it into my shop and then spreading the word to everyone. I am also hoping to redesign my website. I also am really keen to move to NYC but right now I’m not in the place to be able to pick up and move the whole business so it’s something that I keep in mind as a big in the near future dream and so I’m making small steps to make that possible!
Who do you look up to within your industry & why?
In the fashion world I really love Betsey Johnson, it’s easy to see why of course, but I love that she always sticks with creating what she loves and you can see it’s very much an extension of her personality rather than being built to please other people or the industry and I love that you can rent out her home in Mexico. She’s a great example of a success who has taken what she is good at and spread it.
Mainly though the people I look up to are people I know who are making steps to fulfil their goals and ideas and working so hard to get there. Whenever I feel a bit bummed out I usually look to my best friends work and websites and see what they are up to which makes me suddenly inspired again. I feel so lucky to be around such amazing talents and also to be in London where everyone is just having a go at creating something.
BONUS!
Design a magnificent outfit with Polyvore using one of Loulou’s bows & you can win it — & a pair of knickers to match!
You have one week to style something fabulous! Comment below with a link to your creation, & the winner will be announced next Monday, the 27th of October 2008!
You can find all her items here — enjoy & go nuts!
Love letters & feather headdresses,
Comment [224] Tags: how to,
inspiration,
i want to be,
life Add Gala on Twitter!I Want To Be... A Digital Marketing Manager!
[ 13 October 2008, 15:35 ]
Alice Judge-Talbot, as well as being super-sassy & cute with a drink in her hand, works for VICE magazine as their Digital Marketing Manager. She emailed me saying…
“I’d hope my story could be quite inspiring as I kind of screwed up at school, dropped out of Uni (getting in a lot of crap with my parents along the way…) but I came out smiling at the end of it!”
I love any girl who manages to triumph over the odds, & as her job sounded really interesting too, of course I had to interview her!
Tell us about what you do.
I work as VICE UK’s Digital Marketing Manager. My role basically boils down to getting as much traffic as possible to our two sites – Viceland and VBS TV. This is done in a number of ways – working with online and offline partners, managing Social Networking sites (such as Facebook and Myspace) and dealing with online PR. At the moment I’m developing a Facebook Application which is going to be very cool! It’s also my job to liaise with other Marketeers at VICE all over the world to make sure we’re all working in a similar way – at the moment I’m speaking to VICE USA quite frequently.
How long ago did you start on this path?
I guess you could say I’ve been on this path since I was ten! That was when my dad first bought a computer with good old 56k internet. Soon after I discovered the wonders of HTML, and taught myself using source codes pulled of the web and HTML books from the library. The first page I ever built was hosted on Geocities, then I migrated to Gurlpages and finally to a subdomain on a friend’s site – girlracer.org. After a couple of years of free pages I convinced my parents to let me spend my pocket money on a domain and I’ve never looked back – I’ve had my own websites ever since (currently at thealice.co.uk though this is only being used for testing). I would like to point out that I wasn’t a total loser when growing up – I lived in the rural British countryside and there was not a lot to do.
How long were you doing it before you made it into your career or primary form of income?
I first got paid to build a website when I was fifteen, and I continued to work for friends whilst I was in education. I finally made it my primary source of income about a year and a half ago, when I became Marketing and Sales Manager of a small Telecommunications company in Nottingham. Being a web-designer never crossed my mind – I’m not particularly gifted at design and there are plenty of people out there who can do it better than me. I’m lucky that I grew up as the internet was starting to boom as there are so many more jobs out there these days involving the internet – not just web design.
Did anything significant happen to get you to that point, or was it a series of small steps?
It’s definitely been a series of small steps. Mostly lots and lots of learning as I’m working and convincing my employers to let me have a go at bits and pieces as I’ve been going along. Luckily you don’t have to pay for a lot of Internet Marketing unless it works, so it’s never been a particular problem for my employers to let me have a go.
Do you think official qualifications are important for someone entering your industry?
Definitely not. I spent a year studying for a degree at University but dropped out because I wasn’t enjoying it. I think I’m in a much better position career-wise now than all my friends who studied hard at their particular professions for three or four years; I’m not in any debt and I’ve managed to climb quite high in my field.
The digital industry is so new and fast-moving – there are new ways to exploit it all the time. And one of the beauties of it is that you can learn it all online and on-the-job.
What do you think is the best thing about what you do?
Seriously, the fact I get to sit on the internet all day long makes me very happy. I also love working with other creative people and learning new things every day. I also love the portability of this job; I can do it anywhere I take my MacBook.
What’s the worst thing?
Umm, well there is a lot of socialising and networking with this job, and this often involves cocktails. Staring at a computer screen for 9 hours the morning after is not my idea of a good time.
Rate how happy you are with what you do out of 100 (100 being the best, 0 being devastatingly awful) on an average day.
It definitely ranges from 85-100, depending on the day I’m having. Yes, really.
Would you call yourself a workaholic, & if so, are you alright with that? Do you think that’s normal for your industry?
I’m not one of those people who works 9-5, goes home and completely forgets about work until the next morning. I love immersing myself in my work and will quite happily slog away at it until it’s done, even if that means I’m working at home or taking calls at the pub. If that means I’m a bit of a workaholic then that’s fine – I would rather do that than be bored in a job I wasn’t interested in. I think it is fairly normal in the industry – working with America means there’s only a slot of about four hours when we’re both at work so I will often email them during the evening.
What would your number one suggestion be for someone who wants to do what you do?
Hmm…. I’d say to learn as much as you can on your own time. Build your own site, market it, play with it. Even if you don’t have a lot of content to promote pick something you’re interested in and build the site around that. There is a niche for everything these days – cookery, cats, photography.
...How about number two?
Look at others around you who are successful. What are they doing right? Emulate them, learn from them.
What do you wish you had known when you first started out?
That money isn’t everything. I’m still trying to learn this!
Are there any major misconceptions about your job or industry?
That it’s full of geeks – it’s not!
What motivates you to keep doing what you’re doing?
Meeting so many new people all the time is really great… the highlight was a meeting at Urban Outfitters where I was waiting in a room of male models there for a model casting. Amazing!
Who do you look up to within your industry & why?
I really look up to the women who run websites on their own – Dooce, Style Bubble and Gala Darling to name a few!
Love letters & feather headdresses,
Comment [25] Tags: inspiration,
i want to be Add Gala on Twitter!I Want To Be... An Arts Administrator!
[ 6 October 2008, 09:46 ]
Ashe Mischief has been reading iCiNG forever & wrote to me offering herself up as a sacrifice to the “I Want To Be…” section! She works in arts administration, something I had never really heard of, but which sounds like an excellent profession for someone who wants to work to help the arts! Here’s what she had to say on the subject…
Tell us about what you do.
My M.A. is in Arts Administration which focuses on, among other things, marketing, fund-raising, programming, special event planning, and financial management of arts organizations. Typically the focus is on non-profit arts organizations (museums, opera, theater companies, dance), though many of my interests lie in the for-profit realm as well (film and art galleries).
