Mark my words, I feel like going into the next few years, there's going to be a bigger
trend of people working multiple part-time jobs in startups and creative fields.
I think that's really one of the best ways to diversify work at the moment.
No more of this working a full-time job just for them to lay you off.
I would not bet anything on not getting laid off over the next few years just because,
yeah, dominoes are falling, but yes, mark my words, we're going to see more people
working part-time jobs and rotating them out as they see fit, but no more of this putting
all your eggs in one basket.
Hey, this is Jules and welcome to the pool party.
Today we are going to be talking about creative work, portfolios especially, and not resumes
or cover letters because I really feel that you can find all that information online.
And I also feel that for the creative field, to be honest, a lot of times people will hire
you just because they like you, they like working with you, but also because you have
good work.
And one of the best ways to show off your creative work is through online portfolios,
social media, and more.
So we're going to touch upon that a little bit today in this episode of the pool party.
Let's dive in.
Hey, this is Jules and welcome to the pool party.
Today we are going to talk about skills for work-life balance, also discussing portfolio,
where to make your portfolio, some guidelines for your first portfolio site, and then we're
also going to talk about just general tips for getting hired for your first creative
job as a person in your 20s.
I want to start this episode off by saying that it is going to meander a little bit and
that's because while I could give you a template and a format for doing all these things, I
also want to advise you to do your own research, go online, research how to make a good cover
letter, resume, find ways to interview.
But this is all kind of public knowledge that I think is and can be a bit cookie cutter,
but the reality is I think finding a job these days, especially in the year 2024 is a lot
more difficult and especially in the creative career.
There's not a lot of hard and fast rules.
Some of the ways that people find jobs tend to be very kismet.
Sometimes people hire based on vibes and I know that can all sound really daunting, frustrating
and annoying, but there is a way to develop a process in order to essentially get your
bucket, find your container, which is your career, and keep on putting little drops in
it.
We're going to be talking about portfolio.
I am a graphic designer, a visual designer, an illustrator.
I also work with people in the creative field on the project management side, and so I'm
going to advise you on how I've made my portfolio just based upon my background and experience.
So to start this episode off, if you want some good examples of portfolios, what you
can do is go to websites like website godly.
You can go to design inspiration.
If you go to typo, you can even look at my website, julia.me, you can go to websites
like Shillington where students go through a graphic design course and then display their
work just to see what is out there.
And again, we're talking about visual design today, but if you ever go shopping online
and you find artwork from your favorite artist or fashion designer, take note of what you
see out there, what's working for you as a consumer, someone who's buying products, because
this is what's going to help you make your portfolio.
You want to take the same sort of tactics that are cooking your eyes and apply that
to your work.
And so some of what we're going to be talking about today is a little bit of layouts, but
we're only going to touch upon this briefly.
So your portfolio these days, what you want is a website, some place online where you
can display and show your work.
But you might have a few questions.
For example, since this is such a broad topic, you might want to consider which website to
host your work on.
Social media, Instagram, TikTok, what about all these other websites like Behance, Dribbble,
Creative Market?
There are a ton of websites to host your work as a creative.
And what I would advise is to just pick one website, a place to host your work, and then
one form of social media to start with.
So let's go ahead and talk about website.
Personally, I like to use Squarespace as my poster for my portfolio.
I've been on Squarespace basically ever since they've existed.
And this is not a sponsored plug, but it is a plug because I think Squarespace is one
of the more agile, adaptable, and easy to use websites for displaying work.
You can go in as independent creative and then basically scale to an agency on Squarespace.
There are a lot of different tools on there to show you work, even start private memberships.
You can go online and compare for yourself.
The subscriptions start at around $15 a month.
That's not including purchasing a domain, but let's go ahead and just talk about some
other websites where you can host your work.
I believe Adobe, if you are a student, also has a free product or service where you can
host your work.
One thing I do suggest is that if you're starting out, you do want to buy a domain, buy your
name or buy something that you can stick with for a few years.
Your domain is going to cost you generally about $20 a year.
Don't pay anything more than $20, but your domain is basically my website, juliasparrow.me.
I own that and I pay for it every year.
I definitely think that it's important to own your URL because if you think about it,
if you end up expanding your advertising, you make business cards, you have QR codes
floating around in the universe.
If you want to keep your URL the same, you can always buy additional ones, but I would
say that stick with the same URL you originally started with.
For example, if I wanted to eventually make my website The Pool Party and do like thepoolparty.com,
I don't even know if that domain is available, but you get the idea, and route my current
portfolio to that domain, I could do that, but I also have juliasparrow.me.