Right now my 8-5 is working in Development for the University with donors and unrestricted funds (money that can be used where there is a need!), though I worked as a Festival Organizer for the Dark Carnival Film Festival as well!
How long ago did you start on this path?
Intentionally, it began my senior year of undergrad when I fell in love with the Radici Gallery, the New Orleans’ art gallery I interned at. After that, I began wondering how I could combine that interest with the business background I knew I had to have. It was serendipitous that I came to Bloomington after Hurricane Katrina; Indiana University had a Master’s program in Arts Administration, which was exactly what I was looking for!
Did anything significant happen to get you to that point, or was it a series of small steps?
I would say that there are two significant moments that led me here: walking in to the doors of the Radici Gallery and landing that internship, and then moving to Bloomington. Had I not moved to Bloomington, I can’t guarantee that I wouldn’t have gone to graduate school for another program.
Do you think official qualifications are important for someone entering your industry?
I think with the increasing number of undergrad and graduate programs specializing in things like Museum Management, Arts Administration, Theater Management, that in the future it may be an asset for certain! But at the same time, I think arts organizations are great at finding people who are passionate and inspiring, who are willing to work their way up in the organization. I know several people who began as volunteers at an arts’ center and eventually worked their way up to Executive Director!
Rate how happy you are with what you do out of 100 (100 being the best, 0 being devastatingly awful) on an average day.
The hardest part of this question is defining an average day! I think that anyone in this industry will say there are days that are in the 20s and days that are in the 150s! I would say on an average day, it’s probably between a 73-78. During an event, I think that the happiness level is going to waver a LOT. I had days during Dark Carnival that were a 10 and a day that was probably a perfect 100.
Would you call yourself a workaholic, & if so, are you alright with that? Do you think that’s normal for your industry?
Personally, I don’t consider myself a workaholic. During school, I had to be, and I found that it was easier for me to hold on to my passion and enjoyment for my work if I didn’t bring it home with me (easier said than done!). I do think the industry definitely supports workaholics, but at the same time, I think there is enough flexibility in the field to accommodate all personality types and work ethics.
What would your number one suggestion be for someone who wants to do what you do?
Volunteer, volunteer, volunteer! It’s a great way to introduce yourself to your local arts community, to get to know how the organization operates, and find out if it’s a place you want to be. It can really help you narrow down your focus, too. Are you interested in promoting the space, raising money, working with people? Volunteer work can really help you discover what you’re good at and what you like to do. Most arts groups attach amazing perks to volunteering, like free tickets to shows! If you have a really refined skill (like accounting, marketing, law, etc.), you can always inquire about being on the Board of Directors as well; it’s unpaid, but is one of two governing bodies with any arts group. It can be immensely rewarding!
...How about number two?
Take classes! Even if just at your community college, having some understanding of how marketing works, what public policy is and how it affects your local arts community, how economics impact the arts, how an arts organization is going to budget and balance their books… it all leads to a greater understanding of not only the field, but of business & society in general.
What do you wish you had known when you first started out?
How easily people get burnt out and jaded. I will say, I don’t think this is exclusive to Arts Administration, but to the field of non-profit management overall. It has an incredibly high turnover, and I think it’s because people are put in high stress positions and for low pay. Passion and meaning really have to drive you and your ability to work within this field. It can be really difficult to work with people, especially early in your career, who exhibit this sense of begrudgement because they have been working so long. You really have to shrug it off and continue to believe that you can make change.
Are there any major misconceptions about your job or industry?
Arts Administration is not going to make you wealthy! Because it’s typically a non-profit field, the pay can stink quite a lot. I have seen a lot of people go in to the field as performers and use the profession as a back-up career (and back-up paycheck) while they try to launch themselves as performers, artists, and more. While I think that having a background and passion for art itself is a MUST in the field, but it’s an insult to the profession to think of the administrative side as a contingency plan. Be here because you love the art, not because you’re too good to wait tables.
I think another would be the perceptions of arts organizations. More and more, they are utilizing a business structure to operate their facility, and I think this builds bigger, better, stronger arts organizations! There are going to be people who fit the flakey “artist” persona, but I think people will be surprised to find out how many savvy and intelligent people are behind the office doors.
What is the best thing that’s happened to you as a consequence of the work you do?
For me, it’s always about the people. Whether I’m working a concession stand and interacting with patrons who are excited to be at an event, hosting a gallery reception and seeing the look on the artist’s face, or am managing Special Guests services for a festival, I love the ability to interact with so many people. The excitement that people have is really contagious, and on a hard weekend, nothing is a better cure for a bad mood than talking to an enthusiastic artist/patron/donor.
What motivates you to keep doing what you’re doing?
Honestly? My unending love and participation in the arts. The arts have been a huge component of my life since I was a child; from drawing and theater to photography and film, it’s a constant source of pleasure in my life. The second-runner up would be the people I meet who inspire and challenge me. On days I think of going back to grunt work, I think about the incredible people I’ve had an opportunity to meet— more often than not, they’ve got more passion and drive than I do, and it really inspires me to step up.
Do you think you’ll continue doing this for the rest of your life?
In some form or another, absolutely! I think my long-terms dreams include either owning an art gallery or a drive-in movie theater. But I try to keep myself flexible, and not make too many set plans!
What are your next big steps?
I’m currently scouting the country for the next place to be— a place I can settle down, that has a thriving and amazing arts community, a supportive community, and the energy I find appealing in a city. It will be difficult to find a place that can live up to the standards New Orleans has set, especially in those qualities, but I’m convinced that there has got to be a place that can set a new standard! Maybe it’ll be New York City, San Francisco, Austin, or Santa Fe. I’m keeping my eyes and ears open!
Love letters & feather headdresses,
Comment [28] Tags: i want to be,
life Add Gala on Twitter!I Want To Be... A Poet!
[ 29 September 2008, 08:12 ]
Is it really possible to eke out a living in the literary world? As a poet, no less?! Just ask Claire! The fabulous redheaded Claire Askew is a working poet, arts editor & part-time tutor living in Edinburgh, Scotland. She’s a very busy & ambitious girl, with lots of good advice as to how to make it as a writer!
Tell us about what you do.
First and foremost, I see myself as a writer, specifically a poet; but I juggle a variety of jobs and projects which also help keep me financially afloat. When I’m not writing, editing and redrafting poems, I work as a private tutor for kids aged 11 – 18, teaching English and Creative Writing. About a year ago I set up my own literary magazine, Read This, and I now also have a blog called One Night Stanzas which is designed to involve and encourage young writers. I’m currently working on my first collection, and I’m also about to embark on a postgraduate MSc in creative writing at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.
How long ago did you start on this path?
I’ve been writing since before I can remember – which is a cliché, but I genuinely can’t remember the first time I picked up a pen. I wrote my first poem aged about seven, and won a prize for it at the local fair. I reckon that’s when, subconsciously, I abandoned my childhood ambition to be a farmyard vet, and set out on a more literary path!