So that's a little bit of the technical side, but I would say that's like first things first.
Pick a website, a hosting platform that you like, that you feel like you can stick with,
that you can afford the subscription price of, and then choose a domain that you're willing
to keep for many years.
Just know that if you ever want an additional domain, you can link it to your original site,
but have your first domain be something simple like your name or something that applies to
your work.
Make sure that isn't too many letters long.
You want to be able to discuss your URL and spell it out loud for people.
If you need more help on ways to find good names, you can listen to the episode on how
to name your brand, and I discuss a little bit about domains and URLs in that episode.
I'm not going to get into the weeds of all the offers that are out there for students,
but if you are a student, take advantage of this because a lot of websites offer discounts
and promotions for student artists, designers.
If you have a student ID, then you can basically get a discounted website, sometimes even a
free one, depending on who you choose as your host.
Now, when it comes to the content of your website, the most basic websites are going
to contain at least three projects that are demonstrative of work that you want to do
in the future.
Your portfolio website needs to contain three projects that show work that you've done in
the past.
This can be personal projects, work you've been paid for, imaginary projects.
If you are in the visual creative field, it needs to show your skill level, your ability
to execute, and then essentially how you would market and showcase that product on your website.
And we want to keep it simple, but show your best work.
And the reason why I'm saying only choose three projects to start is because if you're
making your website from scratch, the amount of opportunities and ways you can build your
website is very large.
I want to use a little bit of a case study and an example right now, since I'm podcasting
to you today.
I think a really good example of a portfolio website that is advanced, but keeps it simple
is Alex Cooper's Unwell website.
If you go to that website, Unwell is basically the podcasting network that she created after
Call Her Daddy.
She has three different podcasts on the Unwell network that basically shows her body of work.
I believe there's three different podcasts on there.
So if you want to think about your portfolio being the work that you want to do in the
future, if you're an illustrator, you need three illustrations on your website, really
strong illustrations that you feel demonstrate what you could do in the future, what you
want to do.
If you are a website designer, you want three websites on your website that do the same
thing.
They can be as simple or complex as you want, but ideally you're showing off work that
you would like to do in the future.
And then for me, for example, I'm a digital and graphic designer.
I have all sorts of visuals I've created on Photoshop, illustrations that I've drawn
on my iPad over the year.
And as I've created a lot of different types of work, I have a lookbook that kind of shows
different styles that you can click through and look at.
The whole point of this is that we're showing what we can do, but we're also trying to
basically build some tracks.
We're trying to chart a path of where we want to go.
And then over time, we can dig this path a little bit deeper with more body of work.
If we're a river, we don't need to create the Grand Canyon today, but we just got to
take our stick in the sand and then chart a little bit of a path of what our work represents.
So at this point of the episode, I'm going to tell you everything they taught me at Shillington,
which is a graphic design school that I went to in the year 2019.
It was pretty special when I went to Shillington because I was a fresh grad from Sanford.
I had already gotten my undergraduate degree, but I realized that I wanted some more practical
skills to be able to apply some of the design thinking I learned doing research, but I wanted
a hard skill like graphic design in order to be able to work with the public.
A little bit about me, I got my first or one of my internships was at an urban studies
nonprofit organization.
This nonprofit org was called the Center for Urban Pedagogy and it's based in Brooklyn.
They go by CUP for short, but what CUP did was essentially bridge graphic designers with
community organizations and then help them form partnerships where they could then design
materials that would actually get information that was needed by the public into the hands
of individuals.
Going back to my design education, I thought this was super cool, but had no idea how to
do any design in Photoshop or use any of the tools that I saw designers use, especially
when I interned at places like the storefront for art and architecture as a communications
intern.
I saw a lot of designers do some pretty cool gallery mockups and floor plans on Photoshop
and I realized that was a skill set that I wanted to learn and I wanted to do things
just like that.
So going back to 2019, I decided to study part-time graphic design program with Shillington
and at the time I was in person in New York going to school part-time, I believe it was
like two to three days a week and I would work at restaurants.
I had two restaurant jobs and I would work the brunch shift at 5 a.m. up until noon and
then when I got off of work, I would do my design homework for several hours and then
I would go to Shillington, which was a design program in the afternoon.
Some days I'd also work two restaurant shifts.
It was insane, but it was a really great program and I wanted to be in New York and really
before the pandemic started, I had this vision of being a designer in this city.
I just really wanted that lifestyle.
So one of the great things that Shillington taught me was essentially all the hard skills
you need to be a designer.
So that's everything I go over in this podcast.
It's branding, typography, how to mood board.