How long were you doing it before you made it into your career or primary form of income?
I’ve been treating my writing as more than a hobby for about the past four years, when it began to be accepted by magazines, and I’ve been getting paid work (mostly publication in larger journals and anthologies who can afford to give out fees) for about the last two years. As I say, I’ve been doing it all my life, but I think it was only quite recently that I really sat down and thought “this could be your career. You might not be a millionaire, but you could probably do it.”
Did anything significant happen to get you to that point, or was it a series of small steps?
I was in my third year of University, and I’d joined a writer’s group and started going to workshops and whatnot, and people started to “notice” my work and tell me it was pretty good. Crucially I think, I met the poet Brian McCabe, who really liked my stuff and was (and still is) incredibly encouraging. I realised that I was rapidly coming to the end of my four years in further education, and I really needed to start deciding what I was going to do with my life afterwards. Eventually I got to the point where I thought “why not just do what I love?”. I set up Read This at around the same time, and soon after, I won three quite big poetry prizes. I think that really cemented my decision… it was a good omen.
Do you think official qualifications are important for someone entering your industry?
It’s an interesting question, and the issue of should-you-get-a-creative-writing-qualification is hotly debated. Many writers actually see qualifications as counter-productive: they reckon creative writing courses teach you bad habits, and that they contribute towards poetry’s transformation into an increasingly “academic” artform. Other people reckon you need to be “vetted” by a qualification – that they sort the men from the boys, so to speak. I’ve chosen to do a postgrad qualification mainly out of a need to step things up a gear – I want to take my writing to the next level and I hope it will help me to do that. But I don’t think it matters either way whether you’re qualified or not. To be successful in poetry, you just need to be talented, thick-skinned, and willing to work really hard.
What do you think is the best thing about working for yourself?
I can control my time, and my environment, which is important. I’m one of those people who can’t just write anywhere. If you work in an office and you get halfway through the day and feel trapped and burned out, you can’t just grab your laptop and go to the park. You can’t take a break for an hour and read a book or sleep or whatever. The best thing about being in control of my own time is being able to decide what I do with it, on the spur of the moment if need be. Right now I’m very lucky – many writers have to juggle other jobs and outside commitments, and it can really dry up your creativity. But I think the best thing about doing what I do is using my experience to help brand new young writers to get a foothold in the poetry industry – that’s what Read This does, and although One Night Stanzas is still very new, I’m hoping that eventually it will also be able to help people in the same way. It’s great when people email you and say “thanks for your advice, I just got published for the first time!”
What’s the worst thing?
Distractions. I live with my boyfriend, who’s around from 4pm onwards every afternoon and, as you can imagine, he’s pretty distracting. I’m also a bit of a tidy-freak and so if there’s housework that needs doing, I kind of have to do it before I can sit down and write. And I absolutely love my tutoring job and all the gorgeous young people I teach, but sometimes you get home from four back-to-back ‘Hamlet’ study sessions and feel like you never want to see a word on a page ever again!
Rate how happy you are with what you do out of 100 (100 being the best, 0 being devastatingly awful) on an average day.
About 87. Sometimes higher, sometimes lower, but that’s my happiness average.
Would you call yourself a workaholic, & if so, are you alright with that? Do you think that’s normal for your industry?
I’m not necessarily a workaholic – I can spend four hours reading books and not feel bad about it – but I like to have heaps of things on the go, and I’m very driven. I love getting Read This off the press “on schedule” every month, and I make myself write at least one post to my blog per day – usually two. I write for anything from 8 to 15 hours per week, and I’m happy if I’ve written four poems by the weekend (but happier if I’ve written seven). I’m also keen to get involved with any poetic activities that other people are organising – last week I spent an afternoon being “a poetry terrorist” in a local park (running up to people with print-outs of famous poems and, in most cases, getting them to read them). I think if you want to be a poet, you don’t need to be a workaholic as such, but you do need to be willing to work.
What would your number one suggestion be for someone who wants to do what you do?
Read. Read, read, read, read and then read some more. Reading other people’s poetry is the only way to make your own poetry better, and that’s something you should always be trying to do. Read the magazines and journals you want to send your writing to. The more poetry you read, the better you’ll know the industry, and the better equipped you’ll be to succeed. Kenneth Patchen once said, “people who say they love poetry but don’t buy any are cheap sons-of-bitches,” and I’d add to that: “people who say they write poetry but don’t read any are deluded sons-of-bitches.” You have to read widely to write well. You have to read to succeed!
...How about number two?
There are million pieces of advice I want to dole out… just look at my blog! But the second most important thing is: persevere. You might never make any money out of poetry, you friends and family might never understand why you do it, and there will be times when you’ll get rejected and think “am I actually just rubbish?” You have to be prepared for that, and you have to keep on going; keep writing and submitting and publishing even through the knock-backs. No matter what anyone says to you, if you love doing it, keep doing it.
What do you wish you had known when you first started out?
There are a whole lot of people who move in literary circles – and particularly poetic ones – who want to see you fail. Don’t ask me why, but there’s a massive amount of negativity around when it comes to poetry, and particularly when it comes to young writers. Just look at some poetry blogs – everyone has a view, and often its not a nice one. You get pessimists telling you poetry is dead and writing is pointless. You get countless people who’ll tell you that “your style” of poetry is rubbish, or that you’ll never succeed because you’re too young. You’ll get people attacking you in online forums and ripping your work to bits and sending you poisonous emails, even if you think you’ve done nothing to provoke them. Perhaps worst of all, you get a lot of websites that are set up to suck inexperienced writers into money-making scams: beware of anyone who says they can publish your work for a ‘reading fee’! I don’t want to freak people out, but I never knew about this stuff, so it really shocked me. It still shocks me. It’s the main reason I started One Night Stanzas – I wanted to provide a safe place for writers to get advice and feedback on their work. And just to prove my point, the blog is only about two weeks old and already some snide comments have appeared… so be prepared!
Are there any major misconceptions about your job or industry?
The whole ‘poetry is a dead artform’ thing. I disagree! Poetry is on the downlow right now because there isn’t enough young blood around to stir things up, but I don’t think it will ever die. It might be on a dialysis machine at the moment, but I’m convinced that’s only a passing thing. So, young ‘uns, get writing and get out there and revive your artform!
What motivates you to keep doing what you’re doing?
I’m motivated to keep writing by the random emails I get from people I’ve never even heard of, saying things like “your poem touched me.” One girl a while back wrote her English Literature term essay on my poetry, and another wrote one of my poems out in gorgeous calligraphy and put it on public display. I love reading my work at events, too, because I get some lovely responses from total strangers. I’m also encouraged by all the young people whose names I see in publications here and there, and I think “I gave that person some advice once”, or “Read This was their first publishing gig.” I like the idea that there is a creative community out there, and I’m part of it, and – even with the aforementioned negativity floating around – that’s a great feeling. And I think I’ll always write, whether I continue to be successful or not. I’m one of those people who does it because they’d go mad if they didn’t, basically!