These are all skills you can actually learn on your own, but sometimes people don't really
give you that information unless you work with them, unless you're in the industry
or in my case, I feel like this is information that should be more widely available and that's
the reason why I've made this podcast.
While skills are a great thing to learn, I think it's important to realize that you can
go to design school.
Sure, you can do that or you can learn them on YouTube.
I think there are a lot of really great tutorials that are free that are made by other graphic
designers, artists and creatives and you don't necessarily need to go to a design school
or get a degree, which I know many people do, but I will tell you that in the year 2024,
you can very much teach yourself a skill, put together a portfolio and then start selling
that skill online.
If you have demonstrated the ability to perform that skill before, if you have a good landing
page or website that showcases that skill, that's really all you need.
That is like the proof of work that you have and then working with people is really just
a matter of putting together a reasonable contract, giving yourself a market rate salary
or hourly pay as a freelance designer.
I think the going rate in the United States especially for entry level designers is probably
around 20 to 25 dollars.
If you are going to school full time and you need a part time job, you could advertise
your skills hourly or project rate just based upon that rate and then as you get more experience
and then more people who want to hire you back, you can continue to raise that rate.
It really just depends on how quickly you can execute and also the amount of demand
that you have for your projects.
It's really up to you.
If you have more time and availability to wait, you don't have to necessarily charge
like on the lower end, but it's all about what you can sell and being realistic about
what you can afford to make and what makes sense for you and your lifestyle.
There are also a lot of really great worksheets online for figuring out how much to charge.
I took a course through I Love Creatives with their Squarespace Design course after I did
Shillington.
I particularly like this graphic design course because they went into detail on how much
you should charge just based upon how much you need to live and the area you live, what
you like to do.
It can be really variable and so I think it's worth it to take a look at spreadsheets that
are out there online.
You might be able to make your own, but consider what you need to live and then charge according
to that.
I think this is important because first of all, we all need to pay rent, buy groceries,
pay for yoga memberships or healthcare, chiropractors, whatever you need and other people are not
going to figure out this cost of living for you.
This is really something that you have to do for yourself.
And from that point, you can put together a service for or a package for your services.
So I was talking about portfolio and this is what they taught me at Shillington.
Shillington was a really interesting program because we worked on project work every single
week.
We started out with a typography project, doing posters and basically mocking up brands, creating
logos and then we would choose our best projects and showcase three of them on our portfolio.
I would say that these days, your portfolio you make should basically contain the same
thing like three projects that you think are exemplary.
You can also teach yourself these skills online.
But I would also say that if you are designing on your own, choose a category of design that
you like to make and try to have a few examples of strong work in that area.
After I graduated from Shillington, I realized I really liked to make whimsical illustrations
and graphics.
So sometimes I would spend just two hours every day pumping out illustrations just to
get my work going and having that proof of work that I could deliver the types of illustrations
that I wanted to.
It was also nice because when you're creating on your own, you have more time to play and
figure things out.
It kept my skills sharp.
And then also if you go onto my website these days in the illustration and graphic design
section, a lot of those visuals I made were actually projects I made for myself just in
my free time.
So I think this is important to consider and find what you like and what you want to make
and just keep on doing it and display it online because if you're competing with other designers
and illustrators out there who maybe have three portfolio projects that are in different
areas, that might look good to a recruiter who doesn't really have a lot of design background
who might just be looking for someone who can put together a good visual package.
I think that works for generalist jobs.
But as you get further along in your design and creative career, everyone kind of finds
like a specialty that they're good at and I think honing down your interests shows a
sense of like focus.
It shows that you know what you're good at and then also as you apply for jobs and tell
them what you're looking to do, it shows that you've at least thought about it in advance.
I think that there are a lot of people who use the portfolios to find jobs and in that
case I think there's also differing opinions on how to display your portfolio.
If you are in the user experience and interface design lane of design, basically people just
want to see user interface and user design portfolios.
I've talked to folks who say that you should not have illustration on your website if you
do this and I think that makes it hard for people who like myself who have skills in
both and maybe want to show both.
But I've gotten a lot of feedback in the past that it's important to showcase just user
interface and user experience skills on a single portfolio and then if you're selling
illustrations for example, that's another website.
As someone who's worked independently a lot by myself over the past few years, I don't
follow that advice.
That's why I think really you need to figure out what works for you because there's a lot
of competing advice out there on what it means to stand out and look different but also showcase
a really strong skill set and I think you have to make these decisions for yourself.
There is a gamble between looking like everyone else by having the same portfolio projects
that show a wide array of work and then there's also a gamble but I think a huge reward to
know who you are, know what you like, really showcase that work and not budge on it.
I think that shows at least a sense of direction, strong work ethic and I think people, my opinion,
I like to work with people who have strong opinions and know what they like to do.
I don't like to work with people who just try to be bland and corporate because I think
those are the people that kind of just go with whatever the whims of the crowd are doing
and I don't like that because I find it frustrating.
The world changes all the time.
Are you just going to change your mind when the trends change?
I think it's important to actually put your foot down and form an opinion of what you
want to do, think about what dreams you have for yourself and then form your portfolio
around this general direction.
So I've mentioned a few veins of what your portfolio can do for you.
I think if you're pretty early on in your journey of showcasing your work online, you
can have a specific purpose for each webpage you have.
So one of the tricky things about having a portfolio site just for let's say corporate
work, user experience design and graphic design and then having a website for selling illustrations
is then you're on the hook and on the line for paying for multiple domains, multiple
subscriptions possibly.
I think that was one of the biggest things getting in the way with me wanting to make
multiple sites, especially when I got the feedback from user experience designers who
told me you should have a portfolio for one site.
I think there's a way around this where you make a landing page for specific offerings
that you have.
For example, one of the ways I've gotten around this is by showcasing a landing page of my
work on juliaspara.me.
I show a lot of the work and the highlights that I've done and then also I have a services
page just for illustrations if anyone would ever want to purchase an illustration pack
for me.
I think it's good to think about your portfolio or your website as a series of landing pages
that have one goal and if your homepage has like a singular goal of showcasing all the
work that you've done before, that works and I chose to do that with mine.
On the other hand, if you are selling services and you have multiple services, think about
having one webpage per service.
One thing that's really confusing is if you try to accomplish many goals on a single web,
you're trying to have your about page, your contact, and all of these things on one page,
there needs to be at least say about 70% of a single web page needs to have one goal and
that goal needs to be pretty clear whether that's like showing an overview of your work,
which is great for landing pages and homepages, or let's say you go further into a website
and then you're just showcasing a blog or a gallery or a lookbook of options.
This is why it's a good idea to have multiple pages, but try not to stray too far from one
singular goal per website.
So I think one thing that can be confusing to people is if they don't really know what
they want to showcase, I'd say at least try to define who you are, have some search engine
optimized wording on your website.
For example, people know to look for a graphic designer, an illustrator, or a digital designer
or web designer if they're looking for those types of people.
However, I saw this on LinkedIn once, no one knows to Google a unicorn or what that really
means and so you want to be as specific as possible just for the main reason that think
about what people are going to Google or type into a search engine when they're looking
for someone who does the work that you do.
I'm going to add on another suggestion for showcasing your work that is pretty lightweight,
social media.
And when I talk about social media, I want to give you some guidelines, but there's some
room to play with this.
You can make a new Instagram portfolio or you can make a new Instagram page or TikTok
page to showcase specific work that you do.
But one thing I want you to consider is making a new social media just for showcasing work.
For example, don't showcase work on your personal page if you wouldn't want a recruiter
to see what's also on your personal page.
Granted, there are many people who hire these days who are not recruiters who wouldn't
mind, for example, you smoking at like some after party and like seeing a picture that
maybe there are a lot of people who really don't care.
But I would say that the people who usually make decisions for more corporate bodies tend
to be a little bit more conservative.
And that's not really something that I personally agree with or adhere to.
But if you're looking to get hired, for example, by a more corporate company, just keep a separate
social page for things that are personal and then a separate social page for things you
want to get hired for.
For example, if you have an Instagram page and you're an actor, don't post anything
on the acting page that you wouldn't do as an actor.
Same thing as a designer.
If you wouldn't do any of the things as a designer at a design job, don't create content
that shows you doing that on that page.
I think that just streamlines your messaging and it helps because sure, we're multi-dimensional
people and we all have personal life, work life, etc.
But sometimes people do judge and you never know who is going to be looking at your portfolio,
who might be able to offer you a job and what they might be thinking based upon what they
see on your Instagram.
Meanwhile, while some of these recruiters might be a little bit more conservative, we
also live in a world where creatives are people who do lots of different things, are out there,
out of the box.
Yeah, just be like mindful of what kind of audience you want to attract by making your
social profile.
And I think if you're just starting out in your creative career, don't double down on
any one direction, just keep things separate because then as you're out in the world and
you're meeting people, you have the choice of what you want people to see.
You can give people a very specific Instagram handle based upon the context in which you
meet them and you don't have to feel self-conscious or nervous about if you did the right thing.
Just diversify your social media.