Who do you look up to within your industry & why?
He’s dead now, but I still love Allen Ginsberg to bits. He did something new and radical with poetry, and flew in the face of all the people who said he couldn’t succeed because he was gay, because he was Jewish, because he was unapologetically political, because he was a college dropout, because he wasn’t a conventional writer, etc. He’s a household name in spite of it all and his poems are funny and shocking and gorgeous. I’m also a big fan of Edwin Morgan, and I’d love to meet him – he seems like such a kind soul, a very genuine man. Roddy Lumsden is a great, plain-speaking poet and he does a lot of teaching and working with younger writers. He also came to my rescue once when my poetry was under attack on a very poisonous forum-thread, even though he didn’t know me at all, and I love him for it to this day. And I’ve met so many wonderful, hard-working editors who rarely get any credit for what they do – so appreciate your editors, people! They’re the people who keep the poetry industry ticking over!
Extra For Experts:
Claire also wrote this excellent piece, Writing In The Face Of Adversity, which is worth reading!
Love letters & feather headdresses,
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life Add Gala on Twitter!I Want To Be... A Graphic Designer!
[ 22 September 2008, 07:46 ]
Who is Nubby Twiglet? ...What, are you kidding?! Have you been hiding under a rock for the last 2 years? GEEZ!
As well as being a fabulous Virgo, Nubby has one of the strongest senses of personal style of anyone I know. She works full-time as an artist & graphic designer, & also runs a super-popular blog. Her work ethic is incredible & her dedication to what she does is nothing short of inspiring. I think she is an absolutely brilliant person, & as I’ve just spent a little over week in her constant company, it seemed like the perfect time to share this interview with you!
Tell us about what you do.
I work full time as a graphic designer and do PR and marketing tasks as well at Nemo Design in Portland, Oregon. Besides that, I do freelance design (mostly logos and branding) and mixed media collage for art shows around the world. Somewhere in between, I run a blog.
How long ago did you start on this path?
When I was in high school, I would dig up old advertising books in the library and cut out images from dusty design annuals, but I didn’t realize that graphic design was a viable profession. Instead, being the good, practical Virgo that I am, I went to school for business first. It was incredibly hard, but it taught me how to market myself and made me more well rounded.
I still knew that art was my true passion, but I wanted to make money doing it so graphic design made sense. I met my boyfriend in 2004 and he’d been a graphic designer for 10 years and told me that if I was really serious about it, I should go to school. I started a two year program in 2006 (and just finished!)
How long were you doing it before you made it into your career or primary form of income?
I landed my first big freelance gig for Virgin Records during my second semester of school. In a matter of weeks, I’d made the equivalent of seven months of working at my retail job! After that, the steady work kept rolling in and I never looked back.
Do you think official qualifications are important for someone entering your industry?
It depends. There are a handful of designers that I know of that are self-taught and do amazing work. On the other hand, school really does put you through the paces and by being pushed to do projects you don’t necessarily like, it prepares you for the real world of clients and deadlines. In the end, it all comes down to how good your portfolio is!
What do you think is the best thing about working for yourself?
Doing freelance design can be hugely rewarding. People choose you because they like your style. You can also decide on the clients that you want to work with and set your own rates!
What’s the worst thing?
It’s easy to lose track of hours and to get caught up in a project. There are no set work hours, no set lunch time or breaks. It’s up to you to say no if you think something isn’t going to work which can be incredibly hard.
Rate how happy you are with what you do out of 100 (100 being the best, 0 being devastatingly awful) on an average day.
I’s say 90. The people I work with at my day job are awesome. I’m the only girl designer on staff and the guys I work with are hilarious. They’re always skateboarding past my desk! The work I do is fun, too. I do a fair amount of logo development and write for the company blogs. It’s a nice mix of design and marketing tasks.
Would you call yourself a workaholic, & if so, are you alright with that? Do you think that’s normal for your industry?
Hell yes! I was raised to work hard and I’m proud of making my own money. There are so many talented designers and if I want to eventually be at their level, I know that it’s going to take years of hard work. It is pretty normal as a designer to be a workaholic because there’s always something new to obsess over and new ideas are always transpiring.
What would your suggestions be for someone who wants to do what you do?
Don’t worry about trying to get into the fanciest school. Subscribe to tons of design blogs and start an inspiration folder on your computer. Start a collection of well-designed brochures, business cards and magazines that you come across. Find a mentor that can encourage you to keep pushing forward and help you find an internship. Don’t be afraid of starting a blog to publish your work and get feedback. Join online portfolio sites (some of my biggest jobs have been through Flickr) and start networking. Get a membership to AIGA and attend local networking events. Never give up; the more challenging a job is, the more you’ll realize you learned from it when you look back.
What do you wish you had known when you first started out?
That it’s okay to not know everything and it’s also okay to ask questions; most designers are incredibly forgiving and are willing to help you because they were probably in your shoes once.
Are there any major misconceptions about your job or industry?
From the outside, people might expect designers at an ad agency to be really slick and whip a project out really fast. In reality, it can take weeks or months of working with a client to get a job done.
What motivates you to keep doing what you’re doing?
The endless amount knowledge that it’s possible to acquire can be overwhelming but I’m naturally a competitive person and I am always striving to get better at what I do. I was given a huge opportunity; within a week of graduating, I was offered a full-time position at one of the coolest, most progressive companies around and I never want to lose sight of that. The design world can be really intense and there’s always going to be someone that’s better than you. The point is to never give up and to move forward in some way every single day.
Who do you look up to within your industry & why?
I love seeing seeing the work of other girl graphic designers like Antigirl, design that kills, Abby Clawson Low and Oh Joy! Studio. I also like the styles of NEUARMY and Scott Hansen and too many more people to list. People with strong aesthetics win me over every time!
Love letters & feather headdresses,
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life Add Gala on Twitter!I Want To Be... A Fashion Designer!
[ 15 September 2008, 09:00 ]
My friend Ana Steele is one of the most amazing, intriguing people I’ve ever met. Our paths crossed at a goth-themed photoshoot (yes, really) for Pulp magazine where I was a model & she was the stylist. I was instantly drawn to this mad-looking girl with Tank Girl tattoos, wearing a faux-fur wig! We became fast friends & have shared many fun, bizarre evenings! All of that aside, she’s also an incredibly talented fashion designer. She whips up magnificent pieces with alarming regularity & is always trying something new or different, so she seemed like the ideal person to ask about making it in the fashion world!
Ana says, “I have a cynical disclaimer… It’s ALL TRUE! Do not be scared… I love my job…”
Tell us about what you do.
I am a fashion designer based in Auckland. NZ. I design my new collection every 6 months (Summer/Winter). I am still a ‘one lady’ band. I design, make patterns and samples, do sales trips, take orders, do costings per garment, manage production of orders, write and read countless emails, pay heaps of bills all while trying to stay sane and hopefully make some art and possibly have a life outside my workroom! And feed cat with meat… While I am designing a new collection, I am in production stage of the past season — so essentially, 2 jobs are happening ALL the time! Eek!
How long ago did you start on this path?
I have been in this industry — in some way or another — for almost 9 years! Eek x2!
How long were you doing it before you made it into your career or primary form of income?
I worked as an ‘apprentice’ for a small boutique in their workroom, part-time, for 5 years, learning about garment construction and production on a small scale. Yet did not prepare me at all for what I have gotten myself into now as a ‘producer and wholesaler’ of goods.
Did anything significant happen to get you to that point, or was it a series of small steps?
I entered a competition that was run by a new business searching for young fashion designers. I did well. Out of us 9 section winners, the judges chose 4 to work with the company and develop collections for Winter 2003… We were filmed over 3 months for a documentary screened as a TV2 episode. It was during this process I made wicked friends with fellow designer Michael Pattison, and we have since opened a workroom/retail space together. He is my bestest fiend xx.
Do you think official qualifications are important for someone entering your industry?
Not so much… But, I believe that years of study and determination does bring one an invaluable sense of work ethic — which I have never had. It has taken me 2 years of being in business to finally understand how much effort one must put in to achieve anything significant. And when you work for yourself, it’s never enough… I have started to wake up way too early, thinking about what should have been done yesterday!
What do you think is the best thing about working for yourself?
I am so fortunate I get to do what I want! I can make my art! Dangerous schedule but all hour, any hour!
What’s the worst thing?
I have to do it all by myself and make money somehow in a highly competitive industry… I am not so savvy in ‘business’ and to be an ‘artist in business’ ? Hahahaahahaha (2 worlds collide)... Crashing!
Rate how happy you are with what you do out of 100 (100 being the best, 0 being devastatingly awful) on an average day.
Today = absolute rats. Though still smiling! About 36.
Yesterday = creative funday and my ‘Sunday’ and hung out with a great friend. About 81.
In one month, aka fashion week = 100 fuckin’ percent, 1 minute after the show!
Would you call yourself a workaholic, & if so, are you alright with that? Do you think that’s normal for your industry?
I want to be a workaholic so much! I really need to be… but alas for me, I am a dreamy artist. The fashion designers that I know, who are successful, are total workaholics… Being around them pushes me to get more ‘flashness’ done faster!
What would your number one suggestion be for someone who wants to do what you do?
Don’t! Haha… Gosh man… Seriously think about it. Work in the industry with switched on folk and get an in. Starting up from scratch is so damn hard. Marketing is essential. And one needs some money — at least in NZ. I have to outlay all production costs with no deposit, a massive risk!
...How about number two?
Get a PR company and/or agent. It will be a costly monthly expense to your business, but if no one knows about you, you will make more money on the benefit.
What do you wish you had known when you first started out?
I wish I was born with a twin who is fully functional in all realms of business, who can interpret my wishes… Why does an artist want to care about spreadsheets and invoices?
Hell, I just want to make amazing clothes, draw pictures and spray paint mannequins xxx
Find a sweet, fashion savvy accountant, who you can pay in glorious clothes xxx
Are there any major misconceptions about your job or industry?
I guess that depends on who asks.
My industry looks glamorous from the outside. As explained earlier… ‘Tis not the case. It is a touch lonely, as you are working a lot — especially at the crucial times.
If you like to travel, why not try a sales trip? 2 weeks in a van thing… Totally fun, but do you like trailer parks?
If you enjoy glamour, try a fashion show! You will spend time putting masking tape on the soles of borrowed shoes while shooting a ‘lookbook’ of your designs at the last hour, making appointments, styling the show, not enough ears for phones. There is no time no more… wishing for that overdue holiday… it may not happen! Maybe next year?
What motivates you to keep doing what you’re doing?
My crew.
I have mentioned my workroom space with Michael. He is from Space. My fiend…
We also have the amazing Eunis (our sample machinist), and the ‘flash as Lara’ (Michael’s assistant) burlesque actress beauty.
We sing and dance heaps while ‘enduring’ each others company!
Each month brings a ridiculous new turn of phrase…
This month = SPRING BREAK! it must be exclaimed in THE MOST exuberant fashion one can fathom… We have convinced people from Korea, Amsterdam, China and Grey Lynn that this is a most exciting couple of words to screech at the opportune moment in time.
For example: A friend walks in the door announcing we should take a 10 min coffee hiatus… !!!! SPRING BREAK! !!!! YEA!
Or anything… I just finished my task! ... SPRING BREAK! Depending on the day… Use this information wisely of course. Say it loud + lewd xxx
Love letters & feather headdresses,
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life Add Gala on Twitter!I Want To Be... An Illustrator!
[ 8 September 2008, 09:38 ]
At only 24 years old, Molly Crabapple is the founder of international art movement Dr Sketchy’s Anti-Art School, as well as being an author, freelance illustrator & all-around inspiring girl. I was very fortunate to make her acquaintance in New York City. She’s always on the go, always doing something, & I can’t think of a better person to speak to about making a living as an illustrator!
Tell us about what you do.
I draw pictures for a living. This could mean hanging my work in gallery shows, illustrating kids books, designing installations for art parades, creating 30 foot theatrical curtains, or making webcomics. I’m also the founder of Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School, a chain of alt.drawing sessions that takes place in 60 cities around the world.
How long ago did you start on this path?
I’ve been drawing since I was a little girl. As an angsty teen, it seemed natural to go to art school, and while there, I decided to take my passion for drawing and attempt to claw a living out of it.
How long were you doing it before you made it into your career or primary form of income?
I was a year out of college before I was able to subsist wholly on drawing. Before that, I had a variety of jobs, mostly in the scantily/ridiculously clad girl industry. If you want to make a living off of art, you have to put every second of your time into it. It’s not an industry for slackers!
Did anything significant happen to get you to that point, or was it a series of small steps?
Becoming a professional artist was definitely a series of small steps. The biggest thing that happened for me was creating Dr. Sketchy’s and getting a book deal out of it. Doing the Dr. Sketchy’s Rainy Day Colouring Book got me written up in over 80 media outlets around the world, and was the single biggest profile-booster I’ve ever done.
Do you think official qualifications are important for someone entering your industry?
NO! You do not need to pay 30,000 a year to have someone artistically legitimize you. While you definitely need a high degree of skill to go into art (not to mention the tenacity of the damned), you can get this through books, workshops, drawing classes, apprenticing with another artist, and carrying sketchpads wherever you go. As for launching your career — it’s all about networking. So leave the house.
What do you think is the best thing about working for yourself?
To me, being self employed is the only way to live life. There just seems something awful about being constantly doled out an allowance based on your obedience and ability to follow arbitrary “professional” rules. Being self employed is wildly unstable, but you can also do whatever you want.
What’s the worst thing?
Wild financial instability. Months with no income. Working many, many more hours than you ever would on a job.
Rate how happy you are with what you do out of 100 (100 being the best, 0 being devastatingly awful) on an average day.