I talk a lot about separation and hygiene with social media and I even mentioned in
the last podcast that you might want to consider having a separate phone for your personal
life and then a separate phone for your work.
And I think this also helps when you log into your social media for work on your work phone
and then your personal social media on your personal phone.
I think in the digital age, it's nice to have some sort of boundary to where you can throw
one phone in a closet or something if you're working and you don't want to see your personal
messages or similarly, if you're at Coachella and having a good time, you're on your personal
phone and then you don't have your work socials on that phone buzzing you when you're just
trying to have fun.
I think that type of separation is not only really good for mental health, but it also
keeps things easy for you so that you don't have to accidentally worry if you did something
that is going to impact your job.
It's that simple.
And on the front of phones being expensive, there's actually a lot of cheap phones these
days that are smartphones that you could just pay 80 bucks for and you get a SIM card, maybe
you get like a Mint Mobile or something for your work phone.
There's a lot of ways to have a separate phone these days that could make it nice and easy
for you.
So generally speaking, you're going to want to follow the rules of the industry for that
social media that you're using for that job.
If you are a designer, an actor, model, etc.
If you wouldn't do whatever you're doing at the job, don't put it on your Instagram.
If you're a model and you model bikinis, that's perfect.
Put that on your Instagram.
However, if you're also an Instagram model or your model who is on Instagram, who is
also a graphic designer, consider making those two Instagrams separate because you just want
to streamline your messaging.
A lot of people probably will not care if you're a model and you also graphic designer, but
it might be confusing to some people if you mishmash it all on one page.
Again, I don't know why this is, but it shows actually some sort of ability to focus and
switch hats if you keep them separate.
And it shows some forethought, I think.
Everyone has to have all your social medias, but you get to decide who you give what to.
And that's just my opinion.
So again, I'm talking about a lot of different industries here for all of these different
social medias.
Ask people within your industry what they would do to get hired.
Don't ask people outside of the industry.
It's going to vary and you could do that, but it might just be more confusing.
Ask people who are doing what you want to do and then follow that advice.
I think in the world of artificial intelligence and people asking chat GPT for advice, get
your butt on LinkedIn and actually look people up and take the time to talk with them.
I think that people will actually be able to tell you the nuances of the social interactions
that take place in work environments.
I think work professionalism and culture is really unique in that people will of course
tell you one thing, but what they actually do is another.
So try to form some strong relationships with people.
Use sociologists and build some trust to actually get the real info.
And online research will only get you so far.
I think it's worthwhile to think about how you show up authentically, who you want to
be, and then just talk to everyone and consider all information as valuable in the search
for what you want to do.
But once you find and narrow down what you want to do, really take the time to find some
sources of inspiration that make sense to you and then go directly to those people and
try to find a way where you can provide some value to them and then get the info that you
need in order to help you on your individual journey.
No one is really going to make your career happen for you.
And I wish that was something that someone told me when I was younger.
I'm someone who has a lot of credentials and studied a lot, but the reality is that
careers are made out there in the world when you're talking to people, when you're working
with them, and you never know who needs help with what you are specialized in.
And a lot of people sometimes don't ask, so sometimes it has to be you that initiates
the conversation and offers a helping hand.
Also, I feel like these conversations shouldn't be like pulling teeth, so that is a good indicator
usually if someone is meant to work with you and be on your path.
If a conversation is a little bit too hard to have and people seem resistant to speak
with you, it's okay to just move on.
Some people aren't ready for what you have to offer or ready to be honest, and that has
nothing to do with you, don't take it personally, it's just life.
You never know where you meet people and it's always worth trying again, even on a different
day, but it's important to give people time and space they need to make decisions.
Okay, so let's talk a little bit now about how to read the room.
Whenever you hop on a call with someone, let's say you decide to have a one-on-one with them,
and you're like, hey, my name is Jules, I want to talk to you about XYZ, I feel like
it'd be really interesting, you'd find some commonality, we went to the same school or
we have the same interests, I really want to know more about this, this is why I think
I would be a great person to talk to.
When you get on a call with them, I think it's really important to have some questions
lined up already, have at least three of them, dive right in, be conversational, but also
read the room.
So if someone actually gets on a call with you, chances are that they do want to talk
with you.
There are many occasions where you might actually be talking to people who might be good to
work with, where you don't find them on a call.
Let's say that you're at a party and you're talking with them, people rarely want to talk
about work things at parties, however, if they do, that is interesting.
Some people don't want to, and it's really important to be able to understand what people
are in the mood for, what you're in the mood for, and this is why I'm actually really not
a huge fan of not being at parties sober.
I think that sometimes when people drink too much or smoke too much or whatever are just
not sober enough to read the room, sometimes little slips can happen and we can't always
control how other people perceive us.
It's really nice when you're going out in the world and trying to interact with people
and widen your network to be on top of it, to represent the best version of you, like
the whole version of you that is not afraid of making social faux pas and that's just
my opinion of one of the ways that makes it easier to go in and read the room.
There is no shame in declining events if you don't feel fully prepared for them.
I hear people at times say, you know what, show up as you are.
I think if you are truly in a situation where people don't mind how you show up, that's
totally cool.
Maybe those people are actually your friends, but these are not networking events.
I think that when you're going to networking events, you've got to be prepared for a little
bit of everything.
People asking you what you do for work, especially if you're at an event working it.
I think talking about work is fair game.
I've been to events before where I am working them and people seem to not really understand
that and are in a different mindset.
That's just a little bit of a misalignment and I get that, I understand it.
Maybe they're just not in the mood for work talk.
I don't need to talk to them about work, but if I'm there to network and discuss work,
then I'm going to do it and they can go on their merry way.
I don't care how they feel about what I'm discussing.
Alright, so one thing I find really interesting actually when I meet other creatives and they
tell me about the work they do, if they're a graphic designer or designer, is that a
lot of times people open up to me about this insecurity that they have with their creative
work.
I think this is a really important topic to talk about because I will tell you that is
really normal.
I think insecurity comes and goes especially as a creative, especially if you really care
about what you do and you want to make a really big impact with your work.
One of the worst things that you could ever do though is basically stop practicing, stop
putting yourself out there just because you're not feeling super well or life gets in the
way.
I had a mentor once who basically said that when you're working, you're swimming and any
major city that you're in is a pool and you need to be swimming.
If you're not trying to put yourself out there or at least make an impression, you might
be sinking.
I don't mean to scare anyone, but I think that is just a result of American capitalism.
I think some of us have maybe larger or smaller safety nets, but the reality of it is if you
don't have a safety net, you don't have the luxury to stop working.
And so it's really important to plan for your body and being healthy and being able to manage
how you feel.
The fact you're going to probably have to continue to make connections and working for
the majority of your adult life.
There are of course ways that people find to make income passively, but I will tell
you that passive income at first is way more work than any other active work.
And so while that is a great goal to work towards, you're still going to have to put
yourself out there.
It takes time.
It takes discipline, dedication.
It takes putting aside an hour that maybe you would rather spend hours when you have
free time.
And this is another reason why I try to encourage creatives not to feel so pulled with FOMO
and events because the reality is what would you do with that time for yourself if you
were not going out to events?
And events are great.
It's good to meet people, but also be real with yourself.
Like balance that with actually putting in time to your work and your craft.
It doesn't matter how many people, if you're not ready, if you haven't put in the practice
to be a good designer, then people can't hire you without proof of that work.
It doesn't matter if you know some top designer who you met on Tinder for who is going to
New York Fashion Week.
Everybody else who has Tinder has access to that person.
So I'm just trying to keep it real with you.
Be very real with what your skills are that you have to offer and how fast you can make
a turnaround because I think it's cliche, but it is true.
Preparation and timing is luck.
And be ready for luck.
Be ready for good things to happen.
That means just bringing in the best energy to your work, putting in practice, taking
care of yourself, and then knowing that the right opportunities will come when you're
ready for them.
But a lot of things are just not going to feel right if you're not staying healthy because
your body hurts, first of all.
And if you're not practicing, you might not ever feel ready because I think instead of
manufacturing confidence and faking it till you make it, you can prove to yourself that
you can do it by just showing up and putting in the little work every single day until
you feel like you can deliver on predetermined timeline and be consistent.
And I do want to say it actually is really daunting sometimes.
The world has changed a lot, I think, especially since COVID.
Many people have dealt with layoffs over the years and changing work, pivoting.
I think it's actually super common.
Don't feel alone.
But if you're dealing with a, let's say, crisis of belief, faith, and confidence in
your work, it might not hurt to seek therapy or journal about it.
I think therapy is like a really great first line of approach for people who are maybe
just unsure of what's going on with work and life.
But it gets to a point where I think maybe you feel a little bit more confident and then
what you need next is maybe a coach.
I think there are a lot of really great creative coaches out there.
And I even started working with one over the past few weeks who has been amazing and helping
me think about the things that actually really matter to me.
And then we went back into the artwork I used to do before I even worked at an AI startup
and all the reasons why I love being creative.
And these were some of the things that I forgot about, but I needed a neutral person to help
me remember.