Mid 80’s. Sometimes I get angsty because I didn’t get this or that opportunity. But then I remember that most people don’t get paid to draw pictures or travel around the world, and I slap some sense into myself.
Would you call yourself a workaholic, & if so, are you alright with that? Do you think that’s normal for your industry?
Yes. I’m a total workaholic. I don’t think you can run your own business, at least in the early years, without being one. Maybe later, when you’re very established, you can ease up. But not during the early years!
What would your number one suggestion be for someone who wants to do what you do?
Keep your eyes open for opportunities. There are thousands of ways for artists to promote themselves out there. You can illustrate for zines, do a catchy sketchblog, have shows in local bars. You just have to be very persistent, but you can get out there.
...How about number two?
Network with other artists, writers, gallery owners, media folks… everyone really. Your network will give you more opportunities than any promotional postcard mailing.
What do you wish you had known when you first started out?
I wish someone had told me that when someone wants you to work for free, they’re usually trying to rip you off. Cool pro bono projects are great, but save them for the wandering circus troupe, rather than the sleazy guy with the “idea for a children’s book”.
Are there any major misconceptions about your job or industry?
People think being an artist isn’t a real job. It’s actually a ton of work, but you can also make a decent living at it.
What motivates you to keep doing what you’re doing?
I love to draw. I also love mozying out of bed at noon and spending all day drinking espresso in my pajamas.
Who do you look up to within your industry & why?
I really look up to Travis Louie, as a brilliant artist in his own right, as a businessman, and as someone who consistently spreads opportunities to other artists. His generosity is unparalleled in the oft brutal gallery scene. Also, my man Fred Harper, Paul Booth for creating a world unto himself and Kevin O’Neill cause he wields a pen like a god.
Love letters & feather headdresses,
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life Add Gala on Twitter!I Want To Be... A Cupcake Queen!
[ 31 August 2008, 14:11 ]
Jess & I got in contact at the end of 2007 when she emailed me to introduce herself, say she had just started a cupcake business & ask me if I’d like to taste-test her product. (Would I ever!) Since then we have become fast friends, shopped up a storm together in New York City, & sent many, many crass emails back & forth. As well as being an awesome, feisty & inspirational woman, she also makes the best (no comparison) cupcakes I’ve ever eaten. & I’m not just saying that!
Here’s an insight into her business & what she does!
Tell us about what you do.
I am the director, marketing executive, pastry chef, flavour consultant, administrative assistant etc. etc. for Sugadeaux Cupcakes. Okay, I run my own cupcake business. Did I mention we have merchandise?
How long ago did you start on this path?
Just under a year. I had always loved baking and trying new recipes, particularly with an interest in old-school American cakes and pies.
How long were you doing it before you made it into your career or primary form of income?
I had only been trading for about a month when I realised there was no need to hang on to my corporate office gig! But, as I said, I had always loved cooking and baking, I didn’t just decide one day to jump on the bandwagon because they were a hot fad in the States…
Did anything significant happen to get you to that point, or was it a series of small steps?
It was slow but steady growth that allowed me to do cupcakes as a career. But, before I launched, I invested time into the recipes, designs, research about where I wanted to position myself in a potentially crowded market, graphics, branding etc. etc. I had some great friends help me build a great website — invaluable.
Do you think official qualifications are important for someone entering your industry?
Not at all. I think it’s incredibly helpful to have professional training as a Pastry Chef (which I do not), particularly as they are familiar with great techniques which really help in inventing new recipes, and also tweaking current ones. I think it’s a bit of a matter of “you either have it or you don’t”. If you don’t have formal training, you still need to get to a place where you understand the chemistry of baking, and if you’re not interested in asking questions and seeking answers, you probably won’t be outputting the best product you could be producing… I am a firm believer that along with common sense, having the best product available will speak volumes. For example, I don’t have any flavours with banana in them, because I hate banana and wouldn’t be able to taste test. Pretty much it comes down to this: I produce what I would love to eat. If I don’t think it tastes the best it can, I don’t sell it.
What do you think is the best thing about working for yourself?
Autonomy, creative freedom, being responsible for my own time management, really maximizing my hours, not ever slacking because I’d only be robbing myself, plus I cannot recommend highly enough the satisfaction of being solely responsible for your own income. Score!
What’s the worst thing?
It’s a small detail, but it’s probably that I work by myself and therefore have no colleagues to whinge to or bounce ideas off. Your friends can only care so much about baked goods…
Rate how happy you are with what you do out of 100 (100 being the best, 0 being devastatingly awful) on an average day.
85. I’d like to be able to delegate, but I’m a control freak. I’m not sure 100 is attainable on an average day. There are definitely days in the nineties…
Would you call yourself a workaholic, & if so, are you alright with that? Do you think that’s normal for your industry?
I’m not a workaholic per se, but i am definitely 100% more motivated to work longer and harder now that it’s my own business. I think a true workaholic works themselves to the bone whether in their own business or being employed by someone else. I think in my industry, it’s more normal to delegate to an apprentice or other baker to do the work for you, basically teach the recipes and step back. I don’t do that, maybe one day if the workload is totally unreasonable I would, but not right now. The worst practice in the industry (in my opinion) would be changing the business to use packet mixes, to keep up with demand. If you became successful with a quality product, you never sacrifice that quality for production benefits. And uh, while I’m on a rant, I am religiously opposed to freezing cupcakes. I challenge anyone to honestly convince me that a thawed cupcake is EVER as good as fresh.
What would your number one suggestion be for someone who wants to do what you do?
Love food, love flavours, love baking, love weird kitchen utensils, love being creative. Do not do this because you think cupcakes are cute, or that it would be “fun”. Trust me, frosting 700 cupcakes gets non-fun pretty quickly, so the passion for the product itself has to be there. It’s not unlike yourself, Gala, although you clearly have a fabulous life and career, the fact is you do need to park your ass in front of a computer and invest quality time into writing and research. It’s not like you run around all day waiting for fabulousness to just happen… well, not every day.
...How about number two?
Damn you! Why did I read this after writing so much for number one?! Ok, number two is be realistic. I’m all for following dreams, but it is a business, it involves real money and you have to be sensible. For example, had there already been like 8 cupcakeries in my city, I might have decided that it’s not a particularly savvy idea to enter what would have been an already flooded market. I probably would have kept baking as a hobby for family and friends.
What do you wish you had known when you first started out?
How to rock a pair of pink cowboy boots… but then someone wrote this article...
Are there any major misconceptions about your job or industry?
Not really, it’s pretty transparent… As I kinda said before, it does take hard work, and a real love for the product. There is a general cupcake misconception I’m working hard to negate, which is that they should be covered in girlie flowers and ordered only on special occasions. So not true! I think they should be viewed like any other food — you crave it because of how it tastes, not because it’s cute.
What motivates you to keep doing what you’re doing?