And also the accountability too, I think is really priceless.
So don't knock investments in working with a coach or a therapist.
I think these are investments towards the you that you truly want to be, that you can
be.
And sometimes you just need someone to help you keep you accountable along the way.
I think the struggle is real.
I think it's common, but I don't think it's also something to be normalized.
And so I think that's something that I've been reckoning with over these past few months
as I've been a little bit more of a hermit with my creativity.
I show up on this podcast every week, but I also have spent a lot of time taking care
of myself, like pouring hours into my work, into my portfolio, crafting services and spending
time thinking about the mindset that helps me feel most creative, like the health level
I need in order to be producing.
And it is a lot of maintenance and with a lot of work comes a lot of maintenance.
And so I try not to be too hard on myself and everyone needs a break.
It's impossible to expect even a machine to keep on going without any oil checks or
maintenance.
So don't treat yourself like a machine in that sense.
Like be human, be a work of biology and give yourself the time you need to rest.
I think another thing that kind of comes into crisis for creative sometimes is this need
for structure and also this question of whether art school is necessary or even super important
if you can learn all the skills online essentially or hire a tutor or someone like literally
anyone in the world these days you can connect with online and get more skills.
And I think that's beautiful because if there's really a skill that you want to learn, you
can hire a private tutor or coach like in any country in the world.
I had a friend even who hired someone who was in South America and the exchange rate
was great.
They're a great producer, but yeah, that's how they get like affordable tutoring for
production work.
And I think that's super smart.
I feel like some of us who come from more traditional educational backgrounds, especially
from the big schools or whatever, sometimes put so much work, mental work into needing
a credential, but the reality is nobody really cares about what kind of pieces of paper you
have unless those pieces of paper are what they want you to produce for them.
You know what I'm saying?
So it's no one's asking you, no one wants to pay you for your Stanford or your Harvard
degree, for example, maybe they want to pay you for your artwork.
What you need to be doing is making that artwork.
And if you go to school, I just want to be very real with you.
The people that you're going to be learning from, they might have practice in the industry,
but their current job is academia.
Their job is to teach you, to guide you, but it is not to build your career.
And I think everyone's career is going to be different.
The world changes so much that things that work for people two years ago don't work for
them now.
People build careers overnight on TikTok and podcasting.
That's just the reality of it.
So if you're being consistent, you're putting out the work and you're keeping up the vibes
and meeting people that honestly, to me, I have more confidence in you and your ability
to succeed than I do with people who just graduated with an art degree, especially if
they've never worked as an artist before and they don't understand what timelines are and
what demands are and turnarounds.
The reality is that working as an artist and being a working artist is, it's a marathon.
It's probably harder than being a stripper at the club, honestly.
And I feel like, honestly, shout out to strippers.
I feel like they put in a lot of work to show up literally naked in vans for people.
That's what being a designer is like sometimes.
And this is not to knock getting more skills or upleveling your training, but I just want
to be real.
School and pursuing education is a full-time endeavor.
And if you are working a full-time job and considering school, you don't always have
to do that.
I think that all of these really traditional paths that people used to follow and require
are no longer needed, especially when the world is changing so fast.
It's impossible to expect everyone to have a four-year degree in the skill set that you're
asking for, especially in a world where we ask graphic designers to also be motion designers
and good at social media and know how to work in startups.
I would say just get a job.
Get a job, learn how to do it really well, and respect your craft, respect your time,
and know how to provide your outputs in a way that feels comfortable to you.
And no one can really tell you how to do that.
You have to be honest with yourself and figure it out.
No one will do it for you.
And that's why I say just get a job, work, and develop your relationships, your boundaries,
and your skills for speaking with people.
Now, if that sounds like a lot, I just want you to be realistic with how much time you
have to dedicate.
If it's starting to impact your sleep schedule, maybe don't do that.
It's impacting your internal peace.
Re-evaluate, cultivate some patience, black out your calendar, and show up no matter what
for your practice.
Meet with people, get them on the phone, even if it's to discuss their work or to discuss
your own.
Get feedback from people and ask lots of different people to form your own opinion.
I think chances are you might need to rearrange or re-evaluate if you're not feeling good
about the creative work that you're doing.
Now, to tell you a little bit about my story, I graduated from Stanford in 2018.
My first job out of school was working as a recruiting coordinator at Google.
I really did not like it.
Nothing to do with the company overall.
I just really had no desire to go into resources and operations or recruiting path at a tech
company.
The year was 2018 and I also learned that a lot of the success metrics were just based
on how many people you could schedule on a calendar.
It was really similar to what many hosts do at restaurants, which is not to knock the
job of hosting, but I just felt that I wasn't actually connecting with people on the way
that I thought that human resources people do.
I think the lore of choosing a predetermined path like this in the tech industry works
for some people, but for me personally, it triggered an existential crisis, especially
as someone who took a lot of art classes, really did a lot of art, and worked with people
in a sociological context.
For me, I quit this job after three months.
I went back home to Vegas.
I worked in restaurants for four more months and just started investing my money, which
then I was able to move out to New York.
But I kept on working in restaurants.
I knew I wanted to be a designer, so took on an assistantship job I found on Craigslist
with a jewelry designer for a few months as I was working in restaurants, as I was going
to Shillington part time.
And then COVID happened.
When that happened, basically my restaurant jobs closed down.
I was collecting unemployment because many people were, who especially worked in jobs
that could no longer be open because it was 2020 in New York.
And at that point, I had to use my network to get design jobs.
I was still in school part time, but I knew how to turn over deliverables quickly because
I was really passionate about design.
I had done it even before being in school part time.
And I had to move back home to Vegas and I was paying New York rent while still living
with my parents in Vegas again.
And living in New York City full time was really not for me at that moment.
I had really wished that I could have graduated and done the whole New York City thing full
time, but that just wasn't the alignment of how things worked out.
But I spent nine months at home in Vegas working online.
I found a job at a social media agency.
And then I saved up enough money through working and investing again, which let me go back
to New York City for just a couple of weeks.
And from there, I ended up moving to Maui.
And I planned on just being there for a couple of weeks.
I ended up staying for three years.
And obviously those three years didn't just fly by.
In that time, I did all sorts of jobs.
I worked at an AI startup.
I worked on myself a lot because as you can hear from 2018 to 2020, a lot of things happened
and I just needed to give myself a break.
But I knew I still loved being creative and that I wanted to work.
And so that kind of brings me back to now where I feel like in the world of today, it's
really important to figure out what works for you.
And I think working online is one of the biggest gifts because you don't have to be anywhere.
You can take your work with you.
There are really practical reasons why it's good to be mobile.
There are natural disasters, for example, just all across the West Coast every summer,
fires, hurricanes, Houston, for talking about Texas.
And even sometimes tech work is not always guaranteed.
So I think that it's nice to have sources of income and ways of getting money that aren't
really on the clock where you have to be at a job full time.
And it might sound a lot of moving around and hard to figure out, but the reality is
it is.
So at times I've had to give myself a break.
I'd say cut yourself some slack.
This is not easy, but people still do it.
And at the end of the day, I've had to ask myself, how much does this matter to me?
And this is something I've continued to do, creative work and finding a way to put myself
out there despite all these changes.
And so I feel like this is my path.
And you might not always know what is on your journey, but I think it's important to ask
yourself the hard questions, keep on trying.
And just I think with a lot of destruction and the death of the old is a promise of the
birth of a new.
And that's one of the things that keeps me going.
Yeah.
And amid all this too, I think it's really nice to have a coach because I've learned
to try to have fun still in all of this because a lot, there are a lot of things in life that
are not super fun, it can be really hard.
Trust me, I know it can be really hard.
There are a lot of isms many of us are facing and situations and circumstances, but I think
the only way that we have out of these structure forced upon us are creativity.
And that is why I think it's worth engaging in because it's no longer just about us as
individuals and what we're doing, but it's much larger than that.
And I think that's what I live for is being a part of something larger than me.
So that is this episode of the pool party.
We went through a lot of places on this episode.
I think it's because work is really complicated, honestly.
And if I were just to tell you how to craft a cover letter, a resume and do your portfolio,
I feel like I would be doing you a disservice because the reality of it is a lot more complex.
I think some of this reality is also hidden at times in traditional education models.
And I feel that it is possible to learn everything you need to know in order to make it as a
creative today.
And so that's why I shared my two cents and then some.
And if you have any questions or thoughts, maybe even your own journey to share, I would
love to hear about it.
You can contact me at my website, juliaspirit.me.
This has been this episode of the pool party and I will talk to you next week.
Oh, and if you haven't already, go ahead and rate this podcast five stars.
Tell me wherever you listen to podcasts and you can also go to my website, juliaspirit.me.
And if you're looking for an illustrator, I am now offering a three illustration and
graphic design package for podcasters, musicians, maybe you're a DJ, maybe you have a podcast,
you're up and coming and you need key art.
I would love to do that for you.
We can even work on social media, but let's fill out your key art first.
So hit me up online and I will talk to you soon.