I really adore baking, and the satisfaction of a total stranger with no agenda telling me that my cupcake is the best thing they have ever tasted is a pretty big motivator. It really gives me a huge sense of satisfaction knowing that armed with only a sweet tooth and pretty decent palate, I managed to create a food item this person adored. This is followed at a close second by the freedom and satisfaction of being your own boss.
Who do you look up to within your industry & why?
You HAVE to give props to Sprinkles cupcakes for kicking the whole thing off. They were the first to open a “cupcake only” retail store, with a very clean and high-brow image. I LOVE that they showed people that cupcakes don’t have to be synonymous with country kitsch shabby chic farmhouse decor. I’m sorry, but I don’t rate Magnolia. The story goes that their cupcakes were only produced because they had leftover batter from their basic butter cakes, and then of course the whole “Carrie eating a pink one” happened, and it went nuts. But, it was never the focus of their bakery, more of a happy accident i guess. On a local level, I actually don’t pay any attention to what my competitors are doing, because I don’t believe I’m the same as them. I’ve actually never even tasted a rival cupcake in Australia, because understanding how someone else’s tastes is not about to make me alter my own product.
Love letters & feather headdresses,
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life Add Gala on Twitter!I Want To Be... A Life Coach!
[ 24 August 2008, 15:58 ]
Tim Brownson is a life coach with a lovely British accent, based in Florida. I recently found his blog, The Discomfort Zone, & really liked his approach — he’s humorous, lively & he has a really cute dog! We started talking via Twitter, & I thought he’d make an interesting addition to the new I Want To Be… series here on iCiNG — especially since life coaches commonly help people work out what they want to do with themselves!
Tell us about what you do.
I work with people one on one either in person or more often than not over the phone. My main job is to help them find the resources within themselves to help them get from where they are now to where they want to be. There is a common misconception that a coach just tells you what to do. A good one won’t, a good coach will empower you and help you realize that the only limitations in place are the ones that you have set on yourself.
How long ago did you start on this path?
I started seriously about 5 years ago although it was probably a couple of years prior to that when I started to realize that working 80 hours a week and driving all over the UK wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. Initially, I started buying self development books on audio and thought “Wow this is really cool”. I then turned into a self development saddo, listening to anything and everything I could get my hands on and always expecting the next one to be THE one that turned my life around. Being in the car for so long each day was a great opportunity to learn and utilize what I had previously considered redundant time, although I probably took that to the other extreme.
How long were you doing it before you made it into your career or primary form of income?
I started coaching ‘properly’ in early 05 and quit my job in the summer of that year. I was lucky enough to have a very supportive wife that also worked and we didn’t have massive debt, so whereas it was tough at the beginning as I started to build the practice it wasn’t so tough that I was tempted to go back into sales.
Did anything significant happen to get you to that point, or was it a series of small steps?
Definitely small steps. I was just worn down by my job. The last full year in sales we spent $15k on vacations in an attempt to avoid the inevitable insanity from working too much. I started to realize that I was working my tits off trying to earn enough money to afford to pay for vacations to recover from working my tits off. Sounds ridiculous now, but at the time I was kinda slow on the uptake. Also I think like a lot of people, I was fearful about giving up a job that was paying me over $100k per annum for the unknown.
Do you think official qualifications are important for someone entering your industry?
Yes and no. I wish coaching were regulated because there are a lot of poor to average coaches out there. The fact is that in the UK and US anybody with a phone and the ability to talk can call themselves a coach. Regulation would force people to get accredited and reach a certain level of competence. Having said that, I have met many people with degrees that shouldn’t be allowed out without a guardian for their own safety. There are certain characteristics of being a good coach and although they definitely are learnable (is that even a word?), they also tend to be inherent in the good coaches. I have no doubt that there are good coaches with no qualifications and terrible coaches that have certificates lining their walls 4 deep, but it’s less likely.
What do you think is the best thing about working for yourself?
Setting my own work schedule. If I want to play golf, I play golf. If I want to take a day off, I take a day off and if I want to roll around the floor and have a puppy nibble my ears, guess what? Yep, I roll around the floor and have a puppy nibble my ears.
What’s the worst thing?
Admin work I guess, but even that isn’t so bad. There are so few downsides that I’m always amazed more people don’t do it. I often get the security thing thrown at me. I understand that, but ask the people that worked at Enron, Arthur Anderson or who know work at any large corporation that is going through restructuring how secure they feel? Security is a myth, there’s no such thing in life. Everybody reading this will be dead in under 100 years, how secure is that?
Rate how happy you are with what you do out of 100 (100 being the best, 0 being devastatingly awful) on an average day.
90. I think it may even be higher than that, but the one thing that stops it nudging 100 is the fact that I want to do more public speaking and that is something I’m only just starting to get in to.
Would you call yourself a workaholic, & if so, are you alright with that? Do you think that’s normal for your industry?
LMAO – A workaholic life coach, that wouldn’t look very good, would it? Nah, not at all. I used to be a bit like that, but now I have lots of disengaged time. The only problem I have is that so much of what I do doesn’t feel like work that sometimes my hours can creep up on me. I have a wife though that is always happy to tell me when that happens by smashing my Mac with a hammer and punching me squarely in the face.
What would your number one suggestion be for someone who wants to do what you do?
Do it because you’d love to do it and not because you have had a few friends tell you you’d be good at it. Coaching professionally is not like having a chat over a cocktail with your best friend. Also, 80% of coaches earn less than $20k so probably don’t get into it because you see Tony Robbins and think you’d like a $50k smile, again you have to love it.
...How about number two?
Leave your ego at the door. It’s not your job to force your opinions, beliefs and values on somebody else. Learn what makes them tick and step into their world, don’t try and drag them into yours. Too many coaches set off with the belief that they know best for the client based on what is best for themselves.
What do you wish you had known when you first started out?
That’s a tough one and I honestly can’t think of that much. Maybe that it’s ok to turn clients away. There’s stuff I’m glad I didn’t know. If I’d known it would take me 2 years from moving to the US from the UK to actually making money I may have thought twice, so I’m really glad I was living in blissful ignorance as to how hard it would be. Having said that, I made some fundamental mistakes like not working on my marketing and sales because I thought I knew it all.
Are there any major misconceptions about your job or industry?
That coaching is serious business and coaches stand around stroking their chins and pondering the meaning of life in between hugging whales, knitting their own yoghurt and stroking trees. I guess some do, but I like to have a laugh and anyway, according to Douglas Adams the meaning of life is 42 and I have no reason to doubt him.
What motivates you to keep doing what you’re doing?
Client feedback. The biggest buzz I get is either a client testimonial or a client saying something along the lines of “Wow, I never thought of it that way”. That can send me on a bit of an ego trip the like of which Eckhart Tolle couldn’t drag me back from for an hour or two ;-) Also, I have a goal to sell 1 million books and I’m only about 999,000 short.
Who do you look up to within your industry & why?
Tony Robbins because not only is he 6’7” but he rebranded NLP and took it to the masses. You seldom hear him speak of it, but that’s what he’s using a lot of the time. I know he’s looked down on by a lot of professional coaches because of his high profile showbizzy type approach, but he’s helped a great many people and that’s what coaching is all about. Wayne Dyer and Deepak Chopra are also personal favorites of mine as they take a spiritual route without forcing any one religion on people, they are the antithesis of fundamentalism. Within NLP, Richard Bandler is a genius in the true sense of the word. He can appear mad as a very mad hatter at times, but his ability to do rapid change work with clients is stunning and probably as good as anybody on the planet. The same goes for his NLP co-developer John Grinder in a much more understated way. As a showman, Derren Brown is the best. if you don’t know of him check him out on YouTube and go and buy his DVDs. I usually watch NLP/Hypnotist types and think “Yeh, now he’s anchoring and now he’s using a break state or working with submodalities etc” With Derren Brown I’m thinking “Was that an anchor he just set, now what the fuck’s he doing, he’s lost me” Can I say that??
Love letters & feather headdresses,
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life Add Gala on Twitter!I Want To Be... A Tattoo Artist!
[ 17 August 2008, 16:44 ]
I recently received an email from a girl called Stina, saying that she would love to read more job guides on iCiNG! I’ve written about how to be a writer, how to be a blogger & how to get a job at Lush, but really, that’s about as much personal experience as I have. As Stina explained her idea, though, I realised that I know heaps of people with awesome jobs — people who love what they do, have talent & passion to burn, & are trail-blazing in their industry. So I started asking them for interviews. Here’s the first one, & it’s an interview with a friend of mine who has one of the coolest jobs I know of — Tim Kern, tattoo artist!
Let me know what you think of the series concept & if you have any requests (or if you have a fabulous career & want to volunteer yourself!), I’d love to hear from you!
Tim Kern is a tattoo artist working out of Tribulation Tattoo in New York City. He’s been tattooing for 13 years, & is an avid world traveller — his work regularly takes him from the East Coast to Japan & Europe. Along the way he’s picked up a bunch of awards, as well as working as a tattoo designer on a Charlie Kaufman movie & CSI: NY. He also happens to be completely awesome!
If you have any questions for Tim, leave them here & I’ll see what I can do about getting him to answer them!
Tell us about what you do.
I do tattoos mostly… I try to find time to paint and do other artwork, but it’s hard. Tattooing takes up a lot of my time and thought processes.
How long ago did you start on this path?
Which path? The left hand one? ;) I started tattooing when you were 12 years old… haha. Strange to think, but it’s true. (That’s 1995, by the way.)
How long were you doing it before you made it into your career or primary form of income?
I was apprenticing for about a year before I was allowed to tattoo anyone for money, so I kept my other job for a while. I was running a day center for homeless people, and doing graphic design occasionally. Once I was able to make money, it became my only job. I never looked back.
Did anything significant happen to get you to that point, or was it a series of small steps?
I think that you are constantly learning in life, so everything is a series of small steps. Occasionally broken up by great leaps of inspiration. I was tattooing for about 4 years before I stopped getting nervous at the beginning of every tattoo. At the beginning, you are just trying to do everything right. After a while, you can really start to express yourself with tattooing, but you have to be comfortable with the tools and techniques first.
Do you think official qualifications are important for someone entering your industry?
I think that an apprenticeship from a qualified tattoo artist is the best way to learn. I don’t still do everything the same way I was taught, but I think the experience was invaluable. There’s an awful lot of people who just buy a kit and start fucking people up, with no concept of cleanliness or preventing cross-contamination — that’s why health department regulation is important. Some cities/states go a bit overboard, but it’s definitely better to have regulations, than not. Keeps the scratchers at bay, to a degree at least.
What do you think is the best thing about working for yourself?
I love the fact that I don’t really have to answer to someone else. I know that seems obvious, but it really is a relief to not have to do something you think is stupid, just because the boss wants you to do it. I also can travel as much as I like, which is amazing. I love being able to see other countries. It really lets you know how diverse and amazing this world really is.
What’s the worst thing?
Probably the worst thing is that I have a hard time saying “no” to people. I need someone to tell people when I don’t have time for them. As a result, I end up working too much, and barely ever take days off. I need to be better about that.
Rate how happy you are with what you do out of 100 (100 being the best, 0 being devastatingly awful) on an average day.
I give myself an 86. I’m not always completely happy with what I do, but I’m doing my best to make it better all the time. I try to make what I’m doing the best tattoo I’ve done. If we don’t keep trying to improve ourselves and our work, what’s the point of doing it?
Would you call yourself a workaholic, & if so, are you alright with that? Do you think that’s normal for your industry?
I would probably describe myself as a workaholic. I think if you want to be good at anything, you run the risk of it being your whole life. Tattooing is definitely that way. I love tattooing, and most of my life revolves around it in some way. When I’m not actively tattooing, I’m often drawing for tattoos, or answering questions about tattoos. It’s an all-consuming thing…
What would your number one suggestion be for someone who wants to do what you do?
I would say to make sure you are doing it for the right reasons… not because you saw it on TV and thought it was cool, or because you think you can make tons of cash. Do it because you love tattoos, and you think you can actually contribute something. There are enough hack tattooers out there, fucking people up.
...How about number two?
I would say to work on your artwork. If you are serious about getting into the tattoo industry, you need to show a potential teacher that you are worth his time and trouble. He or she is much more likely to take you on as an apprentice, if you will be an asset to the community.
What do you wish you had known when you first started out?
I think it’s a constant learning process, so there’s a lot I still want to know. I would like to learn more about building and tuning machines. Technical stuff. I know a little now, but you can always know more… I am never satisfied…
Are there any major misconceptions about your job or industry?
I think there are lots of misconceptions, mostly due to the popularity of tattoo “reality” shows. You wouldn’t believe how many people think you can get an entire sleeve done in one day, because of how those shows are edited… I don’t really have anything against the shows, per se, since I have friends on one, but it does give people a rather unrealistic view of what can be accomplished in a sitting.
What motivates you to keep doing what you’re doing?
Pure stupidity, probably. Hahaha I don’t know… I love tattoos. I love having them, and I feel honored that people want to have my artwork on their body permanently. It’s kinda a scary idea, if I think about it too much… I am altering people for the rest of their lives. It’s quite a lot of responsibility. I’ve also made a lot of really great friends through tattooing, and I wouldn’t trade them for the highest paying job in the world.
Who do you look up to within your industry & why?
I admire a lot of the people who first influenced me when I was learning… and the ones that opened my eyes to new things since I started. Guy Aitchison, Marcus Pacheco, Paul Booth, Robert Hernandez... they first showed me that you can do something new and different with tattoos. That they could be art… I also really admire the work of Filip Leu, Shige, Xed LeHed, Nikko, Boris, Victor Portugal... just to name a few. There are so many astounding artists, it seems unfair that I have to leave anyone out… I’m sure there’s tons of amazing artists I haven’t even seen yet. I can’t wait till I do…
Love letters & feather headdresses,
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life Add Gala on Twitter!
